Nature of Spirits and Haunting Phenomena - Essay Example

Other 13 February Haunting Introduction: Reports of confrontation between the spirits and the living have been phenomenons that kept occurring, right from human existence. Evidence escavated from most of the ancient tombs during the modern age supports this fact. Many ancient civilizations have resorted to human sacrifice to appease the gods, so that they would keep evil spirits from entering the realm of the living. Moreover, early Greeks have believed that a spirit gets trapped within the living world and becomes incapable of crossing over unless a proper burial is held. Similarly, the ancient Egyptians bury their dead along with all their worldly possessions, on the presumption that this leaves them no reason to ever come back to the material world. In the same manner, some Native Americans tribes place their deceased on a scaffold in a tree, and perform certain rituals to keep the spirits at rest. They believe that disturbing a burial site will entail in the eventuality of the deceased’s spirit returning to haunt the living. Drawing inferences from relevant research, modern day ghost hunters have attempted to provide people with an understanding of this phenomenon. It transpires from their testimony that haunting consists of three types of supernatural occurrences that happen when a spirit returns, to inhabit or visit for a reason to the human world, in the form of residual haunting, traditional haunting or demonic haunting. Residual haunting is somewhat similar to the recording and playback of a tragic or violent event that has happened in the past. For example, the unexpected demise of a close relative. Evidence indicates when a traumatic incident happens, intense energy gets emitted into the environment. The force so released remains trapped in the house, building or castle where the event occurs. As a result, these structures seem to gain the ability to playback the event just like a tape recorder or a video camera does. This intense energy will increase to a certain point, and then get released back into the environment. When this happens, people may experience eerie sounds, smells, or see ghostly apparitions. However, what a person, under such circumstances, witnesses is akin to a playback of an event that happened in the past. Only the energy of the person who died remains and, therefore, there is no actual spirit in the case of residual haunting. The same sounds, smells, activities that the spirit did are indications of a residual haunting. The cycle normally repeats itself in the same place around the same time of the day over many years, until such activities exhaust enough energy to become undetectable by humans. An example of Residual haunting is Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where the Civil War ended. Ghost hunters consider Gettysburg as one of the most haunted places in the world, due to the large number of deaths that occurred there during the war. In fact, even today, there are numerous ghost sightings of Union and Confederate soldiers who died over two centuries ago. Another example of a paranormal phenomenon that involves actual spirits is known as traditional haunting. A spirit involved in traditional haunting is supposed to be the spirit of a human that has not crossed over to the other world due to some reason and remains trapped in this world. There are many reasons why a spirit may choose to stay here with the living. For example, it may have some goal it was unable to achieve before death, or because it may have a message to deliver before crossing over. Another reason can be that when people die traumatically, they may not have any perception of their death and such people who die unexpectedly, may tend to continue their routines as if they are alive. There is also a possibility that a spirit may fear crossing over to the afterlife, as it may have committed countless sins while alive. Many people believe that God judges a spirit and sends it either to heaven or hell. Unlike the case of residual haunting, ghosts of traditional haunting are intelligent, which implies that they can interact with the living. They can also do physical things in the same way as they did when they were alive. For instance, they can open and close doors, turn on lights, turn on a water faucet or even talk to people. When a spirit is nearby, a person might smell unexplainable odors such as cigar smoke, perfume or an alcoholic smell not associated with anyone or anything in the home. Spirits of a Traditional haunting are not demonic or evil as some people may think. However, a spirit may be negative, depending on how it was before the person died. Spirits will keep the same personalities as they did when they were alive. Although such reports are rare, some people believe that spirits appear as apparitions whenever they manifest as a shadow figures, orb or black mass. Similarly, human spirits may appear as full or partial bodied, but they will most likely retain the physical form when they were living. In short, these spirits will continue to haunt people, until a paranormal expert convinces them to cross over into the spirit world. Many reports also indicate the presence of spirits in the form of demonic haunting, which are thought not to be from this world. These entities are similar to that of traditional haunting, as they are intelligent and exist in the present. However, unlike the latter, these entities are full of rage and hate and typically seek to destroy people. Moreover, demonic haunting is considered the most dangerous of all supernatural occurrences, because of the nature of the entities involved. The spirits in this type of haunting are either a demon or poltergeist and are not human in nature. A demon will not enter the human world, unless someone either purposely or unintentionally opens a spiritual gateway for them. Although there are many ways to open a spiritual gate, the most common method is using an Ouija board. However, when a person resorts to this, he or she may not even know that an evil entity has crossed over, until signs of demonic presence are manifest. Unlike other spirits, a demon rather attaches itself to a person than the environment. This is also called possession because the so called demon takes control of the individual and his actions. Therefore, professional ghost hunters advise people not to use Ouija boards. Once a demon crosses over into human world, there will be gradual signs of haunting that will escalate overtime. Beginning signs of demonic presence may be sounds of animal growling, foul odors, and the air may seem heavy and thick in certain areas. Demons are cunning and fool their victims into trusting them. For instance, a demon might appear in the form of the ghost of a deceased relative or friend and communicate to them such matters that only the relative or friend would know. Also, an apparition may seem very pleasant at first, but it will become vicious and threatening instantly. As demonic haunting reaches its peak, the evil entities will kick, shove, scratch and or bite their victims as they sleep. Consequently, demons will try to make their victims scared of going to bed, which will make them insomniac, exhausted and less resistant to the demon possessing them. When a case of possession takes place, a priest will need to perform exorcism on the victim besides doing the other rituals on the property to get rid of the demon. Usually, when demonic haunting ends, people have often described a sense of lifting of heaviness and smelling flowers that let them know they are free of the evil spirit. Conclusion: All religions purport the idea that when people die, their spirits go either to heaven or hell for eternity. However, there are people who do not believe in spirits until they personally experience paranormal activities. Today, there are thousands of reports coming about occurrences of paranormal activities. Most of them end up discarded as everyday occurrences. But a question remains about the few that do not seem so ordinary. In fact, there are plenty of theories dealing with spirits and haunting phenomena, but no one knows for sure what it all means, until there is actual proof of spiritual existence. Read More