Spirits, no matter how they could be called, come in many different varieties, forms and figures. As a paranormal researcher I have spent much time in understanding how spirits act or exist the way they do. If it weren't for the fact that I take an interest in things unknown I would have long ago given up on this small research.

It isn't easy to just label a spirit a "ghost," for the matter. In fact, the term "ghost" implies that these entities are all the same, which they are obviously not. To start with, let us take an in-depth look at a popular Filipino paranormal phenomenon: The White Lady.

Every Filipino knows at least one acquaintance who has witnessed this entity (the experience is basically similar to another popular spectral phenomenon, the Headless Priest). She usually appears late at night, with long, dark hair and flowing white robes, seemingly oblivious to her surroundings. Many witnesses would see her dissolve into thin air; others would see her float, defying gravity. Still a few more would see her pass through solid obstacles such as brick walls and large trees.

If the White Lady is indeed a single entity, why is she encountered almost everywhere, seemingly to different sorts of people who have never seen or known each other? If she indeed is a spirit of rape victim (as many thinkers would like to conclude), then why is it that she sometimes appears happy, or even ecstatic, opposite the background story which she is "required" to possess?

Mystics would claim that, since the White Lady is spirit, and thus not bound by the material laws of time, space and reason, she is indeed just a single entity who can travel everywhere, and everytime, in whatever form she chooses, end of story. Though this may stand true, this theory defeats the whole purpose of the question: why? Is it purely psychological that different people in different places react dissimilarly when they see her? The only logical answer to this is that the White Lady, and the Headless Priest for that matter, is not one entity but a multitude of entities.

The White Lady is seen as the restless ghost of a woman, haunting places where she allegedly was killed or raped. Others would say that she actually is a denizen of the natural world, a fairy, or a tree spirit. Still others would say she is just a figment of imagination--literally. A popular belief so powerful that such may have materialized into some ethereal form. These theories may be different, but each White Lady's actual motives may still remain analogous.

As such, I have created my own classification of spirits, not easy enough to leave out inconsistencies, but not so elaborate as to confuse those who would soon refer to it, either. I chose to classify spirits into four: archetypes, ghosts, elementals and thought forms, in order of "power" or impact on those still living. The differences in these categories may seem confusing to the layman at first, but ultimately serves a useful and helpful purpose to future researchers.

The first classification by which I categorize spirits is Archetypes, the most powerful and awe-inspiring of the spirits. It seems the only people who don't believe in them are atheists, for archetypal spirits also include how each person sees the Deity. Also included in this category are the angels, spirit guides, demons, deities of polytheistic religions, and powerful ideas given a materialized form. Spectral guardians, or wards, can also be classified here. They have a similarity to thought forms, mentioned below, but what makes archetypes different is the magnitude of awe and respect given to these high entities.

If we are to follow the Jungian definition of the term "archetype" such would be an idea innate in man's collective consciousness; thus, concepts such as "War" or "The Wheel of Time" could be considered as archetypes. For purposes of this discourse, however, they are spirits most often invoked in church prayers, seances and spellcasting. Each person (at the very least) once in his or her lifetime has asked for the intercession of God or gods, or guardian angels, and their prayers are most of the time fulfilled in some way or the other. In my own experience with archetypes I have encountered, aside from what I perceive as God and the angels, "The Lord of the Dead," who appeared as a relatively kind old man with a flute.

This second classification is the core of many spirit sightings. Ghosts, to put it simply, are the spirits of those once living or those who still live. They are spirits that take on a corporeal form such as a man or an animal, and go through the process of life. I am still not sure if I should categorize the spirits of plants or insects in this classification, for their nature seems much in par with the next classification.

The topic of ghosts has been described elsewhere in this site, so I won't divulge on much of the subject here. What I would relate, however, is the popular notion that ghosts are merely "the dead haunting the living." For this fallacy I relate to a new sub-categorization of ghosts, presented by Hilary Evans and Patrick Huyghe (2000). In their book "The Field Guide to Ghosts and Other Apparitions," the ghost experience is not about death, but about time.

This certain sub-category is the easiest to understand, for this is where most people get the notion of the ghost as a spirit of the dead. Under ghosts of the past we have revenants (ghosts who return for a short period of time after the death in question), and haunters (ghosts manifesting repeatedly over long periods of time in a particular location, or anchor point).

The concept here is that we, the living, could project (either consciously or subconsciously) spirit forms which are basically ghosts. The popular term "astral projection" comes into mind, but that is an entirely different topic altogether. It is even doubtful to classify ghosts of the present as "ghosts of the living," since doctors have their own criteria for calling a person "dead." Nevertheless, ghosts in this category include crisis apparitions (ghosts manifesting during a traumatic incident, whether the crisis belongs to the person whose ghost makes an appearance or to the living person seeing the ghost) and non-crisis apparitions, for which doppelgangers (ghost of the person, witnessed by that same person, sort of like looking at a mirror) and living others (ghost of another person, witnessed by another person) are further classified.

This third sub-category is most radical and revolutionary, since it involves defying one of the most fundamental laws of the universe: time. In my own theory, separate from that of the Guide, if spirits are not bound by physical laws, then ghost from the future are most certainly possible. Though many other subtypes are still being created, the harbingers, or heralds (ghosts that convey a message about a future event) are the most obvious types.

The third classification of ghosts has a lot to do with the forces of nature and energy; spirits that have not taken any physical form, but are basically inherent and representative of those energies themselves. As such, they are most popularly called elementals.

Most of us during our childhood were fascinated by stories of fairies, mermaids, dragons and elves (and this fascination to some reaches adulthood). In fact, these mythical creatures are manifestations of elemental beings, entities living in a primordial world untouched by human exploitation. Due to the near-infinite number of subtypes of elementals, most paranormal groups, including the Spirit Questors©, would classify them into four fields, based on the ancient Greek classification of Earth, Air, Fire and Water. These classifications are most helpful in understanding what these sort of beings want, but from experience I still have to classify elementals such as one made of pure electricity, and another, more unique, entity made up of pure nothingness, or vacuum.

As I remarked earlier, elementals are made up of the primordial forces of nature, but this doesn't necessarily mean that they would stick to their natural form or habitat. If energy can never be destroyed, only transformed, then this could also apply to the beings themselves. So it is not surprising, in this day and age, if new forms of elementals manifest themselves. Already, I have received testimonies from other spirit mediums of elemental guardians of glass and tar, living in, of all places, a scrap yard. Furthermore, these beings are not mad that their habitat has been "taken away" from them, as most accounts of elemental communication state; this scrap yard is their habitat. Times change; indeed, so do they.

The fourth and least powerful of the spirits are thought forms, or creations of the mind. They are not true spirits in the sense of the word, but actually mental projections with their own sentience.

Thought forms are most commonly created through visualization; for example, when a person imagines a winged rodent with so much intent and purpose, this figure might actually become sentient and independent of its thinker. In Himalayan Buddhist cultures, particularly in Tibet, images such as these are called tulku, and are created with the most elaborate of all rituals and with the most disciplined form of concentration. Even the Hebrew Qabalah mentions the creation of such beings in the form of the golem. The golem is made by sculpting a statue which is "given breath" or life through a series of rituals. Thought forms could even be created unintentionally: I know of one acquaintance named Ritchie, who has a collection of plastic robots (the ones which still need to be assembled), claiming that at least one of his toys goes missing every night, only to reappear again the next morning. During this interim period he dreams that the missing toy becomes alive, doing servile tasks for him which, remarkably, come true eventually.

As presented by the most unusual account above, these beings could not exist if they are not given a specific purpose. Parisian lore, up to the present, suggests that the gargoyles of Notre Dame Cathedral were created to guard this House of God from evil intent. At night, many a passerby still claim to see these stone statues move or even fly around Notre Dame's bulwarks.

Though this classification I have introduced seeks to ease the burden of a Spirit Questor, or for any paranormal investigator for that matter, the job of sub-classifying them further is no easy task. It must always be remembered that spirits are not bound by our linear, hierarchical, rules, and therefore they can be more confusing than they already are. On the optimistic side, the investigator who has done his requisite research has done half his work. Dealing with these entities is the other half.