Editors of David - Amazing & Extraordinary Facts: Ghosts

AMAZING & EXTRAORDINARY FACTS

GHOSTS

MALCOLM DAY

Salman Rushdie,

Whats a ghost? Unfinished business, is what.

The Satanic Verses

Spook, ghost, wraith, phantom, spectre what do they all mean? Are they all synonyms or is each one subtly different from the other? Is there a whole parallel universe out there made up of these entities? As Arthur C Clarke pointed out, there are 30 members of the dead for every person alive. That is heavy outnumbering.

Ever since the world began the human race has entertained ideas of the dead returning to haunt or guide the living. Every civilisation is said to have a belief in spirits. Countless examples can be found today among the indigenous cultures of North and South America, Asia, Africa, Australasia. In Western Europe societies have tended to outgrow them, as adults will leave behind childish things on coming of age. Yet our ancient forebears in the classical traditions of Greece and Rome paid heed to ghostly machinations. Homer describes Hades as a place filled with shadowy ghouls that cry out beseeching the living for libations of freshly spilled blood. Battlefields were littered with spirits of the dead. Those who died a violent death, in any arena, might return for vengeance. In Virgils Aeneid, those who ferry across the Styx in Charons boat would see shoals of dead souls swarming about them.

Virgils Aeneid

From Seers and Oracles to Mediums and Sances

Foretelling the future was a special facility said to belong to privileged members of ancient societies. These seers would call up spirits of the dead using sacred forms of divination embedded in ritual. Prophets of the Old Testament in the Ancient Near East warned against this practice necromancy for it meddled in an unpredictable world of evil spirits. The witch of Endor conjured the spirit of Samuel, deceased king of Israel, at the request of Saul. So incensed was the former monarch at being disturbed that he refused to offer any advice to the new king. The witch was probably no witch at all, but rather a kind of oracle similar to those in ancient Greece, such as Apollo at Delphi. Oracles would be consulted by mediums who would fall into a trance to obtain messages from the gods or the dead.

Delphi Oracle

It is only a short step from this milieu of ancient fortune telling to the modern idea of a sance conducted by a medium believed to be empowered with the means to contact the dead. Mid-19th century America and Britain was gripped by such a vogue known as Spiritualism. Gatherings of the curious and the gullible, usually at the invitation of an eccentric medium, would convey purported messages from deceased loved ones either through a Ouija board or by automatic writing, even directly through the mediums vocal chords. Often the motive was to provide emotional comfort for the bereft. It has to be said the practice was largely fake, a sport of sorts in which self-proclaimed psychics could earn kudos for gaining access to the supernatural world.

English Ouija

During some sances, claims were supported by the bizarre exudation of ectoplasm from the mediums orifices. Usually a white glue-like substance, sometimes even manifesting the facial features of a relevant persons spirit, oozed from ears, nostrils, even from between the legs. This ectoplasm was believed to be the materialization of a spirit in the material world and was taken to be proof of the existence of spirits.

Definitions

And so to return to the original question, what is meant by ghosts? An apparition is a visible appearance of a person or animal or object that is not materially present. Apparitions are usually, though not necessarily, identified with spirits of the dead. Some appearances are of people still alive but displaced from the actual location of the person at the time. They usually last only a short time, and may appear and disappear without explanation.

When a persons double, or ghost of the living, appears it is sometimes called a wraith. In Celtic folklore the wraith is a herald of death and usually the person it represents is expected to die soon, or possibly has just done so. A phantom is often used as a synonym for ghost, but may also imply a subjective figment of a persons imagination. It can refer to a recurring ghostly object, such as a ship or coach, usually associated with a particular setting. A spectre is simply an appearance of the supernatural and is therefore another synonym for ghost or phantom. It does, however, sometimes carry the additional meaning of an evil premonition in the form of an illusory ghost.

Various cultures have their own terms for certain types of ghosts. In Russian folklore the Domovik is an ancestral spirit that dwells behind the stove in the home. He is grey-bearded and is like a guardian angel in that he protects the family from evil spirits and moves with them from house to house. However, if the family commit mischievous deeds, the Domovik is likely to react, often using forceful poltergeist activity, even to the extent of destroying the home.

Not all evidence of ghosts is visible. It can be audible, in the form of footsteps, rapping, vocal sounds such as groaning, weeping, screams, as might be associated with the past suffering of individuals. Poltergeists are a case in point.

Poltergeists

A ghost or energy that makes knocking noises or moves objects about a house is known as a poltergeist (from the German, poltern, to knock, and geist, ghost). Because these movements often result in breakages, the spirits responsible are thought to be malevolent. Others believe they are merely mischievous nuisances. The noises may be bangs, thuds or rappings; the objects hurled can range from small trinkets to large pieces of furniture. The phenomena thus described as poltergeist activity can range widely and carry a number of interpretations. Objects may appear to be directed at individuals living in a house, or the trajectory may seem strange and unnatural; some things, such as coins or stones, have rained down inside a house; fires have broken out spontaneously; electric lights switched on and off; telephone connections cut; objects, even people, have been said to levitate; some have been tapped on the shoulder, even assaulted, by scratching or pinching; and sometimes liquids are involved, such as oozing blood or water. Curiously wherever poltergeists are reported they seldom turn into apparitions.

Nandor Fodor

Poltergeist activity has been a known phenomenon ever since ancient times. They were regarded as emanations of evil spirits, and usually attributed to people believed to have demonic possession such as witches. In a famous case in 18th century Britain the Reverend Samuel Wesley (whose sons John and Charles founded Methodism) was reputedly subjected to a poltergeist force in his home at Epworth Rectory. Mysterious rumblings, groans and vibrations frequently disturbed the household and were variously attributed to spirits and witchcraft. Reverend Wesley stood firm, resisting the advice to move house, and was duly vindicated as the noises suddenly and unaccountably stopped after a couple of months.