Angels and Demons

DEMONS
ANGELS & GHOSTS

Between Life and Death
David J. Marsden & Martyn Carruthers, May 2003

You're Dead Right!
You can talk to ghosts. You can ask them about how they
exist, and why, and where they go next, and why not. You can
enquire into their values and beliefs, into their perception of
justice and love, and into their awareness of relationships.
(You may ask about hidden treasures, but rich ghosts seem to
be as rare as rich people.)

What are ghosts? ... Let's ask Encyclopedia Britannica ...

Ghost: soul or specter of a dead person, usually believed to
inhabit the netherworld and to be capable of returning in some
form to the world of the living. According to descriptions or
depictions provided by believers, a ghost may appear as a
living being or as a nebulous likeness of the deceased and,
occasionally, in other forms. Belief in ghosts is based on the
ancient notion that a human spirit is separable from the body
and may maintain its existence after the body's death. In many
societies, funeral rituals are believed to prevent the ghost from
haunting the living. Encyclopedia Britannica

Relativity
You probably have about 10 - 30 living relatives that you know
about. How many dead relatives do you have? Let's say 10 -
30 million, depending on how far back you consider your
ancestors to be human. Your more recent ancestors - in the
last half-million years - were much like you - and at least as
smart. They lived, they had children and they died, and, where
are they now?

As you might expect, most ghosts are - or were - ordinary
people. They rarely have profound revelations. They may be
peaceful and relaxed and supportive of their descendents. Or
they may be depressed and obsessed, sometimes taking the
concept of "tunnel vision" to an extreme.

(David) As a retired psychotherapist, I had many living clients.
Many times I had clients who could not speak Canadian, and
we had to work through a translator. Lately I have had dead
clients, and we had to work through a trance-later.

(Martyn) Ghosts and ghost stories help explain and resolve
relationship problems that transcend life and death. Whether
you call them ghosts or imagination, they offer useful ways to
research and increase the dynamic and systemic harmony that
gives sense to our lives.

Everybody wants to go to Heaven - but nobody wants to die
In societies that are scared to death of dying, ghosts can be
treated badly. In societies that accept death as an integral part
of living, ghosts can be treated well. Many Catholic cultures
honor the dead on special days, and light candles for them.
Many Asians assume that family ghosts can be helpful and
friendly, and regularly offer them prayers, incense and food.
(This might be called schizophrenia in our intellectual West ...)

The Living Dead or Undead
The ghosts that we meet are often "stuck" between two time
zones - between that of the living and the that of the dead.
Ghosts usually have the following qualities:

1. Ghosts are dead people
(David) If this seems obvious - slow down. Some people who
are still living have fully dissociated their "selves" - which may
act as free agents. I remember a university professor - I knew
him for years and I can't say I that ever met him. I met a very
intellectual and logical "mind" - but I don't recall any sense of
shared humanity. Ever. Where was his self? I thought that he
haunted a classroom - while still living.

(Martyn) A human body may die unpleasantly. In my
experience, pain wasn't much of an issue for ghosts - suffering
was. The suffering of being abandoned or deserted by family
or friends, the suffering of living life for an ideal which turned
out to be hollow. The suffering of watching children and friends
die. Many ghosts communicated that a painful end makes it
easier to accept death; while dying in one's sleep or under the
influence of psychoactive drugs might cause confusion after
death
2. Ghosts are disoriented
(David) Some of the most disoriented ghosts that I have
interviewed were the ghosts of murderers and suicides. They
may describe horrible fantasies - but not deathly realities.
Often these ghosts communicated that murder or suicide
seemed to be an "easy way out" of some problem. It's wasn't.

(Martyn) Most ghosts seem to be confused. Many do not know
that their bodies have died. They do not know what year it is,
or what their body-name was. Some ghosts seem senile - they
don't like where they are and they try to cling to somebody.
Other ghosts are much like people with PTSD (post-traumatic
stress disorder), which seems to makes sense. I'm sure that
dying can be traumatic.

3. Ghosts do not know that time has passed
(David) A ghost may be unwilling to even consider that time
has passed. It may cling to a fixed idea that in any moment he
or she will "wake up" or "be forgiven" or that it will "complete"
something important that it was doing when the body died.

(Martyn) A ghost may be frozen in time. One year or a
hundred years - there may be little or no difference. A ghost
may say that it is waiting for someone to return, or waiting for
some specific thing to happen - so that it can move on.

4. Ghosts may not know that their bodies have died
(David) Many ghosts seem to be stuck in time warps at the
time of their death, and, if time "stopped" before the moment of
death, then the ghost may be convinced that it is still alive. A
ghost may also believe that it was abandoned or betrayed.

(Martyn) A ghost might be shocked to find that it has no living
body. A ghost may call you crazy, stupid or misinformed. "How
can I be dead? Are you crazy? I am here ...!" This confusion
seems more likely if a person died in their sleep or under the
influence of psychotropic drugs. If a ghost has no memory of
dying - how can a ghost know that he or she has died?

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