Exclusive: Do human ghosts exist?

Introduction: What Are Ghosts?

Across Africa and the whole world, it isn’t unusual for people to claim that they have been visited by their dead fellows! Many people have encountered what they think are human ghosts or spiritual beings of the deceased.

In witchcraft, the healer claims to bring back your deceased ancestors for a talk, advise or punishment. And, in some cases indeed, these ancestors successfully punish or reward the living based on set conditions, implying the possibility of ghosts!

And yet so many other people refute this belief and confidently say that there are no such things as human ghosts. What is the truth? Before we can dive deeper, what is a ghost? What are we talking about?

What is a ghost?

The definition of a ghost is a complex one. Some say that a ghost is ‘a spirit of a dead person’. A ghost is defined by Bible as a spiritual being or just a spirit. Some books call it ‘apparition of a deceased person’.

Apparition means supernatural or mysterious or surprising appearance! In this article, a ghost is a spiritual presence of a known deceased person or, flatly, the physical manifestation of a known deceased person, this time in spiritual or shadowy appearance, the ghost! In our article, a ghost isn’t about anything else but a known dead human being returning to the physical world, the world of the living.

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Science and Logic: Do Ghosts Exist?

While the belief regarding the existence of ghosts is as old as man-kind, science hasn’t found any convincing evidence regarding their existence. Many scientists, from John Ferriar to our modern inquirers have consistently said that there are no such things as ghosts, but perception or mental issues, for example, hallucinations and optical illusions, and unusual phenomenon, for example, ball lightning, cause the ghost experiences people talk about!

In their book, Ghostly encounters-the hauntings of everyday life, Dennis and Michele Waskul note that most people are actually not sure of what they saw when they report ghostly experiences; all they say is a mysterious, uncanny, unusual, inexplicable experience. In other words, people refer to whatever they don’t understand or appear scary and unnatural as ghost but, in general sense, it isn’t or they aren’t sure! According to Kathryn Hulick, all that science has found out is that you shouldn’t always trust your ears, eyes, and brain.

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In general, according to Mario Bunge in his book, Philosophy of science-from problem to theory, there is no scientific evidence that ghosts exist, and, surely, none has managed to give hard evidence regarding their existence, not even ghost hunters!

Talking about ghost hunting, it hasn’t produced any hard evidence regarding ghosts. Actually, ghost hunting is a pseudoscience or false science, more like fun fiction! Brian Regal calls it (ghost hunting) an ‘unorganized exercise in futility’. But, in movies, TV shows, and various cultures, you must have seen and heard of ghost hunters and their ‘amazing’ reports of ghosts. Well, they are lies! Just business! Listen to Benjamin Radford:

‘While amateur ghost hunters like to imagine themselves on the cutting edge of ghost research, they are really engaging in what folklorists call ostension or legend tripping. It’s basically a form of playacting in which people “act out” a legend, often involving ghosts or supernatural elements’ (See more here). And he continues: ‘Ultimately, ghost hunting is not about the evidence (if it was, the search would have been abandoned long ago). Instead, it’s about having fun with friends, telling stories, and the enjoyment of pretending they are searching the edge of the unknown. After all, everyone loves a good ghost story.’

While science has shown no evidence of ghosts, it is true among all cultures that there is a spiritual world. Practically, for example, in modern era of spiritualism, mediums are believed to contact ghosts (or spiritual beings) on behalf of the living.

Actually, in the African traditional context of spiritualism and witchcraft, it is true that some people (witches) talk to spiritual beings (believed to be ghosts or ancestors) on behalf of the living. In many instances, these spiritual beings have power to cause pain, heal illnesses, or cause some luck depending on the set conditions and if the ‘concerned’ living being has met them! So, how can we explain these instances if ghosts don’t exist?

Bible and Theology: Do Ghosts Exist?

Catholicism accepts that it is possible for the dead to visit the living. Actually, Peter Darcy affirms that the souls (or spirits) of the dead can sometimes come back to ask for prayers or sacrifices from the living. Indeed, in Catholic church, it is very common to hold feasts and prayers and special masses for the dead who they think have their souls being purified in what they call ‘PURGATORY’.

In general, while the Catholic church does not explicitly support witchcraft (mediums) or summoning the dead, it encourages talking to them in various other ways! However, according to Julie Lucas, even if we took in the concept of purgatory, ghosts (the souls or spirits of our dead fellows) don’t have the freedom to come back on earth to haunt or bless us.

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Some have accused Jesus of not denying the existence of ghosts every time an opportunity showed up! For example, insists critics, when, while walking on water, He is referred to as a ghost, Jesus, instead of rebuking such a thought, simply says, No, It is I (Matthew 14:26).

Additionally, following his resurrection, in Luke 24:37-40, Jesus is thought or suspected to be a ghost or spirit by His disciples. And, again, instead of denouncing such a thought, He simply offers to prove that He is not! From these scenarios, some conclude that Jesus believed in existence of ghosts!

However, a clear examination of the above verses proves that the interpretation problem lies within the ‘failure to define a ghost or spirit’. In the above verses, the spirit or ghost referred to isn’t a dead being’s soul or spirit, but a demon or spiritual being, in which case a good one is an angel and the bad one a demon! Even if it meant ‘the spirit of a dead person’, denouncing the idea wasn’t a major concern here.

The Bible teaches the existence of spiritual beings, angels and demons! The same bible affirms that human beings die once and can’t return (have no volition to do so) to the physical world in any form to haunt the living! (Hebrew 9:27). In other words, there exists no ghosts (souls or spirits of the dead) living among us! Let us consider more other two Biblical ‘ghost stories’:

In Job 4:12-19, Eliphaz, Job’s friend, recounts a deep night encounter with a demon or ghost-like creature who revealed to him some truths regarding Job’s possible sin! In 1 Samuel 28:4-25, a story is told about Saul consulting the already dead Prophet Samuel through a medium.

In both scenarios, it is important to note that there is disobedience of God’s law against any form of divination or consulting medium or conjuring (Deuteronomy 28), and thus the possibility of falsehoods for personal interests! In the first case, Eliphaz was either lying to bring about his point of ‘you are suffering because you have sinned’ or he indeed had encountered a spiritual being, not of an ‘once alive but now dead’ human being, but of a spiritual being, a demon!

In the second scenario, Saul is already in disobedience by consulting mediums. But also there is no evidence that it is actually Samuel he spoke to. It could have been a demon disguising itself as Samuel. In both scenarios, again, it is possible it was a psychological or mental issue related to stress, fear, anxiety, and or other causes!

In light of the above, it is clear people can be made to believe they have encountered and talked to their ‘dead’ ones when, in actual sense, all they have met is a demon or nothing but hallucinations! Got Questions summarizes this paradox:

‘What about instances in which “ghosts” act in “positive” ways? What about psychics who claim to summon the deceased and gain true and useful information from them? Again, it is crucial to remember that the goal of demons is to deceive. If the result is that people trust in a psychic instead of God, a demon will be more than willing to reveal true information. Even good and true information, if from a source with evil motives, can be used to mislead, corrupt, and destroy.’

In conclusion, here are the points to take home:

1. When we die, we either go to heaven or hell. Period. Even if there was anywhere else we were put other than hell or heaven, for example, the Purgatory, we still do not have the volition or freedom to come back among the living. So, the idea that the spirit or soul of those who died can come and live among us is a TOTAL LIE.
2. There exists TWO spiritual powers or beings, angels and demons or God and Satan. If we aren’t being controlled by one, then we are being controlled by the other. But not the ghost or spirit of a fellow who died!
3. All reported ghost experiences or encounters are either with God or angels, Satan or demons, and or just a mental or psychosocial challenge! In all cases, there is truly no ghost!
4. Yes, people can ‘assume’ to talk to the dead through witches and mediums, claim rewards and seek help or experience misfortunes and punishments and or learn true information through these consultations or conjuring, but the truth is they haven’t really met their ‘deceased fellows’, but demons masquerading to be the dead person’s ghost!

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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