As I argued recently in Spirit Worlds modern science allows the possibility of alternate worlds that can communicate with ours  and the logical possibility that the universe is full  of normally undetectable sentient beings. Skeptics dismiss any evidence  for either possibility as fraud or self deception, and not always without reason.  Unfortunately many skeptics seem to be driven by a desire to disbelieve as strong as the desire to believe that drives many of the people they criticise.  For me however the totality of the evidence  suggests either that Spirits exist or that the unconscious mind can exercise psychic powers vastly greater than those observed  either in the laboratory or in daily life.

    Here  I want to look very briefly at some evidence that spirits can be created, and that once created they can take a life of their own, I  then try to classify created spirits  and speculate on why the spirit world bothers with us

    The reports I have found of created spirits seem concentrated on Tibetan techniques but there seem to be similar tales throughout the world. In Magic and Mystery in Tibet Alexandra David Neel describes her experiment  in creating a thought form and   in Magical Use of Thought forms Ashcroft-Nowicki describes the process of creating a Yidam or deity and  notes the Tibetan  belief even the most powerful deities are creations of the human mind. Or, as is popularly said, “Man creates God in his own image”  From Toronto comes  the creation of Philip of Diddington, an imaginary character created by the Toronto Society of Psychical Research, and their later creation of a second character called Lilith. In all cases a being seems to have been created and then developed an independent life of its own. Apparently  only a few of these, including Alexandra David Neel's creation  hasve been able to manifest independently of their creators. 

    Redfern (Paranormal Magazine  30 December 2008) notes  creation of spirits  was discussed by Helen Blavatsky and   discussed in a 1901 book  Thought Forms  by  Besant and Leadbetter  that  notes that the matter of the Astral plane is very susceptible to the influence of human thought. Ashcroft-Nowicki and Brennan  (Magical Use of Thought forms) say the Astral plane is an old term for the world of the imagination, and  of course the world of the imagination  can be moulded by the imagination.  To me it seems likely  that this world of the imagination overlaps the world where Jungian Archetypes live  and ( I want to emphasise that this  is speculation, at this point)  the world where the spirits that Shamans contact live: Rabbit, Raven, Eagle,Monkey and so forth. In fact Rabbit, Raven and their like seem very much like unrecognised Jungian Archetypes. 

The possibility humans create spirits is a possible answer to the question “Why do they bother with us?”. For example in the Old Testament JHWH is said to have created the universe and humanity but nowhere does it say WHY. More, I do not know any creation myth that says WHY we were created. But if we were created with the ability to create spirits the inhabitants of the Spirit World have an incentive to deal with us. Again this is speculation and may not be the the answer or only be part of the answer.

We can classify spirits along various dimensions, one of which is the degree of reality they possess. At one end we have beings, very like psychological complexes, that live in a single human mind but are not controlled by their host. Multiple Personality Disorder may involve beings of this type. Further along the scale we have beings that seem to be able to live in the common imagination of humanity, a sort of pool of consciousness to which all humans have access. Jung's archetypes may be examples . Further along we have creature like Philip and Lilith with a life of their own and a limited ability to manifest in this universe. Next come creatures like David-Neel's Tulpa which was seen by people who did not know it existed or the alleged guardians of ancient sites. And then there are poltergeists who have strong powers of manifestation. It is even possible there are some spirits that can manifest in the world so strongly that they pass for normal humans. At the high end of this spectrum would be deities and demons for whom this world might be as unreal as a video game. In Terry Pratchett's book Mort, Death's Apprentice becomes so real he can walk through solid matter: just because we are real it does not follow that we are the most real things in the multiverse.

Another axis is the degree to which the spirit has been deliberately created. I think many poltergeists are an example of unconscious creation, although sometimes groups of low order spirits may use the psychic energy of a dysfucntional family or original to create psychic phenomena.

A spirit may have many attributes and two important ones are their power and their attitude to Humanity. There will be some that like us and some that hate us. There will be a most powerful one that hates us and a most powerful one that likes us. If you are a Christian you can if you wish identify these with God and Satan but it is unlikely they are anything like the beings the Bible describes. The spirit we create may be benign or malevolent and which it is is largely beyond conscious control. If you hate yourself any spirit you create may well hate you.

To summarise there is evidence spirits can be created and once created can take on a life of their own and have a varying ability to  influence our world. The ability to create spirits may be the reason the spirits bother with humanity.  The nature of a created spirit  seems to  be controlled by the intent, as in the case of Philip and Lilith, and the influences from the creator's unconscious