Ghosts

[Juanita]

Why do you suppose some souls resist crossing over?

[Kirsten]

Hi Juanita. That's a great question! I feel the reasons are as individual as the person. Perhaps lives ending before their time is a common reason. How do you feel about it?

[Juanita]

Happy New Year Kirsten. I agree. I suspect unfinished business is a key culprit for some others. My character Claire (Crashing Life) has a few reasons of her own. One being her rebellious nature.

[Juanita]

I also suspect some souls simply like it here.

[Kirsten]

Happy New Year to you! Crashing Life is a great title. Rebellious could be another reason, especially if the girl is particularly stubborn in life. That most likely wouldn't end in death.

Happy writing!

[Kurt]

Unfinished business is another reason. They died knowing they needed to do something and can't leave until they accomplish it.

They may also not have lived exemplary lives and are afraid of facing the consequences.

[Kirsten]

Haha, yeah, not ready for all that warm weather down south. lol

[Juanita]

Or ... grin ... some could have ODC and just not recognize that they have accomplished such. No warm weather in this neck of the woods. In Southern California it is currently 53 Degrees but feels like Alaska!

[Kirsten]

Virginia here. We have forty degree weather, snow's coming on the second. Kurt says he already has snow, but he's in New England, so, no surprise there ;).

[Kurt]

Myth is that there is always snow in New England. :-)

[Juanita]

No myth is that it's officially 2016. I celebrated with the worst Kool-aid, oops, I mean Stella Rosa. I miss snow and the u's. Moved to the US from Canada in 1999. In 12/2000 invested in twelve cans of snow and a dictionary because the u's appear to be useless.

[Alfred]

Not to enter late into the discussion, but I have to add another theory (and it is only a theory). What if places have memories, and ghosts are merely memories? Or at least, some of the things we consider "ghosts" are memories.

Consider the ghost of the guy who was decapitated. If this was truly his own ID/Ego/self consciousness, why does he think of himself and express himself as a decapitated image? Did he go through life establishing that particular self-image at the very fundament of his being? Or could it be that the place where he died remembers him mostly for the few traumatic minutes in which he lost his head (and perhaps imprinted the reactions of those who were left behind to deal with it)?

[Kurt]

So the traumatic event actually creates and echo from the past which reverberates forward in time. I know I wouldn't want to spend eternity with my head tucked under my arm given the choice.

[Kirsten]

I believe that too. There are many types of hauntings: intelligent hauntings, where the ghost actually interacts with you. And reoccurring hauntings, which are not intelligent hauntings, but leftover energies from a traumatic occurrence.

But, a haunting does not have to be one or the other. There could be both in an area, depending on what's going on there.

These discussions are open-ended and can go on forever, sort of like the afterlife. :)

[Alfred]

Kirsten wrote: "These discussions are open-ended and can go on forever, sort of like the afterlife..."

I hope not. That doesn't sound very pleasant for most of the ghosts out there. Going on forever, that is. I mean, when did anybody ever encounter a ghost who was happy? I wouldn't wish that kind of eternity on my worst enemy.

...On the other hand, there was this place in Virginia--some little historical site along the Colonial Parkway--that bore such an aura of happiness and life, I can still remember how I felt standing there almost thirty years ago. There were graves and the footprint of an old cabin from colonial days, and you could feel the generations of love and joy (and some sadness) from the family that had lived there.

I also heard of a house where residents occasionally hear a New Year's Eve party rush out of the top apartment and descend the staircase at Midnight--even though the current residents of that apartment are asleep in their beds.

I don't think those instances are ghosts. I think that those places remembered them. And I think maybe the memories of happiness there are more powerful than anything traumatic that may have happened. It kind of makes you want to invest in more happy memories wherever you are, because they just might be the longest-term investment you could ever make.

[Kirsten]

If one believes in the afterlife, it does go on forever. There are spirits and there are ghosts. I think there is a difference, ghosts being the unhappy sorts who are stuck in an unresolved pattern from the previous life, and spirits being those who have been able to evolve and go onto higher energies and still help out us mortals from their place the best they can. I have seen both, one being a full-bodied apparition.

I love places with good vibes.

And yes, while being an unhappy ghost must be unpleasant, these conversations are not and will not be closed.