Ghosts, Real or Fantasy?

How often through your life have you questioned or have other people denied the existence of ghosts? What do you know?
    I grew up in a very old ranch house that had once been a stage stop and Indian Trading Post. This house was built in 1912 over the top of the original buildings. The original builders of our home sold it to my grandfather, who passed it onto my father.

As a child I would often hear the sounds of newspapers rattling, cupboards and doors opening and closing, and foot steps downstairs in the main part of the house long after my parents had gone to bed. I would wake my parents to alert them to the fact that someone was downstairs. They would get up and check out the main floor of the house and tell me no one was there- go to sleep. I can’t tell you how often that happened.
There were two entities that would harass my siblings and I at night. One would crush the air from us and then suddenly disappear… just as we thought we would truly die.
    The other entity I was aware of wore a black trench coat and a black fedora. He would stand next to the bed. I don’t know if he tugged at the covers or if I was just busy tucking the covers tightly around me. I imagined I could hear him breathing. I would hold my breath and keep the covers tightly around me. Now here is the fun part…. When I was around 40 years old I took my son to a neighboring ranch for a visit. As my neighbor, then around 82 years old, was visiting she asked why my sister-in-law had been at the Thorne funeral since she knew none of them. Thorne’s were the original builders of our home. I told my neighbor that she was probably just trying to make peace with the ghosts (my brother and his wife were living at the ranch we grew up on). My neighbor immediately said “Wait, wait, what did you say?” I repeated my quip. Then she blew my mind!!!
     My neighbor explained when she was 9 years old she lived in that house for one year. She said back then the railroad had only gone as far as Oak Creek, so hobos would get off the train in Oak Creek and walk the 10 miles to Steamboat Springs on the road that ran by our ranch. She said the hobos would often stop at the house and ask for water or food. So, she at first thought the man wearing the black trench coat and black fedora that would stand by her bed was one of those hobos that had come into the house at night. She then went on to describe how she would tuck the covers in tightly around her and hold her breath until she fell asleep or passed out! Imagine my shock that not only did she describe my childhood ghost 40 + years prior to my experience, but also described exactly what I had done in its presence! That was the first time I knew beyond doubt that I was not imagining the ghosts.
    Since then I have learned how to be more comfortable with ghosts. The Shaman I trained with helped me to understand that they are just people without bodies. They typically wish no harm, are everywhere, and are opportunists when it comes to energies that match the body they lost. In other words, if you are an angry person, you will invite entities that in their life were angry. If a person is suicidal, they will attract the entities that committed suicide. You get the idea.