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What Are (and Are Not) Ghosts?
When we hear the word âghostâ, most of us immediately think of something barely glimpsed or translucent, the spirit of someone who has died. If we give it a few more seconds of consideration, we might imagine a fearful event in a dark, isolated place, or perhaps even a frightening story we have read or a film we have seen.
However, despite certain culturally shared notions, defining a âghostâ is not a simple undertaking. In our contemporary, Western thinking, the ghost is the spirit of a deceased individual that manifests itself to us after their death; but in the past, and in other cultures, the ghost may be very different. Belief in ghosts seems to be nearly universal, but the shape the undead spirit takes varies according to the particular societyâs collective imagination.
Even in our own Western European tradition, the very word âghostâ has altered in both meaning and form over the last five or so centuries. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word was originally derived from the German word gĂĄst, which in turn evolved out of the pre-Teutonic gaisto-z or ghoizdo-z, meaning âfury, angerâ; until about 1590 âghostâ referred to the essence of life, rather than the survival after death. This original meaning survives in the phrase âgive up the ghostâ, which dates back to at least 1388, when a translation of Matthew 27: 50 stated: âJhesus eftsoone criede with a greet voyce and gaf vp the goost.â This use of the word also survives in the name âHoly Ghostâ, the third part of the Christian Trinity. The Holy Ghost probably has its roots in the Hebrew ruah ha-qodesh; ruah originally meant âbreathâ or âwindâ, and ruah ha-qodesh was the holy breath of God that inspired human beings.1 The fourth-century Latin translation of the Bible rendered this as spiritus sanctus, with spiritus again referring to âbreathâ or âwindâ, and by the time of Middle English, the phrase had become holi gost.
The use of âghostâ to refer to a dead spirit that appears to the living first became popular about the time of Geoffrey Chaucer, who in âDido, Queen of Carthageâ (part III of The Legend of Good Women, c. 1385) refers to âThis night my fadres gost hath in my sleep so sore me tormented.â When Shakespeare wrote Hamlet (some time between 1599 and 1602), the modern meaning was sufficiently established for a ghost to be included as a major character in the play, complete with the vengeful purpose now frequently ascribed to ghosts. In his poem âVenus and Adonisâ, Shakespeare also imbues ghosts with the modern qualities of fear and omens:
Look, how the worldâs poor people are amazed
At apparitions, signs and prodigies,
Whereon with fearful eyes they long have gazed,
Infusing them with dreadful prophecies.
In this same poem, Death is described as a âgrim-grinning ghostâ, a phrase that would later become the title of the theme music to Disneylandâs famous ghost ride, the Haunted Mansion.
Shakespeare also provides the word as a verb, when, in Antony and Cleopatra (II.6), Pompey refers to Julius Caesar âwho at Philippi he good Brutus ghostedâ. In the military, the use of âghostâ as a verb is applied to a soldier who avoids duty, and in modern British slang, to âghostâ is to move prisoners at night.2
The word has also been twisted into new nouns, manifesting as âghostessâ and âghostletâ, to describe (respectively) a female ghost and a small ghost. Other uses of the word have referred simply to a corpse, to a photograph, to something that lacks force (as in âhe doesnât stand the ghost of a chanceâ) or to someone who secretly performs the work of another (a âghostwriterâ). In addition, the word has lent itself to wry slang usage. In the theatre world, for instance, âthe ghost walksâ means that salary will finally be forthcoming to cast and crew. âGhost turdsâ are âaccumulations of lint found under furnitureâ.3
Hamlet sees his fatherâs ghost on the battlements. Illustration by Robert Dudley, published as a chromolithograph, 1856â8.
What about the concept behind the word? If a ghost is the spirit of a dead person, how does that differ from a soul? âSoulâ is today synonymous with the original meaning of âghostâ â the essential life force of a human being. Whereas âghostâ has come to refer to that essence after death, most religions believe that a soul is possessed by all living persons, and that the soul survives in some form after death. Where âsoulâ and âghostâ deviate most, however, is in the interaction with the living: a ghost must be seen, heard or otherwise experienced in a tangible way by the living.
When seen, ghosts are typically described as translucent or dim; they cannot be grasped, although a mortal unlucky enough to encounter one may experience being touched, feeling suddenly cold or smelling a particular scent that meant something to the ghost when alive. A ghostly visitor who was subjected to a gruesome ending may or may not show signs of that bloody demise. The form of the ghost may even shift as it is viewed; in ancient cultures, some spirits suddenly took on animal forms. Occasionally the ghost may appear so solid that it is initially indistinguishable from a human being.
Ghosts need not be confined to the spirits of deceased persons, however: ghost animals are also prevalent in many cultures. In Britain, for example, ghostly hounds are common and accompany a spectral huntsman sometimes named Gabriel Ratchets or Herne the Hunter. Although some who encountered this terrifying pack believed them to be diabolical in nature, rather than ghostly, there were other notions surrounding them, as well: âIn the neighbourhood of Leeds these hounds are known as âGabble Ratchetsâ, and are supposed, as in other places, to be the souls of unbaptized children who flit restlessly about their parentsâ abode.â4 In Cornwall, an old folk belief held that any girl who died after being heart-broken by a deceitful man would return as a white hare to haunt her beloved. This white hare would invariably cause the manâs death.
The worldâs religions treat ghosts in a variety of ways. Judaism and Christianity take a dim view, as outlined in the story of Saul and the Witch (or Medium) of Endor. After the death of the leader and prophet Samuel, Saul (the king of Israel) bans all mediums. However, when the army of the Philistines assembles against him and he receives no direction from God, Saul disguises himself and seeks out the Witch of Endor. She recognizes him and initially suspects a trap, but Saul swears that he only seeks advice from the spirit of Samuel, and assures her safety. She brings forth the spirit, who admonishes Saul for going against the word of God, and warns him of a great defeat in the battle against the Philistines.
George Cruikshank, Herne the Huntsman, 19th-century engraving.
Ghosts often imparted equally dour news in older religions, as well. In Book XI of Homerâs Odyssey, Ulysses sacrifices sheep to gain access to the ghost of Tiresias, a great prophet. The âshadesâ arrive making terrible screaming sounds, drink the blood of the sheep, talk about the darkness of the underworld and foretell great misfortune for the rest of Ulyssesâ journey. And in the Sumerian tale âGilgamesh, Enkidu and the Nether Worldâ (dating from about 2000 BCE), the ghost of Gilgameshâs friend Enkidu returns to warn the great hero that any description of the afterlife would make him âsit down and weepâ.5
Where do ghosts and deities intersect? In the first volume of his Principles of Sociology, the famed nineteenth-century philosopher and polymath Herbert Spencer suggested that âdeities are the expanded ghosts of dead men.â6 Ghosts may also be synonymous with demons, as in the western Indian belief in the bhĆ«ta, a demon that is the spirit of someone who was malicious in life, which may cause harm in death by possessing the living, creating storms or causing disease.
Is a dead spirit encountered in a dream a ghost? Seeing a dead loved one in a dream dates as far back as Homerâs Iliad, in which the hero, Achilles, is visited in his sleep by his beloved friend Patroclus, who pleads for a proper burial and for vengeance. In contemporary culture, psychologists refer to these as âvisitation dreamsâ, and suggest that âthe dreams we have while grieving are an important part of that process.â7 Similarly, what of spirits who might be glimpsed while the viewer is in an extreme mental state, such as religious ecstasy? During the Middle Ages, Christian mystics often wrote of speaking with the dead while experiencing ecstatic states. The thirteenth-century nun Gertrude of Helfta, for example, described meeting deceased sisters of the cloth, lay brothers and even a knight during her extensive and excruciating physical suffering (which was caused by various diseases). The apparitions encountered in dreams and visions operate much like their more earthbound cousins in some respects, by delivering warnings or prophecies, but differ greatly in others: they seldom arouse fear, and they are experienced by only one person, usually only a single time. Given that these spirits serve a more obvious psychological function and cannot be encountered by more than one individual, for the purposes of this book they will be considered as outside the realm of true ghosts.
After Henry Fuseli, Achilles Grasping for the Shade of Patroclus, 1806, engraving.
If a ghost is essentially a soul that returns to mortal existence and is experienced in some fully wakeful way by the living, is a ghost different from a phantom, an apparition, a spirit or a spectre? In fact, these words are all essentially synonyms for âghostâ. âWraithâ, however, is one of the more curious alternative words; although it is often used interchangeably with âghostâ, a wraith is technically the spirit of someone who is still alive. In Scottish folklore, a wraith (or âfetchâ) may appear to warn a loved one or friend; at other times, the wraith is seen at the very moment of its ownerâs death. In one of the best-known fetch tales, the Earl of Cornwall has a strange encounter with his good friend William Rufus while hunting in a forest:
He advanced beyond the shades of the woods on to the moors above them, and he was surprised to see a very large black goat advancing over the plain. As it approached him, which it did rapidly, he saw that it bore on its back âKing Rufusâ, all black and naked, and wounded through in the midst of his breast. Robert adjured the goat, in the name of the Holy Trinity, to tell what it was he carried so strangely. He answered, âI am carrying your king to judgment; yea, that tyrant William Rufus, for I am an evil spirit, and the revenger of that malice which he bore to the Church of God âŠâ. Having so spoken, the spectre vanished. Robert, the earl, related the circumstance to his followers, and they shortly after learned that at that very hour William Rufus had been slain.8
Although the word ârevenantâ is sometimes used for âghostâ, revenant more accurately refers to a dead person who returns in a physical body. A revenant is usually tied to violence â a victim who reanimates to continue a cycle of murder and terror. In his tale The Devilâs Elixir (1815), E.T.A. Hoffmann assigns the revenant the character of the supernaturally lost: âI was like a condemned spirit â like a revenant, doomed involuntarily to wander on the earth.â9 When the revenant returned in corporeal form to feed on the blood of the living, it was a vampire.
Ghosts also have curious ties to other supernatural entities. The Babylonian edimmu is usually thought to be a ghost, but it also appears in lists of demons that afflict human beings. The second-century CE writer Apuleius, in The God of Socrates, refers to ghosts as demons, and even goes so far as to suggest that good souls can produce good demons. The early Christian writer Tertullian wrote in about 200 CE of âthe deceit perpetrated by evil spirits that conceal themselves in the characters of the deadâ.10 And in Chinese, the word gui refers to both dead and divine spirits. While ghosts are clearly separated from such creatures as vampires â because the latter continue in physical form after death â in some mythologies it is less clear where ghosts end and demons or gods begin.
The European monster known as the gello aptly demonstrates the confusion that sometimes surrounds the ghostly and the demonic. First appearing in a poetry fragment by Sappho, the gello was a creature that was thought to murder infants and small children by sucking their blood. A human being might become a gello after death, gaining demonic qualities even while retaining human distinctions such as gender (demons are believed to be sexless). The debate over the nature of the gello ignited controversy among eighth-century Christian theologians, who extended belief in the creature to belief in the spiritual nature of Jesus. Even though the Churchâs official position was to deny the existence of the gello, infant-murdering spirits called gelloudes are ...