I have a few thoughts on this topic. I’ll share them, but take everything with a grain of salt. I’m no theologian.
One thing people usually picture when they bring up ghosts is the grainy afterimage type of situation, where one can see a “ghost” performing some specific action related to their lives, such as legends about plantations that have ghostly Civil War soldiers walking through the property and what have you. I do not consider these to be at all impossible. However, I do not consider them spirits in any way. If such phenomena are real, I do not believe them to be sentient, spiritual, or anything of that nature. A video can be recorded and replayed over and over again, and shows the same thing every time. If you decide to watch
The Godfather, the actors are not continually performing the same actions in order to play the movie. It’s a recording of something that happened at a point in time and can be reviewed visually. Same idea as with a photograph, essentially. My opinion is that this kind of “ghost” is essentially a quantum photograph or video recording. The information that was created/existed while the “ghost” was performing the action that people claim to have seen is not the soul or spirit of that long-deceased soldier walking through a house, it’s just a video feed, essentially. I have no science whatsoever to back any of this up, mind you, but it’s just my rationalization for if such things were to happen. I’ve never seen it myself, so I don’t even necessarily think it possible, but time and information in the universe in a quantum sense is a pretty complex topic. I wouldn’t consider it impossible, and I also wouldn’t consider it related in any way to the soul of the person viewed.
As far as the more interactive idea of ghosts, we, as Catholics,
do believe in souls and the idea that our lives do not end with our death. But we believe that a soul either goes to Purgatory>Heaven upon death, or that it goes to Hell. The soul does not stay on Earth in so literal a sense as to become some sort of interactive invisible entity. For one, there is little to no reason for a soul to want to do that in the first place, although I’m sure God would allow some sort of sign to comfort the loved ones of the deceased, though we shouldn’t expect such a thing to occur. But to entertain that a soul can remain on Earth after the death of their body is not Catholic thought, at least in the way that Ghost Adventures and other such shows propose. I should also point out that apparitions are very different from pop culture ghosts. Many Vatican exorcists believe that tipping chairs, as in your example, would be a sign of demonic activity. Personally, I’m of the opinion that a lot of things can cause chairs to fall over, most of which are not demons, and none of which are human souls.
I have read an account of Eugenie von der Leyen, a German noblewoman to whom God allowed souls from Purgatory to appear, in order to ask her to pray for them essentially. Several of her descriptions remark that the experience was (understandably) quite frightening for her. With this in mind, it could be good practice to pray for a soul in Purgatory when you watch shows like this and start questioning their validity. Or even just in general; the Holy Souls need our prayers. I’m personally quite certain that even if they aren’t staged, there are still myriad explanations for unusual events that don’t resort to claims of supernatural activity.
A few good prayers for the souls in Purgatory that, according to the Enchiridion of Indulgences have partial indulgences attached, are the Memorare, the Hail Holy Queen, and the prayer for eternal rest, which is “Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithfully departed, through the Mercy of God, rest in peace.” There are a lot more, of course, but the Enchiridion won’t fit within the character limit.
