Scared of Ghosts?

A feature article by Julie Lewis, Mar 10, 2002         

Summary: Why are people afraid of ghosts? What is so frightening about the prospect of seeing someone in spirit form when you were not frightened of them when they were alive?

 
It always puzzles me that the majority of people are afraid of ghosts, or rather afraid of the thought of encountering one. I can understand people being frightened at the possibility of contact with a poltergeist or evil spirit, but there seems no logical reason why anyone would be afraid of the idea of being visited by the spirit of someone they knew when that person was still alive.

For instance, if you were close to your Uncle Bill when he was on the earth plane, why would the thought of meeting him in spirit form be so frightening? It must be very upsetting for our departed loved ones when they return to us to let us know that they are happy and well, to be greeted by screams and, even worse, strangers in robes chanting passages from the Bible and sprinkling holy water all over the place. It may even be frightening for them!

It is more understandable if the idea of seeing a ghost in a place that is reputed to be haunted is a scary proposition. Being alone in a cold, dark cell which is haunted by a Roman centurion in rattling chains isn't a particularly comforting thought, but as it would appear that these ghosts can't see living people anyway, it doesn't seem very likely that they would try to harm us.

When spirits who were known to us in life visit us, however, they are not likely to do anything to deliberately frighten us unless they were inclined to do so when they were alive. They are far more likely to give us 'signs' that they are with us, which can vary from the smell of their perfume to the sudden appearance or disappearance of an object which once belonged to them. These sort of occurrences can be anything from helpful to annoying, depending on what they are and how often they occur, but they surely cannot be described as frightening.

Nevertheless, many people view them in this way and this hardly seems fair on the spirit concerned. Imagine how you would feel if you had returned to the earth plane to let your loved ones know you were safe and to show them that your love for them was still intact, only to find that rather than them being overjoyed to know you still lived on in the spirit world, instead they were suddenly scared witless of you and were acting as if you were the devil incarnate!

Some years ago, I encountered the ghost of a Victorian lady in an office where I worked. When my colleagues found out about this, they were amazed that I wasn't frightened and I was similarly amazed that they were (both the ones who had seen the ghost and the ones that hadn't, who were afraid at the mere prospect of seeing it). I experienced quite a few emotions as a result of this incident, but fear wasn't one of them. I was annoyed and I was frustrated, but most of all I was disappointed, because I hadn't been able to communicate with my ghostly visitor.

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Whether spirit visitors who we were familiar with in their earthly forms can see us is debatable, although it would seem that ghosts with whom we were not acquainted when they were alive certainly can't. If they could, they would probably be just as frightened of us as we are of them. At least if we see the ghost of someone from a former historical era we are familiar with the apparel and trappings of that period … imagine how frightening it would be for someone who had lived in biblical times, for example, if they came across someone dressed from head-to-toe in denim and covered in piercings and tattoos!

This is in many ways similar to the way that some people are scared of spiders – it is totally irrational to be afraid of something which we can kill in less than a second with a quick stamp of our foot. Logically speaking, the spider should be far more scared of us than we are of it! Similarly, someone who lived many centuries ago would be far more likely to be frightened of us and the accoutrements of modern society if it was able to see and hear these things.

Perhaps it is not the ghost itself that we are afraid of, so much as what it represents. In other words, fear of the unknown in that the ghost is coming from a world that we cannot see and have no knowledge of. Maybe also it is the association with death that scares us. Or do we feel that, because we are encountering an immortal being, it must automatically possess power over us, even when it did not do so in life?

While these thoughts and feelings are understandable, they are not really rational, and perhaps are the main reason why the majority of people cannot see visitors from the spirit world. The irrational fear of such an experience perhaps serves to block it from actually occurring. Children and animals, who do not have these thoughts, see and hear our spirit friends far more readily.

Very young children are not afraid of spirits. It is only as they grow older and realise that other people are afraid of them, that they develop their own fear. The chances are that a baby or toddler in particular is unable to distinguish between earthbound people and those from the spiritual planes and therefore communicates with both in exactly the same way. Babies babbling away in their cots are not necessarily babbling away to themselves!

There really is no need at all to be frightened if you receive a visit from a resident of the spirit world and certainly not if the visitor is someone you knew and cared about when they were on the earth plane. They are probably just dropping by to see if you are well and happy and perhaps share an hour or two with you because they enjoy your company. After all, didn't they do the same thing when they were alive?

© Julie E. Lewis
Ghost Shaker

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