Not only do I have a new book coming out with this title (release date is 10 July!) but I thought it was a good title for this blog too. Ghosts CAN be distracting, especially if you don’t know what to do when one is bothering you … or scaring you as the case may be! Fact is, ghosts are everywhere, or their ENERGY is anyway, and that is because in the world of spirit…there is only HERE. What we perceive as space is nothing more than a different level of awareness over “there”!

In our realm (physical life), ghosts are actually energy from the past. You can’t interact with a ghost. You can’t communicate with it. You can sometimes see it and you can quite often “feel” it (sense their energy) and sometimes you can even hear it, but that’s about the extent of it. Despite what all the ghost-hunting television shows might lead you to believe, haunted locations are created by heightened emotional energy from people in a PAST event. They are not hang-outs for dead people who are waiting to scare us or talk to us!

The very essence of who we are is beings of energy and when our emotions are heightened our psyche’s energy level becomes so strong it can transcend time. Meaning it can be sensed by people in the future, who think they are encountering a ghost! I guess in a way they are since the people involved are dead (to us they are anyway).

It’s a complicated issue but let me try to explain by example. When someone is murdered (in a PAST event) and we are in the location where it happened, we can often pick up on the heightened emotions of the victim (and sometimes even the murderer!). We can do that because we are energy too and energy detects energy. So anyway, in situations like that (a murder), emotions are often highly charged and the energy generated can sometimes be picked up by others at a later time. It’s because of situations like this that haunted locations often make people uncomfortable. Given that, it’s no wonder they are scary places. You are, after all, tapping into the emotions of someone being murdered (or of someone doing the murdering) and either way it’s not a good feeling. Communicating with the “ghosts” in this kind of haunting is not possible. What you can do, however, is learn what happened. Psychics are great at this and you often see them in action on the ghost-hunting shows.

Now, if the murder took place in a building and it’s still standing, then people usually consider the building haunted, but get this, even if the building is destroyed the energy is still there because the location hasn’t changed, just what’s in the location. That’s why new buildings can be “haunted”, because they are built on the same spot where a highly charged situation took place.

Even knowing what a ghost is, they are still scary, certainly spooky, usually uncomfortable but not dangerous. They cannot hurt you in any way.

There are some hauntings where people think a past owner of a house was so fond of it they stayed there after they died. Not so. What is being detected in that situation is the fondness someone felt for the place (strong feelings of love also heightens emotions). Besides, they are STILL THERE because physics tells us that the past and present coexist!

Paranormal writers use the instances stated above to create tension and to raise the “spook” factor of a ghost story. I use it in my books as well. My main character in the Tess Schafer-Medium series (click the link if you are interested in checking them out!) understands that ghosts can do no harm and does what she can to ease the fear of the other characters in her story. One thing for sure, those situations certainly make for great ghost stories!

Now a SPIRIT is a whole different ballgame. Spirits are dead people who enter our realm of consciousness in order to communicate with us. Example: Miss Spooks dies and though she no longer has a physical body, she still exists as Miss Spooks, keeping all her memories and personality traits (though being “dead” is sure to put a whole new perspective on things!). So now she finds herself “over there” and wants to communicate with the living. Those are the spirits you can interact with.

As explained above, the biggest difference between a ghost and a spirit is the fact you can only communicate and interact with a spirit. Communications with them are usually a good experience. They are eager to talk with us and they often want to get messages across to those they care about…or to anyone that will “hear” them!

Spirits who hold strong negative emotions, however, have some unresolved issues and interactions with them are not so pleasant. They haven’t yet made peace with their new circumstances and they are the ones most often responsible for active hauntings. Poltergeists (negative entities) are attracted to those kinds of spirits and since they can move things around, they CAN be dangerous. Since like attracts like, they are attracted to the negative emotions of a troubled soul and they use those poor souls to get through to our physical reality. It isn’t the actual dead person that is posing a danger.

Negative entities are hard to explain but they are part of the spirit world and they lurk in the shadows of the afterlife. Most dark entities never were physical beings! But they can be a nasty influence and create confusion for a spirit with unresolved issues.

Now, even in cases involving a poltergeist, that doesn’t mean you are in danger. It just means that you need to be cautious. Reacting with anger, fear, hatred (any negative emotion) will “feed” their energy. Some of the BEST things to do when negative spirit activity is occurring are to pray (asking a higher power for protection), invoke your spiritual light to protect you (imagine a light shining IN and AROUND you), ask angels for protection and above all, stay calm (as best as you can anyway!).

As for Angels, they are in abundance and are absolutely everywhere. Best of all, they are quick to help whenever they are asked, so ASK!!

Given the scary nature of poltergeists, I use them in my books because having negative spirit energy raises the fear-factor in a story. Seriously, it is a good plot device for a ghost story. I don’t, however, make it the MAJOR plot device! Although my books are considered “horror” it’s only because ghosts are involved and not because they are horrific and gory.

The message I try the hardest to convey in all of my books is that here in the physical world, WE are in charge. Not only that but we have all we need to stay safe and protected from negative spirit energy. Our personal spiritual power is more than sufficient to keep us safe! Isn’t that comforting to know?

Now as I mentioned earlier, it sometimes happens that there are issues that went on here in the physical world that follow someone into the afterlife. Those are unresolved issues and spirits are so affected by this they will do whatever they can to communicate with us in order to find some closure. THIS is what I use most often as a plot for my books. To me, those sorts of circumstances make the best ghost stories.

More often than not, though, spirits are loved ones trying to communicate that they are well, they are happy and they don’t want their loved ones to be sad. No matter the circumstance of their death, most people are very pleasantly surprised when they cross over and learn the truth of things. In fact, they are so excited they want to share their amazing discovery with their loved ones!

Being physically dead does not break attachments though it is a different sort of attachment. They still LOVE those they were close to in physical life but they feel no sense of ownership. A deceased husband (for instance) isn’t going to be like “Hey! That’s MY woman you are moving in on!” (when another man develops an attachment for his wife). And he certainly does not think his wife is betraying him by caring for another man!

One thing I find most comforting is that loved ones who have passed are still connected to us and just thinking about them pulls them into our realm of consciousness. Whenever I think about my grandparents, for example, they are immediately with me and I sense them quite strongly. In fact, they often give me a sign of some sort to validate the experience!

Seriously, by focusing on someone who has passed into spirit, you draw them to you (because in truth, they aren’t “far” from you at all). The biggest frustration for those in spirit is not getting through to loved ones. But, they do what they can. They might make their picture fall or they might put something in an odd place so that when you find it, you’ll think of them and maybe even realize it was them that put it there. They might invoke a smell that you associate with them such as a flower they loved, a perfume they wore or a tobacco they smoked.

They LOVE it when loved ones go to a medium or turn to other means of communication … table tipping, Ouija, automatic writing (to name a few)! As for mediums, they are usually inundated with spirits trying to get through to loved ones here in our physical reality. My Tess Schafer character deals with this and I love her ability, her attitude and the way in which she handles things. I learn from her all the time! (smile)

So anyway, I wanted to write this post in celebration of my newest Tess Schafer-Medium book … aptly named Distracting Ghosts (you can click the link to check out the synopsis and even preorder if you are interested) and I’m dedicating it to my nephew Matt who died while I was writing the story. I thought about him so much while writing it and though the story has nothing to do with him, his death changed me in some way and that certainly has had some influence on my storytelling. I feel him around and he’s given lots of indications of his presence. Gone physically but not gone spiritually. Ahh, Matt, why did you have to leave us so soon?

Until next time, may your life be moving ever onward and upward. Peace out.