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→Types of Ghosts
{{InfoboxCreature
|monster name= Ghost
|image= [[File:Ghosts.jpg]]
|powers and abilities= Varies; can include telekinesis and possession.<br>* [[Possession]]* [[Telekinesis]]* [[Teleportation]]|vulnerabilities= Varies; one standard is the salting and burning <br>* Burning of the ghost's physical remains.* [[Iron]]* [[Salt]]
|appearance= Varies; the form of the deceased, which may have visible signs of trauma or decay.
|episodes= Various in Seasons 1-10 (see See below).
}}
{{Quotation
* [[Death Echo]] – If a person dies in a particularly traumatic manner, they may start reliving their death in the spot it happened, trapped in a loop. A spirit can break free of the loop if it is confronted by someone the deceased had a connection to in life.
* [[Death Omen]] – Death omens are typically ghosts that have been murdered, but rather than seeking vengeance they seek justice and will appear to people in similar situations to warn them of their impending deaths.
* [[Hell Ghosts]] – [[Soul]]s of the damned released from [[Hell]]. Unlike typical ghosts, Hell ghosts are stronger and are not tethered to any one place or object, allowing them to roam freely.
* [[Myling]] – The vengeful spirit of a child in Scandinavian folklore, said to use their cries to lure adults to their deaths.
* [[Poltergeist]] – Malevolent vengeful spirits. Unlike typical vengeful spirits, a poltergeist is indiscriminate in who it targets, only wishing to harm the person or persons they are haunting.
* [[Spectre]] – A type of avenging ghost that possesses a person, and seeks out anyone that the possessed feels betrayed by and enacts vengeance upon. A spectre will typically only rise if their grave site has been desecrated in some manner. Unlike typical ghosts, a spectre leaves behind green [[ectoplasm]] rather than black.
* [[Woman in White]] – A woman whose husband had been unfaithful to her in life, and due to this she suffers from temporary insanity and murders their children. Once the guilt of what they have done hits them, the woman commits suicide, cursing her spirit to roam back roads and waterways looking for unfaithful men to kill.
* [[Vengeful Spirits]] – When a spirit fails to move on, the ghost will eventually begin to deteriorate and turn into a vengeful spiritsspirit. Vengeful spirits will act out to avenge some wrong they encountered during their life, but do due to the deterioration from being dead, their judgement can become warped and attack those who they deem have wronged others , whether or not they were innocuous or justified.
===Powers and abilities===
Ghosts can affect objects in the material world. This is an ability that must be learned. Sam and Dean learn how to move physical objects and fight when they become astral projections in [[4.15 Death Takes a Holiday]]. The ghost [[Haskel Crane]] explains to Bobby Singer and [[Annie Hawkins]] that to do this, the spirit must either become very calm and enter a Zen-like state, or tap into "explosive, anger and pure, red-hot rage."<ref name="seven19">[[7.19 Of Grave Importance]]</ref>
Some ghosts have been shown to possess unique abilities: [[Freeman Daggett]] seemed to be able to make Sam disappear and reappear in the blink of an eye, transporting him from the first floor to the basement, [[Whitman Van Ness]] could destroy other ghosts and absorb their energy, [[Mary Worthington]] could kill anyone through a warped reflection of themselves that accused them of the various deaths they were responsible for. This was also able to be turned back onto her.
* [[EMF|Electromagnetic interference]] – A ghost's presence can cause electrical interference in the place they are haunting. Ghosts can manipulate electronic equipment to communicate by [[EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon)|EVP]]. They can be detected by the interference they cause with electromagnetic fields through use of an EMF meter.
* Invisibility – Ghosts occupy the space within [[the Veil]], making it impossible for humans to see them. Through practice and intense concentration, a ghost can manifest itself in the living world.
* Perception control – Ghosts such as [[Constance Welch]], [[Timmy's Mother]] and [[Fiona Duncan]] showed the ability to shift their forms from a beautiful young woman to a more monstrous appearance. The ghost of [[John Wayne Gacy]] was also able to manifest in the into a more monstrous form of his clown alter ego, Pogo the Clown.* [[Ghost Possession|Possession]] – Ghosts have the ability to possess humans, a tell tale sign of ghost possession is the sudden secretion of [[ectoplasm]] from the possessed. Possession also extends to inanimate objects, ghosts . Ghosts have been known to possess everything from cars to stereo equipment and computers. A tell tale sign of ghost possession is the sudden secretion of [[ectoplasm]] from the possessed.
* Soul absorption – The spirit of [[Whitman Van Ness]] showed the ability to destroy ghosts and absorb their strength for himself, making him stronger.
* Superhuman strength – Ghosts have strength that far exceeds that of when they were human. The ghost of [[Bobby Singer]] was capable of throwing and keeping down the leader of the [[Leviathans]] [[Dick Roman]]. [[Chester Johnson]] was able to overpower officers while possessing a teenage boy.
The boys commonly force a ghost to move on by [[salt]]ing and burning its corpse. Sam admits that, "My dad always said it's like death for spirits. But the truth is, we never know."<ref name="two16"/> [[Bobby Singer]] later tells [[Annie Hawkins]] that he personally believes that ghosts just cease to be when their bones are burned.<ref name="seven19">[[7.19 Of Grave Importance]]</ref> It has been revealed that when a ghost's remains are burned, a [[reaper]] takes their soul to where it belongs, or as in the case of Bobby Singer, somewhere else if an [[Crowley|outside source]] convinces them to.<ref name="eight19">[[8.19 Taxi Driver]]</ref>
Burning bones is successful in most cases, including those of [[Dr Ellicott]], [[Nurse Glockner]], [[Jonah Greely]] and [[Whitman Van Ness]] and his victims.<ref name="one10"/><ref name="two19"/><ref name="two16"/><ref name="seven19">[[7.19 Of Grave Importance]]</ref> Sometimes, however, an object can anchor a person's ghost in the living realm. With the [[Hook Man Legend|Hook Man]], the Winchesters salt and burn the corpse but also have to melt all the [[silver]] from his hook, due to the hook having been part of him in life as well as being his murder weapon, giving him a deep connection to it.<ref>[[1.07 Hookman]]</ref> [[Cyrus Dorian]] is salted and burnt but only banished when he and his truck are lured onto holy ground.<ref>[[1.13 Route 666]]</ref> In most cases, the object that must be destroyed to force the ghost to move on contains a small amount of DNA that has been preserved. This is true of [[Melanie Merchant]] and [[Dirk McGregor]], whose remaining hair had to be burnt.<ref name="one19">[[1.19 Provenance]]</ref><ref name="four13"/> In the case of [[P.T. Sandover]], his gloves needed to be destroyed, which may have contained some skin cells or fingernail clippings.<ref>[[4.17 It's a Terrible Life]]</ref> In one memorable case, [[Rose Brown]]'s kidney, which she donated to her still living sister, [[Isabel Brown|Isabel]], bound her ghost to a living, moving object. Even though her body is burned by Sam, she cannot be dispatched, and Sam and Dean consider using [[hoodoo]] to keep Rose in check. Before they can explore that option, Isabel's sudden death, caused by Rose herself, forces Rose's ghost to move on.<ref>[[6.14 Mannequin 3: The Reckoning]]</ref> In [[Mary Worthington]]'s case, Sam and Dean were able to turn her power to kill those that have been responsible for other people's deaths with their own reflections back on her by showing her her own reflection.
[[Iron]] repels ghosts. For example, Sam uses an iron poker to protect himself and [[Sarah]] from [[Melanie Merchant]].<ref name="one19"/> The use of iron to repel ghosts has another link with the electromagnetism theory, as striking a ghost with an object made of iron grounds their electric charge, disrupting them and warding them off until they're able to recover. If a person is possessed by a ghost, any contact with iron will repel the spirit from the body, as shown by Sam and Dean using an iron railroad spike to eject [[Chester Johnson]] from the possessed.
Sam and [[Bobby Singer]] also successfully "scare a ghost to death" by making him relive his torture and violent death, thus effectively dispatching him (although they only resorted to this questionable method because the circumstances of his death -- he was dragged behind a car for a prolonged distance- meant that it was unlikely at best that all of his remains had been collected after his demise as parts of him would have been scattered over the road). This only worked due to the fact that that kind of spirit was created from fear and made of fear so it could be killed with fear. Presumably it wouldn't work for every type of spirit.<ref name="four06"/>
Occasionally, a ghost is dispatched when it is forced to deal with its unfinished business.<ref name="three06">[[3.06 Red Sky at Morning]]</ref> Others must make the choice to crossover, like [[Molly McNamara]], [[Cole Griffith]] and [[Timmy's Mother]].<ref name="two16"/><ref>[[4.15 Death Takes a Holiday]]</ref><ref>[[9.07 Bad Boys]]</ref>
==Appearances==
* [[Constance Welch]], the [[Woman in White]] in [[1.01 Pilot]] and , [[14.20 Moriah]] and [[15.01 Back and to the Future]]
* [[Peter Sweeney]] in [[1.03 Dead in the Water]]
* [[Mary Worthington]], aka [[Bloody Mary (urban legend)|Bloody Mary]] in [[1.05 Bloody Mary]] and , [[14.20 Moriah]] and [[15.01 Back and to the Future]]
* [[Jacob Karns]] from the [[Hook Man Legend]] in [[1.07 Hook Man]]
* [[Mary Winchester]] in [[1.09 Home]]
* [[Jordan MacNeel]] in [[14.04 Mint Condition]]
* [[Sarah]] in [[14.12 Prophet and Loss]]
* [[John Wayne Gacy]] in [[14.13 Lebanon]] and , [[14.20 Moriah]] and [[15.01 Back and to the Future]]* [[Francis Tumblety]] and [[Kevin Tran]] in [[15.02 Raising Hell]]* [[Eileen Leahy]] and [[Jacinda]] in [[15.06 Golden Time]]
==Ghosts in Lore==
==See also==
* [[Hell Ghosts]]
* [[Poltergeist]]
* [[Vengeful Spirits]]
