All definitions agree with is that a haunting is paranormal phenomena attributed to an entity tied to a place or object. These are the longest lasting of ghostly phenomena.
Dictionaries usually define a haunting as a place with ghosts or the ghost itself. The term is generally applied to psi, psychic phenomena, that include haunters, apparitions and poltergeists.
What Do Hauntings Include?
The term is generally applied to cases of apparitions, haunters and/or poltergeists. The psi may include one or phenomena such as:
- Sounds of footsteps could involve chains clanking, bangings, rappings, moans, screams, music and/or other sounds;
- Sights that may consist of lights flashing or floating, orbs, shadows and/or apparitions;
- Cold or warm spots;
- Odors that are peculiar, unpleasant or aromatic;
- Being touched by something invisible;
- Sensing an unseen presence;
- Objects moving by themselves or disappearing and reappearing;
- Doors and windows opening and closing by themselves;
- Electrical and electronic equipment being affected, and;
- Animals reacting to a presence.
Differences Between Hauntings, Apparition and Poltergeists
Both apparitions and hauntings can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, felt by touched and/or sensed. Apparitions have intelligence; hauntings do not. A haunting is energy, like a videotape, imprinted on time and space.
Apparitions usually have a purpose for existing. Hauntings replay the same scenario repeatedly and are considered the longest lasting of ghostly phenomena. Poltergeists are manifestations of psychokinesis, PK, the ability of the mind to affect matter. The agent is a human or an entity.
Hauntings Can Consist of Apparitions
There are four types of these entities with intelligence. They are those of the dead, collective in that more than one person or people and animals perceive the specter, deathbed, when a dying person sees people who have died and crisis in which a person who has just died appears.
There are apparitions of the living, be it reciprocal when the agent and experient see each other and crisis apparitions when the agent is alive. The last two aren’t hauntings because they involve living people, not entities.
Hauntings Involving Poltergeists
An entity agent poltergeist, EAP, can haunt a place or object. They exhibit intelligence and their repertoire is beyond that of the human agent poltergeist. A human agent poltergeist is the subconscious unleashing of PK re-occurring spontaneously. There is a psychological profile for these agents. They experience unpleasant emotions including anger, frustration and/or low self-esteem.
When tested for PK, the agents exhibit a higher than average ability. Although some writers have called the agent a haunted person, but this isn’t a true haunting because the agent is not an entity.
Classifications of Hauntings
The relatively new term, residual haunting, is applied to cases where the activity is limited to a scenario that is continually replayed and never varies. The wraith or wraiths do not exhibit intelligence. An example of this is discussed in What Was Nathanial Hawthorne's Ghost? The haunter was Dr. Harris, a Unitarian minister whom Hawthorne saw sitting in a fireside chair in the reading room of a library. The specter’s activity never varied and exhibited no intelligence.
The Ghosts of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 are an example of an apparitional haunting. Captain Bob Loft and Flight Engineer Don Repo died as the result of their airplane crashing into the Everglades. They appeared solid and communicated with people. The haunting ended when all salvaged parts of Flight 401’s airplane were removed from existing aircraft.
The Wizard Clip Poltergeist exemplifies an entity agent poltergeist. The activity included sound of a scissors cutting material that was found in different shapes. A stranger was given shelter in Adam Livingston’s house. He became ill and requested the last rites which was denied. After he died, the poltergeist activity began.
Sources:
- ESP, Hauntings and Poltergeists, Loyd Auerbach, (Warner Books, 1986).
- The Poltergeist Experience, D. Scott Rogo, (Penguin Books, 1979).
 |
 |
 |
