Chapter 1 What Is a Ghost Ghosts are in many stories books television shows Have you ever seen felt or heard something that you just could not explain A strange noise in the night The shadow of a figure out of the corner of your eye Sudden unexplained coldness Some people think these occurrences do have an explanation ghosts and movies Some are sinister while other spirits are considered good Some people do not believe in ghosts But of all paranormal occurrences more people believe in ghosts than any other In a 2005 survey 32 percent of people questioned said that they believed in ghosts about 48 percent said they did not and 19 percent were not sure What about you Do you believe or do you think those strange occurances are just coincidence 5
Getting to Know Ghosts Many people believe in ghosts but what are they Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines a ghost as a disembodied soul especially the soul of a dead person believed to be an inhabitant of the unseen world or to appear to the living in bodily likeness A ghost is said to live in the netherworld but it can visit the living too Some ghosts are said to haunt places where they had a connection when they were alive Ghosts might appear to look like they did in life Or they might show up as poltergeists which make noises move around a building or break things century It comes from the ancient word gast which The word ghost has been in use since the late sixteenth Imagine That means guest in the language that evolved Strange Stories into German The idea that sometimes spirits survive death and live without a physical body resulted in ghost stories These chilling tales have been around almost as long as 6
there were stories to tell Ancient people told stories of spirits and hauntings They appear in the Bible William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet and Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol Ghosts are found in stories all over the world It seems that ghosts and their stories have been scaring people since the beginning of time The opening scene from William Shakespeare’s famous play Hamlet begins with the appearance of the ghost of the recently dead king 7
