About Ghosts

Many people claim to have seen a ghost or may display some sort of psychic ability. While parapsychology may not be accepted by the "mainstream" scientific community, there is quite a body of practical and academic research that can support the existence of ghosts and various other related phenomena. Some of the more common forms of psychic phenomena include:

Apparitions – A classic "haunting," when people claim to see the fuzzy or transparent figure of a human in a given locale. In many cases, research confirms that many different people, unknown to each other, experience the same apparition in the same location. Furthermore, in some instances, this figure bears an uncanny resemblance to someone who occupied that locale years ago. Some researchers have theorized that these apparitions or "ghosts" are "psychic imprints" or some sort of brainwave activity of people who in the past experienced an event of high emotional significance at that locale. Years later - under the right conditions - people with a psychic gift or "high psi" as some may call it, may be able to receive these psychic imprints or brainwave activity, much like a radio receiver picks up radio waves from a transmitter miles away.

"High Psi" – Certain people have a gift which enables them to perceive psychic imprints or brainwave activity emitted by other people either in the present or in the past. Some have theorized that early humans, before they developed language and the ability to communicate explicitly, had much more highly-developed psychic abilities and were able to communicate via brainwaves. This ability may have evolved away through natural selection as humans developed language and other means of communications. Interestingly, it is believed that some animals may still have more highly developed psychic abilities (these abilities never having evolved away). This may explain why dogs sometimes seem to bark at "nothing" or cats burst out of a room for no apparent reason at all.

Poltergeist Hauntings/RSPK – Poltergeist activity or Random Spontaneous Psychokenesis occurs when objects appear to move by themselves with no apparent force acting upon them. Most likely, these objects are being moved via telekinesis. Poltergeist activity tends to occur more often in environments where there is the presence of teenagers near the age of puberty. Theorists posit that as teenagers undergo this major change in life, their brainwave activity is very active causing these telekinetic activities to occur.

Sleep Paralysis – also referred to as a "hypnagogic trance." Many people awake in the middle of the night, only to find themselves feeling a state of rigidity or paralysis. Commonly, for a short duration of time, they have no apparent feeling and are unable to move their bodies. Sometimes this is accompanied by a pounding or a sensation of some sort of powerful "force" hovering over their chests. Some people report seeing a human figure or "ghost" during these experiences. While many people are very scared when they first experience sleep paralysis – fearing they are having a stroke or heart attack – it’s really just the state of being half asleep and half awake, a common occurrence. Some psychic researchers theorize that during this half awake/half asleep state, people are more prone to receive psychic sensations.

Mean Spirits addresses all these phenomena and more in a suspenseful thought-provoking story that is a "must read" for anyone interested in ghosts and psychic phenomena.

Copyright Roger D. Chiocchi 2002
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