What are some other viewpoints on spirits other then the traditional Christian ones?

Question

I'm not a very religious person, I guess I take the standpoint of an agnostic, we can never know for sure but it is possible. Anyways, a couple years ago I lost someone very close to me and my whole family, none of whom are very religious. My mom for example confuses me, she doesn't believe the Bible, is all for evolution, but has always believed in spirits and ghosts. She thinks he's been calling her on the phone from the beyond and that she saw his ghost in our house. It's hard for me to believe in spirits, because I've never had any kind of contact with them, but part of me is jealous that my mom (and his mom, who also claims he's been contacting her but she's very religious) say this stuff. I've haven't experienced anything but I've never been open to it either. If there is an afterlife, why are there ghosts?

Also, what are some other non Christian ideas about spirits? (Wiccans, Buddhists, ect) I always thought my mom was an Athiest, can you be an Athiest and believe in them?

Answer 1

We are all made up of body (the physical dies on death), mind (which governs all) and spirit (which is the eternal part of our existence...it does not die). When someone sees 'ghosts' it is usually the lower, uneducated and 'stuck' spirit that have not moved into the light. If your loved ones moved into the light, they can come back to communicate (which is really what you want to know about) through mediumship but would not stay around in a 'haunting' type of existence. There is a religion called Spiritualism that uses mediums in their services and therefore does some good development of the techniques.

Answer 2

I'm non-religous, and I don't really believe in spirits. There are a lot of people who seem to believe in them (then again there are a lot of people who believe that Bu$hco is winning in iraq too--strangely, they seem to be some of the same people).

That said, there is a lot that we don't know, and a lot of things that have happened that have no rational explanation. If you had all the facts in most of these cases, you could probably explain them without having to resort to 'invisible spirits' etc., since in most cases people don't even bother trying to find real facts, and instead immediately latch onto the idea that whatever is happening that they can't explain must be the work of 'spirits'.

I used to work in an office that was in an old renovated house. One of the guys that worked there was convinced that the house was haunted, because he would occasionally smell pipe tobacco smoke in one of the back rooms. I actually smelled it too from time to time (or something that smelled similar), but there were tons of boxes of old junk, books, rolls of drawings (it was an engineering office). On top of that, there was a musty basement full of junk too. My automatic reaction was 'something in all of this junk smells like pipe tobacco, but the other guys reaction was 'ghosts'.

If you want some interesting reading on the subject, go pick up a copy (look at the library) of 'the demon haunted world' by carl sagan - yep, the 'cosmos' guy. He's been dead for a while now (so hopefully he's gotten to find out if he is right or wrong) but he presents a very well thought out case for why people shouldn't believe in the unseen - especially just because they are looking for things to fascinated by, there are plenty of real things in this universe to be fascinated by without having to resort to making things up.

Answer 3

There *seems* to be some unexplained occurrences related to spirits, ghosts, etc. However, most if not all, of these when scientifically analyzed turn out to easily explainable. The question you really need to answer for your self is what difference would it make if you believed in them or not -- or in this case what would the difference be for your mom?

I suspect if you gathered all the "ideas" about ghosts from religions and "spiritualists" you'd find that most of it is contradictory.

Answer 4

OTHER THAN the Holy Spirit (as mentioned in the Bible)

in order ... MY FAVORITE SPIRITS are:

1) Southern Comfort
2) Casper the Ghost
3) Bud Lite
4) Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum, and
5) ALL Red Wines!!

Answer 5

I believe Spirits can definatly contact you after death. They don't have to be an earthbound ghosts .. they can have made their way home and just come to visit and let peopel know they are okay.
I can understand your feelings of jealousy .. i had a little bit of that when my grandpa came to my brother to give a message instead of me.. but know i think it was just easier to go through my brother than myself.
it'd be alot harder for this spirit to come to you if you're closed minded about it all .

p.s i'm not religious.. just spiritual

Answer 6

My friends mom sees spirits all the time. Usually when she's in a bad place in her life. Scary ones. She told me when my friends little brother was little he drew her a picture of some she saw. I'm totally serious, this women does not BS.