Searching for Real Ghosts in Lieu of Hollywood Depictions
Recently, I attended a public ghost investigation of an old theater. Before people could explore the old, historical building with meters, cameras and audio recorders, I gave a talk about ghosts, haunting and how they communicate with us. I wanted to stress to the audience that we need to have compassion for ghosts. After all, they are human spirits that are lost. If we believe this, then why would we treat ghosts any different than we would treat another human being? It seems real life ghosts have gotten mixed-up in a ghost craze.
One would have to be blind not to see an increased interest around the world concerning ghosts and ghost investigation. Television shows about ghosts have created numerous paranormal investigators and groups. Most are searching for proof that ghosts exist. Some are seeking to help families undergoing a haunting. Many do not know what they are doing but enjoy toying with the unknown. In the midst of this great quest for a “ghost experience,” media companies have create a misunderstanding of real life ghosts. To those who promote fear, ghosts are taught as an enigma to be afraid of but not beyond being toyed with as a hobby. We learn that ghosts are simply bogey-men who hide in abandoned castles or deplorable sites. The Hollywood misrepresentation of the human soul has become quite a big business!
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A real life ghost captured by Craig Rupp while in Gettysburg.
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Dixie's real life ghost walking by windows in a church.
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Hollywood's Interpretation of Ghosts
Would the Real Life Ghosts Stand Up, Please?
The word “ghost” means a disembodied human or animal spirit to most people. The essence of the soul somehow remains behind after the death of the body. Unwavering believers in real life ghosts have either felt a presence, witnessed manipulation of the physical environment, received a ghostly call via the telephone, recorded an EVP, or possibly caught a glimpse of the spirit of a friend or loved one! These are real life experiences that happen to people especially while grieving. Sometimes during the loss of a loved one, we will come in contact with the departed in some way: a very good reason to consider having compassion toward these real life ghosts. Could you imagine being rude to your grandma?
Getting back to my night at the old theater, I asked everyone to reconvene after investigating for two hours to see what happened. People talked openly about their personal experiences that occurred there, and I shared some of the recordings I made that night in the building. People were shocked, I think, to hear the voices of real life ghosts asking for my help. I was especially bothered by one specific request for my assistance:
“Help, Louis.”
I think those who were there that night and heard it also were a bit taken back by it. As one man told me,
“...what you shared with us I felt was equally powerful and was a lesson for me and my wife... You've changed our approach to ghost hunting from 'make the monkey dance and light up the K2 (meter)' to something completely different.”
People were able to hear and see firsthand about real ghosts.
After I played the recorded messages from ghosts for the audience, it wasn't long before some of the people were wanting me to help the lost spirits. They wanted the compassion they felt turned into action. I was grateful to see this happen. After all, this is the same reason why I began working on how we can help ghosts. I had felt the same way. We quickly formed a spirit circle in front of the audience and worked to create the light and communicate, asking the ghosts to move forward into the light to reunite with loved ones. When each ghost crossed over to loved ones, many of us could feel the energy change in the theater. One, two, then three ghosts moved forward to continue their life journey. A few moments later, another ghost, who was attached to a lady in the audience, also chose to go forward while I spoke with him.
Real Life Ghost Example: Dixies Shadow Ghost
Some of the people in the very front of the theater felt the atmosphere turn from heat to a cooler, more normal temperature after the ghosts crossed. These experiences left me feeling brand new inside as the spirits left the place in peace. This is something you can feel tangibly by the way. Many there that night were touched, inspired and eager to view paranormal investigation in a new light. They now knew that empathy for ghosts was something that was important and should be foremost in any ghost investigation. Afterward, many asked me questions about what they had witnessed that night. These were real life ghosts and how we can assist them in real life; this was not a television-inspired "chase and capture evidence-only" night.
Understanding True Ghosts
Just like the people in the theater that night, you may be wondering how I came to this understanding about ghosts. I can only tell you that I had what I call a “spiritual awakening” back in 1996. My life changed from that point on and would never be the same. I thought, at the time, that I had been visited by God himself; a presence that felt like liquid love stayed with me for about a week. Through this surprising experience, I was awakened to an inner voice. Communications from this benevolent spirit presence were coming to me. Messages were being communicated with me deep inside, and I “heard them as a “knowing.” Eventually I realized that enlightened people were speaking to me from the other side of the veil. As I listened to their voice, they gently worked to undo my inner fears created through my former religious experiences. Eventually, these enlightened spirits would share with me about the real life condition of the true ghosts we encounter.
After some time and experimenting, I came to the conclusion that ghosts have largely been misunderstood. These lost spirits have been portrayed as something odd we should fear. I wrote the book, Helping Ghosts: A Guide to Understanding Lost Spirits, in order to challenge our societal beliefs about ghosts and haunting. When we overcome our fears about death and the afterlife, we must have compassion for these real life ghosts, choosing to see them in a new way. Ghosts are people who are not separate from us. Ghosts are temporarily lost spirits who often ask for our guidance, our assistance.
Helping Ghosts shares how I communicate with ghosts in order to help them. This is something I want readers to realize they can do, too. The book details my years devoted to study, conducting field experiments, and working to solve ghost investigation cases. I reveal my insights and techniques used to help suffering, disembodied people move on in their life-journey. It is my hope that readers will gain a new understanding of real life people in spirit while possibly learning something more about themselves in the process. I found that as long as we choose to believe that our loved ones are deceased and somehow separate from us, then we are missing a higher wisdom about our own connection with everyone and everything in the universe. This is real life.
In the cases of haunting we worked on, I found it best to have compassion for ghosts. Communication is the best way to help lost spirits move forward to continue their life journey. When we realize that ghosts could be our own loved ones begging for our help (or even us, should we find ourselves lost some day), then having compassion for unseen spirits becomes much easier. By choosing to communicate with ghosts in order to assist them, we are helping an often forgotten portion of humanity; even greater, we are healing a part of ourselves. These are the real life ghosts I have met. - Louis Charles