Why are we so Scared of Ghosts?

this may not apply to everyone, but it seems that a large number of people on Earth are affraid of these visitors, Ghosts. I really dont see why people can be so affraid of them, I have to admit that I have a fear of ghosts, but I think this comes from my natural fear of the dark.

It seems stupid to fear ghosts, some of them could be our dead relatives, famous people, even pets (or so I have heard).

I believe this fear of Ghosts comes from our natural fear of the 'Unknown', We see ghosts but know little to nothing of where they come from, what they are made of ect, I think this is what really puts the hairs on the back of our necks stand up. We are affraid of things because we know nothing about them. This is just my theory though, I will leave everyone to discuss.

Opulisum.

Well, since we're children we are subjected to ghosts in a context which makes them scary.

Be it here, on TV with such cartoons as "Scooby Doo." Or in West Papuan tribes in their superstition that ghosts can be malevolent.
It's just something that has been inbuilt for a very, very long time.

Most adults are NOT scared of ghosts, if they see something ghostlike and act scared, it is really more shock than fear. They grew up thinking they weren't real.

Others grow older and decide they are real, and therefore don't fear them either.

reply to post by Dinnj



Exactly what i think.

As i said in another thread on here.......Scooby Doo has a lot to answer for!

Good question Opulism. I can stand here now and say that i am not scared of ghosts, in that i don't think i am. Same for the dark, not fussed at all.

However put them together, like the other night when i was doing a ghosthunt with my daughter in a local cemetary, and i just wished i'd brought more underwear!

What a difference once dark set in. The hairs were up on my arms and neck, there was a constant "fear" feeling of some kind. I can't explain it at all.

As i say to my kids, it's not the dead you should be scared of, it's the living. (Not sure that helps the kids lol, but you get my drift!)

So why do i feel fear when i am in a situation where i believe i may encounter a spirit?

Actualy, whilst i'm typing this and thinking at the same time (multi-tasking man....takes a bow!)....i'm putting my money on it's the dark that does it. The not being able to see. The taking away of a sense maybe?

The cemetary i felt this fear in the other night, is one i have walked through thousands of times during the day without a thought. It is a place where i can actualy find great peace by sitting in it. yet when it gets dark, it transforms into the scariest place on the planet for me!

CX.

Talking of me freaking my kids out, i had to post this funny Peter Kay advert.......maybe it's our parents that instill fear into us!?

John Smiths ad "Monsters"

CX.

It's not just the dark, though I'll admit that does have an effect.

It can be a variety of things really. Sometimes its not knowing the entity's intentions, sometimes it is. I remember I was with a couple of friends and we were having a sleepover in a buddy's basement. Playing video games and drinking pop into the early hours of the morning sorta thing.

Nothing really happened until we turned everything off and decided that it was time to get a few hours of sleep before daylight. I went to turn the lights off and had to turn and walk towards the dark stairs that went upwards into the rest of the house.
I didn't take two steps until I knew that something had decided to crash that party, and that it wasn't so friendly. Whatever it was hit me like a ton of bricks, and I just stopped dead.

The lights weren't off, and the room was very well illuminated, but all the same something was there and we were scared. I wasn't the only one that felt that hostility either. Any sort of movement towards that end of the room resulted in getting that feeling at a deep, deep level.

It isn't all to be blamed on the dark.

Yes, I have had a friend that swears his house is haunted by a ghost.
He isn't the type of person to be easily scared and he's had more than one encounter with it.
When he's told me about some of the situations the thing's put him in, I've seen his hair all stand up on end just reiterating the story to me.
Very believable.
I think it's the fact that the thing can be right behind him whenever it wants to be, that scares him.

Personally, I don't know if ghosts exist. I don't really doubt that anything "could" exist, I've had a few episodes here and there with "unexplained" stuff, but nothing which has solidified my beliefs. Anyway, I'm "afraid" of ghosts, because I think they might have been human at one point. Now, this might sound pessimistic, but how many people are actually good-hearted on this planet? So imagine a human who doesn't fear death, isn't alive, can sneak up on you in the dark or light, cannot be harmed physically, and may still be a very evil person. Sure, not all ghosts should be feared I guess, but if you think about how many people you'd trust, I'm pretty sure you can correlate that to how many ghosts you could trust. For me, that's not too many of either.

P.S.: Opulisum, awesome Cell avatar. Go DBZ!

I went on a ghost tour of a supposedly haunted orphanage last year. Terrible things were said to have taken place in the orphanage. Before I went inside, I was scared silly, but very skeptical that there were actually ghosts haunting the place.

Then something weird happened.

Once inside, it became evident that there was some weird stuff going on. Images appeared on my digital camera that were inexplicable. A chain began moving on it's own. Other people took photos with odd anomalies as well.

By the time I left, I was convinced that the place was really haunted, but I had no fear at all. The "ghosts" inside seemed as friendly as baby kittens. Even the supposed nasty ghost women left everybody alone when the host of the tour yelled at her.

I don't know how I'd feel if I actually saw one but two different people described seeing the same ghost (an elderly woman in a blue dress walking through the kitchen) in my house. One of the two refused to ever set foot inside again, the other didn't seem too bothered by it. The two occurances happened several months apart and to my knowledge neither of them knew the other, which led me to believe that they were sincere.

I would have thought I might feel odd about hearing these claims but strangely enough, it actually didnt concern me much. I never did see anything unusual in the nearly ten years I had that house. I kind of figured I would see her sooner or later but no luck.

CX, when you say if it's the dark that has an effect, you are also right to say that you fear the living more than the dark.

The cognitive thinking process of "I might encounter a harmful spirit," can not be so easily discerned from "I might encounter a dangerous person."

Which is why people that say "I am NOT scared of the dark," may not be scared as such, but they will always be on a constant lookout for danger.

I do not believe in ghosts. If I were out "Ghost hunting," would I be scared?
Yes. I probably would be, me and my brother walking around some abandoned factory in the middle of the night with a torch, would be scary.

Cause subconsciously it's HARDWIRED that in the dark, in an unfamiliar place is dangerous.

This is clever, as it turned out the factory we were in is lived in by shady homeless people from time to time, not to mention the drug users/meetings.
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"Now, this might sound pessimistic, but how many people are actually good-hearted on this planet?"

Well Dragonfire, it depends what you mean by "Good hearted", and yes, it does sound cynical, because emotions, greed, hate, revenge, are all fuelled by the same thing that also allows to feel love, care, loss.

If it were not for anger and fear, the world would be a much worse place.
Take for example, a man is going to shoot another man's wife.

The victim male in question would show an afraid, angry look on his face, what this does is act as a warning towards the offender and offers an outlook of the CONSEQUENCES of a bad action. If the man shoots the woman, the victim's husband would truly act in an angry way, possible even killing the man.

Hate, anger, fear, grief. All act as deterrents for bad actions. Hate - You killed my friend.

Anger - Stop stealing my food.

Fear - You'll have to deal with killing a woman.

Grief - Warning for others not to die, see the pain it would cause.

Now, I've rambled a bit, (A lot,) but if it can help change someone's outlook on people in general, it was well worth the 2128 character count.

By good hearted I meant, people who don't mug, rape, rob, murder, discriminate, belittle, etc. other people. Basically, we're all jerks in one way or another, it's human nature. I know what you mean about feelings being interconnected. I agree. My point is, the average individual doesn't take other people into consideration, we can't there are just too many people for us to fathom that we're all special snowflakes. I feel that people do what they want to do, because they can not if they should or shouldn't, generally speaking.

Now, if a ghost was a person who died, then the limitations on their ability are released, as far as mortality goes. I feel mortality is what makes us fall into "good" actions, we all realize we'll die and then based on your religion and beliefs different endings may occur. If we go passed that point, and it ends up your a ghost and trapped on Earth, I think that it might push you over the edge a bit as where is god or silence or any release. In my opinion, I feel that the apparitions people see, if they were once people, are confused/angry/frustrated/evil and sometimes possibly benign. If they're benign, they'll probably ignore you and go about their business. People, as in the above posts, feel that something might be wrong when confronting these aparitions, they don't come away saying they felt totally safe, atleast not from what I've seen and heard. Now once again I haven't concretely experienced ghosts before, so I don't know the emotional response. It would help my judgements.

In your example with the man and wife, hate doesn't solve anything for the victim. If he kills the other man then he's going to hate himself for his life, and miss his wife, and he is affecting the lives of the killer's family. True, it's instinct to feel anger, hate, etc. That doesn't make it good. It merely begets more violence. Now I've said this to my friends, and it always irritates them, but it is how I feel so here goes. You have to forgive everyone, for through forgiveness we find peace. Doesn't matter if it's Hitler or Ghandi. We all make bad decision, some worse than others, but ultimately the only way to change this world is to forgive and recognize that anger, hate, frustration, etc. all inevitably cause damage regardless of motive. Life sucks, why get mad?

Thanks for the reply Dinnj, now I've blabbered on for enough. Peace Out.

Yeah, and I appreciate the thanks also, what you say holds some truth.

However, I know that you should forgive and forget AFTER an event has happened, but the reason we show our anger on our face is as a DETERRENT for conflicting actions.

Even if he doesn't go ahead and kill the murderer of his wife afterwards, showing his anger on his face beforehand would have acted as a partial deterrent for the murderer takig his actions.

Before a negative action has commenced, therefore, even anger is a good thing.

You are right, however, in saying that afterwards, it should not be dwelt upon.

Thanks for the post.

Guess its all that "unexplained" stuff..gets us spooked..