I've long been into the paranormal - ghosts and cryptids and the like, but I just had this realization.
So, especially in big famous hauntings, there are stories that everyone tells and they get evidence that supports these stories.
For example, the Myrtles Plantation has a legend about a slave named Chloe and how she tried to win her way back into the favor of her master by 'lightly' poisoning his wife and children so she could nurse them back to health. But of course that goes poorly and they die and she is killed by the other slaves to try and avoid the master's wrath.
And there are all sorts of pictures of her ghost and 'evidence' of her haunting.
Of course the problem is that none of it is true.
You can find historical evidence of when the wife and children of this particular man's wife and/or children died and there's just no proof that Chloe existed let alone that her tragic story is true.
So then what's giving all these people their evidence of her?
There are some people who think it's like a tulpa, which is a concept I cannot totally explain, but basically they mean that the peoples' belief in Chloe's story has created Chloe.
Which seems....questionable. Because where did the story come from? A psychic? Okay, I don't believe in psychics anyway, but I have a hard time with the whole idea that collective thought creates a real thing.
But then I thought, today, I was listening to a ghost podcast, and I thought about what would be running around tricking people like that to believe in these stories and to keep digging deeper and deeper and just....
Demons.
Hear me out.
We are not supposed to talk to ghosts.
We're not supposed to raise the dead.
And people who ghost hunt tend to have iffy, wobbly ideas about religion and what happens after death. Which they then help to spread.
Who gains?
Demons.
Not the most complex theory, but um.
I'm not messing with that.
Not today, satan.
*flaps hands wildly*
I have to get rid of all my ghost stuff now.
(I deleted my first comment because it had too many typos!)
ReplyDeleteInteresting! In what ways do demons gain by "authenticating" legends of ghosts, in your opinion?
*cracks knuckles*
DeleteOkay.
So, Biblically we're told not to go to mediums, necromancers, etc. The existance of ghosts is accepted in the Bible - there are instances of people seeing Jesus and thinking that he's a ghost and he doesn't correct them. And I think that there *are* ghosts, but that they don't hang around for long. They tend to be quick visitations - for example, I know that my grandfather came back to the house after he passed away, but it certainly wasn't a sustained visitation.
I know that some people think that certain ghostly apparitions are facets of purgatory, but I'm not sure about that.
My concern are the ones that go on and on and/or become famous. Like Myrtles, or Waverly Hills, etc. My thinking is that, if it is demonic, they gain by leading people astray.
People who get into hauntings and ghost hunting tend to Get Into It. They go on ghost hunts, tours, etc. and tend to try to communicate with the 'ghosts'. Even the people who refuse to use ouija boards will deal with 'psychics' and 'mediums' or use technology that's meant to help them communicate with the 'ghosts'.
And then the 'ghosts' authenticate the legend, and/or tell people about what it's like on the other side, etc. And they tend to not match what we know from revelation. I've seen things about 'ghosts' expounding on how we're all reincarnated, or other things like that. And while ghost hunters will often claim to be Christian of one variety or another, you'll generally find them turning to native spiritualities for cleansings and they tend to have very loose definitions for what Christianity actually is and teaches.
So I think that the demons gain by spreading false information and leading people more and more into looking into the paranormal and trying to communicate with 'ghosts' which is forbidden in Christianity and that leads them to being open to oppression or possession or just to incorporating wrong and misleading ideas about the afterlife and our life on earth too.
Aha! Super-interesting!! Thanks for explaining. That makes a lot of sense.
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