I think I'll tag some of my experiences and ideas on here, because I don't want to keep starting new threads all over the place!
I have experienced both seeing a "ghost", and Thoughtforms, and feel there are definately a whole range of explanations for what gets lumped under the term "ghost". I believe most are mundane misperceptions or suggestion from being in a place with a pre existing reputation, for a start.
I have come to the conclusion that the most likely
paranormal explanation for a lot of repeated apparitions is the whole sound/light energy being absorbed by the surroundings in certain conditions, and then being replayed in certain conditions.
Thoughtforms I believe are semi-sentinent elemental-types that are created from the human mind. They are for the most part invisible to people, but are what are responsible for atmospheres in places and odd reactions in animals - they embody, or manifest, human emaotions, of fear, hate, sadness, joy, whatever. It's Thoughtforms I believe are created by concerntrated visualisation, apparently "manifesting ghosts", but are actually just products, or projections, of the mind. Doesn't make them less
real, in a non-tangible way, of course
My own Thoughtform experience was seeing a figure out of the corner of my eye walk through my living room. It was humanoid in form, about 6ft 6" - 7ft tall and appeared sepia-toned, but I knew it was
not human, or a ghost. It was sentient though, because I felt it registering the fact that I had seen it and that caught it's attention somehow. Don't ask me why I felt this, it was just a subjective intuitive impression. It reminds me of stories of I think they're called "stick men" - I'm pretty sure I saw a thread about them on here.
It unsettled me. I didn't like the fact it "noticed" me.
Anyway, either 2 or 3 nights later, I was in bed just settling to sleep and I became aware of something, opened my eyes and there he was, standing by my bed and leaning over toward me. It was the scariest experience I've ever had, and I screamed the place down. It's the only incident of strangeness that has ever made me scream
I am quite happy to accept that this was a dream experience/hallucination as I was drifting off to sleep (though I thought I was awake and had only just got into bed) suggested by what I thought I had seen a day or 2 earlier.
The only slight query was my partners reaction. Being a cynical sceptic I had not bothered to discuss the previous experience with him, but when I had stopped screaming his immediate reaction without me saying a word was: "There was something standing by the bed, wasn't there?"
He refused to discuss it again.
Ghost story.
This relates to a friend's house that was "haunted". Many people had experienced a range of things there, including seeing indistinct apparitions, feelings of presence, light switches/doors etc being messed with, footsteps - all the usual. When I slept on the sofa once, I could hear the stereo switches clicking. The radio was fuzzing on and off, buttons clicking, the whole lot. It was switched off at the plug, but the plug was in, by the way. In the spirit of gibbering cowardice rather than intrepid fortean inquiry, I closed my eyes and stayed under the duvet. I could live with the sounds, I just didn't want to
see what was doing it.
In the morning I told my friends, they were like"Oh, yeah, he does that all the time. Obsessed with the stereo". I was like: thanks for the warning there, guys. I experienced other things there too, but to shorten this post before it turns into a novel - the apparition.
It is not how I imagined a ghost would be at all.I was sitting watching TV with my firneds, on the sofa with the sitting room door opposite me. Movement caught my eye, and I noticed a figure walking toward the doorway, but small and far off and geting larger as he approached. The only way I can describe it was like a tunnel had opened, not physically in the wall but kind of into somewhere else. He was clearly outlined, though note truely solid, like a pencil sketch which has only been partially shaded. He had short back and side dark hair, wearing a working man's collarless shirt, and loose trousers I think with braces. Average height, looked about 40 ish. His dress put him from 1930s to the early 50s (the house was Victorian). I was not scared at all, but fascinated. He just stood in the doorway watching us. There was nothing remotely threatening or scary about him, in fact it felt like he didn't want to come in and intrude. I watched him for a while, and then he sort of faded away. I was not intoxicated in any way, and it was broad daylight. I think he was a real rarity and something I've hardly ever even felt before - a genuine ghost, in the sense of a spirit who had not "passed over". He was all human, in a way the Thoughtform thing was not. Again, hopelessly subjective I know!
Slightly corroberating(sp?) this, I got a phone call from my mother with a message from a relative, who has proved over many years to my satisfaction she is genuinely psychic, though never practised it as a profession, nor would you find her anywhere near a seance or crystal ball crap. She said there was a man around me at that time, who had died during the second world war and not passed over yet. I had told
no one in my family about the haunted house or any of my experiences, including the apparition in that style of clothing (the message came after the apparition).
I'll leave it there. Sorry it's got so long.