Debunkers Guide:

Answers to very common experiences. Is your haunting real? Check below for possible answers.

Question: What is a Ghost?

Answer: A ghost - or spirit or apparition - is the energy, soul or personality of a person who has died and has somehow gotten stuck between this plane of existence and the next. Most researchers believe that these spirits do not know they are dead. Very often they have died under traumatic, unusual or highly emotional circumstances. Ghosts can be perceived by the living in a number of ways: through sight (apparitions), sound (voices), smell (frangrances and odors), touch - and sometimes they can just be sensed.

Question: What is a haunting?
Answer: A haunting is a kind of "recording" of a past event on an environment, such as a house, building or a battlefield. These recordings play back, over and over in a kind of loop - always the same, like a film or video. It is thought that the presence of certain people can trigger these recordings to play back. They are not ghosts capable of interacting with the living. It is not known how these recordings are made, but they are often associated with a traumatic or strongly emotional event.
 
Question: What is a poltergeist?
Answer: "Poltergeist" is a German word meaning "noisy spirit." Current research indicates, however, that poltergeist activity may have nothing to do with ghosts or spirits. Since the activity seems to center around an individual, it is believed that it is caused by the subconscious mind of that individual. It is, in effect, psychokinetic activity. The individual is often under emotional, psychological or physical stress (even going through puberty). Effects can include rappings on walls and floors, the physical movement of objects, effects on lights and other electric appliances - even the manifestation of physical phenomena.
 
Question: What is Old Hag Syndrome?
Answer: Victims of "Old Hag Syndrome" awake to find that they cannot move, even though they can see, hear, feel and smell. There is sometimes the feeling of a great weight on the chest and the sense that there is a sinister or evil presence in the room. And like the above reader, they are often quite frightened about what is happening to them. The name of the phenomenon comes from the superstitious belief that a witch - or an old hag - sits or "rides" the chest of the victims, rendering them immobile. Although that explanation isn't taken very seriously nowadays, the perplexing and often very frightening nature of the phenomenon leads many people to believe that there are supernatural forces at work - ghosts or demons. The experience is so frightening because the victims, although paralyzed, seem to have full use of their senses. In fact, it is often accompanied by strange smells, the sound of approaching footsteps, apparitions of weird shadows or glowing eyes, and the oppressive weight on the chest, making breathing difficult if not impossible. All of the body's senses are telling the victims that something real and unusual is happening to them. Rather than ghosts or demons, however, there is probably a scientific explanation: "sleep paralysis" or SP (sometimes ISP for "isolated sleep paralysis").
 
Question: What is EVP (electronic voice phenomena)
Answer: EVP - or electronic voice phenomena - is a mysterious event in which human-sounding voices from an unknown source are heard on recording tape, in radio station noise and other electronic media. Most often, EVPs have been captured on audiotape. The mysterious voices are not heard at the time of recording; it is only when the tape is played back that the voices are heard. Sometimes amplification and noise filtering is required to hear the voices. Some EVP is more easily heard and understood than others. And they vary in gender (men and women), age (women and children), tone and emotion. They usually speak in single-words, phrases and short sentences. Sometimes they are just grunts, groans, growling and other vocal noises. EVP has been recorded speaking in various languages.
 
Question: What is DOP (disappearing object phenomenon)?
Answer: DOP - disappearing object phenomenon - is a relatively common phenomenon in which an object disappears from view and later inexplicably returns. For example, a person puts their car keys on a kitchen counter, where they are always kept. When the person goes to get them, they are gone. A thorough search turns up nothing. Later, the keys are found on the counter where they were originally put (or some other obvious place. It's difficult to document a genuine DOP occurrence because people can be careless, simply misplace things or be forgetful. But there are many compelling stories from people who are certain they looked for the object in the place that it later appears. In some cases, people audibly call out for the object to be returned - and it is. In some rare cases, the missing object has actually been seen materializing out of thin air. It is also known as the "borrower" phenomenon. It may be related to poltergeist phenomena.
 
Question: Can animals be ghosts?
Answer: The answer seems to be yes. Animals, it seems, can be both ghosts and involved in hauntings. There are countless stories from people who have heard, felt and even seen pets well after they have died. The animal usually behaves in ways that it did in life, carrying out its routines and habits - jumping on a bed, for example, to cuddle with its owner. The phenomenon brings up the question: do animals share the same life after death that humans do?