"I ain't afraid of no ghosts!" was a memorable line from the motion picture Ghostbusters.. However, given the current attitude of modern parapsychologists, a more appropriate phrase might be, "I don't believe in no ghosts!" Yeah, I know, bad English. Right?

It is a disheartening fact that the majority of contemporary academic paranormal researchers consider the possibility of discarnate intelligence about as likely as the moon being made of green cheese. Yet, less than a quarter century ago, such scientists openly investigated and debated the possibility. Today, no parapsychologist worth their credentials would publicly exclaim that phenomena that were originally labeled as ghosts, hauntings, apparitions and poltergeists are anything more than manifestations of recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis (RSPK) generated by living human agents.

Curiously, even though the German word poltergeist translates into English as "noisy spirit," the vast array of phenomena associated with poltergeist outbreaks are now theorized to stem from all-too-human perpetrators, hence the term poltergeist/psychokinetic agent (PGA/PKA). Moreover, there has been a dramatic paradigm shift within parapsychology to where the collective scientific opinion is that virtually all phenomena lumped under the aforementioned headings can be ascribed to mind-over-matter reactions, albeit unconscious ones.

Is there any evidence that contradicts this new world view? YES! If such evidence is examined with a totally objective mind, the conclusions drawn are somewhat obvious: the belief in disembodied or discarnate intelligence (DI) cannot be totally dismissed!

Admittedly, perhaps ninety percent (90%) or more of the 3,500 cases investigated by this author since 1968 (initially out of UCLA's former parapsychology lab) met most of the criteria for poltergeists, i.e., the presence of pubescent and/or adolescent children in a rather tense, conflict ridden, emotionally chaotic environment. However, that still leaves approximately 320 cases strongly suggesting the presence of discarnate intelligence.

Playing devil's advocate, it is readily apparent that the entire notion of discarnate intelligence or survival is, in and of itself, a totally untestable hypothesis and therefore cannot be proved or disproved, at least with modern scientific tools or methods. On the other side of the coin is something known as Ockham’s Razor that, simply stated, says that all things being equal, one must attempt to explain a given phenomenon with a theory that most easily, logically and empirically fits what is being observed, measured or recorded. Moreover, your theory must fit your data, not the reverse.

While there are certainly alternate, highly speculative theoretical explanations for many of the phenomena described herein, they do not lend themselves adequately to an operational definition of all the recorded events. The smoking gun regarding discarnate intelligence is a substantial body of circumstantial evidence that cannot be ignored due to its unique properties and recurring nature.

There are three basic categories of cases in this realm of paranormal research: ghosts & hauntings, apparitions and poltergeists. This chapter is dedicated to exploring the possibility of the first category that is more precisely referred to as discarnate intelligence, therefore the vast majority of poltergeist cases are excluded. It should also be noted from the outset that cases where the occupants of the house or apartment displayed any overt or even subtly covert symptoms of psychopathology, alcoholism or drug abuse, were automatically discarded from our files and database.

The entity known as a haunting or ghost is generally associated with a particular location or residence, as opposed to an individual, and it can last anywhere from years to centuries, while poltergeist cases are extremely short lived; from days to months at best. In the majority of haunting cases there is usually a particular violent or traumatic event, whether recent or long ago, that precipitated the haunting.

In general, the simple ghost or haunt appears to be some sort of audio-visual playback mechanism from a deceased person's former behavior patterns. They rarely display any overt signs of intelligence apart from their audio-visual reconstruction of past events. This type of phenomena rarely, if ever, appears cognizant of being observed and it gives no direct signs of recognition. However, their playback occasionally displays characteristics suggesting that some type or form of crude interactive mechanism is at work (although this mechanism does not have to automatically conjure up a spirit or specter to account for this seeming relationship).

As an example, think about the new interactive systems frequently used in modern video games. You make one of several choices during the course of the game. Each different choice leads to a different outcome for the game. We graphically see how a change in human response (input) alters the playback of the video recording (output). One theory speculates that perhaps a prior traumatic emotional event is somehow recorded on or within space-time at a localized environment. When a specifically sensitive person enters that environment, they act as the needle of an old fashion record player, the magnetic heads of a VCR, or the laser in a compact disc player -- they activate and facilitate a three-dimensional reconstruction and projection of what came before, i.e., the past.

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