Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Coffee Hour at Street Prophets. This is an open thread where we can discuss what’s happening in our lives, what we’ve been working on, and our opinions on current events. Let’s open the discussion today with the topic of ghosts.
In some cultures, the dead can appear to the living in the form of ghosts. Ghosts are sometimes viewed as supernatural beings who were once human and have not gone on to an afterlife following death. In many cultures these spirits who have chosen to remain after death are feared as it is sometimes felt that they want to harm the living.
In some cultures, ghosts are viewed as solitary essences which haunt particular locations. Houses, hotels, cemeteries, churches, rectories, castles, prisons, and other places are sometimes viewed as haunted. These haunted locations sometimes attract visitors and reality TV programs who are seeking to document the presence of these manifestations.
Professional parapsychologists have been calling themselves “ghost hunters” since the 1920s and have often published accounts of their accounts with ghosts. Harry Price, for example, published his experiences as The Most Haunted House in England. In this book, Price documented a series of alleged haunting at the Borley Rectory in Essex. For a year, from May 1937 until May 1938, he lived in the house and recorded his experiences. Later studies would claim that Price had fraudulently produced some of the reported ghostly phenomena.
In recent years ghost hunting, sometimes described as paranormal investigations, has been popular. Ghost hunting tends to be characterized by its lack of scientific method and is, at best, considered to be a form of pseudoscience.
While in Western cultures, ghosts can be visible entities, this is not true in all cultures. Among the Nyoro in Africa, ghosts are never seen—they manifest themselves in dreams. Ghosts among Nyoro are felt to be immaterial forces which can diffuse through space and are not tied to place. Ghosts can cause illness and/or misfortune. When this happens, the services of a special spirit medium are used to consult with the ghost and to find out why it has a grudge against the victim and what can be done to appease it.
So how do you feel about ghosts? Have you ever had a ghostly encounter?
As an aside, I have not included any photographs of ghosts in this diary as I have not been able to photograph any.
This is an open thread. All topics—living or dead—are welcomed.
About Street Prophets:
We are the faithful for whom the religious right emphatically does not speak. Its vibrant community of netroots faithful includes a broad range of faiths, including devout Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, Atheists, Animists, and Neo-pagans. All who seek to promote a new conversation about the role of religion in America's public life are welcome here.