Frightfully Good School of Ghost Hunting

Before the mic skills. Before the research polish. Before True Hauntings became what it is…
🎬 Premiere Tonight! 8.30pm Sydney time
We’re revisiting where it all began…
Join us for a live Premiere of our very first episode — The Amityville Horror — recorded 4 years ago.
We’ll be in the live chat watching along with you and sharing commentary as it plays.
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Case 1: The Amityville Horror | True Hauntings podcast 👻 True Hauntings Case 1: The Amityville HorrorThis episode first aired on 31 October 2020, and it remains one of the most talked-about and controversial hau...

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Frightfully Good Paranormal A community for curious minds exploring the paranormal with open minds, critical thinking, and healthy scepticism.

It's Thursday night and that means that we have been on YOUTUBE with another live - this time its a spooky story!
We invite you to listen in and please subscribe and share.

The Eriksson Twins: Shared Madness or Demonic Possession? | True Hauntings Live 🚨 In this show, True Hauntings The Untold Stories, we dive into the chilling case of the Eriksson Twins, Ursula and Sabina, whose descent into chaos on the ...

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Tonight we are tacking the topic of the BARNUM EFFECT and how it can impact your paranormal investigation experience. Join in the conversation only on our YOUTUBE channel at 8.30pm AEST.

Ghost Chat LIVE: The Barnum Effect – When Ghosts Sound Too Good To Be True Are those eerily accurate ghost messages real... or is your brain playing tricks on you?Join Anne and Renata LIVE for Ghost Chat this Thursday at 8.30pm AEST...

Telepathy.
Is it really?
I certainly believe so.
Here is someone much smarter than myself talking more about it.
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This Scientist Says Telepathy Is Real — Here’s the Proof | with Rupert Sheldrake Rupert Sheldrake and Jeff Krasno dive into the science of telepathy to ask a profound question: Are our minds more connected than we realize? From intuitive ...

Notes from last night's Live - Do Ghosts Know they are Dead.
Are Ghosts Aware of Their Own Death?

Ghost stories and spiritual traditions have long grappled with whether a “ghost” realizes they have died. Folklore often depicts confused spirits lingering after sudden deaths (as famously dramatized in The Sixth Sense). Modern researchers and practitioners approach this question from several angles – scientific, parapsychological, and spiritual – each offering a distinct perspective on a ghost’s self-awareness (or lack thereof) after death. Below we summarize 4 key perspectives, with insights and quotes ready for discussion.

1. Scientific & Psychological Skepticism – No Conscious Ghosts
From a mainstream scientific standpoint, there is no concrete evidence that disembodied spirits exist as conscious entities – thus most scientists consider the question of ghostly self-awareness to be moot. Reports of hauntings are generally explained by natural or psychological causes. For example, psychologist Richard Wiseman’s studies of reputedly haunted sites found that unusual experiences often correlated with physical factors like lighting, infrasound, drafts, or magnetic fields. science.howstuffworks.com.

In many cases, people simply misinterpret ambiguous sights or sounds; researchers note that “people can hallucinate or mistake reflections, shadows and unidentifiable noises for ghosts”, and sleep-related states (like sleep paralysis) can produce vivid illusions of spiritsscience.howstuffworks.com.

In short, the skeptical view is that ghost encounters are manifestations of the living brain – not actual deceased minds – meaning “ghosts” have no independent awareness at all.

2. Parapsychology – Residual Hauntings vs. Intelligent Spirits
Parapsychologists – scientists who study anomalous phenomena – make an important distinction between two types of ghostly encounters, which has direct bearing on the awareness question. Residual hauntings (or “place memories”) are likened to recordings of past events imprinted on the environment, without any conscious spirit present. Psychic medium Tony Stockwell explains that what we call a ghost is often “an extreme emotion that… stained the space,” replaying like a looping scene; “people buy into this idea that it’s scary and that the spirit is still there, but it’s not… the atmosphere is still there – that’s my understanding of what a ghost is.”eomega.orgeomega.org

In such cases, the apparition is unaware because it isn’t an active mind at all – just a lingering energetic footprint. Some modern theories even suggest that in a Block Universe (where past, present, and future co-exist), a ghost seen replaying a trauma is “not doomed to eternity to relive” that moment; it’s only one aspect of the person caught in time, while their full consciousness moves oninternational-spr.com.

By contrast, intelligent apparitions are ghost encounters where a conscious discarnate mind seems to be at work – interacting, recognizing people, even conveying messages. These imply the spirit does know it has died (at least on some level) and intentionally communicates.

Classic “crisis apparition” cases, for example, involve a newly deceased person’s spirit appearing to loved ones (often miles away) shortly after death – sometimes before the living even know of the death – as if to say goodbye or deliver important informationbigelowinstitute.org.

Parapsychologists see such cases as potential evidence that the person’s consciousness survived death with awareness intact, since the apparition often behaves in meaningful, purposeful ways. In sum, parapsychological research entertains both possibilities: some haunt phenomena are mindless imprints (no awareness), while others may be genuine spirit manifestations with awareness of self and situation.

3. Mediumship & Spiritualist Views – “Earthbound” Spirits vs. Crossed-Over Spirits
Modern spiritualists and psychic mediums similarly differentiate between earthbound ghosts and spirits in the light, hinging on whether the soul has accepted its death. In many mediumistic models, most spirits are quite aware that they’ve died and transition to an afterlife realm, from which they can deliberately communicate. These are the loved ones that mediums claim to bring through – “somebody who has lived a life, passed before us, and is drawn back… by a reciprocal love pull,” as Stockwell describes the conscious spirits who return to comfort or guide the livingeomega.org. Such spirits, having “crossed over,” are believed to retain their personality and memories, fully cognizant of their death (often even referencing how they died or that they’re at peace now, during medium readings).

A spiritual author in one discussion put it succinctly: “Ghosts” are basically unaware energy remnants, whereas “spirits” are the souls of the departed who “have died and have moved on to a spiritual realm… They are conscious and active.”eternalisedofficial.com

On the other hand, mediums also report encountering earthbound or lost souls – these are the exceptions who haven’t moved on, sometimes due to sudden death or personal turmoil. In these cases, the spirit’s awareness of death may be clouded or delayed. Psychic practitioners often claim that some souls don’t initially realize they’re dead. As one clairvoyant notes, “Some spirits do not know that they are dead. They could have died suddenly or been in a state of unconsciousness at the time of their death… They will hang around until they are… urged to cross over to the other side.”themysticmedium.com The mindset of such a ghost might be described as confused, dreamlike, or in deep denial – a bit like a person in shock after trauma. They may linger in familiar places, carrying on routine or “unfinished business” as if still aliveimaginespirit.com.

Spiritualist literature suggests these souls eventually can be made aware (through gentle communication, prayers, or rituals often called “spirit rescue”), at which point they realize their condition and transition fully. Importantly, even this view agrees that lack of awareness is usually temporary and atypical – “Usually, spirits are very aware that they’re dead,” one medium emphasizesimaginespirit.com, but in those rare tragic cases of confusion, a compassionate nudge is needed to wake the spirit up.

4. Perspectives on Consciousness – Between Two Worlds
Some researchers in the realm of consciousness studies approach ghostly awareness as part of the broader question of mind after death. Neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwick, for instance, has noted that in many near-death experiences (NDEs), people report a clear sense of leaving their body and knowing they have died, which suggests continuity of self-awareness at the point of death. Philosophers of mind and physicists have also chimed in with theories: Are ghosts fragments of a larger consciousness field? Does time behave in such a way that part of a person can remain “stuck” in a past moment? While speculative, these ideas echo the earlier distinctions.

One researcher, Kirsten Thorne, uses an analogy from modern physics – viewing all moments as co-existing – to argue that a ghost might be just a “shadow” of the person in one state, while the soul is simultaneously elsewhere. She writes that a child ghost seen sobbing in a haunted house is not the child’s whole being: “that ‘dead’ child is also alive in another part of the Block [universe]”, not eternally trapped in sorrowinternational-spr.com.

Broadly, the continuation of consciousness after death is an open question being explored through interdisciplinary research. Some consciousness researchers (including parapsychologists) propose that if mind is not entirely produced by the brain, it could survive bodily death in some formbigelowinstitute.orgbigelowinstitute.org.

In this framework, a spirit’s self-recognition would depend on many factors – possibly the state of mind at death or the transition process thereafter. Even Carl Jung was fascinated by this: after decades of study, he observed that the dead in mediumistic communications “appeared to know no more than they did when they died”, contrary to notions that death instantly brings omniscienceeternalisedofficial.com. This implies a learning or development continues beyond death, and the awareness of the deceased evolves rather than being a simple on/off switch. Jung ultimately remained open-minded, stating that “paranormal phenomena could be better explained by the hypothesis of spirits” than by psychology aloneeternalisedofficial.cometernalisedofficial.com – suggesting that the consciousness of the dead might persist, albeit in forms we don’t yet fully understand.

In conclusion, the question “Do ghosts know they’re dead?” does not have a single answer – it depends on what we’re calling a ghost. From a conventional scientific view, ghosts are not conscious at all. But in the parapsychological and spiritual perspectives, we see a spectrum: unaware residual energies, confused earthbound spirits, and fully aware spirits of the dead. For a live discussion, it’s helpful to remember these nuanced viewpoints. We can quote skeptics on how the mind plays tricks
science.howstuffworks.com, and contrast that with mediums describing how they gently help a lost soul realize its fatethemysticmedium.com.

We can cite researchers who note that many apparitions at death seem intentionalbigelowinstitute.org, while also mentioning the compassionate idea (found in both modern spiritualism and even some religious folklore) that some ghosts “linger” until they accept their death. This balanced understanding sets the stage for a rich conversation: one that respects scientific skepticism yet also explores the profound possibility that some part of us may awaken on the other side, aware that life has changed, but not ended.

Sources: Scientific studies on hauntingsscience.howstuffworks.comscience.howstuffworks.com; parapsychology and mediumistic insightseomega.orgeomega.orgeternalisedofficial.com; spiritualist teachings on earthbound spiritsthemysticmedium.comimaginespirit.com; consciousness research perspectivesinternational-spr.cometernalisedofficial.com; and documented apparition casesbigelowinstitute.org.

Four Reasons People Don't Know They're Dead Occasionally, when people suddenly die, some are completely unaware that they're actually dead. Time in spirit is different from ours and these spirits go about living just as they did in life--completely unaware that they're dead. This is certainly difficult for the living to comprehend. Read more....

Tonight on YouTube Join us for Ghost Chat -

Tonight we’re asking the big one — do ghosts actually know they’re dead?
Because some seem confused… and some seem downright pi**ed.
Is it denial? Is it trauma? Or are we the confused ones, talking to a bit of plumbing?

Questions you might like to answer on lour live feed tonight~
• “Have YOU ever experienced a spirit that acted confused or didn’t realise they were dead?”
• “Do you think some spirits choose not to move on?”
• “What about that moment in Sixth Sense — was that fiction or fact?”
• “Do children see ghosts more clearly because they aren’t bogged down by belief?”
• “What’s scarier — a ghost that knows they’re dead… or one that doesn’t?”

Drop in on the conversation and tell us what you think.
8.30pm AEST here: https://www.youtube.com/