Thursday, July 17, 2008

Earthbound Spirits

What is an Earthbound Spirit?
We a ParanormalUnknown approach the term with this outlook: earthbound spirits, technically speaking, are the disembodied souls of people who have left the physical realm, but not entirely moved on. Earthbound spirits account for a large portion of legitimate haunts.
Note: A common misconception people have is that if it is in a realm capable of being perceived by a living being, that all entities or spirits percieved must be an earthbound spirit.

Why is a Spirit Earthbound?
Firstly, when trying to identify with an earthbound spirit you need to remember that this spirit was and still is a person. They have the same feelings and plight of man, and sometimes more. Most people think that earthbound spirits are prevented from moving on because of "unfinished business". Though this is sometimes the case, there are a number of reasons why a spirit could be earthbound (and a number of people make a living off of identifying the reasons and also by helping the earthbound spirits move on), here we will go over a few of the most common reasons:
-Unfinished Business-
The most popularized reasoning behind earthbound spirits, spirits that stay due to unfinished business are also found in other categories of earthbound spirit, notably including vengeful earthbound spirits. These spirits usually only stay until their business has been tended to and then easily move on.
-Lost-
Some earthbound spirits stay within the immediate vicinity of their death, often when their death is surrounded by sudden or unexpected circumstances. These souls are are usually confused and having trouble accepting or coping with the reality of their death, some may even fail to realize that they are dead at all. These lost earthbound spirits are often vary eager to make their presence known, trying to attract the attention of anyone that passes, especially those who are more sensitive to spirits.
-Vengeful-
What does a vengeful earthbound spirit want? Revenge or vengeance. These earthbound souls are often found in similar circumstances to lost earthbound souls, usually surrounding violent or sudden deaths. But unlike lost spirits, vengeful spirits have a single purpose for staying here and not moving on. They want revenge or to avenge their death, only then would they be able to find peace and move on.
-Guilty-
Guilty earthbound spirits are earthbound due to guilt or regret, usually surrounding suicides, overdoses, or and other accidental deaths. They feel guilty because of their acceptance of the responsibility of their death and the consequences that follow(ed).
-Fearful-
When a spirit realizes their death, and the existance after, some are reluctant to move on for fear of a finality to it all. To some spirits, going to the light symbolizes the end, and officially be dead, not just walking around spooking unsuspecting tourists. It could be the finality, the unknown, or the possibility of being judged or going to hell: whatever is holding a spirit in fear is responsible for keeping it earthbound; fearful earthbound spirits are earthbound by their own fears of moving on.
-The Living Hold-
When people say that you have to learn to let go, they mean it. Literally. This is a term for a particular circumstance. When someone passes, we as humans have a tenancy to cling to what was rather than what it. Death is an odd, and more often difficult, concept to grasp despite experience or belief. Often earthbound spirits will stay until they feel that their loved ones have come to terms with their death and/or moved on, thus freeing them to do the same, but the living hold is what we use to refer to more extreme cases. The living hold is a term we use to describe situations where the living become obsessed with the desceased, going beyond what is seen as the general terms of grieving. You have to remember that these earthbound souls are human spirits, with emotion and empathy; they are not going to want to abandon their loved ones if they do not feel it is right to do so, nor if their loved ones can not learn to let go.
Note: A residual haunt can be an earthbound spirit, even though it's technically not an intelligent haunt. It still feels and is a human soul, it is just unaware of its current condition or circumstance. Some residual haunts have been theorized to be surrounding lost or vengeful earthbound souls.

The Reality is...
...that the likelihood of a deceased loved one haunting you for the sake of it is rather rare; it has and does happen, but it's not as popular of an occurrence as most would like (or tend) to believe. As with any kind of experience that suggests a haunt, we suggest that you try to observe objectively. We have encountered several incidents where people wish to contact their death loved ones so badly that they will start to assign normal occurrences, or other non-related paranormal phenomena, to the presence of the loved one as a means of affirmation. No matter the situation, sometimes the living hold just is not enough and when emotions get involved things always get messy. Earthbound spirits deserve to move on.

If you have had an experience, or are curious as to whether or not you or your home might be haunted, there is useful information in the Hauntings 101 blog.

Source(s):
Shadowlands

Personal knowledge from various research and investigation.

2 comments:

ratnaveera said...

Very nice posting about the facts of earth bound spirits. I want to know what is the difference between the angels and human spirits? Are the angels are good human spirits?

maria york said...

thank you. you've cleared some things up for me. That has always been my biggest fear, meaning that when I die, I try to talk to my family and they can't hear me. I don;t want to be stuck here. I am very spiritual so that gives me hope, but i've always been very fascinated about this. I could smell my brother for months after he died. Was he watching?