This is pretty basic stuff. Ghosts tend to be defined by
A.) what they are up to now
and by B.) how they died.
I would add by C.) how they are experienced or encountered by the living.
I have very detailed stories (collected from the people who experienced them) of each.
Let’s go with A.) for now. Ghost Types by What They Are Up To.
1. Stuck Ghosts. Going about their normal routine as if alive. These ghosts seem to get stuck in the real world somehow.
Some are stuck in their favorite earth places. I hear story after story of kitchen ghosts. They just like being there. I also hear of ghosts attached to a particular piece of furniture (watch out for rocking chairs, Lay-Z Boy recliners, and beds!) and small objects, including jewelry.
2. Dying-Again Ghosts. Over and over and over again. Popular, as an idea anyway, on ghost tours.
3. Searching Ghosts. They're looking for something and aren't going away until they find it.
4. Comfort Ghosts. Relatives and loved ones who drop by to let you know that everything is okay and it is time for you to quit grieving.
5. Protecting-You or Warning-You Ghosts. A ghost who appears to keep a wandering child safe from the cliff's edge is an example.
6. Mean Ghosts. They just want attention and don't care how they get it.
7. Sad Ghosts. These ghosts are stuck in re-living their most sorrowful moments in life. You hear them weeping. Oh, and weeping... and weeping some more.
8. Message Ghosts. They have a message for you, specifically for you. Often a relative. They tell you where money is hidden, for example.
9. Messenger Ghosts. They have a message for you. But the message is from someone else, usually dead. Really rare, these courier ghosts are absolutely scream-scary when the messenger is a stranger ghost.
10. Explaining Ghost. This ghost wants someone, anyone, to know what really happened.
Even from this general list, you can see that there are two very basic types of ghosts that people experience:
1. Ghosts who are stuck where they are.
2. Ghosts who go away.
As I hear people tell me of their own ghost encounters, my first division as to type is between ghosts of people you know and ghosts of strangers.
11. Ghost Animals. They fit almost all of the above and include beloved family-member dogs and cats, but also horses and, yes, even cows. I have heard of two first-person encounters with bovine boo-critters.
12. Animal Ghosts. These are people ghosts using the form of an animal to visit you. Common as a comfort ghost, as well. You run across a talking dog, it may not be the dog who is doing the talking.
13. Finally, experiences of God, angels, faeries, cognition of living people in dire straights far away, etc. seem to share some phenomena with ghost experiences. They are different and I don't include them in my own catalog of first-person ghost encounters.
Some people like to say spirits are not tied to earth, ghosts are. I personally think there's a little more overlap than that. I accept that ghosts might make a visit in your dreams (what others would call spirit encounters).
