Are Ghosts Real?

Part of my work as a psychic medium and Shamanic healer is dealing with energy that does not have a physical body. Many people are familiar with the term "ghost", and there are plenty of television shows and movies that attempt to address the idea that our conscious awareness lives on after leaving our body.

In Shamanism it is taught that the world of Spirit is anything that exists outside of our five senses. One of my Shaman mentors said, "Spirit is everything that happens when your eyes are closed." I guess that is why I often find my eyes closed when doing energy work.

There are many different energy forms out there. Some have existed in a physical body and some have not. In my understanding, a spirit may or may not have ever lived in human form, and a ghost is the awareness that exists after the death of the body.

Most people, when they think of a "ghost", they are thinking in terms of a conscious awareness that no longer inhabits a body, and one that has not "crossed over into the light".

What does that even mean? Many who have had near-death experiences report their consciousness going through a tunnel of sorts, and at the end of the tunnel was a great Light. At some point they were told they had to come back to their body or felt themselves being pulled back.

So a ghost then, would have left their body and either did not see the light or chose not to go.

Depending on what belief system you most identify with, you may or may not believe that a soul can leave a body and choose to stick around and not go to the light. This has not been my experience. However, not every footstep you hear and creak in the floor is a ghost.

What are some other possibilities?

1. Trapped emotions. I find this to be a more common occurrence than that of an earthbound consciousness, or ghost. A trapped emotion can occur when a living consciousness experiences an intense emotion. Sometimes the emotion is expressed and penetrates a location or even an object, often becoming stuck in that location, or imprinting on an object. This is often why people will report a feeling of sadness or anger or any number of emotions when they enter a particular room or space. An energy healer such as myself can shift that emotion and thus heal a location of that emotion.

2. A soul piece. A soul piece is different from a ghost because it could be a fragment of a consciousness, living or dead. This normally happens in conjunction with an intense emotion. So, it is possible to find both a trapped emotion and a soul piece in the same location.

3. Ancestors and loved ones. If you have an experience with a consciousness that does not have a body, this does not mean they are stuck or did not cross over. Our loved ones are always around in some form. We are linked to our ancestors and loved ones through cords of emotions, particularly love, but also other intense emotions.

4. Angels and other Intelligent Conscious Energy. Some forms of consciousness have never inhabited an earth body. Remember that earth is only one of the elements. There are also forms of consciousness that are in alignment with the element of Air, of Fire, and of Water. Some forms of conscious energy are more in alignment with other dimensions, other aspects of awareness, and other life forms such as plants and animals. In Shamanism it is believed that everything has its own consciousness, including plants, animals, water, even manmade objects such as couches, computers, and clothing.

5. Residual energy. When an event happens in a location, sometimes that event imprints upon the location. There are areas of highways where multiple car accidents seem to occur. The imprint of the accident imprints upon the location, creating a strong attraction to car accidents. If there is a "haunted" tour of some kind going on and there are frequent conversations or lectures about paranormal activity in a particular location, the conversation can draw in the energy of the activity, not the other way around. Sometimes people report seeing soldiers walking through a battlefield, oblivious of the fact that the battle occurred many years ago. Once I connected with a piece of land that held the energy of a Native American battle. A church was built upon the land centuries later, but the church was frequently experiencing "splits" where a portion of the congregation would leave together. This energy can be released and healed.

6. Time anomalies. There is also the often undiscussed possibility that time sometimes bleeds through from its place in the universe to our time period. The photo above was taken by my husband in an inn that has been in operation since the 1700s. It appears the man in the photo could be sitting on a horse. The area where the photo was taken is now indoors, but years ago was a place where soldiers brought their horses. Is this man and his horse "stuck?" No, I don't think so. Time and space only really exist in our dimension. Who is to say that sometimes time gets out of sync with our understanding of it?

When you have an unexplained experience, don't always assume it is a ghost. Maybe you are being contacted by your grandma. Maybe it is the emotion of someone who is nearby or left an imprint of some kind in a location. Maybe it is some sort of Benevolent Helper. Maybe the experience has a logical explanation. Don't always assume the paranormal.

Remember that all energy is vibration. Keep your emotional frequency high and you will be less likely to run into low vibration energy forms.

If a soul dies and chooses for whatever reason to stay in the earth realm and not ascend to the light, remember that there was a reason why they did so. It is unethical to taunt, harass or chastise them, in the same way it would be unethical if they were alive. Be respectful of all forms of energy. All souls have free will and if they choose to stay in the earth realm without a body, they are allowed, as long as they are not harassing the living. All souls and life forms need love, just like we humans do.

One of the most profound teachings I received from my studies in Shamanism was that all forms of consciousness need love. In Shamanism, when a location or a person was cleared of a non-beneficial energy form, it was done with the help of Divine Love. This was not my practice in my former belief system, when we routinely cast out spirits, not really thinking about where they were going after we cast them out, or casting them into what we understood to be hell. Now in my practice, all forms of consciousness are treated with love and respect. Sometimes they respond to it and sometimes not so much, but normally the presence of love has the effect of eliminating anything that does not resonate with its vibration.

We are all in this adventure called consciousness together. Let's do this together with love and mutual respect.