I believe in spirits wholeheartedly.
Being Puerto Rican, it was something that wasn't uncommon to encounter when I was a child.
My mom used to be a medium when I was just a kid...and she could see them sometimes.
It was a power she couldn't understand when she was younger. She thought she was hallucinating when spirits would come to her, and thought she was going insane...so she was in therapy for about two years. But long story short, she met up with people who helped her understand she had a gift, and not mentally ill.
When I was 7 years old, I experienced my first phenomenon. Mind you, I have never actually SEEN the spirit itself, but things that would happen while the spirit was there.
My mom and I were in our living room one winter, when she says to me in Spanish "someone's here for some light", and she pointed towards her bedroom down the hall. At that moment, the bedroom door FLEW open, not slowly creaked open , but flew open. We were the only two in the apartment, and no wind could have caused it because as I said it was winter and all the windows were shut.
My mom spend the rest of that day explaining to me about certain things, and I would be unafraid about subsequent encounters as a result of that.
By the way, what my mom meant by "someone's here for some light" was that infrequently, a spirit would come to my mom for guidance, and she would light a candle for it and say a prayer, and the spirit would leave.
I saw much, but the last time EVER I was privy to phenomena was when my cousin committed suicide when I was 18, and the light went out in my bedroom two nights later. My mom told me he was sitting on my bed, and he wanted my forgiveness so he could go in peace (whole other story I won't go into here).
After that, I haven't encountered anything else for some reason.
My mom had to give up being a medium when I was 13, because she suffered a small heart attack while she was channeling a spirit during one of her seance/meetings (a group of them would meet every Saturday night....yet ANOTHER story I won't go into, lol).
But even after she stopped, she still saw spirits, and still helped them off with a little light and a prayer.
My race, as with other Hispanic races, used to breed a lot of mediums way back in the day, but it's been an ability that has been lost through subsequent generations.
Anyhoo, I hope I haven't bored anybody with all this, but let me tell ya, spirits are real, and they aren't necessarily evil, at least not in my experience.
Feel free to PM me if anyone has any questions.
Good thread here, keep it going, the paranormal can be very fascinating.