So how many people here have had contact with people who have passed on ?
Does the concept of ghosts/ spirits scare you or are you a firm believer that we can have contact in this way?I am an unashamed addict of Most Haunted and altho a lot of the time I am squealing with laughter , there is for me a more serious side.

I learnt some years ago that my gran had a spirit guide ( no not abraham lincoln ) but a french soldier called Pierre - later my uncle traced the family tree to William the Conquerors time and discvered that her ancestry was french.

I have had many an experience when tuning in and grounding during healing and meditation sessions when I have seen figures in the room with me. I have had smells that can only be associated with someone who has gone to the summerlands!

I am trying to trace my ancestors too and have found them amidst the mills of Rochdale and Liverpool in the 1800's - all vest makers, loom workers etc eeek they must be ashamed of me I cant even hem a skirt

But the idea of contacting them would be amazing? Do you think that is possible? I believe that we can sense and on occasion see spirit but I also believe that they only come when we need them and with good intent?

What are your views?

Out of curiosity, if you did suceed in contacting old relatives - ones that you never knew - what would you talk to them about? I can't remember where I heard it, but someone pointed out that just because someone's dead doesn't necessarily make them more knowledgable than they were when they were alive. What would you have to discuss with the spirit of a loom worker from the 1800s?

I've seen spirits, but never anyone I've known. A couple of years back a friend's grandparents were in the room with us for her, and a couple of messages were having to be relayed through me and another friend cos Em couldn't/wouldn't listen. I've seen and heard the spirits that were in my ex's house, but we never attempted to contact them.

I'd be interested in having contact with the spirits from long ago, like going back to the Vikings etc, but I'm still not sure what I would like or expectfrom such contact.

I guess this also doesn't sit too well with me as a concept cos I believe in reincarnation. How can you contact the spirits of the deceased if they've gone into other bodies and have no memory of who they were before?

well if it were possible then I d be asking how come we can only trace the line through the maternal side - there be skeletons in that there closet

Was just musing really! Like you Id rather be able to commune with another period in time ie celts and that perhaps relates more to a feeling of having been before ie reincarnation so its a tricky one eh!!

I have seen and sensed many energies / presences and some have related to places rather then people and I guess that opens up a whole new realm of discussion

eeep too much sudafed, snivelling cold and time on me hands is great for mulling over stuff

This is possibly going off on a slight tangent, but a Spiritualist I used to know - I dated her son for a bit - once told me that there wasn't a finite number of souls/spirits. New souls were constantly being born and ol/enlighented souls were moving on to the Summerlands. Her explanation of war was that it called the young souls who were too cocky forward so that they could learn that war and fighting wasn't the way forward as early as possible. Nice theory, not convinced though.

Many people have the wrong impression of spirit communication. It isn't so much that spirit will tell you great truths other than that life goes on in the summerlands or whatever you wish to call that side of life that is not on the earthly plane, (yes, I sometimes meet with spiritualists and love this sort of thing).

Supposedly spirit will offer support and guidance in a very minimal way. Its the type of guidance we all feel when we sense someone near us when there's no-one around. Its the knowledge that we aren't alone in a difficult situation, or that kind of premonition that can be attributed to spirit knowledge. Like I once had warning that I should be careful on the stairs and as I was going down I slipped but was prepared and held onto the railing.

I think its a beautiful part of paganism - that part that cherishes the ancestors and respects the link between the worlds. Thousands of years of history of this practice and it still goes on. There must be something to it.

"That we may meet and know one another and love again" (I can't remember the exact wiccan saying".

Blessings
trw

I've had my gran come through at a sceance we once did and it was really odd as I'd never met her before (she'd died before I was born). She was really short with a blue Jacky Onassis type suit, had this broad cockney accent and it felt as though she'd linked arms with me and was chatting to me very conspiratorially about how I'd grown up and my dad's illness and how it was going to be difficult but we'd manage . Being a spiritualist in life, she was a bit worried about the path I'd taken and couldn't really understand why I'd become a Witch instead of taking the more 'traditional' route for our family (Dad's side of the family were/are spiritualist). I've seen her a few times since but only as a reassuring presence when things get really tough.

As far as spirits go, some of them scare the living crap out of me (when they're coming you can usually tell what kind they are) and some sort of get me on edge but I manage to calm myself down.

Certain ghosts, I believe aren't spirits. Allow me to explain, I have heard a theory that ghosts, which always do the same thing, may just be "recordings", like emotional energy of an area, that has been infected almost.
Castle ghosts usually fit this description best, they always walk the same way some that levitate, are usually walking on floors that used to be there, or up stairways that used to be there. The theory is that the stone has probably been implanted wityh some of this energy. That's why its usually the tragic stories that end up haunting a place.
I don't think that anything could be gotten from these, as I don't beleive they are people spirits or souls that haven't moved on.
As to whether a spirit could stay or would go to whereever the soul is meant to go, I do not know. But ghosts I believe in, I just don't think they are the souls of people.

Givenup, I totally agree with some of that, have you heard of Stone Tape theory?Stone Tape

I think the word 'ghost' covers a range of phenomena in the same way that 'pagan' covers a range of people. Many different types of manifestation can be explained rationally and I do look for those explanations first, however I've had too many experiences that I can rationalise to say it's all nonsense.I do think that some are actually souls though, I've met a couple and I can't deny it.

I get too scared for all that kind of thing, if I watch Most Haunted I end up having nightmares. I wish I could cope with stuff like that, I still have to have the light on at night. I am always scared like there is always someone there!

Does that make sense?

Thankyou for the link Esk, I hadn't seen such a detailed argument before about the theory. It explains some but not all ghosts I feel. The castle ghosts, that ignore people and always do the same thing seem to fit quite well with the "Stone Tape " theory, and for those I happily go along with the explanation.
I wonder if those recordings, if that's what they are, will eventually run out of energy and eventully disapear.
A very interesting article, thankyou my dear.

I think it was TC Lethbridge that came up with that theory and that first investigated it much to the ridicule of the scientific community. Here are a few links if you want more info on TC Lethbridge and his work.

Here's a general overview of his workhttp://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2386/is_1_114/ai_102910351/pg_1

Then there's http://www.tc-lethbridge.com

And here's an interesting article about Energy, Water and Quartz which talks about the other aspects of psychic recordings.

http://syninfo.com/Crystal/xls002.htm

His work is really fascinating - but then again I've read too much Colin Wilson and I think he's a bit of a Lethbridge worshipper

Well this house and my last were both haunted (this one had a rather nasty pressence turn up when we moved in, something i had to deal with) but on a more personal level, my father and his father have both visited me. I didn't recognise me grandad as he died when I was a toddler and I only really remember him in hospital, but the man I described to me mum was him as he used to be.

Kev

tis something ive often pondered. Ive spoken to loats of 'spirits' (and they havent locked me up), some im sure are my unconcious, some i beleive are genuine and some of my ancestors.

I would like to know though, why i keep seeing a girl with long hair hanging from a noose in a barn, while a man with black hair and beard tells me he's her father.