What does a ghost & spirit look like? Or How?

As paranormal investigator, one of the most frequent questions I get is "what does a ghost look like". It is a common question of people who just started exploring the mysterious world of paranormal or just asked by people interested in what I do beside writing.

To be honest, no one really knows the answer to this question. Yes, no one knows what does a ghost really look like. If someone told you he (or she) had seen a ghost, which looked like a mist, glowing blur or a real person, he is wrong, as he had not seen a ghost, but an interpretation of ghost - it is a difference. A little bit of disclaimer - what I'm about to write here is my own theory :). Do not take it as the only true or as true in general, I might be wrong as there are no proofs yet.

Based on many books I've read, and personal experiences I've... experienced, I'm not afraid to make this statement, that what we can see (if we can, of course) is only our own interpretation of a real form of a ghost. It is well known that psychics and other sensitive people can indeed see spirits as they were real persons (it is called clairvoyance), others might just see a mentioned mist or a blur of light, while most people can't see a thing.

Ghosts and spirits (there's a difference between ghosts and spirits) are built of pure energy - whatever this mean - some call it PSI, Prana, Chi, Qi etc. It's a "theory" common among spiritualists and psychics. This energy, sometimes interfering with our material world, is causing famous glowing ghost photos, and sometimes is creating a blurred mist which people can see with their own eyes. Of course, this is just a theory, and more spiritual one, yet I have to admit, that it's much simpler explanation the the next one.

As the second explanation is a little more confusing, and it is based on our senses and brain tricking our mind. I discussed this theory on my blog in the article "Why do people see ghosts and energies" which became the best post of all time - here I will explain the theory in short.

It is well known that our brain is often creating things that aren't really there. I'm not talking here about hallucinations, but the ability of our brain for intepretation of the world around us. It's very simple, we're seeing a spirit, our senses are picking its true form, but our brain is not able to understand what it is receiving, as a result it is producing images it's familiar with, which are only "close" to reality at most. Therefore, as we are unable to perceive the true form of a spirit, our brain is sending us images we are familiar with - we're seeing a shape of a man, so our brain is sending us an image of a man and so on.

But this is a little more complicated, as now we are facing another question - if the above explanation is true, then how can this be that psychics can perceive and describe people as they really were during lifetime, with all these details? Well, in order to answer to this, we have to accept the existence of telepathy and psychometry :). Psychic might be able to pickup informations saved within energies of spirits and places, which then can be mixed with familiar images (a face, a beard, a shirt and so), to create a full interpretation of people and events. Et voila! Yet another stuff that is explained on my blog.

Same rules might apply for clairaudience (hearing spirit voices) - mixing informations saved thanks to these PSI energies, with other (still unrecognized) forms of non-verbal communication, the brain during complex process is creating a sound hearable not by ears, but with brain itself. Those are indeed fascinating theories, but are they true? Unfortunatelly, there's no way to answer this question either...

Anyway, that's the way people see spirits and ghosts - or at least the way this phenomena might looks like.

What about you? Have you ever seen a ghost? What was it like? Or maybe you're a psychic yourself, are you able to see/hear spirits? Please post your thoughts and experiences in comments.