The name of the phenomenon comes from the superstitious belief that a witch - or an old hag - sits or "rides" the chest of the victims, rendering them immobile. Although that explanation isn't taken very seriously nowadays, the perplexing and often very frightening nature of the phenomenon leads many people to believe that there are supernatural forces at work - ghosts or demons. The 'Old Hag" Syndrome

The above paragraph came from the website listed at the end. I thought it was a good way to start this off. I gotta say too, a killer tune to listen to while reading this would be a song called Black Ghost, YouTube - ‪Gay dad Black Ghosts‬‎ So, there that is.

Remember that part at the end of the sixth sense? Where Haley Joel Osment realizes Bruce Willis is a ghost and tells him the best time to talk to his living wife, is while she is asleep. I gotta say, in retrospect, that was brilliant.

Have you ever done a open eye meditation? Eye movement instantly snaps you out of meditation, strangely, it is harder to keep your eyes still while they are closed, as such, open eye meditation works wonders. I get mine from Carlos Castaneda, my favorite is using a small pebble to stare at to exclusian of everything else. The pebble, especially granite, absorbs your energy and starts to feel like a part of you, making it a deeper, easier meditation.

After doing this for a while (each person is different), the pebble being filled with energy from staring at it becomes "wavy" in a short while, everything becomes "wavy", I do believe this is a field that connects all living things. I suppose that is debatable though. After doing this meditation for a few years. Thirteen to be exact, the following took place.

I was lying in bed, open eye meditating on the cieling. I was staring at a piece of protruding stucco instead of a small pebble.
I then saw a tether of sorts, coming down from the cieling, what looked like the bottom of a old ragged cotton skirt, but more tentacle like. It was not unlike an eye floaty.
Transluscent and strangely searching. I normally blink stuff like this away. And I'm sure I could have done so this time as well, but some small part of me said go with it. So instead of shaking away the sight of this belt like apendige I went with it.

The aparition went away on it's own, so, I continued with my meditation. I didn't think anything too wierd about it, but now I was noticing a red tint that was blinking on everything about once a second.
I only barely noticed it, and thought with barely any significance that it must be my heart pumping blood into my retina. And then I saw a skeletal face in the red blinking tint.

You know those guys who read way too much? I'm one of those guys. I'm not flattering myself here, I actually think it counter productive to read too much.
Well, regardless, I for some reason, knew that this was an entitiy straight out of the tibetan book of the dead. A preta-loka. A hungry ghost.
Mind you I had never seen one before. I had never seen anything like this before. As as a neophyte in reiki I did something intuitive, I held out the palms of my hands and said "You don't have to take my energy, I'll give it to you".
I then watched my energy flow into the palms of this entity. I watched my energy flowing up his arms and giving his shoulders form.

I say this because, almost every single night terror I have had since, I could attribute to a ghost.
Upon waking I would sense their presense, and with a little effort, I could see them as well.
But although night terrors for me are extremely rare, a ghost in my dreams, is not. Most emotionally intense dreams I have of any kind I will wake up and notice a ghost in my room.
The Tibetan book of the dead states that ghosts who refuse to pass into the next world are disconnected from the life force of creation, and as such, must take it from the living. This is most easilly done by elliciting an emotional responce from a living person ie fear, terror, love, sensuality, sexuality, shame, inadequacy.

As a last message, if you want to see a ghost for your self. And that's entirely up to you, (carefull they may really like you after this).
This may seem counter productive, but after meditating and gaining stillness of mind, sit in complete darkness.
Ghosts are easiest to see in complete darkness. Willingly giving ghosts energy is an intoxicant most ghosts are incapable of refusing. So the palms facing outwards and projecting energy in the dark is a sure fire way to get some results.