For most people, if they ever thought about it, there isn’t a “ghost of a difference” between ghosts. But a casual examination of ghost sightings or reports suggests that ghosts arise in different circumstances. At least two patterns can be discerned. One type of ghost can be characterized as short-term—a “visitor” (or visitation). The second type is a long-term “presence”, what is usually called a haunting.
The visitor ghost typically appears shortly after a person’s death. The visitor is often seen by a close relative or friend who was traumatically affected by this death. The apparition may occur once or several times and then disappear forever.
The presence ghost is tied more to a particular place (hence the term, “haunted house”) than to a particular person. The ghost may appear time and time again for a period of many years, or even centuries, and manifest itself in different ways—visions, voices, vibrations, etc. This being may have experienced a violent death, suicide or other untimely event that it wishes to communicate or replay to the physical occupants of the haunted place. The occupants (if they do not run away) may respond by contacting the unquiet spirit through a medium or clairvoyant, or they may try to exorcise the ghost entirely.
The two types of ghosts, visitor and presence, are illustrated below by two sightings that were verbally reported to this author as real events, by credible personal acquaintances. These accounts are very short. Additional details are not available due to the lapse of time between event and subsequent recounting.
The Pilot’s Return Flight (A Visitor Ghost)
Back in the 1940s, during the Second World War, a young woman was walking at night in the yard outside her house in Georgia. A dog stood on the steps leading to the cellar. The dog did not follow her. The woman turned her head around and saw a man, a friend of hers. The woman was startled. She kept walking and did not look back again. The man she saw was an American military pilot preparing to go overseas. The woman had just found out, a few days before, that he had died in a plane crash while on a training flight. (Reported to the author by Mr. Stovall of Georgia, formerly a petroleum engineer. The woman in this story was Mr. Stovall’s mother.)
Beware the Backyard Burial (A Presence Ghost)
Years ago, a family moved into an old house with a yard and fence. The family began hearing soft crying noises and saw an apparition in the upstairs hall. This happened again and again. The family later found out that a young girl had died in the house a long time before. She was buried in the yard behind the house. Did the girl die from an accident, an illness, or something far worse? Nothing else is known about this haunting. (Reported to the author by Mrs. Landolt of Maryland.)
Pareidolia?
Sightings of the presence ghost sometimes become fainter and more indistinct over time. Later sightings may then reflect popular expectations based on earlier experiences. Visual and auditory details that are not really there may be imparted to these later ghost encounters—a form of pareidolia. We should hasten to add, however, that pareidolia is not necessarily the whole story here. There may still be a presence, recent or ancient, that triggered the ghostly sightings in the first place.
Gary Davis likes all things classic horror. He has published about a dozen short stories over the past decade, chiefly about Halloween and vampires, and most recently in The Hungur Chronicles. He published a historical article, “Severed Heads and Omens of Death: The Horror Origins of Halloween,” in both The Hungur Chronicles and parABnormal Magazine (Samhain 2022 and September 2023, respectively). Horror haiku by Mr. Davis regularly appears in Tales from the Moonlit Path.
Published 10/30/25