# How long do ghosts live? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 4, 2018, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848 "2018-01-04T13:58:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/41 "2018-01-04T16:36:11Z")
> [@simster](#): > > I think you need to divide by zero to get the proper answer here. Well, I tried that but kept getting error messages, so I left that part out. GaryM ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/42 "2018-01-04T16:38:47Z")
> [@B-Rad](#): > > It occurred to us last night we haven’t noticed any such activity for several months and I fear the worst. Perhaps the reason the signs were so low-key is because he was getting old and was simply too tired to get up to any real mischief. Strangely, we miss him. (and yes, I totally assumed the ghost’s gender. I am a bad person.) I’m sorry to tell you this, but your ghost went to haunt a farm out in the country. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/43 "2018-01-04T16:50:13Z")
**How long do ghosts live?** The question recalls to mind one of my wife’s favorite stories. When Pepper Mill was working in the North End of Boston, a little girl came in and asked what music was playing in the background. My wife answered that it was an old piece called “Unchained Melody”\* The little girl instantly responded "That isn’t ‘Unchained Melody’! That’s the music from **Ghost**! Then she went into a reverie, recalling the film: “It was sad when Sam died. It was sad when he died again.” Judging from the movies, ghosts don’t have a fixed time on earth. They seem to hang around until their unfinished business is finished. See _Ghost, The Time of their Lives, The Corpse Bride_, etc. _ad mortuum._ “Unchained Melody” was written in 1955 by Alex North, a film score composer who wrote the music for _Spartacus_ and other films (including the unused score for _2001: a Space Odyssey_). It was written for the film **Unchained** , which explains the otherwise odd-seeming title. Unchained was a prison film starring probably nobody you ever heard of, and would have been forgotten , probably, were it not for the song. (It did feature Jerry Paris, who went on to direct a lot of episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show, and to play Dick’s neighbor, the dentist.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/44 "2018-01-04T16:53:00Z")
> [@B-Rad](#): > > Dang, my now-18 y/o daughter was a bad cutter when she went to live with her mom full-time about a year ago, and remains to this day a general agent of chaos. This gives me something to think about. Well, I don’t believe any of that horseshit, but back when I was curious about it, your daughter would have fit the archetypal poltergeist case to a tee. From what I remember, poltergeists are not necessarily ghosts, but manifestations of an individual’s psychic energy, or some gobbledygook like that, most often troubled pubescent and just post-pubescent teens. Or they could be ghosts, but explicitly tied to an individual. Whichever you prefer. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/45 "2018-01-04T17:09:11Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The question recalls to mind one of my wife’s favorite stories. When Pepper Mill was working in the North End of Boston, a little girl came in and asked what music was playing in the background. My wife answered that it was an old piece called “Unchained Melody”\* > > The little girl instantly responded "That isn’t ‘Unchained Melody’! That’s the music from **Ghost**! And then someone told her “Little girl? There was never any little girl in here!” And they checked the security tape, and Pepper Mill was the only one in the store! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/46 "2018-01-04T17:10:21Z")
For criminy sake, ghosts are not complete personalities or souls. They are the emotional resonance left by extreme psychic trauma. Depending on the nature of the trauma, acknowledging the Ghost will either release it (the energy drains off into your living and more flexible mind) or will amplify it (being traumatized by the manifestation will add energy to it). Without knowing what caused your poltergeist to manifest to you it is impossible to tell whether it faded or grew out of your kenning. (Having a teenager move out of the house can and will cut down on poltergeist activity, as an adolescent psyche will reinforce any spirit activity in its home.) ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/47 "2018-01-04T17:16:24Z")
By definition, “Ghosts” are not alive, hence they do not “live”. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/48 "2018-01-04T17:29:31Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > For criminy sake, ghosts are not complete personalities or souls. They are the emotional resonance left by extreme psychic trauma. > > Depending on the nature of the trauma, acknowledging the Ghost will either release it (the energy drains off into your living and more flexible mind) or will amplify it (being traumatized by the manifestation will add energy to it). > > Without knowing what caused your poltergeist to manifest to you it is impossible to tell whether it faded or grew out of your kenning. > > (Having a teenager move out of the house can and will cut down on poltergeist activity, as an adolescent psyche will reinforce any spirit activity in its home.) Cool story, bro. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/49 "2018-01-04T17:30:53Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Cool story, bro. Thank you. Now if I could only get some of this shit published (professionally to get paid). ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mr.Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Bill)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/50 "2018-01-04T17:55:55Z")
> [@B-Rad](#): > > …but I can’t blame the doorknob screws on the cats. Maybe I should? I would suggest you might want to attribute the loosened screws to mechanical expansion and contraction of the wood due to humidity or temperature changes. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/51 "2018-01-04T17:59:32Z")
Try a little home diy project. The ghost will come out in spades! They hate that shit. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/52 "2018-01-04T18:03:04Z")
So, the OP’s daughter is a cutter, and yet a poltergeist gets blamed. Then, the activity stops when she moves out. There’s your answer. How often have the doorknob screws loosened? Do you have old doors? Could the screws have loosened from some kind of activity, like when the angry daughter slammed the doors? ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/53 "2018-01-04T18:15:28Z")
> [@Mr.Bill](#): > > I would suggest you might want to attribute the loosened screws to mechanical expansion and contraction of the wood due to humidity or temperature changes. Heh, that’s just crazy talk. WAS a cutter, and she never blamed the ghost. That was all razor blades and steak knives obeying her command. And I know there is a logical explanation for the stuff we attributed to the ghost, just as logic can explain that if a woman weighs the same as a duck she is made of wood and therefore a witch. But the rest of my mind is amused by the thought of her psychic energy bringing into being an independent and amorphous entity capable of damaging flesh and causing minor chaotic annoyances. Anyone seen that movie _Drop Dead Fred_? The imaginary friend starts to die when the protagonist starts taking antipsychotic meds. I wonder if our ghost was killed by citalopram. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/54 "2018-01-04T18:19:08Z")
> [@B-Rad](#): > > Among such experts, or even aficionados, is there anything resembling a consensus about how long a spirit will endure in this world once it is brought into existence? Certainly, very powerful spirits may be immortal or at least not suffer a weakening ability to interact with the physical world, but more “common” ones, ostensibly the remnant of ordinary people or animals, may have a more limited effective duration. About how long is that? Not really since there isn’t even a good consensus among those of us who believe in such things in regards what the heck they even are. “Residual haunts” are something like a tape that plays over and over on some sort of cycle or due to conditions. Those can repeat for hundreds of years or fade over time almost like a film loop wearing out. A “residual” has no idea we even exist. “Intelligent haunts” are things that are aware of us and interact with us. Some seem tied to locations and others tied to people. These seem more sometimes to disappear rather than fade although some have been “documented” (by personal experiences) over hundreds of years; your description seems more like that kind of thing. Again, if you believe the people who believe, they can sometimes return but in a sense their need was fulfilled and they have moved along to ------ whatever. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/55 "2018-01-04T18:25:44Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > Not really since there isn’t even a good consensus among those of us who believe in such things in regards what the heck they even are. Perhaps because they don’t exist, and you’re each making your own shit up as you go. > [@](#): > > “Residual haunts” are something like a tape that plays over and over on some sort of cycle or due to conditions. Those can repeat for hundreds of years or fade over time almost like a film loop wearing out. A “residual” has no idea we even exist. “Intelligent haunts” are things that are aware of us and interact with us. Some seem tied to locations and others tied to people. These seem more sometimes to disappear rather than fade although some have been “documented” (by personal experiences) over hundreds of years; your description seems more like that kind of thing. Again, if you believe the people who believe, they can sometimes return but in a sense their need was fulfilled and they have moved along to ------ whatever. Again, all bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/56 "2018-01-04T18:29:10Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > Not really since there isn’t even a good consensus among those of us who believe in such things in regards what the heck they even are. > > “Residual haunts” are something like a tape that plays over and over on some sort of cycle or due to conditions. Those can repeat for hundreds of years or fade over time almost like a film loop wearing out. A “residual” has no idea we even exist. “Intelligent haunts” are things that are aware of us and interact with us. Some seem tied to locations and others tied to people. These seem more sometimes to disappear rather than fade although some have been “documented” (by personal experiences) over hundreds of years; your description seems more like that kind of thing. Again, if you believe the people who believe, they can sometimes return but in a sense their need was fulfilled and they have moved along to ------ whatever. This is similar to the “explanation” Stephen King supplies to the Marsten House in _'salem’s Lot_: houses can act like “psychic batteries” and store energy from powerful experiences, then a susceptible person triggers it and it plays back. You would assume once the house is gone, the ghost hits the trail. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/57 "2018-01-04T18:35:46Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Thank you. Now if I could only get some of this shit published (professionally to get paid). The fiction market is glutted with stories like that. You need to market it as "non"fiction-the woowoos will eat it up. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/58 "2018-01-04T18:38:02Z")
Have we ruled out the possibility that the “poltergeist” is actually a mischievous fey of some sort? In that case, you can try to befriend it with gifts like milk, or you can wait for it to find someone more amusing to annoy. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/59 "2018-01-04T18:41:32Z")
Inter-dimensional time-travelling aliens, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848/60 "2018-01-04T18:44:57Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The fiction market is glutted with stories like that. You need to market it as "non"fiction-the woowoos will eat it up. You mean like, “The Amityville [del]Movie Franchise[/del] Horror”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-do-ghosts-live/805848.md?page=4)