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Ghost
Ghosts are the supposed apparitions of the dead. A ghost is often thought to be the spirit or soul of a person who has remained on Earth after death. Every culture in the world carries stories about ghosts, but its beliefs vary substantially across time and place, with disagreements both as to what ghosts are and whether such things exist in reality. Ghosts are often depicted of a human size and shape, but typically described as "silvery", "shadowy", "semi-transparent", "fog-like", or similar.
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 wonder 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.
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Page created: Sep 7, 2004 Last updated: Sep 7, 2004 Information is from Wikipedia. Graphics are from Graphics by Irene, Graphic Garden. |
