![]() More and more, popular movies, television shows, books and entertainment fixate on demonism, mysticism and the occult, including psychics, vampires and witches. But many of these same people believe evil spirits and the devil are fictional. Together, it speaks to how thoughts, fears and visions of death are integral to human life.A majority of people believe there is a God. It appears people across eras, religions and cultures have always been curious about a spiritual world that exists behind the curtain of death. However, Jewish oral traditions include stories of evil ghosts ( Dybbuks) and kindly, helpful ghosts ( Ibburs) who try to insert themselves in human affairs. Jews typically discourage occult activities designed to contact the dead, and there seems to be less consensus within Judaism as to the status of ghosts. There are several other religions, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, that also believe ghostly apparitions are demons in disguise rather than the souls of deceased people. Muslims don’t believe that dead people can return as ghosts, so if a Muslim thinks he’s encountered a ghost, it’s thought to be the work of Jinn – beings that contain a mix of spiritual and physical properties, whose intentions can be malevolent or benevolent depending upon the situation. Buddhist ghosts are reincarnated individuals who may be sorting out bad karma. ![]() For Hindus, ghosts are the souls of individuals who suffered a violent death or of people who were not accorded the appropriate and required death rituals. Religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism support a belief in ghosts, but ghosts play only a minor role in the religion itself. In some religions, such as Voodoo, spirits and ghosts play a central role. Catholics typically believe that God may permit dead individuals to visit their counterparts on Earth, but the church has traditionally condemned occult activities such as seances and Ouija boards. While most Protestant sects today are largely silent about the existence of ghosts, Catholic theology remains amenable to the existence of ghosts. But during the Protestant Reformation, since most Protestants believed that souls went immediately to heaven or hell, paranormal activity was thought to be the work of angels, demons or other decidedly nonhuman supernatural beings.Īn 1892 lithograph of the Salem Witch Trials. They could determine whether a visitor from the spirit world is a welcome or unwelcome guest, while also influencing whom you think you’re meeting.įor example, in Medieval Catholic Europe, ghosts were assumed to be the tormented souls of people suffering for their sins in purgatory. With most religions populated by an impressive cadre of prophets, gods, spirits, angels and miracles, the tenets of religious faith might shape what you see. This, however, may depend upon how religious you actually are.Īll of the available evidence suggests that those who describe themselves as believers – but who don’t attend church regularly – are twice as likely to believe in ghosts than those at the two extremes of religious belief: nonbelievers and the deeply devout. Religion’s talent for easing our anxiety about death may have had the perverse effect of increasing the likelihood that we’ll be on edge about ghosts, spirits and other supernatural beings. Even the Jewish faith, which doesn’t really focus on the afterlife, assumes that an afterlife does exist.īy following a clear set of rules, worshipers can assert control: They know what they have to do to make good things, rather than bad things, happen to them after they take the big dirt nap. Catholics also believe in a halfway house called purgatory, in which people who aren’t quite worthy of heaven but are too good for hell can pay their dues before getting a ticket to paradise.īuddhists and Hindus believe in a cycle of death and reincarnation that can eventually result in a permanent spiritual state, provided you play your cards right over each successive lifetime. Protestants, Catholics and Muslims all believe in a day of resurrection and judgment, in which our souls are directed to heaven ( “Jannah” in the case of Muslims) or hell based upon our good deeds (or misdeeds) during our time spent on Earth. And there is, in fact, evidence that very religious people don’t fear death as much as others. Some argue that religion evolved as a terror management device, a handy way to remove the uncertainty surrounding one of the scariest things we can imagine: death.Īlmost every religion offers an explanation for what happens to us after we die, with the assurance that death isn’t the end.
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