What Are Ghosts?

Okay, now I’m guilty of invoking some sensationalism by leading with the word “ghost” instead of “spirit,” but in my years of teaching high school and college, sometimes a dramatic turn of phrase or a good old slamming down of a textbook on the desk to begin a lecture is the only thing to keep a listener awake.

In simplistic terms, a “ghost” is the tangible manifestation of a dead person.

Some scholars contend this manifestation to be the “soul” or literal “spirit” of the deceased; others consider it to be a part of the person that has yet to “cross over” into the realm of death.  Either way, both camps will agree that a “ghost” is considered a part of the deceased that is detected in the world of the living.  The very nature of the idea also conjures up notions of the divine: the two sides of that coin being, the angelic side, and the demonic side.  If such a connection exists between ghosts and an omnipotent force that is indeed beyond this world, “Angels” and “Demons” would most certainly be classified as ethereal “spirits.”

I’m not a religious man, not in any traditional sense, but I do believe in the unknown – in the existence of “things” that may be beyond our normal human understanding.  Therefore, I cannot discount the mystical or “divine” implications in such a belief system.  If I am to subscribe into the existence of spirits or ghosts, I must subscribe into the existence of “Angels” as well. 

I will delve deeper into this in later posts...