Experiences of ghosts and spirits are generally known to be encounters that remain with us for many years afterwards. They can become the stories we share with family and friends, or the dark secrets that we hide deep down below, not wanting to recall those events that may have terrified us to our core.

Many of these stories of ghosts that relate historical characters, as in people that may have once resided somewhere and now in death have returned to haunt the place. Some follow similar narratives; like a child ghost trapped at a location by an evil large man often wearing a top hat and a kind woman attempting to protect the child. In fact that’s one narrative I have heard several times across the UK when I have investigated. Our belief and desire to add context can often make these experiences into something more dramatic than maybe they really are.

Still the story behind the experience and even that narrative that may evolve from it has always been something that has fascinated me about the paranormal. Capturing that experience, that story from someone, allowing them to take you through the events that made up their paranormal experience is one of the great honours that I have as an investigator and researcher of this strange undiscovered country. It’s also something that the SPR’s Spontaneous Cases Committee is an excellent resource for as we receive many such cases. Although the number of cases probably outnumber the available investigators, we do our best to get through them.

However, as I reviewed a book for the SPR Website recently, I was reminded of a case I read about many years ago. It was a case that left me slightly perplexed and potentially provided me with a slightly different understanding than some of ghosts. The case in question was one of Andrew Green’s and initially seemed quite a tame and simple case. It referred to someone who had recently moved to a new home and whilst in the garden had encountered the apparition of someone. I do not recall how Green became involved, but he did and began his investigation. However, what was odd was that the new owner identified the previous owner as the apparition they saw in the garden. Which in our understanding of ghosts would make perfect sense if the previous owner had passed away. In this particular case though they were very much alive. So, the new owner had encountered an apparition of the previous owner who was alive and well.

It maybe possible that some traumatic event had taken place in that garden imprinting the old owner on the location; as the Stone Tape Theory would have us believe. Green ruled this out too though. Could it be that they were simply happy in the garden and left a part of themselves there? We often lean towards more sinister explanations when it comes to events such as these, but what if there are other explanations?

However, the case of another living ghost that I stumbled upon in Neil Oliver’s; ‘Hauntings : A Book of Ghosts and Where to Find Them,’ was a little more fitting of the traumatic imprinting or emotional projection as Oliver called it. This told the story of a couple that lived in a cottage where Alice had once lived. The problem was the rather disturbing vision they had to witness on an almost nightly repeat.

This was the apparition of a young woman weeping beside the fire. Every time though the ghost would turn and bang its head against the wall by the fireplace, which would eventually leave blood staining the wall. An horrific scene for anyone to witness and to imagine what may have lead to the woman to do such a thing. Of course given the scene and blood and blood, you would immediate believe that this caused the young woman to die hence the ghost. However, that was just not the case.

Alice had lived in the cottage before the couple and never experienced such things. She had discovered her husband’s affair though whilst he was away during the war, as she sorted some paperwork. The realisation of the fact that he had cheated on Alice hit her extremely hard. She had cried so much whilst sat in the living room that she had lost her way and perhaps had attempted to cause herself harm. She banged her head against the wall so hard beside the fireplace that it had bled, a truly disturbing time for her.

Although an horrific event bound with huge emotion, it was this the couple had witnessed in the cottage played out by an apparition. Alice was very much alive though. It would seem that moment in her life had become imprinted on the cottage and replayed almost nightly for the couple.

These days we would often be told that the reason these two events occurred was due to something called the Stone Tape Theory. A theory that suggests the emotional energy of an event can become recorded at a location and then under the right circumstances played back like a video recording. Whilst this theory is elegant in its description, it very much appears to be something that fits a narrative helping with the usual ghost stories.

Equally the Stone Tape Theory leaves us with many unanswered questions. Emotional events are not always recorded at locations, so what’s the criteria that allows this to occur? Certainly in the two examples I have presented here the scenarios are very different. When I started ghost hunting it was always seen that someone losing their life was the trauma required; a maid pushed to her death down the back staircase or someone taking their life due to the loss of their love. However, it was soon evident that there were inconsistencies in this thought process and the living ghost described by Green completely changed things for me.

So, how could a living ghost work? Actually I believe the answer is similar to how the ghost of a dead person may work. If telepathy is possible, which at certain levels it certainly seems as if it may be; then perhaps it’s all about our minds receiving and processing information. We are as humans unable at times to prevent ourselves from having unconscious thoughts. Which means given the right or perhaps wrong circumstances, our minds will begin thinking about random things, often triggered by what seems like nothing. However, there is probably a trigger somewhere. In Green’s case this was probably something to do with the garden and whom used to look after it. This could have provided the information that the mind processed as an apparition. Equally the horrific events witnessed by the couple could have been thoughts towards their family member Alice that once lived in the cottage.

How our minds receive information and then process it is often fantastic in my opinion. These experiences were still valid and in the second case, scary, but more memories that were shared beyond the individuals mind that originally experienced them. That in my opinion is a truly beautiful thing. If we could share more of our happy experiences then perhaps the world would be a better place. Maybe the bad ones serve as warnings to help us lead a better life. After all we learn from our mistakes and it’s those harsh memories that often keep us from repeating those mistakes. Perhaps if those were shared we could prevent our loved ones ever making similar mistakes.

Whatever the reality is behind Greens ghost in the garden or Alice’s ghost in the cottage; they provide us with something to help question the usual narrative and change our perception of ghosts altogether. There’s certainly more than we realise to this subject. However, we can only know more if we can capture reports of such things, many may disregard the experience once they realise that their apparition is of someone still alive. If you have experienced a living ghost, please contact me and share your story as I would love to capture more evidence of these so we can begin to study them in more detail. Perhaps understanding these would provided greater insight into the ghosts of the dead.

The paranormal is never simple, and always full of complexities, lets start digging into them together…