Are Ghosts Biblical?

The question is often asked, "are ghosts Biblical?"  It is a sad truth that many Christians spend very little, if any time reading/studying the Bible and are unaware that the Bible mentions ghosts several times. Jesus Himself was thought to be a ghost by His own disciples who did not recognize Him when He was walking on the water toward them (Matthew 14:22-26; Mark 6:45-52). Because the average Christian spends so little, if any time in the Bible, when they are told by their minister or Sunday school teacher that ghosts are actually demons impersonating the dead, they accept it without giving it any thought and are astonished to find out that ghosts are mentioned in the Bible when it is shown to them. I also note that not once did Jesus ever say that ghosts are demons and He certainly had plenty of opportunity to do so. At Luke 24:36-43, Jesus was regarded as a ghost by His followers and He had to partake of material food and be touched to convince them that He wasn't. It seems to me that if ghosts do not exist, Jesus would have taken this opportunity to say so, but He did not. Instead, what did He say?
"And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have" (Luke 24:38-39).
Instead of debunking the existence of ghosts, Jesus actually confirmed their existence with the above statement in my opinion. So, yes, ghosts ARE Biblical!

Why Are Some Spirits Earthbound?

Why are some spirits earthbound? This is a good question for which there is no definitive answer. As a Bible-believing Christian, I always believed that at death, the soul either goes immediately to heaven or to hell, but there seem to be instances where a soul remains earthbound for whatever reason. There are many theories as to why this happens but the following are the prevailing theories:

1. Unfinished business
2. Unaware that they have died
3. Watching over loved ones

There is evidence that the above are the main reasons a soul remains earthbound.  I will elaborate more on this later.  It should also be pointed out that there have been instances of malevolent spirits pretending to be the spirit of a departed loved one in order to gain a hold on the family or residence.

Paracon 2013

Paracon 2013 is around the corner! http://www.paranormaltimesmag.com/

I'm looking forward to this event and seeing acquaintances from last year's conference. We have a line-up of good speakers and I'm looking forward to meeting them and hearing them. I'm also looking forward to our investigation of old Fort Reno afterward! Old Fort Reno is known to be haunted and I'm excited about the opportunity to investigate it!

Debunking

Debunking evidence of paranormal activity is part of conducting investigations of paranormal activity. Most claimed activity has common sense explanations, and we look for these before considering an activity as "paranormal." For example, it is often reported that a client has feelings of being watched, or has seen an apparition. It is known that high levels of emf (electromagnetic field) can cause a person to experience the feeling of being watched, hallucinate, cause nausea, tingling sensation among other things, so we do an emf sweep to check for unusually high levels of emf and establish a base-line reading. Chemical fumes can also cause these things as well, so we look for that. We also look at the client's psychological make-up, drug use, etc.  We know that not everything that is claimed to be "paranormal" is, so we eliminate the obvious explanations before considering the paranormal. A legitimate investigator never goes into an investigation assuming a place is haunted or has paranormal activity. Rather, we go into an investigation as skeptics. When we review the evidence we have collected from an investigation, we try hard to debunk our own evidence and if a piece of evidence can be explained, we toss it.

Paranormal TV Shows

I like to watch many of the paranormal TV shows that are on the Travel channel and Scyfy channel, but I get disgusted with certain ones that misrepresent the paranormal. One such popular show depicts a three man "investigative team" going to various locations to investigate claims of hauntings which is all well and good, with the exception that this team makes it a point to deliberately provoke any entities that may well be there. They do this without regard for the problems it may cause for the property owners after they leave. Also, this three man team seems to find demons at practically every location they "investigate" and real paranormal investigators such as myself know this to be  bogus and a misrepresentation of the paranormal. Yes, we do encounter a demonic entity occasionally, but these men make it seem as though it is a common occurrence at every haunted location. The "lead investigator" of this three man team seems to take special delight in provoking demonic entities, thus putting himself and his two friends and anyone else who may be with them in danger of attack or even possession should they actually encounter a real demonic entity. When people see this garbage on their show, they assume it is the way the paranormal is and assume all hauntings are evil and demonic. New paranormal teams have formed and have relied on this misinformation about the paranormal to be fact, when of course, it is far from it. Shows such as this one do more harm than good for the paranormal field.