When it comes to the dead you can have many things going on. Off the top of my head:
1) A psychic with natural mediumistic abilities can act as a medicine man or medicine woman and bring IN the spirit of a dead person to talk with
them, gain information, attempt to provide healing for surviving family members, and so on; this is communicating with a soul that doesn't have a body
down here anymore but obviously survives death, going on to another dimension most of the time;
2) You can have the recently dead, who linger with a metaphorical "foot" in both the physical and etheric realms for exactly three days/72 hours
after death. During this time, even people who don't think they're psychic will tend to have a heightened sense of that spirit being "present" in a
very tangible and strong way, having dreams of them, feeling that the dead person is around them saying goodbye, etc. A psychic will be able to
actually communicate with the recently deceased, retrieving last minute messages and so on; a healer or shaman will also be able to provide healing
and cleansing to the deceased, who almost always went through a great deal of trauma leading up to their death and can use healing.
3) There are ghosts or spirits who have an aspect of their spiritual self, an astral shell, still "stuck" in this dimension; although in my experience
even a ghost isn't in our dimension ALL the time, just from time to time, usually when there is heightened emotional energy and/or lots of living
people in a space giving off a lot of energy; it's easier for a ghost to come in at those times. Hotels, theaters, churches, hospitals --- these
places are almost always haunted by multiple ghosts who come in from time to time, drawn to the vibrant energy of all the living people who move
through those spaces. Ghosts usually have emotional trauma that made it hard for them to make a peaceful passing to the higher realms, and sometimes
they don't even know that their body is gone, so they can be quite unhappy and sad and angry. Dealing with them is a little like trying to communicate
with someone who is a bit "high" on something or drunk or out of it; you need to be very clear, calm and loving to break through their psychic
haze.
About the "time travel" aspects, that doesn't resonate with what I've observed and worked with regarding the dead. At this point I worked as a
professional ghostbuster on several dozen cases and have worked for free helping the spirits of many thousands of dead -- humans, animals, and even
trees. And the only reason I "believe" in ghosts is because early on I developed the ability to chat with them, to gain information from them that was
highly specific and could in NO way come from my own consciousness or experience; verifiable stuff that proved to me this was genuine communication.
Also when you're an empath you pick up on a great deal of emotional data, it really feels just like a very emotional and vibrant living person is
right there with you, often a bit desperate to share their story, make amends, give information to their surviving family members, and so on.
Some "haunted" locations sit on very powerful crystalline mineral beds and other types of strata that create strong "ley lines," and energy sensitives
will find a lot of heightened stuff going on in these places --- ranging from demonic activity, angelic activity, ET/interdimensional stuff, natural
and positive devic energies, and ghosts. These are all completely different types of beings that too often get lumped together. So it FEELS like an
entirely real and vivid experience, not something being generated by your own imagination. And sometimes spirits are quite "dull," too, and they're
obsessing about weird stuff like wondering if the new occupants of their home will dust the staircase banisters properly --- you can tell this
information isn't arising from your OWN consciousness when you yourself aren't particularly interested in the subject and certainly don't share the
interests or obsessions of that particular dead person!
PS: I should clarify that what the OP and some others are talking about, where there is a dimensional rift and you can observe activities of people
seemingly going about their business, and this is a seeping through from another time or dimension --- this IS a real phenomenon. There are times when
the veil between dimensions is thin and you can see what is going on in alternate realities, alternative timelines, and so on. But this is quite
different in my experience than a ghost who is very much clinging in a dense way to THIS dimension and appearing from time to time to the living in
this dimension; that ghost is existing in a kind of half-dimension, not quite elsewhere, and not quite here; quite an uncomfortable thing for these
trapped souls.
edit on 15-1-2013 by LipstickMystic because: content