There’s a whole system for this in Chinese folklore. According to traditions and folklore, humans are alive and filled with Yang energy. Ghosts would ‘suck’ away that Yang energy, causing you to fall sick and other misfortunes. Another common one is possession.
Well, that what the Chinese old wives tale say.
I wish I could get a hot chinese chick ghost to come and suck my yang.
Purportedly the Bell Witch did actually physically harm the Tennesee based Bell family though it seemed to be a malicious poultergeist type manifestation rather than a proper casper type ghost. Whether someone was sneaking in and causing the issue [lack of electricity tends to make many of the current explainations moot] may be another matter but it is documented that John Bell did die.
I have problems with the ghost hunters who see everything as demonic, and others who see everything as someone trying to contact, because sometimes it is random electrical issues…or some other natural explaination.
You want to think it’s only your mind playing tricks on you, and at worst the damage is psychological, but your conscience tells you they can harm you physically. At least, that’s how it is for me.
Put it this way, I’ve been in quite a few paranormal situations and the first instinct; get the fuck out of there! No chance in hell I’m sticking around to find out what ghastly experiments the shadow people have waiting for me. No way.
You don’t necessarily have to be rationally frightened of potential harm to be freaked out by something nonetheless. You don’t have any reason to think a picture from the uncanny valley will do anything to you at all. But the un-rational lizard part of your brain still shouts, “holy fuck!”
Hee. Drive-by video linky. Ray Stevens is a funny, funny man.
Fear of the unknown, basically. I suppose if you’re familiar with ghosts, like folks who work in “haunted” hotels and such, it’s no big deal.
We supposedly have a ghost in the courthouse I work in; the county jail used to be on the third floor, so there were some suicides many many years ago. People claim that doors close and lights turn on and off by themselves, and hearing footsteps and such. I stay rational about it: what’s the worst he can do, shout “BOO” at me?
Slight hijack, but:
If I were writing ghost story fiction, my explanation would be that ghosts appear the way they remember themselves. That would also help out authors who don’t want their dead people walking around with hideous fatal injuries- if a guy was run over by a truck, he’d still think of himself the way he looked when he was alive, and not squished like he was for his last few seconds.
Hijack over.
Isn’t that a common trope or whatever you call it, that the ghosts themselves don’t know they’re dead? Either that, or they’re not people at all but some kind of psychic “recording.”
Ever watch The Sixth Sense?
Fiction about ghosts is often very inconsistent when it comes to the abilities of ghosts. More often then not they simply pass through things or have the ability to pick things up as it is convenient to the plot. Ghost stories have to have an extremely high entertainment value from other mechanisms before my suspension of disbelieve kicks in - typically I find this too annoying.
I also wonder why ghosts that simply pass through walls don’t fall through the floor. I’d expect that ghosts that appear to be affected by gravity would all be stuck at the center of the earth!
No. Why, did they come up with the idea first?
What the fuck does that mean? How did science determine that? Why is it only organic matter? Is carbon different from other elements in consciousness-emergence?
On topic: I think the scary thing about the concept of ghosts is that you have no way of defending yourself. You can’t escape. You don’t know what it can throw at you, but it can walk through the thickest walls and follow you everywhere. Maybe it can get in your mind and drive you crazy. Maybe it attracts other spooky things that are able to do physical damage. Especially if the ghost has a good reason to be mad at you- karma is not on your side, and will actively collaborate with the ghost to bring about justice.
(If the ghost is bound to a particular house or Indian burial ground or such, the above applies to the unfortunate idiot who insists on going there. And there’s always one).
Spoilered for a reason:
A kid sees ghosts in the physical state they were in when they died. A battered wife shows off her slit wrists. A boy brags about borrowing his father’s gun, and half of his head is missing. Stuff like that.
It means it’s caused by electro-chemical processes in organic matter, i.e the brain.
By studying the brain.
Because that’s the matter which allows for the necessary chemistry.
Of course. It has a different atomic structure. So what?
That’s why I specified that my logical solution is for authors who don’t want gory ghosts. Sorry for the confusion.
OTOH,ones that don’t know they’re dead look the same way they did in life.
How do we know they aren’t?:eek:
Of course if a ghost isn’t affected by walls, it probably wouldn’t be affected by gravity.
People prefer a lot of things. That don’t make it so.
The idea of an “afterlife” is sort of ridiculous really. Say when you die your consciousness go to some other plane of reality called Heaven or Elysium or Valhalla or whatever. So what happens now? You take up residence in this new place and live a life sort of like you did on Earth? Do you have to go find a job or start dating or whatever? What about people there you find annoying or jerky? Do you have superpowers? What do you do to entertain yourself? How long are you there for? What happens afterward? Or do you just become “one with the universe” whatever that means?
Basically my point is that even if there is something after you die most likely you wouldn’t be experiencing existence in any way that would approach what you were familiar with as a human being. So essentially for all intents and purpose, who you were when you die would no longer exist anyway.
And I’m not sure why existing as a non-corporal entity for eternity is preferable to not existing at all.
You get to pass through walls and scare the shit out of people.
What’s not to love?
