It's been a few months since the last sneak peak at Pocket Guide to the Afterlife, which releases in August from Jossey-Bass (along with Pocket Guide to Sainthood and a repackaged Pocket Guide to the Bible).
My favorite chapter in most of the Pocket Guides is the final chapter, which is always just a random collection of lists related to the topic. These are hard to research -- lots of information to sift through for a single bullet point -- but always fun to write. Because I like lists.
So here's one of them from "The Afterlists," which is the listy last chapter of PGTTAfterlife:
Eleven Sensible Explanations for Ghosts
1. They are souls of the dead who have returned to finish an unfinished task.
2. They have returned to avenge their deaths.
3. They want to uncover a hidden truth.
4. They are trying to protect their families.
5. They are suicide victims bound to wander the earth aimlessly.
6. They did not receive the proper burial rites.
7. They are ancestors looking out for us.
8. They are somehow trapped in this dimension and trying to find a way out.
9. They are projections of your subconscious.
10. They are hallucinations.
11. They are only floating bedsheets with eyeholes and nothing to be afraid of.
12. They are at Stage Three of the four stages of death prior to the next resurrection, with Stage One being an animal and Stage Two being a demon (Burmese Buddhism only).
------------
Have you ever seen, heard, or otherwise encountered a ghost? If so, please explain. (No, Bruce Willis doesn't count.)
Monday, April 13, 2009
Afterlife Preview: 11 Sensible Explanations for Ghosts
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I only see two that can be called sensible explanations.
And what about Swayze and Warren Beatty? I guess Warren wasn't technically a ghost, but reincarnated, in Heaven Can Wait.
11? Is the 12th one kind of like the 11th team in the Big 10?
I think it's wonderful that the company who brought us such holiday classics as "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Frosty the Snowman" is also publishing your book.
I can only hope the audio version is read by Jimmy Durante or Burl Ives!
Yep. I realized as I was posting it that there were (allegedly) 11 explanations in the title and 12 explanations in the list -- obviously an oversight in my manuscript which has been corrected in subsequent drafts -- but I decided to leave it in there. Would anyone noticed?
Yes. Robert did. Good job.
And I'm glad Matt noticed that not all of them are, in fact, "sensible."
good list Jason... look forward to reading the finished book.
I've seen some really odd things a couple of times, and prior to becoming a Christian I had a go on a ouiji board which was just freaky. I have now trouble reconciling my the idea of ghosts as dead humans with my faith so I am interested to hear from other readers.
when I first became a Christian I wondered about ghosts... someone told me they were demons masquerading as dead people (something to do with a verse in Corinthians i think). Someone else told me they were they were the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim (Genesis 6) and loaned me a book by Chuck Missler about it...
Post a Comment