"She's trapped in this place, not aware that she's dead." "He's waiting for his wife who used to live there." "She walks the desert washes wailing for her drowned babies." "She paces before the window, waiting for her soldier to come home from war." "He was angry and possessive of his home and wants no strangers in it."
These are just some of the reasons people give for haunts. We looked in abandoned asylums, prisons, hospitals, sites of murders. Why do we assume that only those who are anguished or angry will haunt?
The overwhelming reason people give for hauntings is "unfinished business." Otherwise, happy souls should just shove off for heaven, right?
What if hauntings are laid down by strong emotions that are positive as well as negative? What if a blissful moment in your life where you laid down on the bed beside your loved one and held hands and watched the sunlight dance patterns on the afternoon ceiling after a vigorous lovemaking session ends up being the most pivotal moment of your life?
If you had a happy life, a contented one with the usual up's and down's, but overall felt loved and pleased, wouldn't you want to relive those moments in your life? Maybe walk down the hall of your elementary school or the halls of your childhood home? Perhaps you would want to go to the first home you had where you raised your kids. You recall that spot in the woods where you loved to camp and spent your honeymoon in a tent there.
Let's look at the sum of your life: Would you go and visit the place where you got in a huge fight with your parents or would you choose to go to the spot you were married in under the arbor? Would you choose to go back to the time you were humiliated in seventh grade in the locker room or would you to the spot where you first made out with the love of your life? Seems like a no-brainer, huh? If we could do a life review, wouldn't we visit those moments that on our time off we daydream about? Those fun things from the past that remind us that we once had happiness, adventure and felt very loved?
So, do happy people haunt? Sure they do. Perhaps they're not as angry, loud or brassy, but they malinger, walking the mortal plane and reliving a moment of total bliss. Should you find yourself in a place haunted by the happy and contented, consider yourself lucky. Such a haunting is just as startling as it can likely have apparitions and sounds, voices, but the tone of the haunting feels different to your senses. These type of hauntings feel safe and protected, as if you have a guardian angel who watches over you. You never really feel alone in a home with a happy ghost, but you do feel an even stronger tie to the home.
Why is that?
Anyone who had happy times in that home, who loved it so much they could not let it go left lingering emotions on every surface and as they haunt leave a residual pleasant feeling. Some homes feel weird when you enter them, others feel like home instantly. People make decisions on buying homes often by just the feel that they are home. That comes from the cumulative happiness of past families in that location. It makes one feel so good they never want to part with the house.
So, if you feel yourself drawn to your home, find it a safe harbor, feel contented and productive, can't imagine living anywhere else--your home is filled with residual good times and, if you're lucky, a happy past owner who is drawn to its light, as well.
I think hauntings occur for a number of reasons, but the bottom line is that they're not ready (or able) to move on to the next place.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I don't think people talk about this enough. For me, I believe in phenomena not a phenomenon. With all the ghost shows going on about talking to the dead and taunting them and trying to get them to cross over, it's easy to forget that a large number (perhaps most?) of hauntings are what we term "residual" (specifically, I term them Recurrent or Non-Recurrent Residual Hauntings). These show little to no awareness of their surrounds and often are reported as disaffected by the circumstances in which they have been perceived. They might seem happy, sad, or completely blasé. I think these are not ghosts in the classic sense (spirits of the deceased) but rather environmentally imprinted anomalies (again, my term) or glimpses into alternate realities. There are also cases of Recurrent Cognitive Apparitions that exhibit anyting but melancholy. Rather tales of playful, helpful, and friendly spirits are as common as any. I think in our increasingly TV-skewed perception of the paranormal, it's the dramatic and frigtening hauntings that take over.
ReplyDeleteEric;
ReplyDeleteTrue. Who is ever really ready to journey alone?
Cullan;
So far as I've found in hunting and in my childhood, it's all residual moments in time replayed. I still search for tangible proof of intelligence. I think of residual as more or less a moment in time replayed in an environment kind of like how the mind has memories. I don't see it tied to souls. I want to see proof of soul. That is what I strive for.
Interesting post.... I say yes they do.
ReplyDeleteof cource they do. they hunt for pleasure or so called happiness. That's human nature to avoid pain and look for pleasure.I like that orange on you btw.
ReplyDeleteThanks Echo. Most redheads think it's a no-no. Not me--I tend to find it amplifying. Hee hee
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree, we would want to haunt the happiest moments.
I would hope that happy spirits can cross over to a better place. .
ReplyDeleteJessica;
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree. I think as the baby of the family on both sides, I've lost nearly all my enormous family already. It seems sad to be left behind, but it's also really comforting that there will be a party for me on the other side, should there prove to be one. I think if you were one of the first to go, all the ones you love are still alive. That could create a real issue for haunting.