Most of us have seen haunted houses and places in famous Hollywood movies such as “The Conjuring” and “The Exorcist.” If you have seen either of the two films, you must have a broad idea of what haunting means. But, here, we will look at the different types of hauntings and throw light on the deeper aspects of the types of haunting and what it signifies. So, if you wish to be a paranormal researcher or just want some knowledge of the field, it is imperative to understand this aspect. Having said that, let’s begin our journey into understanding hauntings. As you are aware by now we are a team of paranormal consultants and investigators in Chennai, India under the leadership of Mr Praveen Saanker.
What Does “Haunted or Hauntings” Mean?
We use the word ‘haunted’ to declare a place as dangerous because it is frequently visited by a ghost or is resided by a supernatural entity. People are usually scared of such sites and don’t like to enter such premises. Now, a haunted house might be the place where a person died before, and currently his/her spirit resides, or it can be a place frequented by a spirit or a group.
It is also crucial to understand that you cannot label the spirit as good or evil just because there is a supernatural activity in the house. The spirit might be confused, or it can only be inquisitive, leading people to believe that they are evil. The best person to judge the nature of the spirit is a paranormal researcher. He/She can feel their energy and tell you if that spirit means any harm or no.
Another thing that makes hauntings more apparent is when the redecoration or the revamping of the said house is taking place. Just like people, even spirits tend not to like changes in their environment. They feel a sense of connection with the surroundings of the house. When the position of the things in the place is disturbed, they feel uneasiness within themselves, leading them to act erratically and unpredictably. This usually leads to these spirits showing us their presence by either manifesting into something visible or by causing physical disturbances in the house.
Types of Hauntings
There are multiple types of hauntings, and all of these lead to something. A house can be haunted, and we might not even know. Even the said house occupants can be unaware that their home is haunted if the spirit is still or inactive.
As paranormal investigators, we are interested in houses or places where the spirit makes us know about their presence. This is because it gives us a chance to perform our investigations without a doubt in our minds. It also provides us with the opportunity to know more about them and expand our research to a level where it makes a difference.
Let us now understand the various types of hauntings that are known to us and have taken place in the history of paranormal research.
Types of Haunting – Residual Haunting
Just like the word ‘residual’ suggests, this type of haunting has to deal with imprints of past events. This means that any event that causes a tremendous amount of energy to release at a place in the past leaves the imprint of time that is gone by.
For example – If a stressful event like a murder or a homicide has taken place in the past, then the event might have released negative energy into the environment, which the atmosphere records. This might lead to residual hauntings as the events that had transpired in the past are now beyond the spectrum of time and space.
A residual haunting can even happen when a massive amount of positive energy blasts into the atmosphere. We have heard about places when people still listen to the voice of dance and music playing.
In this haunting, you don’t have any interaction with the supernatural entity. It is just something that just keeps on playing like a CD player in the background. Residual hauntings are scary and seldom terrifying to many people out there. You cannot do anything to make it go away except to find a way to ignore it.
Types of Hauntings – Intelligent Hauntings
The next in the various types of haunting is the intelligent hauntings. An intelligent haunting is also known as human hauntings and can scare you to your very fibre. In this haunting, a direct interaction between the entity and humans is involved. The spirit is aware of your presence, and you are also mindful that it is around you. In this type of haunting, the spirit makes an effort to let you know about its presence.
When a paranormal investigator carries out the investigation of such places, then he asks a direct question to the entity. If he gets a straightforward answer then, he knows that the spirit is intelligent. To explain it in simple terms, when a person dies, it’s his aura that lives. This aura is everything the person was. The entire bundle of his emotional energy. When we can see, feel, sense this aura, then we call it a spirit, and if we can communicate with the same aura, then it is called an intelligent spirit.
Now, an intelligent spirit can be a benevolent or an evil entity. It all depends upon how the person was while he was alive and he was satisfied or happy when he passed away. For us, the investigators, both these spirits are sources of knowledge and research; hence we like to treat them as the same. But in your case, if you feel that such a spirit haunts your home, then you should not ignore it and talk to an experienced investigator.
Types of Hauntings – Inhuman Spirit
The next in the various types of haunting is the inhuman spirit type. There are the spirits or entities that have actually never lived on the earth as human beings. They have been here since the advent of time and cannot destroy as they are energies. Angels, saints, guardian angels are types of inhuman spirits. These beings never had a physical form or shape and are not made of physical matter. They were never born as humans, and we cannot kill them. Inhuman spirits can be good and evil.
A good or a benevolent inhuman spirit is filled with positive energy and does not cause any sort of scary hauntings or occurrences. Their intention is not to cause any harm to us. Many people believe that they come to us when we need them. These spirits are our well-wishers and show up when we pray to them. On the other side, some demons are also from the school of inhuman spirits. They have been here since our planet was first conceived. Demons use fear as their biggest weapon against us. They control our surroundings by planting the seed of terror and danger in our minds so that we are always scared when we hear their name.
Types of Hauntings – Possession
Most of us have seen people getting possessed by spirits in movies. But what does possession signify? Possession is the process by which an inhuman spirit enters the soul of a living human making the human act the way the spirit desires. In this type of haunting, it becomes almost impossible for the person to act according to his wit and actions. It is because the spirit residing inside his soul rules his emotions. The person is entirely under the influence of the spirit and behaves just as the spirit wants.
This kind of possession is considered one of the worst as it can cause mental and physical injury to the person as well as people around him. In most cases, the spirit that has entered a human’s body is destructive; hence it becomes challenging for the person to defeat such a massive negative entity. Another widespread occurrence of possession types of haunting is depression. A person might not even know that he is possessed. This kind of possession is usually followed by pessimistic feelings and, in extreme cases, suicidal tendencies. There are also cases of people being possessed by their latent mind and indulging in things beyond their control. This type of situation also looks like possession, but it is not the same.
There is a fundamental issue that I would like to address here. 9/10 cases of reported possession are nothing but troubled people seeking attention. One should not confuse a mental health issue with real possession. Hence, it is vital for a paranormal researcher or a registered exorcist to first read the party’s psychiatric report before following their protocols. You can also use an EM meter from a safe distance to form a more substantial and more concrete opinion if the person is possessed or not.
Types of Hauntings – Shadow People
Shadow people, indulge in what is known as Shadow creature Activity. In this type of haunting, there is no apparent explanation of the events that take place. This type of haunting involves shadowy creatures that are only visible in the form of dark matter.
These kinds of entities do things that are different from any other type of spirit. They can move between any structure and don’t have any clothes on them. This is because they do not have a human form. People who have had encounters with such shadow entities say that they felt an alarming sensation when they saw them. Some people even say that these shadow people are not actually people and consider them as non-human as they do not have a mouth, nose, or any look.
Some people say these shadow entities are made of nothing but dark smoke and haze. When they move, it seems as if you are watching a train or a bus moving really fast. Everything just seems dark and very quick for your eyes to actually catch the image. I have also heard about shadow animals who can be in the form of an animal and look like a shadow without the animal features. There have been reports of cats without any mouth and features.
PORTAL HAUNTINGS
Another of the different types of haunting is portal hauntings. But, before I tell you about portal hauntings, let me first explain the meaning of a portal. A portal is something like a doorway or a window to another dimension through which supernatural entities travel. They are like a shortcut to another world, and there is no concrete evidence of them actually existing. There are, however, people who say that they have had an experience with the portals.
People also have reported their home or a place in their house to be a portal from where entities travel from this world to another. Many believe that portals are not restricted to one location or place. They can be anywhere, in any region or area. Energies use such portals to move from one time to another.
Usually, the places that experience various types of abnormal activities such as unusual creatures, unknown fog, erratic weather conditions, and altering temperature are suspected of having a portal in which these entities travel from one world to another. To wrap it up, these were the different types of haunting and what it means in the paranormal world.
