# How Exactly Do Ghosts Harm People? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 19, 2010, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493 "2010-01-19T00:26:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/41 "2010-01-19T20:18:57Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Ever watch _The Sixth Sense_? Or _Beetlejuice_? [Thinking about the truck roadkill guy specifically] ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/42 "2010-01-19T20:47:29Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > That’s why I specified that my logical solution is for authors who don’t want gory ghosts. Sorry for the confusion. Blame my reading comprehension. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/43 "2010-01-19T21:26:40Z")
Other than scaring people, there is little that ghosts seem to do. They hang around, not knowing that they have “passed”-so they are as confused by their condition as anybody. They are more to be pitied than feared. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/44 "2010-01-19T21:40:38Z")
They can slime you. I saw it in a documentary once. ---
**Author:** ![Powder\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/858c86/32.png) [@Powder\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powder_Blue)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/45 "2010-01-20T01:37:43Z")
So why do ghosts (AFAIK) always seem to be fully clothed? Do you go to the other side wearing whatever it is you had on when you died? ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/46 "2010-01-20T15:21:39Z")
Probably. That’s why they look the way they did when they died, and not like a heap of dirt. ---
**Author:** ![MitzeKatze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@MitzeKatze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MitzeKatze)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/47 "2010-01-20T15:50:11Z")
> [@Powder\_Blue](#): > > So why do ghosts (AFAIK) always seem to be fully clothed? Do you go to the other side wearing whatever it is you had on when you died? See? That’s what I want to know. Although you said it much more betterer that I did. 😉 Although it does make a case to always look your best and in your most-loved clothes, lest you end up wandering through all eternity wearing the grungy sweat pants you were running errands in because you didn’t plan to leave your car anyway…or it makes a case not wear to pajamas in public just in case you are killed and end up trying to deliver and important message from beyond the grave in your duckie pants. 😉 Before I can truly believe in ghosts (as the Western version of “ghosts” goes, that is a dead person not knowing he died or needing to get rid of people in his house or having some unfinished business here in the known realm…) I will need to have one fully materialize butt-naked or say something that really makes sense rather than speaking in riddles or voices that can only be heard clearly if it is manipulated (as most EVPs). I have always told my kids that they will know if it is me haunting them because I won’t be so subtle. My messages will be clear and will be “brush your teeth” or “clean your room” and if they see me they should avert their eyes because I plan to wander through eternity the same way I wandered in. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/48 "2010-01-20T15:59:09Z")
I recall a show on the History channel about ghosts. The theory was a rip or tear in time lets you see glimpses of the past. For example at Gettysberg there’s lots of reported sightings. Soldiers in uniform are sometimes seen. They aren’t aware of our presence and are harmless. I’m skeptical myself. But, it was a interesting theory and the show was entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/49 "2010-01-20T17:41:17Z")
How do ghosts harm people? By punching them in the BOOOOOObs, of course! [Sup]Sorry. I’ll go quietly.[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![bathsheba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@bathsheba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bathsheba)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/50 "2010-01-21T08:55:58Z")
> [@MitzeKatze](#): > > Before I can truly believe in ghosts (as the Western version of “ghosts” goes, that is a dead person not knowing he died or needing to get rid of people in his house or having some unfinished business here in the known realm…) I will need to have one fully materialize butt-naked or say something that really makes sense rather than speaking in riddles or voices that can only be heard clearly if it is manipulated (as most EVPs). My friends had an old man materialise in their house and yell at them that the house was on fire (which it was). He wasn’t butt naked though, so it doesn’t count. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/51 "2010-01-21T08:59:14Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > When I lived in West Africa, I knew people who seriously believed in tribal witchcraft and magic. That didn’t stop me from mocking them. What, to their faces? Is that why you don’t live there any more? Did they throw you out? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/52 "2010-01-21T09:02:52Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![bobkitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/53 "2010-01-21T17:54:02Z")
My sister-in-law told my brother (her husband, obviously) ~ a year ago that if (1) she died before he did, and (2) he allowed my sister and her husband to attend her funeral, that (3) she would haunt him forever. She died this past Sunday morning. After experiencing much internal conflict ( :rolleyes: ) my brother called my sister last night to tell her that her kids (ages 13 and 16) were welcome, but she and her husband were not to attend the funeral (or any other associated events). So, ghosts pose enough of a threat that the thought of one haunting you forever causes you to act like a total douchebag to your sibling, who was actually looking forward to finally setting aside some long-standing differences and rebuilding the relationship with you and your kids.\* They also apparently manage to ensure that any family conflict they had a hand in creating continues well after they’re gone. :mad: [sub]\* I would argue that any grief she could cause him while haunting him is infinitesimal when compared to the utter shit she put him through during their 18 years of marriage, but what the hell do I know??[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/54 "2010-01-21T21:50:06Z")
If dead people weren’t the least dangerous type of people, we’d do things a lot differently. ---
**Author:** ![kapri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kapri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kapri)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/55 "2010-01-22T01:01:55Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > Were the books still on the floor in the morning? Did you have to pick them up and put them back? Or were they miraculously back on the shelves? Of course they were on the floor! Otherwise, it couldn’t have happened. The books came off the shelves one by one, fairly slowly and in order. It was the creepiest thing ever and it really happened. I know it sounds crazy, by the way. I know. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/56 "2010-01-22T01:44:54Z")
[Ghosts can lead to economic losses.](http://absolutelybangkok.com/go-thai-tech-electronic-ghost-repeller/) I’ve heard cases of people spending tens of thousands of dollars to get rid of some ghost in their homes. If I wouldn’t have any shred of morality I could totally put to use my electronics skillz, make a metal (not crappy wooden) box with two (or more!) blinking LEDs outside and a speaker inside going _Wooop Wooop Wooop!_ sell it for a mere 15.000 Baht and make a mint. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/57 "2010-01-22T02:50:59Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > [Ghosts can lead to economic losses.](http://absolutelybangkok.com/go-thai-tech-electronic-ghost-repeller/) > I’ve heard cases of people spending tens of thousands of dollars to get rid of some ghost in their homes. > > If I wouldn’t have any shred of morality I could totally put to use my electronics skillz, make a metal (not crappy wooden) box with two (or more!) blinking LEDs outside and a speaker inside going _Wooop Wooop Wooop!_ sell it for a mere 15.000 Baht and make a mint. How are those economic losses, as opposed to increased economic activity? And even on an individual level, it’s no more so a loss then spending money on tango lessons or whatever ephemeral thing that makes you feel good (or less worse) about your life. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/58 "2010-01-22T20:13:45Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > (Snip) anything to give him the faintest glimmer of hope that there’s something beyond the finality of death. I couldn’t agree more. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493/59 "2010-01-22T20:56:50Z")
> [@bobkitty](#): > > So, ghosts pose enough of a threat that the thought of one haunting you forever causes you to act like a total douchebag to your sibling, who was actually looking forward to finally setting aside some long-standing differences and rebuilding the relationship with you and your kids.\* > > [/sub] This is why people need to pull their heads out of their asses and realize that funerals are, and always have been, for the living. Your SIL should have fuck-all say in how her family decides to grieve. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-ghosts-harm-people/525493.md?page=2)