What Ed & Lorraine Warren Taught Us About Ghosts & Hauntings

Ed and Lorraine Warren were American paranormal investigators known for their involvement in famous cases like the Amityville haunting and for founding the New England Society for Psychic Research. Throughout their career, they authored and co-authored books, gave lectures, and investigated the paranormal. While their credibility is debated by many today, many of their ideas about spirits and their behaviour remain influential today.

In the 1980 book 'The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren,' which was written by Gerald Brittle, the couple share their thoughts on what a ghost is, how one manifests, and how the living see them. While I think their viewpoint is worthy of reading, I don't like the way they pass what is essentially just their beliefs off as absolute fact. The truth is the existence of ghosts is debated, so there are no agreed-upon rules on their nature and behaviour.

Having said that, some of what the Warrens claim aligns with commonly held beliefs within the paranormal community and wider public scope, so it might be worth taking the time to understand their viewpoint in order to help you better understand the beliefs and claims of others who have reported encounters with spirits.

The views the Warrens share in this book are said to be based on their time working with victims of hauntings, from their own observations, and through Lorraine's psychic insight.

In the book, the Warrens tell us that when it comes to the places you are most likely to encounter a ghost, it's a game of numbers. Places where more people have lived mean more people have died there, and therefore there's a higher chance that one of the deceased is lingering. Specifically, the Warrens mention "old isolated buildings." But by the Warrens' own logic, I can't help thinking that a densely populated city block would hold a higher potential for hauntings.

They add that "farmhouses or older brick buildings" that were built near the sea during the colonisation of America have the greatest potential for being haunted because of the generations of people who have lived and died there. The couple fails to mention why being by the sea is important.

Although this might be sound logic, buildings from this era are relatively rare in the US. So even if these buildings are the best place to encounter a ghost, they are few and far between, meaning you are more likely to encounter a ghost elsewhere based purely on the fact that you are more likely to be in another type of building regularly.

The Warrens also discuss why it is that some people seem to return as ghosts while others don't. They call this "the ghost syndrome," which they say is caused by tragedy in the life of an individual where death occurs suddenly or under very traumatic circumstances. Less often a spirit will linger because of an unusually strong attachment to things of this world.

The Warrens were strong believers in the concept of "unfinished business." They believe that if you die while trying to achieve something - which could be as simple as driving home - then after death you will be compelled to finish this task, even if that does just mean making your way home.

Ed and Lorraine believe that ghosts often aren't aware that they are dead. They write, "This is because the individual as a ghost no longer has the same awareness it had as a flesh-and-blood person." They liken this to the loss of a limb, writing, "It's a lot like amputation. A person may think his amputated leg is there when it's not. For the ghost, it's the same thing. Only in the spirit's case, the whole body is amputated away."

The Warrens also explain how the act of manifestation works - this is a process by which a spirit becomes visible to the naked eye. The completeness of this manifestation determines whether you are looking at a ghost or an apparition. The book explains, "It's called a 'ghost' if the features are not recognisable to the viewer. If the features are recognisable to the viewer, it's an 'apparition.'."

They clarify that a ghost doesn't need to manifest to be there. The ghost will already be there, just imperceptible to the human eye. They write, "It manifests simply to verify its presence to those in the physical realm."

In order to manifest, the Warrens tell us the ghost needs physical energy, they explain that spirits have two possible options at their disposal.

The first method requires a human to be present, allowing the spirit to go through a "complex process of energy transference to give itself substance." It does this by drawing from the living human's aura. Not only do the Warrens understand this process, but they've seen it and are able to describe it.

Writing based on the Warrens' experiences, Brittle describes how this sort of manifestation starts with two bluish orbs of light roughly the size of golf balls floating near each other, usually about 1.5 metres off the ground. As the process continues, the two balls of light come together and merge into one larger ball about the size of a grapefruit. Others report hundreds of tiny pinpoints of light in a cluster that come together into a single ball of light.

The author notes that during this process, you might also see streaks of light flashing away from your body - this is electromagnetic energy being drawn from your aura.

Next, the ball will elongate into a tall cigar shape of human size, and finally the definable features of a person will then begin to form until the spirit has manifested as much as it possibly can.

According to the Warrens, the other way a ghost can manifest is through environmental energy and doesn't require the presence of a human. They claim this happens on "very humid days with a lot of fog or rain, or on stormy nights when there is a lot of electrical energy in the air from lightning discharges." They believe a ghost is able to build itself from energy in the atmosphere. When a ghost or spirit manifests in this way, the Warrens say there tends to be an "intense smell of ozone in the room, and the materialisation comes across with a bluish glow."

Through either process, the Warrens say the spirit's appearance depends entirely on how that particular spirit chooses to project itself, or sees itself in its own mind. This means an apparition might present disfigurements or injuries or be of a different age to that at which they died. It also explains how a ghost is capable of wearing clothes - they're merely part of this projection.

"When a ghost is responsible for haunting phenomenon, there has either been an emotional situation in a home that triggers the disturbance or a spirit is trying to communicate its problem to the physical realm," the Warrens explain.

Multiple people and families may live in a house, but only one person or one family might experience paranormal activity. This is because an "emotional interlink" has taken place, this is where "a connection is made between compatible emotions."

The Warrens give the example of women traditionally giving birth at home in the past. Sometimes, they say, the women died during childbirth. That woman might linger in the home emotionally fixated on the place. 100 years later, a family with a new baby moves in, all of a sudden, the woman is seen in the nursery - the presence of a child has triggered an emotional response.

Another reason a ghost will manifest, according to Ed and Lorraine, is based on a need to communicate. In these cases the earthbound spirit is caught up in its own tragedy or unresolved state that it will manifest to anyone in order to try to communicate its plight. The Warrens say this is why lights will be switched on and off, or you'll hear knocking, or small objects will move in your presence - the spirit is trying to gain attention.