One of the oldest strange ideas is that ghosts are the spirits or souls of the dead. The Reasonable Person's Guide to Strange Ideas next ventures into the paranormal as we examine the best evidence for ghosts, spirits and souls.

INDEX

1. Do You Have A Soul? | 2. What is a soul? | 3. Top 10 Reasons People Believe in Souls | 4. A First Hand Account from a Trusted Source | 5. A True Ghost Story by Amy Anne | 6. Story Analysis | 7. Poltergeist | 8. Conclusion

 

Do you have a soul?

You exist. You have self-awarness, complex biology, vivid senses that experience the world, emotions, intelligence, intuition and dreams ... but do you think you have a soul? Your conclusion can influence your entire life so consider carefully. As always, start by defining the mystery.

What is a soul?

If by "soul" you mean "a person's total self", as one dictionary definition states, then each person certainly has a one. If you mean "the moral nature of human beings" then you must ponder a different question: Is there an objective scale of good and evil on which each person gets a certain score based on the quality of his or her soul? The real question we want to ask here, however, is this: Does each person have an immortal immaterial essence, animating principle or actuating cause of life that extends beyond biology?

Top 10 Reasons People Believe in Souls

In no particular order, here are the most common reasons people claim they possess immaterial animating essences.

1. Many people report seeing ghosts.
2. People are taught they have souls by parents and/or religon.
3. Some people report near death experiences.
4. Self-aware consciousness is amazing and it demands a label.
5. Some have 'out of body' experiences.
6. Upon death, the body mysteriously loses weight.
7. Very old stories from many different sources speak of souls.
8. Ideas from the intelligent subconscious mind seem from outside ones self, that is, to be communication via the soul.
9. People's strong fear death and not existing makes them seek comfort in the idea of a soul that will outlast the body.
10. People have dream contact with recently dead friends and relatives before the dreamer learns of the actual death.

A First Hand Ghost Story From a Trusted Source

We may examine the other reasons in the future, but lets first take a look at the ghosts. I personally don't believe in them but I do trust Amy Anne. I know that she isn't joking about several freaky experiences she has related to me over the years.

A True Ghost Story, by Amy Anne

The Man in the Blue Robe

By: Amy Anne

I must have been barely eight years old at the time. We had just moved in to a lovely home in [ location removed ] that was previously owned by my father’s colleague who had recently died of cancer. My bedroom used to be occupied by the deceased’s daughter, who was about my age.

It was just after Halloween, 1984, when I first saw our ghost. Even at such a young age I was a night owl, so when my parents tucked me in at night I would wait until they went to bed and then I’d break out my headphones and listen to the radio. On this particular evening, I was listening to a brand new song by Madonna called “Material Girl”.

I was sitting up in bed, harmonizing softly under my breath, when I noticed movement across the room by my desk. A man in a blue robe was standing, facing the desk, with his back to me. At first I thought it was my father, but then it occurred to me that I would have noticed him walking in the room. This guy just seemed to appear. I watched him curiously, strangely calm for a little girl, not yet sure if I should hide or scream. So I sat there, staring wide-eyed as he picked up the plastic flower hairpiece from my hula girl costume off of my desk, wondering what was going on. He picked it up with the plastic stem down, and pressed down on a notepad with it as if it were a pen. At this point, I became a little bold and greeted him with a “hello”. He turned around and looked at me from a face I did not recognize. He seemed startled by my presence, and opened his mouth as if to reply… and I blinked… and he was gone. Vanished into thin air! I sat there for several moments, trying to make sense of what had happened. I wanted to go to my parent’s room, but I was too afraid to walk down the hall by myself. I was too frightened to scream, so instead I pulled the covers up over my face and said the Lord’s Prayer over and over in my head. Eventually I drifted off to sleep.

The following morning I woke up and remembered the previous night’s encounter. I wondered if it was a dream, but then I stopped doubting when I saw the notepad and plastic flower on my desk. There was a very distinct crease in the paper in the shape of a cross. I went out to the dining room where my parents were eating breakfast, and I told them about my strange experience. They politely informed me that I must have been dreaming. I insisted that I was wide-awake, but I stopped pushing when I realized I was admitting to being awake after bedtime. Woops!

I kept the ghost story to myself, afraid that my friends would not believe me and think I was making it up. Then one night a few weeks later, my friend Libby came to sleep over. We had the typical girls’ night: painted our nails, watched scary movies, and stuffed our bellies with too much pizza and soda. We fell asleep on the L-shaped couch in the family room. Sometime around midnight, I woke up as Libby was shaking me hard. My head was still heavy with sleep, but I quickly became alert when I saw the tears on her pale face. Her trembling finger was pointing directly behind me.

“Amy, wake up!” she was gasping, “He’s trying to get you!”

“What?” I asked, and turned around to see what she was pointing at. There was nobody behind me. I turned back around and asked her what was wrong.

She looked again behind me, and looked even more terrified than before.

“He’s gone!” she cried. “He was right there behind you! He was wearing a purple robe… and he walked downstairs from the kitchen… reaching for you… about to touch you and then you woke up… and he’s gone!!!”

I shuddered as I remembered my visitor from a few weeks ago. A purple robe? Vanished into thin air? Sure sounded like my ghost man.

All the commotion awoke my parents and they rushed into the room to make sure we were okay. Libby was beside herself as I explained to my parents our ghostly encounter. My mother recalled the similar story I told her a few weeks ago, and asked my father about his colleague who had previously owned the house.

“Yes, he passed away in this house, if that’s what you are wondering. He had a daughter who looks a bit like you, Amy. If he is a ghost in this house, he was a very nice man and I’m sure he means no harm.”

I was fascinated. Could it be that his soul was confused? That he thought he was still alive and I was his daughter? My parents stayed up with us for a while and reassured us that we were safe. If we ever doubted there was life after death, we were no longer skeptical.

Several months passed with no paranormal activity, until a summer afternoon when I stepped into my bedroom to fetch my favorite Barbie and I noticed my Dream Dancer doll had been placed on my bed. Dream Dancer was a doll that would spin around on her stage and do different dances depending on which button you pressed. She was dancing around and around. This was very strange since I had not taken her from my closet and I certainly had not turned on the power. I immediately suspected my little brother, since he was always messing with my toys. I went out to the kitchen where he was eating lunch with my parents and asked him about the doll. He looked genuinely innocent when he denied playing with it. My parents supported his alibi by telling me he had been outside playing and then came in for lunch only a few minutes ago. I shrugged and said, “Fine”, and headed back to my bedroom. She was still there, spinning round and round. I turned the switch to “off” so the batteries wouldn’t be wasted. I picked up the toy and began to put it away, when I suddenly had an A.D.D. moment and decided to play with it after all. I flipped the switch on and pressed the “ballet” button. The doll didn’t move. Weird. I pressed a different button… nothing happened. Hmmm… I figured it must have needed a new battery so I opened up the flap to change it.

There was no battery inside.

By this time I was getting used to freaky things happening, and becoming more comfortable with the idea that anything is possible.

My final encounter happened late that summer when I was sitting on my bed reading a book. The good Catholic girl I was, I still had my palm branch from Palm Sunday propped up against the wall, ready to bring to Ash Wednesday the following year. The palm made a sound, so I looked up with a start. Though the palm branch was arched against the wall, it unnaturally fell forward as if it had been pulled. Before I had a chance to digest this oddity, my bed began to shake. My parents and brother were in our large backyard, so I knew they would not hear me if I cried for help. Somehow I knew it was our ghost again. The bed shook harder as everything else in the room stayed stationary. In a moment of lucidity, I cried out,

“I’m not your daughter! I’m so sorry to tell you this, but you’ve died and you need to go on to Heaven! Your family has moved to another house. Please stop this! You are frightening me!”

The bed stopped shaking as abruptly as it had started, and that was the last I heard from the man in the blue robe.

But perhaps we’ll meet again someday, in another dimension.

Story Analysis

The story was told from memory of events that occurred at least sixteen years ago. It would be interesting to compare any written accounts saved from the time of the events. The key is that Amy is certain she never told her friend the story about the man in the robe. Could her friend have heard the story from Amy's parents or someone else and then had the scary dream? From her statments, it is clear that Amy brings a pre-existing religously based belief in spirits to the encounter. Is Amy prone to half-sleeping hallucinations? Has she ever had a ghost experience that was shared by another person? Finally, might the doll in her story have more than one battery compartment? If the toy operated with no batteries, this may qualify as a poltergeist experience.

Poltergeist

According to a class taught at the University of Kentucky, in 858 A.D. an "evil spirit" threw stones and made the walls shake in a small farmhouse and this was the first recorded poltergeist case. The German word poltergeist means "noisy spirit". Amy's ghost was not particularly noisy, so it may not qualify in this category. In any case, she seems to have successfully performed a Ghost-busting with no outside help or direction.

Conclusion

The answer to the big question about souls: I'm undecided, yet leaning towards doubt. Still, I've had a few startling soul-seeming events in my life and I often wonder if immaterial animating essences were involved. It's a nice thought, isn't it? If you have a soul, were does it go when you sleep?