I think there is truth in what you both say .... However in my opinion we do not know the shape evil spirits take there is much we do not know about the spiritual realm and its often difficult to separate fact from fiction ... The bible does tell us a few things one as Gumby points out we are not to have anything to do with these things... But if we are warned not to have anything to do with a thing ...Now as far as the dead being dead .... May I suggest you might read the of Saul and the Witch of Endore. She is said to have conjured up the dead spirit of Samuel. A medium (such as the witch of Endor) was a person thought to have the power to communicate with the spirits of the dead. (Isaiah 8:19; 19:3; 29:4) it would seem these ghosts if one wants to call them that are called familiar spirits in scripture.You will notice that
in verse 15 of chapter 28 of I Samuel that the apparition appearing as Samuel addresses Saul in this manner; “why has thou disquieted me, to bring me up?, and, why then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is thine enemy?”Here is a little on the Story of Saul and the witch if you want to read it ..
http://www.christianityboard.com/topic/4865-saul-&-the-witch-of-endor/page__p__26851__hl__witch__fromsearch__1&#entry2685
Was this truly Samuel Saul got in touch with especially since in scripture at Psalm 115:17 we read: “The dead themselves do not praise YHWH nor do any going down into
silence of death. Is this scripture a lie? It says when a human being dies they can't praise the true God because any human being that dies remains silent in death.
Also other passages of the Holy Scriptures shed light on the matter. First, it is clear that what Saul did in consulting a spirit medium was a violation of God’s law. Both spirit mediums and those consulting them were judged guilty of a capital offense. (Leviticus 20:6, 27) God’s law to Israel stated: “Do not turn yourselves to the spirit mediums, and do not consult professional foretellers of events, so as to become unclean by them.” (Leviticus 19:31) “When you are entered into the land that Jehovah your God is giving you, you must not learn to do according to the detestable things of those nations. There should not be found in you . . . anyone who consults a spirit medium or a professional foreteller of events or anyone who inquires of the dead.”(Deuteronomy 18:9-11; Isaiah 8:19, 20)
If spirit mediums could actually get in touch with the dead, why, then, did God’s law label their practice as something “unclean,” “detestable” and deserving of death? If the communication were with dead loved ones, for example, why would a God of love designate this as a terrible crime? Why would he want to deprive the living of getting some comforting messages from the dead? Does not God’s view indicate that people are not really talking to the dead but that a terrible deception must be involved? Scriptural evidence shows that is the case.
Against this background, consider the case of Saul. Regarding divine communication with him, Saul acknowledged: “God himself has departed from me and has answered me no more, either by means of the prophets or by dreams; so that I am calling you [Samuel] to let me know what I shall do.” (1 Samuel 28:15) Obviously, God would not allow a spirit medium to get around this divine cutoff of communication by getting in touch with a dead prophet and having him deliver a message from God to Saul. Then, too, during the latter part of his life, Samuel himself, a faithful prophet of God, had ceased to have any dealings whatsoever with Saul. Would it not be unreasonable, therefore, to conclude that Samuel was willing to speak with Saul by means of a spirit medium, an arrangement that was condemned by God?
Obviously, there must have been deception involved, something so unclean that spirit mediums and those consulting them merited the death sentence. That same deception must be behind claimed communication with the dead today.
So king Saul was a unfaithful servant of God who violated God’s command not to consult spirit mediums. He appealed to a medium, a woman who seemed to communicate with a deceased man of God named Samuel! But did she actually contact Samuel? No! She was, in fact, communicating with an impostor, someone impersonating dead Samuel. We have to remember that this woman described the person she saw and king Saul assumed it was Samuel.
That impostor was a wicked spirit, an agent of “the father of the lie” who's name is Satan. (John 8:44) Why do the wicked spirits, or demons, promote the view that the dead live on? Their goal is to malign God and discredit his written Word, the Bible.(2 Timothy 3:16)