Hi Folks!

I just wanted to clarify where I stand when it comes to spooks. I've mentioned it in the forums a few times and everyone knows I'm chickens&$t, but I thought I'd delve a little deeper. Mind you, these are only my thoughts and do not reflect anything necessarily intelligent.

I don't like the words Ghost, Spirits, or Spooks. We need to remember that these "Ghosts" were once human beings. They had feelings, thoughts influenced by everyday lives just like we do. What makes us all different from each other, other than how we look, is our personality - how we react or interact with our surroundings- that makes us truly individuals.

But where is our personality, this accumulation of everything we think and feel? Can it be measured with instruments? Are all our thoughts just in our head or are they in our whole being? I once read an article where an organ was removed from a patient (liver or something in that area). According to the study, the patient was put through a series of tests that produced fear, pain, sadness and joy. And the organ, kept sustained on life support systems, reacted to the patient's state of mind! It produced more or less chemicals as though it were still a functioning part in the patient! So our whole body is involved in our thought and emotional process. Why? How? This is where the soul comes in.

The soul is the accumaltion of all that we are. It is the casing surrounding our personality, thoughts and feelings. And it is pure, living energy. This energy is all that remains of us after our body dies and it does not end. We take it with us. It is us. This is why I always refer to ghosts as "Souls" or "Visitors" or "Guest". They were people once. And they still are. The only thing miising is their physical bodies.

Understanding how and why people do the things they do is psychology. It's not necessarily based on scientific measurements using instruments but rather on observation (watching, listening, evaluating). When dealing with hauntings it may be referred to as Parapsychology. But it's basically the same. Why are these souls doing what they're doing?

The easiest way is to ask them. And that's where I stop. It's too great a risk that instead of a happy-go-lucky visitor just hanging out and having fun, you'll get someone suffering extreme depression, sorrow, regret or (worst of all) anger. These feelings are much more intense than anything we've yet to experience. Imagine not being able to get on with your life and forget or correct things in your life. Imagine being "Stuck". Really stuck. There's no way out. Our emotions intensifies itself again and again and again and again the longer we hang on to them. It keeps building. We've all experienced this feeling, but it passes. Our daily lives bombard us with other concerns, occasions and situations. It's always changing and we react accordingly, thus "getting over it".

What happens when we can't get over it? What if our situation offers no escape in the forseeable future? What do we do if we see no way out? Sometimes we try to adjust and get on with our lives, dealing with these emotions when they keep sneaking up on us and ruining our day. We even try to change ourselves in our efforts to find something to replace these negative feeling. We try to forget or deny the whole thing. And more often than not, a part of us dies in this process. We're no longer the person we were before.

We can seek professional help and that helps many. But you have to find someone stronger than yourself to guide you during your healing. That's the hardest part. But in the meantime you can get some astoundingly good legalized drugs! :/

If all else fails, you continue to loose more and more of yourself until nothing is left but you, alone, lost in your own head. Unable and unwilling to interact to the ouside world and society. And those few times when you do try, it is a jumble of unintelligible emotion that your spoken words can't explain. Asylum time.

Spirits don't have this saving grace. There are no options. Their emotion or frame of mind continues to build in intensity... sometimes for centuries. Think you've had a bad week? Try dealing with it for centuries. That's a load of bad vibes. And if we try from this side to help, chances are good that we will be totally overwhelmed.

If I find myself in the prescence of these people, I communicate with them as though they were an everyday person. I treat them the same as everyother Joe Blow on the street. And most of the time they respond surprised but then more civil. Things move along at a much more relaxed pace and you can still come to understand them and maybe help them to help themselves (a golden rule in psychology).

I've also experienced the down side of this method where the soul has been around soooo long that they've accepted their new "life" and want to show that they are different, stronger. These are truly "Lost Souls". There is no rescue available. Some continue to wander, having given up on ever getting away from where they are and thus ignoring our pety attempts. Others enjoy who and what they've become and have forgotten what it was like on this side, to be a part of mankind as we know it. Compassion and understanding of others are the first things to go. Here we go more and more into the realm of what we call demons. They want attention, just as all of us do, but they want the limelight and recognize their power (and want to prove it). In the end you'll have to leave or find someone with more power than your guest to evict him. And there aren't many who can do that.

If you want to scientifically experiment and try to physically identify their realm, ask them first for permission. I don't care for people who meet me and automattically break out electro-magnetic field indicators, blinding me with infra-red lights, sticking thermometers where they don't belong, all the while trying to snap a foto of me. I tend to get upset. Why? Because I am a human being and not an object. It ain't any different for them. Think about it. 

I wish all of you luck with your guests. Try and remember to treat them as human beings first. An invisible friend. And friends take the time to understand each other. Helping each other will come on its own. Most of the time it will work. Just be careful.

take care

tla

"I do not claim to be an expert.  If I say anything intelligent, it was by pure luck."  thelostamerican@helloghost.com