Thanks everyone, I really appreciate all of the replies! I'll try to respond to as many as I can, but I'm sure I'll miss out a few of them.
actually in physics, the belief is that energy can be neither created nor destroyed, only re-directed...so energy itself is timeless but in a constant state of change.....
Interesting! I evidently didn't pay enough attention while I was in science class! So theoretically they could just be trapped energy, not able to be redirected - say, to an afterlife. But even if that's the case, how could we ever see or hear a ghost, since doesn't it take energy to produce light or noise? Or I suppose in the proper physics sense, don't you need to transfer energy into noise/light?
What about poltergeists? Surely they require energy to actually lift objects? (or are poltergeists a more fantasy concept like ectoplasm?)
Well what if there are other materials capable of recording the audio and visual of things happening around it. Theories include iron, marble and limestone. These are also elements found in typical haunted locations such prisons, graveyards or lighthouses. Under the right conditions these materials play back sounds or images or both. That disembodied laughing or crying is just a recording. Just like the figure in old style dress that crosses a room and into the part of the wall where a door used to be.
That is really interesting! I had never considered that. To be honest, I don't really know how we can capture image or sound on these devices anyway, so I guess I've got no hope in understanding how something could capture that kind of essence. But to be honest, I think I could more easily believe that ghosts are an unthinking recording. It'd explain why a lot of it seems to be repetitive actions, like walking along the top of a castle wall or crying at a grave etc. And I suppose it explains why more modern buildings don't often get claims of haunts, since the original material that may have captured that ghostly essence will have been removed and replaced!
a spirit, as you pointed out, has no vocal cords to vibrate into words, so they have to shape ambient sounds. A lot of investigators will use some sort of white noise generator to give the spirit more sound to work with
Hm, does anyone have any suggestion of how they might shape existing sound? I've seen shows like "Most Haunted" where they interfere with electronics, but I wouldn't know how to do that now! I'd have no hope if I was dead and trying to interefer with technology that didn't exist when I was alive.
I see a great difference between "ghosts" and "spirits". Spirits are those that have crossed over and come back across the veil at times with messages or just to check in on us. Sentient beings who once were humans here on earth.
Ghosts....trapped here on this plane. Could be once human, but the energy is sentient and appears to be stuck here or choosing to stay here.
Yes, a few people seem to be making that distinction, I didn't realise there was one! With that version of ghosts, it sort of makes sense that the number of ghosts isn't increasing massively, since some could theoretically choose that it's ready to leave now, or finish their business here, or whatever else, and then move on. But if spirits are from the afterlife and come to visit (or whatever else), surely their number would only increase, as more and more people die. Does a spirit ever get so old it can't come back?
All of our energy that's inside of us like our soul, thoughts, conscious all of it.. Does It really just go into the ground and cease to exist? I don't think so.
Yeah, I struggle with that thought as well. But then I equally don't like the idea of being stuck around those peopel and places I love and not being able to interract with them. They wouldn't even know I was there, and if they did it would be likely to scare them more than comfort them. In a way, I think I'd rather us just disappear.
