A lively discussion at home regarding
the final rites as per Hindu culture to be done in case of death of the family
member and the reason given was that these rituals are conducted so that the
soul of the departed is appeased and proceed to heaven. In other words if no
rituals are done, then the soul is left wandering as a ghost on this earth
forever. Does this mean the persons of other religions who do not have any
specific rituals when they die remain in this universe in form of a ghost???
If you do believe in ghosts/ spirits
you are not alone in this world since millions of people do believe in them, in
terms of percentages of the population it could be in the regions of 30-40%
which is pretty high considering the fact that there has been no scientific
evidence of the spirit or the ghost. Now why do people believe in them in spite
of no proofs is that our fear of our own mortality plays an important role in
belief in ghosts. Most of us desperately want to believe in life after death –
and the idea of ghosts seems to offer support for such an idea. The belief offers many people comfort — who doesn't
want to believe that our beloved but deceased family members aren't looking out
for us, or with us in our times of need?
Right from medieval times stories of
ghosts or spirits have enthralled and also frightened people in this world. Medicine
men or the Oracles have swayed the thoughts & decisions of many Tribal
chiefs and Kings by their actions or statements of talking with spirits and
deciding the events that were to unfold. They were the most powerful
personalities of the times revered even by the kings and people had blind faith
in them and their bidding.
Even I used to believe and fantasize
about the ghost while I was young and one particular story comes to my mind
where it is said that if you get a strand of hair of a woman ghost and hide it
in your body beneath your skin then you will get all that you aspire in this
materialistic world. Thinking about the way I used to be looking for that
strand of hair during my childhood does bring about a smile on my face even
today.
The thoughts of ghost
may arise as
the result of honest misinterpretation of naturally occurring phenomena (for
example, seeing faces and figures in the shadows or hearing noises made by
animals in the night), or common but frightening anomalous experiences. An
example of the latter would be sleep paralysis episodes that can occur between
sleep and wakefulness. During such episodes, the sufferer is temporarily paralyzed
and may experience a strong sense of presence and a variety of bizarre
hallucinations. Although it can be terrifying, sleep paralysis is essentially
harmless and I have written about this in a blog titled Amaku Pishsasi (Crushing
ghost) few years back. I also wrote of a person hallucinating after excessive
drinking while on night duty at Iraq and the blog was titled Neither here nor there..floatingin air.
Well friends many more pages of
incidents by people can be written and there would be no end to this blog and
so I rest my views here. I am not an believer of ghost or spirit now that i am grown up and added to it the fact that there is no scientific proof of its existence. I do not berate people who believe in them and I would surely like to know your experiences if any of
paranormal activities that you have come across or some interesting stories.
Please post your comments
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