by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground Magazine

In our investigator spotlight for our September issue, we feature NWPIA (Northwest Paranormal Investigation Agency). In their interview, Bert and Jayme Coates of NWPIA raised an interesting theory of the paranormal. To what extent to we create our own ghosts, they asked?

It’s a valid question and one I’ve seen raised by a number of people over the years. Over at Darkrealm Labs, Dreamsinger has studied just this issue. Others here at Paranormal Underground have also asked the same types of questions.

Expectation can certainly create experience. Have you ever awakened in the morning, expecting to have a crappy day? How often do those days that you expect to be crappy wind up wonderful? Not many, I’d venture to guess. Your expectation guides your experience throughout the day. Expectation colors our experience. Look how often we live up to our own expectations. Look how often others live up to our expectations for them.

I’ve related this story before, but I will quickly relate it again. It has been my experience that when someone I love dies, I have an extremely vivid dream of them within a few days of their death. It has happened with every single one of my loved ones who have gone before me – except for with my grandfather. He was 98 when he died about five years ago – and a wonderful man. After his death I waited for the dream – but none came. We did, however, start experiencing an electrical anomaly in our back hallway. The lights would turn themselves on and off, and I would hear the click of the switch though I couldn’t see anyone flicking it. There were some pennies, too. In weird places around the house. But the boys were younger then – who the heck knows what boys do with things like pennies. I waited and waited. No dream. And it began to dawn on me – maybe the anomalies and pennies were in lieu of the dream. Maybe this was how my grandfather was communicating with me. About a week or two into this experience, I finally had the vivid dream of my grandfather. In the dream, I asked if the lights and pennies were him, and he said they were – he was letting me know that he was okay.

I have never been able to judge the above experience objectively. I had an expectation – and I had a fervent wish. Even now, looking back, I can’t really allow myself to believe that my expectations created that experience, but you know what? The way I noticed everything occurring and the way I interpreted it could have definitely arisen from my own expectations, hopes and grief.

Ironically, I am far more of a believer in ghosts and the human soul now than I was back then. And yet, back then I couldn’t ask that question and now I can. Seems kind of backwards.

My point is this. I do believe in the human soul. I do believe that we carry on in some way after we die. But I also believe that our expectations can shape not only our experiences, but our interpretations of them. Just because it wears a white sheet, hides in a closet and jumps out and yells, “Boo!” doesn’t make it a ghost.

The human imagination is a powerful thing. I am a big believer in visualizations. I use visualization and affirmation as a tool to shape and create the life I want. If I can do this on a very conscious level and experience amazing success with it, surely I can also use it on a subconscious level to create things like ghosts.

To what extent do we create our own ghosts? It is a good question and a valid one. It is also a question to which I don’t have a concrete answer. My guess is we do it. Those involved in the Philip Experiment did it with absolute intention. Certainly we can as well – whether we realize we are doing it or not. Does that mean that all ghosts are only a figment of our imagination? I don’t think so but maybe some are.