What is a Ghost?: Why Advocacy is Important

It is becoming commonly held knowledge among ghost hunters, paranormal researchers, and the general public that ghosts most commonly seem to be the personalities of humans who were once alive that are somehow left behind energetically (except for in the case of residual hauntings where energy is left behind but does not interact with anything outside of itself).  These personalities are capable of interacting with living humans in intelligent ways, meaning that they are aware of their own identity as being separate from an "other" that it can interact with.  They express emotion and reaction.

In fact, besides not having physical bodies to constantly interact physically with their environments as we do, ghosts are not very different from "us" at all which is what disturbs me so much about the way I see ghosts being interacted with.  I regularly see them being taunted, frightened, angered, being feared of, sworn at, screamed at etc. etc.  Many times they are asked questions about their "death" when they may not even realize they are in fact dead.  They are asked about their killers.  They are asked about who they killed.  They are accused of being demons.  They are asked to throw things, frighten, and give "signs" of their presence after which startled persons scream and swear in fear.

Now, lets put ourselves in their shoes.  Since we are in fact, so alike.  Imagine you have died suddenly, but you aren't aware of it.  Things seem very much different than you are used to.  You are confused and lonely.  Perhaps there are other beings like you around you that you do not know.  You can't seem to leave where you are or are frightened to leave.   Suddenly a group of people appears who seem very strange to you.  Maybe they can help.  Maybe they know what is wrong.  Maybe they know the way out. "Did you die in here?" one of them asks.   That question alone could be traumatizing to a personality that does not know it is dead.

Maybe you were an angry hateful person in life and these strangers are only causing you to continue your angry and hateful ways.  You give 'em what they ask for.  You throw things, try to scare them and sometimes it works which empowers you and sometimes it doesn't which only angers you further.  

Or maybe you are aware that you have died, but you can't seem to get out of where you are.  You feel trapped and scared.  An endless stream of strangers comes and interacts with you, but don't seem to offer you any help.  In fact, they seem more entertained by rather than compassionate about your plight and attempts to get their assistance.

I recently read a comment by a docent claiming that rather than being traumatized by ghost tourists, "their" ghosts seemed only to be more "playful" and "prankish" during those times.  I wondered to myself if the ghosts had simply given up trying to get help from the people who worked there and simply stepped up their activity around many strangers hoping to get the desired attention and help.  We can't assume playfulness where desperation may actually be the primary motivation. 

I feel the oblivious insensitivity that is so tolerated or ignored in these communities stems from the phenomena being so misunderstood that we cannot identify with these beings.  They are dehumanized because of their association with the unknown. When in fact they may be just as human as we are.  Some enlightening questions to ask ourselves are:

Would we ever subject a living victim of trauma to blunt and insensitive questions about its traumatic experience(s)?
Should we ever taunt a living murderer or other criminal about the crimes they've committed?  Would that hinder rehabilitation if that were possible?
If a child were scared or lost and asked you for help would you scream in their face and swear at them in fear?
If a person were trapped in a building would you ignore that fact because they cause exciting things to happen in the building?

I could also be entirely wrong.  Maybe ghosts are never trapped.  Maybe they do choose to simply stay where they are, not out of fear or energetic entrapment, but because they want to.  But, until we can know that for sure, I think we should err on the side of sensitivity and caution so as not to cause more trauma.  We shouldn't simply assume things that could end up being harmful or traumatic to these personalities.  In fact, we should try to end the unprofessional and potentially damaging activities engaged in by the majority of ghost hunters, paranormal researchers, and patrons of ghost tourism in favor of professional and sensitive methods of dealing with this phenomenon.