There are several different types of hauntings. Here we will go over
the various types, from the most common to the lesser known.
Residual: This is the most common type of haunting. Also known as a Psychic Impression, these are a type of haunting in which there is no ghost actually present. The best way to explain it is, that it is like a video that plays an event over and over. For example you might see a spirit walking from one room to another during the same time every day. The ghost will never change its routine and it will not notice its surroundings. Also, it will not respond if you try to communicate with it. This can occur at a place where a tragic event has taken place. Some believe that the energy from such an event gets trapped in the environment because the emotional energy from the event is so strong.
There are a couple of theories to explain how this might be possible. One theory is the Recording Theory. "It states that video and audiotapes capture sounds and images on a film of special plastic with an oxidized material attached to it. Certain building materials such as old iron nails, quartz crystals in granite, or slate have chemical properties that are similar to the material found on audio and videotapes. When an event occurs that has sufficient traumatic energy to it, the event could imprint its psychic impression into some of these building materials, and triggered to discharge and replay during the event of a solar flare, geomagnetic storm, electrical storm, or any other ionizing or electrical disturbances." (Jrakman)
Another theory states: "All matter, living and nonliving, is ultimately an electromagnetic phenomenon. The material world, at least as far as physics has penetrated, is an atomic structure held together by electromagnetic forces...We must ask whether the biofield can project the individual signature of a person's thoughts onto his or her surroundings, changing the electromagnetic characteristics of these objects so that the person can be sensed by others even though absent. This may well be the commonest of all paranormal experiences, and the number of crimes solved by psychics reacting to the mere scene of the crime should entitle scientists to investigate the idea without fear of ridicule from their colleagues." (Becker, p. 269) According to this theory, any place could have a residual haunting. Both of these are just theories right now, however; we don't know which one is correct, or if either one is correct.
Intelligent: An Intelligent haunt involves a ghost or spirit that is able to communicate with the living. This is a true haunting. In these cases the ghosts are aware of their surroundings and have been known to move small objects to get attention. They will also attempt to make contact with the living, either by showing themselves in the form of an apparition, or by trying to make contact verbally.
Poltergeist: The term poltergeist means Noisy Ghost. In this type of haunting the activity that occurs can be very intense. There may be loud banging noises and objects moving about the room. However, this activity is not related to spirits, but to the living. Usually the events center around a single person, usually a teenage female going through puberty, but it can also be someone in physical or emotional pain or just under a lot of stress. This person is unconsciously creating the activity themself through a subconscious form of psychokinesis called Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis (RSPK). They can make their own bed shake and make knocking sounds on the walls, because they are rebelling on a subconscious level. In more advanced cases, objects fly across the room, and you can be slapped or scratched. If you have a lot of stress or trauma in your life, it can continue and it can follow you from house to house until you solve whatever emotional problem is causing it. The activity is usually a metaphor for what is going on in the person's life at the time. For instance, a shaking bed can be a metaphor for sexual frustration, and water dripping from the ceiling can be a metaphor for sadness. In more advanced cases, objects like stones can fall on their house. It's believed that the things like water and stones are "pulled" there by psychokinesis. RSPK often runs in families, since it's triggered by trauma and stress and usually if a person has experienced a lot of trauma in their life, then others in their family have too. But not everyone with trauma in their lives experiences poltergeist activity, and maybe it's because belief might be a factor too. In many of the poltergeist cases, the human agent is someone who is at least open to the idea of ghosts. It's also possible in a poltergeist case to see apparitions, but what's actually happening is the human agent is telepathically projecting something from their subconscious to other people in the vicinity, since after all their subconscious is what's causing the RSPK. This can be witnessed by multiple people at the same time, but no activity is experienced when the human agent is gone.
Poltergeist activity could be a kind of seizure that goes out instead of in. "In the 1980s, in groups of poltergeist agents given a neurological examination, there were signs of epilepsy or some epileptic-like activity in the brain in a significant percentage of the agents (33 percent of one sample). One of the hypotheses put forward about poltergeist agents is that the RSPK may simply be, for some people, another form of epileptic seizure. In some cases where such activity was found in the brain, agents felt "better" or "relieved" after an RSPK attack, or the RSPK occurred at times in which there were no seizures. Again, not all poltergeist agents fit this pattern. The study was done by Jerry Solfvin and William G. Roll." (Auerbach) Some postulate that outbursts are actually seizures but instead of hitting the body it goes out. Here we're only talking about epileptic/epileptiform brain activity - though other forms of brain seizures might also be related.
Crisis Apparition: A crisis apparition is where someone sees a loved one appear in front of them who is not deceased but is hundreds or thousands of miles away at the time. They look like they're in some kind of crisis. Then later on it's found out that the person was in some kind of distress at that exact moment, and their thoughts were on the person who saw them. Somehow, they wanted to be back with that person so bad that they telepathically projected an image of themself to them.
The "Old Hag": This is where a person wakes up and finds that they're paralyzed in bed, and they either see (usually a dark shadow figure) or sense something sitting on their chest. It feels completely real at the time, but it's actually something called Sleep Paralysis. When you go to sleep, all the muscles in your body shut down to stop you from getting out of bed and acting out your dreams. Sleep paralysis is where you don't wake up properly and so your muscles haven't come back on yet, so you're momentarily paralyzed. You can open your eyes but you're still technically dreaming, so you can have hallucinations like the dark shadow figure (or "old hag") sitting on your chest. For a long time people thought this was a kind of ghost, but we know now that it's not because in different cultures people will see different things, based on their beliefs. For example, in Cambodia people will see demons instead of the shadow person; in Hawaii people will see the volcano god sitting on their chest. Some stories of alien abductions also bear resemblance to accounts of sleep paralysis. The person will awake in bed paralyzed and see gray aliens come into their room and abduct them, but it's really all in their head. Sleep paralysis usually comes after a person has had a really stressful day, or if they just have a lot of stress or trauma in their life. It should be noted that poltergeist activity is also brought on by stress, so someone who experiences poltergeist activity may also experience sleep paralysis. It's also possible to have sleep paralysis without the hallucinations.
Shadow People: Shadow people are ghosts that appear all black. There are a number of possible explanations for them. Since people often report seeing them out of the corner of their eye, they could just be REAL shadows, or they could be the product of infrasound. Infrasound is inaudible, low-frequency sound, and is known to give people uneasy feelings. It's also known to make your eyeball vibrate so you can see shadowy figures out of the corner of your eye. However, some people have also reported seeing shadow people straight on and not just for a split second. In theory, when someone sees a ghost, it's telepathy. The ghost consciousness projects itself to a person and then their brain creates the image of a ghost. Maybe some people's brains have trouble processing the image and all they can get is a shadowy outline. Another possible explanation for shadow people is that it's a poltergeist case, and the human agent is looking for a scapegoat to pin the activity on, because as soon as you figure out who the agent is and you get them to realize it and accept it, the activity usually stops. It's like their brain can't accept it, but they can accept a ghost doing these things. In many of the reports of shadow people, but not all, people describe a tall, thin shadow person wearing a top hat. The black suit and top hat is an archetype of a villain, so if it's a poltergeist agent looking for something to pin it on that would explain why so many people around the world seem to report seeing the same shadow person. Or, it could still be a poltergeist case, but instead of a scapegoat, the shadow person could represent something from the human agent's subconscious.
I don't believe there's one explanation for every report of shadow people. Some could just be real shadows, some could be the product of infrasound, some might be ghosts, etc.
Demonic/Inhuman: Some researchers believe in demons, others do not. There may be angry or violent spirits, and some people might think they're demonic. The movie "The Exorcist" was inspired by a real-life case. It involved a boy in Washington, D.C. Did you know that they went back to the case years later and now they think it was actually an RSPK case and not a possession? There may be something else going on in possession cases. The person may just believe they're possessed, or maybe they're hypersensitive to electromagnetic fields and their brain is picking up on something in the environment and going into overload. Here are some pictures of Anneliese Michel, the real-life "Emily Rose":
She looks scary, and it's easy to see why someone would think she was possessed. But "possession" is an illness, and like any illness, it can make people look gross or scary. As for speaking in languages the person doesn't know, it is possible just to hear someone talking in another language a few times and store it in your subconscious. That, too, is how someone using an ouija board could spell words in languages they don't know. If they get out a dictionary and try to look up the words to see if they're real words, some of them will be real words and some of them will not.
Getting away from the whole idea of demons, inhuman spirits could be real. They could be created by us, like in the famous PK experiment in Toronto in 1972 started by Dr. A.R.G. Owen. A small group of researchers tried to imagine the idea of a ghost named "Philip". The following is from "The Ghost Hunter's Guidebook" by Troy Taylor:
"They gave the ghost a personality and a complete background, even drawing his portrait to make him seem more real. He was given a biography that was filled with historical errors and he had to be someone that the entire group knew had never existed in real life. The eight members of the circle memorized the fictitious biography, studied the period in which Phillip was supposed to have lived and even acquired photographs of an English manor called Diddington Hall. In his story, Phillip was supposed to have lived here but he bore no resemblance to the real-life inhabitants of Diddington.
"After reinforcing their belief in him, the group attempted to make him manifest. For months on end, the group of five women and three men did their best to conjure up the fake spirit, even placing a drawing of what they imagined he would look like in the center of the table and concentrating on it. The initial seances produced no results but then in 1973, Phillip began to communicate. This began to occur only after the group 'stopped trying so hard' and began to adopt a 'relaxed and jolly' attitude. He first came through as a rap to the table. It was initially as a vibration to the wood. Next came a number of knocks, which the participants at first believed they had inadvertently caused. But then as the table began to move around the floor in an irregular manner, they began questioning one another. Finally, someone asked aloud 'I wonder if Phillip is doing this?" and in response, there was a very loud knock. The imaginary ghost, it appeared, had finally arrived.
"In the months to come, the sitters discovered that by asking questions and accepting one knock for 'yes' and two for 'no', they could enjoy a relatively rapid dialogue with the entity they had somehow conjured up. The experiment quickly escalated as one room in the house was set aside for Phillip and the ghostly personality was accepted as a distinct spirit that exhibited likes and dislikes and had strong views on many subjects. Occasionally, the table would shoot across the room at amazing speed during seances. Phillip even communicated in front of television cameras in 1974.
"The experiment came to a strange end. One member of the group (who up to this point had strongly believed in the 'ghost') broke ranks and stated aloud one day in a reply to Phillip that 'we only made you up, you know." The rapping sounds stopped, as did all other communications. Once he denied that Phillip was real, the 'ghost' apparently ceased to exist. He was later 're-born' after a new group of researchers learned to believe in him."
References:
"The Art of Ghost Hunting" by Jaeson Jrakman
"The Body Electric" by Robert Becker
Classes in Parapsychology taken with Loyd Auerbach
Residual: This is the most common type of haunting. Also known as a Psychic Impression, these are a type of haunting in which there is no ghost actually present. The best way to explain it is, that it is like a video that plays an event over and over. For example you might see a spirit walking from one room to another during the same time every day. The ghost will never change its routine and it will not notice its surroundings. Also, it will not respond if you try to communicate with it. This can occur at a place where a tragic event has taken place. Some believe that the energy from such an event gets trapped in the environment because the emotional energy from the event is so strong.
There are a couple of theories to explain how this might be possible. One theory is the Recording Theory. "It states that video and audiotapes capture sounds and images on a film of special plastic with an oxidized material attached to it. Certain building materials such as old iron nails, quartz crystals in granite, or slate have chemical properties that are similar to the material found on audio and videotapes. When an event occurs that has sufficient traumatic energy to it, the event could imprint its psychic impression into some of these building materials, and triggered to discharge and replay during the event of a solar flare, geomagnetic storm, electrical storm, or any other ionizing or electrical disturbances." (Jrakman)
Another theory states: "All matter, living and nonliving, is ultimately an electromagnetic phenomenon. The material world, at least as far as physics has penetrated, is an atomic structure held together by electromagnetic forces...We must ask whether the biofield can project the individual signature of a person's thoughts onto his or her surroundings, changing the electromagnetic characteristics of these objects so that the person can be sensed by others even though absent. This may well be the commonest of all paranormal experiences, and the number of crimes solved by psychics reacting to the mere scene of the crime should entitle scientists to investigate the idea without fear of ridicule from their colleagues." (Becker, p. 269) According to this theory, any place could have a residual haunting. Both of these are just theories right now, however; we don't know which one is correct, or if either one is correct.
Intelligent: An Intelligent haunt involves a ghost or spirit that is able to communicate with the living. This is a true haunting. In these cases the ghosts are aware of their surroundings and have been known to move small objects to get attention. They will also attempt to make contact with the living, either by showing themselves in the form of an apparition, or by trying to make contact verbally.
Poltergeist: The term poltergeist means Noisy Ghost. In this type of haunting the activity that occurs can be very intense. There may be loud banging noises and objects moving about the room. However, this activity is not related to spirits, but to the living. Usually the events center around a single person, usually a teenage female going through puberty, but it can also be someone in physical or emotional pain or just under a lot of stress. This person is unconsciously creating the activity themself through a subconscious form of psychokinesis called Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis (RSPK). They can make their own bed shake and make knocking sounds on the walls, because they are rebelling on a subconscious level. In more advanced cases, objects fly across the room, and you can be slapped or scratched. If you have a lot of stress or trauma in your life, it can continue and it can follow you from house to house until you solve whatever emotional problem is causing it. The activity is usually a metaphor for what is going on in the person's life at the time. For instance, a shaking bed can be a metaphor for sexual frustration, and water dripping from the ceiling can be a metaphor for sadness. In more advanced cases, objects like stones can fall on their house. It's believed that the things like water and stones are "pulled" there by psychokinesis. RSPK often runs in families, since it's triggered by trauma and stress and usually if a person has experienced a lot of trauma in their life, then others in their family have too. But not everyone with trauma in their lives experiences poltergeist activity, and maybe it's because belief might be a factor too. In many of the poltergeist cases, the human agent is someone who is at least open to the idea of ghosts. It's also possible in a poltergeist case to see apparitions, but what's actually happening is the human agent is telepathically projecting something from their subconscious to other people in the vicinity, since after all their subconscious is what's causing the RSPK. This can be witnessed by multiple people at the same time, but no activity is experienced when the human agent is gone.
Poltergeist activity could be a kind of seizure that goes out instead of in. "In the 1980s, in groups of poltergeist agents given a neurological examination, there were signs of epilepsy or some epileptic-like activity in the brain in a significant percentage of the agents (33 percent of one sample). One of the hypotheses put forward about poltergeist agents is that the RSPK may simply be, for some people, another form of epileptic seizure. In some cases where such activity was found in the brain, agents felt "better" or "relieved" after an RSPK attack, or the RSPK occurred at times in which there were no seizures. Again, not all poltergeist agents fit this pattern. The study was done by Jerry Solfvin and William G. Roll." (Auerbach) Some postulate that outbursts are actually seizures but instead of hitting the body it goes out. Here we're only talking about epileptic/epileptiform brain activity - though other forms of brain seizures might also be related.
Crisis Apparition: A crisis apparition is where someone sees a loved one appear in front of them who is not deceased but is hundreds or thousands of miles away at the time. They look like they're in some kind of crisis. Then later on it's found out that the person was in some kind of distress at that exact moment, and their thoughts were on the person who saw them. Somehow, they wanted to be back with that person so bad that they telepathically projected an image of themself to them.
The "Old Hag": This is where a person wakes up and finds that they're paralyzed in bed, and they either see (usually a dark shadow figure) or sense something sitting on their chest. It feels completely real at the time, but it's actually something called Sleep Paralysis. When you go to sleep, all the muscles in your body shut down to stop you from getting out of bed and acting out your dreams. Sleep paralysis is where you don't wake up properly and so your muscles haven't come back on yet, so you're momentarily paralyzed. You can open your eyes but you're still technically dreaming, so you can have hallucinations like the dark shadow figure (or "old hag") sitting on your chest. For a long time people thought this was a kind of ghost, but we know now that it's not because in different cultures people will see different things, based on their beliefs. For example, in Cambodia people will see demons instead of the shadow person; in Hawaii people will see the volcano god sitting on their chest. Some stories of alien abductions also bear resemblance to accounts of sleep paralysis. The person will awake in bed paralyzed and see gray aliens come into their room and abduct them, but it's really all in their head. Sleep paralysis usually comes after a person has had a really stressful day, or if they just have a lot of stress or trauma in their life. It should be noted that poltergeist activity is also brought on by stress, so someone who experiences poltergeist activity may also experience sleep paralysis. It's also possible to have sleep paralysis without the hallucinations.
Shadow People: Shadow people are ghosts that appear all black. There are a number of possible explanations for them. Since people often report seeing them out of the corner of their eye, they could just be REAL shadows, or they could be the product of infrasound. Infrasound is inaudible, low-frequency sound, and is known to give people uneasy feelings. It's also known to make your eyeball vibrate so you can see shadowy figures out of the corner of your eye. However, some people have also reported seeing shadow people straight on and not just for a split second. In theory, when someone sees a ghost, it's telepathy. The ghost consciousness projects itself to a person and then their brain creates the image of a ghost. Maybe some people's brains have trouble processing the image and all they can get is a shadowy outline. Another possible explanation for shadow people is that it's a poltergeist case, and the human agent is looking for a scapegoat to pin the activity on, because as soon as you figure out who the agent is and you get them to realize it and accept it, the activity usually stops. It's like their brain can't accept it, but they can accept a ghost doing these things. In many of the reports of shadow people, but not all, people describe a tall, thin shadow person wearing a top hat. The black suit and top hat is an archetype of a villain, so if it's a poltergeist agent looking for something to pin it on that would explain why so many people around the world seem to report seeing the same shadow person. Or, it could still be a poltergeist case, but instead of a scapegoat, the shadow person could represent something from the human agent's subconscious.
I don't believe there's one explanation for every report of shadow people. Some could just be real shadows, some could be the product of infrasound, some might be ghosts, etc.
Demonic/Inhuman: Some researchers believe in demons, others do not. There may be angry or violent spirits, and some people might think they're demonic. The movie "The Exorcist" was inspired by a real-life case. It involved a boy in Washington, D.C. Did you know that they went back to the case years later and now they think it was actually an RSPK case and not a possession? There may be something else going on in possession cases. The person may just believe they're possessed, or maybe they're hypersensitive to electromagnetic fields and their brain is picking up on something in the environment and going into overload. Here are some pictures of Anneliese Michel, the real-life "Emily Rose":
She looks scary, and it's easy to see why someone would think she was possessed. But "possession" is an illness, and like any illness, it can make people look gross or scary. As for speaking in languages the person doesn't know, it is possible just to hear someone talking in another language a few times and store it in your subconscious. That, too, is how someone using an ouija board could spell words in languages they don't know. If they get out a dictionary and try to look up the words to see if they're real words, some of them will be real words and some of them will not.
Getting away from the whole idea of demons, inhuman spirits could be real. They could be created by us, like in the famous PK experiment in Toronto in 1972 started by Dr. A.R.G. Owen. A small group of researchers tried to imagine the idea of a ghost named "Philip". The following is from "The Ghost Hunter's Guidebook" by Troy Taylor:
"They gave the ghost a personality and a complete background, even drawing his portrait to make him seem more real. He was given a biography that was filled with historical errors and he had to be someone that the entire group knew had never existed in real life. The eight members of the circle memorized the fictitious biography, studied the period in which Phillip was supposed to have lived and even acquired photographs of an English manor called Diddington Hall. In his story, Phillip was supposed to have lived here but he bore no resemblance to the real-life inhabitants of Diddington.
"After reinforcing their belief in him, the group attempted to make him manifest. For months on end, the group of five women and three men did their best to conjure up the fake spirit, even placing a drawing of what they imagined he would look like in the center of the table and concentrating on it. The initial seances produced no results but then in 1973, Phillip began to communicate. This began to occur only after the group 'stopped trying so hard' and began to adopt a 'relaxed and jolly' attitude. He first came through as a rap to the table. It was initially as a vibration to the wood. Next came a number of knocks, which the participants at first believed they had inadvertently caused. But then as the table began to move around the floor in an irregular manner, they began questioning one another. Finally, someone asked aloud 'I wonder if Phillip is doing this?" and in response, there was a very loud knock. The imaginary ghost, it appeared, had finally arrived.
"In the months to come, the sitters discovered that by asking questions and accepting one knock for 'yes' and two for 'no', they could enjoy a relatively rapid dialogue with the entity they had somehow conjured up. The experiment quickly escalated as one room in the house was set aside for Phillip and the ghostly personality was accepted as a distinct spirit that exhibited likes and dislikes and had strong views on many subjects. Occasionally, the table would shoot across the room at amazing speed during seances. Phillip even communicated in front of television cameras in 1974.
"The experiment came to a strange end. One member of the group (who up to this point had strongly believed in the 'ghost') broke ranks and stated aloud one day in a reply to Phillip that 'we only made you up, you know." The rapping sounds stopped, as did all other communications. Once he denied that Phillip was real, the 'ghost' apparently ceased to exist. He was later 're-born' after a new group of researchers learned to believe in him."
References:
"The Art of Ghost Hunting" by Jaeson Jrakman
"The Body Electric" by Robert Becker
Classes in Parapsychology taken with Loyd Auerbach