You're Dead Right!
You can talk to ghosts. You can ask them about how they
exist, and why, and where they go next, and why not. You can enquire into their
values and beliefs, into their perception of justice and love, and into their
awareness of relationships. (You may ask about hidden treasures, but rich ghosts
seem to be as rare as rich people.)
What are ghosts? ... Let's ask Encyclopedia
Britannica ...
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G
H
O
S
T |
Ghost: soul or
specter of a dead person, usually
believed to inhabit the netherworld and to be capable of returning in
some form to the world of the living. According to descriptions or
depictions provided by believers, a ghost may appear as a living being
or as a nebulous likeness of the deceased and, occasionally, in other
forms. Belief in ghosts is based on the ancient notion that a human
spirit is separable from the body and may maintain its existence after
the body's death. In many societies, funeral rituals are believed to
prevent the ghost from haunting the living. Encyclopedia
Britannica |
Relativity
You probably have about 10 - 30 living relatives that you
know about. How many dead relatives do you have? Let's say 10 - 30 million,
depending on how far back you consider your ancestors to be human. Your
more recent ancestors - in the last half-million years - were much
like you - and at least as smart. They lived, they had children and they died,
and, where are they now?
As you might expect, most ghosts are - or
were - ordinary people. They rarely have profound revelations.
They may be peaceful and relaxed and supportive of their descendents. Or they
may be depressed and obsessed, sometimes taking the concept of "tunnel vision"
to an extreme.
(David) As a retired psychotherapist, I had many living clients.
Many times I had clients who could not speak Canadian, and we had to work
through a translator. Lately I have had dead clients, and we had to work
through a trance-later.
(Martyn) Ghosts and ghost stories
help explain and resolve relationship problems that transcend life
and death. Whether you call them ghosts or imagination, they offer
useful ways to research and increase the
dynamic and systemic harmony that gives sense to our lives.
Everybody wants to go to Heaven - but nobody wants to die
In societies that are scared to death of dying,
ghosts can be treated badly.
In societies that accept death as an integral part of living, ghosts can be treated
well. Many Catholic cultures honor the dead on special days, and light candles
for them. Many Asians assume that family ghosts can be helpful and
friendly, and regularly offer them prayers, incense and food. (This might be
called schizophrenia in our intellectual
West ...)
The Living Dead or Undead
The ghosts that we meet are
often "stuck" between two time zones - between that of the living and
the that of the dead. Ghosts usually have the
following qualities:
1. Ghosts are dead people
(David) If this seems obvious - slow down. Some people who are still
living have fully dissociated their "selves" - which may act as free agents.
I remember a university professor - I knew him for years and I
can't say I that ever met him. I met a very intellectual and logical "mind"
- but I don't recall any sense of shared humanity. Ever. Where was his self?
I thought that he haunted a classroom - while still living.
(Martyn)
A human body may die unpleasantly. In my experience, pain
wasn't much of an issue for ghosts - suffering was. The suffering of
being abandoned or deserted by family or friends, the suffering of living
life for an ideal which turned out to be hollow. The suffering of watching
children and friends die. Many ghosts communicated that a painful end makes
it easier to accept death; while dying in one's sleep or under the influence
of psychoactive drugs might cause confusion after death.
2. Ghosts are disoriented
(David) Some of the most disoriented ghosts that I
have interviewed were the ghosts of murderers and suicides. They may describe
horrible fantasies - but not deathly realities. Often these ghosts
communicated that murder or suicide seemed to be an "easy way out" of
some problem. It's wasn't.
(Martyn) Most ghosts seem to be
confused. Many do not know that their bodies have died. They do not know
what year it is, or what their body-name was. Some ghosts seem senile -
they don't like where they are and they try to cling to somebody. Other ghosts
are much like people with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder),
which seems to makes sense. I'm sure that dying can be traumatic.
3. Ghosts do not know that time has passed
(David) A ghost may be unwilling to even consider that
time has passed. It may cling to a fixed idea that in any moment he or she
will "wake up" or "be forgiven" or that it will
"complete" something important that it was doing when the body died. (Martyn) A ghost may be frozen in time.
One year or a hundred years - there may be little or no difference.
A ghost may say that it is
waiting for someone to return, or waiting for some specific thing
to happen - so that it can move on.
4. Ghosts may not know that their bodies have died
(David) Many ghosts seem to be stuck in time warps at the time of
their death, and, if time "stopped" before the moment of death, then the
ghost may be convinced that it is still alive. A ghost may also believe that
it was abandoned or betrayed.
(Martyn) A ghost might be shocked to find that it has no living body.
A ghost may call you crazy, stupid or misinformed. "How can I be dead?
Are you crazy? I am here ...!" This confusion seems more
likely if a person died in their sleep or
under the influence of psychotropic drugs. If a ghost has no memory of dying -
how can a ghost know that he or she has died?
5. Ghosts are entangled and cannot leave
(David) Ghosts are often vague as to
their "next step". Some are scared of taking it, and cling to the life that
they once knew. Others seem to have no idea what to do to "move on".
Others are held by the living, who cling to the dead person and
may offer a warm human body for the ghost to call home.
(Martyn)
A ghost may say that it wants to leave, but that it cannot.
A ghost may communicate that it has to say something, or do something, or
prevent something - before it can move on. Some ghosts communicate that they
need forgiveness. Ghosts are often involved with physical and mental diseases.
6. Ghosts have little leverage
(David) Occasionally a ghost radiates
energy that we call
"emotion" - usually sadness, anxiety, guilt or anger. Some highly
motivated ghosts can move physical items or manifest strange
noises, fluids, items etc. They may be called poltergeists. A few
are called "energy vampires" and are accused of sucking
energy from the living - but in my experience, many people freely
give their life-energy to the dead.
(Martyn) With enormous effort a ghost
may attract the attention of the living,
but most of the time they just wait. Ghosts may be bonded to a location -
their places of death or their graves, or may be bonded to their
genealogy - to their ancestral homes and their descendents' lives. People
are more likely to be haunted than places!
Communicating with the Dead
| Glendower:
"I can call spirits from the vasty deep!"
Hotspur: "Why so can I; or so can any man.
But will they come when you do call for them?"
William Shakespeare (Henry
IV - Part 1) |
(David) Many people communicate with
ghosts. Often, these people do not recognize it. They call the
communications intuition or self-hatred,
etc. Simply pay attention to your thoughts - instead of
responding emotionally to them. Is the inner voice inside -
or outside; male or female; young or old ...
who or what is speaking to you? Some people call them demons.
(Martyn) A profound method of
communicating with ghosts is Dreaming Together.
This requires training in lucid dreaming and interactive metaphors -
and in handling whatever comes up. Dreaming Together brings
unconscious "stuff" to consciousness quickly - and there may be
reasons for keeping it buried!
[ Suicide . Identification .
Systemic Magic ]
Exorcism: Do your Daily Exorcises!
(David) I find most exorcism to be brutal.
Imagine inviting a confused and mentally distressed
relative to stay in your home - and then asking a hit-man to destroy the
relative, or to force him or her leave.
(Martyn) Perhaps exorcism is
better than nothing - although most ghosts have agendas, in my opinion.
Sometimes the person or family being
haunted is in debt to the ghost, or hurt the living person who the ghost
represents. And sometimes the entanglements cross many generations.
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A place that is haunted
is thought to be associated by the haunting spirit with some strong
emotion — remorse, fear, or the terror of a violent death. Individuals
who are haunted are believed to be responsible for, or associated with,
the ghost's unhappy past experience. The
traditional manifestations of haunting include ghostly
apparitions, the displacement of objects, or the appearance of strange
lights; auditory signs include disembodied laughter and screams,
footsteps, ringing bells, and the spontaneous emanation of sounds from
musical instruments. Encyclopedia Britannica 2002 |
Demon-strations
(David) I wrote about a
Haunted House that
had thee ghosts and two ... things ... from a separate reality. What we call
demons are not ghosts of dead people, but entities from a normally
inaccessible level of consciousness. Demons are not as easy to interview
as ghosts (the trance-later may freak out).
Some entities are frightfully toxic - feeding on
human emotional energy. Psychotics and addicts may provide fast-food and
all you can eat services for hungry demons.
Even on their best behavior, visitors
from other realities can cause
confusion and chaos. The entities called demons seem to follow
their own paths, uncaring about whatever chaos they cause us humans.
(Martyn) A common way of inviting
problems into your life is to ignore unfinished
business with dead people. This is likely if a family member dies
in such a way that you feel guilty and especially if the death is a
taboo topic that cannot be discussed. We coach people to end
entanglements with dead people - and with the undead. See
Consequences of Abortion,
Suicide and Vanishing
Twins
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Demons |
Devils
and demons are supposed to have horns and hoofs; yet all animals with
horns and hoofs are vegetarian. But we don't let that spoil a good story.
Martyn Carruthers |
Relationship
Coaching ... Systemic Coach Training
David J. Marsden
is a retired psychotherapist living in Ontario, Canada. David
investigates stories of ghosts and demons etc. Martyn Carruthers lives in
New Brunswick, Canada, and teaches
Systemic Coaching internationally, bringing heart, science
and humor into the complexities of relationships.
Email David at:
and Martyn at:
[
Haunted House . Curses .
Black Magic .
Dead Person Identification .
Demon ]
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