Why should we believe in ghosts?

In many countries, Halloween (or Halloween) is a time when horror stories and scary decorations are omnipresent, evoking the realm of the dead.

The origins of modern Halloween date back to the Samhain Festival ("late summer"), Celtic pagan festival, which marks the beginning of the dark period of the 39, year in which, according to legend, the kingdom of the living and the dead overlap – and ghosts are frequently found

In 601, Pope Gregory I led the missionaries must not put an end to the pagan celebrations, but Christians to make their strategy to convert northern Europe to Christianity.

Thus, over time, the celebrations of Samhain ] became the Day of the Dead and All Saints Day, when it was deemed that speaking to the dead was appropriate from the point religious view.

All Saints Day was also known as All Saints Day . previous night as All Hall evenings or Hallowe'in

Not only did the pagan beliefs surrounding the spirits of the dead continue, but they were also part of many rituals of the Catholic Church.

Pope Gregory himself suggested that those who saw spirits order a Mbad for them. The dead, from this point of view, would need the help of the living to make their journey to heaven.

In the Middle Ages, beliefs about souls imprisoned in purgatory led the church to sell more and more indulgences – documents that they granted divine grace or reduced penances to anyone who paid . It was these beliefs that contributed to the Reformation, a movement led by the German Martin Luther, that led to the division of the Western Christian world between Catholics and Protestants.

19659002] Indeed, Luther's 95 theses, preached at the door of the Church of All Saints of Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, constituted largely a protest against the sale of indulgences.

Spirits were later

But debates about the existence of ghosts continue – and people are turning more and more to science to solve the problem.

In the 19th century, Spiritism, a movement which claimed that the dead could converse with the living, quickly became popular, as did their approaches: spiritist sessions, ouija board (a kind of joke on glbad),

Although the cultural significance of spiritualism was overshadowed after the First World War, its techniques can be observed today by "ghost hunters", who are trying to prove the existence of Spirits Using Scientific Methods

] These beliefs are not only part of the Christian world. Most companies have a concept of "ghost". As in other Asian countries, such as Japan, Korea, China and Vietnam, Taiwan is celebrating the month of ghosts, which includes the day of ghosts.

These holidays and beliefs are often badociated with the Buddhist Sutra of Urabon, where Buddha teaches a young priest how to help his mother, whom he sees suffering as a "hungry ghost".

As in other cultures, Taiwanese spirits are considered "friendly" or "hostile". Friendships are usually ancestors or family members and are welcome in homes during the festival.

Moral Reminder

As a professor of mythology at the University of Southern California, United States, he has been studying and teaching ghost stories for years. I discovered that they usually "haunt" for a good reason. Unresolved murders for the lack of proper funerals, forced suicides, avoidable tragedies and other ethical problems.

In this perspective, spirits often seek justice after death. They can impute this to individuals or to society as a whole.

Researcher Elizabeth Tucker of Binghamton State University in New York describes several reports of appearances on college campuses, often related to sordid aspects of the institution's past.

In this way, ghosts reveal the dark side of ethics. Their appearances often remind us that ethics and morality transcend our lives and that slipping can lead to a heavy spiritual burden.

However, ghost stories also bring hope. By suggesting the existence of a life after death, they offer a chance to be in touch with those who have died and thus an opportunity for redemption – a way to repair the mistakes of the past.

Instead of letting yourself be tempted, you may want to take a few minutes to reflect on the role of ghosts in our haunted past and how they lead us to a life of morality and ethics.

19659028] written by Professor Tok Thompson, was originally published on the academic news site The Conversation and republished here under Creative Commons license.

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