Zachary Graves - Ghosts: The Complete Guide to the Supernatural

A belief in ghosts goes back thousands of years and is a feature of many cultures across the world, whether in folk traditions, religious rituals or spiritual beliefs. Today, it continues to be as prevalent as ever. Ghost hunting tours have become very popular, with groups gathering to explore haunted locations. Numerous websites advertise an array of gadgetry to monitor paranormal activity, such as filming and recording phenomena to measure electro-magnetic fields and log changes in temperature. Advice is also offered on how to analyze findings from photos, recordings and logbooks, after the events have taken place.

The huge interest in ghosts is exemplified by the sheer volume of reality television shows based around the supernatural. Investigative programmes are immensely popular, where ghost hunters are filmed in a variety of locations either simply tracking down ghosts and monitoring their activity or actively trying to exorcize them, using a variety of means from persuasion to displays of aggression. These reality TV shows in turn have taken their cue from such landmark films as The Exorcist and Ghostbusters . Several of the paranormal investigation programmes currently airing on TV purport to be scientifically based, while others function more as entertainment than rigorous scientific enquiry. But whatever their approach, it remains clear from their continuing popularity that the subject of ghosts and paranormal activity continues to fascinate people today, in the 21st century, just as it did our ancestors thousands of years ago.

The belief in ghosts stems from a basic, and very human, fear of death and the unknown, and can be traced back to many ancient religions and folk traditions. In all these different cultures it is commonly believed that when we die our souls live on, not in bodily form, but as spirits, essences, phantoms, ghosts or other disembodied beings. This idea appears to be central to most human civilizations, although there are many different conceptions as to how ghosts live and behave. In some cultures, they appear to return from the afterlife as revenants, sometimes looking exactly as they did in life, to visit friends and family. While in other stories, the ghosts never leave the land of the living, but remain present in the household or workplace where they once resided, watching over the activities of those that they left behind.

Yet despite all the variations in the stories of how ghosts come into being and what they do once they begin to live on as spirits, we find many similarities across different cultures. It is widely believed that a wandering ghost, one who travels ceaselessly and cannot find rest, is the spirit of a person who has been wronged in some way in his or her lifetime. Such people include those who may not have been buried with the proper rites, or may have been badly treated by their family, lovers or friends. As well as this, it is believed that people who have met with terrible accidents, or who have been murdered, may be forced to wander the earth looking for redress. In terms of human psychology, the ghost of a person may function as a reminder of the wrong committed, and can cause a great deal of guilt to be felt on the part of the living. The ghost may be seen as an embodiment of a human feeling of regret, guilt or sense of loss, conjured up by our imagination so that we can continue the relationship with the deceased.

People who have been victims of crime or mistreatment are often believed to become restless spirits after death; as are those who committed crimes against others. In the past, murderers, thieves and other miscreants were thought to become wandering ghosts when they died, condemned to an afterlife of constant loneliness and misery. Those who were judged to have lived an immoral life, such as prostitutes, might also be thought of as failing to find rest after death. Such ghosts were often conceived of as revenants who had become jealous of the living and who would do everything in their power to do them harm. For this reason, ghosts in many cultures were greatly feared, and thought of as highly dangerous to the living, because of their supernatural evil powers.

This leads us to the question of whether ghosts are seen as malevolent, evil beings who seek to wreak vengeance on the living, or whether we think of them as benevolent spirits of loved ones who remain with us for company, guidance and strange as it may seem companionship. Both types of ghosts are widely believed in, although the malevolent kind, by their nature, gain a great deal more attention. In particular, the idea that a ghost can, in some cases, inhabit a living human being, possessing them and making them commit dreadful crimes, is a common and very disturbing theme. In this book, we will be looking at both types of ghost the good and the bad and also at cases in which people were believed to be possessed, often causing the victim terrible pain, suffering and even death.

We know from history, particularly in medieval times, that societies often attributed instances of severe mental illness in an individual to demonic possession. Such a belief might be a superstition from the folklore of a certain region, but it is also a common thread in major worldwide religions such as Christianity, especially within the Catholic church.

However, some denominations within the Christian church have also condemned this belief and see the fascination with ghosts and the paranormal as unhealthy and immoral. Necromancy or bone conjuring the attempt to raise the dead through incantations and spells has been roundly condemned as sinful by various church administrations at different times in history, and continues to be looked on with suspicion in many quarters, especially among those of a religious persuasion.

Today the belief in demonic possession persists and is a stock motif of much horror fiction, whether in books, films or on TV. It takes on a more sinister aspect, though, when we come to real instances in which individuals often children or young people have been believed to be possessed by a devil. In this book, we will take a look at some of these cases, such as the story of Robbie Mannheim (not his real name), on whom the film The Exorcist was based, as well as that of Anneliese Michel, a young German woman from a devout Catholic family. In Robbie Mannheims case, the exorcisms appeared to do him no harm, and he went on to lead a normal life; in Anneliese Michels, she was subjected to so many rites of purgation and exorcism that she eventually died of starvation and exhaustion. After a long delay, Michels parents and the two priests that performed the exorcisms were taken to court and charged with neglectful homicide. The sad case of Anneliese Michel demonstrates that what may appear to be harmless superstition or fervently held religious belief, can in fact result in horrific tragedy.