I just made stuff up.
Each haunt is different, and they have specific ways they can be dealt with, but in order to keep the party involved I ad-hoc'd a lot of things.
There is no one way I know that works on all of them other than channelling energy or the Haunt Siphons. I actually put 2 more of these in than what the book intended to give.
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Haunts can only be dealt with in 2 ways... the first being Positive Energy, which is only a temporary solution. There is no other way to "damage" a haunt. If the DM is doing things correctly and a player uses positive energy to "kill" a haunt, the haunt resets in the room after a certain amount of time. As Wraithstrike has said, the only way to permanently get rid of a haunt is by doing something determined by the DM. Usually you will get some sort of clue as to what exactly that is.
I'd like to share an example of a haunt that I have planned for my players in the near future (but don't tell them! Shh!). There is an ancient "city of the dead" they will soon need to track down and investigate to progress the story. The long lost city is mainly in ruins now, and it is filled with haunts of its denizens from centuries past. The people of the city were wiped out by a plague of flesh-eating beetles, but the twist is that a traitor in their midst actually RELEASED the swarm on purpose. The people found out before they died, and made sure the traitor went down with them.
Now when the players find the place, they will need to deal with the haunts before they can even take a look around properly. In every room of the fallen city is one of these (shrieking ghost-like visages of past citizens causing the players to vomit swarms of the flesh-eating beetles, who then attack the players). Every time a swarm (or one of the haunts) is defeated, the violent shrieks will turn into subtle whispers, each giving the players small hints as to how to "free" them.
To stop them, the players will need to find the throne room, and someone has to sit on the decayed, broken throne. As it turns out, the traitor who did this got mad because he had learned that he would never be eligible to be king, so he released the plague into the city out of spite. Sitting on the throne will stir up his past emotions, make him jealous, cause him to manifest, and he will attack the party. If the party defeats him and puts his soul to rest forever, the rest of the city (the haunts) will be permanently put to rest as well.
Using haunts like this not only serves as presenting a challenge to players, but it's also a creative way of filling them in on some story lore that current living NPCs may not even know about. :)
G!%$#*it, Sinatar! That seems like an awesome story arc!
I'm now officialy jealous of your players.
I've been trying to come up with adventures involving haunts. But so far, I couldn't think of anything nearly as cool.
You've inspired me to put more effort into that. (I won't be able to rip off your ideas as at least one player of mine is in this forum -.-')
Wish me luck. Or even better! Telepathcally send me ideas! PMs might work to, but they are not as glamorous.