The C Word: Halloween Special Preamble: A Little C Word Word Update: Twitter followers : Current count: 518! Thanks in no small part to the podcasts network #podpeople & #podnation They’ve been helping us pump out our content and we’ve joined in promoting theirs. If you haven’t yet, jump on twitter or instagram and give us a follow @cwordpod Each month we’ll feature a few pods from #podnation This month we’re featuring: Coffincast & Talksick Time Coffincast Explores death. From the strange to disturbing, to the humorous (yes death can be funny) to the heartbreaking, host Kristin Davis explores death stories with respect and sometimes humor. New podcasts weekly. Follow on Twitter @Coffincast & download wherever podcasts are found! ​ Talksick Time Your hosts Rojo, Bobby, Zach want you to come and laugh with them and listen to their take on different topics each week. Some past episodes include Horror Films, Sports, Childhood Dreams, etc. Follow them on IG, FB, and Twitter @talksicktime. So this being a Halloween Special, I figured we’d take a break from proper conspiracies and look into a kind of fun and spooky topic this month. This Month’s Topic is: Ghosts Ask for initial reactions Introduction: In folklore, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living. In ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely ​ visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike forms. The belief in the existence of an afterlife, as well as manifestations of the spirits of the dead, is ​ ​ widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. ​ ​ ​ ​ Ghosts are generally described as solitary, human-like essences, though stories of ghostly armies and the ghosts of animals rather than humans have also been recounted. The overwhelming consensus of science is that ghosts do not exist. FUCK SCIENCE Classification of Ghosts Ghosts generally fall into one of the following categories. 1. Ghosts are “created by naturally occurring environmental conditions such as electricity and electromagnetic radiation”; evidence for this often comes in the form of EMF readings. 2. Ghosts are the “‘playback’ of energy or stored human emotion that was once present in the location and then somehow captured or ‘recorded’ into the environment”; evidence of this theory is often discussed in terms of “residual hauntings,” 3. Ghosts “are very much alive and active, but present in alternate dimensions or realities.” 4. Ghosts may be either figments of our imaginations or products of temporary hallucinations. 5. Ghosts “are sentient entities that enjoy vexing and even harming humans.” This theory suggests that ghosts are similar to supposed demonic entities or fairies. Does anyone remember going to Sci-Fi on the Rock and that Scottish Author told us about the residual haunts? The type where it’s like a record embedded in a location? That always stuck with me. The classic belief concerning ghosts is that they are composed of a misty, airy, or subtle material. Anthropologists link this idea to early beliefs that ghosts were the person’s spirit. ​ In many traditional accounts, ghosts were often thought to be deceased people looking for vengeance, or imprisoned on earth for bad things they did during life. White ladies were reported to appear in many rural areas, and supposed to have died tragically or ​ suffered trauma in life. White Lady legends are found around the world. Common to many of them is the theme of losing a child or husband and a sense of purity, as opposed to the Lady in Red ghost ​ ​ that is mostly attributed to a jilted lover or prostitute. The White Lady ghost is often associated with an individual family line or regarded as a harbinger of death similar to a banshee. ​ ​ These are popular in Newfoundland. - Ask the boys if they have heard personal anecdotes for the white woman? HISTORY The English word ghost comes form Old English gāst, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ The synonym spook is a Dutch loanword, akin to Low German spôk (of uncertain etymology) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ The term poltergeist is a German word, literally a "noisy ghost", for a spirit said to manifest itself by ​ ​ invisibly moving and influencing objects. Wraith is a Scots word for ghost, or apparition. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ A revenant is a deceased person returning from the dead to haunt the living, either as a ​ ​ disembodied ghost or alternatively as an animated ("undead") corpse. ​ ​ A notion of the supernatural, usually involving entities like ghosts, demons, or deities, is a ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ cultural universal. ​ The spirit of a deceased person that persists in the material world (a ghost) is regarded as an unnatural or undesirable state of affairs and the idea of ghosts or revenants is associated with a ​ ​ reaction of fear. Fear of ghosts also remains an integral aspect of the modern ghost story, Gothic horror, and other ​ ​ ​ ​ horror fiction dealing with the supernatural. ​ Ghosts have always been with us: Ancient Near East and Egypt The soul and spirit were believed to exist after death, with the ability to assist or harm the living. ​ ​ The Egyptian Book of the Dead compiles some of the beliefs from different periods of ancient ​ ​ Egyptian history[38] ​ In modern times, the concept of a mummy coming back to life and wreaking vengeance when disturbed has spawned a whole genre of horror stories and films. Classical Antiquity By the 5th century BC, classical Greek ghosts had become haunting, frightening creatures who ​ ​ could work to either good or evil purposes. The spirit of the dead was believed to hover near the resting place of the corpse, and cemeteries were places the living avoided. Middle Ages Ghosts reported in medieval Europe tended to fall into two categories: the souls of the dead, or ​ ​ demons. The souls of the dead returned for a specific purpose. Demonic ghosts existed only to torment or tempt the living. Medieval European ghosts were more substantial than ghosts described in the Victorian age, and ​ ​ there are accounts of ghosts being wrestled with and physically restrained until a priest could arrive to hear its confession. Sounds like they just beat the shit out of people and called them ghosts after the fact to cover their asses. Some Middle Ages Ghosts were less solid, and could move through walls. Often they were described as paler and sadder versions of the person they had been while alive, and dressed in tattered gray rags. (After they had gotten the shit kicked out of them) ​ European Renaissance to Romanticism Renaissance magic took a revived interest in the occult, including necromancy. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ In the era of the Reformation and Counter Reformation, there was frequently a backlash against unwholesome interest in the dark arts. Modern period of western culture Spiritualism is a monotheistic belief system or religion, postulating a belief in God, but with a ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ distinguishing feature of belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world can be ​ ​ ​ ​ contacted by "mediums", who can then provide information about the afterlife. (aka scam artists) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ By 1897, it was said to have more than eight million followers ($$$$$) in the United States and ​ ​ Europe. This is the era where you start to see saiances and ectoplasm photos, etc. A lot of which has been thoroughly debunked as hoaxes. Pop Culture As we have seen, The ghost story is ubiquitous across all cultures from oral folktales to works of ​ ​ ​ ​ literature. While ghost stories are often explicitly meant to be scary, they have been written to serve all sorts of purposes, from comedy to morality tales. ​ ​ Spirits of the dead appear in literature as early as Homer's Odyssey, which features a journey to the ​ ​ ​ ​ [123] underworld and the hero encountering the ghosts of the dead, ​ and the Old Testament, in which ​ ​ ​ ​ the Witch of Endor summons the spirit of the prophet Samuel. ​ ​ ​ ​ Victorian/Edwardian (1840 to 1920) The "classic" ghost story arose during the Victorian period. Classic ghost stories were influenced by the gothic fiction tradition, and contain elements of folklore and psychology. Famous literary apparitions from this period are the ghosts of A Christmas Carol. ​ ​ Modern era (1920 to 1970) Professional parapsychologists and "ghosts hunters" published accounts of their experiences with ostensibly true ghost stories around this time. Also at this time, Children's benevolent ghost stories became popular, such as Casper the Friendly ​ Ghost. ​ You can see how the idea itself evolves over time. With the advent of film and television, screen depictions of ghosts became common, and spanned a variety of genres. You’d have to imagine the first Ghosts on screen scared the bejesus out of primitive audiences. Reference “The Arrival of a Train” by the Lumiere Bros. (1896) Post-modern (1970–present) The 1970s saw screen depictions of ghosts diverge into distinct genres of the romantic and horror. A common theme in the romantic genre from this period is the ghost as a messenger, with unfinished business, such as 1989's Field of Dreams, or the 1990 film Ghost. ​ ​ ​ ​ In the horror genre, 1980's The Fog, and the A Nightmare on Elm Street series of films from the ​ ​ ​ ​ 1980s and 1990s are notable examples of the trend for the merging of ghost stories with scenes of physical violence. This is when it gets good! The 1990s saw a return to classic "gothic" ghosts, whose dangers were more psychological than physical. Examples of films from this period include 1999's The Sixth Sense and The Others. ​ ​ ​ ​ Boo, bring back Freddy. In fictional television programming, ghosts have been explored in series such as Supernatural, ​ ​ Ghost Whisperer, and Medium. ​ ​ ​ There’s always some ghost related tv show on. In animated fictional television programming, ghosts have served as the central element in series such as Scooby-Doo.