If their consciousness is present, isn't that their spirit? How can they be conscious if their life (spirit) isn't there?
Well, we don't know for sure if consciousness is the same as spirit. Perhaps it is, I don't know. All we have are theories and conjecture at this point. In all my years of investigating the paranormal, I have only came across a very few cases where the "spirit/ghost" demonstrated an intelligence and a desire to interact with people. Most cases (where we found actual phenomena occurring) seemed to be residual in nature, just like a replay of a movie.
Now, here is where it gets tricky....and I think that a lot of paranormal researchers/investigators are missing the boat on this: If the spirit/ghost is an intelligent haunting, then isn't it possible that it has carried over certain traits/ attributes from when it was alive? What I am referring to is FREE WILL. Perhaps there are a lot of ghosts around all the time, but they
choose not to be noticed. Once again, it's just a theory.
But back to the topic about treasure: I researched a local story for years about gold hidden in a cave by the Cherokee. Years ago some Native Americans came hunting a cave, describing landmarks to my great-grandfather. They never found it, but years later a relative was walking down a steep hillside in the woods. He was making his way down when he stepped on a large flat rock that slid down the hillside, uncovering a small cave. He slid inside and looked around, and was stunned to see the assortment of arrowheads, axes, tools, etc that had been placed in the cave. No gold though....
A few years ago my grandfather took me to the cave, as it is on his property. The cave isn't big, you sit down to slide into it, but once in you can stand up if you aren't too tall. It's about 3-4 feet wide with rock shelves on each wall where the artifacts were placed. It goes back maybe 20-25 feet then stops.
A few days after being shown the cave, I was thinking about it and suddenly had an exciting thought....the back wall of the cave was dirt, not rock! What if the gold in the story had been hidden deeper in the cave, then the passage filled to appear as if it was a dead end? A trusted friend and I went back to the cave with a shovel, but there wasn't enough elbow room to use it effectively, so I went back home and got a pick. Going back to the cave, we realized that digging was going to be very slow indeed, as there was just enough room to swing the pick maybe a foot per swing....but I was determined to see if this was the cave in the story. After digging for several minutes and at last making some room to swing a little harder, I swung the pick and buried the point in the wall. At that moment there was a rumble like thunder. My friend went out to see if it was looking rainy, as we had a hike back to the car. Coming back in, he said there were no clouds and the sun was shining. Shrugging my shoulders, I swung the pick....and as it hit the rumble got louder, almost deafening. By this time, I was spooked, and turned to see if my friend was feeling the same. He was already out of the cave and running down the hill (some friend).
I've never been back to the cave. It's on family property, so I'll get back there some day. Looking back, perhaps the rumble wasn't due to a Native American curse. It may have been echoes of my digging.....on the other side of the sealed tunnel.
Then again.....