| There have always been ghosts among us. People | | | | apparition, even though you probably would never call |
| have claimed to have seen ghosts since the earliest | | | | it a ghost. So, all ghosts are apparitions, but not all |
| times. Ghost stories were told around campfires long | | | | apparitions are ghosts. |
| before these stories were written down, which | | | | Now just to make things more confusing there are a |
| began happening around the first century CE. | | | | wealth of synonyms for apparition or ghost that you |
| Of course to understand these stories we all need to | | | | may hear tossed around by the experts and others. |
| be using the same vocabulary. Most people use the | | | | The following is a short sampling of these names; |
| word "ghost" when they're referring to any unknown | | | | essence, presence, spirit, phantom, spectre or |
| phantom object when they really mean the spirit of | | | | spector, manifestation, shade, spook, phantasm, soul, |
| a dead human being. | | | | wraith, nightshade, shadow and vision. And these are |
| Many of these phantom objects are not and never | | | | just a few, I'm sure if you tried you could find many |
| were human. People have reported seeing spectral | | | | other terms. |
| animals and even phantom trains throughout the | | | | The paranormal researcher types also like to use the |
| years. These obviously aren't human and when | | | | term "agent" for the entity being seen and the term |
| speaking about trains, carriages or cars they certainly | | | | "percipient" for the person doing the seeing. So you, |
| never had a soul that could return from the dead. | | | | as the percipient, would report seeing an agent to |
| Researchers of the paranormal have used the term | | | | the investigator. Agent is a term most commonly |
| "apparition" in order to describe the visual appearance | | | | used for an apparition that is trying to be seen, |
| of a disembodied entity. Humans, trains, cars, animals | | | | usually one with a message to deliver. |
| of all kinds and anything else you can think of are | | | | So remember when studying the paranormal that |
| covered by this term. | | | | there are many different ways to say, "Holy cow! I |
| But remember that even an angel appearing by the | | | | think I just saw a ghost. |
| side of your bed would be referred to as an | | | | |