"Lower spirits are those beings without physical forms whose sanskaras remain to be wiped out. They cannot progress after death until their unfinished sanskaras are worked out. As a consequence, they wander about on the lower Astral plane. For this reason, they are a source of harassment to living people.
"Suppose a man is destined to have a life span of forty years, but he commits suicide when he is thirty. Consequently, for the remaining ten year period of unexpressed sanskaras, his spirit inhabits the lower planes, and at times is seen by some people as a spirit or ghost. To hold seances or to talk with the dead is no great thing, because such spirits are always among us on this living plane.
Ghosts are people who have committed suicide and have no body. They enter another body, and then make the body of whomsoever they enter do as they wish.
Garrett Fort: What is meant by possession?
Baba: There are certain cases where the Gross body is compelled to drop before the person's sanskaras are completely used up. Such is the case when a person commits suicide. The body is gone, but the momentum of all the impressions goes on. The person is now a ghost. The ghost wants to drink, eat, etc., very, very badly. So much so that it takes to unnatural resources by entering someone else's body. It awaits its opportunity. When it finds you drinking it satisfies its desire by drinking through you, your body. When it has to experience anger, then when you are angry it experiences it through you, your body. This is a fact.
"Why be afraid of ghosts? A ghost means a human being without a body, and in that bodiless state he has to remain as long as the sanskaras of his previous birth last. Then he takes another birth.
"Ghosts are miserable. They have desires, like any of us. They try to come in contact with human beings to fulfill their desires. When it is dark and silent, their Subtle, smoky bodies become transparent. You have Gross, Subtle and Mental bodies. They have only Subtle and Mental bodies. but these are not as limited as the Gross. When stretched out, their Subtle body stretches out in all directions - upward and sideways. That makes you shiver and scream when you see them like that. Depending on their surroundings, darkness and quietude, they can be seen. Their bodies can enlarge and shrink. That is why in dreams the Subtle bodies go anywhere, stretching out and out. They can also be photographed in suitable conditions, depending upon the surroundings, time, light, and the photographer.
"Ghosts are departed spirits who have been too much attached to the Gross world. After dropping the physical body, they still desire to live in close contact with the Gross. They continue to gravitate in the lower Subtle and Astral planes. Their Astral sheath or envelope is automatically actuated by the impressions concerning the Gross, and keeps them tied down to the Gross for long periods."
