It has occurred to me often that we say 'ghost' as a catchall term. I believe there are many forms of 'ghosts' (no pun intended!). I think there are imprinted events and shadows (Hey! Is there where 'shades' comes from?) which are not aware of live persons, that there are 'ghostly' beings that are not only aware of humans but try to make themselves known, that there are beings that continue their 'lives' much as they had before they died and to whom live persons are a nuisance or a distraction. There are probably many other kinds. My favorite kind are those beings who interact with us.

I'll tell you of one I "saw" once:

An English actor visiting Juneau was hoping for an extension of his visa and began a 10-week Acting Workshop to influence the powers that be. He held the workshops at my home and about 10 people came here once a week. For the final evening he required each of us to perform solo something original that we wanted to get across to the others.

We did everything from a monologue to a skit to a stream of consciousness thing... (I wrote and 'performed' something I called Crazy Jersey. Crazy Jersey being what an herbalist with strange powers was called in her community. Very impressed with myself, I was!)Actually we all did a creditable job and I think we were all impressed with each other.

The one that blew us all away though was a woman who stood there under the arch separating the dining room from the sitting room and told us of a little girl. She spoke haltingly and we sat mesmermized, willing her strength to go on. She told of a little girl to whom bad things happened and she said that the only way the little girl survived was to close doors in her mind so that as time went on there was less and less she could think of. Now, she said, the little girl is a woman and she's having a very hard time opening those long-closed doors one by one, as she gets the strength to do it. As she spoke, she almost broke into tears frequently, her voice roughened with emotion and she often stopped momentarily but she continued to the end.

About one fourth of the way through her monologue, I 'saw' a male form pause in the doorway between the sitting room and the kitchen then cross the floor swiftly to the woman's side and put his right arm around her shoulders. There he stayed until she finished.

Ebbie