Types of Hauntings

This will not encompass every type of haunting but rather serves as a general overview of the most common forms of hauntings.

The term “haunted house” can refer to a wide range of residences, from aging mansions with dark and turbulent histories to modern suburban homes.

For a location to be considered genuinely haunted, the reported phenomena must be intrinsically connected to the property itself. For example, if a family living in a purportedly haunted home chooses to move away, subsequent occupants should encounter experiences similar to those reported by the previous residents if the haunting is truly tied to the house.

Intelligent or Traditional Haunting:

This is the type of haunting that most people think of when they hear the word “haunted”. These types of hauntings are actually very rare. An intelligent or traditional spirit will interact with people.

The most common theory here is that they are connected to the location for one reason or another. The most common reasons are:

1) They died as the result of a traumatic event such as murder, suicide, or an accident.

2) They remain due to unfinished business.

3) The spirits loved ones are so distraught that they cannot let go and the spirit is not able to move on until that happens.

4) They cannot rest because of a perceived injustice, such as murder.

5) They fear the other side and the judgment they may face when they reach it.

These spirits are generally associated with physical activity like the opening and closing of doors and windows, voices and sounds like footsteps, etc.

Some have reported strong feelings of a presence, a scent or even a touch may be experienced. People rarely see the manifestation of an actual ghost in the form of an apparition or mist.

Residual Hauntings

A residual haunt is believed to be activity of reoccurring or traumatic actions from past events that leave an imprint on the environment. This type is probably the most common type of haunting. One major difference between this haunting and the intelligent/traditional haunting, is that this type of haunting has no interaction with the living.   

Crisis Apparitions and Waking Dreams

Crisis apparitions are believed to be the spirits of those who have died and who appear in the moments after death to bid farewell to a friend or family member.

Visitations Hauntings

A visitation haunting involves a spirit who comes and goes as it pleases and may, or may not, be connected to a single location.

Man-made ghosts

We recommend that you read the “Phillip” experiment. The 1972 Philip Experiment was a parapsychology study in Toronto that successfully tested whether a group of people could "conjure" a ghost through collective belief and visualization.

Poltergeist Hauntings

Poltergeist is from a German word meaning noisy spirits. Reports of poltergeists date back to Ancient Roman times. The activity that takes place will include knocks and bangs and furniture moving around by itself. Furniture may slide across the room and beds may shake. The activity may become more intense. Many shows are based on this style of haunting because it tends to be the most terrifying type of haunting to occur.

Most of the time, in the case of a poltergeist haunting, the activity centers around a human host.

This type of haunting is hard to classify. No two cases are ever really the same. Most of the time you will find that one person in the household seems to be more affected by the haunting than anyone else. It may seem that the activity doesn't happen unless this person is present. Usually, the activity appears to stop when that person leaves the home. Most of the time poltergeist activity is experienced by several people, but again it seems to center around one certain person. This person may be highly stressed as of late or maybe this person has gone through some type of extreme emotional situation. If this is the case, see that the individual involved gets some medical or mental health care. This will usually see that the activity subsides over time.

In most cases the poltergeist activity will disappear without any warning, just as it appeared. At times it may stop within a few days, other times it may take years. You may never know the reason that it happened. Most people are just happy to see it go and that's enough for them.