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Ghosts are a big part of the increase of supernatural themes
in movies, TV, and books. The most common worldview presented in stories about
ghosts is that they are the spirits of people who died with unfinished business
left on earth.
So, in “The Sixth Sense,” a little boys sees—and helps—dead
people who need to fix something before they can leave to the great beyond.
In “Ghost,” a popular early 90s movie, Patrick Swayze sticks around
to love and protect Demi Moore after he dies. Nicole Kidman’s “The
Others” shows ghosts who don’t realize they’re the ones doing
the haunting.
In the real world, evidence for ghosts is scarce. People who take them seriously
talk about psychic energy and show images with strange lights or colors. But
most of the real research suggests that living people tend to create ghosts,
either out of fear, grief, or for profit.
For instance, the strangest ghost stories are not told
by people who are said to have actually experienced them—unless those
people are getting paid. The tellers are almost always someone who heard
it second hand.
And people who do claim to hear voices or see dead relatives
almost always stop experiencing those things when they take antipsychotic
medications. That suggests either that ghosts don’t like medication or that people who
are having intense emotional and psychological problems are more likely to
see things that aren’t there.
The Bible leaves little room for the existence of ghosts. It never, ever talks
about the spirits of dead humans lingering here. Paul wrote that for Christians,
to be away from the body is to be present with God (2 Corinthians 5:8). And
the Bible describes very specific judgments for unbelievers that do not include
becoming a haunting spirit on earth (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
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