Ghost Hunting Tutorial: What Are Ghosts?

A this article came from ghosthunting.com

Ghosts are believed to be the spirits or souls of the discarnate. These are people that have lived before and have refused either knowingly or unknowingly, to leave the physical Earth and move on to a non-physical life. What causes this? Why would some people have trouble leaving behind the physical things they once knew so well throughout their life for a supposed "better place"?

Well the question almost answers itself. While much controversy and criticism has surrounded the idea of what ghosts actually are, let alone if they even exist at all, it is helpful to begin by looking at this from a more religious perspective. Most of the major religions that have taken root over the centuries have all described a life after the physical life. In most cases, this could be said to be our natural state. It is a fairly widely held belief that the "soul" itself is eternal, whereas the physical body, like all things physical, is something with a clearly defined beginning and ending. The soul, spirit, or energy if you'd like to call it that, is something that always was and always will be. Now, this may seem like a hard concept to wrap our physical minds around since everything we know in this physical world is temporary, having a beginning and an ending. However, as the laws of physics states: "Energy cannot be created or destroyed". In other words, this "energy" as we have come to call it is eternal.. it always was and always will be. Energy is what causes all objects to do what they do; it’s what sets and keeps the planets in motion, it’s what makes the sun shine, and it’s also what enables you to get out of bed in the morning and allows you the ability to do whatever it is you choose to do throughout the day. This energy that makes it all happen is eternal. The physical result of that energy, for example the sun itself, or your own physical body, are still all temporary, but the underlying energy that causes it all to work, always exists. Even when the physical object itself dies, the energy changes form or may find itself in a new experience. As physics itself tells us, it can neither be created, or destroyed. If something dies, the energy that made it work does not die with it, it simply changes form as energy cannot be destroyed.

So in applying this to ghosts, it can be theorized that ghosts are nothing more than the energy or soul of someone or something that is still attached to a physical life in one way or another, even though the physical body that was a part of their experience no longer exists. Oftentimes, it is believed that ghosts still have "unfinished business" that they must emotionally let go of or resolve within themselves before they can let go of their physical experience. It is believed that addictions, attachment to material objects, or even just a close attachment to someone who is still living, can all be reasons why a discarnate soul would feel drawn to stick around after they have passed.

This ties in beautifully with what religion teaches us about the soul and the decisions that we make during our physical lives. You see, when we wrong someone, we create a debt where the natural reaction from the person that was wronged is to want to wrong you in return. This could be the act of stealing from someone, intentionally manipulating or hurting someone either physically or emotionally, showing disrespect, anger, or any other thought or intention that is negative and destructive in nature. These things will all create more bad, and keep you and your neighbor from moving on towards building up a more love-filled experience whether that be in the physical or after. You see, how can you ever feel worthy of being a part of something like the concept of "heaven" which is considered all love, when you yourself haven't given love to others? This may not make perfect sense right now, but the point here is that we can't give something if we don't already posses it, and in turn we can't receive it if we don't fully give it away. Ultimately the heaven or hell that results may come from how well we ourselves measure up against perfection and complete love. If we fall short, we will not feel worthy of moving forward and being in that place that is considered perfect. If this is the case, we may feel ashamed or scared to be a part of complete and total love as it will expose all of the bad that we have created or chose to engage in during our physical life.

Although I do not wish to turn this page into a spiritual lecture where I am preaching, I do feel led to share my own understandings in this area. Quite simply none of us are perfect, and none of us have lived a perfect life filled with "all love". Because of this we already know that we will fall short of this perfection ourselves. As a result, it helps to adopt the concept of "forgiveness" so that you can move past these mistakes. By choosing to believe in and follow the idea of forgiveness as was introduced, and shown by example to us in Jesus Christ, we can transcend all of the mistakes and bad that we have created in our physical lives and again be worthy of a heaven that is all love. You see, no one can tell you what to believe, only you can choose that, but I can share from my own experience that I have studied many religious ideas and I personally know that I will never be able to perfect myself on my own because I have already fallen short of complete love. As a result, I accept what our fellow man, Jesus chose to do for us, which was give up his own self for everyone else so that we can bridge the gap between any sin in our lives and the perfect love of all that is. Just try to keep in mind that as was mentioned before, you cannot give something if you first don't posses it, and you can't posses something unless you first give it away. Whichever experience you find yourself in or building towards, know that whether you do good or bad, it will create a debt and a cycle that will breed more of itself. If you're doing good, then this is a good thing, but the bad things are selfish, isolating, destructive and can never sustain themselves eternally. As a result, these things should never be engaged in. But if and when they are, you can choose to follow the example of grace and forgiveness as shown to us by the way that Jesus lived, and in doing so you can move past your own sin and again feel worthy of perfect, everlasting love. Just realize that you must first give away forgiveness to everyone else who has wronged you before you yourself can also receive that same forgiveness.

How does this relate to ghosts you might ask? Well since ghosts have not moved on and seem to be attached to their temporary, physical existence, they likely need help letting go of some things or adopting the idea of forgiveness into their being. Without this, it is hard to let go of the immediate physical things and any unresolved business that may be left behind. Think about it, how would a criminal who just robbed a bank feel about going to the police station just to talk and hang out? They would probably be extremely uncomfortable since they know they've done bad things which will be discovered if they go there. The same applies to the spiritual world and the concepts of heaven and hell. In my opinion, most of the ghosts that still linger are not of the highest levels of spiritual awareness. Oftentimes, these are souls who have done very bad things, or hold a lot of negativity within their experience and refuse to let go of it. This can be extremely dangerous for anyone choosing to ghost hunt who is not very spiritually mature themselves. Ghost hunting can be a fun and rewarding experience that lends itself to providing the physical "proof" you may need to see that there is more to life than mere physicality. But on the other hand, the place from which the proof is coming from, will not likely be of the most "loving" kind. You must be spiritual secure yourself to face these situations healthfully and help the souls move on themselves without them being able to bring YOU down in the process! More information about spiritual caution in ghost hunting is available in the Spiritual Caution section of this website.