|
 |
Beliefs About Ghosts |
| By GhostEditor |
| |
Ghosts are often depicted of a human size and shape, but typically described as "silvery", "shadowy", "semi-transparent", "fog-like", or similar. Sometimes they do not manifest themselves visually, but in terms of other phenomena, such as the movements of an object, spontaneous throwing of a lightswitch, noises etc., which supposedly have no natural explanation
In the West, those who believe in ghosts sometimes hold them to be souls that could not find rest after death, and so linger on Earth. The inability to find rest is often explained by unfinished business, such as a victim seeking justice or revenge after death. Criminals sometimes supposedly linger to avoid Purgatory or Hell. It is sometimes held that ghosts reside in Limbo, a place, according to non-orthodox Catholic doctrine, between Heaven and Hell where the souls of unbaptized infants go.
In Asian cultures (such as China), many people believe in reincarnation. Ghosts are those souls that refused to be 'recycled' because they have unfinished business similar to those in western belief. Exorcists can either help a ghost to be reincarnated or blow it out of existence. In Chinese belief, apart from being reincarnated, a ghost can also become immortal and become a demigod, or it can go to hell and suffer for eternity, or it can die again and become "ghost of ghost".
Both the West and the East share some fundamentals about ghosts. They may wander around places where they frequent when alive, or where they have died. Such places where ghosts frequent are known as "haunted"; the rounds they go on are known as "hauntings". Ghosts do not have a physical body like human beings. They often wear the sort of clothing in which they would have been seen when alive.
Buddhist Samsara includes the concept of the Hungry ghost realm. Sentient beings in that realm are referred to as Hungry Ghosts because of their attachment to this world.
This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
|
back to the articles.
|
|
|
