Category: Other Topics

Yes, but I think it depends on several things.

– Is the person vulnerable? If the person is sad, depressed, or morose, he or she may attract sympathetic ghosts. That person may also attract less benign spirits. Be very watchful if you think this has happened.

– Does the person have anything common with the ghost or entity?  That can include appearance, interests, personal history, and family connections to a particular ghost.

If you’re a ghost hunter, know your family tree. I investigated one Salem (MA) location for years before discovering I was a direct descendant of two of the ghosts.

– Is the person looking for contact with the ghost, or with spirits in general?  If you’re more open to ghosts, you might encounter more of them. 

– On the other hand, if the person fears ghosts, I think some ghosts like to torment them.

– If a skeptical critic is startled by a ghost, watch out. Poltergeist activity may follow, immediately. (The ghost might be making use of the person’s own energy. It can be very scary.)

The most receptive people may be those with the best observational skill.

Those skills often come from practice.

Can you identify normal creaking noises in a house? If so, it may be easier to identify other, unusual — and perhaps ghostly — sounds.

In other words, if you’d like to be more receptive, go on more ghost investigations. The more you know about what’s normal at creepy locations, the more sensitive you’ll become to things that are paranormal.

The simple answer is: Nothing happens to them. They’ve seen something that looked like a ghost. That’s all.

I’m sorry if that’s disappointing. It happens to be the truth. After decades of paranormal research, I’m used to ghosts and things that just look like ghosts.

Seeing an apparition — or any other evidence of ghosts — may change how a person reacts to ghost stories. Aside from the emotional and cognitive impact, I don’t think anything else happens to the person.

No one dies from it. The person isn’t cursed. People who see ghosts aren’t personally haunted for the rest of their lives.

If you see a ghost, that’s usually described as an apparition.  An apparition usually looks like a person, or at least part of one. You might see just a torso, or just a face. The apparition might be solid, translucent (it lets light through), or nearly transparent.

Generally, the ghost appears as he or she wants to be remembered.

Few apparitions look gory, gruesome, or even elderly. When someone thinks they’ve seen something really creepy… it’s rarely a ghost.

Seeing a ghost is like witnessing any other extraordinary (but natural) event. It’s an unusual experience, like seeing the Aurora Borealis, or visiting an active volcano.

Maybe it’s memorable. Maybe the viewer would prefer to explain it as “an overactive imagination” or “the power of suggestion.”

I never try to convince someone that they’ve seen a ghost, even if I’m 99% sure they did.

Spiritual contexts make a difference.

• Seeing a ghost might be startling, particularly if the person had been a skeptic.
• To a believer, it affirms the idea of an afterlife.

We can’t prove anything, one way or the other. All we can say is: The person believes he (or she) saw something like a ghost.

That’s a personal, subjective experience.

For some people, seeing a ghost answers all their questions: Ghosts are real. After that, the individual may quit ghost hunting.

Or, the experience might trigger new questions. If so, the researcher may be even more enthusiastic about ghost hunting.

Meanwhile, nothing terrible happens to a person who’s seen a ghost. Real life is different from movies and TV shows.

And, to be honest, apparitions are extremely rare. Most ghost hunters never see a ghost… not one that they’re sure was a ghost, anyway.

You’re more likely to win the lottery.

This is a tricky question.

To ask this, you must believe that ghosts have physical form of some kind.

That’s plain ol’ grade school science.

Even if it’s mental or psychic energy, if you feel as if it’s in a particular location in space, it must have mass. Otherwise, no “close” (near or far) is possible.

Does a ghost have physical form? I’m not sure. Consider other explanations.

– It might be something normal that we sense but cannot see, like an EMF field or a wave of infrasound.

– If it is a spirit, maybe we perceive them “through the veil” to the afterlife. That veil may be physical energy in our plane of existence. But, spirits on the other side are not actually in this plane.

– Maybe that the spirit is alive and well in a parallel realm.

I’m convinced that many “ghost” encounters don’t involved spirits of the dead. They’re not demons or anything non-human, either.

They’re people like us, and we sense them, but they’re in their own worlds. (If this interests you, look into quantum studies, String Theory, and other explanations for alternate realities.)

However, their physical forms must exist in some plane, reality, or realm. If that’s what you’ve encountered, you can have a “near” experience, sensing a spirit close to you.

Often, when ghostly energy is nearby, a physical reaction occurs. Unseen hands might move an object, or there may be an energy spike on an EMF detector.

At some locations – especially on some ghost tours – ghosts make physical connection with the living. That’s when some people seem to receive slaps, punches, scratches, or their hair is pulled.

During routine ghost investigations, that kind of activity is incredibly rare. If you’re touched physically — especially if it’s an attack — be on your guard.

You might like to believe you’ve had a remarkable encounter with a ghost. Unfortunately, ghostly physical phenomena like that are rare.

Look for other explanations, like a prank.

Also, in rare cases, it might be something paranormal but not ghostly.

During most paranormal encounters, people describe unique sensations when a ghost seems near.

• Sometimes, the person feels something like a breeze on his (or her) arms when the air is still.
• Others describe it as stepping into a freezer compartment.
• Still others talk about everything going completely silent, as if they’d lost hearing for a couple of minutes.

Except for poltergeist activity, there’s no reason for concern if you think a ghost is near you. In most cases, it’s slightly unpleasant. Injuries are rare.

If you’re worried, step away from where the ghost might be.  If you’re still uneasy, leave the location completely. 

The vast majority of ghosts cannot leave the sites they haunt.