Seven Basic Categories of Hauntings

It isn't always easy to categorize the type of haunting you're dealing with. It's important to always remember not to jump to conclusions. What looks like the work of humans could be supernatural, and vice versa. External factors can also influence the circumstances of any investigation - solar flares, magnetic fields, storms, lightning, etc.

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INTELLIGENT HAUNTING

If the spirit can communicate and interact with you, you're dealing with an intelligent haunting. This is usually the ghost of someone who was once alive, and is now either trapped in our world, or between ours and another, or has moved on to the next plane and knows how to move freely between their plane and ours.

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If the spirit was a kind and thoughtful during life, it will be the same in death. Similarly, angry and vengeful people will keep those same characteristics as ghosts.

Intelligent entities may try all kinds of annoying behaviors to get attention, like turning lights on and off, hiding things like your keys, moving things, or making noises.

A spirit might be trying to get help crossing over to the next plane, or with finishing some particular task left undone in life, or could just be hanging around with no real intent.

Sometimes a ghostly entity is stuck in a death state, and doesn't realize they're dead. When you see them they are just continuing with their life as usual. 

With intelligent hauntings, the entities are usually able to move around freely, and can come and go as they choose.

The primary factor with an intelligent haunting is that the spirit has the ability to communicate and/or interact with you. If the ghost doesn't notice you or other living humans, and if it can't communicate or interact with you, then it isn't an intelligent haunting.

DEMONIC POSSESSED HUMAN ENTITY - INTELLIGENT

Living humans can experience a type of negative demonic-like oppression where the demon or negative entity covets the soul, energy, or consciousness of the human. In this instance the demon doesn't possess the person's physical body, but can control it while it is still attached to the soul.

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If a living person is possessed or experiencing this type of demonic oppression at the time of their death, that possession or oppression can continue into the afterlife.

A ghost (a human entity lingering on our plane of existence that no longer has a body) can come under attack by a demonic or negative entity, or a demonic possessed human entity. The ghost can become possessed or oppressed while on their plane of existence even if they weren't while living.

These types of entities are stronger and more capable than the average intelligent human ghost. They can be just as dangerous to deal with as actual demons. They can move objects with ease, can be a threat to people or pets, and can oppress or possess the living.

RESIDUAL HAUNTING

This phenomenon is the most commonly reported type of haunting. It's like an old film loop; a scene or image that plays over and over throughout the years.

A residual haunting can be caused by a particular place experiencing a series of events that leaves an imprint on a place's atmosphere. This kind of energy can discharge and play itself at different times. The events could be visual or replayed as sounds or noises, like phantom footsteps.

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Most commonly, residual hauntings are related to traumatic events that took place at a location and caused a kind of disturbance, usually considered a psychic impression. Trauma and elevated emotions are notorious for evoking and creating higher than normal energy levels. This type of haunting is common in places like battlefields, where tremendous loss of life and high emotion have scarred the location's aura.

In still other circumstances, the images and/or sounds of a residual haunting have been created by events or actions that were repeated over and over again, leaving a psychic impression on the location. Those sounds and sights will replay at various times.

Locations where residual hauntings occur act like giant storage batteries, saving up the impressions, sights, and sounds from the past and emitting them over the years.

A residual haunting can initially appear very similar to an intelligent haunting, although the most important signs will be different. The spirit will not interact with the living. Activity and sightings will be random. Commonly reported sounds are footsteps, walking, breathing, and odd, usually repetitive sounds. Apparitions are also often reported,, but they won't notice the living around them, and will repeat the same actions over and over again every time they're witnessed.

POLTERGEIST

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A true poltergeist is the most rare kind of haunting. There can be a variety of phenomena associated with a poltergeist: knocking, tapping sounds, sounds with no visible cause, movement of stationary objects, doors slamming, lights turning on and off, fires breaking out, and more.

In the majority of suspected poltergeist cases, the activity can be attributed to psychokinesis (PK), and the agent is usually an adolescent or teenage female (though occasionally a male). 

It's unknown why this type of energy seems to manifest in females around the age of puberty, although it does tend to happen when the girl is in the midst of some emotional or sexual turmoil.

The presence of the energy is typically unconscious, and it's rare for the agent to actually realize that they are the source of the chaos and destruction around them. Most of these cases tend to peak early and then slowly fade away.

DEMONIC HAUNTINGS

Demonic hauntings usually begin very subtly, with behaviors like those typically displayed by a poltergeist only more extreme. It is relatively common for one or more spiritual entities to exist in one location with a strong evil presence controlling the others, and not allowing them to cross over.

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Demons despise humans, and think them to be ignorant and beneath them. Demons are dangerous, and should never be challenged by one not experienced in how to rid a location of a demonic presence - and even then, some demons are too strong to be banished from the earthly plane. Most demonic entities like to be challenged, are extremely conniving, and are masters of trickery. 

They may have a person believing they are good spirits, or may appear to be gone only to confront a person again later in a least expected and vulnerable moment.

Demonic entities are considered to be powerful and malevolent supernatural beings. They are evil beings of intelligence and wit. They have the power to invade homes, attach themselves to objects or people, possess people, and inflict pain both mentally and emotionally.

Demons, unlike ghosts, have never had a human form, so they can morph into any shape they choose. They are neither male nor female, and can take whatever form suits them at the time. They are commonly seen as black masses standing in doorways or the corner of a room.

SHADOW PEOPLE

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Sometimes they appear out of the corner of your eye and other times they appear right in front of you. Sometimes they appear as a silhouette of a person without any specific characteristics. 

There are hatted shadow beings, hooded shadows, cloaked shadows, and solid or wispy ones.

The only common denominator with shadow people is that they are intensely dark. Even their intentions and personalities vary.

ELEMENTALS

Elementals include Fairies, Elves, Gnomes, Nymphs, Wee Folk, Jinn, Angels, Goblins, and Satyrs. Each of these has their own subcategories as well, and as these are exceptionally rare to experience, they'll be addressed in detail on their own in future articles.