Archetypal Figures as Ghosts...

There is a spirit world. In psychology we refer to it as the collective unconscious, a realm inhabited by archetypal energies. Essentially, they are spirits, and sometimes appear as ghosts. C.G. commented, " . . . I know however that certain archetypal figures of the unconscious literally appear as ghostly controls with materialistic mediums. I can't deny the possibility that certain figures that might appear in our dreams could materialize just as well as ghosts . . . " )C.G. Jung to Dr. L.M. Boyers.)

People are often afraid to admit their experiences of ghosts. We're taught to hold the supernatural at arms length, be critical rather than open. Patients can qualify their experience by saying, "I don't know if I should tell you, but....." They go on to detail hair-raising encounters with ghosts in dreams, sometimes made visible in daily life. Such encounters always carry a message that help a person come to terms with aspects of self and life.

I once was in house said to be haunted. It was a few hundred years old. Not feeling anything particularly supernatural about the place, I turned a corner and saw an old mirror. I told myself that if there were a haunting spirit it probably lived within this ancient glass. I went on with the tour, left the house and didn't think much more about it.

That night while dreaming I found myself back in the house. Nightmarishly dark winds blew along the surrounding countryside. Out from the mirror popped the haunting spirit of the place, completely scaring the wits out of me. She was the ghost, an archetypal figure, of things past, family complexes and a culture oppressed. 

I awoke and realized that I had indeed been correct about the haunting spirit abiding in the mirror. As a therapist and writer, I not only author professional blogs, essays, and research articles, but am a novelist of supernatural fiction. The nightmare helped to guide the next step in the novel I am in the midst of completing. It heightened my sensitivity to the reality of the supernatural and how archetypal figures can often appear as ghosts.