| There are all sorts of ghosts and many of them keep tight schedules: - Some have only been sighted once - They appear at a certain date or time of the night - Some mark the anniversary of an event - Many tend to take up residence at a particular place and are seen there with more frequency. They haunt a specific location Many people who may or may not believe in life or survival, after death believe in other spirits, such as angels and demons, that can make themselves look like humans, but are not the ghosts of human beings. Then there are apparitions of the living, people who are currently alive but not physically present. There are those literal folk who don't believe in anything: life after death, ghosts, heavenly spirits, or demons. They may see or experience something paranormal, but they may insist there must be a logical, natural explanation for it. The belief in ghosts is necessarily tied to a belief in an afterlife. Some say: - The spirit continues a similar existence, but in another realm - The spirit is judged and assigned to "heaven" or "hell" based on one's deeds during life - The spirit undergoes a series of rebirths or reincarnations trying to improve toward a higher spiritual plane - The spirit waits for an eventual rebirth or resurrection Belief in the location of the spirit realm varied from one society to the next: - Ancient Greeks wrote of an underworld found literally beneath the earth. Caves, crevices and cracks in the earth's surface acted as a gateway to Hades - Animistic societies believe that spirits of their deceased ancestors exists side by side with them, but unseen - Occultists described concentric outer layers around the earth each inhabitant by different types of spirits - Most Christians think of Heaven, the afterworld reserved for the good: hell was the realm of eternal damnation - Some cultures put the deceased "on hold", assigning them to an invisible nether world or dimension while they wait for judgment or rebirth |
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