No ghosts? No way!
Skeptics of the paranormal raise their eyebrows at the word “ghost”, but the sheer historical volume of international spectral sightings suggests that the belief in apparitions may have more substance than shadow.
In any given part of the world, ghost hunters can often find one or more stories told by locals as testimonials to haunted presences. For example, in China, legends of gui are recounted and can be quite nuanced as different types of gui can come about depending on the manner in which an individual who gave rise to the gui died. This diversity is even more pronounced in Japanese culture, where different types of spirits, distinct from ghosts of deceased human beings (called yurei) arise from all types of living things and are even believed to inhabit inanimate objects such as tools or lanterns.
However, despite the influence of ghost lore on human culture and behavior, purported sightings are not always met with fear and panic, as some believe that beloved family members may still be present in spiritual form to provide a measure of comfort or protection. For example, in some Asian cultures, ancestral spirits are revered as guardians of the home and family, and shrines within the house are sometimes dedicated with this in mind. Indeed, celebrations honoring and petitioning deceased family members form the cultural basis of the Mexican Day of the Dead, where some activities involve spending time in cemeteries to be closer to the souls of family members that have passed.
With numerous legends and witness testimonies from all around the globe, the belief in ghostly phenomena is an undeniable and international part of human culture. Many rationales have been offered as explanation, and range from the commonly accepted idea that a form of residual human energy is left after death, to the more exotic theory that ghosts are glimpses of individuals that, for a split second, bleed into our dimension from another plane within the multiverse. Whatever the reason may be, the notion that our existence may extend beyond our corporeal time on this planet continues to inspire and captivate human belief and imagination, and reminds us that there are still aspects to the human condition that remain to be explored.
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June 12, 2012 @ 5:55 pm
Good read. I think your first sentence hit it, the word ghost has turned almost cartoon like. Odds are if someone said ghost, and someone else said something like paranormal entity, more serious attention would turn to paranormal entity… until it gets run down of course.