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Everyone studies American History while they're in school, and we usually take a stab at our state's history, too. But how well do you know your Haunting 101?
One of the first reports of ghosts comes to us from a 5th-century B.C. Greek historian. According to Herodotus, Periander, a 5th-century B.C. tyrant in Corinth, Greece, was visited by his wife, who returned from the dead to help Periander find an object he had lost. And Roman statesman and author Cicero (106-43 B.C.) told of Simonides, who, in an act of kindness, buried the body of a stranger. The stranger returned the kindness by appearing to Simonides in order to advise him not to board a ship on which he intended to sail. Simonides heeded the warning, and the ship was lost at sea.
Ghosts continued to pop up in classic Greek and Roman literature, and a few examples include:
What may be the first account of a haunted house can be found in a letter written by Roman author, statesman and orator Pliny the Younger (A.D. 62?-c.113), who wrote his patron, Lucias Sura, about a villa in Athens. It seems that no one would rent the home because of its resident ghost, who would scare overnight guests to the point they would abandon their belongings in hasty escape.
In the dead of night, the phantom would awaken the household with the clanking of chains and other horrific noises that would grow louder and louder, until, suddenly, the hideous spectre of an old man would appear, complete with a long, matted beard and disheveled white hair -- the very picture of abject filth and misery. His thick legs were loaded down with heavy chains, which he was cursed to drag wearily along with low, painful moans. His wrists were shackled, and he would stop every so often to raise his arms and shake his bonds in either an attempt to frighten those unfortunate enough to witness him or in an impotent show of anger at his sad and wretched state of affairs.
But the notorious reputation of the villa didn't stop Athenian philosopher Athenodorus from leasing it. He was short on funds and found the inexpensive rent too much of a bargain to turn down.
According to Pliny, Athenodorus met the ghost during his first night in the villa. Awakened by the rattle of chains, Athenodorus was soon met by the vision of the ragged, bound old man. Deciding it was easier to be frightened than to be homeless, Athenodorus stood his ground. The old man beckoned for the philosopher to follow him, but Athenodorus refused. So the old man clanked his chains and moaned pitifully until Athenodorus agreed to accompany him. The spirit floated into the garden, pointed to a spot on the ground and vanished.
The next morning, Athenodorus visited the local authorities and told his tale. The group returned to dig up the garden, and there, in the very spot indicated by the ghost, was uncovered a human skeleton, bound in chains. The bones were reburied properly, the house was purified, and the ghost never returned.
While previous writings had spirits visiting to request a proper burial, assist loved ones, etc., ghostly missions appeared to change with the advent of Christianity, and apparitions of the Dark and Middle ages frequently returned to beg the pardon of those sinned against and to atone for their sins. These ghosts usually appeared in human form and frequently bore marks, such as burns and scars, showing the suffering they were enduring in purgatory. And almost all of the ghosts of the era warned the living of the need to obey the sacraments and laws of the Church.
According to Roman Catholic theology, purgatory is an ethereal state or place that is often thought to be between heaven and hell. The souls of those who have died in grace must suffer while being cleansed of their pardonable sins. They are then granted admittance to heaven.
The first official use of the word "purgatory" is sometimes credited to an ecclesiastical letter written to Pope Innocent IV in 1254. Purgatory was discussed at the Council of Lyons in 1274 and again at the Council of Florence (1438-1443). The Councils declared that communication to the dead and messages from the dead were a reality.
But the wheels of change began to spin during the 16th century, when Protestant writers and Reformation thinkers began to question the very nature of the afterlife -- and ghosts.
While the Council of Trent (1545-1563) confirmed the Catholic Church's belief in a spirit-inhabited purgatory, Protestants began preaching that ghostly apparitions were merely illusions caused by angels or, more likely, demons.
Catholic writer N. Taillepied (d. 1589), a Capuchin monk and Doctor of Theology, also suggested the presence of satanic spirits, saying they could take the form of deceased loved ones, and he listed several ways to tell if one was dealing with a demon, as opposed to a good or neutral spirit. According to Taillepied, an evil spirit was more likely to:
Fortunately, Taillepied did offer suggestions as to what to do if an evil spirit was encountered. While he explained that a sword would have no more effect on an apparition than a pin in a pincushion, a prayer and the sign of the cross on the forehead could work miracles. But just to be safe, it also didn't hurt if one would avoid speaking any blasphemy and spend the rest of one's life obeying and taking part in the sacraments of the Church.
Louis Lavatar, Swiss reformer and Protestant author, said in his 1750 book on ghosts, De Spectris, that most Catholic ghost sightings could be explained away as trickery, human error or natural causes. He also dismissed all reports by women because they were "given to fear more than men" and are more prone to hallucinations. He did not, however, discredit all reports by drunken men.
But while the Protestant church's official position was that apparitions could be explained away, most of its followers believed differently -- until the reign of King James.
When King James I (1566-1625), who had ruled Scotland, came to the throne of England at the beginning of the 17th century, the Inquisition was in its final days, but James remained a fervent enemy of sorcery and, in fact, penned the anti-witchcraft book, Demonologie (1597). According to James, neither the spirits of the dead nor angels appeared as ghosts. Rather, Satan was the source for all apparitions. James believed that Satan could assume the form of any deceased person, even reanimate the actual corpse, in an attempt to coerce the living into sin.
With such sentiments afoot, the belief in ghosts and spirits went underground, and the occult was born.
Following the Restoration in 17th-century England, several important collections of ghost stories were assembled, including one by Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680), an Anglican minister and chaplain to Charles II, but the stigma of the occult remained. The Enlightenment of the 18th century gave further rise to skepticism and disbelief in ghosts. However, during the Romantic era of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, society embraced the emotional, and a spiritualistic movement began.
In 1848, two sisters in upstate New York began receiving messages from the dead. The Fox sisters were proclaimed mediums, those who can communicate with spirits on behalf of other living beings, and Spiritualism came into existence.
During their heyday, Kate and Margaret Fox held seances for the great and the near great, with Mary Todd Lincoln, William Cullen Bryant, James Fenimore Cooper and Harriet Beecher Stowe among their clientele. The sisters were soon accused of trickery, to which they confessed, and although they later recanted their confessions, the Fox sisters never again achieved fame, with both dying in poor circumstances. Spiritualism, however, remains active today, especially in the British Isles.
As humanity's beliefs about science and religion have changed, so, too, have their beliefs about the soul, the possibility of survival after death, the existence of ghosts and the ability to communicate with the dead. Today, many of the old prejudices remain ingrained in our minds, but we are fortunate to live in a time when we are allowed to think freely about such issues.
