Ghosts - How utterly fascinating they are!

As I have mentioned before, I dont believe in the supernatural, I always require proof before believing in something. This principle of mine has been the source of major annoyance for many of my friends, who just cant make me believe in their ghost stories, no matter how hard they try. They give me every minute detail, every spine-tingling sensation of the encounter, every instinctive fear, but I dont budge.

You see, I have never encountered a ghost or a spirit or any such being in my life, and I doubt I ever will. My brain seemes so tuned in to the real world problems that I face that I hardly have time to bother about worlds beyond the astral plane. And as long as I live my life this way, I can do so with peace. As far as the people who genuinely think they have encountered ghosts are concerned, I have no idea how these people live their lives. If I really did go through what these people claim they did, I would be devastated.

What keeps me secure when I am alone in my room or in my house or any remotely creepy place is the fact that I dont believe in ghosts. I am not afraid of the dark because I am unaware of the presence of anything else. But just imagine if one day I really did encounter one and I realised that ghosts did infact exist. That for me, would be one of the biggest disasters possible. I would always be terrified of staying anywhere alone, be it my room or my house. I would be afraid to close my eyes and sleep at night, I might even be afraid to spend too much time in the shower.

And yet, here I see dozens of my friends who tell me about their encounters with spirits and ghosts, but they seem to lead a normal life. They live alone, socialise, drink, laugh and do everything that the rest of us do. I dont mean to accuse them of being liars, but I cant deny that they seem to be startlingly happy and balanced individuals in life for someone who claims to have experienced something as damaging as a ghost encounter. One of the drastic examples is this one guy (a very close friend of mine) who claims to have been strangled nearly to death by a banshee in his own room! And yet he leads a normal life and continues to sleep there alone everyday like it isnt a big deal! If you really were strangled by a banshee in a room, would you ever set foot in that place alone again? Would you continue to sleep there like nothing happened? Illogical patterns like this are what make me doubt the authenticity of the tales that I have been told. But the interests that such stories stimulate within us is undeniable.

So what is it about this whole 'ghost' thing that we find so enthralling? No campfire, no slumber party, maybe even no friendship is ever complete without swapping ghost stories. And no matter how skeptical we are, a chill always runs through our spines when we hear the best of them. We may have outgrown our fears of the boogeyman and monsters under the bed, but there is some primal fear of the netherworld that lurks deep inside all of us. It is this fear that awakens when we listen to tales regarding the afterlife, this fear which seems to make the stories so fascinating.

"That which we cannot see terrifies us beyond all else." could it be this that instills itself in our hearts? I am quite positive that ghosts wouldnt be even remotely as scary if they were supposed to be visible. I mean, the whole point is that we cant see them but they can see us. To deprive them of their invisibility is to put them on the same level as other 'inferior' monsters like goblins and trolls. Yes, these creatures are effective in fantasy and horror literature, but not many of us actually rack our minds on whether they exist, and an encounter with a troll wouldnt be as interesting as one with a ghost.

Or is their alleged 'transparency' what makes us fear them? They can float through walls and roofs, which means that no matter where you go, they will eventually find you if they have to. You can run, but you cant bloody hide. If I wake up in the middle of the night and find a goblin strangling me, I can always grab the nearest item next to my bed and thump him on the head with it, after which I can proceed to pound him into oblivion. But I cant do the same thing to ghosts because they cant be physically hurt. My fist, the same that can disfigure a goblin's face, is useless against a ghost since it would just go through it.

And last but not least, ghosts are already dead. Which means we cant do shit to them. Every other nightmarish or mythical being, trolls, goblins, dragons, ogres, gnomes can be killed because they have a life. They are monsters with powers, but the bottom line is that they are flesh and blood like us. A 100 metre serpent that can swallow an elephant in a single gulp is terrifying, but throw a greande in its mouth and that is the end of it. A ghost not only cant get hurt, it cant die either. And when you encounter such an invincible being, that makes for a good story.

Be it the fact that we cant see them, or that we cant beat them, or that they were once living beings like us, nothing about ghosts and spirits is certain. As a matter of fact, I am quite suprised that I actually spent time writing this, since I dont even believe in them. The only thing that remains certain is the fact that they fascinate us like few things do. And as long as this fascination exists, the constant stream of stories about the spirit world will never cease.

I dont have a problem with that. Not until I actually see a ghost.