Ghosts & Religion
Ghosts are found within many religions, though many people from western cultures are not aware of it. Most religions teach that a spiritual aspect of human beings, whether the religion calls it a soul, spirit or ghost, survives beyond the destruction of the physical body. Ghosts may best be described as people who upon death, remain earthbound, and interact with mankind, being trapped within the earth realm due to emotional trauma of some sort. Many religions believe that addictions, lusts, tragedies and unfinished business seem to be the predominant causes of many a ghosts' sufferings. Let's look at some of the common core teachings that most of the major religions agree with each other on.
Ghosts Should Be Treated With Compassion
The religions of Buddhism, Judaism and Hinduism all teach that ghosts are suffering people who may need our help to move on beyond their state of turmoil. Hinduism and Buddhism have religious rituals to honor deceased ancestors which are believed to help free their souls to move on in their life journey. Certain sects of Buddhism teach how to free ghosts from earthly bondage by directing them toward the golden light. Judaism's practioners of ritualist Kabbalah teach a process of ghost exorcism that brings healing to both the ghost and the host. All three religions agree that ghosts are hurting people, earthbound and in need of the living's assistance.
Some Christianity, such as Catholicism, allows for purgatory, which just may metaphorically line up with earthbound ghosts suffering for a period of time until they are spiritually cleansed and able to move beyond the natural realm. In contrast, fundamental Christianity does not allow for ghosts, as followers believe the existence of ghosts to be an impossibility, due to a doctrine telling them a person must be either in heaven or hell. Perhaps, the teachers of such beliefs have not considered that hell may be the state of mind that ghosts find themselves in, and not some eternal place of the lost.
Why would Jesus say, "The gates of hell shall not prevail," if it were not true? If one looks at the teachings credited to Jesus, and is open to understanding them from a spiritual, parabolic perspective, then it becomes abundantly clear that the teachings of the Jewish Rabbi called, Jesus, line up perfectly with some ritualistic Kabbalah of Judaism, along with some of the teachings of Buddhism and Hinduism!
From that perspective, we are able to see that perhaps the major religions mentioned above have more in common than many believe. A fact that may help bring the whole of humanity together in spirituality, understanding ghosts, ghost possession, and ghost problems. If we are able to identify with the lost and hurting in the unseen realm who may surround us all, then maybe we can be of help not only to them, but to ourselves and each other.
