The debate on whether the myths and legends about ghosts are true or false is on going and has come to a point of which it is all opinion. Given all the facts and evidence I strongly agree that ghost is real. The definition of ghost is simply the spirit of a dead person, especially one believed to appear in bodily likeness to living persons or to haunt former habitats. If you look at other cultures and their versions of ghost the definition is close if not the same to our American definition. The names might be different El fantasma , Il fantasma ,der Geist ,le fantôme ,het spook ,fantasma , Multo ,draugur , Hantu but the meaning remains the same.

The reason I believe in ghost is due to the time when I experienced a ghost’s presence in my house. I remember the feeling and all the details of when it happened. I was eleven in Lihue of Kauai. I remember the air being very warm despite the late hours but suddenly getting shivers down my spine and every thing was deathly silent until a shill whistle broke threw the startling silence. I remember watching the shadows grow and morph and walking to the window and seeing a white blur slowly move behind the next house.
Although there are very few records regarding ghost, people can still compare similarities between the stories of different cultures. Although stories that have been passed down and may have changed but it is amazing that the stories dating back to Germanic times still hold the same details and descriptions as they do now and also how closely our view on ghost is related to the Chinese culture which also dated back to when animalism was still widely practiced. Meaning that the stories were not just for entertainment where the story gets morphed to be more interesting to the listener but a depiction of a real life story such as relaying a biography.

When North America noticed the importance of the matter of ghost they started to take records on anything the involved the spirits including activities, exorcisms and haunting and on one case a death. Now knowing that they can harm us, should we not be afraid. Should we not try to learn more about something that we know little about? And should we turn a blind eye at the fact that there is something out there that can change our world? We are ignorant in this area but that only means that we are capable of learning more.

When you look at most myths you can see the change within culture but when you look at ghost you see that the stories are the same. The American version is called a ghost and in some situations they are said to get attached to certain areas and if you trespass on their land they will do what ever they can to drive you off these efforts include killings. But across the equator in Hawaii they are called night marchers. Night marchers are deceased warriors who still guard their post. As they did in their life they March whistling and holding on to their duty and killing anybody they cross. A poltergeist is a phenomenon in which disorder occurs without explainable cause, usually indoors and in the presence of people. Such disorder typically includes inanimate objects moving or being thrown about, erratic noises and physical attacks on human beings. Poltergeists have traditionally been described as troublesome spirits or ghosts haunting a particular person, but are often suggested in parapsychology to be caused by spontaneous psychokinesis. A poltergeist is also thought to show up more around children who have experienced a trauma. Far across the sea in Indonesia is the same type of ghost but is called a Hantu which is said to punish abusive parents by stealing the children and sometimes killing them in order to teach the parents a lesson. Three very different cultures share the same stories it is very unlikely that it is a coincidence.

People have found ways to record voices or sounds of ghosts by occupying places where death is a common visitor. They have also found that they can sometimes capture images or blurs of spirits.

It is easy to see why people believe that ghost are just something used to entertain people through movies and books. And maybe some are afraid to learn that there is something else out there. But to sit back and question the obvious might open up a lot of logical thinking meaning that maybe we can finally get past our ignorance.

















































































































































































































Works Cited
"Ghost: Definition, Synonyms from Answers.com." Answers.com: Wiki Q&A Combined with Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Encyclopedias. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. <http://www.answers.com/topic/ghost>.
Parents, Her. "True Ghost Stories - True Stories of Ghosts and Hauntings from All Over the World." Paranormal Phenomena. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. <http://paranormal.about.com/od/trueghoststories/True_Ghost_Stories.htm>.
Prosser, Lee. Ghosts - Research, Evidence, and Discussion. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. <http://www.ghostvillage.com/>.