I "see" (not clearly, physically see as that isn't my gift, like Maz has, but my other senses is how I interact with them) those in my family who have passed, on a very regular basis, including the ones that I'd never met. There was a huge contingency at the last family funeral I went to, same as in hospital rooms when a family member is sick (not necessarily dying). They are invited to every major family event, when they don't show up is when you need to see if the event happening should really go ahead or not. In every failed marriage in our family, on the wedding day, 2 "visitors" have attended as a warning, the rest stay away.

As for the ones I go hunting/looking for, they are usually attached to a place or their grave. It is interesting coming in contact with those who have had violent lives/deaths and the energies that they can raise. Sometimes it is so oppressive that you can't breathe. I've had a friend pushed into a creek by one "entity" one night, we have all since learnt to bring spare clothes when going hunting. I love pre-dawn at a cemetery with lots of old graves, watching the spirits return to their homes as the sun rises.

My grandmother taught me, when I was on her knee, that if there is a ghost around that you don't want there, to acknowledge its presence and nicely ask it to go away. Sometimes they do right away, other times they request a bit of help before leaving, either to help them realise that they are dead, or to pass on a message. Or in my case when I was about 4, I got told that this ghost was supposed to be around me for the next few years, which it was and it happily went away when I hit puberty.

I also have spirit guides, totem animals and guardians which aren't part of the ghost contingency around.