Jon-Marc said:
My personal belief (don't ask for proof) is that "ghosts" are nothing more than fallen angels who are posing as the departed loved ones of people who want to communicate with their lost loved ones, and satan is more than happy to accomodate them.
The same hold true (again in my opinion) of space aliens and space ships. The devil can cause people who believe in that sort of thing to see whatever they want to see, and to experience what isn't real. He's far from being omipotent as God is, but he is very powerful and has many fallen angels working for him.
2 Col. 5:8 says "absent from the body and present with the Lord." That sounds like an immediate process and not something that happens over a period of time once we've settled problems on earth after our death.
In Luke 16:22,23 we're told of the rich man who "died, and was buried; And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments." This, too, was an immediate process. There are no spirits wandering the earth and haunting people.
Like I said, I tend to agree, because "it is appointed unto man once to die [hance no reincarnation, etc] and afterwards the judgement" I have trouble believing that human spirits would be allowed to roam about. Demons on the other hand have that freedom because their "bodies" are of a spiritual nature by definition.
I respect the well known "ghost-hunters", the Warrens,
http://www.warrens.net who took I believe a Catholic slant (their faith) to possessions, manifestations, etc. and warned people not to play with Ouija boards, occult or anything like that or else they could encourage demonic or poltergeist activity. I agree wholeheartedly there.
They made a comment somewhere on that site regarding hauntings were either human spirits or non-human. The hauntings that manifest strong activity they contended were most likely non-human like demonic because human spirits did not have that kind of strength.
This is where I disagree IF (please note that condition) they were correct. A human being is created after God's image and likeness, and as such are a higher order of creation than the angels (and demons), and are as God Himself and would definitely have such great power. Of course a lost soul may not have that power, lacking the power of God, but then again, such a soul would not live on, as the human spirit is not intrinsically eternal, but will die due to sin. The eternal bliss or torment of one's spirit comes with the resurrection, for Jesus will resurrect both the living and the dead: one to eternal life, and the other to eternal punishment. But those are minor theological differences I have with the Warrens. BTW, Ed Warren just passed away this year so it is only his wife that continues now.
