Specter Speculation

Do you laugh in derision at the idea of sharing our world with other-worldly spirits who once inhabited physical forms? Or do you smile nervously during campfire ghost stories, not believing, and yet uncomfortably unable to definitively dispute the existence of spooks? Perhaps you have felt the cold eddy of air stirred by a passing phantom yourself, and need little convincing to acknowledge the possibility of paranormal visitors. Whichever the case, I intend to turn your laughter into apprehensive ambivalence, your dubious denial into conviction, or substantiate your shadows.

First of all, a most compelling indication that the naysayers are mistaken is that, in spite of centuries of skepticism, there is yet to be a single person who can irrefutably prove that unearthly wanderers do not exist. Certainly, much “evidence” assigned to ghosts has been explained under the harsh light of scientific knowledge; but absolute proof against spectral visitation has not been made. Considering the highly advanced scientific and technological age in which we live, this factor carries more than a whisper of credibility.

Secondly, for the significant number of people worldwide who already believe in an afterlife, it can hardly stretch the belief system very much to also believe in guests from beyond the grave. Having already accepted the idea of immaterial spirits which can survive death, as roughly half of the world’s population has, how can one convincingly deny that those spirits may walk the earth on occasion?

Furthermore, I raise the question of why ghosts have been such an enduring part of human legend, literature, and lore if there is no substance to the claims. Like the specters they are, they have haunted our prose and poetry as far back as fifteen centuries. This seems preposterous if they do not haunt our world in fact.

Of course, there are also the inexplicable photos, taken before technology allowed for manipulation, depicting people who were actually already dead at the time the photo was taken, or apparitions otherwise unexplained; numberless personal anecdotes of seeing, speaking with, and being touched by ghosts; reports of animals sensing spirits unseen by humans. Much of that type of “evidence” may be explained or discarded as you sift through it, but there will always remain some which stubbornly refuse to be discredited or disproved. What then? If it is impossible to disprove or discredit something, would you just deny it exists when it clearly does?

What does all of this mean for you? Ghosts do not have a direct impact on our lives, for the most part, so why should it matter whether you believe in them or not? Well, I think it only matters as much as you value having an open mind. If science cannot disprove ghosts entirely, a compelling number of people have no trouble accepting the philosophy of an afterlife, people have included haunts in their culture for many centuries, and countless people have stories or other phenomenon which can’t be explained without the actual existence of ghosts, how can one deny that existence and still claim to have an open mind?

I understand that you may have valid concerns with what I have laid out here. To begin with, you may argue that although no one has ever disproved the existence of ghosts, neither has anyone proved it beyond any doubt. This is true, but I go back to the point that until disproved it cannot validly be completely disregarded. Some people take issue with it because of religious beliefs which dictate a soul goes directly to heaven or directly to hell upon death, no dilly-dallying or in-between. While I understand that, and personally, I believe most of them do, I have found no religious edict which forbids the possibility of an occasional visit to our world from a soul who has gone beyond. Perhaps you struggle with the thought that we would be bumping into ghosts left and right if they exist, because there would be far too many of them when you think of all the people who have lived and died to date. But to believe that ghosts exist does not mean you must believe that all of them choose to return to haunt their former hangouts. Most of them probably prefer to rest in peace, something sadly lacking on earth. Yet another protest may arise from the fact that far more specters are seen or felt during the night as opposed to any time of day, and skeptics conclude that that fact raises the chances of the encounters being merely part and parcel of dreams. I would reply that it would be far harder to distinguish the ethereal from the earthy in broad daylight, with all the noise and bustle of daily life surrounding you; there is very likely as many phantoms during the day, which simply go unrecognized.

I will leave you with one last unsettling fact. My name is Mary Amelia St. Clair. Perhaps my pen name, May Sinclair, is more familiar to you. I died in 1946. It feels good to write again.