Spiritisim.

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This article is about Spiritism. For the similar movements prominent in most English-speaking countries, see Spiritualism.

Spiritism is a system of explanation of phenomena having in common the general belief in the survival of a spirit after death. In a stricter sense, Spiritism is a doctrine founded upon the existence, manifestations and teachings of the spirits. Compiled in the 19th century by the French educator Allan Kardec, Spiritism soon spread to other countries, having today 35 representative countries in the International Spiritist Council.^[1] Brazil is the country where the most significant number of adherents can be found, reaching numbers as high as 4 million adepts.^[2]

Contents [hide] 1 Origins and geographic distribution 2 Fundamental Principles 3 Differences between Spiritism and Spiritualism 4 Beliefs 4.1 Basic books 4.2 Basic tenets 4.3 Jesus as a model and guide in Spiritism 4.4 Evolution and karma 4.5 Mediumship 5 Psychography 5.1 Types of psychography 5.1.1 Indirect psychography 5.1.2 Direct psychography 5.1.2.1 Mechanical psychography 5.1.2.2 Semi-mechanical psychography 5.1.2.3 Intuitive psychography 5.1.2.4 Inspirational psychography 6 Spiritist practice 6.1 Meetings 6.2 Organization 7 History 8 Precursors 8.1 Swedenborg 8.2 Fox sisters 8.3 Talking boards 8.4 Franz Mesmer 9 Recent history of Spiritism 9.1 Chico Xavier 10 Spiritism in popular culture 10.1 Films 10.2 Soap operas 11 Criticisms 11.1 Before World War I 11.2 Interwar period 11.3 Post–World War II 12 See also 13 References 14 External links 14.1 Websites 14.2 Books 14.3 Groups and societies 14.4 Skeptical views

[edit] Origins and geographic distribution

Spiritism is based on the five books of the Spiritist Codification written by French educator Hypolite Léon Denizard Rivail under the pseudonym Allan Kardec reporting séances in which he observed a series of phenomena that were attributed to incorporeal intelligence (spirits). His work was later extended by writers like Leon Denis, Jean-Baptiste Roustaing, Arthur Conan Doyle, Camille Flammarion, Gabriel Delanne, Ernesto Bozzano, Chico Xavier, Divaldo Pereira Franco, Waldo Vieira, Johannes Greber^{[3][unreliable source?]} and others.
Spiritism has adherents in many countries throughout the world, including Spain, United States, Canada,^[4] Japan, Germany, France, England, Argentina, Portugal and especially in American countries such as Cuba, Jamaica, and Brazil, which has among the largest proportion and greatest number of followers.^[5]

[edit] Fundamental Principles

As defined in The Spirits' Book, the main principles of spiritism are:

• “God is the Supreme Intelligence-First Cause of all things.”^[6]
• “God is eternal, immutable, immaterial, unique, all powerful, sovereignly just and good.”^[7]
• “A spirit is not an abstract, undefined being, only to be conceived of by our thought; it is a real, circumscribed being, which, in certain cases, is appreciable by the senses of sight, hearing, and touch.”^[7]
• “All Spirits are destined to attain perfection by passing through the different degrees of the spirit-hierarchy. This amelioration is effected by incarnation, which is imposed on some of them as an expiation, and on others as a mission. Material life is a trial which they have to undergo many times until they have attained to absolute perfection”^[8]
• “A spirit’s successive corporeal existences are always progressive, and never retrograde; but the rapidity of our progress depends on the efforts we make to arrive at the perfection.”^[8]
• “The soul possessed its own individuality before its incarnation; it preserves that individuality after its separation from the body.”^[8]
• “On its re-entrance into the spirit world, the soul again finds there all those whom it has known upon the earth, and all its former existences eventually come back to its memory, with the remembrance of all the good and of all the evil which it has done in them.”^[8]
• “Spirits exert an incessant action upon the moral world, and even upon the physical world; they act both upon matter and upon thought, and constitute one of the powers of nature, the efficient cause of many classes of phenomena hitherto unexplained or misinterpreted"^[8]
• “Spirits are incessantly in relation with men. The good spirits try to lead us into the right road, sustain us under the trials of life, and aid us to bear them with courage and resignation; the bad ones tempt us to evil: it is a pleasure for them to see us fall, and to make us like themselves.”^[9]
• “The moral teaching of the higher spirits may be summed up, like that of Christ, in the gospel maxim, ‘Do unto others as you would that others should do unto you;’ that is to say, do good to all, and wrong no one. This principle of action furnishes mankind with a rule of conduct of universal application, from the smallest matters to the greatest.”^[10]

[edit] Differences between Spiritism and Spiritualism

Although there are many similarities between the two, they differ in some fundamental aspects, particularly regarding man's quest toward spiritual perfection and the manner by which the followers of each practice their beliefs.
Spiritism teaches reincarnation or rebirth into human life after death. This basically distinguishes Spiritism from Spiritualism. According to the Spiritist doctrine, reincarnation explains the moral and intellectual differences among men. It also provides the path to man's moral and intellectual perfection by amending for his mistakes and increasing his knowledge in successive lives. For this reason Spiritism does not accept rebirth in animals as this would be retrogressive.
Allan Kardec refers to Spiritism in What Is Spiritism? as a science dedicated to the relationship between incorporeal beings (spirits) and human beings. Thus, some spiritists see themselves as not adhering to a religion, but to a philosophical doctrine with a scientific fulcrum and moral grounds. On the other hand, many spiritists don't see any problem about embracing it as a religion as well.
Finally, unlike Spiritualism, Spiritism is not a religious sect but a philosophy or a way of life by which its followers live by. Its followers have no priests or ministers and do not follow any religious rituals in their meetings. They also do not call their places of meetings as churches, and instead call them by various names such as centers, society or association. Their activities consist mainly of studying the Spiritist doctrine, applying spiritual healing to the sick and organizing charitable missions.
Kardec reaffirmed that on the cover of his The Spirit's Book. Another author in the Spiritualist movement, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle included a chapter^[11] about Spiritism in his book "History of Spiritualism" confirming that Spiritism is Spiritualist (but not vice-versa). As consequence, many Spiritualist works are widely accepted in Spiritism, particularly the works of scientists Sir William Crookes,^[12] and Sir Oliver Lodge^{[citation needed]}. Such works are more accepted in anglo-Saxon spiritist communities than in Latin-American ones, though.
In countries like Brazil the movement had spread and became widely accepted, mostly due to Chico Xavier's works. Today the official spiritist community has about 20 million adepts, though due to local syncretism, it is accepted and somehow practiced by three times as many across the country. Some statistics even mention an adherence to Spiritist practices by 40 million people in Brazil.^[13]
The Spiritist moral principles are in agreement with the ones taught by Jesus (according to Kardec^[14]). Other moral examples like Francis of Assisi, Paul the Apostle, Buddha and Gandhi are also sometimes considered by the spiritists. Spiritist philosophical inquiry is concerned with the study of moral aspects in the context of an eternal life in spiritual evolution through reincarnation, a process believers hold as revealed by Spirits. Sympathetic research on Spiritism by scientists can be found in the works of Sir William Crookes, Dr. Robert Hare (Chemist), Sir Oliver J. Lodge, Dr. Emma Bragdon.

[edit] Beliefs

Spiritism blends together notions taken from Christianity, Positivism and Platonism.

[edit] Basic books

Main article: Spiritist Codification

The basic doctrine of Spiritism ("the Codification") is defined in five books written and published by Allan Kardec during his life:

1. The Spirits' Book—Defines the guidelines of the doctrine, covering points like God, Spirit, Universe, Man, Society, Culture, Morals and Religion.
2. The Mediums' Book—Details the mechanics of the spiritual world, the processes involved in channeling spirits, techniques to be developed by mediums, etc.
3. The Gospel According to Spiritism—Comments on the Gospels, highlighting passages that, according to Kardec, would show the ethical fundamentals shared by all religious and philosophical systems. This may be the first religious book to acknowledge the existence of life elsewhere in the Universe, based on Jesus' saying "The houses in the realm of my father are many" (John, 14, 1-3). It brings light for a better understanding of previous Christian texts, where it´s necessary, and complementary acknowledge at the moment in time that humanity has the necessary development and prepare to understand it.
4. Heaven and Hell—A didactic series of interviews with spirits of deceased people intending to establish a correlation between the lives they lead and their conditions in the beyond.
5. The Genesis According to Spiritism—Tries to reconcile religion and science, dealing with the three major points of friction between the two: the origin of the universe (and of life, as a consequence) and the concepts of miracle and premonition.

Kardec also wrote a brief introductory pamphlet (What is Spiritism?) and was the most frequent contributor to the Spiritist Review. His essays and articles would be posthumously collected into the aptly named tome Posthumous Works.

[edit] Basic tenets

Main article: Spiritist doctrine

This section does not cite any references or sources. (June 2012)

The five chief points of the doctrine are:

1. There is a God, defined as "The Supreme Intelligence and Primary Cause of everything";
2. There are Spirits, all of whom are created simple and ignorant, but owning the power to gradually perfect themselves;
3. The natural method of this perfection process is reincarnation, through which the Spirit faces countless different situations, problems and obstacles, and needs to learn how to deal with them;
4. As part of Nature, Spirits can naturally communicate with living people, as well as interfere in their lives;
5. Many planets in the universe are inhabited.

The central tenet of Spiritist doctrine is the belief in spiritual life. The spirit is eternal, and evolves through a series of incarnations in the material world. The true life is the spiritual one; life in the material world is just a short-termed stage, where the spirit has the opportunity to learn and develop its potentials. Reincarnation is the process where the spirit, once free in the spiritual world, comes back to the world for further learning.

[edit] Jesus as a model and guide in Spiritism

Jesus, according to Spiritism, is the greatest moral example for humankind, is deemed to have incarnated here to show us, through his example, the path that we have to take to achieve our own spiritual perfection. Therefore, Spiritism claims to be a Christian doctrine, claiming it is based on Jesus Christ's teachings, despite of having an interpretation that differs from those held by the Church. The Gospels are studied and interpreted in Spiritism; some of the words of Christ or his actions are clarified in the light of the spiritual phenomena (presented as law of nature, and not as something miraculous).

[edit] Evolution and karma

Spiritist doctrine stresses the importance of spiritual evolution. According to this view, humanity is destined for perfection; there are other planets hosting more advanced life forms and happier societies, where the spirit has the chance to keep evolving both in the moral and intellectual sense. Although not clear from Kardec's works, later spiritist writers elaborated on this point further, claiming humanity cannot detect more advanced life forms on other planets, as they are living in a slightly different plane, in the same way the spiritual plane is superimposed over this plane.

[edit] Mediumship

The communication between the spiritual world and the material world happens all the time, but to various degrees. Some people barely sense what the spirits tell them in an entirely instinctive way, and are not aware about their influence, while others have greater cognizance of their guidance. The so-called mediums have these natural abilities highly developed, and are able to communicate with the spirits and interact with them by several means: listening, seeing, or writing through spiritual command (also known by Kardecists as psychography or automatic writing). Unassisted manipulation of physical objects by spirits is not possible; for it to happen the spirits need the help (voluntary or not) of mediums with particular abilities for physical effects.

[edit] Psychography

Psychography is a technique for "channeling" written messages from what is believed to be a disembodied spirit. The usual approach to psychography is to relate it to a special ability, innate or developed, called medianimity.

[edit] Types of psychography

The most extensive treatise on psychography is Allan Kardec's Mediums' Book, one of the works comprised in the Spiritist Codification. Kardec recognises two basic types of psychography: indirect and direct.

[edit] Indirect psychography

This type of psychography depends on a material device, like an Ouija board, operated by one or more persons. This type is cumbersome and not useful for large communications, frequently producing gibberish.

[edit] Direct psychography

Direct psychography is the most conventional type, in which a person, the medium, writes under the alleged influence of the spirit. It is called "direct" because the relationship between the medium(s) and the spirit is not by means of any mechanical device.
This type depends on medianimity alone and is subdivided into five subtypes, depending on how the spirit's message is committed to paper:

[edit] Mechanical psychography

In which the spirit takes control of the medium's arm and writes independently from his awareness (the medium may pass the time paying attention to something else while his arm writes autonomously). Considered to be the most reliable and extraordinary type. Communications thus obtained are thought to be completely free from the interference of the medium's conscience.

[edit] Semi-mechanical psychography

In which the medium writes keeps relative control of his limb, but still feels a foreign influence on its movement. Unlike mechanical psychography, the medium knows all that is being written and can stop to rest or to turn the page whenever he sees fit. Reliability is almost as high as in mechanical psychography. Chico Xavier was purportedly this type of medium.

[edit] Intuitive psychography

In which the spirit communicates with the inner self of the medium (subconscious), resulting in him writing what is on his mind, though it is something different from what the medium would normally think. Sentences come formed, but the medium can amend them with richer vocabulary or a better syntax before writing them down. This is the most common type, but is less reliable and is usually marred by the interference of the medium's conscience.

[edit] Inspirational psychography

In which the medium receives vague notions in his mind, which he will write in his own words. This type of psychography is very difficult to tell apart from the regular thinking process, especially in people with a literary talent (a careless analysis would have most writers fall into this category).

[edit] Spiritist practice

Main article: Spiritist practice

Kardec's works do not establish any rituals or formal practices. Instead, the doctrine suggests that followers adhere to some principles regarded as common to all religions. The religious experience within spiritism is, therefore, largely informal. The exception to this is The National Spiritist Church of Alberta. This Church (which is fully recognized by the government as a religious denomination) has a Holy Communion Worship Service and a Marriage Ceremony in addition to the more standard Kardecist study groups.

[edit] Meetings

The most important types of practices within Spiritism are:

• Regular Meetings - with a regular schedule, usually on evenings, two or three times a week. They involve a short lecture on some subject followed by some interactive participation of the attendants. These meetings are open to anyone.
• Medium Meetings - usually held after a regular meeting, only those deemed prepared or "in need" of it are expected to attend.
• Youth and Children's Meetings - once a week, usually on Saturday afternoons or Sunday mornings, are the Spiritist equivalent to Christian Sunday schools.
• Healing
• Lectures - longer, in-depth lectures on subjects thought to be "of general interest" which are held on larger rooms, sometimes at theatres or ballrooms, so that more people can attend. Lecturers are often invited from far away centers.
• Special Meetings - special séances held in relative discretion which try to conduct some worthy work on behalf of those in need
• Spiritist Week and Book fairs.
• Church Services (in the case of The National Spiritist Church of Alberta - in Canada)

[edit] Organization

Main article: Spiritist centre

Spiritism is not seen as a religion by some of its followers because it doesn't endorse formal adoration, require regular frequency or formal membership and claims not to be opposed to science, instead trying to harmonize with it. There are exceptions, though, as in the country of Canada, where The National Spiritist Church of Alberta is a government-recognized religious denomination. For a large part of its followers, the description of Spiritism is three-fold: science, for its studies on the mechanisms of mediumship; philosophy, for its theories on the origin, meaning and importance of life; and religion, for its guidance on a Christian behavior which will bring spiritual and moral evolution to mankind. It should be noted, though, that there's no acceptance to Spiritism in mainstream science and that its belief system fits with the definition of religion (that doesn't include regular frequency, membership, formal adoration).^{[citation needed]}
Spiritism is practiced in different types of associations (including a Church format in Canada) formal or not, which can have local, regional, national or international scope.
Local organizations are usually called Spiritist centres or Spiritist societies. Regional and national organizations are called "federations", as the Federação Espírita Brasileira^[15] and the Federación Espírita Española,^[16] while international organizations are termed "unions", such as the Union Spirite Française et Francophone.^[17]
Spiritist centres (or Church in Canada) (especially in Brazil) are also often active book publishers and promoters of Esperanto.

[edit] History

Main article: History of Spiritism

Spiritism shares its roots with many other religions and denominations, mainly Christianity and Western traditions. It is unknown the extent of the influence of Hinduism, Buddhism and Shamanism over the doctrinal aspects of Spiritism, as set by Allan Kardec because the mentions of such religions are sparse in all his works. Kardec, however, acknowledges the influence of Socrates and Plato, Jesus and Francis of Assisi;^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Precursors

Developments leading directly to Kardec's research were the famous Fox sisters and the phenomenon of the Talking boards. Interest in Mesmerism also contributed to the early Spiritist practice.

[edit] Swedenborg

Main article: Emanuel Swedenborg

Emanuel Swedenborg, 75, holding the manuscript of Apocalypsis Revelata (1766).

Emanuel Swedenborg (help·info) (né Swedberg) (January 29, 1688 – March 29, 1772) was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, seer, and theologian. Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. Then at age fifty-six he entered into a spiritual phase of his life, where he experienced visions of the spiritual world and claimed to have talked with angels, devils, and spirits by visiting heaven and hell. He claimed of being directed by God, the Lord Jesus Christ to reveal the doctrines of His second coming.
From 1747 until his death in 1772 he lived in Stockholm, Holland and London. During these 25 years he wrote 14 works of a spiritual nature of which most were published during his lifetime. Throughout this period he was befriended by many people who regarded him as a kind and warm-hearted man. Many people disbelieved in his visions; based on what they had heard, they drew the conclusions that he had lost his mind or had a vivid imagination. But they refrained from ridiculing him in his presence. Those who talked with him understood that he was devoted to his beliefs. He never argued matters of religion, and if obliged to defend himself he usually did it with gentleness and in a few words.

[edit] Fox sisters

Main article: Fox sisters

Fox sisters, left to right: Margaret, Kate, Leah

Sisters Catherine (1838–92), Leah (1814–90) and Margaret (1836–93) Fox played an important role in the creation of Spiritualism. The daughters of David and Margaret Fox, they were residents of Hydesville, New York. In 1848, the family began to hear unexplained rapping sounds. Kate and Margaret conducted channeling sessions in an attempt to contact the presumed spiritual entity creating the sounds, and claimed contact with the spirit of a peddler who was allegedly murdered and buried beneath the house. A skeleton later found in the basement seemed to confirm this. The Fox girls became instant celebrities. They demonstrated their communication with the spirit by using taps and knocks, automatic writing or psychography, and later even voice communication, as the spirit took control of one of the girls.
Skeptics suspected this was nothing but clever deception and fraud. Indeed, sister Margaret eventually confessed to using her toe-joints to produce the sound. And although she later recanted this confession, both she and her sister Catherine were widely considered discredited, and died in poverty. Nonetheless, belief in the ability to communicate with the dead grew rapidly, becoming a religious movement called Spiritualism, and contributing greatly to Kardec's ideas.

[edit] Talking boards

Main article: Table-turning

Just after the news of the Fox affair came to France, people became even more interested in what was sometimes termed the "Spiritual Telegraph". In the beginning, a table spun with the "energy" from the spirits present by means of human channeling (hence the term "medium"). But, as the process was too slow and cumbersome, a new one was devised, supposedly from a suggestion by the spirits themselves: the talking board.
Early examples of talking boards were baskets attached to a pointy object that spun under the hands of the mediums, to point at letters printed on cards scattered around, or engraved on, the table. Such devices were called corbeille à bec ("basket with a beak"). The pointy object was usually a pencil.
Talking boards were tricky to set up and to operate. A typical séance using a talking board saw people sitting at a round table, feet resting on the chairs' supports and hands on the table top or, later, on the talking board itself. The energy channeled from the spirits through their hands made the board spin around and find letters which, once written down by a scribe, would form intelligible words, phrases, and sentences. The system was an early, and less effective, precursor of the Ouija boards that later became so popular.
Allan Kardec first became interested in Spiritism when he learned of the Fox sisters, but his first contact with what would become the doctrine was by means of talking boards. Some of the earlier parts of his Spirits' Book were channeled this way.

[edit] Franz Mesmer

Main article: Franz Mesmer

Franz Anton Mesmer

Franz Anton Mesmer (May 23, 1734 – March 5, 1815) discovered what he called magnétisme animal (animal magnetism) and others often called mesmerism. The evolution of Mesmer's ideas and practices led Scottish surgeon James Braid (1795–1860) to develop hypnotism in 1841.
Spiritism incorporated and kept some practices inspired or directly taken from Mesmerism. Among them, the healing touch, still in Europe, and the energization of water to be used as a medicine for spirit and body.

[edit] Recent history of Spiritism

[edit] Chico Xavier

Main article: Chico Xavier

Francisco Cândido Xavier (April 2, 1910 - June 30, 2002) was a popular medium in Brazil´s spiritism movement who wrote more than 400 books and about 10 thousand letters to family members of deceased people, ostensibly using psychography. His books sold millions of copies, all of which had their proceeds entirely donated to charity.
They included books on poetry, novels, and even scientific treatises. Some of which are considered by Brazilian spiritist followers to be fundamental for the comprehension of the practical and theoretical aspects of Allan Kardec's doctrine. One of his most famous, The Astral City, which details one experience after dying, is available as a free e-book from the Spiritist Group of New York online.
Chico Xavier appeared on Brazilian television several times, contributing to the rise of spiritism in Brazil.

[edit] Spiritism in popular culture

Despite being little known by the American population at large; many works or art contain allusions to facts, circumstances and concepts that resemble some spiritist beliefs:

[edit] Films

• Chico Xavier, Brazilian film, casting Nelson Xavier and Ângelo Antônio. It was a box office success in Brazil. It tells history of the most famous Brazilian medium Chico Xavier.
• Nosso lar, Nosso Lar ("Our Home") is a 2010 Brazilian drama film directed by Wagner de Assis, based on the novel of the same name by Francisco Cândido Xavier. The film is about the spiritual life after death and our home in another world. Distributed by 20th Century Fox and with a soundtrack composed by Philip Glass.

[edit] Soap operas

In Brazil four soap operas have used the concepts of Spiritism. Terra Nostra included a subplot of a young man obsessed by the spirit of his mother's youth lover who had been killed by his grandfather.

• "A Viagem" (The Journey), produced in 1976/77 by the extinct Tupi TV had a complex plot involving mediumship, death, obsession, reincarnation, etc. It was remade by Globo TV in 1994.
• "Alma Gêmea" (Soulmate), produced in 2005/06 by the Rede Globo. This soap tells the story of a woman that dies and is reborn to find her soulmate again.
• "O Profeta" (The Prophet), produced in 1977/78 also by Tupi TV and also remade by Globo TV (2006/07) included spiritism as one of the philosophies trying to explain the main character's gifts, including being able to predict the future.
• "Duas Caras" (Two-Face), aired by Rede Globo in 2007/8, includes a character, named Ezekiel,^[18] who is a born-again Christian challenged by manifestations of his mediumship.
• "Escrito nas Estrelas" (Written in the Stars), ongoing as of July 2010, possesses numerous spiritist themes: reincarnation, spirit evolution, and mediumship.

[edit] Criticisms

[edit] Before World War I

Spiritism began attracting criticisms almost immediately once formulated. Kardec's own introductory book on Spiritism, What is Spiritism?, published only two years after The Spirits Book, includes a long dialogue between his persona and three idealized critics, "The Critic", "The Skeptic", and "The Priest", which as a whole summed up most of the criticism Spiritism has received since then: of being charlatanism, pseudoscience, heresy, anti-Catholic, witchcraft, and/or a form of Satanism. In further books and articles published in his periodical, the Revue Spirite, Kardec kept addressing these and other criticisms until his death in 1869.
Later, a new source of criticism came from Occultist movements such as the Theosophical Society, a competing new religion, which saw the Spiritist explanations as too simple or even naïve.^[19]

[edit] Interwar period

The interwar period saw the development of a new form of criticism towards Spiritism: René Guénon's influential book The Spiritist Fallacy, which criticized both the more general concepts of Spiritualism, which he considered to be a superficial mix of moralism and spiritual materialism, as well as Spiritism's specific contributions, such as its belief in what he saw as a post-Cartesian, modernist concept of reincarnation that is distinct from and opposed to its two western predecessors, metempsychosis and transmigration.^[20]

[edit] Post–World War II

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph 2117) one can read that "Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it". In Brazil, Catholic priests Dom Carlos José Boaventura Kloppenburg and Oscar González Quevedo, among others, have since the 1960s written extensively against Spiritism from both a doctrinal and parapsychologic perspective. Quevedo, in particular, has dedicated himself to show that Spiritism's claims of being a science are invalid, having not only written books on the subject^[21] but also hosted paranormal debunking shows on television, the most recent of which a series that ran in 2000 on Globo's hugely popular Sunday prime time news show Fantástico.^[22] Brazilian Spiritists, such as Dr. Hernani Guimarães Andrade, have in turn written rebuttals to these criticisms.^[21]
Scientific skeptics also target Spiritism frequently in books, media appearances, and online forums, accusing it of being a pseudoscience. The ex-spiritist and medium Waldo Vieira, accepting this criticism but not the idea that it cannot become a science, left Spiritism to start a new, Spiritist-inspired movement called Projectiology.^[23]

[edit] See also

• Death
• Ectoplasm
• Karma
• Perispirit
• Spiritualism

[edit] References

1. ^ International Spiritist Council, Members website.
2. ^ Kardec's Spiritism: Home for Healing and Spiritual Evolution, by Dr. Emma Bragdon
3. ^ Johannes Greber
4. ^ In Canada, Spiritism is an officially recognized religious denomination (unique in the world) as The National Spiritist Church of Alberta (Church #A145 registered by Department of Vital Statistics, Government of Alberta - under The Marriage Act of Alberta) with government-licensed clergy and legal authority to perform marriages.
5. ^ David Hess. Spirits and Scientists: Ideology, Spiritism, and Brazilian Culture, Pennsylvania State Univ Press, 1991
6. ^ Allan Kardec: The Spirits' Book, page 63.
7. ^ ^{a b} Allan Kardec: The Spirits' Book, page 32.
8. ^ ^{a b c d e} Allan Kardec: The Spirits' Book, page 33.
9. ^ Allan Kardec: The Spirits' Book, page 33, 34.
10. ^ Allan Kardec: The Spirits' Book, page 35.
11. ^ DOYLE, Arthur Conan. The History of Spiritualism. New York: G.H. Doran, Co. 1926
12. ^ CROOKES, William. Researches on the Phenomena of Spiritualism, Burns, London 1874
13. ^ Kardec's Spiritism: Home for Healing and Spiritual Evolution - Emma Bragdon, PhD
14. ^ Kardec, Allan, The Gospel Explained by the Spiritist Doctrine ISBN 0-9649907-6-8
15. ^ FEB - Federação Espírita Brasileira - 2
16. ^ Federación Espírita Española - Espiritismo
17. ^ Redirection en htm
18. ^ Duas Caras - BIOGRAFIA - Ezequiel
19. ^ Blavatsky, H. P. (1875-02-16). "Letter to Prof. Hiram Corson". Some Unpublished Letters of H. P. Blavatsky. Theosophical University Press Online Edition. http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/corson/cors-lt1.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-23. "In my eyes, Allan Kardec and Flammarion, Andrew Jackson Davis and Judge Edmonds, are but schoolboys just trying to spell their A B C and sorely blundering sometimes."
20. ^ Guénon, René (2004-06-25) [1923]. The Spiritist Fallacy. Collected Works of René Guénon. trans. Alvin Moore, Jr. and Rama P. Coomaraswamy. Hillsdale, NY: Sophia Perennis Books. ISBN 0-900588-71-3.
21. ^ ^{a b} Machado, Dr. Fátima Regina. "Parapsicologia no Brasil: Entre a cruz e a mesa branca" (in Portuguese). Ceticismo Aberto. http://www.ceticismoaberto.com/paranormal/parapsicologia_brasil.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
22. ^ Guerrero, Cesar (2000-01-17). "Quevedo, o Mr. M de batina" (in Portuguese). IstoÉ Gente. Editora Três. http://www.terra.com.br/istoegente/24/reportagens/rep_quevedo.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
23. ^ Stoll, Sandra Jacqueline (2002). "Religião, ciência ou auto-ajuda? trajetos do Espiritismo no Brasil" (in Portuguese). Revista de Antropologia (São Paulo, Brazil: Departamento de Antropologia FFLCH/USP) 45 (2). doi:10.1590/S0034-77012002000200003.

[edit] External links

[edit] Websites

• Spiritism Center Videos and articles on basic questions about spiritism.
• Spiritism Books offers books on spiritism.
• Spiritism Forum
• Explore Spiritism Website on spiritism, psychography, mediumship, spirits, reincarnation and life after death.
• Spiritism Spain Web Spiritism.
• Emmanuel of Brazil - translation by Google

[edit] Books

• The Spirit's Book by Allan Kardec (PDF file)
• The Book on Mediums by Allan Kardec (PDF file)
• The Gospel According To The Spiritism by Allan Kardec (PDF file)
• The Spirits' Book in HTML format, translated by Anna Blackwell
• Allan Kardec's books and other related works.

[edit] Groups and societies

• Spiritism at the Open Directory Project

[edit] Skeptical views

• Channeling - at the Skeptics' Dictionary;
• Medium - at the Skeptics' Dictionary;

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Ghost

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Brown Lady of Raynham Hall ghost photograph, Captain Hubert C. Provand. First published in Countrylife magazine, 1936

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Engraving of the Hammersmith Ghost in Kirby's Wonderful and Scientific Museum, a magazine published in 1804^[1]

In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike visions. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a séance.
The belief in manifestations of the spirits of the dead is widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic—are specifically designed to appease the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary essences that haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life, though stories of phantom armies, ghost trains, phantom ships, and even ghost animals have also been recounted.^[2][3]

Contents [hide] 1 Terminology 2 Typology 2.1 Anthropological context 2.2 Ghosts and the afterlife 2.3 Fear of ghosts 2.4 Common attributes 2.5 Locale 3 History 3.1 Ancient Near East and Egypt 3.2 Classical Antiquity 3.2.1 Archaic and Classical Greece 3.2.2 Roman Empire and Late Antiquity 3.3 Middle Ages 3.4 European Renaissance to Romanticism 3.5 Modern period of western culture 3.5.1 Spiritualist movement 3.5.2 Spiritism 3.6 Scientific skepticism 4 By religion 4.1 Judæo-Christian 4.2 Islam 4.3 Buddhism 5 By culture 5.1 European folklore 5.2 South and Southeast Asia 5.2.1 India 5.2.2 Austronesia 5.3 East and Central Asia 5.3.1 China 5.3.2 Japan 5.3.3 Thailand 5.3.4 Tibet 5.4 Americas 5.4.1 Mexico 5.4.2 United States 6 Depiction in the arts 6.1 Renaissance to Romanticism (1500 to 1840) 6.2 Victorian/Edwardian (1840 to 1920) 6.3 Modern Era (1920 to 1970) 6.4 Post-modern (1970-present) 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

Terminology

Further information: spirit, soul (spirit), anima, genius (mythology), and Geist

The English word ghost continues Old English gást, from a hypothetical Common Germanic *gaistaz. It is common to West Germanic, but lacking in North and East Germanic (the equivalent word in Gothic is ahma, Old Norse has andi m., önd f.). The pre-Germanic form was *ghoisdo-s, apparently from a root denoting "fury, anger" reflected in Old Norse geisa "to rage". The Germanic word is recorded as masculine only, but likely continues a neuter s-stem. The original meaning of the Germanic word would thus have been an animating principle of the mind, in particular capable of excitation and fury (compare óðr). In Germanic paganism, "Germanic Mercury", and the later Odin, was at the same time the conductor of the dead and the "lord of fury" leading the Wild Hunt.
Besides denoting the human spirit or soul, both of the living and the deceased, the Old English word is used as a synonym of Latin spiritus also in the meaning of "breath" or "blast" from the earliest attestations (9th century). It could also denote any good or evil spirit, i.e. angels and demons; the Anglo-Saxon gospel refers to the demonic possession of Matthew 12:43 as se unclæna gast. Also from the Old English period, the word could denote the spirit of God, viz. the "Holy Ghost". The now prevailing sense of "the soul of a deceased person, spoken of as appearing in a visible form" only emerges in Middle English (14th century). The modern noun does, however, retain a wider field of application, extending on one hand to "soul", "spirit", "vital principle", "mind" or "psyche", the seat of feeling, thought and moral judgement; on the other hand used figuratively of any shadowy outline, fuzzy or unsubstantial image, in optics, photography and cinematography especially a flare, secondary image or spurious signal.^[4]
The synonym spook is a Dutch loanword, akin to Low German spôk (of uncertain etymology); it entered the English language via the United States in the 19th century.^[5][6][7][8] Alternative words in modern usage include spectre (from Latin spectrum), the Scottish wraith (of obscure origin), phantom (via French ultimately from Greek phantasma, compare fantasy) and apparition. The term shade in classical mythology translates Greek σκιά,^[9] or Latin umbra,^[10] in reference to the notion of spirits in the Greek underworld. "Haint" is a synonym for ghost used in regional English of the southern United States,^[11] and the "haint tale" is a common feature of southern oral and literary tradition.^[12] The term poltergeist is a German word, literally a "noisy ghost", for a spirit said to manifest itself by invisibly moving and influencing objects.^[13]
Wraith is a Scottish dialectal word for "ghost", "spectre" or "apparition". It came to be used in Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the more general or figurative sense of "portent" or "omen". In 18th- to 19th-century Scottish literature, it was also applied to aquatic spirits. The word has no commonly accepted etymology; OED notes "of obscure origin" only. An association with the verb writhe was the etymology favored by J. R. R. Tolkien.^[14] Tolkien's use of the word in the naming of the creatures known as the Ringwraiths has influenced later usage in fantasy literature. Bogie is an Ulster Scots term for a ghost, and appears in Scottish poet John Mayne's Hallowe'en in 1780.^[15][16]
A revenant is a deceased person returning from the dead to haunt the living, either as a disembodied ghost or alternatively as an animated ("undead") corpse. Also related is the concept of a fetch, the visible ghost or spirit of a person yet alive.

Typology

Anthropological context

Further information: Animism, Ancestor worship, Origin of religion, and Anthropology of religion

A notion of the transcendent, supernatural or numinous, usually involving entities like ghosts, demons or deities, is a cultural universal.^[17] In pre-literate folk religions, these beliefs are often summarized under animism and ancestor worship.^[18]
In many cultures malignant, restless ghosts are distinguished from the more benign spirits involved in ancestor worship.^[19]
Ancestor worship typically involves rites intended to prevent revenants, vengeful spirits of the dead, imagined as starving and envious of the living. Strategies for preventing revenants may either include sacrifice, i.e., giving the dead food and drink to pacify them, or magical banishment of the deceased to force them not to return. Ritual feeding of the dead is performed in traditions like the Chinese Ghost Festival or the Western All Souls' Day. Magical banishment of the dead is present in many of the world's burial customs. The bodies found in many tumuli (kurgan) had been ritually bound before burial,^[20] and the custom of binding the dead persists, for example, in rural Anatolia.^[21]
Nineteenth-century anthropologist James Frazer stated in his classic work, The Golden Bough, that souls were seen as the creature within that animated the body.^[22]

Ghosts and the afterlife

Further information: Soul (spirit), Psyche (psychology), Underworld, Hungry ghost, and Psychopomp

Further information: Ghost Festival, All Souls' Day, Day of the Dead, and Ghost Dance

Although the human soul was sometimes symbolically or literally depicted in ancient cultures as a bird or other animal, it appears to have been widely held that the soul was an exact reproduction of the body in every feature, even down to clothing the person wore. This is depicted in artwork from various ancient cultures, including such works as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which shows deceased people in the afterlife appearing much as they did before death, including the style of dress.

Fear of ghosts

Main article: Fear of ghosts

Yūrei (Japanese ghost) from the Hyakkai Zukan, ca. 1737

While deceased ancestors are universally regarded as venerable, and often imagined as having a continued presence in some sort of afterlife, the spirit of a deceased person which remains present in the material world (viz. a ghost) is regarded as an unnatural or undesirable state of affairs and the idea of ghosts or revenants is associated with a reaction of fear. This is universally the case in pre-modern folk cultures, but fear of ghost also remains an integral aspect of the modern ghost story, Gothic horror and other horror fiction dealing with the supernatural.

Common attributes

Another widespread belief concerning ghosts is that they are composed of a misty, airy, or subtle material. Anthropologists link this idea to early beliefs that ghosts were the person within the person (the person's spirit), most noticeable in ancient cultures as a person's breath, which upon exhaling in colder climates appears visibly as a white mist.^[18] This belief may have also fostered the metaphorical meaning of "breath" in certain languages, such as the Latin spiritus and the Greek pneuma, which by analogy became extended to mean the soul. In the Bible, God is depicted as animating Adam with a breath.
In many traditional accounts, ghosts were often thought to be deceased people looking for vengeance, or imprisoned on earth for bad things they did during life. The appearance of a ghost has often been regarded as an omen or portent of death. Seeing one's own ghostly double or "fetch" is a related omen of death.^[23]
White ladies were reported to appear in many rural areas, and supposed to have died tragically or suffered trauma in life. White Lady legends are found around the world. Common to many of them is the theme of losing or being betrayed by a husband or fiancé. They are often associated with an individual family line or regarded as a harbinger of death similar to a banshee.
Legends of ghost ships have existed since the 18th century; most notable of these is the Flying Dutchman. This theme has been used in literature in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge.

Locale

See also: Haunted house

A place where ghosts are reported is described as haunted, and often seen as being inhabited by spirits of deceased who may have been former residents or were familiar with the property. Supernatural activity inside homes is said to be mainly associated with violent or tragic events in the building's past such as murder, accidental death, or suicide — sometimes in the recent or ancient past. But not all hauntings are at a place of a violent death, or even on violent grounds. Many cultures and religions believe the essence of a being, such as the 'soul', continues to exist. Some philosophical and religious views argue that the 'spirits' of those who have died have not 'passed over' and are trapped inside the property where their memories and energy are strong.

History

Ancient Near East and Egypt

Main article: Ghosts in Mesopotamian religions

Main article: Ghosts in ancient Egyptian culture

There are many references to ghosts in Mesopotamian religions - the religions of Sumer, Babylon, Assyria and other early states in Mesopotamia. Traces of these beliefs survive in the later Abrahamic religions that came to dominate the region.^[24] Ghosts were thought to be created at time of death, taking on the memory and personality of the dead person. They traveled to the netherworld, where they were assigned a position, and led an existence similar in some ways to that of the living. Relatives of the dead were expected to make offerings of food and drink to the dead to ease their conditions. If they did not, the ghosts could inflict misfortune and illness on the living. Traditional healing practices ascribed a variety of illnesses to the action of ghosts, while others were caused by gods or demons.^[25]
The Hebrew Bible contains few references to ghosts, associating spiritism with forbidden occult activities cf. Deuteronomy 18:11. The most notable reference is in the First Book of Samuel (I Samuel 28:3-19 KJV), in which a disguised King Saul has the Witch of Endor summon the spirit/ghost of Samuel.

Egyptian Akh glyph - The soul and spirit re-united after death

There was widespread belief in ghosts in ancient Egyptian culture in the sense of the continued existence of the soul and spirit after death, with the ability to assist or harm the living, and the possibility of a second death. Over a period of more than 2,500 years, Egyptian beliefs about the nature of the afterlife evolved constantly. Many of these beliefs were recorded in inscriptions, papyrus scrolls and tomb paintings. The Egyptian Book of the Dead compiles some of the beliefs from different periods of ancient Egyptian history.^[26] In modern times, the fanciful concept of a mummy coming back to life and wreaking vengeance when disturbed has spawned a whole genre of horror stories and films.^[27]

Classical Antiquity

Further information: Shade (mythology) and Magic in the Greco-Roman world

Archaic and Classical Greece

Ghosts appeared in Homer's Odyssey and Iliad, in which they were described as vanishing "as a vapor, gibbering and whining into the earth". Homer’s ghosts had little interaction with the world of the living. Periodically they were called upon to provide advice or prophecy, but they do not appear to be particularly feared. Ghosts in the classical world often appeared in the form of vapor or smoke, but at other times they were described as being substantial, appearing as they had been at the time of death, complete with the wounds that killed them.^[28]
By the 5th century BC, classical Greek ghosts had become haunting, frightening creatures who could work to either good or evil purposes. The spirit of the dead was believed to hover near the resting place of the corpse, and cemeteries were places the living avoided. The dead were to be ritually mourned through public ceremony, sacrifice and libations, or they might return to haunt their families. The ancient Greeks held annual feasts to honor and placate the spirits of the dead, to which the family ghosts were invited, and after which they were “firmly invited to leave until the same time next year”.^[29]
The 5th century BC play Oresteia contains one of the first ghosts to appear in a work of fiction.

Roman Empire and Late Antiquity

The ancient Romans believed a ghost could be used to exact revenge on an enemy by scratching a curse on a piece of lead or pottery and placing it into a grave.^[30]
Plutarch, in the 1st century AD, described the haunting of the baths at Chaeronea by the ghost of a murdered man. The ghost’s loud and frightful groans caused the people of the town to seal up the doors of the building.^[31] Another celebrated account of a haunted house from the ancient classical world is given by Pliny the Younger (c. 50 AD).^[32] Pliny describes the haunting of a house in Athens by a ghost bound in chains. The hauntings ceased when the ghost's shackled skeleton was unearthed, and given a proper reburial.^[33] The writers Plautus and Lucian also wrote stories about haunted houses.
In the New Testament, Jesus has to persuade the Disciples that he is not a ghost following the resurrection, Luke 24:37-39 (note that some versions of the Bible, such as the KJV and NKJV, use the term "spirit"). In a similar vein, Jesus' followers at first believe him to be a ghost (spirit) when they see him walking on water.
One of the first persons to express disbelief in ghosts was Lucian of Samosata in the 2nd century AD. In his tale "The Doubter" (circa 150 AD) he relates how Democritus "the learned man from Abdera in Thrace" lived in a tomb outside the city gates to prove that cemeteries were not haunted by the spirits of the departed. Lucian relates how he persisted in his disbelief despite practical jokes perpetrated by "some young men of Abdera" who dressed up in black robes with skull masks to frighten him.^[34] This account by Lucian notes something about the popular classical expectation of how a ghost should look.
In the 5th century AD, the Christian priest Constantius of Lyon recorded an instance of the recurring theme of the improperly buried dead who come back to haunt the living, and who can only cease their haunting when their bones have been discovered and properly reburied.^[35]

Middle Ages

Ghosts reported in medieval Europe tended to fall into two categories: the souls of the dead, or demons. The souls of the dead returned for a specific purpose. Demonic ghosts were those which existed only to torment or tempt the living. The living could tell them apart by demanding their purpose in the name of Jesus Christ. The soul of a dead person would divulge their mission, while a demonic ghost would be banished at the sound of the Holy Name.^[36]
Most ghosts were souls assigned to Purgatory, condemned for a specific period to atone for their transgressions in life. Their penance was generally related to their sin. For example, the ghost of a man who had been abusive to his servants was condemned to tear off and swallow bits of his own tongue; the ghost of another man, who had neglected to leave his cloak to the poor, was condemned to wear the cloak, now "heavy as a church tower". These ghosts appeared to the living to ask for prayers to end their suffering. Other dead souls returned to urge the living to confess their sins before their own deaths.^[37]
Medieval European ghosts were more substantial than ghosts described in the Victorian age, and there are accounts of ghosts being wrestled with and physically restrained until a priest could arrive to hear its confession. Some were less solid, and could move through walls. Often they were described as paler and sadder versions of the person they had been while alive, and dressed in tattered gray rags. The vast majority of reported sightings were male.^[38]
There were some reported cases of ghostly armies, fighting battles at night in the forest, or in the remains of an Iron Age hillfort, as at Wandlebury, near Cambridge, England. Living knights were sometimes challenged to single combat by phantom knights, which vanished when defeated.^[39]
From the medieval period an apparition of a ghost is recorded from 1211, at the time of the Albigensian Crusade.^[40] Gervase of Tilbury, Marshal of Arles, wrote that the image of Guilhem, a boy recently murdered in the forest, appeared in his cousin's home in Beaucaire, near Avignon. This series of "visits" lasted all of the summer. Through his cousin, who spoke for him, the boy allegedly held conversations with anyone who wished, until the local priest requested to speak to the boy directly, leading to an extended disquisition on theology. The boy narrated the trauma of death and the unhappiness of his fellow souls in Purgatory, and reported that God was most pleased with the ongoing Crusade against the Cathar heretics, launched three years earlier. The time of the Albigensian Crusade in southern France was marked by intense and prolonged warfare, this constant bloodshed and dislocation of populations being the context for these reported visits by the murdered boy.
Haunted houses are featured in the 9th century Arabian Nights (such as the tale of Ali the Cairene and the Haunted House in Baghdad).^[41]

European Renaissance to Romanticism

"Hamlet and his father's ghost" by Henry Fuseli (1780s drawing). The ghost is wearing stylized plate armour in 17th century style, including a morion type helmet and tassets. Depicting ghosts as wearing armour, to suggest a sense of antiquity, was common in Elizabethan theater.

Renaissance magic took a revived interest in the occult, including necromancy. In the era of the Reformation and Counter Reformation, there was frequently a backlash against unwholesome interest in the dark arts, typified by writers such as Thomas Erastus.^[42] The Swiss Reformed pastor Ludwig Lavater supplied one of the most frequently reprinted books of the period with his Of Ghosts and Spirits Walking By Night.^[43]
The Child ballad "Sweet William's Ghost" (1868) recounts the story of a ghost returning to beg a woman to free him from his promise to marry her, as he obviously cannot being dead. Her refusal would mean his damnation. This reflects a popular British belief that the dead haunted their lovers if they took up with a new love without some formal release.^[44] "The Unquiet Grave" expresses a belief even more widespread, found in various locations over Europe: ghosts can stem from the excessive grief of the living, whose mourning interferes with the dead's peaceful rest.^[45] In many folktales from around the world, the hero arranges for the burial of a dead man. Soon after, he gains a companion who aids him and, in the end, the hero's companion reveals that he is in fact the dead man.^[46] Instances of this include the Italian fairy tale "Fair Brow" and the Swedish "The Bird 'Grip'".

Modern period of western culture

Spiritualist movement

By 1853, when the popular song Spirit Rappings was published, Spiritualism was an object of intense curiosity.

Main article: Spiritualism

Spiritualism is a monotheistic belief system or religion, postulating a belief in God, but with a distinguishing feature of belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world can be contacted by "mediums", who can then provide information about the afterlife.^[47]
Spiritualism developed in the United States and reached its peak growth in membership from the 1840s to the 1920s, especially in English-language countries,^[48][49] By 1897, it was said to have more than eight million followers in the United States and Europe,^[50] mostly drawn from the middle and upper classes, while the corresponding movement in continental Europe and Latin America is known as Spiritism.
The religion flourished for a half century without canonical texts or formal organization, attaining cohesion by periodicals, tours by trance lecturers, camp meetings, and the missionary activities of accomplished mediums. Many prominent Spiritualists were women. Most followers supported causes such as the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage.^[48] By the late 1880s, credibility of the informal movement weakened, due to accusations of fraud among mediums, and formal Spiritualist organizations began to appear.^[48] Spiritualism is currently practiced primarily through various denominational Spiritualist Churches in the United States and United Kingdom.

Spiritism

Main article: Spiritism

Spiritism, or French spiritualism, is based on the five books of the Spiritist Codification written by French educator Hypolite Léon Denizard Rivail under the pseudonym Allan Kardec reporting séances in which he observed a series of phenomena that he attributed to incorporeal intelligence (spirits). His assumption of spirit communication was validated by many contemporaries, among them many scientists and philosophers who attended séances and studied the phenomena. His work was later extended by writers like Leon Denis, Arthur Conan Doyle, Camille Flammarion, Ernesto Bozzano, Chico Xavier, Divaldo Pereira Franco, Waldo Vieira, Johannes Greber^[51] and others.
Spiritism has adherents in many countries throughout the world, including Spain, United States, Canada,^[52] Japan, Germany, France, England, Argentina, Portugal and especially Brazil, which has the largest proportion and greatest number of followers.^[53]

Scientific skepticism

See also: Paranormal

The physician John Ferriar wrote An essay towards a theory of apparitions in 1813 in which he argued that sightings of ghosts were the result of optical illusions. Later the French physician Alexandre Jacques François Brière de Boismont published On Hallucinations: Or, the Rational History of Apparitions, Dreams, Ecstasy, Magnetism, and Somnambulism in 1845 in which he claimed sightings of ghosts were the result of hallucinations.^[54][55]
Joe Nickell of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, wrote that there was no credible scientific evidence that any location was inhabited by spirits of the dead.^[56] Limitations of human perception and ordinary physical explanations can account for ghost sightings; for example, air pressure changes in a home causing doors to slam, or lights from a passing car reflected through a window at night. Pareidolia, an innate tendency to recognize patterns in random perceptions, is what some skeptics believe causes people to believe that they have 'seen ghosts'.^[57] Reports of ghosts "seen out of the corner of the eye" may be accounted for by the sensitivity of human peripheral vision. According to Nickell, peripheral vision can easily mislead, especially late at night when the brain is tired and more likely to misinterpret sights and sounds."^[58]
Some researchers, such as Michael Persinger of Laurentian University, Canada, have speculated that changes in geomagnetic fields (created, e.g., by tectonic stresses in the Earth's crust or solar activity) could stimulate the brain's temporal lobes and produce many of the experiences associated with hauntings.^[59] Sound is thought to be another cause of supposed sightings. Richard Lord and Richard Wiseman have concluded that infrasound can cause humans to experience bizarre feelings in a room, such as anxiety, extreme sorrow, a feeling of being watched, or even the chills.^[60] Carbon monoxide poisoning, which can cause changes in perception of the visual and auditory systems,^[61] was speculated upon as a possible explanation for haunted houses as early as 1921.

By religion

Judæo-Christian

This section may be unbalanced towards certain viewpoints. Please improve the article by adding information on neglected viewpoints, or discuss the issue on the talk page. (April 2012)

Further information: All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day

The Hebrew Torah and the Bible contain a few references to ghosts, associating spiritism with forbidden occult activities.^[62] The most notable reference is in the First Book of Samuel,^[63] in which a disguised King Saul has the Witch of Endor summon the spirit/ghost of Samuel. In the New Testament, Jesus has to persuade the Disciples that He is not a ghost following the resurrection, Luke 24:37-39 (some versions of the Bible, such as the KJV and NKJV, use the term "spirit"). Similarly, Jesus' followers at first believe Him to be a ghost (spirit) when they see him walking on water.^[64]
Most of the Christian Church considers ghosts as beings who while tied to earth, no longer live on the material plain.^[65] Some Christian denominations teach that ghosts are beings who linger in an interim state before continuing their journey to heaven.^{[65][66][67][68]} On occasion, God would allow the souls in this state to return to earth to warn the living of the need for repentance.^[69] Jews and Christians are taught that it is sinful to attempt to conjure or control spirits in accordance with Deuteronomy XVIII: 9–12.^[70][71]
Some ghosts are actually said to be demons in disguise,^[72] who the Church teaches, in accordance with I Timothy 4:1, that they "come to deceive people and draw them away from God and into bondage."^[73] As a result, attempts to contact the dead may lead to unwanted contact with a demon or an unclean spirit, as was said to occur in the case of Robbie Mannheim, a fourteen year old Maryland youth.^[74]
The Talmud^[75] tells of a being called a shade שד that is similar to other creatures in that it lives and dies but consists only of a form but lacks matter that forms mass, thus rendering it invisible. Since it has no physical mass it is capable of transporting itself from one end of the world to the other.

Islam

The Koran discusses spirits known as jinn.^[76]

Buddhism

In Buddhism, there are a number of planes of existence a person intwo which a person can be reborn, one of which is the realm of hungry ghosts.

By culture

European folklore

Further information: Revenant (folklore), Necromancy, and Samhain

Belief in ghosts in European folklore is characterized by the recurring fear of "returning" or revenant deceased who may harm the living. This includes the Scandinavian gjenganger, the Romanian strigoi, the Serbian vampir, the Greek vrykolakas, etc. British folklore is particularly notable for its numerous haunted locations.
Belief in the soul and an afterlife remained near universal until the emergence of atheism in the 18th century. In the 19th century, spiritism resurrected "belief in ghosts" as the object of systematic inquiry, and popular opinion in Western culture remains divided.^[77]

South and Southeast Asia

India

Main article: Bhoot (ghost)

A bhoot or bhut (भूत, ભૂત, or بهوت) is a supernatural creature, usually the ghost of a deceased person, in the popular culture, literature and some ancient texts of the Indian subcontinent. Interpretations of how bhoots come into existence vary by region and community, but they are usually considered to be perturbed and restless due to some factor that prevents them from moving on (to transmigration, non-being, nirvana, or heaven or hell, depending on tradition). This could be a violent death, unsettled matters in their lives, or simply the failure of their survivors to perform proper funerals.^[78]
In Central and Northern India, Shaman spirit guides play a central role.^{[citation needed]}. It duly happens when in the night someone sleeps and decorates something on the wall and they say that if one sees the spirit the next thing in the morning he will become a spirit to and that to a skondho kata which means a spirit without a head and the soul of the body will remain the dark with the dark lord from the spirits who reside in the body of every human in Central and Northern India. It is also believed that if someone calls you from behind never turn back and see because the spirit may catch the human to make it a spirit. Other types of spirits in Hindu Mythology include Baital, an evil spirit who haunts cemeteries and takes demonic possession of corpses, and Pishacha, a type of flesh-eating demon.

Austronesia

Main articles: Malay ghost myths, Ghosts in Filipino culture, and Ghosts in Polynesian culture

Spirit of the Dead Watching by Paul Gauguin

There are many Malay ghost myths, remnants of old animist beliefs that have been shaped by later Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim influences in the modern states of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Some ghost concepts such as the female vampires Pontianak and Penanggalan are shared throughout the region. Ghosts are a popular theme in modern Malaysian and Indonesian films. There are also many references to Ghosts in Filipino culture, ranging from ancient legendary creatures such as the Manananggal and Tiyanak to more modern urban legends and horror films. The beliefs, legends and stories are as diverse as the people of the Philippines.
There was widespread belief in ghosts in Polynesian culture, some of which persists today. After death, a person's ghost normally traveled to the sky world or the underworld, but some could stay on earth. In many Polynesian legends, ghosts were often actively involved in the affairs of the living. Ghosts might also cause sickness or even invade the body of ordinary people, to be driven out through strong medicines.^[79]

East and Central Asia

Further information: Preta

China

Main article: Ghosts in Chinese culture

An image of Zhong Kui, the vanquisher of ghosts and evil beings, painted sometime before 1304 A.D. by Gong Kai.

There are many references to ghosts in Chinese culture. Even Confucius said, "Respect ghosts and gods, but keep away from them."^[80]
The ghosts take many forms, depending on how the person died, and are often harmful. Many Chinese ghost beliefs have been accepted by neighboring cultures, notably Japan and south-east Asia. Ghost beliefs are closely associated with traditional Chinese religion based on ancestor worship, many of which were incorporated in Taoism. Later beliefs were influenced by Buddhism, and in turn influenced and created uniquely Chinese Buddhist beliefs.
Many Chinese today believe it possible to contact the spirits of their ancestors through a medium, and that ancestors can help descendants if properly respected and rewarded. The annual ghost festival is celebrated by Chinese around the world. On this day, ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm. Ghosts are described in classical Chinese texts as well as modern literature and films.
A recent article in the China Post stated that nearly eighty seven percent of Chinese office workers believe in ghosts, and some fifty two percent of workers will wear hand art, necklaces, crosses, or even place a crystal ball on their desks to keep ghosts at bay, according to the poll.

Japan

Utagawa Kuniyoshi, The Ghosts, c. 1850

Utagawa Kuniyoshi, The Ghosts of Togo and His Wife.

Main articles: Yūrei, Onryō, and Japanese ghost story

Yūrei (幽霊^?) are figures in Japanese folklore, analogous to Western legends of ghosts. The name consists of two kanji, 幽 (yū), meaning "faint" or "dim" and 霊 (rei), meaning "soul" or "spirit". Alternative names include 亡霊 (Bōrei) meaning ruined or departed spirit, 死霊 (Shiryō) meaning dead spirit, or the more encompassing 妖怪 (Yōkai) or お化け (Obake).
Like their Chinese and Western counterparts, they are thought to be spirits kept from a peaceful afterlife.

Thailand

Krasue, a Thai female ghost known as Ap in Khmer

Ghosts in Thailand are part of local folklore and have now become part of the popular culture of the country. Phraya Anuman Rajadhon was the first Thai scholar who seriously studied Thai folk beliefs and took notes on the nocturnal village spirits of Thailand. He established that, since such spirits were not represented in paintings or drawings, they were purely based on descriptions of popular traditional stories which were transmitted orally. Therefore most of the contemporary iconography of ghosts such as Nang Tani, Nang Takian,^[81] Krasue, Krahang,^[82] Phi Hua Kat, Phi Pop, Phi Phong, Phi Phraya and Mae Nak has its origins in Thai films that have now become classics.^[83] The most feared spirit in Thailand is Phi Tai Hong, the ghost of a person who has died suddenly of a violent death.^[84] The folklore of Thailand also includes the belief that sleep paralysis is caused by a ghost, Phi Am.

Tibet

Main article: Ghosts in Tibetan culture

There is widespread belief in ghosts in Tibetan culture. Ghosts are explicitly recognized in the Tibetan Buddhist religion as they were in Indian Buddhism,^[85] occupying a distinct but overlapping world to the human one, and feature in many traditional legends. When a human dies, after a period of uncertainty they may enter the ghost world. A hungry ghost (Tibetan: yidag, yi-dvags; Sanskrit: preta, प्रेत) has a tiny throat and huge stomach, and so can never be satisfied. Ghosts may be killed with a ritual dagger or caught in a spirit trap and burnt, thus releasing them to be reborn. Ghosts may also be exorcised, and an annual festival is held throughout Tibet for this purpose. Some say that Dorje Shugden, the ghost of a powerful 17th-century monk, is a deity, but the Dalai Lama asserts that he is an evil spirit, which has caused a split in the Tibetan exile community.

Americas

Mexico

Catrinas, one of the most popular figures of the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico

Main article: Ghosts in Mexican culture

There is extensive and varied belief in ghosts in Mexican culture. The modern state of Mexico before the Spanish conquest was inhabited by diverse peoples such as the Maya and Aztec, and their beliefs have survived and evolved, combined with the beliefs of the Spanish colonists. The Day of the Dead incorporates pre-Columbian beliefs with Christian elements. Mexican literature and films include many stories of ghosts interacting with the living.

United States

Further information: Ghosts of the American Civil War and Shadow people

According to the Gallup Poll News Service, belief in haunted houses, ghosts, communication with the dead, and witches had an especially steep increase over the 1990s.^[86] A 2005 Gallup poll found that about 32 percent of Americans believe in ghosts.^[87]

Depiction in the arts

Ghosts are prominent in the popular cultures of various nations. The ghost story is ubiquitous across all cultures from oral folktales to works of literature.

Renaissance to Romanticism (1500 to 1840)

19th century etching by John Leech of the Ghost of Christmas Present as depicted in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

One of the more recognizable ghosts in English literature is the shade of Hamlet's murdered father in Shakespeare’s The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. In Hamlet, it is the ghost who demands that Prince Hamlet investigate his "murder most foul" and seek revenge upon his usurping uncle, King Claudius. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the murdered Banquo returns as a ghost to the dismay of the title character.

John Dee and Edward Kelley invoking the spirit of a deceased person (engraving from the Astrology by Ebenezer Sibly, 1806).

In English Renaissance theater, ghosts were often depicted in the garb of the living and even in armor, as with the ghost of Hamlet’s father. Armor, being out-of-date by the time of the Renaissance, gave the stage ghost a sense of antiquity.^[88] But the sheeted ghost began to gain ground on stage in the 19th century because an armored ghost could not satisfactorily convey the requisite spookiness: it clanked and creaked, and had to be moved about by complicated pulley systems or elevators. These clanking ghosts being hoisted about the stage became objects of ridicule as they became clichéd stage elements. Ann Jones and Peter Stallybrass, in Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory, point out, "In fact, it is as laughter increasingly threatens the Ghost that he starts to be staged not in armor but in some form of 'spirit drapery'." An interesting observation by Jones and Stallybrass is that

...at the historical point at which ghosts themselves become increasingly implausible, at least to an educated elite, to believe in them at all it seems to be necessary to assert their immateriality, their invisibility. ... The drapery of ghosts must now, indeed, be as spiritual as the ghosts themselves. This is a striking departure both from the ghosts of the Renaissance stage and from the Greek and Roman theatrical ghosts upon which that stage drew. The most prominent feature of Renaissance ghosts is precisely their gross materiality. They appear to us conspicuously clothed.

Ghosts figured prominently in traditional British ballads of the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly the “Border Ballads” of the turbulent border country between England and Scotland. Ballads of this type include The Unquiet Grave, The Wife of Usher's Well, and Sweet William's Ghost, which feature the recurring theme of returning dead lovers or children. In the ballad King Henry, a particularly ravenous ghost devours the king’s horse and hounds before forcing the king into bed. The king then awakens to find the ghost transformed into a beautiful woman.^[89]
One of the key early appearances by ghosts in a gothic tale was The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole in 1764.^[90]
Washington Irving's short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820), based on an earlier German folktale, features a Headless Horseman. It has been adapted for film and television many times, such as Sleepy Hollow, a successful 1999 feature film.^[91]

Victorian/Edwardian (1840 to 1920)

The ghost of a pirate, from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates (1903).

The "classic" ghost story arose during the Victorian period, and included authors such as M. R. James, Sheridan Le Fanu, Violet Hunt, and Henry James. Classic ghost stories were influenced by the gothic fiction tradition, and contain elements of folklore and psychology. M. R. James summed up the essential elements of a ghost story as, “Malevolence and terror, the glare of evil faces, ‘the stony grin of unearthly malice', pursuing forms in darkness, and 'long-drawn, distant screams', are all in place, and so is a modicum of blood, shed with deliberation and carefully husbanded...”^[92]
Famous literary apparitions from this period are the ghosts of A Christmas Carol, in which Ebenezer Scrooge is helped to see the error of his ways by the ghost of his former colleague Jacob Marley, and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come.
Oscar Wilde's comedy The Canterville Ghost has been adapted for film and television on several occasions. Henry James's The Turn of the Screw has also appeared in a number of adaptations, notably the film The Innocents and Benjamin Britten's opera The Turn of the Screw.
Oscar Telgmann's opera Leo, the Royal Cadet (1885) includes Judge's Song about a ghost at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario.^[93]
Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things is a 1904 collection of Japanese ghost stories collected by Lafcadio Hearn, and later made into a film.
In the United States, prior to and during the First World War, folklorists Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil Sharp collected ballads from the people of the Appalachian Mountains, which included ghostly themes such as The Wife of Usher's Well, The Suffolk Miracle, The Unquiet Grave, and The Cruel Ship's Carpenter. The theme of these ballads was often the return of a dead lover. These songs were variants of traditional British ballads handed down by generations of mountaineers descended from the people of the Anglo-Scottish border region.^[94]

Modern Era (1920 to 1970)

Professional parapsychologists and “ghosts hunters”, such as Harry Price, active in the 1920s and 1930s, and Peter Underwood, active in the 1940s and 1950s, published accounts of their experiences with ostensibly true ghost stories such as Price's The Most Haunted House in England, and Underwood's Ghosts of Borley (both recounting experiences at Borley Rectory).
Children’s benevolent ghost stories became popular, such as Casper the Friendly Ghost, created in the 1930s and appearing in comics, animated cartoons, and eventually a 1995 feature film.
Noël Coward's play Blithe Spirit, later made into a film, places a more humorous slant on the phenomenon of haunting of individuals and specific locations.
With the advent of motion pictures and television, screen depictions of ghosts became common, and spanned a variety of genres; the works of Shakespeare, Dickens and Wilde have all been made into cinematic versions. Novel-length tales have been difficult to adapt to cinema, although that of The Haunting of Hill House to The Haunting in 1963 is an exception.^[90]
Sentimental depictions during this period were more popular in cinema than horror, and include the 1947 film The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which was later adapted to television with a successful 1968-70 TV series.^[90] Genuine psychological horror films from this period include 1944's The Uninvited, and 1945's Dead of Night.

Main article: List of ghost films

Post-modern (1970-present)

The 1970s saw screen depictions of ghosts diverge into distinct genres of the romantic and horror. A common theme in the romantic genre from this period is the ghost as a benign guide or messenger, often with unfinished business, such as 1989's Field of Dreams, the 1990 film Ghost, and the 1993 comedy Heart and Souls.^[95] In the horror genre, 1980's The Fog, and the A Nightmare on Elm Street series of films from the 1980s and 1990s are notable examples of the trend for the merging of ghost stories with scenes of physical violence.^[90]
Popularised in such films as the 1984 comedy Ghostbusters, ghost hunting became a hobby for many who formed ghost hunting societies to explore reportedly haunted places. The ghost hunting theme has been featured in reality television series, such as Ghost Adventures, Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters International, Ghost Lab, Most Haunted and A Haunting. It is also represented in children's television by such programs as The Ghost Hunter and Ghost Trackers. Ghost hunting also gave rise to multiple guidebooks to haunted locations, and ghost hunting "how-to" manuals.
The 1990s saw a return to classic "gothic" ghosts, whose dangers were more psychological than physical. Examples of films from this period include 1999's The Sixth Sense and The Others.
Asian cinema has also produced horror films about ghosts, such as the 1998 Japanese film Ringu (remade in the US as The Ring in 2002), and the Pang brothers' 2002 film The Eye.^[96] Indian ghost movies are popular not just in India, but in the Middle East, Africa, South East Asia and other parts of the world. Some Indian ghost movies such as the comedy / horror film Chandramukhi have been commercial successes, dubbed into several languages.^[97] Generally the films are based on the experiences of modern people who are unexpectedly exposed to ghosts. They usually draw on traditional Indian literature or folklore, but in some cases are remakes of western films, such as Anjaane, based on Alejandro Amenábar's ghost story The Others.^[98]
In fictional television programming, ghosts have been explored in series such as Supernatural, Ghost Whisperer and Medium. In animated fictional television programming, ghosts have served as the central element in series such as Casper, Danny Phantom, and Scooby-Doo. Various other television shows have depicted ghosts as well.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ghosts

• Unclean spirit
• Demonic possession
• Afterlife
• Ghost hunting
• Haunted house
• Fear of ghosts

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    "Once the idea of a ghost appears in a household . . . no longer is an object merely mislaid. . . . There gets to be a dynamic in a place where the idea that it's haunted takes on a life of its own. One-of-a-kind quirks that could never be repeated all become further evidence of the haunting."

59. ^ Richard Wiseman. Retrieved September 25, 2007.
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62. ^ Deuteronomy 18:11
63. ^ I Samuel 28:3-19 KJV
64. ^ Bart D. Ehrman (2006). (spirit)+when+they+see+him+walking+on+water#v=onepage&q&f=false Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene: the followers of Jesus in history and legend. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-530013-0. http://books.google.com/?id=Tlvgp7WggvEC&pg=PA17&dq=Jesus'+followers+at+first+believe+him+to+be+a+ghost (spirit)+when+they+see+him+walking+on+water#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 12 December 2011. "Jesus then walks out to them, on the water. When they see him, in the middle of the lake, the disciples are terrified, thinking it is a ghost. Jesus assures them it is he, and then Peter, in a characteristically unreserved moment, calls out, "Lord if it is you, command me to come to you on the water" (Matt. 14-28)."
65. ^ ^{a b} Emissary (2007-09-30). A Faraway Ancient Country. ISBN 978-0-615-15801-3. http://books.google.com/?id=q469xc7mbksC&pg=PA69&dq=Walter+Halloran+exorcism+ouija&cd=13#v=onepage&q=Walter%20Halloran%20exorcism%20ouija. Retrieved 2010-03-27. "if we have ghosets, then where do we put them in the Christian universe? While they are tied to the earth, they are no longer living on the material plain. Heaven and hell are exclusive places, so it's extremely unlikely that people come and go from these destinations as they please. There must be a third state in the afterlife where souls linger before continuing their journey."
66. ^ "Heavenly minded: It's time to get our eschatology right, say scholars, authors". The United Methodist Church. http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=5101. Retrieved 2010-03-27. "John Wesley believed in the intermediate state between death and the final judgment “where believers would share in the ‘bosom of Abraham’ or ‘paradise,’ even continuing to grow in holiness there,” writes Ted Campbell, a professor at Perkins School of Theology, in his 1999 book Methodist Doctrine: The Essentials (Abingdon)."
67. ^ Prosser, Eleanor (1967). Hamlet and revenge. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-0316-1. http://books.google.com/?id=1zasAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA115&dq=purgatory+ghost&cd=3#v=onepage&q=purgatory%20ghost. Retrieved 2010-03-27. "Primarily the Purgatory ghost appeared only to ask for masses, alms, fasts, pilgrimages, and, above all, prayers."
68. ^ Fathers, Paulist (1945). Catholic world, Volume 162. Paulist Fathers. http://books.google.com/?id=X_kWAQAAIAAJ&q=purgatory+ghost&dq=purgatory+ghost&cd=9. Retrieved 2010-03-27. "That the Ghost comes from Purgatory is evident from his description of his abode in the other world as primarily a state of purification, consisting of..."
69. ^ "Ghosts, Fairies and Omens". University of Wisconsin–Madison. http://history.wisc.edu/sommerville/367/367-102.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-27. "The Roman Catholic Church taught that at death the souls of those too good for hell and too bad for heaven were sent to Purgatory. Here they were purged of their sins by punishment, but might on occasion be allowed to return to earth to warn the living of the need for repentance."
70. ^ "Do You Believe in Ghosts?". Catholic Exchange. http://catholicexchange.com/2006/10/07/83644/. Retrieved 2010-03-27. "Ghosts can come to us for good, but we must not attempt to conjure or control spirits."
71. ^ Klein, Michele (2003-06-30). Not to worry: Jewish wisdom and folklore. Jewish Publication Society. ISBN 978-0-8276-0753-8. http://books.google.com/?id=tqG29pi8HPUC&pg=PA171&dq=conjuring+spirits+bible&cd=7#v=onepage&q=conjuring%20spirits%20bible. Retrieved 2010-03-27. "Jews have sometimes engaged in conjuring spirits when worried, even though the Bible prohibits this behavior."
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75. ^ Chagigah 16a
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82. ^ Phi Krahang
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90. ^ ^{a b c d} Newman, pg. 135.
91. ^ Sleepy Hollow at Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 29 January 2009.
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93. ^ Leo, the Royal cadet, Archive.org
94. ^ Olive Dame Campbell & Cecil James Sharp, English Folk Songs From The Southern Appalachians, G. Putnam's Sons: New York, 1917
95. ^ Chanko, Kenneth M. (August 8, 1993). "FILM; When It Comes to the Hereafter, Romance and Sentiment Rule". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE1339F93BA3575BC0A965958260. Retrieved 2009-01-29.
96. ^ Rafferty, Terence (June 8, 2003). "Why Asian Ghost Stories Are the Best". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E01E1D61330F93BA35755C0A9659C8B63. Retrieved 2009-01-29.
97. ^ Shoaib Mohamed (September 24, 2007). "The Bus Conductor Turned Superstar Who Took the Right Bus to Demi". Behindwoods. http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movie-articles/movies-06/24-09-07-rajini.html. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
98. ^ "Anjaane - The Unknown". Indiafm.com. December 30, 2005. http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movies/review/7199/index.html. Retrieved 2010-03-17.

Further reading

• Fairly, John & Welfare, Simon, Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers, Putnam: New York, 1985.
• Felton, D., Haunted Greece and Rome: Ghost Stories From Classical Antiquity, University of Texas Press, 1999.
• Finucane, R. C., Appearances of the Dead: A Cultural History of Ghosts, Prometheus Books, 1984.
• Johnston, Sarah Iles, Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece, University of California Press, 1999.
• Hole, Christina, Haunted England, Batsford: London, 1950. At Google Books
• MacKenzie, Andrew, Apparitions and Ghosts, Arthur Barker, 1971.
• Moreman, Christopher, Beyond the Threshold: Afterlife Beliefs and Experiences in World Religions, Rowman & Littlefield, 2008.
• Newman, Kim, ed. BFI Companion to Horror, Cassell: London, 1996.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ghosts

Look up ghost in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• "Ghost Theory" of 18th century German theologian Johan Ernst Schubert and a list of vernacular house spirits and ghosts
• Historical Ghost Stories
• Ghost accounts from a haunted castle in Wales
• Differences between ghosts and spirits: Haunting Review

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