Are there friendly ghosts

They can become visible; they can speak or make noises, touch you or even emit an odor like perfume or cigar smoke, etc, to let you know they are there.

Experts say that this type of ghost retains its former personality of when they were alive and can feel emotions. And often, they are visiting you to comfort you or let you know something important. So if you happen to see a lost loved one, chances are they are there because they feel you want or need to see them. If so, you may be witnessing what paranormal investigators deem as an ecto-mist or ghostly mist.

These ghostly encounters have been captured on many videos and in photographs and can be white, gray or even black. Although they can simply appear this way, linger then move away quickly, sometimes ectoplasms appear before becoming a full-bodied apparition. Many people have witnessed them outdoors, in graveyards, battlefields and historical sites. While many of us had heard the term before, a poltergeist is actually one of the rarest forms of hauntings and to many, the most terrifying.

Loud knocking sounds, lights turning on and off, doors slamming, even fires breaking out mysteriously have all been attributed to this type of a spiritual disturbance. In a seriously depressed George Lenox-Conyngham committed suicide leaving his second wife Olivia to bring up their children. She also had to live with the guilt and grief of being unable to save her husband from his demons.

Her ghost is said to roam the house to this day. But most consider Olivia a benign presence who is particularly fond of children, often choosing to appear to the youngest in the house. Unusually, most sightings seem to take place during the day, and she has been seen walking through the house, or standing quietly on the stairs. Almost all aspects of her haunting seem to be peaceful. And there is only one slightly unsettling story relating to a wooden cot that Olivia used for her children.

During the Second World War, US soldiers billeted at Springhill complained of a strange knocking noise coming from the night nursery. You pray to them and you have a relationship with them. You speak to them and tell them your daily doings to make them a part of your life. There is also this idea that they protect you. With all those friendly spirits around, rituals and festivals relating to respecting and venerating the dead are a much bigger part of normal life in Japan than in the UK.

An important one is the popular Buddhist summer festival of Obon, when ancestors' spirits return to the world of the living to visit relatives. Most of the country spends a few days visiting family and honouring the dead — inviting them into their homes with friendly fires at the door, and preparing a banquet of rice, fruit and vegetables inside including a cucumber horse and an aubergine cow Obon is a time for feeling a part of the community. We always showed that respect to ancestors.

The world today is not just yours. It was a very important experience. It takes time for someone who died to become an ancestor, and a ritual process is required to enable them to do so. Most Japanese homes will have a special shelf for paying respects to ancestors all year round. This might contain a Buddha, a candle and incense, and a small bell to call ancestors.

Maybe this is because my parents have not yet passed away. So why is it that, over the centuries, cultures like Japan have created more opportunities to speak to the dead than we see in places like the UK?

In Japan, there is this idea that the dead and the living are not so separate. This is interlinked with Buddhist and Shinto beliefs about death and rebirth.