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by Lisa Lee Harp Waugh
Many who today admit that they do fear ghost and investigate them will state not all hauntings and paranormal phenomena are as harmless as the ghost hunters on television portray them.
Over the years a few prominent made public cases have surfaced. A Many researchers investigate still the Amityville tale and the possible possession by a real ghost of the often told Ronnie Defeo' case. Bell Witch's case still is popular, also one must not too soon forget the startling over the top, Esther Cox case in Amherst, Nova Scotia. And what of the more then just terrifying and horrific tale of "The Entity" case. All these have as we know set deeper fears into the hearts of those that fear the dead. Just the mention "Poltergeist" movies and this as we know too to often sets many a fearful heart a racing.
Many people have a very real deep seated over powering real substantial fear of ghosts. Fear of a real or imagined specter, spook, shades, shadow person or a simply ghosts. The fear of ghosts in many human cultures is based on certain beliefs that some ghosts may be malignant towards people and dangerous (within the range of all possible attitudes, including mischievous, benignant, indifferent, etc.). The fear of ghosts is sometimes referred to as phasmophobia[and erroneously spectrophobia, the latter being an established term for fear of mirrors and one's own reflections.
The very belief in the existence of ghosts is considered by many Western religions to be a unfounded and veiled only in cultural superstition. Fear of ghosts, their vengeance and mischief is a common base for a plots in the ghost story literary genre and in ghost or haunted movies such as Paranormal Activity and Par normal Activity 2. Many believe this is the root to why so many today fear them outright. That this "Fear of Ghost" phobia has been handed to them down through the generations by story telling of all types.
Many of the old Chinese ghost beliefs have been accepted by neighboring cultures, notably Japan and south-east Asia. Ghost beliefs are closely associated with the traditional Chinese religion based on ancestor worship, many of which were incorporated in Taoism. Later beliefs were influenced by Buddhism, and in turn influenced and created uniquely Chinese Buddhist beliefs. Many Chinese people today consider that it is possible to contact the spirits of their ancestors through a medium, and that the ancestor can help their descendants if properly respected and rewarded.
The annual ghost festival is celebrated by Chinese around the world. On this day ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm. Ghosts are described in classical Chinese texts, and continue to be depicted in modern literature and movies.
The Ghost Festival (traditional Chinese: 盂蘭節) is a traditional Chinese festival celebrated by Chinese in many countries. The fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the 'Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm. Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (in Spring) and Chung Yeung Festival (in Autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, on Ghost Day, the deceased are believed to visit the living. The festival has a long history. A Japanese pilgrim gave a detailed account of the Ghost festival in the T'ang capital of Ch'ang-an in the year 840. In those day the festival was usually called by its Buddhist name of yu lan p'en.
Hungry Ghosts are a Buddhist concept that differs from ghosts in Chinese tradition. Traditional belief is that people become ghosts when they die.[20] It was originally thought that ghosts did not have eternal life, but would slowly weaken and eventually die a second time. Hungry ghosts in traditional thought would only be an issue in exceptional cases such a whole family was killed or when a family no longer appreciated their ancestors. With the rise of popularity in Buddhism the idea that souls would live in space until reincarnation became popular. In the Taoist tradition it is believed hungry ghosts can arise from people whose deaths have been violent or unhappy. Both Buddhism and Taoism share the idea that hungry ghosts can emerge from neglect or desertion of ancestors.
According to the Hua-yen Sutra evil deeds will cause a soul to be born in different realms. There are six possible realms of existence for souls. The highest degree of evil deed will cause a soul to be born into a realm as a denizen of hell, the lower degree of that would cause a soul to be born as an animal, and the lowest degree would cause a soul to be born as a hungry ghost. Evil deeds that lead to becoming a hungry ghost would be killing, stealing and sexual misconduct. Desire, greed, anger and ignorance all have factors in causing a soul to be reborn as a hungry ghost because they are motives for people to perform evil deeds. The least serious of these will cause one to be have the destiny of becoming a hungry ghost.
When someone dies, it is important to perform the correct rites to ensure that the departed ancestor does not become a wandering ghost. Since the corpse, or at least the bones, continues to have powers that could affect the fate of living relatives, an expert in feng-shui is needed to determine an auspicious time, place, and orientation of the burial.
In surveying several individuals from all walks of life you might get a few similar answers. but in questioning 100 paranormal investigators who often question their clients these as reported to me by them are the top ten main reasons their clients or the general public fear ghosts.
THE TOP TEN REASONS WHY PEOPLE HAVE A FEAR OF REAL GHOSTS AND THEIR HAUNTINGS
1. The greatest real fear of ghosts that many express is the serious fear of their own death is soon to come.
Many believe to see a dead persons spirit or have them haut you is a sign that they are next to die. Many individuals from around the world believe just to see a ghost of any type means that they will have a short life span.
Their is also great fears that a ghost or poltergeist might turn on the gas stove, oven, or furnace after blowing out the pilot light and murdering the entire family as they sleep. They also fear that ghosts can fool with wiring, plumbing and even the structure of a home.
Many deep fears of the returning of a dead family member and haunting them is a sign that someone close to them is about to die.
2. Fear of serious personal injury from a real ghost seems to be fear many will tell with certainty. Unseen hands choking them as they sleep, or being bitten scratched, punched, kicked or even brutally raped by an unseen invisible force. The largest most expressed fear is that a ghost is coming to kill them or to a lessor degree physically handicapped them in some strange paranormal way. (striking them with blindness, deafness, and causing heart attack or stroke, this of course or the top answers that usually or the expressed reasons by haunted individuals.)
Their or also those today that will tell you a ghost caused or physically hurt their children. Some of the often told strange tales of personal accounts might state that a real ghost killed their pets and even stolen all their life's savings or cherished jewelry.
2. Fear of Ghost possession. Many fear that the dead want to take over their bodies and inhabit them with their own consciousness. Being possessed by a real evil ghosts can cause a person to do things they would not ordinarily do, or remember them. Such as in the Amityville case.
3. Fear of insanity. Many believe still to this day that a ghost can and will drive you insane. Distorting your personal reality, causing you to have lurid thoughts, fears worries or to loose your prospective. Many relate it to a ghost mania or the actual fact that a haunting goes against all the understandings and morals a person has.
4. Fear of a ghost revealing ones deepest darkest secrets. Many certain truths being revealed by the dead often happens at séances or through EVP's and ouija boards. Many who fear ghost often worry that personal secrets may be revealed and cause great embarrassment or revelation of their involvement in a crime.
5. Fear of a ghost breaking up their relationship. Many fear that a dead parent or recently dead loved one might be keeping them from finding a new husband or a wife, or simply just from having a good lasting personal relationship. Their or those that often express the fear that they cannot date because the ghost has frightened off every suitor they have been involved with. There or also those individuals when investigating a haunting today that will tell you a ghost caused their divorce or made a lover leave them for someone else.
6. Fear of a ghosts taking or making you loose all your possessions. Many believe is out of revenge or the evil that a ghost might just be malicious to the living.
Many also fear that ghosts or poltergeists will set fires to their homes, destroy or break personal priceless items. From smashed computers to missing iphones some blame these things disappearing or being stolen by the dead to investigators quite often. Their is also great fears that a ghost might intend to burying down ones home when they are away.
7. Fear of a real ghost harming others around them. News of strange accidents or sudden uncommon deaths. Especially of those acquaintances that person might have a love interest in. Many believe the reasons paranormal investigators, psychics or mediums have such tragic lives is because they communicate actively with the dead directly.
Many also fear that a witch, wizard or sorcerer has cast a black magic curse or spell and sent a ghost to haunt them. Many believe that their or those conjure the dead and force a once placid ghost to do evil deeds upon the living.
8. Fear of a real ghost performing physical torture by just simply by touching them.
From the fear of brutal beatings, broken bones or nosebleeds many individuals fear ghost causing this to happen to them as they go through their daily lives and it even happens to them in their sleep.
9. Sexual encounters with the dead are not uncommon. A ghost can and physically have sex with the living or so many will attest. Many women often will express their fears of womb ghosts or becoming pregnant by the dead and having ghost pregnancies. Often men fear having homosexual encounters with ghosts, as well know when having sex with the dead you never are quite sure of who your partner is until they try to do something to you that is more then inappropriate.
Many fear ghost having sexual encounters with them in public places or at inopportune moments.
10. Just by thinking of being haunted by a ghost sets many people on edge. Vivid constant continuing living nightmares that the dead are watching their every move. Many people fear that ghost watch them going through their daily life 24/7 and by such judging their actions.
There or a couple who related to a paranormal researcher that they were afraid to have sex because the husbands dead mother was watching them. And that she would only make her presence felt when they did by filling the room with the smell of her favorite perfume. This as many believe is what they call a ghost causing problems through guilt, revenge or manipulation of the living. Or just to say should still listen to them even though they are dead.
Many believe that when a ghost is haunting them it is the ghost of a friend or person that have recently died. Sometime those under traumatic, unusual or highly emotional circumstances. And that these ghost are trying to tell them some great news or of their trauma.
But still others feel that this ghost is still trying to rule their lives because the person told them while alive that if they did not listen to them that they would return and haunt them forever.
A ghost - or spirit or apparition - is the energy, soul or personality of a person who has died and has somehow gotten stuck between this plane of existence and the next. Most researchers state that these spirits do not know they are dead.
Ghosts can be perceived by the living in a number of ways: through sight (apparitions), sound (voices), smell (fragrances and odors), touch - and sometimes they can just be sensed. People that fear them often try to deny to themselves that they are being actually haunted by the dead. They often look for reasons other then believing that paranormal forces or at work. In most cases it might not be a ghost it could be demonic forces or actual mental illness setting in.
REFERENCES
1. "Phasmophobia. (n.d.). Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English, Preview Edition". Lexico Publishing Group. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Phasmophobia. R
2. "God and the Philosophers", by Thomas V. Morris (1996) ISBN 0195101197 p. 39
3. ^ Christina Hole (1950) Haunted England: 13-27
4. "Culture and Human Development", selected papers by John Whiting, edited by Eleanor Hollenberg Chasdi (1994) ISBN 0521435153, pp. 181-185, "The rear of ghosts"
5. "Consuming Grief", by Beth A. Conklin ( 2001) ISBN 0292712367, p. 161, "Ghost Fears and Dissociation" 6. ^ "The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead", by James George Frazer (1913), [ p. 305] in Google Books |
