Existence Of Ghosts In Culture And Folklore - Research Paper Example

Existence Of Ghosts In Culture And Folklore Outline Thesis: Ghosts do not exist in actuality but the media, literature and superstitious people have given ghosts an existence. Introduction I. Ghosts do not exist II. The portrayal of ghosts in movies, books, plays and other sources has enforced their existence III. Ghosts are said to be of many types IV. They are informed to be troublesome souls, demons, poltergeists and apparitions What are Ghosts? I. Definition of ghosts II. People afterlife change into ghosts III. They are found in lonely places IV. They are said to haunt people and places V. Culture and folklore also enforce the existence of ghosts Portrayal of Ghosts in Media and Literature I. Media’s portrayal of ghosts II. Literature’s portrayal of ghosts Scientists’ Views regarding Ghosts I. Ghosts and haunting effects can be felt because of geomagnetic activity II. People view ghosts because of their own perceptions III. There is no proved existence of ghosts Conclusion Ghosts do not have an existence in actuality. Ghost stories are interesting to hear and read but a true experience is not good. There is no specific proof of the existence of ghosts. Media and literature portray ghosts as dangerous beings that are troublesome for humankind. People are able to visualize ghosts because of their own perceptions and feelings regarding ghosts. Further research is needed for proofs regarding the existence of ghosts Ghosts Introduction Ghosts do not exist in actuality but the media, literature and superstitious people have given ghosts an existence. Ghosts are portrayed as existing beings in movies, books, stories, plays and other readable and viewable sources. The portrayal of ghosts in media and literature is sometimes frightening and sometimes good-natured. Although in actuality, there are no solid proofs of existence of ghosts (Cavendish 1994). Ghosts are not of any one type but of many types. They are known as apparitions, died human souls, demons and poltergeists. The representation of ghosts by the media and literature is bothersome. The media and literature has enforced the presence of ghosts as real but there are no proofs about the presence of ghosts. People inform about seeing ghosts with their own eyes and hearing ghostly voices, but scientists negate all these proofs, as, they have conducted experiments showing that there are no ghostly appearances. Scientists negate the presence of ghosts. What are Ghosts? Ghost can be defined as a spirit, which is deprived of its body or physical state or a human being who has died (Cavendish 1994). According to the Danelek, ghosts are humans (2006). He further describes ghosts as “disembodied conscious energy…of a once living person” (Danelek 2006). Ghosts are also considered as evil spirits that contain the power of attacking and killing but this notion has been made famous by means of literature and media (Fontana 2005). Ghosts usually are considered as the souls of dead people but many people also consider demons and satanic appearances as ghosts. Ghosts are also considered as dead people who have transformed into ghosts after being dead (Cavendish 1994). These ghosts are regarded as unable to reach the second stage, one stage is of existence while other is afterlife, which these ghosts fail to achieve because they do not realize that they are dead and deprived of their physical status (Fontana 2005). According to Brown, our spirits are encaged into our physical being that evolve into ghosts after leaving the physical form (1991). According to the concept of afterlife that ghosts are the souls that are trapped on Earth on the basis of their unnatural death or some inexplicable occurrence, Fontana (2005) explains that there is an afterlife and human beings after dying lead it but only those souls are unable to leave earth who are unable to obtain a serene hereafter. Fontana informs that these ghosts can become a problem for the dwellers of earth because of their own unnatural death and restless afterlife (2005). Ghosts are reported to be living in lonely places and haunt them. People going to places that are lonely often feel paranormal effects due to which, they feel the existence of ghosts. Ghosts are said to be residing in places, which are far away from human populations (Brown 1991). Ghosts are said to haunt people and places. After transforming into ghosts, they get power through which, they are able to do certain tasks that is not possible with their physical state (Fontana 2005). Different cultures of the world give prominence to ghostly appearances and feel that the presence of ghosts is not a lie and that they exist. Not all cultures but many speak in support of ghostly appearances such as in Japanese, Chinese and Bengali culture and folklore, ghost figures are present (Fontana 2005). Cultures play a vital part in constructing views about presence of ghosts and in cultures, folklore and tales play a crucial part in defining ghosts (Hole 1950). Portrayal of Ghosts in Media and Literature In movies, plays and other programs on television and cinema, we see different kinds of ghosts. The ghosts that are shown in movies are mostly horrifying. From the frightening movies, it looks as if there are any ghosts; they are very troublesome and upsetting. In real lives, people do not describe about such ghosts (Brown 1991). They describe paranormal situations that they face or feel but never do they indicate towards some ghost they see killing and horrifying the dwellers of a place. Due to the images and ghostly figures that are employed by media personnel on the television and other mediums, people visualize ghosts as highly scary and terrifying objects (Cavendish 1994). The apparitions and human souls that are depicted on media are translucent bodies that can be seen by people (Hole 1950). Many movies and films are made on the topic of ghosts such as The Ghost and Mrs. Muir in 1947, The Uninvited in 1944, Dead of Night in 1945, Casper, the friendly ghost and so on (Brown 1991). Most of these movies indicate towards ghosts are terrifying creatures except Casper the friendly ghost, which is a cartoon movie for children. In literature, the concept of ghosts is used in many literary works such as Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, ‘Macbeth’, ‘A Christmas Carol’ and so on. In all the exampled literary works, ghosts have been shown as the spirits of dead people. In Hamlet, his father’s ghost comes to inform Hamlet about his conspired death. In Macbeth too, Banquo’s ghost comes after he dies, so, his ghost is also a spirit. In Christmas Carol, there are various spirits, so all these works indicate towards ghosts as spirits of dead people. Hence, it is quite clear that media and literature play a significant part in constructing an opinion about the existence of ghosts. In actuality, ghosts cannot be seen in normal life and people’s reporting pertaining being eyewitness of ghosts can be regarded as a self-perceived visualization, which can be created by means of environmental disturbance, or changing earth conditions (Martin 2004). Scientists’ Views regarding Ghosts Scientists and researchers keep different perceptions about existence of ghosts. There are many scientists who believe that ghosts have no existence at all and it is only based on people’s perceptions that they ghosts with their eyes or listen their voices. On the other hand, scientists also feel that human beings can listen to voices that look paranormal on the basis of infrasound problem (Martin 2004). People are unable to listen to the voices that are less than 20 Hz or more than 20,000 Hz but according to the scientists, when the voices that people cannot hear are present in surroundings, people feel disturbed and paranoid due to which, they relate this disturbance and anxiety to the ghostly presence (Brown 1991). Scientists inform that people can feel haunting effects in a place because of the geomagnetic activities that take place in the earth’s atmosphere (Brown 1991). This is due to this fact that people can see images and hear voices that look paranormal. According to the scientists, there is no truth in the presence of ghosts. According to psychologists, human beings are able to see the ghosts or feel them when they are themselves perceiving them to be there (Martin 2004). From this statement, they mean that human beings do not see any ghosts or listen to any ghostly voices in actuality but it is only their perceptions due to their physical or mental disturbance. Researchers believe that ghosts do not exist in actuality and if people see the ghosts or listen to them, it is only based on their psychological disturbance of some other problem that they face. For example, if a girl has lost her father and her father has died. She can think of her father continuously and due to this continuous thought process, she can perceive her father’s ghost to be in front of her when in originality, there is no one there. So, the existence of ghosts is also based on perceptions of people. Wholesomely, it is reported that human beings are able to feel some ghostly existence on the basis of changing earth conditions such as air pressure, light phenomena, increased windy weather, voices beyond the level of human listening and geomagnetism (Brown 1991). Scientists do not accept the presence of ghosts and try to reveal the truth by means of experiments related to the topic. However, for this perception that there are no ghosts, there is no authentic and reliable proof as the research in this area is somehow lacking. Conclusion In general, people keep different perceptions regarding ghosts and their existence. They read ghost stories, read books with ghostly images and visualizations. Ghost stories are interesting to hear and read but a true experience is not good. Ghosts do not have an existence in actuality, as there is no authentic and reliable proof related to the existence of ghosts. Media and literature portray ghosts differently. Movies, dramas and other media depict ghosts as dangerous creatures, which keep the power of annihilating humans. These kinds of representations of ghosts are troublesome as people keep scary images and frightening voices in their mind regarding ghosts. People visualize ghosts according to their own perceptions and feelings regarding ghosts (Hole 1950). Scientists negate the presence of ghosts. For them, it is only because of environmental affects and earthly changes due to which, people are disturbed with the feelings of ghostly appearances. Scientists present scientific reasons for absence of any ghostly creatures on earth. Further research is required in this area because this area is still deprived of authentic and reliable research content. The existence of ghosts on earth is just a fictitious idea and cannot be regarded as true. Works Cited Brown, Donald. Human Universals. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991. Cavendish, Richard. The World of Ghosts and the Supernatural. Basingstoke: Waymark Publications, 1994. Danelek, J. Allen. What is a Ghost? Llewellyn Journal 10 (2006). Also available at http://www.llewellynjournal.com/article/1262 Fontana, David. Is There an Afterlife: A Comprehensive Review of the Evidence. Hants, UK: O Books, 2005. Hole, Christina. Haunted England. London: Batsford, 1950. Martin, Michael. Ghosts. Capstone Press, 2004. Read More