I know there’s a lot of confusion on this particular subject, and everyone has a different theory on what the words mean  Now, according to Webster’s Dictionary, there isn’t a whole lot of difference (ie, a haunting is a visitation from a ghost/spirit, and an apparition IS the ghost/spirit), but then again, these are the same people who bring you the definitions of normal/abnormal as “the opposite of abnormal” and “the absence of normality.” How reliable, then, are they as defining sources of a haunting?

 Even among Parapsychologists and amateur ghost hunters, there is a great deal of disparity when it comes to these terms.  Among parapsychologists, most will define them as different levels of inhabitation.  What does this mean?

Inhabitation is the presence of some form of paranormal activity that manifests itself in unexplainable sights, sounds, and smells.  The level of this activity is further measured in hauntings, apparitions, and infestations.  A haunting, to most parapsychologists, is merely a “psychic taperecorder” of sorts.  This is an event that was either daily routine, or had some extreme emotional/psychic investment to it.  In a haunting, ghostly figures are often seen, repeating the same event again and again.  They never vary from course, and they do NOT interact with the world around them.  These are not actually human (or animal) souls.  They are merely residual energy, left as an imprint on a scene.  These are actually the most common variety of visual manifestation, and quite often, people are frightened by them.  Though they are eerie to witness (who wouldn’t be disconcerted by watching someone go through the same motions repeatedly, with no response to the world?), these hauntings cannot harm you.  They are merely energy imprints.

The second level of inhabitation is an apparition.  Apparitions often come in the form of unexplained noises and smells, things moving around the home, and can even make an appearance in visual form.  The primary difference between a haunting and an apparition is the level of interaction.  While hauntings have none, apparitions are actual spirit/astral forms (whether human or non-human).  They can, and quite often will, interact with the world around them.  They can move objects (though I might caution that extreme amounts of this sort of activity might better be described as poltergeist), leave EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) recordings, and even touch a living being.  For this reason, it is always a wise idea to determine if the spirit means you well, or harm.  In most cases, the spirit is a deceased person, and can actually be highly protective of those people it chooses to interact with.  They mean no harm, and their actions, while disruptive, are generally more out of curiosity than anything else.  However, in some cases, the apparition might not be an apparition at all…

Which leads us directly into the third level of inhabitation, the Infestation.  This is not something you want to have in your home (or anywhere, for that matter).  I’m sure the word conjures up all sorts of negative feelings, as many of us link it to pests and vermin.  In Parapsychology, it works much the same way, though these “pests” are actually quite dangerous.  An Infestation is the presence of something dark and dangerous in the home.  Typically, this implies a demonic inhabitation, though there are cases that involved other entities which were not “demonic” but which were certainly bent on malice.  In the case of an Infestation, the manifestation is nearly always (though this isn’t an absolute) of the non-human variety.  Infestations can range from the irate nature spirit whose land/tree/whatever has been torn down or inhabited by humans without proper reverence or permission, to the truly demonic, which I will get into in greater  depth when I do the section on demons and exorcism.  Needless to say, the methods for dealing with the different varieties of Infestation vary greatly, and it’s a wise idea to determine what kind of Infestation is present before pursuing any particular method.  I will be covering this subject later on, when I get into the section on dealing with the paranormal.

On a final note, none of these three levels are confined strictly to humans.  Animals, too, can fit into any of the three categories above