Finding answers, part 2

The last post started well but I soon strayed from the point, so I've split it into two posts.

That’s the trouble with asking any scientist a question. We answer any and all permutations of the question, including some you didn’t ask but we think should be answered anyway.

The point was, why don’t I give a clear, absolute answer as to the nature of the afterlife?

Because I’m not dead. In the comments, Southern Phantom made the remark that there are no real experts in paranormal study. He was almost right. There are no living experts. The only ones who really know the subject are the dead, and all we get from them are hints and suggestions. I honestly think that many of them know only their personal circumstances, and can't give an overall view anyway.

I answer to the best of my ability, based on what I know. What I know is subject to change because nobody actually knows very much. It’s like a jigsaw, where you don't have an original image to refer to. Every new piece makes the picture look a little different. So far we haven't fitted very many pieces.

There are an awful lot of corpses buried in the ground, but few ghosts. Where do they go? Are the ghosts we see the privileged few, the only ones to survive death? That is not a logical conclusion, because there are some real dross among those who hang around. So we must conclude that everyone moves on. But where are they all?

Religion suggests the presence of a Heaven and/or Hell. Even the ancient Celts believed in a heaven, although they had no hell. To the Celt, you passed into Heaven if you’d been good enough. Otherwise you were reincarnated and had to go through life on Earth again. And again and again, until you got it right. To them, ghosts were very real and potentially very dangerous, because they represented the failures. Heaven’s rejects.

Maybe there is a heaven. I don’t know. Those ghosts are going somewhere, that’s for sure. Reincarnation is a possibility, and there are several documented cases in the pages of the Journal for Scientific Exploration. Rigorously, properly studied cases, not the ravings of some crank. It does appear that this happens, at least sometimes.

From what I have experienced, and from the reliable sources I have read, I have concluded that ghosts are the same in death as they were in life. Good people become friendly spirits. Vindictive, manipulative people become vindictive, manipulative ghosts. Evil spirits have been written about for many, many centuries. They are nothing more than dead evil people.

If they see an opportunity to cause harm, they will take it. If they can convince themselves you are indebted to them, they will do so. It’s how they conducted themselves in life, and how they continue to behave in death.

To take Southern Writer’s point: If I'm on the street and someone yells, "Hey Fred!" I don't turn around because I'm not Fred. Or if I do turn around out of curiosity, I don't reply because I'm not Fred. I go on about my business.

True. But then you’re not a vicious criminal, intent on getting into someone’s house with the sole intention of causing harm. If you were, and you knew Fred’s friend couldn’t see who you were, you might well answer that call. You could pretend to be Fred. Keep your answers vague and friendly until you’ve attached yourself to the person or to their house, and then turn nasty.

Imagine calling out in the street when you can’t see the faces of anyone in the crowd. Someone answers your call, but you can’t see who it is. You have only their word that they are the one you called. You take them home, and find they’re not who you expected. Then they won’t leave. You called. They answered. As far as they are concerned, you owe them.

I ascribe human qualities to ghosts because I think they are still human. Certainly the ones who hang around seem to be. Maybe those who move on to wherever-they-go become something else. Hard to say, since they don’t seem to want to come back from there to tell us about it.

My current view of the ghosts of this world is a kind of anarchy. I haven’t seen evidence of any organisation, no police force, no government. Since they don’t need food and commodities like we do, they would have no need of organisation. They can’t be stolen from since they don’t appear to own anything. They can’t be murdered because they’re already dead. The ‘good’ ghosts don’t need to control ‘bad’ ones, because the bad ones can’t harm them.

The bad guys have free reign, but they can’t just go where they please. They have to be invited, or already have an attachment to a particular place. I’d go into detail about why I think that is, but this post is already way too long.

If anyone’s read this far, I applaud your persistence.