Learn about the things that go bump in the night. Great for beginners.

In the non physical world interacting with our physical world there are ghosts, apparitions, spirits, and poltergeists.

Ghosts are spiritual presences that, through the use of energy, usually take on a physical form to interact with the physical environment. Most ghosts are not evil or bad, rather they are spiritual energies that have a message which they need to get across to someone. Many ghosts do not, in fact, even know they are ghosts and as such simply helping them to understand this is all that is needed for them to move on.

An apparition isn't really a ghost at all! It's more like a memory that, because of the intense emotions and circumstances surrounding it, has been locked into time and place. Thus, when you encounter an apparition interacting with it does little to no good, because nothing is really there except for the memory.

For instance, let us suppose that a man and his wife are having an argument. The man takes out a gun and shoots his wife then turns the gun on himself. Many years later, people start to notice that there is a man with a gun and they hear the shrieking of a woman and this centers around one room of this home. What we have here is not ghosts, but rather apparitions. The memory of the event is firmly trapped in that particular room and when a certain amount of energy or a certain type of energy is present; that energy sets off that memory so that it plays out, like someone accidentally touching the start button on a VCR which starts playing whatever tape is in the machine.

This is sometimes called a residual haunting and the best way to end an apparition is via a good clearing, cleansing, and smudging of the area.

A spirit, unlike a ghost, usually does not take on a physical form, but exists around a person in a purely energetic form which is often only visible to someone with clairvoyance. Most spirits choose to interact with our world, to hang around loved ones, and to check in on us. Sometimes, like a ghost, they may not be aware that they have crossed over. It is usually spirits that a medium connects with.

A poltergeist, a word which means noisy ghost, is most often associated with things that people are truly frightened of. Examples of poltergeist activity include chairs moving or pictures spinning. The thing about poltergeists is that they develop due to all the energy that is in the environment. Most often, we see cases of poltergeist activity in homes that have children who are just entering their teens. All that pent up sexual energy and all the changing hormones produce energy that is often uncontrolled.

Uncontrolled energy is still energy and so what happens is that uncontrolled energy ends up making pictures spin and things move. When these children learn to control their emotions and energy the so called poltergeists stop being active.

The same can be true in any environment which contains a lot of high stress or high sexual energy. When this energy is not properly grounded it can create results here in the physical world.

What this basically means is that for an estimated ninety-five percent of the population that experiences ghosts, apparitions, spirits, and poltergeists, there is no real chance of harm coming to them.

Every now and again, on rare occasions, we do encounter in our physical world something of a darker type of energy that is altogether evil at its very core. These energies usually are not coming from any of the above, but rather are connected to some type of demonic energy that has been allowed into our world. Please understand the following about such energies. These energies, the majority of them, can only hurt people if the people they are preying upon allow them to do so. Likewise, it is not possible for a person to be possessed by such energy unless that particular person meddles with psychic or magickal stuff they don't understand or they subconsciously want and therefore allow the possession to take place.

Attachments are more common than actual possessions. An attachment is a spiritual energy or entity that is attached to a person and/or vice versa. Attachments can form at almost any time, but are most often seen when a relative that a person was very close to crosses over and neither is ready for the crossing to happen. Understand, not all attachments are bad or negative. They are only considered bad if the attachment ends up interfering in a person's life of if the attachment attempts to take over or control a person's life. Thus, just because Aunt Betty wants a person to continue giving money to her children long after she has passed away doesn't mean that person is obligated to do as they are requested.

There are various methods of ending attachments and dealing with possessions, but the scope of which is to much for this article. Consider reading a good book on psychic self defense such as Psychic Self Defense and Protection: An Energy Awareness Guide for further answers to these topics.