History Main / OurGhostsAreDifferent

* ''Literature/GhostSquad'' follows a group of ghosts who band together for company. They fight crime with the help of living friends who they communicate with via a homebrew word processor. Here, the ghosts are invisible but not intangible, stuck with Jacob Marley apparel, and can only exert a very small amount of physical force at the cost of great effort. A human being touching a ghost feels a slight chill while the ghost feels a cold and sharp pain. Ghosts themselves can interact physically with each other. While lacking psychic abilities, the ghosts are very good at reading facial and body language on account of lacking things like breathing to distract them. Lastly, the ghosts are prone to falling asleep for days at a time, especially after exerting the energy to physically manipulate things.

*** Danny has the "Ghostly wail" which is a powerful [[MakeMeWannaShout sonic attack]], effective on ghosts. This seems also to be a power particular to half-ghost/half-humans.

* ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'' and its related media have hit just about every example on the list, although their ghosts have fewer limitations than others, like when Stay Puft steps on the church in the first film. They even tackled the odd demon here and there, up to and including [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Cthulhu.]] The expanded universe details the nature of ghosts in much greater depth. Ghosts are classified by nature and [[PowerLevels power level]] but to make things confusing the "Class" terminology is used for both. In terms of classification - Class 1 is incomplete manifestations like sounds or lights, Class 2 are partial manifestations like hands or heads, Class 3 are complete humanoid manifestations -- but are spirits representing ideas like Christmas such as the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future from ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'' or greed rather than deceased humans, Class 4 are full-fledged apparitions and the only class that can be determined a traditional ghost of a deceased human, Class 5 (like Slimer) are non-humanoid extradimensional spirits representing emotions or emotionally-charged events (like Gluttony in Slimer's case), Class 6 are the ghosts of animals, and Class 7 are demons and gods. In Power Levels, they're ranked from Class 1 (able to cause minor lights and move small objects) to Class 11 (essentially a god).

** Containment -- a clockpunk house made almost entirely of shatterproof, soundproof glass, the walls of which were covered in spells. This keept the ghosts from moving through them, logically granting said ghosts intangibility.

* ''Literature/CradleSeries'': When something filled with [[{{Mana}} madra]] dies, it leaves behind a Remnant, the remains of its power. Weaker Remnants act completely at random, but stronger ones have some intelligence and are even capable of speech. Notably, Remnants actually get ''stronger'' the longer they last, rather than weaker. Because nearly everything on the planet is filled with madra, nearly everything leaves behind a Remnant. Humans are of course top of the list, but sacred animals (animals that have lived long enough to start using madra) and even sacred ''trees'' leave Remnants. In fact, one of the all-powerful [[PhysicalGod Monarchs]] is the Remnant of a sacred tree; she was murdered, but her Remnant managed to recover her memories and begin advancing again.

* In ''WebOriginal/TheMonsterGirlEncyclopedia'', ghosts are spirits fuse with [[SuccubiAndIncubi Succubi's]] demonic energy, so they are all pervert. At first, they can't interact with the world physically and will [[DemonicPossession possess humans]]. The victim will get his or her mind filled with obscene imaginary from possessing ghost. The ghost will get spirit energy by absorb it from a male host (or during female host's sex act), until it's enough to manifest herself in physical world, then she will engage in sex act directly.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats'' and ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats2011'' have CourtMage Jaga as SpiritAdvisor.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Ghosts appear all over Earth in the season 2 finale of the new series. Subverted, however, in that they are [[spoiler:actually beings from a parallel Earth that haven't quite broken through the barrier between the worlds yet, making their appearance ethereal and roughly humanoid, although specific characteristics are impossible to make out. Of course, this doesn't stop humans from assuming they are literally their dead loved ones returning, even believing they can smell/see certain traits associated with the real person (for example, Rose's mother believes she can smell her father's cigarettes).]]

* ''Film/TrilogyOfTerror'': These are trapped in inanimate objects by magic, but can interact with the world if the gold chain sealing them in is removed. They have fangs, and are capable of possessing the living.

* ''Fanfic/SayItThrice'': A lot of effort has gone into explaining how the residents of [[Film/{{Beetlejuice}} the Netherworld]] and [[WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom the Ghost Zone]] play by different rules - the former are dead souls who aren't made of ectoplasm, are mainly limited to haunts, and are governed by a tightly obstructive CelestialBureaucracy, whereas the latter may be dead people or different supernatural manifestations, are free-roaming and routinely intrude on the living world, and lack any real authority - even King Pariah ruled only by virtue of sheer power. The Netherworld consider the Ghost Zone a dump for things that doesn't belong anywhere else (and actively pretend it doesn't exist, because it's annoying) while the residents of the Ghost Zone either don't know or don't care about the Netherworld.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E70AGameOfPool A Game of Pool]]", Fats Brown comes down from the afterlife as soon as Jesse inadvertently challenges him to a pool game. [[spoiler:Jesse beats Fats and, after he dies, he has to return to Earth every time that he is challenged, having become trapped in a kind of IronicHell.]]
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E85ShowdownWithRanceMcGrew Showdown with Rance McGrew]]", UsefulNotes/JesseJames returns to Earth to tell Rance [=McGrew=] that he, his brother Frank, UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid, Sam Starr and the Dalton brothers, among others, are angry at the inaccurate way in which they are depicted in his show. He eventually assumes the role of [=McGrew=]'s agent to ensure that the series is more accurate from now on.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E99YoungMansFancy Young Man's Fancy]]", [[spoiler:Henrietta Walker's ghost is summoned by her son Alex's strong desire to return to his supposedly idyllic childhood instead of having to face life as a grown man.]]
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E102TheChangingOfTheGuard The Changing of the Guard]]", the ghosts of seven of Professor Ellis Fowler's former students, Artie Beechcroft, Bartlett, Dickie Weiss, Thompson, Rice, Hudson and Whiting, appear to him in order to prevent him from committing suicide. They tell him that his teachings inspired them as he taught them about patriotism, courage, loyalty, ethics and honesty.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E106HesAlive He's Alive]]", the ghost of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler appears to Peter Vollmer in order to help his small, ineffectual neo-Nazi group to grow and gain influence.

** In "Voices in the Earth", the historian Professor Donald Knowles visits the [[EarthThatWas devastated Earth]] aboard a survey ship 1,000 years after [[HomeworldEvacuation humanity abandoned it]]. While exploring the [[UrbanRuins ruins of a library]], the ghosts of people who were unable to get off the planet appear to him. The ghosts' leader explains that they are unable to travel through warp space safely as they have no ships and previous efforts have resulted in either their destruction or insanity. They are therefore tied to Earth but plan to leave it by [[DemonicPossession taking control]] of Knowles' body. However, Knowles is eventually successful in convincing them to use their powers of [[NewEden restore the biosphere]] even though what is left of their consciousness will most likely be destroyed in the process. Before he leaves the living Earth, Knowles assures the ghosts, who may no longer be able to hear him, that humanity will return to reclaim the planet one day as they had hoped.
** In "The Crossing", Father Mark Cassidy is haunted by the apparition of a car containing his long deceased girlfriend Kelly crashing over a cliff. The original accident, which happened more than 20 years earlier, was caused by his [[DrivesLikeCrazy careless driving]]. It is something for which he has been trying to [[TheAtoner atone]] ever since. He finally realizes that the car is appearing to him so that he can get into it and die in the crash, thereby gaining peace and salvation. Several days later, Kelly's ghost is seen at his funeral. She places a rose on his casket as it is being carried out of St. Timothy's Church.
** In "The Hunters", the ghosts of prehistoric hunters inhabit the paintings found on the walls of a 12,000-year-old cave. Every night, they leave the walls and enter the real world to kill animals belonging to the local farmers such as sheep, cattle and a brood mare. The hunters then go back onto the walls before morning, [[CreepyChangingPainting though their positions often change]]. After killing Dr. Klein, they are able to take her back with them onto one of the walls as a trophy. The sheriff seemingly destroys them when he washes away all of the paintings.
** In "There Was an Old Woman", the ghosts of Brian Harris and about a dozen other kids appear to the children's author Hallie Parker in her home and ask her to read to them. Hallie is deeply moved and agrees to do so, [[AgeAppropriateAngst glad that she can once again be useful]].

* In ''Literature/{{Pact}}'', a ghost is explicitly not a soul, but rather an impression left upon the world by a traumatic or inspiring event, formed of a person's memories, which then relives that event over and over and forces others nearby to do the same. This means that, while the majority of ghosts are created by death, it's possible for a ghost to be created from an experience that left the creator alive.

* ''Fanfic/NotTheIntendedUseZantetsukenReverse'': Leon Belmont is a unique case among ghosts as a whole, which thoroughly confused both him and all the other characters. He is ridiculously "long-lived", having lasted around 1000 years since his death, is perfectly sane and has all his memories, having suffered no degration in his soul, and he ''emits Holy magic'' as opposed to being weak by it. This last bit in particular baffles everyone. He also has some limited poltergeist-type powers (being able to interact with objects), but he's not even remotely close to a typical poltergeist. It's suspected that the reason behind all these oddities is a ritual he did while he was alive to bond part of his soul to the Vampire Killer (which in turn is powered by the soul of his late fiancee).

** Overall, there are three main types of ghosts. 1) Ghosts of people/creatures who died, like Poindexter and Cujo. 2) A entity that was never living, but seems to be a unique life-form formed of ectoplasm, who can create races and even reproduce, such as the race of the "Far Frozen". 3) A concept or idea that has taken on conscious form. Clockwork is the ghostly form of Time, Vortex the manifestation of bad weather, etc. Half ghosts (Danny and Vlad) seem to be still-living humans with ectoplasm fused to their DNA in a similar vein as Franchise/SpiderMan.

* ''Series/RoundTheTwist'' varies from episode to episode. It was based on short stories mostly out of continuity with each other, but UnfinishedBusiness is a common theme -- even for a ghost dog and a ''[[WidgetSeries ghost seagull]]''. The ghosts often seem bound by different rules -- some ghosts are mute, whereas others can talk. Then out of the blue there was a (pretty hilarious) episode about a ghost who needed to complete his 'scare test' to get a better site to haunt.

* ''Series/TheRising'': Neve at first doesn't realize she's dead and a ghost, due to feeling just the same initially. She [[TheNeedless doesn't feel hungry, thirsty or tired though]], and also has marks from her fatal injuries but [[FeelNoPain feels no pain]]. Neve is even capable of riding her bike too, and changing clothes, along with affecting material things in other ways. However, people are unable to feel her touch. [[EvilDetectingDog Dogs and birds can sense her]], while only [[ISeeDeadPeople a couple humans can]]. When she gets very emotional, it [[EmotionalPowers can affect nearby electronics]], such as making the lights flicker. She's unable to sleep as well. It appears she's still around to [[UnfinishedBusiness solve her murder]]. Neve is also solid and tangible (thus her ability to ride a motorbike), making her dad believe she isn't a ghost in fact but something else. [[spoiler:Victoria also turns out to be a ghost, with the reveal both of them have lost memories. Initially in Victoria's case she forgot about even her family, while both she and Neve can't initially remember how they died. They realize they're blocking it out, though, and remember Michael murdered them both. They can also harm living people when their emotions are strong.]]