I was watching one of those ghost-hunting specials on TV a few nights ago, which included supposed photos of ghosts and supposed ghosts speaking on tape. Obviously, I know the Occam’s Razor explanation for both these phenomena, but they were creepy nevertheless.
I remembered others opining similar things, and it struck me how unique ghosts are in our mindset here in the West. No one really takes the possible existence of real vampires or werewolves seriously, but ghosts? Many do. Or at least, if they don’t, things like the special I mentioned above have MUCH more potential to scare than a special on vampires or werewolves. Heck, just look at the MTV reality show “Fear.” Do you think those teens would’ve been scared out of their wits if told that a vampire was stalking their location? On top of that, movies about ghosts (and zombies, for that matter) seem to be one of the most common type of supernatural horror - and, some might argue, the scariest.
Why is this? What is it about ghosts that engenders this reaction, compared to other supernatural beasties? Might it have something to do with the humanness of them? If so, why not in the case of vampires?
Perhaps because Ghosts(If they exist) would be much harder to prove/disprove due to their very nature, and a ghosts presence would be indicated by subtle audio/visual cues.
On the contrary, Vampires,Werewolves and zombies would be a bit easier to establish and identify due to the fact they have physical bodies and certain hypothical MO’s.
Vampires are supposed to suck blood and leave specific wounds. This can be verified if someone would claim to have been attacked by one were exampled by a doctor.
Werewolves would leave victims that resemble animal attacks, supossdly.
Zombies…well, zombies aren’t particulary subtle, at least according to media depictions of them.
All three can be killed and all three are hypotheically subject to material barriers. This does not apply to ghosts.
Summery: Ghosts are a bit more ambigous, a bit harder to pin down, if you believe in the supernatural.
For the most part, people’s minds can deal with tangible, physical things. Ghosts are neither physical nor tangible. There is no rational explanation for them, and THAT’S what scares the bejeebers out of people.
I also think it’s interesting that folks are so afraid of ghosts, even though by most accounts they pose no threat/can’t hurt you. I guess it’s just that unexplained/unfamilar aspect.
I think because the very concept of ghosts raises the large {and probably unanswerable, at least definitively} question of “What happens to me when I die?” If you believe in ghosts {which I don’t} you have to believe in some kind of afterlife, some part of you which remains after your body is gone.
Religions and belief systems have devoted themselves to this notion, most {as far as I know} subscribing to the idea that, yes, there is more to you then just meat, there is a soul of some form: Marxist notions of religion as social control {with heaven as compensation for putting up with nastiness during this life} aside, I guess because the alternative, that you just stop being when you die, is quite an unpalatable one to many people {it’s one I subscribe to, but I’ll find out when I die. Or not, as the case may be}. Ghosts or not, the idea that some part of you will continue after you’re dead is a powerfully seductive one.
I suppose that the idea of ghosts rings an awful lot more bells with most people than just plain fear: monsters are easy to accept, they’re just things with teeth that will eat you if they get you, and there are plenty of those in the world, whether literal or metaphorical. Ghosts, on the other hand, mean that there is something on the Other Side: that’s a pretty resonant and powerful idea.
How do you kill a werewolf? Silver tipped weapons.
How do you kill a vampire? Sunlight, stake through the heart, holy water, etc.
How do you kill a zombie? Fire, hacking them into very small bits, etc.
How do you kill a ghost?
Good answers thus far. I’ll add that there’s (IMO) just barely enough plausibility in ghosts and hauntings to make it so you can’t just dismiss it as impossible and not worthy of even considering. Vampires, werewolves, or zombies are unrealistic. There are biological facts that make it impossible for each of them to actually exist. Ghosts, OTOH could theoretically exist. Too, most Western religions teach that there is something that instills life in a hunk of meat. Call it a soul, a spirit, or a spark, but something is present in the living that is not in the dead. Where does it go? It’d be interesting to see if ghost beliefs are more prominent in religous vs. non-religous people, and across various belief systems.
Then, add in the “How do you defend yourself from it” angle (as opposed to the clearly defined defenses against vampires and such) and you’ve got an idea that can cause even die-hard skeptics to question their doubtings when something creaks in the dead of night.
Defend against what? Some transparent apparation hovering around being all annoying and shit? BOOOO!! BOOOOOOOO!!! Dude…cut the shit. Ok it was a little creepy at first. Maybe even a little scary. Now it’s become the supernatural equivalent of the “I’m not touching you” game.
No, ghosts are still on “this side”. All it means is that after you die, you still get to hang around watching people discovering your secret porn stash and making fun of you.
Given that ghosts {again, assuming that they exist, and I don’t} are on “this side”, doesn’t that assume that there is Another Side to be on, and that they are some kind of “this side” manifestation of “that side”.
Disclaimer: I’m not trying to hijack this thread, so please let’s try and avoid the recent “Paranormal” thread trainwrecks.
In much of Asia and Africa, ghosts are believed to cause death, destruction and illness. So they are scary because they can cause harm and because it can be difficult and expensive to appease them. It’s worth noting, though, that in cultures where ghosts can cause harm, there do exist ways of dealing with them, whether through appeasment or banishment. Shamans and medicine men are trained to do exactly that.
The belief that ghosts can do no harm (accepting for a moment the proposition that they exist) is a singularly Western notion - and not even entirely true. Poltergeists, for example, are believed to move objects around in violent and potentially dangerous ways. Some ghosts-in-the-graveyard will lead people to a swamp and drown them. Some ghosts cause their victims to go insane and kill themselves. What I find interesting is the fact that Western culture still contains the ghost meme, but without any way of dealing with it. That in itself is scary: there’s this thing I don’t understand that startles me a lot, and I’m not entirely convinced it can’t hurt me, but there’s *nothing * I can do about it! :eek:
This depends on what we mean by “the other side”… ie, the other side of what? I’d have to say that we’re talking, or I am, anyway, about the other side of death. So they are in fact on the other side.
The whole spookiness of ghosts is that we don’t know where they’re poking into our side from… just that it sounds dark and scary and that they moan a lot and there are probably spiders there. Different theories lend our imaginations fuel, but essentially we’ll never know what’s beyond the grave till we get there. And then it’ll be tooo LAAAATE!
