Ghosts

                     by Dr. Mark Pitstick

The phenomenon of ghost sightings is another type of paranormal evidence that consciousness survives physical death.  Just one authentic ghost sighting indicates the existence of nonphysical dimensions.   In the video documentary, Sightings: The Ghost Report (Paramount Pictures, 1995), paranormal researcher Tony Cornell of Cambridge University states, “There’s a lot of fraud in this, a lot of imagination, a lot of wishful thinking but when you strip that all out, there’s about 20% hard core stuff that’s exceedingly difficult to explain.”

Simply put, ghosts are souls who are “stuck”, for a variety of possible reasons, between the earth and Spirit World.  They didn’t “enter the Light” immediately after death as most souls do.   “Nancy” from New Zealand shared the following fascinating story about such a spirit: 

For 3 months after my son-in-law passed over there was an eerie sense of cold about the house.  I heard heavy footsteps outside my bedroom window and encountered many sleepless nights due to being poked and pulled at.  I knew deep inside who it could be but chose to ignore it and pray that tonight would be the night that I would get some rest.  This was not to be and finally I had enough.  I looked at his photo with tears streaming down my face and said to him, "Okay, baby, I know there's something wrong and I will find someone who can help so that you can be at peace".

As soon as I said that, the room felt suddenly warmer and brighter and a peace came over me that I can't really explain.  He had passed over so quickly and tragically that he had unresolved issues and hadn't accepted his physical death.  He only wanted somebody to help him and if I wasn't so keen on denying his presence, I could've helped him sooner.  I found a medium to help send him into the Light.  Those incidents never occurred again. 

In the same documentary, Kerry Gaynor, a paranormal investigator from UCLA, points out that seeing ghosts is not culturally dependent; this phenomenon has been reported in all cultures since the beginning of time.  He states, “How do you turn myth and legend into scientific facts?  Research of photographic evidence has produced many hoaxes but a handful of pictures defy explanation.  Startling images, spectral apparitions—are these people from the past trying to make contact with the present?” 

For example, a 1965 NBC news broadcast reported on “The Stately Ghosts of England” in which professional photographers set up infrared movie cameras in a castle with a history of ghost sightings.  Captured on film was a shaft of light clearly emerging from one door, traveling down a short hallway, and entering another door.  As one researcher stated, “All the lighting conditions were controlled, windows were blacked out, there was no possibility of moonlight or car headlights coming through.  When we saw the stuff later, there was a shaft of light which to me is completely unexplainable.”  Thirty-five years later, this paranormal phenomenon is still unexplained. 

States Gaynor, “To ignore it (claims of ghost sightings) is to retreat into ignorance.  To pursue it is to pursue one of the most baffling enigmatic mysteries that we have ever confronted about the nature of our being and, in so doing, I think we have an opportunity to take a quantum leap in our understanding of ourselves, indeed, in our understanding of reality itself.”

My book Soul Proof presents more information about ghosts and other “paranormal” phenomena, yet another category of evidence that there is much more to life than meets the eye—or other senses.