I’ve never really sat down to explain the dichotomy inside of me. Oh, no, I’m not talking about the lover of all things horror who is also bubbly and friendly, but the two warring sides of the ghost hunter within.
I use the term "ghost" like people use "UFO." When a person says "UFO" they could mean alien spacecraft or simply unidentified flying object. When I say "ghost" I don't necessarily mean "the soul of the deceased," I simply mean paranormal activity. What causes it, like the UFO, is still just conjecture.
I always said when I started out in the field officially in the early 2000s that, given what day of the week you ask me, I either believe in ghosts as souls or not. That much hasn’t changed so much after almost 8 years of hunting.
Let me begin with some impressive paranormal activity I have experienced that I refer to as "ghosts:"
*Being touched; having my clothing pulled at, hair stroked and pulled, hand held, rubbed up against, pinched, toe tugged.
*Seeing shadow forms and entire full-body apparitions.
*Hearing hushed conversations in an entirely empty house.
*Carrying on an impressive 15-minute KII session in which I was unable to trick it into showing it was purely electrical interference, i.e. putting long pauses in the questioning, rewording questions, rapid fire questioning and waiting for a half hour after contact ended--when others entered the room--and getting nothing at all, not even a blip.
*The repeated sounds of footfalls with heavy boots in the house I grew up in.
*A man whispering in Latin in a Catholic Cemetery that was completely empty.
*Two incidents of levitation I witnessed; one the launching of a cigarette from an ash tray 6 feet in the air as if flicked and a broom standing upright and moving a few feet on its bristles before it fell over.
*Physical tingles, hair raising and the sense of something cold and electrical running through one side of my body and out the other with the hairs on my head standing out as if rubbed by a balloon.
*Poltergeist activity that defied any laws of physics I know of.
*Doors opening and closing on their own from a securely closed position.
*Odorless and heat-less smoke arising and dissipating.
*Dancing blue balls of light in a cemetery.
*The visitation of my father at the time of his death.
*The movement of objects from one location to another that are fully accounted for.
THE CASE FOR GHOSTS BEING THE SOULS OF THE DECEASED:
*Haunted sites appear to be locations associated with death.
*Apparitions are often dressed in garb from their era and match the description of people who passed on there.
*Many people witness loved ones after their death. I have had this happen to me when I was 16 and my father died. I didn't know he died in the hospital. I thought he was doing well and stronger when I left visiting him and came home to go to bed. I went to bed knowing he'd be okay. I woke up to see his dark outline at the foot of my bed, pulling at my big toe. He used to do that before he left on a business trip or came home from one since my mother wouldn't let me stay up. The phone rang soon after and the hospital announced he had passed on.
*People experience near-death experiences. My father described when he died for 4 minutes in our kitchen that he was at a fiord (he was from Norway) and his family was there and there were flowers that don't exist and colors that don't exist. Others describe seeing the scene from outside their bodies.
*I personally witnessed things where I grew up that I cannot explain and my friends in the suburbs did not experience such things, but I grew up in a Civil War Hospital building. It seems a rather natural conclusion that the deaths there created something.
*When my father died, the people who had bought our home called us in Arizona to tell us that they were having a party and saw my father outside. He was dressed in a pale gray suit and a gray and pink striped tie. They went to ask him in to the party but he was gone. My mother had to tell her that he passed on a few days prior.
**Although I am psychic, I will not take reads I make or Ouija, Seance, automatic writing, Mediums to be reliable sources of speaking to the dead as there is no way to differentiate if they are simply picking up universal knowledge of history that has passed or active souls. I also will not include EVP findings as I'm not impressed with their validity or content as being interactions with the dead, as these are receiving devices that can pick up other signals. I myself have had my answering machine pick up a cell phone call someone was making as she drove down the street.**
THE CASE AGAINST GHOSTS BEING SOULS OF THE DECEASED...
*There is consciousness and a mind, but when put under anesthesia for surgery, no soul is alert and hovering about and if it is not self-aware during surgery then it is mortally vulnerable to anesthesia and not spiritual in content.
*Given these supposedly anguished spirits malinger, why aren’t they working harder to get their point across and why aren’t dead parents haunting their children with worry and concern for the rest of their days? Why isn't our mortal world filled with the spirits of the dead unable to let go of life?
*Nearly all ghostly activity can be explained by residual or the replaying of past events or scenes in the environment under, as of yet, unknown conditions.
*Why aren't we haunted by cavemen and medieval knights and the billions who have passed on? Why do some get to linger? Why do some get to show themslves?
There is no freaking book of ghosties that can confirm that ghostly activity is the presence of the souls of the deceased. It's also likely we’re dealing with only residual events replaying, a life form we cannot see, an energy that can affect things, another dimension, a crossover of time periods, a psychological projection and any other fantastic possibilities. It doesn't make me popular in the ghost hunting world to say I'm open-minded. Unfortunately, ghost hunting has become another form of religion for most and you must believe in the doctrines to be part of the club. No questioning allowed.
You either believe or you don't believe.
The only problem is, yes, I believe in ghosts, but I do not believe necessarily in the definition of what a ghost is, i.e. a trapped soul. I am open to that concept but I will not take it on "faith" from other hunters that they know what the hell a ghost is and how it operates.
I, for one, would love to put the "ghosts are souls" concept in the "yes" column for good and know without a doubt that’s what we’re dealing with, but so far my interactions, numerous as they are, have left me still baffled about what we’re dealing with. As a psychic, I cannot tell the difference between reading a past event and past people in a location from something that could be considered a spirit. And how could I? Any psychic in a location can read the history of the place. If you don't know how to interpret your readings, you may think you're talking to a real ghost. Hell, that was the very moment I started in the biz. I was at a party and read a house perfectly dead on, only problem was that all the people I read were alive on the other side of town. The house was being haunted, but by memories of events that occurred there, not the dead.
I keep an open mind and that is what this blog is about; constantly questioning things so we can go a little bit further and a little bit further. So long as everyone is imitating Grant and Jason, we won’t get anywhere. We need some oddballs and some rebels.
I never did what the crowd does and I won’t do it in this field that means so much to me. I don’t only have over 2 dozen loved ones on “the other side,” but I have childhood experiences I need to find answers for that fit. I'm hardly gullible and I'm sure if my mother was alive today, she'd say that "Sherry could never be spoonfed."
