Goblins, vampires, werewolves and zombies are all part of the Halloween fantasy, simple monsters that we enjoy in classic horror movies and scary stories around a campfire.
However, there’s another type of creature that has been debated over for a long time now, some claim so be able to communicate with them while others have even claimed to come in physical contact with them.
Movies are made about them and, to some degree, we have become obsessed with them.
I’m talking about ghosts.
The specter we commonly recognize as a ghost has had several names and several different connotations, so let’s clear this up. According to Merriam–Webster, a spirit is classified as “an animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms” and “a supernatural being or essence: such as an often malevolent being that is bodiless but can become visible” or can also possess a person, while a ghost is defined as “a disembodied soul, especially the soul of a dead person believed to be an inhabitant of the unseen world or to appear to the living in bodily likeness”.
Everyone has their own interpretation, but mine is that spirits and ghosts walk on the same plane as us. The difference is spirits have the ability to act as an intercessor to a higher power, can often offer protection or the opposite and can give us signs.
Ghosts, on the other hand, are the remnants of people’s souls who have died and are stuck here in our world, unable to move on to the afterworld.
So, do they really exist?
Live Science points out many questions that shed doubt on the existence of ghosts in an article by Benjamin Radford.
“There are many contradictions inherent in ideas about ghosts. For example, are ghosts material or not?” Radford wrote. “Either they can move through solid objects without disturbing them, or they can slam doors shut and throw objects across the room. According to logic and the laws of physics, it’s one or the other.”
Given all of this, I still can’t find an explanation to some other things that have happened in my life. For instance, my family and I were recently celebrating my dad’s birthday at my grandfather’s house. My cousin and I were watching TV in the living room when she said she got cold.
She got up to close the front door and the click of the latch was very clear. She sat back down on the couch and immediately the door swung back open. We had no explanation for this as that night wasn’t windy. We both joked and said, “I guess grandma wants the door open” and went back to watching TV.
It still boggles my mind how that happened.
When my other grandmother passed away, my mother and I were at a store looking at Valentine’s Day goodies. We were standing about two feet in front of the aisle and, suddenly, a balloon passes in front of us and falls to the ground.
The balloon had been on the ground and it had to go out of its way to pass in front of us. No draft; no wind; nothing. We left the store immediately.
I don’t particularly believe in ghosts, but there have been some strange goings on in my life, as well as the presence of omens. Whether you believe or not, one thing is for sure: We are not alone.
Noah Sarabia may be reached at [email protected]
