Interactive Apparitions

Firstly let’s put a dampener on things and set our expectations back a bit. These sorts of Ghosts, Spirit, call them what you will, are extremely rarely seen. I know many paranormal investigators who over the course of many years have regularly visited haunted locations who have never seen an apparition of any kind let alone the idealistic one described above.

As a general rule Apparition Ghosts/Spirit are classed as ignorant or interactive, after that there are a number of subcategories that try to break down the types still further.

We are only going to discuss the sentient or interactive apparition on this page, please refer to a description of repeat recordings or stone tape theory to read about the ignorant variety.

So what is an interactive apparition?  Good question, and one that has formed the main subject of whole books on the subject of Ghosts/Spirit, we will go for a brief generally accepted definition and explore the subject further.

Firstly documented apparitions are not limited to humans. Others that I have come across cited are Horses, Dogs, Cats, Wolves, Cars, Carriages, Stage Coaches, Tractors, Trains, Planes even buildings and in one account from Dorking a complete countryside valley. This opens up one of our first little problems, "Spirits exist because their soul is condemned or compelled to walk the earth". If that is so are people saying that Horses, Dogs, Cats Trains, Planes and buildings have souls, this opens up a very interesting debate, one for the CaSPIR forum rather than here though.

At this point I think we have to say that from a logical prospective if an interactive apparition exists it has to be a spirit and that it must once have been alive to be sentient so lets dispose of the Trains Planes and automobiles as stone tape theory.
The full blown interactive apparition as stated earlier is rare, these allegedly appear to try to interact with the viewer in some way, a gesture, a look or other such implying that recognition of the viewer has taken place.

After the apparitions described, that appear solid, we come down to those through a variety of mists and dark shapes. Now all of these forms "may" easily have a more mundane explanation and great care must be exercised with these. A mist may indeed may be just that, a dark shape could be the shadow of another team member elsewhere. It might be the shadow of an object seen at an unusual angle that looks like a face or a human/animal shape.
 
As paranormal investigators we must all be aware of our enemy number one pareidolia. This is a grand word for the brain creating what most people call a trick of the eye. Such tricks of the brain, which is a truer description of this phenomena should not be underestimated, they are very convincing when seen head on, you have no chance at all out of the corner of the eye.

There is an interesting variation on the interactive apparition and that is the Messenger spirit. These are one off apparitional visitations usually interactive and directed towards an individual and occasionally a small group gathered in the same place. Once again we have written specifically about this singular spirit, see the index.
 
It is alleged that Ghosts/Spirit can, on occasion, produce an apparition that is so good people around do not realise that it is not a human until it does something odd. Things like vaporise, walk through the wall or perhaps turn a corner, the following watcher suddenly realising they are not there and that there was nowhere for them to have gone. I am often asked why are ghosts only seen at night, well the best answer I have been able to offer as a sceptic is that they are not, they are just easier to see in low ambient light conditions when there are less people around. Now if there really is such a thing as a convincing solid apparition whose to say that seeing these in daylight are not more common than we realise. With our busy lifestyles would we really notice something odd out of context in broad daylight?  Its an interesting question to ponder on.
 
Other phenomena may also be reported in association with an apparition for example: A lady walking by smiles as she passes the watcher and the watcher is aware of her strong smelling perfume as she passes coupled with a felling of well being. Some people say that they find this particular type of rare experience quite uplifting and that it renews their faith in life after death. Others are rooted with fear to the spot and when they recover their presence of mind flee, resolving never to return to that place. The same people also make very sure that they keep what they have seen to themselves in case their family and friends think that they are loosing their mind. I am sure a lot of this goes on, borne out by people telling me things when they find out I am a paranormal investigator. The conversation usually includes a line like “I have never told anyone else this before in case they laugh at me”.

Our worst enemy is lack of evidence, the hard kind, the more people who tell us what they have seen, where and under what circumstances the better our chances to record and investigate using scientific methods. If we can get a repeat of the event in these circumstances then we stand some chance of finding out what exactly is going on.