People have asked me if I believe in ghosts. It's a question I never really know how to answer. I don't think I have an answer, really. I do believe in an afterlife, that there is something after death. But whether spirits can get "lost," or not make it to their destination and are forced to stay here for some reason is something I don't know if I believe. A person whose time is up must leave this world and go to his awaited reward or punishment. An omnipotent God (in whom I do believe in) could not just allow a soul to be lost in between unless there was a reason that God saw fit to allow.
When I think about ghosts (and I don't think I'm alone on this thought), I think of something scary and horrible. There are three types of "common ghosts" I can think of. The first type are people, often women and/or children, who died under truly horrific circumstances. They were tortured and/or suffered at the hands of another especially sick and evil person and eventually were murdered by that same monstrous individual. When a person, especially when that person is innocent of any wrong doing, quits this life under horrific pain and surrounded by such evil, it is believed that it causes that innocent's soul to be trapped in that area of their death. You hear ghosts stories about houses being haunted by children who were murdered by some despicable person and are forced to remain in that house perpetually in their suffering. This is an idea I can't get myself to believe. Someone who suffers so much pain and agony in their life, especially at the end, deserves relief of some kind. They deserve comfort and peace when it is all over. It isn't fair that a soul should be continuously punished because of the particularly heinous and painful way they died, especially if their end was not their fault but the result of another twisted soul.
The next type I've commonly heard of is ghosts of people who left this life by their own hands. It is believed that people who committed suicide are forced to continue their suffering they experienced on this Earth by never being able to leave it. I understand where such an idea may have come from. Most religions view suicide as an unforgivable sin. Some religions have the view that if a person commits suicide, they are automatically condemned to hell. This is an incredibly sensitive issue for many people who know someone who was successful in ending their own life or people who tried to end their own but weren't successful or didn't follow through. I would consider myself in the latter group. Having had to deal with severe depression for most of my life, I know how painful it can be. The mere thought of existing for one more day seems too much to handle. You can't see an end to your suffering. I have a dear friend in whom I confided in when I was feeling suicidal. He said something I'll never forget. He was relating how people often remark that suicide is "fucked up." He looked at me with sincerity and said, "There is nothing fucked up about wanting to end pain." That's how I feel. Of course, I am not condoning suicide. I beg of anyone out there who is struggling with thoughts of ending their life to please, please find someone you can trust (or someone you believe is generally a trustworthy person) and talk to them. I don't believe people who commit suicide would be forced to have their soul forever stuck on this Earth continuously in the same state of pain they tried so desperately to escape. It isn't fair and it isn't right. They were seeking peace and comfort. They deserve to find it.
The last type relates back to the first type. It is a person who in life was a evil in the most basic sense of the word. They maliciously hurt people. They were mean to animals. There was very little, if any, goodness in them. These people were so profoundly malevolent and malicious that they took the lives of others who had done nothing except exist. These horrific people possessed such an evil that they took the lives of people in the most inhumane and sickening manner. As I stated previously, those innocent people whose lives were taken under such circumstances deserve peace and should receive it. However, the person who committed such nightmarish crimes does not deserve relief or comfort in my eyes. They deserve nothing except continuous pain and torture, worse even than the kind they inflicted upon their victims. When that person dies, I believe their soul automatically becomes trapped in the place where they horrific crimes. There they must suffer pain and especially fear; they must suffer a fear even more excruciating than the kind their victims must have felt. They have to live in their constant state of fear and torture, suffering for their actions. If they ever do leave this world, they will not find comfort. They will only be welcomed into the arms of hell where even more agony awaits them, the kind of which we cannot begin to comprehend.
These are the kind of ghosts I believe in. It seems like the most fair to me. Being a ghost, having your soul trapped on this Earth in a state of perpetual pain and anguish is not for people who were innocent but for people whose hands are stained with the blood of innocents. These souls who showed nothing but meanness and malice towards their fellow men are forced to spend an unknown amount of time scared and in pain. I cannot emphasize their fear enough. They relished in inflicting fear in their victims. Now they must be continuously terrified. The only difference is they don't know what is causing so much fear inside them, which makes it all the more horrifying.
As for their interactions with the living, I view it like in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. In the novel, the souls of evil men are forced to look upon the suffering of humanity and know they cannot help them. I think that's how the ghosts the previously talked about men must live. Not only must they be forced to look upon the suffering of humanity but they must be forced to see their crimes being committed by others and can do nothing to help the victim or stop the perpetrator. They also must gaze upon the happiness of humanity and know they will never, ever experience any form of happiness, love or compassion. They are the souls of the damned and their fate is constant agony.
These areas where the souls are trapped do have an evil that can be felt by the living. When you are there, you feel unsettled and uneasy. You can't figure out why you feel this way but you can't shake it off either. The presence of an evil soul can be felt but these souls cannot hurt you. They can scare you, no doubt about that. They scare you because it's an evil that most of us cannot comprehend. It makes us uneasy because we have never experienced such an extreme amount of it before. But like I said, these damned souls have no power to harm us anymore. It may be a part of their punishment. If doing harm brought them a sick form of happiness in life, they are forever denied that feeling.
I guess I do believe in ghosts then, in evil spirits who are forced to exist in agony until called into hell for even worse torture. I don't believe I have ever encountered an evil presence like the one I describe above and I hope I never do.
Happy Halloween everyone.
Love You.
Mean it.
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