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Basic Types of Hauntings

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Paranormal research and investigation has revealed that there are three basic types of hauntings and most paranormal activity falls into these categories:
The Traditional Haunting, or Intelligent Haunting,
Residual Haunting,
Demonic Haunting
Poltergeist activity ( German for noisy ghost)
 
The Traditional or also known as The Intelligent Haunting
is perhaps the most widely accepted kind of ghost activity, although it's really not as common as you might think. In this kind of case, the spirit or entity involved is an "intelligent" or "Interactive" presence in a haunted location.
In these manifestations, the entity encountered seem to possess human personalities and emotions.  They may at times appear visually in human form, and are responsive to changes in external conditions such as the activities of the occupants of a household, presence of investigators, or the rearranging of furnishings in a setting, all of which suggest their formerly having existed as living cognitive beings.These spirits or ghosts tend to be attached to particular sites, vicinities or dwellings places usually though not always homes. 
Signs of an Traditional or Intelligent Haunting.
Most intelligent spirits will manifest in physical ways in an attempt to interact with those at the location.
This will include: Slamming doors, windows that open and close, cold chills and strong presence. On rare occasions, the spirit will be seen and when it is, it will most likely look as it did when alive.
 
The Residual Haunting.
Of all of the types of hauntings discussed on this site, the residual haunting is likely the most common. Certainly, it is much more common than most people think and I would go as far as to say that a large percentage of ghostly activity falls into this category,
In such a case, a scene from the pastseems to be replayed and is witnessed by a living person or persons.  Apparently this isan actual form of time-displacement from a former scenario which transpired at this site.  The entities contained within this haunting rarely display any awareness of their present day observers.  However there have been instances reported when the spectres from the past do seem to briefly notice those who perceive a glimpse of their seperate reality.
sounds. 
There have been some theories that limestone deposits have some effect on residual hauntings, as they have been found near active sites and limestone can hold electromagnetic charges.
The signs of a Residual haunting consist of the following.
The ghost reported will be like a moving picture and unaware of living people around them. In other words, its like watching the same scene in a movie over and over again.  Strange noises are common such as footsteps, rappings, voices. This type of ghost has no interaction with the living.
 
 
Demonic Haunting
This category of haunting is the most debated, as weel as the most dreaded.  It is perhaps of other-dimensional origin, and is often possessed of quite a hostile nature.  Anyone who has personally encountered a demonic entity in action never wants the experience repeated.  The entity often initially presents itself as a "human" type of haunting, as it may seem to anticipate the approached of the person it menaces, including any paranormal investigators who are endeavoring to rid a home of its presence.    Research has shown that someone originally had to have invited in the demon, perhaps inadvertantly, either through scrying implements such as a Ouija board, conducting seances, psychic experimentation, performing magic ceremonies or by habitually conversing with unseen presences(imaginary friends?)   These devices or games seem to be harmless, but the results can be likened to leaving your back door open.  You may only get a lizard, squirrel or the neigbors dog in your open door, but eventually something or someone unwanted may wander in, and were there is one intruder there are usually more lurking somewhere closeby!
A sub-category of the inhuman type of haunting, reported since the dark ages of recorded history, which really isn't a spirit or demon in the true sense and seems to be more mischievous in nature than outright malevolent, is the manifestation of   
Poltergeist activity:
 ( Usually involves an Adolesent Teen going thru puberty).
The current theory behind poltergeist activity is that the activity is caused by a living person in the household, known as the "human agent". The agent usually is an adolesent girl who is unwittingly generating a flow of chaotic, psychic energyes during a phase of their formative period, and some cases have been reported with a youth that is troubled emotionally. It is believed that she unconsciously manipulates physical objects in the house by psychokinesis (PK), the power to move things by energy generated in the brain. This kinetic type of energy remains unexplained, but even some mainstream scientists are starting to explore the idea that it does exist. It is unknown why this energy seems to appear in females around the age of puberty, but documentation of its existence is starting to appear as more and more case studies have become public. It can also effect boys that are of puberty age, but more likely to effect girls.
The vast majority of people have no idea that the activity is caused by them and will be surprised to find there is a possibility that strange things are happening because of them.
Poltergeist activity commences suddenly and inexplicably, the episodes are brief, often involving the floating or flinging of kitchen utensils, thunderous poundings reverberating in walls and ceilings, heavy furniture moved about or tossed by an unseen force, doors slamming, lights going on or off, and though rarely in these cases, even disembodied voices.
This phenomena can persist from several months to 3 years, recurring at unpredictable intervals, then vanish for good just as quickly as they began.  This phenomena differs sufficiently from other classifications of hauntings that it probably deserves its own catergory.
 
Above are the three major types of haunting, but there are documented reports of other entity sightings that do not fit into the above catergories.
 
Crisis Apparitions
These are apparitions of dying or recently dead.  This is the most frequently reported apparition.  This type commonly involves one-time visits to someone with whom the apparition had close emotional ties to.  This encounter usually seems to be a type of farewell, sometimes important or useful information is passed on to the "viewer".  This is usually a visual image that appears in waking visions or dreams. 
 
Deathbed Apparitions
 Visual images of devine beings, religious figures, luminosity's and dead loved ones that are reported by the dying in the last moments of life.
 
Apparitions from another plane or time
 There are reports of apparitions who act as frightened of us as we are of them.  In some cases, they indicate that we, not they are the ghosts.  In reports such as these, the observed ghosts appera to be "normal" and "alive" as we know it, (although the setting and dress may be of a different era or locale).  Given our incomplete understanding of time and space and the likelihood of additional planes of existence or dimensions, perhaps reports indicate that two distinct spatial or time dimensions can somehow merge and coexist for a time.
 
Portal Hauntings.
 Portal hauntings without a doubt will be the most controversial of the hauntings discussed here. The problem is that this type of haunting is the least understood and least traditional of the forms of actvitiy that we know of. Most Portal hauntings happen in cemeteries. "Portal's " or " Doorways" to another dimension is not a new one. It has been suggested that there existed all over the world that serve as "doorways" from our world to another. These doorways may prove access for entities to come into our world. They may be spirits of people that have lived before, or they may be something else altogether.
Signs of a Portal Haunting:
the majority of events that might fit into a "Portal Haunting" category seem to come from cemeteries, although no location can be ruled out. Some older buildings can also have a Portal haunting. The sites are nothing more than a doorway from their world to ours. A crossover point, which can be confusing to those doing research.

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