A Gallup Poll reveals that more than 40 percent of all Americans claim to have seen, heard, or felt the presence of a ghost at one time or another. These are ordinary people who came face-to-face with something they didn’t understand and didn’t seek. They weren’t trying to contact the spirits of the dead. It just happened.
Strangely enough, nearly one-third of the people who said they had an encounter with a ghost also said they are “doubters” when it comes to believing in life after death.1 They know they’ve brushed up against something really weird, but they don’t buy the notion it was a disembodied human spirit.
Does life go on beyond physical death?
The Bible clearly says the soul is eternal and we will either spend that eternity in God’s presence or forever separated from him. Still, is this a valid reason for us to believe that so-called ghosts or apparitions are evidence of survival of the human soul?
If not, what are they?
THE GHOST AND THE VIDEO GAME
Larry and Susan were thrilled when they were finally able to buy a house after more than 10 years of living in an apartment. The house, in a suburb of Pittsburgh, wasn’t a mansion, but it was twice the size of their apartment, and it was great to have some room for their boys, Jason, eight, and Derek, four.
One of the things Larry liked about the house was the finished basement, which he planned to convert into a rec room. The boys liked the basement, too, and from the day the family moved in, they spent a lot of time in there, playing and watching television.
The boys also started talking about the friend they’d met in the basement. They called him “the old man.” Sometimes Larry would hear his boys laughing and carrying on down there, and when he asked, “What are you guys up to?” they’d tell him that “the old man” was telling funny stories.
Jason was in school, so he quickly made friends in the new neighborhood. But Derek spent a lot of time by himself. Larry decided to help fill the lonely hours by buying his son a video game system. He put it in the basement, still in its box, and told Derek he’d set it up for him over the weekend.
The next morning, as he was getting ready for work, he heard Derek’s laughter floating up from the basement. He heard something else too: the beeps and blasts of the video game in action. When he went downstairs, he found Derek happily playing the game.
“Son? Who set this all up for you?” he asked.
“I did it myself,” came the answer.
“You did?” It didn’t seem like the type of thing a four-year-old could do.
“Well...not all by myself. The old man showed me how to do it.”
More than a little unnerved, Larry called his office, told them he’d be coming in late that morning, and went to see the real estate agent who had sold him the house. He told the agent all about his boys’ encounter with “the old man” and asked if there was anything about the house he ought to know.
After a long moment’s hesitation, the agent finally said, “Your house used to belong to a man named Johnson. He was in his late 70s when he died.”
“And?”
The real estate agent swallowed hard before continuing. “I didn’t want to tell you this...but...he hanged himself. In the basement.”
That’s the story the way Larry tells it. He also says he thought about selling the house, but after he and his wife discussed it, they decided to stay. They loved the house, so they made the decision to share it with the strange entity, whoever or whatever it is, and strive for peaceful coexistence.
As far as I know, the arrangement is working out. They’re not worried about any harm coming to them because they belong to Jesus Christ, and they know there is no spiritual power in the universe greater than him and his love. And yet, there’s a very serious question here…
What exactly is going on in that house and in other similar houses around the world? My first inclination is to look for and believe in natural explanations, to pass the stories off as tall tales for those with overactive imaginations. Still, belief in ghosts has been around for thousands of years.
Chapter 14 of Matthew tells what happened when Jesus came to the disciples by walking on the water:
During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” (Matthew 14:25-27)
Some of the disciples had a similar reaction when Jesus appeared to them after his resurrection:
While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” (Luke 24:36-39)
Jesus didn’t berate them for being superstitious. He didn’t say, “You ought to know there’s no such thing as a ghost.” This isn’t exactly an endorsement to believe in some sort of supernatural manifestation, but it’s interesting that Jesus felt no need to address the issue.
It would seem that, in some way, ghosts exist. But, again, are they the spirits of the departed?
I don’t think so.
I believe the evidence points to a number of different explanations, some very simple and others quite complex.
CAN WE REALLY BELIEVE OUR EYES?
Some experts who have studied ghosts and haunted houses have come to the conclusion that many such experiences occur only in the eyes and ears of the beholder. In other words, they’re a realistic type of hallucination.
Paranormal investigators Jenny Randles and Peter Hough write that ghostly manifestations may sometimes “have their roots in optical illusions or anomalies of perception. The will to believe can often provide its own persuasive evidence.”2
Among other evidence to support this conclusion, they cite the story of Ruth, a woman who reported she was often visited by the “ghost” of her father. What made this so unusual, compared to other ghost stories, was that her father was very much alive at the time.
With the help of psychiatrist Morton Schatzman, Ruth was eventually able to control her ability to “create” realistic hallucinations. She had learned how to conjure up three-dimensional images of other people, and she sometimes had trouble telling the difference between her hallucinations and real people who were present.
In one experiment Ruth was asked to create an image of her father and get “him” to stand in front of some flashing lights, which were timed to interact with her brain rhythms. Ruth’s brain activity was then measured to determine if she could see the lights through the image of her father. The experiment revealed that Ruth didn’t see the flashing lights at all! It was as if her father really were standing in front of them. The ghost wasn’t real, but it was real enough to block her vision.
Randles and Hough conclude, “These tests show that the brain is capable of ‘seeing’ something that is not there in such a realistic way that it can fool certain perceptual responses.... There is reason to suspect that apparitions could at least at times be very vivid hallucinations.”3
Further experiments have shown that between four to eight percent of us are “fantasy-prone.” These people have a difficult time distinguishing dreams from reality and may have hallucinations that seem to be 100 percent real.4
There’s no way of knowing for sure how many ghostly sightings have such logical explanations. But if 95 percent of all UFO sightings can be explained as a misinterpretation of data (as stated in chapter 5), it’s likely that a substantial number of hauntings are the result of similar misinterpretations.
Other hauntings seem to be related directly to a desire to believe.
In the early 1970s a British researcher named Frank Smyth decided to make up a ghost story, present it as real, and see if there was any response. He fabricated a story about the ghost of a clergyman who haunted a house in London and had it published in a magazine. His story included the address of the house for those who might be inclined to check out the story for themselves.
Over the next few years, he received numerous reports from people who claimed to have seen the ghost. Some described the apparition in vivid detail, right down to his clerical collar.
When Smyth revealed that the story was phony, he was flooded with letters from people who insisted he was wrong. They were convinced they had really seen the clergyman’s ghost, and nothing was going to make them believe differently. One such letter-writer insisted that Smyth only thought he made up the story, but that he had actually written it while under the influence of a real ghost.5
BIG BUSINESS
Many other ghostly appearances and hauntings seem to be the result of plain, old-fashioned greed. There’s plenty of money to be made in the ghost business.
Most people love a mystery. We like to be scared as long as there’s no real danger involved. That’s why so many of us enjoy roller coasters, scary movies, and the chill that creeps down our spines when we hear “true stories” about events that have taken place in haunted houses—houses like the one featured in the film The Amityville Horror…and its many sequels. You probably know the story. If not, it’s fairly typical:
1. A gruesome mass murder takes place in the house.
2. An unsuspecting family buys the house, not knowing its terrible history.
3. When they move in, they are subjected to all sorts of attacks by the malevolent entities that haunt the house—things like overpowering stenches, swarms of flies, sudden drops in temperature, green slime appearing on doors and walls, and objects flying through the air.
The family’s ordeal became the subject of a best-selling book and several movies…but not everyone agrees on the details. Some people who were said to be present when strange, awful things took place have now said they saw nothing out of the ordinary.
It’s been alleged that the family who bought the house was in desperate need of money. And it has also been reported that the attorney for the man who was charged with the murders that took place in the house met with the family in an attempt to get them to state publicly that the house was haunted.
Why?
The allegation is that he hoped to convince a jury that his client was innocent because he had been under the control of evil supernatural forces when he committed the murders—the same forces, you see, that were now tormenting the new owners of the house.6
What really happened in Amityville? Many believe that, beyond four gruesome murders, not much of anything.
ANOTHER STORY
The same can be said of one of the most famous haunted houses in the world, England’s Borley Rectory, which was built in 1863. The first sighting of a ghost there reportedly took place in 1885. In 1900 the four daughters of Henry Bull, who built the rectory, reported seeing the ghost of a nun walking the grounds.
One of the most famous occurrences in Borley was the rearrangement of several heavy coffins in the building’s crypt. The coffins reportedly weighed several hundred pounds apiece, but some strange force kept rearranging them as if they were a bunch of dominos.
The building’s reputation was enhanced during one six-month period in 1927 when a dozen clergymen and their wives visited the rectory with an eye toward taking up residence there. All of them decided against it, for various reasons, which reportedly included strange noises and other spooky happenings.
Finally the Reverend Guy Eric Smith and his wife moved into the house. They managed to stay for nine months. During that time they reported often hearing footsteps and voices echoing through the house when there was no one else there. They also told of seeing a ghostly horse-drawn carriage coming up the driveway and were especially troubled by a doorbell that kept ringing when there was no one at the door. Finally they said they’d had enough and moved out.
At least that’s the way the story goes. But…
The fact is, Borley Rectory owed much of its fame to a psychic investigator named Harry Price. Jenny Randles and Peter Hough write of Price, “That he courted the media cannot be denied, and evidence that he exaggerated and sometimes cheated to hype up the hauntings at Borley seems fairly substantial.”7
In at least some instances, this is how ghostly legends are born. There may have been some mysterious goings-on at Borley Rectory, but chances are they were magnified and exaggerated with each successive telling and then twisted even more by an over-zealous “investigator.” This seems to happen again and again with “ghost stories” and other tales of the type.
This may even be the case with the story of Larry and Susan that we discussed earlier.
Have you ever had the experience of hearing someone describe an event that the two of you attended together and found yourself wondering how they could be so far off target? It’s a natural tendency for people to confuse and exaggerate events. That’s just human nature. For that reason it’s entirely possible that the whole story is nothing more than a series of coincidences, spurred along by an overactive imagination. Perhaps it’s true that Larry bought a house and found out later that the previous owner had committed suicide in the basement. Maybe his sons had an imaginary friend they called “the old man,” who really was nothing more than a figment of their imaginations. Perhaps events like these began to come together in Larry’s mind and made the story much bigger than it really was.
On the other hand, it’s also possible that Larry’s home may be “haunted” by some mysterious entity of unknown origin. After all, there are some ghost experiences that seem to defy natural explanation. Poltergeists, for instance.
POLTERGEISTS
Poltergeists appear to be noisy, destructive, and malicious. They’re called the “practical jokers” of the supernatural world, allegedly pulling pranks that are frightening and expensive.
Poltergeists have been reported to throw things around, break dishes, and move furniture, and there have been several, well-documented cases of such activity.
One of the most famous poltergeist disturbances of the past few decades took place in Bristol, Connecticut, over a two-week period. The victims were a couple named John and Susan Sanford and their two sons. During that time dishes supposedly flew out of cupboards and were smashed on the floor, pictures fell from walls throughout the house, and furniture rearranged itself. The family also reported hearing growling noises and seeing red eyes peering in at them through the living room window.
A photographer named Paul Eno who went to investigate the phenomena said that when he was in the house, he felt something like a strong electrical current that made his hair stand on end. When his film was developed, one of the photographs allegedly showed a bearded face looking into the house through a window.8
Regardless of whomever or whatever was responsible for the strange activity in the house, it didn’t last long. It stopped just as suddenly as it began—a common occurrence with poltergeists.
ANOTHER NAME
Again, no one knows for sure what poltergeists are. Some feel they are spirits that feed off fear and hate. However, the Bible has another name for spirits of this type. They’re called—you guessed it—demons.
And, as we covered in chapter 3, no demon is a match for the power and authority of Jesus Christ.
One woman told me about a terrifying experience she had when she was in her early 20s. She wasn’t a Christian at the time, although she knew about Jesus Christ and the Bible’s claims that he died for the sins of all mankind. She said she woke up in the middle of the night feeling extremely cold and terrified. Immediately she knew that something evil was in her bedroom. Her eyes flew open, and she saw a gargoyle-like creature standing at the foot of her bed. It was like nothing she had ever seen before, and she will never forget the utter hatred that shone in the creature’s vicious, terrifying eyes.
“Jesus!” she cried. “Help me!”
Immediately the creature vanished. Her bedroom was perceptibly warmer, and she no longer felt afraid. She remains convinced that this was not a dream or a hallucination. Something evil had invaded her room, but it had disappeared the instant she called upon the name of Jesus.
Shortly after her ghostly encounter, this woman began to read the Bible and pray on a regular basis. It wasn’t long before she surrendered her life to Christ, and today she is a missionary, serving him in France.
Another woman tells of being awakened in the middle of the night by a force pressing down on her body. She couldn’t see anything, but she could feel ghostly hands pushing down on her. When she tried to struggle against her attacker, she found she couldn’t move, nor could she open her mouth to scream. She seemed paralyzed, completely powerless against her ghostly assailant.
She was, however, able to pray a silent prayer: “Please... God...in the name of Jesus...help me!”
At that moment the attack stopped. The pressure lifted, and she leaped out of bed, flipped on the light, and saw that the room was empty.
She spent the rest of the night in her living room, with all the lights on, but her attacker did not return.
GHOSTS AND THE BIBLE
Occasionally someone will point to what they say are references to ghosts in the Bible. There are two specific passages they cite as proof that ghosts are the souls of the departed.
The first is chapter 17 of Matthew, which tells us that when Jesus was transfigured, Moses and Elijah (both had been dead for hundreds of years) appeared and talked with him. But, as we mentioned before, this passage isn’t about proving the existence of ghosts. It’s about Jesus preparing for the cross and the proof that he is greater than anyone who lived before him—even Moses and Elijah.
The second Scripture cited is chapter 28 of 1 Samuel. This passage tells of King Saul’s visit to the medium at Endor, who summoned for him the spirit of the prophet Samuel. Obviously, according to Deuteronomy 18:10-12, Saul was going way against God’s law by visiting the medium. But in this instance, it seems that God allowed the deceased prophet to appear and give a very important message to the king. That message was, “You have sinned, and God is going to take the kingdom away from you.”
Actually, neither one of these passages has anything to do with ghosts or haunted houses. In both instances the appearance of spirits of the dead was brought about by a sovereign act of God. You see, God can do whatever he wants to do, however he chooses to do it.
All human souls, both the living and the dead, are under his control.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Although what we believe about ghosts is important, it’s not nearly as important as what we believe about the messages that come through them. Remember what I’ve said before: Any creature, whether physical or spiritual in nature, that denies the divinity of Jesus Christ—or that says things in direct contradiction to God’s Word—can’t be trusted.
When it comes to ghosts—or any other supernatural entity—it’s vital that we test the spirits, according to 1 John 4, and remember the apostle Paul’s words from the first chapter of Galatians:
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! (Galatians 1:8-9)
In the 1960s James A. Pike, a bishop in the Episcopal Church, became an outspoken advocate of “communicating with spirits” and other occult practices. The bishop became a champion of the occult largely through what he believed to be encounters with the ghost of his son, who had died of a drug overdose.
The “spirit” of Bishop Pike’s son reportedly told him, with regret in his voice, that he wished he could tell his father that Jesus was Lord and victorious over all, but that it just wasn’t true. He also told the bishop that even “on the other side,” there were pockets of “believers” who still considered Christ to be their Savior and who waited patiently for his second coming. But, of course, they were fools who were humored and pitied by all the truly enlightened ones.
On his son’s say-so, Bishop Pike turned away from his faith in Christ. Sadly, through his numerous books, articles, and TV appearances, he undoubtedly moved many others away from faith in the Lord as well.
And yet the Bible is clear on this. If anyone—human, angel, space alien, or ghost—tells us we can be saved some other way than through faith in Christ, he’s a liar and a tool of Satan, not to be trusted.
I’ve said before that I don’t know what ghosts are. That’s true. But I do not believe for a minute that they’re the spirits of dead people.
Once again, take a look at what the Bible says:
Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:27-28)
That couldn’t be any clearer. After a man dies he is judged, and then he is sent to the appropriate place of reward or punishment.
There’s no stopping by the house of an old friend to put in some guest appearances or play a few games on a Ouija board. Nor will there be any visits to the home of an old enemy to rattle a few chains and raise some goosebumps.
Do you remember Jesus’ parable about the rich man and Lazarus? After the rich man died and was judged, he was sent to a place of torment. He begged Abraham to come to him and cool his tongue with a few drops of water, but Abraham couldn’t do it.
Abraham told him:
Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us. (Luke 16:25-26)
There is a great “chasm” that exists between heaven and hell and between this life and the next. For that reason alone I won’t listen to any creature that says it has come from “the life beyond” to enlighten me.
I may not know what ghosts are, but I do know enough not to listen to what they say.
There’s no doubt that the subject of ghosts and haunted houses is a fascinating one. But it can also be dangerous. An interest in ghosts can open a door into the world of the occult that is better left closed. A ghost who seems as gentle as Casper may, in reality, be a demon who is anxious to mislead us —to convince us that it doesn’t really matter what we believe.
And as Jesus Christ said time and time again, it does matter. It’s the difference between an eternity in heaven or in hell.