Price explains that there are two categories of "ghostly" manifestations people on Earth experience: (1) etheric memories and (2) Earthbound spirits.
- Etheric memories
The Earth is enveloped in an "ether," he explains. It is intermingled with the environment, suggesting that it is separate, rather like air. He is apparently using "ether" as a borrowed term for something we don't have a term to describe. The ether was used to describe an invisible, unmoving substance that allowed light waves to pass through space, but the concept of an ether was discredited in the nineteenth century and disposed of by Einstein in the twentieth century. This ether Price describes is not the same as that ether, but it fits for his purposes.
The ether, he explains, has enduring memory, especially for emotionally charged events such as violent deaths. When the conditions are right, this enduring memory can appear as an apparition, rather like a movie projected on space-time of the event that happened. Where battles have been fought, the memory image of whole armies can appear from the ether, then disappear. His accounts square with what countless people have described through the centuries in places where tragedies have occurred or battles have been fought. Whole regiments have been seen at Gettysburg, for example.
These apparitions, he goes on to say, have no power and cannot speak. The spirits of the people are not present. These are "etheric memories," devoid of life.
Exorcisms have no effect on etheric manifestations. There is no living entity there to exorcize. However, the memory in the ether can be changed by having people come to the place with positive attitudes and love. That will help to change the ether to eliminate the memories.
- Earthbound spirits
Earthbound spirits, on the other hand, are the spirits of the deceased returning to Earth because of some unfinished business or an attachment to Earth. He and others in the Leslie Flint recordings explain that when a person makes the transition out of the body, only the body drops off. The mental, emotional, and spiritual self are still exactly as they were before the transition. Some people don't realize they've died for days or weeks.
The person then begins to make the mental, emotional, and spiritual transition to the afterlife. That takes learning and counseling from loved ones and "guides" who accept this role as part of their mission in life. The deceased must learn just as people on Earth learn and grow. Over time, they can grow away from the Earthly existence and learn to accept their new existence in the afterlife. There, they continue their spiritual growth until they make the transition from that plane to the next, where they continue their growth in new circumstances.
Those who make the death transition are provided with whatever they need to make an easy transition. They are not dropped into a markedly different environment that would startle or frighten them because of its strangeness. After death, they may remain on the Earthly plane, just without a body, because they believe they are still alive. If they were prepared for death, or if they are ready because of their mental state at death or soon thereafter, they find themselves away from the Earth, in surroundings that are very pleasant, warm, and peaceful, but similar to what they were accustomed to on Earth. Loved ones or guides are available when they need them. If they feel the need for a cup of tea, it's provided for them, although when they grow past that, they'll realize they don't need to eat or drink. During their transition, food and drink are provided to help them ease into their new being.
At the same time, they are able to walk around on the Earthly plane exactly as they did when using a body. They can get into cars, sit, wait while transported, and get out, just as they did when using a body. They cannot touch objects, and people they encounter are not aware of their presence. If they found themselves away from the Earthly plane after their passing, they can by their intention or thought, return to look in on loved ones. A guide may be necessary to help them learn to do that. They can return to the earthly plane any time they wish, and do receive thoughts and love from people still on the Earth that draw them to the Earthly plane.
After a while, most people tire of trying to speak to their loved ones or going to their favorite places on Earth because the exercise is pointless. Days or weeks of wandering around the Earth plane without being able to communicate with people becomes frustrating. However, that frustration causes the person to grow out of the desire to remain on the Earthly plane, making the person ready to leave the Earthly plane. By that thought, the person is able to go on to the next plane where he or she begins the new life in the afterlife. The person can return at any time and visit loved ones, but after a while, many feel no need or desire to. People in the afterlife communicate through thoughts, however, so thoughts from a loved one or medium canbring them back to the Earthly plane.
Some people who make the death transition leave behind unfinished business. It may be a loved one they cannot bear to leave, a perpetrator who was responsible for their death, money they didn't tell anyone about, a wrong not righted, or any other personal issue that holds them to the Earth. They then may have difficulty leaving the Earthly plane. They may wander around for weeks or years trying to contact people to get a message across so they can finish their unfinished business. Harry Price describes a nun who kept returning to the scene of her murder for centuries. This person is described as "Earth bound." However, as with all activities in eternal life, the person makes his or her own decisions and so is not forced to go away from the Earthly plane. When the person grows to the point of making the choice to go on, that will happen automatically, without effort.
Nearly all of these Earthbound spirits, Price explains, are not malevolent. They may make great efforts to communicate, and may be successful when conditions are right, such as when the living person is dreaming or through a medium who is able to receive the deceased's thoughts. At times, to attract attention, the deceased use the power available from some living person to move objects or make sounds in an effort to communicate, but the motive is usually not evil. His words match our knowledge of poltergeist activity. We know that poltergeists are usually associated with a young person who has emotional turmoil. The young person, Price explains, has some medium of psychic ability that isn't apparent, but provides the power for a spirit to act on the physical environment, resulting in objects moving. Without that power from the person, most spirits are unable to affect the Earthly plane, although some do.
Price also explains that the Earthbound spirits who want to stay close to the Earth because they miss what they did on Earth may find some living person to influence to continue, vicariously, the activities and pleasure from them. The afterlife functions on thought. It is possible for a person in the afterlife to influence living people's thoughts if they are open to suggestion by focusing their thoughts on them. That is true of good thoughts as well as bad.
Those in the afterlife can provide beneficial thoughts for writers, poets, designers, scientists, people in distress, and anyone else for whom the positive or creative thoughts will be beneficial, and they do so. Some who have spoken from the afterlife in Leslie Flint's seances tell us that many of the great discoveries of humankind resulted from influences on the thought of the discoverer from those on the other side. That squares with the comment from many great minds that their inspirations seem to come to them "from out of the blue" when they're most relaxed and not focusing on anything. At those moments, they're most open to influence from those in the afterlife.
However, when some living person is open to disruptive, dangerous, or destructive thoughts or behavior, they may be receptive to the influence of someone in the afterlife who is Earthbound and is himself thrilled by disruptive, dangerous, and destructive behavior. The spirit may lead the living person to do disruptive, dangerous, or destructive things, but cannot make them act in that way and can only influence someone who already has that inclination. If the living person is already open to such influence, Price explains, it can come and cause great problems for the living person.
If manifestations occur from an Earthbound spirit, the person can be helped to take care of the unfinished business or mature beyond the Earthly plane by people on the Earthly plane. However, Price comments that religious exorcisms have no effect. At times, the manifestation may be intentional to draw the clergy into thinking seriously about the afterlife and growing spiritually to understand that the afterlife is an imminent reality.
Harry Price (1881-1948) engaged in a seance in 1963 specifically to talk with George Woods and Betty Green about ghosts. Price was one of the most influential figures in the early years of ghost research. He was a skilled magician and sought to identify fraud where it manifested itself and separate real ghostly encounters from fabrications (Harry Price the Psychic Detective. Sutton Publishing: 2006). As a result of his interest in ghosts while alive, he apparently felt himself qualified to speak about ghosts now that he had the perspective from the afterlife.