Do Ancient Civilization’s Belief in Ghosts Affect Today’s View?
The belief of ghosts started way back in ancient nations such as Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, and Asian civilizations. Whether paranormal beings were seen as unwelcome or welcome, the belief in ghosts increased greatly since early civilizations.The question, “are ghosts real?” is asked often and is a very popular and controversial topic. The discussion of ghosts is especially popular now, with social media and technology contributing a great amount into the belief. People all around the world believe in ghosts, in every culture and religion, regardless if that culture believes or doesn’t believe in ghosts. Just like now, in Mesopotamian culture, ghosts were seen as
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For instance, civilizations like Mesopotamia viewed ghosts as unwelcome guests that prompted the use of charms, amulets, prayers, and exorcisms. However, immunity was given to those who “needed to complete some kind of mission”(Mark, Joshua J. “Ghosts in the Ancient World.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, 30 Oct. 2014, www.ancient.eu/ghost/.), and even then it was said that spirits were not permitted to leave Irkalla, also known as “the land of the dead”. Like Christianity, ancient Greeks believed that if you were a good person, you would go to the Plain of Asphodel, like heaven, and to the darkness of Tartarus if you were a sinner, similar to Hell. Ancient Greek culture had similarities to Mesopotamian culture as well, both believing that souls should not have a reason to return to Earth. Unlike Mesopotamian and Greek culture, Chinese civilizations celebrate and welcome ghosts, having their own separate …show more content…
“Purdue News.” Media messages may encourage paranormal belief, May 2001, www.purdue.edu/uns/html4ever/0105.Sparks.paranormal.html.) The strongest predictor of belief in the paranormal was whether people watched TV programs that frequently featured paranormal themes, even after taking gender, income, and education into consideration. In the same study, Glenn G. Sparks and Will Miller surveyed 120 people from a small town in the midwest and found that as predicted, “there was a significant relationship between exposure to TV programs that featured paranormal content and paranormal beliefs.” They concluded that the relationship between TV exposure involving the paranormal and belief in the paranormal is more likely among the respondents who reported a paranormal experience themselves. In conclusion, there is no definitive and conclusive evidence that justifies the influence of TV on paranormal
In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the ghost of Hamlet’s father is intended to be seen as a real ghost. Around 1600, when the play Hamlet was written, many people believed in mystical creatures like witches, monsters, and most importantly: ghosts. With so many people believing in these characters, it makes sense that Shakespeare portrays the ghost of Hamlet’s father as a real figure. Many examples support this, such as when the guards in Act I scene i see the ghost, which proves it’s not just in Hamlet’s imagination. But some people can not see the ghost, such as Hamlet’s mother in Act III scene iiiii. Hamlet sees the ghost but she can not. This could be used as evidence to say the ghost is not real though. Shakespeare shows us though this information, the high complications oh having ghosts in a story.
The word “ghost” originates from the Aged English word “gast,” and its synonyms are “soul, spirit [good or bad spirit], existence, breath,” and “demon” (etymonline.com). In the book, The Woman Warrior, that is, ironically, subtitled as Memoirs of a Girlhood Amid Ghosts, the author, Maxine Hong Kingston, uses the word “ghost” as a metaphor to typify her confusion concerning discovering a difference amid reality and unreality – the difference that divides her American present that prefers and her Chinese past that her mother, Valiant Orchid, filters into her mind across talk-stories that steadily daunt her to cross her established bounds. Ghosts, in the book, change reliant on point of view. Anybody whose deeds deviates from what is satisfactory in one area is a ghost according to the associates of that society. To Chinese people, like Valiant Orchid, Americans are ghosts. On the supplementary hand, Chinese are ghosts according to Chinese-Americans (including Kingston, who finds her past loaded alongside frightening Chinese ghosts). For Kingston, Ghosts, however, are not always scary; in fact, a little of them enthuse...
The rituals and traditions of the Indians evince their beliefs in spirits and afterlife. Indians believed that there would be a better life for them after they die, because many of them did not see a way out, but people were still fighting for their lives.
Indeed, Mesopotamian civilization certainly had much stricter views of life and the afterlife. Their views of the fragility of their mortality seemed to be pessimistically realistic. They seemed to accept that their gods gave them this life and nothing else. In the excerpt from the Epic of Gilgamesh, a quote that summarizes their
We start with Animism. In animism, spirits are considered to inhabit familiar objects in the landscape. There are traces of animism in the Judeo-Christian and Jewish religions. For instance, Satan was represented as a serpent; Jehovah, like Osiris(Deity in ancient Egyptian religion), was worshiped as a bull; Christ was the lamb of God, and the Holy Ghost appeared in the form of a dove. However, these are only symbols themselves and are not worshiped themselves.
The ability technology has to transform the supernatural into what the audience wants is how they keep drawing in individuals to the supernatural. The supernatural culture has been in our society for decades and as it looks it will be part of our society for a long time to come. The supernatural has greatly influenced our society by entertaining, creating an unrealistic ideal life for individuals and the supernatural theme is so popular businesses take advantage of it and are able to make profit out of it.
Sparks, Glenn G., C. Leigh Nelson, and Rose G. Campbell. "The Relationship between Exposure to Televised Messages about Paranormal Phenomena and Paranormal." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 41.3 (1997): 345. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Dec. 2013
... for children. Children are exposed to 20,000 advertisements a year. The average child watches 8,000 televised murders and 100,000 acts of violence before finishing elementary school. By the time children graduate from high school, those numbers more than doubles. Furthermore, television is shown to influence attitudes about race and gender. Pro-social and anti-social behaviors are influenced by television.
While many people today seem to be scared to die, and make great strides to avoid an early death, this is not a new human concern. In fact, Dr. Peter J. Brand did some extensive research on how people in Ancient Mesopotamia viewed death and the afterlife. He believes death was extremely scary to people of this region. In his article titled: Dying: Death and the Afterlife, Brand states, “Like all human cultures, the people of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia were greatly troubled by death.” (Brand pg. 1) Apparently, it death was even more dreadful in the minds of the Mesopotamians. “Mesopotamian views of death were more pessimistic, resulting in less elaborate preparations for death.” (Brand pg.1) On the contrary, it seems that there would have been a lot of preparation involved, since the journey to the underworld alone was a perilous feat. This tells us that there was nothing glorified about death, and nothing exciting about traveling to the underworld. However, it reveals that there was a lot of confusion surrounding death, and confusion how to deal with it. Dr. Brand goes on to talk about how the underworld was a ...
To the early Greeks, death was dark and mysterious. Early myth about the underworld and life after death is very vague, and it is likely that the Greeks just did not understand death or the underworld. In Homer’s myths the underworld, Erebus, was the child of Chaos along with Night. The early Greeks, according to Hamilton, believed that
Ghosts, as with any other misunderstood group or people, have been preyed upon by others without understanding. The lack of knowledge about ghosts and haunting activity has led people astray as to what they really are. What Hollywood and television portrays is very inaccurate and cannot be relied upon as truthful. They show these spirits of the dead as being evil in nature, filled with malice and harmful intent. But that this is not the case. The field of paranormal activity is amazing. It has caught the imagination of people from every walk of life. It has always interested me and has influenced me to pick this as the topic for my research. Through this research I wish to uncover the truth about the existence of ghosts. I also wish to correct the wrong notions that people have about ghosts and enlighten non-believers.
Are ghosts real? That is the question that most of society deliberates day after day. The true definition of a ghost is a soul or spirit of a deceased individual that can appear in visible form or other manifestations to the living. Ghosts are of the most common paranormal belief in the world. Most people believe in ghosts because of a personal experience, whether that was seeing or sensing an unexplained presence. Who wouldn’t want to believe that our beloved family members are looking for us?
The Mesopotamian people also believed in an afterlife. Through the Epic of Gilgamesh, we see that this civilization had an ancient version of what we consider to be heaven and hell. Their hell was controlled by the Queen of Darkness, and was believed to be a place of no return. The epic describes this place as a place of darkness where "dust is their food and clay is their meat"(sources, p5). Their underworld was where everyone who stood in the way of the gods.
For many years, people have debated whether or not spirits are real. Some people get scared at the fact that there might be something unknown lurking in their house in the middle of the night making their footsteps known to everyone in it. Maybe that person feels watched upon or feel some kind of presence in their home, or even sees shadows moving their way through rooms. Different people around the world have their own opinions based on religion and experiences when talking about angels, demons, and the spirits that have life after death. New technology is getting closer to detecting these energies happening in the world today. The history of haunting dates back many years, and more people want to get involved because of the new technology.
that it is paranormal. In fact, as you read on you will discover that science does back up. paranormal existence quite a bit. Many people believe in the existence of the paranormal and many more do not. Some say that paranormal existence is a big hoax.