Just what is a ghost? Is it a figment of your imagination? Do ghosts exist? Hundreds of thousands of people have seen ghosts over the years. Ghost sightings are featured in Hamlet and in stories dating back to the dawn of history. But what is a ghost? Most people believe that, after the body dies, there is still an energy that lives on. That energy is usually drawn to a white light, which brings them to God or their next state of existence, depending on your belief system. Some ghosts do not see or refuse to go to this light, though. Many religions believe that this turning from the light is in essence the "Hell" that awaits non-believers - that they must be doomed to an eternal existence apart from what they naturally would enjoy. Ghosts would refuse to go to the light for many reasons. Perhaps they feel strongly that they had unfinished business in the world which must be taken care of. Maybe they had loved ones that they wished to watch over. Maybe their death was so traumatic that they never realized they WERE dead, and therefore did not seek to "move on". Some people feel that what is seen by mortals is not really an actual ghost. Instead, it is some sort of 'psychic imprint' on an area, left behind by a traumatic event. So when visitors to a graveyard see a the ghost of a wounded soldier walking, it is not that they are actually seeing a ghost. Instead, the energy was so strong when the soldier WAS wounded those many years ago, it imprinted on the area and that imprint is what is now being seen. Sort of like a video recorder that recorded an image, and then replays it occasionally. Finally, some people believe that ghosts are no more than hallucinations. They feel that if a person goes to a haunted inn, is told all evening about what the ghost looks like and sounds like and acts like, that it is very likely they will "think" they see that ghost in the early hours of the morning because of what they were told.