Ghost

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For other uses, see Ghost (disambiguation).
"Ghostly" redirects here. For other uses, see Ghostly (disambiguation).

Engraving of the Hammersmith Ghost in Kirby's Wonderful and Scientific Museum, a magazine published in

1804[1]

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In folklore, a ghost (sometimes known as

an apparition, haunt, phantom, poltergeist, shade, specter or spectre, spirit, spoo
k, and wraith) is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the
living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to
translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike forms. The deliberate
attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or
in spiritism as a séance.
The belief in the existence of an afterlife, as well as 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 rest the spirits of the dead.
Ghosts are generally described as solitary, human-like essences, though stories of
ghostly armies and the ghosts of animals rather than humans have also been
recounted.[2][3] They are believed to haunt particular locations, objects, or people they
were associated with in life. According to a 2009 study by the Pew Research Center,
18% of Americans say they have seen a ghost. [4]
The overwhelming consensus of science is that ghosts do not exist. [5] Their existence
is impossible to falsify,[5] and ghost hunting has been classified as pseudoscience.[6][7]
[8]
 Despite centuries of investigation, there is no scientific evidence that any location is
inhabited by spirits of the dead.[6][9] Historically, certain toxic and psychoactive
plants (such as datura and hyoscyamus niger), whose use has long been associated
with necromancy and the underworld, have been shown to
contain anticholinergic compounds that are pharmacologically linked
to dementia (specifically DLB) as well as histological patterns of neurodegeneration.[10]
[11]
 Recent research has indicated that ghost sightings may be related to degenerative
brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.[12] Common prescription medication
and over-the-counter drugs (such as sleep aids) may also, in rare instances, cause
ghost-like hallucinations, particularly zolpidem and diphenhydramine.[13] Older reports
linked carbon monoxide poisoning to ghost-like hallucinations.[14]
In folklore studies, ghosts fall within the motif index designation E200-E599 ("Ghosts
and other revenants").

Contents

 1Terminology
 2Typology
o 2.1Anthropological context
o 2.2Ghosts and the afterlife
o 2.3Fear of ghosts
 o 2.4Common attributes
o 2.5Locale
 3History
o 3.1Ancient Near East and Egypt
o 3.2Classical Antiquity
 3.2.1Archaic and Classical Greece
 3.2.2Roman Empire and Late Antiquity
o 3.3Middle Ages
o 3.4European Renaissance to Romanticism
o 3.5Modern period of western culture
 3.5.1Spiritualist movement
 3.5.2Spiritism
o 3.6Scientific view
 4By religion
o 4.1Judaism and Christianity
o 4.2Islam
o 4.3Buddhism
 5By culture
o 5.1African folklore
o 5.2European folklore
o 5.3South and Southeast Asia
 5.3.1Indian subcontinent
 5.3.2North India
 5.3.3Bengal and East India
 5.3.4Thailand
 5.3.5Tibet
 5.3.6Austronesia
o 5.4East and Central Asia
 5.4.1China
 5.4.2Japan
o 5.5Americas
 5.5.1Mexico
 5.5.2United States
 6Depiction in the arts
o 6.1Renaissance to Romanticism (1500 to 1840)
o 6.2Victorian/Edwardian (1840 to 1920)
o 6.3Modern era (1920 to 1970)
o 6.4Post-modern (1970–present)
 7Metaphorical usages
 8See also
 9References
o 9.1Bibliography
 10Further reading
 11External links

Terminology
Further information: Spirit, Soul, wikt:anima, Genius (mythology), and Geist
The English word ghost continues Old English gāst, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz. It is
common to West Germanic, but lacking in North Germanic and East Germanic (the
equivalent word in Gothic is ahma, Old Norse has andi m., önd f.). The prior Proto-Indo-
European form was *ǵʰéysd-os, from the root *ǵʰéysd- 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, such as 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, or fuzzy or unsubstantial
image; in optics, photography, and cinematography especially, a flare, secondary
image, or spurious signal.[15]
The synonym spook is a Dutch loanword, akin to Low German spôk (of uncertain
etymology); it entered the English language via American English in the 19th century.[16]
[17][18][19]
 Alternative words in modern usage include spectre (altn. specter; 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,[20] or Latin umbra,[21] 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,[22] and the "haint tale" is a common feature of southern oral and
literary tradition.[23] The term poltergeist is a German word, literally a "noisy ghost", for a
spirit said to manifest itself by invisibly moving and influencing objects. [24]
Wraith is a Scots word for ghost, spectre, or apparition. It appeared in Scottish
Romanticist literature, and acquired the more general or figurative sense
of portent or omen. In 18th- to 19th-century Scottish literature, it also applied to aquatic
spirits. The word has no commonly accepted etymology; the OED notes "of obscure
origin" only.[25] An association with the verb writhe was the etymology favored by J. R. R.
Tolkien.[26] Tolkien's use of the word in the naming of the creatures known as
the Ringwraiths has influenced later usage in fantasy
literature. Bogey[27] or bogy/bogie is a term for a ghost, and appears in Scottish
poet John Mayne's Hallowe'en in 1780.[28][29]
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

Relief from a carved funerary lekythos at Athens showing Hermes as psychopomp conducting the soul of the

deceased, Myrrhine into Hades (ca. 430-420 B.C.)

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.[30] In pre-literate folk religions, these
beliefs are often summarized under animism and ancestor worship. Some people
believe the ghost or spirit never leaves Earth until there is no-one left to remember the
one who died.[31]
In many cultures, malignant, restless ghosts are distinguished from the more benign
spirits involved in ancestor worship.[32]
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,[33] and the custom of binding the dead persists, for example, in
rural Anatolia.[34]
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. [35]
Ghosts and the afterlife
Further information: Soul, 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 believed to

have a continued presence in some form of afterlife, the spirit of a deceased person that
persists in the material world (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 ghosts 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.
  This belief may have also fostered the metaphorical meaning of "breath" in certain
[31]

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 synthesising Adam, as a
living soul, from the dust of the Earth and the breath of God.
In many traditional accounts, ghosts were often thought to be deceased people looking
for vengeance (vengeful ghosts), 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.[36]

Union Cemetery in Easton, Connecticut is home to the legend of the White Lady.

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 a child or husband and a sense of
purity, as opposed to the Lady in Red ghost that is mostly attributed to a jilted lover or
prostitute. The White Lady ghost is often associated with an individual family line or
regarded as a harbinger of death similar to a banshee.[citation needed][needs context]
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.
Ghosts are often depicted as being covered in a shroud and/or dragging chains. [citation needed]
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. However, 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 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 Sumerian cylinder seal impression showing the god Dumuzid being tortured in
the Underworld by galla demons

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.
[37]
 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. [38]

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

There was widespread belief in ghosts in ancient Egyptian culture 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 or ghost of Samuel.
The soul and spirit were believed to exist 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 hieroglyph inscriptions, papyrus scrolls and tomb paintings.
The Egyptian Book of the Dead compiles some of the beliefs from different periods of
ancient Egyptian history.[39] 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.[40]
Classical Antiquity
Further information: Shade (mythology) and Magic in the Greco-Roman world
Archaic and Classical Greece

Apulian red-figure bell krater depicting the ghost of Clytemnestra waking the Erinyes, date unknown

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.[41]
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 else 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."[42]
The 5th-century BC play Oresteia includes an appearance of the ghost of Clytemnestra,
one of the first ghosts to appear in a work of fiction. [43]
Roman Empire and Late Antiquity
Athenodorus  and the Ghost, by Henry Justice Ford, c.1900

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. [44]
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. [45] Another celebrated account of a
haunted house from the ancient classical world is given by Pliny the Younger (c. 50
AD).[46] Pliny describes the haunting of a house in Athens, which was bought by
the Stoic philosopher Athenodorus, who lived about 100 years before Pliny. Knowing
that the house was supposedly haunted, Athenodorus intentionally set up his writing
desk in the room where the apparition was said to appear and sat there writing until late
at night when he was disturbed by a ghost bound in chains. He followed the ghost
outside where it indicated a spot on the ground. When Athenodorus later excavated the
area, a shackled skeleton was unearthed. The haunting ceased when the skeleton was
given a proper reburial.[47] The writers Plautus and Lucian also wrote stories about
haunted houses.
In the New Testament, according to Luke 24:37–39,[48] following
his resurrection, Jesus was forced to persuade the Disciples that he was not a ghost
(some versions of the Bible, such as the KJV and NKJV, use the term "spirit"). Similarly,
Jesus' followers at first believed he was a ghost (spirit) when they saw 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 satirical novel The Lover of Lies (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.[49] 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.[50]
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 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 its mission, while a demonic ghost would be banished at the sound of the Holy
Name.[51]
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.[52]
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.[53]
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.[54]
From the medieval period an apparition of a ghost is recorded from 1211, at the time of
the Albigensian Crusade.[55] 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).[56]
European Renaissance to Romanticism

"Hamlet and his father's ghost" by Henry Fuseli (1796 drawing). The ghost is wearing stylized plate armor in
17th-century style, including a morion type helmet and tassets. Depicting ghosts as wearing armor, 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.[57] 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.[58]
The Child Ballad "Sweet William's Ghost" (1868) recounts the story of a ghost returning
to his fiancée begging her to free him from his promise to marry her. He cannot marry
her because he is dead but 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.[59] "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.
[60]
 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.[61] 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.[62]
Spiritualism developed in the United States and reached its peak growth in membership
from the 1840s to the 1920s, especially in English-language countries.[63][64] By 1897, it
was said to have more than eight million followers in the United States and Europe,
[65]
 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. [66] Many prominent Spiritualists were
women. Most followers supported causes such as the abolition of slavery and women's
suffrage.[63] By the late 1880s, credibility of the informal movement weakened, due to
accusations of fraud among mediums, and formal Spiritualist organizations began to
appear.[63] 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,[67] and others.
Spiritism has adherents in many countries throughout the world, including Spain, United
States, Canada,[68] Japan, Germany, France, England, Argentina, Portugal, and
especially Brazil, which has the largest proportion and greatest number of followers. [69]
Scientific view
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.[70][71]

A 1901 depiction of ball lightning

David Turner, a retired physical chemist, suggested that ball lightning could cause

inanimate objects to move erratically.[72]
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.
[73]
 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,
humidity changes causing boards to creak, condensation in electrical
connections causing intermittent behavior, 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'.[74] 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.[75] Nickell further states, "science cannot substantiate the
existence of a 'life energy' that could survive death without dissipating or function at all
without a brain... why would... clothes survive?'" He asks, if ghosts glide, then why do
people claim to hear them with "heavy footfalls"? Nickell says that ghosts act the same
way as "dreams, memories, and imaginings, because they too are mental creations.
They are evidence - not of another world, but of this real and natural one." [76]
Benjamin Radford from the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and author of the 2017
book Investigating Ghosts: The Scientific Search for Spirits writes that "ghost hunting is
the world's most popular paranormal pursuit" yet, to date ghost hunters can't agree on
what a ghost is, or offer proof that they exist "it's all speculation and guesswork". He
writes that it would be "useful and important to distinguish between types of spirits and
apparitions. Until then it's merely a parlor game distracting amateur ghost hunters from
the task at hand."[77]
According to research in anomalistic psychology visions of ghosts may arise
from hypnagogic hallucinations ("waking dreams" experienced in the transitional states
to and from sleep).[78] In a study of two experiments into alleged hauntings (Wiseman et
al. 2003) came to the conclusion "that people consistently report unusual experiences in
'haunted' areas because of environmental factors, which may differ across locations."
Some of these factors included "the variance of local magnetic fields, size of location
and lighting level stimuli of which witnesses may not be consciously aware". [79]
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. [80] 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. [81] Carbon
monoxide poisoning, which can cause changes in perception of the visual and auditory
systems,[82] was speculated upon as a possible explanation for haunted houses as early
as 1921.
People who experience sleep paralysis often report seeing ghosts during their
experiences. Neuroscientists Baland Jalal and V.S. Ramachandran have recently
proposed neurological theories for why people hallucinate ghosts during sleep paralysis.
Their theories emphasize the role of the parietal lobe and mirror neurons in triggering
such ghostly hallucinations.[83]

By religion
Judaism and Christianity
See also: Allhallowtide and Dybbuk
Witch of Endor by Nikolai Ge, depicting King Saul encountering the ghost of Samuel (1857)

The Hebrew Bible contains several references to owb (Hebrew: ‫)אֹוב‬, which are in a few

places akin to shades of classical mythology but mostly describing mediums in
connection with necromancy and spirit-consulting, which are grouped with witchcraft
and other forms of divination under the category of forbidden occult activities.[84] The
most notable reference to a shade is in the First Book of Samuel,[85] in which a
disguised King Saul has the Witch of Endor conduct a seance to summon the dead
prophet Samuel. A similar term appearing throughout the scriptures
is repha'(im) (Hebrew: ‫)רפָ אִ ים‬,
ְ which while describing the race of "giants" formerly
inhabiting Canaan in many verses, also refer to (the spirits of) dead ancestors
of Sheol (like shades) in many others such as in the Book of Isaiah.[86]
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 he is a ghost
(spirit) when they see him walking on water.[87]
Some Christian denominations[which?] consider ghosts as beings who while tied to earth, no
longer live on the material plane and linger in an intermediate state before continuing
their journey to heaven.[88][89][90][91] On occasion, God would allow the souls in this state to
return to earth to warn the living of the need for repentance.[92] Christians are taught that
it is sinful to attempt to conjure or control spirits in accordance with Deuteronomy XVIII:
9–12.[93][94]
Some ghosts are actually said to be demons in disguise, 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."[95] 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.[96] The Seventh-Day Adventist
view is that a "soul" is not equivalent to "spirit" or "ghost" (depending on the Bible
version), and that save for the Holy Spirit, all spirits or ghosts are demons in disguise.
Furthermore, they teach that in accordance with (Genesis 2:7, Ecclesiastes 12:7), there
are only two components to a "soul", neither of which survives death, with each
returning to its respective source.
Christadelphians and Jehovah's Witnesses reject the view of a living, conscious soul
after death.[97]
Jewish mythology and folkloric traditions describe dybbuks, malicious possessing spirits
believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person. However, the term does not appear
in the Kabbalah or talmudic literature, where it is rather called an "evil spirit" or ru'aḥ
tezazit ("unclean spirit" in the New Testament). It supposedly leaves the host body once
it has accomplished its goal, sometimes after being helped.[98][99][100]
Islam
According to Islam, the souls of the deceased dwell in barzakh and while it is only a
barrier in Quran, in Islamic tradition the world, especially cemeteries, are perforated with
several gateways to the otherworld.[101] In rare occasions, the dead can appear to the
living.[102] Pure souls, such as the souls of saints, are commonly addressed as rūḥ, while
impure souls seeking for revenge, are often addressed as afarit.[103] An
inappropriate burial can also cause a soul to stay in this world, whereupon roaming the
earth as a ghost. Since the just souls remain close to their tomb, some people try to
communicate with them in order to gain hidden knowledge. Contact with the dead is not
the same as contact with jinn, who alike could provide knowledge concealed from living
human.[104] Many encounters with ghosts are related to dreams supposed to occur in
the realm of symbols.
In contrast to traditional Islamic thought, Salafi scholars state that spirits of the dead are
unable to return to or make any contact with the world of the living, [105] and ghost
sightings are attributed to the Salafi concept of jinn.
Buddhism
In Buddhism, there are a number of planes of existence into which a person can
be reborn, one of which is the realm of hungry ghosts.[106] Buddhist celebrate the Ghost
Festival[107] as an expression of compassion, one of Buddhist virtues. If the hungry ghosts
are fed by non-relatives, they would not bother the community.

By culture
African folklore
For the Igbo people, a man is simultaneously a physical and spiritual entity. However, it
is his spirited dimension that is eternal.[108] In the Akan conception, we witness five parts
of the human personality. We have the Nipadua (body), the Okra (soul), Sunsum (spirit),
Ntoro (character from father), Mogya (character from mother). [108] The Humr people of
southwestern Kordofan, Sudan consume the drink Umm Nyolokh, which is prepared
from the liver and bone marrow of giraffes. Richard Rudgley [109] hypothesises that Umm
Nyolokh may contain DMT and certain online websites further theorise that giraffe liver
might owe its putative psychoactivity to substances derived from psychoactive plants,
such as Acacia spp. consumed by the animal. The drink is said to cause hallucinations
of giraffes, believed by the Humr to be the ghosts of giraffes. [110][111]
European folklore
Further information: Revenant, Necromancy, and Samhain
Macbeth Seeing the Ghost of  Banquo by Théodore Chassériau

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. In Scandinavian and Finnish tradition, ghosts appear in corporeal
form, and their supernatural nature is given away by behavior rather than appearance.
In fact, in many stories they are first mistaken for the living. They may be mute, appear
and disappear suddenly, or leave no footprints or other traces.
English 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.[citation needed] In the 19th century, spiritism resurrected "belief in
ghosts" as the object of systematic inquiry, and popular opinion in Western
culture remains divided.[112]
South and Southeast Asia
Indian subcontinent
Main articles: Bhoot (ghost) and Ghosts in Bengali culture

ू , Gujarati: ભ ૂત, Urdu: ‫بهوت‬, Bengali: ভূ ত, Odia: ଭୂତ) is a

A bhoot or bhut (Hindi: भत
supernatural creature, usually the ghost of a deceased person, in the popular culture,
literature and some ancient texts of the Indian subcontinent.
North India
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. [113]
In Central and Northern India, ojha or 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
too, and that to a headless spirit 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 one 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.
Bengal and East India
There are many kinds of ghosts and similar supernatural entities that frequently come
up in Bengali culture, its folklores and form an important part in Bengali peoples' socio-
cultural beliefs and superstitions. It is believed that the spirits of those who cannot find
peace in the afterlife or die unnatural deaths remain on Earth. The word Pret (from
Sanskrit) is also used in Bengali to mean ghost. In Bengal, ghosts are believed to be the
spirit after death of an unsatisfied human being or a soul of a person who dies in
unnatural or abnormal circumstances (like murder, suicide or accident). Even it is
believed that other animals and creatures can also be turned into ghost after their
death.
Thailand
Main article: Ghosts in Thai culture

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 orally
transmitted traditional stories. Therefore, most of the contemporary iconography of
ghosts such as Nang Tani, Nang Takian,[114] Krasue, Krahang,[115] Phi Hua Kat, Phi
Pop, Phi Phong, Phi Phraya, and Mae Nak has its origins in Thai films that have now
become classics.[116][117] The most feared spirit in Thailand is Phi Tai Hong, the ghost of a
person who has died suddenly of a violent death. [118] 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,[119] 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: 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.
Austronesia
Main articles: Malay ghost myths, Ghosts in Filipino culture, and Ghosts in Polynesian
culture

Spirit of the Dead Watching by Paul Gauguin (1892)

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. [120]
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." [121]
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 southeast 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 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.[citation needed]
Japan

Utagawa Kuniyoshi, The Ghosts, c. 1850

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.
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, Shadow people, and Ghost
hunting
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.[122] A 2005 Gallup poll found that about 32 percent of Americans believe in ghosts.
[123]

Depiction in the arts

Main articles: Ghost story and List of ghost films
The Phantom on the Terrace from Shakespeare's Hamlet (engraving by Eugène Delacroix, 1843)

John Dee and Edward Kelley invoking the spirit of a deceased person (engraving from

the Astrology by Ebenezer Sibly, 1806)

Ghosts are prominent in story-telling of various nations. The ghost story is ubiquitous

across all cultures from oral folktales to works of literature. While ghost stories are often
explicitly meant to be scary, they have been written to serve all sorts of purposes, from
comedy to morality tales. Ghosts often appear in the narrative as sentinels
or prophets of things to come. Belief in ghosts is found in all cultures around the world,
and thus ghost stories may be passed down orally or in written form. [124]
Spirits of the dead appear in literature as early as Homer's Odyssey, which features a
journey to the underworld and the hero encountering the ghosts of the dead, [124] and
the Old Testament, in which the Witch of Endor summons the spirit of the
prophet Samuel.[124]
Renaissance to Romanticism (1500 to 1840)
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 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. [125] 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'." [126]
Victorian/Edwardian (1840 to 1920)

Ghost of Christmas Present from Charles Dickens' novella A Christmas Carol (1843)

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...". [127] One of the
key early appearances by ghosts was The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole in
1764, considered to be the first gothic novel.[124][128][129]
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.
Modern era (1920 to 1970)

Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, a claimed ghost photograph by Captain Hubert C. Provand. First published
in Country Life magazine, 1936

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). The writer Frank Edwards delved into ghost stories in
his books of his, like Stranger than Science.
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.
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.[129]
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.[129] Genuine psychological horror films from this
period include 1944's The Uninvited, and 1945's Dead of Night.
Post-modern (1970–present)
See also: List of ghost films
Further information: List of ghosts §  Popular culture, and Category:Fictional ghosts
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.[130] 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.[129]
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.[131] 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.[132]
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 the Friendly Ghost, Danny Phantom, and Scooby-Doo.
Various other television shows have depicted ghosts as well.

Metaphorical usages
Nietzsche argued that people generally wear prudent masks in company, but that an
alternative strategy for social interaction is to present oneself as an absence, as a social
ghost – "One reaches out for us but gets no hold of us" [133] – a sentiment later echoed (if
in a less positive way) by Carl Jung.[134]
Nick Harkaway has considered that all people carry a host of ghosts in their heads in
the form of impressions of past acquaintances – ghosts who represent mental maps of
other people in the world and serve as philosophical reference points. [135]
Object relations theory sees human personalities as formed by splitting off aspects of
the person that he or she deems incompatible, whereupon the person may be haunted
in later life by such ghosts of his or her alternate selves. [136]
The sense of ghosts as invisible, mysterious entities is invoked in several terms that use
the word metaphorically, such as ghostwriter (a writer who pens texts credited to
another person without revealing the ghostwriter's role as an author); ghost singer (a
vocalist who records songs whose vocals are credited to another person);
and "ghosting" a date (when a person breaks off contact with a former romantic partner
and disappears).