The Difference Between A Ghost and A Spirit

Article by Trista @ http://tristalou1.gather.com/

Article found @ www.gather.com

January 19, 2008 12:25 PM EST

If you are anything like me I have always wondered what the difference was between a ghost and a spirit. I finally found out the difference between the two and I thought I'd write up this article about thier diferences. You'll also learn most of the different reasons that ghosts will haunt. I hope that even the seasoned investagator will learn something from this article, or atleast be a good read.

A ghost is a personality or a piece of a personality of someone who has passed that is left behind becouse there is something that is keeping them here. There are many possible reasons of why they would stay behind here are the most likely reasons.

- They don't know they have passed. This can happen if they were killed or died suddenly and usually tragically. They could have been a murder victim or even possibly died in an accident that happened suddenly.

One haunting that I can think of to be a good example is the Villisca House hauntings. In the Moore home at Villisca, Iowa 8 people were brutally murdered in the middle of the night. The whole family including two children that were staying the night with the Moore children were killed in thier sleep with an axe. The man who killed them was never found, leaving this gruesome murder a mystery. The house now is said to be haunted by some of the victims of that tragic night.

- Another reason a ghost might have stayed behind is becouse they feel an attatchment to a place, object or even a person. If they are attatched to a place it could be becouse it was what they considered to be thier home, or even just a place that they had thier happiest moments in thier life. If thier attatched to an object it is usually an object that they held very dear to them. If it is a person they have an attatchment to it is usually becouse they have such a great love for that person. They may feel like that person still needs them. Or they just might not want to leave that person behind.

An example of a attatched haunting would possibly be the White House ghosts. Former presidents are said to still roam the halls of this great house. If you think about it being the President of the United States would most likely have been the happiest time of thier lives and you most certainly would love for that to be your home I'm sure. I know I would have certainly loved to live there just from all the history that has taken place there.

- Unfinished business could be another reason that a haunting could occur. The Ghost might feel the need to continue so that something could be finished or taken care of before they will pass on.

Winchester Mystery House comes to mind immiadiatly for this one. Sarah L. Winchester wanted her home to be built with many odd things built into it. She hired carpenters to work on her home day and night. Construction would never cease on the home until her death. She was the widow of the inventor of the Winchester Rifle, William Wert Winchester. After the deaths of her husband and daughter she contacted a medium for guidence. This medium told her that the spirits of the victims of the Winchester Rifle were wanting vengence and the only way she could escape the curse that had befallen her husband and child was to build a home for herself and those spitis. She must continue to build or she would die as soon as the building stopped. In her home she had, doors to nowhere, windows that were built to open up to a wall. There would be many entrances to a room, but only one exit. Stairs that led to a cieling and many other oddities. This house was defenently a mystery. Some of the carpenters worked on the home till their deaths. Thier ghosts are said to still be working on the home. The noise of hammers sometimes will be heard and one phantom carpenter has been seen, he is supposedly there guarding the home and overlooking the constuction still being done even in the afterlife. Sarah Winchester is even said to still be there.

-Then there are the risidual hauntings. These are the hauntings that have no intellegence. These hauntings are like a recording that has been imprinted on the land or home in which it takes place at. They will happen at a certain time or date or just random. It will be almost like a scene that is the same all the time. It could also take place as noises or smells.

The perfect example of this is the Civil War battlefields. Most of the hauntings that take place at these battlefields are sounds and smells of the ghastly war that took place on it's grounds. Cannon and gun fire have been the main residual hauntings from the battlefields, but there are reports of fleeting apparitions of men who still seem to be fighting the war as if it were still going on around them.

Now this brings me to Spirits. Spirits are different from ghosts becouse they are not bound to this earth. Spirits are actually the passed on personalities of a living person. Spirits will come back for a time. They can come back for many reasons, but the most common is to tell a loved one a message or to help a loved one cross over. There have been many accounts from people of a loved one coming back to warn of impending danger, or simply to just let the loved one know that they are okay and happy. There is also a belief that they will come back to comfort a loved one who is dyeing and make the transition of death a little easier on them. Most spirits will return to where they came from after they have done what they came to do.

These are many personal experiences and I can not think of a famous instance of this although I'm sure there most likely is. One story I know of is a personal experience of my mothers. After the birth of her first child she was sitting in her room brushing her hair as she looked into a mirror and as she looked at herself her face transformed into the face of her mothers who had died when she was a young girl. As she stared into her mothers face she got the overwhelming sense that her mother was proud of her. Her mother said nothing just merely gave her that feeling. My mother really truelly believed that that was a visit from her mother.

Well I hope that you all enjoyed this article, becouse I have really enjoyed writing it. I am actually pretty proud of how this one turned out. Please note that none of these theories have been proven they are merely theories and you can make your own mind up on what a spirit and a ghost are, these just seem to be the main theories I have been coming across as I delve into the parnormal world.