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WILL O’ THE WISP

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Will-O'-Tthe-Wisp And Snake. 1823 Painting by Hermann Hendrich.
Will-O’-Tthe-Wisp And Snake. 1823 Painting by Hermann Hendrich.

Ghost Lights Are The Original Jack-O-Lanterns

IIn European folklore, will-o’-the-wisps, or ghosts lights, appear at night in desolate places to lure lonely travelers off their paths and into swamps and other dangers. According to most folkloric accounts, ghosts lights resemble flickering lanterns that constantly recede before the person pursuing them, so that no one ever gets a close look.

Also called ignis fatuus (“foolish fire” in Latin), these eerie illuminations are said to be the caused by malevolent spirits of the dead or the spirits of unbaptized children. In Europe, the first jack-o-lanterns were created from turnips or pumpkins in imitation of will-o’-the-wisps. In fact, “jack-o-lantern” was another name for ghost fire before it came to be associated with the carved, candle-kindled vegetables with which we are all familiar. [Read more…] about WILL O’ THE WISP

GHOSTS IN THE BIBLE

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The Shade of Samuel Invoked by Saul. Painting by D. Martynov (1826-1889)
The Shade of Samuel Invoked by Saul. Painting by D. Martynov (1826-1889)

The Bible Contains Surprisingly Few Ghost Stories

One particularly impressive aspect of humankind’s obsession with ghosts is that for over two millennia it has persisted and even flourished in Western literature and other forms of culture in spite of the fact that ghosts play no significant role in any of the Western Hemisphere’s three great religions: Judaism, Islam, or Christianity. Islam, for its part, teaches that there are no ghosts—ghostlike occurrences being attributed to other sorts of demonlike supernatural beings called jinns—while Christian teachings leave no room for the possibility of earthbound spirits: The souls of the dead go either to Heaven or Hell, or—in the case of the Catholic religion—possibly to Purgatory. (While officials of the Catholic Church do perform exorcisms to free people from supernatural affliction, these rituals are always meant to cast out demons—which never were human—rather than the disembodied spirits of the dead.)

As for the Jewish religion, ghosts are all but ignored in that great and ancient work of literature known as the Old Testament. The one notable Old Testament ghost reference occurs in Samuel 28:7-20 when King Saul, feeling himself abandoned by God, disguises himself as a beggar and visits the Witch of Endor. He asks the witch to summon the spirit of the prophet Samuel, from whom he desires a prediction concerning the outcome of his upcoming battle against the Philistines. (The Odyssey probably predates the writing and compilation of the Old Testament, and it is interesting to note that King Saul’s desire to speak with the spirit of Samuel is so similar to Odysseus’ need to speak with the dead soothsayer, Teiresias.) [Read more…] about GHOSTS IN THE BIBLE

CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE ONE

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Ghosts In A Haunted Hotel: The Shining Twins

Not only is the classic 1980 film, The Shining, one of the greatest psychological thrillers of all time, but some critics consider it to be one of the best films in any genre. And it’s all about ghosts—ghosts who mess with the already messed-up psyche of alcoholic American writer Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson in one of his finest performances.

The Shining begins with Jack taking a job as the winter caretaker at the old, haunted Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. He is accompanied by his wife and young son, Danny, and he intends to get some writing work done during his term of isolation at the remote lodge. [Read more…] about CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE ONE

HUNGRY GHOSTS

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A Burmese Depiction Of Hungry Ghosts In Torment
A Burmese Depiction Of Hungry Ghosts In Torment

The Asian Tradition Of The Hungry Ghost

In Asian folklore and among many Buddhists, the hungry ghost is described as a spirit who is him- or herself haunted by needs, desires, and longings that went unfulfilled during the ghost’s earthly existence. These sad and frustrated wraiths are doomed to wander the earth in a (usually fruitless) search for the satisfactions that eluded them while they were alive.

In addition to perpetually wandering hungry ghosts, some Chinese people and people of Chinese descent who live in other Asian countries believe that the dead invisibly return from the afterlife to move among the living at certain times of the year. During hungry ghost festivals, which often occur in late summer, people set out food for their returning ancestors as well as for other disembodied visitors who happen by. [Read more…] about HUNGRY GHOSTS

ANCIENT GREEK GHOST STORIES

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Hades by Elsa Dax.
Hades by Elsa Dax.

When Did People Start Writing Ghost Stories?

We know that stories about ghosts are as old as language itself. Stone age peoples in most parts of the world must have traded tales and warnings about the disembodied spirits of the dead. It was only natural that after writing developed some of humankind’s earliest literature began to include some ghostly material.

Some of the first Western literature reveals a preoccupation with doing right by the dead in order to prevent their ghosts from haunting the living. Homer’s epic poem, the Illiad, written nearly 3,000 years ago, contains the following passage (23.63 in Richmod Lattimore’s translation) in which a sleeping Achilles is berated by the ghost of his slain friend, Patroclus, for failing to properly tend to his corpse, thereby preventing him from entering the Land of the Dead (Lattimore: 23.99):

There appeared to him [Achilles] the ghost (psykhe) of unhappy Patroklos all in his likeness for stature, and lovely eyes, and voice, and wore such clothing as Patroklos had worn on his body. The ghost came and stood over his head and spoke a word to him: “You sleep, Akhilleus; you have forgotten me; but you were not careless of me when I lived, but only in death. Bury me as quickly as may be, let me pass through the gates of [Hades] (pylai Aidao). The souls (psykhai), the images (eidôla) of dead men, hold me at a distance, and will not let me cross the river and mingle among them, but I wander as I am by [Hades’] house of the wide gates (eurypyles Aidos dôma). And I call upon you in sorrow, give me your hand; no longer shall I come back from death, once you give me my rite of burning.” [Read more…] about ANCIENT GREEK GHOST STORIES

THE MOST FAMOUS GHOST POEM

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Antigonish—Or The Man Who Wasn’t There

It began with stories about the ghost of a man haunting the stairs of a haunted house in the Canadian town of Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Inspired by the stories, in 1899 American poet Hughes Mearns wrote a song about the ghost that he incorporated into his amateur play, The Psyco-Ed. In 1922, the song, now entitled Antigonish, was published as a poem in a New York newspaper. It became popular almost immediately, and in the late 1930s it was re-adapted into a hit song called The Little Man Who Wasn’t There.

Antigonish
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today,
I wish, I wish he’d go away… [Read more…] about THE MOST FAMOUS GHOST POEM

ARE GHOSTS REAL?

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Do Ghosts Exist Only In Our Minds?
Do Ghosts Exist Only In Our Minds?

The Reality Of Ghosts

Do ghosts exist? Has anyone ever actually seen, heard, or touched a ghost?

What we know for certain is that from the start of our own existence as a species, many if not most of us have believed in ghosts, and a good percentage of people have been convinced that ghosts have appeared to them or spoken to them. Throughout history, people in most of the world’s cultures have been afraid of ghosts. [Read more…] about ARE GHOSTS REAL?

WHAT IS A GHOST?

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Ghost Stories Are Common Throughout Most Of The World's Cultures
Ghost Stories Are Common In Most Of The World’s Cultures

Our Ghosts Have Been With Us Since The Beginning

Humankind has been haunted from the start—or at least for as long as we’ve been able to think, and to imagine. Tens of thousands of years ago, among our first thoughts not related our own physical needs were our speculations concerning what became of us once we were no longer alive. In stone-age cultures across the world, people concluded that the essence of a person survived beyond death. Ghosts—mostly but not always invisible to the living—became an important component of our humanity.

A ghost is an (usually) intangible remnant or reflection of a person’s individuality or consciousness that dwells on after that person has ceased to exist in the physical sense. The difference between a ghost and a “soul” is that, while a soul is usually thought of as a traveler to an otherworldly realm such as paradise or Hades, a ghost is earthbound, continuing to move among those it left behind. [Read more…] about WHAT IS A GHOST?