Churches and Hauntings

I was wondering how in a sacred(sorry if I have bad spelling) place such as churches etc. get haunted?

Are churches not suppost to be holy ground? Maybe I am a little confused?

Is it only good peple who can haunt these places?

Just wondering.

If you read my thread asking people to post pics and vids, there's a picture there of a ghost-priest kneeling down and praying to an alter.
Anyway,the main theory surrounding ghosts is that people become ghosts when they have unfinished work or anything along those lines left on Earth when they die, and they can't go onto the afterlife until what has to be done is done. As not all ghosts are bad, there is no reason why ghosts wouldn't be able to "haunt" churches, temples and other holy sites.

Ghosts specifically, IMO, are just residual impressions left behind like recordings - intelligent spirits, be they earthbound or just visiting are quite different. I see no reason why either should not be encountered in a church. If the first case, the nature of the building is irrelevant. In the second case, they are human spirits - no more able or likely to be excluded than physical visitors, but probably no more likely to be found in a church than they were in life. Most of the apparitions reported from churches that I am aware of, albeit not many in total, are predominantly those of priests, monks and the like - which makes sense - either they are of the 'recording' variety, left behind by someone who impressed themselves deeply on the fabric of the place (perhaps more likely with a priest), or just someone revisiting their familiar old haunt, so to speak.

You might find this interesting - it's a collection of ghost pics taken in churches..

Church Ghosts

The first one on the page is my all-time favourite ghost pic - the one taken in Newby Church, Yorkshire by Rev. Lord. I found it in a book in the library when I was about eight years old and it freaked me out, I thought it was the creepiest thing I'd ever seen LOL. I've heard folks claim that it's a fake, but I've never seen that claim substantiated - so I don't know if it is or not. The pic on the website seems to be cut down, I'm pretty sure the original showed more of the church. Anyway, I still think it's creepy, fake or not.

Enjoy!

a couple of years ago i went to wales with my girlfriend to stay in a small village where my uncle lives. One day we were taking a walk around the village and decided to stroll through the church / grave yard.

It was a nice sunny day and i was taking a few pictures of the ruins around the church, it had obviously collapsed years and years ago and then rebuilt, all very old. The church was closed, not that we were that interested in having a look around, so we started to leave. As we approached the exit an old man came out from the ruins at the back of the church. He asked if we wanted to take a look around the church, we shruged and said why not.

It was dark inside, so he walked over and turned the electric lights on. He then proceeded to give up an extemely detailed history of the church, explaining all its quirks and eccentricities. How certain parts had been recovered or rebulit as the national religion changed over the years and how the roof had been raised twice making one of the tower's windows indoors!

After a while he suddenly said, "take your time, switch the lights off when you're done", and left out of the side exit. After a few more pictures we left.

Later we were talking to my uncle and his girlfriend about our day. I knew previously that they had quite a bit to do with local events which involve the church a lot and my uncle had done quite a bit of research into the history of the village. When we mentioned the church they both said they had never heard of this man, which is strange because they knew everyone who worked in and around the church, and they had never heard about all the facts about the church we had picked up from the old man! They did say that the village is quite a hot spot for ghosts and they hear a new local ghost story every week!

Unfortunately I took no pictures of the old man and there was nothing strange in any of them. He never told us his name or what he did and we never saw him again. Just an interesting story I thought.

Well, unless you think that ghosts are "demons," then it really doesn't matter that churches are on "holy ground."

a church is just a building, if you ask me. so it can be haunted by anything.