Ghosts /

Are Ghosts Real? What Are Ghosts?

The short answer is YES; ghosts are real.  I can personally attest to this, and nothing would please me more than to help you experience that reality for yourself — it is a life-changing experience.

The longer answer has to do with how people are defining the term “ghost.”

If, when you say “ghost,” you are thinking of a fully formed human apparition, visible to everyone in the area, that can talk clearly and lucidly and carry on a conversation, and is in all ways just like a walking, talking, living human being except for being somewhat translucent and you can walk right through them, then no; such apparitions do not exist in the physical, work-a-day world outside the pages of fiction and TV shows.

Such beings CAN and DO exist, however, on the astral plane, which is easily accessed.  Don’t misunderstand me — spirit manifestations DO exist in the physical world — read through to the end of this post for descriptions of various types of ghostly phenomena.  But the real power and wonder of ghostly experience is found by accessing and working with the astral plane.  I have several FREE resources here on this site to help you explore this realm and experience for yourself the reality of ghosts and spirits, and I’m constantly  adding more.  For now:

• Start by reading this free report that tells you how I can help you break your world wide open, crack the mystery of ghosts and spirits, and discover the powerful spirit contacts that the guidance of my ebook On the Care and Feeding of Spirits, and the free newsletter that comes with it, can help you experience.

• click here to listen to an enlightening, FREE full-length podcast, that will go into even more extensive detail about the power and mystery that awaits you;

• subscribe to the rss feed for this site (the buttons are in the upper right hand corner under “podcast feeds”), so you can take advantage of all the free materials, podcasts, class announcements, and resources that I make available to support your explorations;  I encourage you to leave comments on blog posts or Email me at vivienne at persephoneshaven.com to let me know what resources and educational materials you need or that you will find most helpful; nothing will please me more than to hear back from you about the mind-blowing, earth-shattering, paradigm-changing experiences you’ve had by working with the tools I can pass along to you.

• To get all the most powerful tools you need for a lifetime of exploration, from beginning techniques all the way through to mastery, click here to start your fascinating journey with my comprehensive ebook.

I stated above what kind of “ghosts” are NOT “real”; but, if when you say “ghost,” you mean: orbs, fleeting glimpses of people who disappear a moment later, occasional appearances of marching soldiers who pass by in the hundreds without any acknowledgment of the human, living people around them, whispers that are sometimes heard and sometimes only picked up on recordings (EVPs), and so on, then yes, such manifestations most definitely exist. There are mounds of documentation describing thousands upon thousands of people down through history who have experienced such phenomenon.

Notice I’m making a distinction between the manifestation of a phenomenon, and defining what it is that is causing that phenomenon. This is another point of disagreement on whether or not “ghosts” are real.

If you believe such manifestations are caused by the souls of human beings who have died, yet some part of them lingers, many people will disagree with you. Science cannot prove that such an explanation is the truth, or that people possess souls.

However, they have been unable to disprove that as well, so it comes down to a question of belief and personal experience.  I personally have had too many powerful, tremendously moving experiences in a lifetime of practicing magick and working with spirit to EVER discount the existence of the spiritual realm.

One reason skeptics are unwilling to believe such experiences are paranormal has to to with “heterophenomenology.” This huge word is a concept introduced by philosopher Daniel Dennett in his book, Consciousness Explained.

Dennett is an atheist; but he respects other people’s heterophenomenology, because he explains it like this: Each person experiences the world in their own unique fashion. The tool responsible for interpreting these experiences is their own brain, which is genetically and structurally unique for each person. Therefore, no two people ever experience exactly the same outer world reality, because their brains interpret it differently.

For example, when you touch a piece of velvet, you experience a certain physical sensation. That sensation is the result of the nerves in your fingers transmitting a signal to your brain, which the brain then interprets in terms of texture, makes judgments about the relative pleasantness of the sensation, starts searching the memory archives for similar sensations that it can use as an analogy to help define this sensation, and so forth. That is your own heterophenomenology.

Another person could touch the same piece of velvet at the same moment, and go through more or less the same process, but because they have differences in the nerves in their fingers and in the cells of their brain, and different memories of life experiences, their sensations and interpretations, their heterophenomenology, will be different.

The two of you could each try to use human language to describe to each other what you experienced when you touched the velvet, as the only possible way for you to try to communicate what you experienced. But you each will have different personal definitions and understandings of the words used in that language.

Because you are each describing your own unique experience, what you mean when you use even the same words, will also be different for each of you. We can seem to come to some kind of agreement or understanding, but in point of fact no other person, short of being inside your own head and thinking with your brain, can ever truly understand EXACTLY what you experienced.

Scientists can therefore only disagree with your own explanation of the REASONS why you experienced what you experienced.

For example, a person who experiences an “OBE” (Out of Body Experience) explains it as their soul leaving their physical body and floating at the ceiling.  The doctor hearing it explains it as the result of a dying brain firing off neurons that create the illusion of the consciousness leaving the body. But they can’t argue with the experience itself, because only you know exactly what sensations, sights, and sounds your body and brain experienced.

So you can see a “ghost.” You can hear ghostly whispers. You can get pictures of orbs. You can get recordings of EVPs. You can assemble as much physical evidence of what you yourself are experiencing as possible, so it’s not just “your word against theirs.”

But there will always be people who disagree with your interpretation of such phenomenon as “ghostly manifestations,” or evidence of life after death. They will insist the explanation is hallucination, double exposure in the photograph, Photoshop manipulation, light reflections off dust motes, etc.

You will probably never be able to convince such people that your supernatural explanation is the correct one, no matter how outlandishly they reach to try to find “rational” explanations for the phenomenon you present to them.

This is not to say that every orb is a supernatural entity, rather than dust.  A percentage of those orbs will indeed have a mundane explanation.  But a percentage of them will also likely have a supernatural explanation.

Scientists operate on the principle of “Occam’s Razor”: assume that the simplest explanation is the truth.  Therefore they will always assume that 100% of all “paranormal” phenomenon have a mundane explanation, because, to them at least, that is the simplest answer.  But that does not mean that they are correct in such blanket characterizations.  That leaves us with our own personal experiences, and interpretations of those experiences, our own heterophenomenology.

Did you see or hear something that you are inclined to believe is a ghost?  Do you believe that it is evidence of “life after death,” or a soul of a dead person that is still somehow manifesting on this physical plane?  Or is it a “memory” of sorts, some kind of emotional imprint that a person left behind, without their consciousness still being there?

Are ghostly voices saying things that seem to have no relation to the present physical reality and the living humans present (in other words, is it possibly a kind of “psychic recording” of a past event, rather than an entity able to interact with people)?  Or do the sounds and words that come across sound like they are responding to the things being said by the people present (answering questions, and such)?

There is usually a strong emotional component to such experiences.  People feel sensations such as heat or cold, get goosebumps with no temperature change, feel butterflies in their stomach, and experience reactions such as fear, unease, creepiness, peace, joy, and more ephemeral, less easily described sensations that are often described as sensing “energy” or “a presence.” An instinctual sense of not being alone, or feeling someone watching, or a sensation like someone is standing near by and you would bump into them if you moved in a certain direction, are also common.

Such experiences are profoundly personal, and whether you react to them with discomfort or excitement, choose to leave or have the courage to stay, suffer from the intensity or thrive on the energy, is very much dependent on who you are, how your nervous system is wired, the belief system that you were brought up with and how much it still effects you, and many other variables.

I wrote On the Care and Feeding of Spirits and started this website to teach you how to cope with such experiences, how to seek them out, how to benefit from them, and how to enrich your day-to-day life by expanding your conscious awareness beyond “normal” physical “reality” and into the richly rewarding realm of supernatural experience.

Overcome the fears that are holding you back from transcendence! Gain confidence and personal power! Benefit from communication with “the other side,” and from the help and strength that can be gained by forging alliances with spirit!

Discover:

• how to access the astral plane

• how to greatly expand your use of the wonderful tool that is your brain and mind

• how to use all those odd, tingly sensations to inform you about paranormal phenomenon (in other words, how to use your “sixth sense”)

• experience the reality of, and more, contact and interact with any spiritual entity you wish, up to and including deities

• Create a spirit out of the formless energy of the astral plane and give it the character and attributes that you choose, so it can be the perfect companion and helper (in Chaos Magick these are called “servitors.”)

Please, make liberal use of the FREE CONTENT available at this site, including the free report,the FREE full-length podcast, and more free articles, audio files, and resources to come.
And, for less than the cost of one workshop, take full advantage of the PREMIUM CONTENT, which not only includes the ebook On the Care and Feeding of Spirits, but the free newsletter, and free access to teleconferences and seminars, that comes with it.
I would love to hear your true ghost stories; in fact, if I choose your story for my newsletter or to post here on the site (with your permission, of course,) I will send you a free copy of the ebook to thank you. Just Email me at vivienne at persephoneshaven.com

Blessed Be,
Vivienne D’Avalon