“A person changes, but the ghosts from the times of Ancient Egypt are still the same,” Andrew Lang once remarked. Since these words were uttered, our ideas about guests from another world have been greatly enriched. Before proceeding to the gradual disclosure of the "ghostly" panorama, let us establish the following: a ghost is primarily a product of the activity of the human mind - activity both conscious and unconscious, sometimes collective (as pointed out by Carl Gustav Jung). So, we begin our journey through the gallery of the main representatives of the ghost family, placing the corresponding plates along the way.
The ghost is "It". This concept was introduced into the theory of psychiatry by the great Viennese physician Georg Groddeck. “It” grows out of the subconscious, lives with us and at the expense of us, and then gets rid of the “shell” when the latter ceases to be useful to him. Sometimes "It" in the truest sense of the word "goes" crazy and begins to torment the victim from the outside. Remember the famous story? His hero has the same dream: an angry tiger is about to attack him. One morning he is found torn to pieces in bed. Oddly enough, something similar happens from time to time in life. The same "tiger" tortured the famous Mrs Forbes at night. In the mornings, deep wounds akin to stigmata were found on her body: the mind of the unfortunate woman - or the monster that pretended to be such - not only passed into the material world, but also gained real, very dangerous power here.
The ghost is "Id". "Id" is the "storeroom" of subconscious memory, opened by Freud, in which our worst instincts are stored (usually under a safe lock). Sometimes after a strong shock (caused, as a rule, by physical or psychological violence from the parents), the “door” breaks off its hinges, our second “I” is at liberty, and here it already acts without much ceremony, pushing the victim either to murder (that who at one time caused her pain), or to suicide.
The ghost is a superego. This term Freud designated the highest level of consciousness, hidden in the very depths of our mind. A typical example is the ghost of the Manor House. After we had a seance there with the famous Eileen Garrett, the phone rang in my room. "What have you done?! The owner shouted into the phone. "The ghost left the house … but possessed me!" Spiritual contact with the ghost destroyed the mechanism of spatial projection and the breakaway particle of the psyche returned to its "father's house".
A ghost is an element of heredity. … Or Family Gestalt is a ghost generated by ancestral or family autosuggestion. This psychic formation, built by many generations, sooner or later separates from the main massif and, gaining life, settles among the inhabitants of a mansion or castle: the more ancient the family, the more "bodily" the ghost. One has only to deprive the figure of the nourishment of the thoughts of others, as it withers before our eyes, takes on a truly pathetic look and, finally, disappears.
Ghost - legend, fairy tale, myth. One such non-dying ghost is the Jewish Wanderer. He is Eliya, to whom the Jews open their doors on the day of the corresponding festivities. Undoubtedly, fairies, gnomes, "little peoples" have the same nature. I met many people who communicated with fairies in childhood, and I was familiar with an Irish beauty possessed by the spirit (!) Of a leprechaun *. Phenomena of this kind are based on a person's unconscious desire to join history: it is on it that “little people” parasitize.
* 1. Elf. 2. The gnome, which is often mentioned in Irish folklore. (Note transl.)
A ghost is a werewolf, familiar, vampire. All these vile creatures are quite real - moreover, they are close relatives. Finding themselves thrown into the material world for one reason or another, the fragments of the ex-human psyche “stick” to the mechanism of evolutionary regression and … materialize, absorbing the energy of history and folklore.
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Familiar ("witch's relative") - a creature, it seems, extinct. Although there are still stray specimens - the famous Talking Mongoose, for example. Killing neighboring turkeys and geese, who allegedly "spoke badly" about his owners, Gef acted in the best "familiar" traditions - although he was not noticed in alliance with evil spirits.
The ghost is a historical film. There are people who have an amazing gift: picking up this or that object, they are able to describe in detail its entire history. The so-called "psychometric" phenomenon is a clear evidence of the fact that we still know very, very little about our own memory.
Apparently, the individual human memory is at the same time a part of the “collective” memory: any memory can “slip out” from the shell that once sheltered him and … merge with what was called the Planetary Intelligence in the Middle Ages. And if so, the mechanism of "historical" visions becomes more or less clear: they arise from time to time on the sites of fierce battles (or even individual atrocities) and resemble a three-dimensional sound film. Characters of representations of this kind act automatically, although, oddly enough, they react quite vividly to certain aspects of a new environment for them.
The ghost is a telepathic image. An amazing example of this kind is the "ghost" of a patient named Z.: perverted sexual experiences led him to self-doubling at the astral level and … my, of course, aware) of his telepathic double.
The experiment failed, but had very sad consequences: the double of the said patient clung to the "body" -thread and tried to gain a foothold between us as a ghost, and quite dangerous (it, in particular, intended to kill Dr. Rosen, not without reason suspecting, that he decided to "ground" it). Fortunately, I managed to get all three of them together in time and explain what happened. The ghost immediately disappeared and did not appear again.
The ghost is a schizophrenic psychoprojection. The motives for its occurrence, as a rule, are sado-masochistic. Poltergeist is a purely sadistic reaction of the teenager's psyche to the tyranny of adults: “splitting up”, the child easily “gives back” to the offender, while maintaining a clear conscience. Psychoprojection of the masochistic type is usually manifested in attacks of suffocation, acrophagia (bloating of the body), the appearance of stigmatic signs on the skin. A very peculiar example of psychoprojection is the so-called spirit-guide, which helps mediums in communicating with the other world. Usually this character emerges from the depths of the subconscious with a completely decent goal - to counteract the self-destruction of the personality.
The ghost is an astral double. The most famous case of this kind is the suffering of G. R. S. Mieda: the famous Gnostic scientist was constantly in a state of fierce struggle on the astral level with the counterparts of his living enemies. In general, "doubles" are encountered quite often today: they are an ideal example of a "ghost that appeared from within."
The ghost is the Devil himself. His victims are people who have convinced themselves that they will certainly go to hell after death. Well, the owner of the underworld, it turns out, is always happy to get to know his future client in advance. A curious incident occurred with a Satanist woman who, having hypnotized her young secretary, ordered him to summon the Devil himself to her. After the sixth session, the room got colder, a characteristic "earthy" smell appeared, a noise resembling the breathing of a huge animal was heard, and two eyes lit up in space, each the size of a hen's egg. "The evil you caused is here!" - the guest barked and looked at his admirer so expressively that she jumped out of the room with a yell. Since then, she never bothered Satan with such challenges again.
The ghost is an incubus ("demon lover"). Of course, neither an incubus nor a succubus (an incorporeal "lady", greedy for male flesh) are not "demons" at all: the spirit of the deceased, hanging between two worlds on the "hook" of passion unsatisfied during his lifetime - such a definition would probably fit better. to this carnivorous guest.
However, here, too, we often deal only with a split personality and revived psychoprojection. There is a known case when a 40-year-old Texas resident, having fallen in love with a church preacher, imagined herself to be a succubus and … became such. Moreover, she argued that God himself gave her various kinds of sexual instruction.
The ghost is a "witch." This is a close relative of the succubus - just not at all loving. The legendary "Bell witch" from Tennessee is the most famous case of this kind in the West. The ghostly guest did not call herself a "ghost" and did not know anything about the other world that allegedly gave birth to her: here, in this reality, she arose solely to kill the father of 12-year-old Betsy Bell. We are new to such stories, but in Africa, if you believe the voodoo literature, such invisible "witches" - a dime a dozen.
The ghost is the spirit of the deceased. Here it is, the main stumbling block on the path of parapsychology. Do they exist, ghosts in the classical sense of the word? Before answering this question in the affirmative, let's draw a clear line between a ghost and an apparition.
Visions (of course, we are not talking about hallucinations here) are not tied to a place and are usually for a specific purpose: to report death, warn of danger, call for help. Vision is always "human", it is incapable of frightening us.
The ghost is something out of this world. When we meet him, we feel a sepulchral cold, our heart is shackled by horror: if a vision carries a spark of life, then a ghost is a moving shell … The worst thing about a ghost is its subordination to some obscure goal: it is not a particle of a broken-off human psyche that revives it, but some lifeless fix idea.
Let me remind you briefly of the famous case of Lady Harris: it is inexplicable in terms of psychoanalysis and, obviously, serves as proof of the existence of a ghost in the most traditional sense of the word. So, a ghost appeared in Lady Harris's house: this bearded figure was constantly looking for something in the bedroom. Making inquiries, the hostess found out that the previous owner of the house wore a long beard and, going to bed, squeezed it with a rubber ring at his chin. Lady Harris found such a rubber band and put it on the dresser in the evening. The ghost rushed to prey like a hawk! The ring disappeared, and with it the bearded guest sank into oblivion.
So what happens - our habits outlive us and then materialize in our appearance?.. There are far more questions than possible answers. Let's say a murder happened many centuries ago … But why is it always only the victim turns out to be a ghost, and never a criminal? What brings her here - the painful memories of death? But how can this "dream" separated from the mind last for centuries?
The ghost is not necessarily human-like: from time to time our world is visited by the "spirits" of animals, from meetings with which for some reason their living brothers come to indescribable horror. According to the Theosophists, there are also the so-called elementals - demon-like entities, meeting with which is mortally dangerous for a person. We should not forget about the "pure" spirits that never incarnated on Earth. Among them - "Little Stasya", who helped Mademoiselle Tomczyk, and "Nona", who collaborated with the medium Linzheg-Ignat: both worked wonders, which "ordinary" intermediary spirits can only dream of.
And, by the way, the angels who visit devout citizens from time to time - are they someone? Most likely not ghosts … but not people either, that's for sure. Be that as it may, one thing is clear: in our space - spiritual and material - we no longer feel spacious for a long time: next to us - myriads of invisible neighbors are clearly not of this world.