Quick question: Would Psyniscience detect ghosts*?

* Spectres, apparitions, poltergeists etc. Not Warp entities or psychic manipulations.

If the Spectres/Ghosts are not warp creatures or has some psychic connection to the warp then no, psyniscience will not detect them. For psyniscience to detect something there must be some connection to the warp.

However, wouldn´t ghost be rather strongly warp-related since they are, in essence, souls stuck in the material world?

Storhamster said:

That'd be my guess as well - how could you explain ghosts or related phenomena if not with the warp and/or related psychic energies?

(and suddenly, visions of the Emperor get a whole new meaning)

Storhamster said:

To be honest, I don't know. I figured that a ghost doesn't necessarily have any link to the Warp; if it did, why wouldn't it become maddened/corrupted by the Warp's taint? Historically (real world, if you choose to believe in ghost stories) not all apparitions are malicious. Some may be benevolent, some apathetic, and some aren't even aware of the material plane around them except on the most basic level.

Alternatively to them being some abstract non-Warp entity, could it be justified that a Psyker encountering a ghost would not have his Psyniscience go haywire?

The Warp isn't all maddening, so Warp Entities don't have to be malicious... They are just creatures of emotion. Usually that emotion comes in the form of bad ones, but it is just as easy for weak shadows of people's emotions to remain... Which are basically ghosts.

But if you are having these ghosts being souls or anything like them, then they are Warp Entities...

Diel Ulricsson said:

I remember this theory - basically very much like in the movie Sphere , with people "damning themselves" because their nature doesn't allow them to make use of this gift, instead mainly projecting negative emotions from deep down their subconscious mind and thus "tainting" the warp.

This touches a bit on another subject that was discussed on the forum some time ago - Living Saints as "Anti-Daemons" , borne out of semi-positive emotions (hope, devotion, compassion) of the faithful masses gathered in a Crusade during a crisis, instead of negative ones (despair, greed, sadism) of a settlement's normal population that make up the majority of daily life.

Well basically I always saw the Warp as a realm of emotion... Daemons happen to exist because the more active emotions are more prominent, and therefore lash out on the world... Plus, the creation of the Chaos Gods kicked up the waters of the Warp a little...