I'm glad the ghosts have left you (although please tell me you don't ouija, please, please, please, those boards are scary af). I've talked with members of the Catholic priesthood about ghosts, (a friend of my uncle keeps getting email blocked by The Dark One apparently but only when emailing about some subjects), and I've had encounters I can't explain easily, but I don't have your same history of abuse. I know that my Dad's cigarette smoke appears in the house freshly whenever I miss him a lot, but I also know his smoke is seeped into the carpets and curtains so it's probably my imagination, but maybe it's him? idk.
I did a ghost walking tour in Bath in England some years ago and the most haunted places always were places where abuses of one kind or another took place. The Georgian house where the maid got knocked up and killed herself is haunted by her ghost, the park where there's a known plague pit and hanging tree was super haunted and triggered my anxiety like fuck.
I have a complicated relationship with the paranormal. I believe some ghosts are there to help us, to guide us or make things better or just to catch up with what's going on in our lives, like my Dad who visited me while I was skydiving, and some are there to be scary bastards. (Have I told you about Polty the Poltergeist in the Bank House my cousins lived in? 17th or 18th Century building with no specific history of abuses, used by the bank as along as I am aware, but had cold spots and objects moved around without any obvious cause, that stopped whenever cousins blessed themselves and said "peace be with you", which is, apparently how to address an unfamiliar ghost/poltergeist without getting targeted for bad haunting).
But I agree there must be a correlation between an emotional need for ghosts to exist and the way some ppl completely discredit those who hold the belief that ghosts are real. I just always accepted that there are some things beyond our understanding and so ghosts are a lot more real to me than to someone who thinks they're just for Hallowe'en.
I definitely feel there's something to your theory that ghosts take the place of things that are unspeakable, especially grief or abuse. I don't have any answers, but I wish I did. Also please tell me you don't have or use an ouija board. Those things scare the life out of me. Seriously.
Oh no, I don't play with the ouija board. I don't even do Tarot anymore. I still own the Witch Table - it was once just a regular tea table and I believe it can be again - it is in storage awaiting resurrection.
I know now that I have been getting help with my mental illness - complex-PTSD - the mental health community labels my paranormal experiences as hallucinations.
My experiences with ghosts were not like what you see in scary movies. Mostly my ghosts just wanted acknowledgement - to be seen or heard was enough for them.
Which is interesting because that is all I wanted growing up - to be seen and heard - to have my needs taken care of and to be loved.
See, the way you think about ghosts is very much the way I think about ghosts. Mind you, I am not even slightly trained in psychotherapy or psychoanalysis, but it feels like how I deal with ghosts in a spiritual way. The number of times I've spoken to someone who had a narrow escape and they said that *person who passed away* was looking after them I can't even count. It's a very Irish way of looking at those who have gone ahead of us. Definitely a sign of the grief we have for the people who have passed away. I didn't get on well with my Dad in some ways and really well in others, and after he died I kept encountering signs that he was around, keeping an eye on things. Not so much now that we're nearly 10 years on, but sometimes.
And I know it's an emotional reaction, and anyone who hasn't gone through what I did will view my reaction as emotional or unhealthy, but to me, it's just a ghost, hanging out.
It's partly why I don't like ghost movies because ghost movies assume that all the ghosts of the world are malevolent. Also a lot of the stuff that comes of really malevolent ghost experiences are also similar to things like carbon monoxide poisoning/mental illness symptoms that a lot of those movies are hella ableist. Ghost movies as a genre have nothing to do with how I interpret ghostly encounters.
Acknowledgement of their presence is very much a thing with a lot of genuine paranormal encounters - ones that aren't pranks or debunked as carbon monoxide or hallucinations. It's why the Catholic Church advocate blessing yourself and saying "Peace be with you" to a ghost is you encounter one. Pretty sure the fact that the Church has a policy on what to do with ghosts means that there has to be something to them, whatever our interpretation might be.
But if it's something that your mental health professionals are advising you isn't real then don't take my word for it, listen to the professionals.
I am SO GLAD you aren't using the ouija board. SO. GLAD. Those things scare the shit out of me. There's something totally fucked up about them, going back to before the time they were in horror movies. *full-body-shudder*
There is a lot of nasty shit out there...using a ouija board attracts its attention. That's why I don't go on ghost tours or stay in haunted rooms; I do not want something nasty that likes the way I taste to latch onto me.
I'm glad the ghosts have left you (although please tell me you don't ouija, please, please, please, those boards are scary af). I've talked with members of the Catholic priesthood about ghosts, (a friend of my uncle keeps getting email blocked by The Dark One apparently but only when emailing about some subjects), and I've had encounters I can't explain easily, but I don't have your same history of abuse. I know that my Dad's cigarette smoke appears in the house freshly whenever I miss him a lot, but I also know his smoke is seeped into the carpets and curtains so it's probably my imagination, but maybe it's him? idk.
I did a ghost walking tour in Bath in England some years ago and the most haunted places always were places where abuses of one kind or another took place. The Georgian house where the maid got knocked up and killed herself is haunted by her ghost, the park where there's a known plague pit and hanging tree was super haunted and triggered my anxiety like fuck.
I have a complicated relationship with the paranormal. I believe some ghosts are there to help us, to guide us or make things better or just to catch up with what's going on in our lives, like my Dad who visited me while I was skydiving, and some are there to be scary bastards. (Have I told you about Polty the Poltergeist in the Bank House my cousins lived in? 17th or 18th Century building with no specific history of abuses, used by the bank as along as I am aware, but had cold spots and objects moved around without any obvious cause, that stopped whenever cousins blessed themselves and said "peace be with you", which is, apparently how to address an unfamiliar ghost/poltergeist without getting targeted for bad haunting).
But I agree there must be a correlation between an emotional need for ghosts to exist and the way some ppl completely discredit those who hold the belief that ghosts are real. I just always accepted that there are some things beyond our understanding and so ghosts are a lot more real to me than to someone who thinks they're just for Hallowe'en.
I definitely feel there's something to your theory that ghosts take the place of things that are unspeakable, especially grief or abuse. I don't have any answers, but I wish I did. Also please tell me you don't have or use an ouija board. Those things scare the life out of me. Seriously.
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I know now that I have been getting help with my mental illness - complex-PTSD - the mental health community labels my paranormal experiences as hallucinations.
My experiences with ghosts were not like what you see in scary movies. Mostly my ghosts just wanted acknowledgement - to be seen or heard was enough for them.
Which is interesting because that is all I wanted growing up - to be seen and heard - to have my needs taken care of and to be loved.
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And I know it's an emotional reaction, and anyone who hasn't gone through what I did will view my reaction as emotional or unhealthy, but to me, it's just a ghost, hanging out.
It's partly why I don't like ghost movies because ghost movies assume that all the ghosts of the world are malevolent. Also a lot of the stuff that comes of really malevolent ghost experiences are also similar to things like carbon monoxide poisoning/mental illness symptoms that a lot of those movies are hella ableist. Ghost movies as a genre have nothing to do with how I interpret ghostly encounters.
Acknowledgement of their presence is very much a thing with a lot of genuine paranormal encounters - ones that aren't pranks or debunked as carbon monoxide or hallucinations. It's why the Catholic Church advocate blessing yourself and saying "Peace be with you" to a ghost is you encounter one. Pretty sure the fact that the Church has a policy on what to do with ghosts means that there has to be something to them, whatever our interpretation might be.
But if it's something that your mental health professionals are advising you isn't real then don't take my word for it, listen to the professionals.
I am SO GLAD you aren't using the ouija board. SO. GLAD. Those things scare the shit out of me. There's something totally fucked up about them, going back to before the time they were in horror movies. *full-body-shudder*
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