Ghost

11. Ghost

Ghosts, also called Spirits, are souls of deceased humans that did not go with their reaper to Heaven or Hell and are stuck on Earth. The word Ghost is a common term for a soul that did not move on to an afterlife after they perished. They typically reside in The Veil, but they can occasionally appear in the physical plane. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely: the mode of manifestation can range from an invisible presence to translucent or wispy shapes, to realistic, life-like visions. A Ghost is the spirit of a deceased person that, for some reason or another, was unable to pass on to the next life, or whose rest had been disturbed. Ghosts are neither good nor evil, as their behavior is ultimately dictated by who they were in life and how they died. Normally, a Ghost will start out confused and disoriented before realizing they are dead. In some cases, the trauma of sudden death can be so great that a Ghost will think that they are still alive and continue in a routine from their lives, oblivious to the fact they are dead.

Power and Abilities

• Environment Manipulation - Most ghosts have shown to have the ability to manipulate the elements like wind, fire, electricity, water, and dropping temperature. Affinity to fire or water is usually because of the manner of a person's death and the ghost's origin.

Weaknesses

• Salt - Ghosts can be repelled by salt and can't cross a line made of salt. Some hunters use rock shot rounds to dissipate ghosts by blasting them with it. Salt is also useful whenever a ghost is possessing a human. Feeding salt in the mouth of the person a ghost is possessing, will cause the ghost great pain and force the ghost out and free the human from the ghost's control. Shooting the person with rock salt will also break a ghost's possession.

• Iron - Like salt, iron keeps spirits at bay. Some hunters use an iron crowbar or fire poker. Contact with it will dissipate a ghost for a couple of minutes. Touching iron to the skin of a person possessed by a ghost will break their possession.

Putting a Ghost to Rest

There are generally four ways to permanently defeat a ghost by putting them to rest:

• Salting and Burning the Bones - The best and most common method to put a ghost to rest. Digging up a ghost's remains and salting and burning the bones, will help the spirit to cross over to the next life. When a ghost's bones are successfully salted and burned, it will go up in flames. This method is used for violent and vengeful spirits.

• Destroying the Haunted Object - Salting and burning the object the ghost is using to stay active in the human world, will put a ghost to rest if there are no bones to burn, or if the objects they considered to be extensions or remains of the spirit.

• Resolving the ghost's issues - Helping a ghost to resolve its issues can put a ghost to rest. This method is rare but is used to help benevolent spirits find peace.

Summoning

On rare occasions, it is possible to summon a spirit back to earth for any reason. However, this is a risky practice considering the unpredictable nature of ghosts. Ghosts summoned through black arts can turn violent if the summoner loses control of them, usually as a result of having their rest disturbed and being forced to do things against their will.

Lore

In folklore, a ghost (sometimes known as an apparition, haunt, phantom, poltergeist, shade, specter or spectre, spirit, spook, and wraith) is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike forms.