Here's something I'm wondering and want some thoughts and opinions please!   :)

Why do spirits who have crossed over (in other words, not those who are stuck or earthbound) appear to the living as a mist, cloud, or just a feeling of energy? 

Is how a spirit or ghost makes their appearance to us more about their "ability" to do that or is it more about our ability to perceive?

Vicky

I think the feeling of energy makes sense on its own but the misty effect might be likened to the static of radio transmission or the snow on a tv set, where the tuning from one reality frame to the other is not exact. Just a thought.

Here`s a thought. If there is anything like a spirit in us, we all agree that it is not part of our physical body. In fact, once we are deceased, we do not HAVE a physical body anymore. How could we appear to others? What would be the surviving spirit? Why, some form of energy and/or some form of focused thought. I`m amazed any of these are reported to "appear" in any way. I`d have thought it is not possible at all, like you cannot normally see light waves or microwaves.

Tom Campbell seems to feel that we see spirits in a form we are accustomed to. That it has much more to do with the perceiver than it does the spirit. He also goes on to admit that what we really perceive is all data any way and our consciousnesses (can I say that?) makes sense of it in a way that is comfortable.

I believe spirits can be seen in diffferent ways. Some people see them just like they see physical people, some see mists, and some see points of light.

I mainly see them as points of light, there have been occasions when I've seen them as mist. I haven't seen them with a human form, except when my eyes are closed. When this is the case, it might be a matter of the image they project to me, rather than what they look like.

I just saw one as a little circle of light. There was colbalt blue on the edges and a light but bright blue in the center. A yellow wall was behind this appearance so it was easy to see.

I guess there's no rules about how a spirit can or should appear to us.  I have seen them different ways.  I just wondered what others thought about why they appear differently.  I think Beau's right that it's more about how we perceive rather than how the spirit themselves decide to look.  But then I don't really understand why I've seen them so differently. 

When I talk about my "abilities" it's not like it's a skill since it's not something I can use or control.  For instance painting or singing is a skill.  My point is, if what I "do" is about me, then how come I can't make it happen more often or when I want it to?  It still seems to me that those on the other side have a lot more to do with the phenomena we experience than we do. 

I don't think I have skills with this stuff.  I think I'm only getting chances to learn how to perceive what's in my awareness.

By the way, here's something neat... my mom recently got a visit from my deceased dad.  She doesn't really believe or understand this stuff.  So for her to have that kind of experience was pretty neat.  She saw a cloudy mist walk through the kitchen and she felt it was my dad.  She's never had any kind of paranormal experience before. 

So why would my dad appear that way?  I'm just curious but I know there's no rhyme or reason to any of this stuff.  It just is what it is.  But me, if I were the one wanting to appear to my living loved ones after I die, I'd want to really make an impression, be seen, be heard and felt. 

But maybe spirits realize they don't want to scare us and they think that a mist won't be noticed.  But then why appear at all?  Is it necessary?  Can't a spirit just visit and have a look at us without making some kind of appearance?  I would think so. 

Recoverer, I've known about the lights you see.  You've mentioned that many times.  Do you get any kind of thought communication from them? 

Vicky:

I don't see the bright points of white light as frequently as I used to. When I see them now, I see them as orange points of light as I help with retrievels in a way that is different than Bruce speaks of. I see them moving towards me, and fairly frequently, I feel their energy around me.

I have received some thought messages when I saw the bright points of white light. Sometimes I could feel the energy the points of light radiated.

I'm not certain why I no longer see them as often as I used to. One possibility is that as I helped with retrievels some unfriendlies came around, and positive spirits appeared (as bright points of light--according to my way of seeing them) in order to chase the unfriendlies away. Due to my spiritual development, the need to chase them away no longer exists.

Another possibility is that friendly spirits wanted me to become certain that they are here with me, and once I became certain that they are the the need for them to appear in such a way went away. In fact, there have been many occasion where I would be doing something such as walking around at work, and these friendly beings would make their presence known to me by flashing in front of me as I was doing something such as walking up or down a stairwell, or they would flash on a door just before I opened it.

It is possible that some mixture of the just described possibilities is true.

Currently, in addition to the red points of light, I occasionally see spirits appear with an outer ring of light, and within the ring I can vaguely make out the image of a human like figure. I say vaguely, because they flash quickly and are about the size of a quarter, so it is hard to see them clearly.

I also think it might be a matter of what my increasing vibrational rate has led to.  As my energy level changes, the manner in which I see the overlap of the physical and spirit world changes.

Vicky wrote on Nov 6^th, 2010 at 12:33am:

Why do spirits who have crossed over (in other words, not those who are stuck or earthbound) appear to the living as a mist, cloud, or just a feeling of energy?  Is how a spirit or ghost makes their appearance to us more about their "ability" to do that or is it more about our ability to perceive?

  Hi there Vicky, i suspect both can be factors depending. 

  Thing is, we rarely ever truly perceive something as it actually is, because we're perceiving the radiation or reflection from something and if we are not PUL incarnate there are distorting projection factors to consider in our perceptual capacity.

  But, an interesting thing to consider is the word body and how it applies to the nonphysical. 

  When most think of the term "body" they think in the physical form sense that we are used to. 

But there is a deeper aspect to this whole body thing.  We have "bodies" nonphysically too! 

What is a body?  Just simply the experience and perception by both self and others of unique individuality. 

  If you're an individual, you have a body so to speak.  Your unique, individual vibrational patterns can and will be perceived by others in certain ways.  If there was no unique individuality there, there would be nothing to really perceive, because there is nothing there to distinguish from one to another.

  One could even say that to some extent (once we really start living our lives), our physical bodies are a kind of densified, symbolic representation of our consciousness "body", but one that changes more slowly (on average) than the consciousness body.  For example, i've observed that when a less mature Consciousness chooses to be born into a physically attractive body from the genetic viewpoint that the below is somewhat commom... 
   if they continue to express lacking in PUL dynamics as a tendency throughout their life, as they age, they start to look more and more "ugly" (or less attractive) though in their youth they were considered very beautiful or handsome by many in the form sense.  The inner Consciousness eventually molds or shapes the physical body some over time.

  Anyways, to a great extent, all that we perceive physically and nonphysically is symbolic in nature. 

  I don't tend to "see" Spirits, though i went through a period wherein i saw points and flashes of light like Recoverer talks about.  This was not too long ago.  I still occasionally see these. 

  Mostly it's a feeling sense of presence, and occasionally this translates into color like terms.  For example, i only really trust and open up to those energies i sense a lot of true violet, bright golden, and/or pure White Light radiations in relation to.  Especially so with the Golden and White Light ones.

  Why, because i've come to understand both through personal experience, and in researching the experience of some others with more impressive verifications, that this signifies, symbolizes, and this kind of radiation is a natural consequence of a greater, stronger, more pure, and deeper attunement to what Bruce calls PUL.

  Deeper but brighter blues are nice, and are really starting to get there and are starting to become Guidance types, but there are limitations and distortions there (true with predominantly with clear, deep, but bright indigo and violet types, but less so). 

Hi Dear Victy,

Those that study fundamental physics will tell you that our mortal bodies are mostly empty space. A TV documentary a saw the other day, given by a renowned physicist, stated that the entire human race could be squeezed into the space of a single apple. Of course that apple would my hugely dense and still weigh as much as the entire human race

Blessings

Alan