| Loyd Auerbach, Director of the Office of Paranormal | | | | Shadow people and shadow masses are another |
| Investigations, says that history may be dead, so ghost | | | | type of ghost hauntings that ghost hunters find difficult |
| hauntings often rely on the living to act as witnesses | | | | to explain. These dark shadows move between walls, |
| of the past. "Hauntings actually show that we are all | | | | have no human features, and carry with them the |
| psychic receivers (clairvoyant) to some degree," says | | | | feeling of dread. Clairvoyants do not classify these |
| Auerbach. "In haunting cases, people report seeing (or | | | | spirits as human, since they have no discernable face, |
| hearing, feeling or even smelling) a presence (or | | | | but rather, manifest as a dark smoke or shadow. |
| several) that is typically engaged in some sort of | | | | Some may appear in a child-sized humanoid form. |
| activity. You might think of a haunting as a loop of | | | | Others may move in an invisible track as though |
| video or audio tape playing itself over and over for you | | | | they're on a carnival ride going in circles, or they may |
| to watch." However, these residual spirits aren't the | | | | hop and dance along the walls. Occasionally, subjects |
| only type of paranormal spirits you may encounter. | | | | have reported seeing a hooded shadow person or a |
| A residual ghost haunting is commonly connected with | | | | shadow man wearing a 1930s fedora hat. Shadow |
| a tragic, violent or untimely death that abruptly cut the | | | | animals in cat or dog form have also been reported. |
| victim off from his or her life. This sudden departure is | | | | Doppelgangers are an intriguing, but extremely rare, |
| so shocking that an imprint is left on the location, which | | | | type of ghost hauntings. In one case, a German |
| draws spirits back to the place. Most commonly, | | | | woman reported seeing herself on a bus, staring back |
| apparitions of burn, murder, rape or kidnapping victims | | | | at her. A week later, she saw herself looking at herself |
| appear. Witnesses may report the sound of footsteps, | | | | in a crowded mall, dressed exactly the same. A week |
| the appearance of apparitions, strange scents or | | | | later, she was diagnosed with cancer. Seeing your |
| playbacks of the past. | | | | doppelganger -- or "evil twin" -- is almost always the |
| There is no interaction with the spirits -- they simply | | | | harbinger of misfortune or an omen of death. There |
| appear and vanish. There is a remnant of the past | | | | are many famous cases of doppelganger paranormal |
| there, but no spirit actually present. The basic scientific | | | | sightings. For example, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley |
| premise behind a residual haunting is that "energy | | | | reportedly saw his evil twin a month before he |
| cannot be created, nor destroyed," meaning that the | | | | drowned. English poet John Donne saw his wife's |
| extreme energy emitted during this emotional episode | | | | doppelganger the night of her miscarriage. President |
| is still left behind. Experts say residual hauntings are by | | | | Abraham Lincoln saw his double in the mirror five |
| far the most common type of paranormal | | | | years before his assassination. |
| phenomenon. | | | | |