What's in a Ghost? by AnthonyT

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

What's in a Ghost?

POSTED BY: ANTHONYT
UPDATED: Wednesday, August 25, 2010 00:12
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VIEWED: 461
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Tuesday, August 24, 2010 3:40 PM

Freedom is Important because People are Important

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/24/pennsylvania.graves.mystery/index.
html?iref=NS1

Hello,

This story caught my imagination, and it got me thinking about the ghost sighting that inspired the expedition.

Shortly after a bunch of bodies were buried, a man claims to have seen colored forms dancing at the site. Was he just superstitious to the point of self-delusion? Was he feeling guity somehow due to special knowledge of the deaths, and suffering from telltale-heart syndrome?

Or did he really see ghostly illuminated forms at the grave site?

I'm not quite suggesting that ghosts are real, although I can't prove they aren't. However, I wonder if the man didn't really see what he said he saw. Is there a scientific explanation for such a sighting? Could the gas from the decomposing bodies have become a charged plasma under the right conditions? A willow-the-wisp of atmospheric physics? A ball-lightning? Some other atmospheric anomaly?

What do you think?

--Anthony

Due to the use of Naomi 3.3.2 Beta web filtering, the following people may need to private-message me if they wish to contact me: Auraptor, Kaneman, Piratenews. I apologize for the inconvenience.

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Tuesday, August 24, 2010 4:31 PM

HKCAVALIER

Hey Anthony,

If we allow that consciousness precedes essence (I know, that's a big "if"), then the quandary is cleared up handily. If consciousness exists beyond specific physical bounds, then it's likely that some aspect of the consciousness surrounding the dead Irishmen yet lingered near the place they were so violently killed and was available to the consciousness of the passing witness as a psychic residue of some kind.

In general, ghosts are said to arise after dying in particularly horrific circumstances. Obviously, if ghosts exist, then the vast majority of deaths, typical, run-of-the-mill fatalities do not produce them.

If I were to say, "Think of pink elephants" your mind would likely move in that direction. We're very suggestible that way. If, in your story, some sort of ambient consciousness were to say, "Think of dead Irishmen" then the witness would likely do so, in one form or another, as fit the temper of his own psyche.

Artists are entirely familiar with this sort of thing. The block of marble tells Michelangelo what's inside. We tend to assume that such language is pure metaphor. But to any working artist, it just isn't--it's as reliable as a wristwatch. Artists get all sorts of detailed information from somewhere and do their best to transcribe it. Geniuses in all ages have gotten some of their most important pieces of information in visions and dreams and report being instructed by incorporeal mentors. Descartes conversed with angels on a semi-regular basis.

Seems entirely reasonable, operating from such a premise, that random non-artist, non-genius folk might get information, strange compelling and ultimately relevant information from strange, seemingly insubstantial sources.

And just as artists know perfectly well you can scare "the muse" away with too much reason, too much analysis, too much attempting to control the process, so too, these ambient consciousnesses are "shy" or "subtle" and easily dismissed by inexperienced or unsympathetic observers.

If however, consciousness is bound by brain matter and bodily death snuffs out the light of awareness utterly...I got nothing. And, I dare say, neither does anyone else. The world must therefore be full of astronomically unlikely coincidences which harbor no greater meaning nor message than "shit happens."

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

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Tuesday, August 24, 2010 7:56 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Quote:
Originally posted by HKCavalier:
The world must therefore be full of astronomically unlikely coincidences which harbor no greater meaning nor message than "shit happens."

But then, maybe that *IS* the greater meaning and message, hmmm ?

Actually I think most immediate-after phenomenae are more like a spiritual echo than anything else.

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Wednesday, August 25, 2010 12:12 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

I don't believe in ghosts.

But if they're real, then there's nothing to fear. We'll all become ghosts, in the end.

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