The Secret World of Ghosts and Spirits

This week I'm a bit buried with some major writing projects, so I'm going to share an article with my loyal readers from an Irish writer named David Sloan. David has his own perspective about what constitutes ghosts and spirits, and his personal experience in a small hotel just west of Ireland is fascinating. Enjoy the tale...


A True Ghost Story From Ireland

I want to tell you about a ghost experience that was shared with me by a friend from Ireland, but first a few words in general about ghosts:

A ghost is the spirit of a dead person, or sometimes an animal, and sometimes manifests looking very much as they did in life, and is usually encountered in places the person spent a lot of time while they were corporeal. The word "ghost" is also used to reference any spirit or demon. Ghosts are usually found haunting the area in which they died.

According to parapsychological circles a ghost haunting is the nearly steady occurrence of supernatural phenomena associated with a particular area, like a house or a stretch of highway, and is attributed to the activities of a disembodied entity, or ghost. The haunting may include the physical appearance of a ghost, or some poltergeist activity, glowing orbs, disembodied voices, etc.

Ghosts are a strange phenomena that has fascinated mankind for ages. According a 2005 Gallup poll, about 32% of Americans believed ghosts exist. The word apparition is now used in the field of parapsychology, because the word ghost is thought to be too imprecise.

The belief in ghosts as the souls, or spirits of the person who has passed on is tied to the very old concept of animism, which teaches that everything in nature has a soul, including, animals, plants, human beings, rocks, trees, etc.

Ghosts, whether you believe in them or not, are a part of human history. For as long as man has sought for the meaning of his existence and the knowledge of what happens after a person dies, stories of encounters with the ghosts, or spirits, of loved ones have been told. For some, it is a comfort, a confirmation that there is life after death.

Here is a true ghost experience that was shared with me by a friend:

Well I remember when I was about 6 years of age my parents had bought a small hotel in the west of Ireland, I used to get very bad nightmares all the time from the time they moved in, one night I remember waking up in the middle of the night and the curtain on the window of the bedroom was suspended up in the air, and something said my surname, the window was shut and there was no breeze, I knew this was out of the ordinary and started roaring.

Anyway we had a live in barmaid from the country and she used to hear noises in the wardrobe at night, she would hop out of bed and open the wardrobe thinking it was mice or something, there was never anything there when she did open it, things progressed so that sometimes she would see the door knob of her bedroom door turning and she would open the door and there would be nobody there.

One Night she dreamt she was being smothered and woke up with a startle and saw a "habit" (the Robe they bury a dead person in) floating across the room and disappear through the wall. My dad did some enquiries with locals and it turned out that someone had hanged themselves in the barmaids bedroom.

Needless to Say we didn't stay too much longer after that!

There is definitely something out there!

If you like to read real life ghost stories, visit True Ghost Tales, where you will find ghost stories and pictures of werewolves, vampires, monsters and more.