G-g-g-g-g-g-g-g GHOSTS!

Ghosts are real. Just not quite how you've been led to believe. If you believe in ghosts that way, more power to you. It's just that there are more tangible ways to look at or understand this phenomenon.

1: Haunted Rooms

It is human to be curious. To explore. But an equally innate part of the human experience is leaving a mark somewhere. This is an incredible power; we literally bend reality around us. This is most obvious where people spend the most time such as a house, a small store, etc.

Pictured: We didn't just go to the Moon, we left a flag there.

When property is abandoned (either through death, moving, or just carelessness), that mark remains. This is one of the reasons that many parents leave their kid's rooms exactly like they were when they moved out; it's a piece of the person that is still intact.

If you're a ghost hunter, look for houses that have been preserved as they existed. You'll be sure to find some insights by those who came before. But don't look around when it's dark or try to talk to them, you're missing the point.

2: Haunted Houses

Sometimes it's not just a room or piece of property that is abandoned, but some actions can infect an entire property. For example, it is required for real estate agents to tell you if a murder happened in a house. It's not like this makes it more likely for another murder to happen (and your conscious mind knows that), but its something that will permanently taint the history of the house. As soon as you are made aware, that ghost's influence now has spread.

Another example would be a building or a facility that was used in atrocities (happy things also can do this, but it's much harder for that kind of thing to stick around). For instance, here in New York, there is the Amityville Horror House, made famous in the 1977 book and various movies.

I've been to the house; my father was in town and I mentioned that Amityville was nearby to where we were on Long Island and he wanted to see it. It is (unfortunately) very easy to look up the address, so we went on our way. As soon as we pulled up, I felt horrible for the family that lived there.

Pictured: The house in question.

Surrounding the house is a tall fence and a sign telling people something along the lines of "THIS IS PRIVATE PROPERTY; PLEASE DON'T BOTHER US." This said a lot about the ghost's influence on modern behavior. Not only does everyone remember exactly what happened in the house, whoever chooses to live there will have to live with random people dropping by every so often. They will always have to deal with people trying to climb the fence. They will always have the doorbell ring at weird times. Sounds like an awful haunt to have to deal with.

Heck, even entire cities can be trapped in the past (think places like Salem or Pompeii). Though long gone, the ghosts of the past are still affecting the present.

3: Restless Spirits

After someone passes, a piece of them does remain in this world. It's called the memory of others. Who needs an external spirit to torture people when memory can do exactly that?

This is why we have bereavement for people who are close to the deceased. It's because they have to deal with the memories haunting their spirit. The person in question may be dead, but the survivor still has to live. If they wronged the person, that's something they definitely remember and will make their haunting that much worse.

4: Haunted Money

If you are in the Rockefeller family, you already have an idea on this one. With generational wealth comes a host of ghosts. There is a constant reminder of where your place in society comes from. And a lot of times, that money can come from a place that is ethically questionable. Have fun defending your wealth, both in your own mind and to others!

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The ghosts of the past haunt us. To think otherwise is to be naive.