Woooh ... Wooooh ...

 

Today's Q&A is about ghosts. But before we start, here are some thoughts to ponder.

Why is it that ghosts are often dressed in old mediaeval type clothes and appear in old castles and buildings?  

Has there ever been a ghost seen in a modern building dressed in a modern fashionable suit? Has there been a ghost in the frozen food aisle of the local supermarket? That should send a chill down one's spine. What did the ghost look like? A person or a frozen turkey left over from last Christmas or Thanksgiving? Or was it the ghost of a frozen leg of lamb?

Are ghosts only human or has there ever been animal ghosts? If so, what animals? Has there ever been a ghost of a cockroach? Probably killed in a TV episode of Murder She Roach?

Do ghosts always speak in English or can they speak in different languages? Do they have different English accents? Do they speak in Olde English like Shakespeare and Chaucer? If a French ghost appears in England would he speak English in a French accent? Or the accent of the language he comes from? Or would he say, "Me no speak English"?

I once saw a ghost riding a bicycle. He stopped and said in perfect English, "Sorry old boy, can't stop and frighten you. I'm late getting home and no matter what excuse I give the wife she can see right through me!"

Have you ever seen a ghost? Tell us about it. 

Ghosts

 

Do you believe in ghosts? Have you seen one?

I've always wondered about ghosts. Why is it ghosts are always seen in old houses, mansions or castles? Spooky places like that? 

Has there ever been a ghost seen at the frozen food aisle of the local supermarket? That should send a chill down your spine. Or a frisson if it's a French supermarket.

Is it perhaps that ghosts don't like the limelight? Is that why they don't appear in well-lit places like the supermarket?

Do ghosts just appear there standing and doing nothing? Or gliding and vanishing through walls? 

Why aren't they busy doing something when they appear? For example, has anyone ever seen a ghost riding a bicycle? Or making an omelette? Or having a shower? What would a naked ghost look like? And would the water go right through him or slide over him?

What is the intention of a ghost? They appear out of nowhere and go "Wooooh ... Woooooh ..." to frighten people. People run away and leave the ghosts all alone. Alienated from society. Surely it would be wiser to befriend people and sit down with them for a cup of tea and a chat.  

A friend of mine was convinced his car was haunted bu a ghost. He said he often saw someone sitting next to him in the passenger seat whilst he was driving. It happened mostly on long journeys on the highways. Never in slow traffic in town. Maybe that particular ghost had used up his air-miles and needed a ride in my friend's car. Do ghosts travel from one place to another; or do they stay in one place haunting people there?

Anyway, my friend got in touch with an exorcist and asked him to shoo the ghost away. Tell him to move to another faster car perhaps. The exorcist took the car for a drive to see if the ghost makes an appearance. 

When he came back from his ghost test-drive he declared that there was no ghost but the engine needed a change of oil. As it happens. the exorcist was also a car mechanic in his spare time because ghost hunting did not pay much.

By the way, do ghosts always speak the language of the country where they appear? Or can you have, say, a Greek speaking ghost in England? Or a Spanish speaking ghost in France?

Would a Greek speaking ghost carry a dictionary so he could communicate properly in England? And would he speak English with a Greek accent?

I once saw a ghost out at sea. I don't believe in ghosts really; but I did see something, or someone, who looked like a ghost.

It was in an old fishing trawler in the North Sea just off Scotland. I was in my cabin. It was dark, cold, and the sea was very rough. It had been raining and very windy all day. It was at about midnight. I was afraid that we might sink. I had been sea-sick several times. There's nothing like the smell of vomit combined with the fear of seeing a ghost. I must have cried a little because I could feel the tears trickling down my leg.

Then I saw her. It was a female ghost. She stood there and said nothing. She reminded me of Gloria Gaynor.

 At first, I was afraid, I was petrified ... and now I am imagining the look on your face reading this!!!

The truth about ghosts

 

Did you know that ghosts have never been seen in upstairs floors, or apartments or penthouse suites? This is because being spirits, ghosts can walk through walls; and by the same principle they also fall through the floor to the lowest place in a building. So a ghost in a penthouse apartment would fall all the way down to the ground floor. 

Did you also know that ghosts can talk in the language of the country where they appear? So, whilst the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future spoke in English because the story Christmas Carol was written in English; you will find that if you are abroad ghosts would speak in French, Italian, German or whatever. Very confusing if you don't know what they're saying.

Ghosts are not always human shapes of humans who have died. You can have ghosts of any animals appearing in the most unlikely places. Once in an exotic restaurant I mistakenly ordered chicken. It turned out that they had served me a parrot. It's ghost kept repeating on me all the way home.

Once when on a cruise ship I actually saw a ghost.  He was about six foot tall with a big red bushy beard, and an eye patch on his left eye. He had a wooden leg, a hook for a hand and a sword on his belt. I believe he was a vegetarian ghost pirate because he had a carrot perched on his shoulder. I asked him about the patch on his eye. He said he once tried to enter a room through the keyhole and someone put in a key at the time.

On another occasion in Paris I saw a ghost in an old auberge where I was staying. He spoke to me in French and broken English. He was wearing an old style type costume, a bit like the three musketeers or something from that era. He then explained about ghosts walking through walls and said, "I used to enter ze rooms by sliding under ze doors, you know. But I stopped doing zat. One day, I slid under ze door and zere was a woman cleaning ze room on ze other side and she sucked me into her vacuum cleaner! But not any more, Monsieur. Now I travel ze conventional ghostly way by walking through ze solid walls!"

At this point a clock somewhere struck 10:35pm. "Oh ... I must go to my wife Suzette," he said. "Madame Penoir, my wife, she gets veree upset when I am late! I usually tell her ze stories zat I am haunting tourists in old auberges; but she is not believing me. She says she can see right through me!"

And with zese words, sorry ... these words, he jumped out of the window and landed in the river below. I think he was in Seine!

My last ghost encounter was at an old castle in Scotland. During the night, whilst I was in bed I heard  a sound in the room. There by my bedside was a tall ghostly figure of a woman standing still. She looked a lot like Gloria Gaynor standing there silently. 

At first I was afraid ... then I was petrified! And now I am imagining the look on your faces reading this!

Did it happen to you?

 

Did this ever happen to you? You're alone at home, or in a room, doing something completely natural like watching TV, or cooking in the kitchen, or washing the dishes, or reading a book, and then suddenly, for a split tiny bit of a second, from the corner of your eye you see a figure. It's so quick you almost have imagined it. Either a figure standing there or walking past you and out of sight.

Has this ever happened to you? And you stop and think. Have I imagined it? Was someone there? Surely not. Don't be silly, I just imagined it ... or did I?

If this ever happened to you; what was it? A ghost? A spirit? An Angel? Or your imagination?

Many people report that they've sometimes seen something or someone and perhaps not really see it. A quick vision as if there was someone there. And it normally happens when they are alone; either at home or in a room with other people elsewhere in the house.

The reason I am asking all this is because last Christmas, one evening I got home late, and as I entered the house I am sure I saw out of the corner of my eye Santa Claus running out of the kitchen into the back garden. He jumped over the fence into the neighbour's garden, and then in the street where he drove off at speed.

I asked my wife about it and she said I was imagining things. People often do.

What do you think?

The existence (or not) of ghosts

Yesterday's humourous article about ghosts has raised a number of very serious comments on the subject. That's what I love about you, my readers. You are so unpredictable and often you make me think.

So I thought, let's look at this subject seriously.

Do ghosts exist?

Christians, (and other religions), believe that we have a soul which does not die when we do, but lives on into eternity in a spiritual world - in a spiritual form. Some people believe that we will be resurrected body AND soul. But let us not complicate matters further right now. Let us settle with the fact that we have a soul that lives on after our bodily death.

In fact, according to C S Lewis, "You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body".

So, we have a soul that lives on after our death and is either in Heaven or hell. Let us presume here that the decision is made immediately at our death. Hence the commonly held belief that our loved ones are in Heaven now, and not in some waiting-room somewhere reading out of date magazines that have been re-cycled from the dentist or doctor.

In fact, in the Bible, in Jesus' parable about the rich man and poor Lazarus at his gate, we learn that they are both in their final destination now; and not in a holding place somewhere.

So I thought I'd check what my (Catholic) church says on the matter. Surprisingly, they do not have an official policy or teaching on the existence, or otherwise of ghosts. But they do have a strict policy and ruling that thou shalt not communicate with the other side. So any séance, Luigi boards, or mediums trying to talk to the dead is strictly prohibited.

So the church believes, like all Christians do, that we have an ever living soul but you should not attempt to communicate with it.

Let us therefore look at evidence in the Bible. When Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, (Matthew 17:1-9), the disciples saw Moses and Elijah (who had not yet resurrected) with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. So, presumably they had seen the spirits/souls of Moses and Elijah. Can we call them their ghosts?

In Matthew 14:26, when the disciples saw Jesus walking on the lake towards their boat they thought Jesus himself was a ghost; indicating that they at least had an idea of ghosts. Jesus did not correct them by saying ghosts don't exist.

Appearing after His resurrection to the disciples, rather than correct the very idea of ghosts, Jesus simply says He isn’t one, "Look, I have a body. Ghosts don't. Look at my hands and side". (Luke 24:37-39).

Having said all this, the Catholic Church believes in apparitions of many Saints over the years. So presumably, these apparitions are the souls/spirits/ghosts of these people who at one time were alive and they are now dead. 

What the Catholic Church does affirm, however, is that God has from time to time permitted departed souls to commune with people on earth for their betterment — but the exact nature of that communication, (whether by an intellectual sharing or a physical manifestation), has not been defined theologically.

Some time ago I communicated by e-mail with one of my readers here on this blog. 

The reader asked: If God wanted to, can He allow a certain dead person to go back to earth to serve God's purpose? In my view, the answer is YES - God can do anything. 

The next question then is: Does God do that? Does He send people (souls) back to earth to serve His purpose? We don't know the answer, but I see no reason why He does not do so.

God sent Angels many times on earth to announce to Mary about Christ's birth, to announce to the shepherds the same thing, and to warn Joseph to go to Egypt. 

So why can He not send souls from Heaven to visit earth to serve His purpose - perhaps to protect us? 

In fact, this raises the question: Are Angels souls of those who have died and gone to Heaven? Do souls in Heaven somehow become Angels?

Whilst we have no answer to those questions, and they are not raised in the Bible, apart from the fact that Angels exist, we can assume that if God wanted to He could make souls in Heaven Angels, and He could send them to various missions on earth.

I once discussed this matter with a priest I know well. He said that every day he talks to his dead parents. He says, "Mum and dad, I love you. Please pray to God to look after me".

On a different, but related, matter. Catholics do NOT pray TO the dead or TO the Saints. They ask their dead relatives and the Saints to pray to God FOR them. To intercede on their behalf. To put in a good word for them. A bit like you giving me a good reference when I apply for a job, or writing a good review about my books.

This thing about praying to the dead and the Saints is often confused by many Catholics. But then, in my experience, a lot of Catholics are a confused lot.

So in summary, there you have it. Souls exist. They appear to (some) of us. They communicate with us when God allows them. We should not communicate with them.

Are they ghosts? Your guess is as good as mine.

Mission Possible

Your mission, should you decide to accept it ...

Is to engage in conversation and share your views.

Your opinion matters.

We can learn from each other.

FIRST - Follow the link below. It will open a new page. Read it.

THEN - Come back here and share your views in the comments box.

Thank you.

CLICK HERE FOR LINK