Ghost Overview:
I have set out here to give a brief summary
of the organizations' philosophy with regard to some of the more important and
topical aspects of ghosts and ghost study.
Defining Terms
- Ghosts - The Big Problem - Death - The Spirit
The Soul - Life After Death - Heaven, Hell & Reincarnation
Literary Modes - Format - Classes of Ghosts
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Defining Terms:
For decades the paranormal community has had
constant battles and discourses in semantics, which is far from a problem solving
event. We must rely on the shared use of common terms and shared definitions when we
try to understand any subject. This is the first and foremost challange we must
overcome in the Paranormal Community. In using Scientific Rational Approach, the terms set
forth here and in the Ghostpedia, are to be the basis
when experimenting.
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Ghosts
Ghosts are first and foremost a very general
term used to describe a wide variety of paranormal or unexplained events. Ghosts are
typically defined as deceased humans, still residing with individual consciouness for some
purpose unknown.
Often times people will ascribe in both
personal experiences and literature, a sense of purpose to the manifestations. The
sense of purpose can be as simple as seeming to return impart information with messages,
or to tidy up unfinished buisness, as well as more complex purposes like revenge and other
malicious motives. As we ascribe the human type of emotions and characteristics to
ghosts, we have become accustomed to thinking of them as synonomous with our deceased
counterparts. This may or may not be the case in all situations. It is
a major mistake to ascribe all ghostly events and encounters to contact with deceased or
formerly living humans. While we cannot rule out the unlikely possibility that in
some form we do survive after death and retain some degree of consciousness and memory, we
still must bare in mind that the chances of gaining proof of such matters is slim.
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'The Big Problem'
Within the framework of studying the
paranormal a person of sound mind is confronted almost immedietly with a huge glaring
problem. The manifestations mimick almost identically the symptoms of a myriad of
recognized mental illnesses, all of which are schitzotypal or delusional in nature.
Here is a chart showing the way the
psychiatric community views experiences of the paranormal.
Manifestation |
Psychiatric Diagnosis |
Hearing Voices
Seeing Things
Feelings of Being Watched
Beliefe you can contact
spirits |
Delusional Disorder
Delusional Disorder
Accute Paranoia
Delusions of Grandeur
|
Our view is that the act of
'seeing' dead people and regular communications with deceased or elemental beings is
simply not represented within the acknowledged scope of our historical ghostly literature.
Please see the Post
Experience Survey Page for more in depth ways to discover the predisposition of
people who have had an experience.
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Death: The Final
Frontier
While there is no doubt that a majority of
persons who study ghosts are fascinated with death, we may have to set aside that
predisposition for the purposes of any study with ghosts that we undertake. To say
that all ghosts are deceased humans would most certainly be false, but we must allow for
the idea that the literature is not completely wrong. In the literature of ghosts we
cannot escape overt instances and constant references to the fact that ghosts are post
life humans.
From both literature and personal experience
I have found that in most situations it is a rare combination of circumstances that allow
any type of ghostly encounter to take place. Looking for one, singular answer to the
origin of all ghosts or events related to ghosts is another likely mistake any student can
make.
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The Spirit
The spirit is that little understood energy
that powers the physical body for a duration of time determined by enviornmental
circumstances. Often erroneously used as synonomous with the term 'soul', the spirit
is energy itself. Like most energy sources, the spirit is finite and limited on an
indivudual level. The source for the energy is basic cellular division. While
I admit that within that there is a flaw of logic that preceeds the cells themselves,
meaning if the cells create the small amounts of energy, where do the cells themselves
derive energy from? This is a not a basic issue and has no singular simple answer,
but it is not unattainable. Mystery still surrounds some aspects of life. We find
that atoms in certain patterns form bonds and then vary and then evolve. We may be
looking to define life with other terms, when really life is itself a viable term to speak
within. We do not need to reduce life to further define it, we can accept that
certain terms define what life is. If we approach life trying to define it by
reducing it and ascribing more and more terms to it, we may not find very much life.
But if we stand back and more loosely define this term, we can see that the Earth, Sun,
Solar System, all are forms of life and have a spirit.
It is interesting to note when discussing
the spirit, that folklorist's do not equate the spirit with that of a deceased human
being. We see through folktales that most times a spirit is often equated to an area
or specific location. This beliefe is a core element in Animist type religions,
where all objects and places posess a spirit and individual character. Native
American tribes have been known to have literally scores of lesser deities more akin to
animist spirits than actual gods.
It is also very common in religions and
belief systems to believe that there are two distinct parts of the spirit. The two
parts are usually divided by one being a higher more evolved version of the other. I
would tend to think that this is an expression of two distinct aspects of self that all
creatures must at some point come upon. All creatures are of themselves distinct and
also at the same time one of many that are the same. We are human individuals but we
are all human. It could be either a need to extend self, in the case of humans or it
could be a seperation from what we have passed already in our physical evolution. We
see use of this mode of seperating our spiritual components in more modern theories like
the holy trinity and even Freud's divisions of the mind. In Frueds resoning we are
divided into three seperate mental components, Id, Ego, and Super Ego. The Id and
the Ego are what seem to be represented by the two distinct types of spirits a person
posesses. The invention of the Super Ego to describe other events or the meshing of
the two basic componets is a considerable help to understanding human psychology simply
because it aknowledges the combination of the two as a unique thing.
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The Soul:
The soul is what I consider the most real
and primal manifestation of our genetic history as well as our collective rendering of
evolution. The soul would be akin to what Jung would call the Collective
Unconscious, a repository for our ancestral information and learned skills.
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Life after Death:
As humans we have been given a very basic
and overt method to live after our own personal death; our children. We breed and
produce a very close approximation of who we are.
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Heaven,
Hell & Reincarnation:
Heaven, in myth and legend has always been
regarded as a place where a spirit goes after physical death as a reward for living
according to a set of religious laws. While not every culture has this tradition we
can see it in many areas of the world. Other heaven type places include, valhalla,
the happy hunting grounds ...
Obvious Flaws In the Theory of
Reincarnation:
First and foremost we have a basic math
issue with regard to soul progeneration and general division. If the soul
reincarnates over and over there would only be in fact one soul and one person.
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Understanding The Literary
Modes of Ghosts
The topic of ghosts is best approached
initially through literature and through research of written accounts of events. We
are fortunate to posess over 4000 years of written history as humans, and a good portion
of that history has been dedicated to preserving our religious and personal views on
death, dying and the afterlife. In literary terms ghosts serve a number of purposes,
first as harbingers of fate and second as an etheral judge and jury for misdeeds.
Premonitory Ghosts - The
ghost in literature is many times seen as prophetic, returning to impart information about
future events or to warn someone of impending disaster.
Didactic Ghosts - This
motiffe is based on revenge for deeds unseen. This is set aside from religious
motiffes which is another common expression of retribution after death. In this mode
the ghost returns to the living and exacts some deed to balance the scales of justice that
the world could not or would not make right. We see didactics as an expression of
guilt and didactic ghosts are a manifestation of fear of unseen revenge.
* Charles Dickens offers an unusual and
entertaining blend of both of these modes in his famous work ' A Christmas Carol'.
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The Format:
Conception: Describes
the likely methods through which the particular variety of ghost may be conceived.
Composition: This
section will describe theories on the matter that composes the particular variety of
ghost..
Conditions: This section
contains theories on the likely conditions that provide a condusive enviornment for ghosts
to appear.
Manifestations: This
area describes the various types and forms of appearances that the specific ghost may take
on.
The Participants: This
section provides names and explanations on how to classify persons who experience the
paranormal.
Varieties: This
section describes the various types of classical motiffes and renderings of ghosts.
Another, what I consider, erroneous, assumption made by most ghost researchers is that there is one singular source for ALL the various types of manifestations. I have found that there are three categories that all ghosts can fall into; Residual, Ancestral and Elemental. Each of these types has their own origins, habitats, energy sources and modes of operation.
While over the years I have seen many variations of peoples attempts to classify ghosts, what I am putting forth is a basic and very primative, yet irrefutable seperation of three distinct types of anomolies.
Click the links below to view our
descriptions of each type.