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Back to G's Haunting - The manifestation of inexplicable phenomena attributed to the presence of ghosts or spirits. Phenomena include apparitions, noises, smelles, tactile sensations, extremes in temperature, movement of objects, and the like. Despite much scientific inquiry over the last one hundred years or so, very little is known about the nature of hauntings and why they happen.

The term "haunt" comes from the same root as "home," and refers to the occupation of homes by the homes by the spirits of deceased people and animals who lived there. Other haunted sites seem to be places merely frequented or liked by the deceased, or places where violent death has occurred. Most hauntings have no apparent reason or purpose. some are continual and others are active only on certain dates that corespond to the deaths or major events in the lives of the deceased. For example, at Hampton Court in England, the ghost of Sir Christopher Wren si said tobe heard walking hurriedly up and down the stairs every February 26, the date of his death in 1723. Some hauntings are breif, lasting only a few weeks, months, or years, while others continue for centuries. Haunted places often are pervaded by oppresive atmosphere.

Not everyone who goes to a haunted place experiences paranormal phenomena. It is theorizedthat only individuals with certain psychic attunements or emotional states are receptive.

Few hauntings involve seeing apparitions. In those that do, a ghost may be seen by a single individual or collectively by several people present at the same time. ghosts vary in apearance - some seem to be real people (or animals), while others appear filmy, fuzzy, nearly transparent, or omostly white. Typically, they are dressed in period costume popular when the person was alive. Most ghosts seen over a period of time by many usually wear the same outfit. Some change their ages. Some are horrific, missing their heads or other body parts.

The most dramatic ghosts are those which reenact dramas, such as a murder or a battle.

Theories

Thousands of hauntings have been investigated by psychical researchers and parapsychologists since the late nineteenth century. Numerous theories have been advanced, all incoclusive.

Fredric W. H. Myers, one of the founders of the Society of Psychical Research (SPR), defined a ghost as "a manifestation of persistent personal energy, or as an indication that some kind of force is being exercised after death which is in some way connected with a person previously known on earth." Myers believed that ghosts have no intrinsic intelligence or consciousness, and are meaningless fragments of energy left behind in death.

Eleanor Sidgwick, former secretary of the SPR, theorized that hauntings are a form of psychometry, vibrations of events and emotions imbued into a house, site, or object. Variations of Sidgwick's theory propose that hauntings are impressed upon a "psychic ehter" or upon a psi force feild, which certain people access under the right conditions.

One popular Spiritualist theory holds that hauntings occur when the spirit of the dead person or animal is trapped on the earth plane for various reasons, doesn't know it is dead, or is reluctant to leave. Gentle Exorcisms will send the spirit on to the afterworld.

Ghost Investigations

Researchers employee three basic techniques to investigate a haunting: description, experimentation, and detection. Description involves taking eyewitness accounts. Experimentation involves bringing a psychic to the site to corraborate the eyewitness accounts or provide new information. Psychic readings are unreliable, as telepathyand ESPcannot be ruled out, and often information is given that cannot be historically verified. Detection involves the observation or recording phenomena. English psychical researcher Harry Price was among the first to use modern technology in his ghost investigations. His most celebrated case was Borley Rectory, which he investigated between 1929 and 1938. Price put together a ghost hunter's kit that included felt overshoes, steel tape measures, a thermometer, a still camera, a remote control movie camera, fingerprinting equipment, a telescope, and a portable telephone. Price believed a poletergiest was present, but his findings were controversial and allegations of fraud were made after his death in 1948. the case remains unsolved.

More recent investigators have witnesses and psychics mark a floor plan of the house or building to show spots where they beleive hauntings have occured. They shoot photographs with regular and infrared film to try to capture ghostly images, and use recorders to try to capture noises and whispers. Various electronic devices, such as heat sensors and Geiger counters, may be used to measure changes in the atmosphere. Such methods are at best imprecise and interpretation of results is often subjective. Critics say ghost investigation is imprecise and not a true science because it is heavily reliant upon eyewitness testimony. See Apparition; Poletergeist.

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