Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Ghosts and Forgiveness


Looks like Jesse has finally gone off the deep end! While many readers may chuckle at the contents of this next article, I think the underlying topic is of utmost importance. Many times I try to tie in scientific, literary, and traditional concepts to convey the message I am attempting to communicate. Much of the next article is purely speculative, but non-the-less in my humblest of opinions, entirely relevant. Additionally, you may not want to become a ghost (cue the evil laughter)!

Why is forgiveness important? In perhaps the most famous sermon held atop “the mount” and documented in the New Testament, Jesus Christ speaks much of forgiveness. Many regard this as the most important teachings in the Bible. “Forgive and you will be Forgiven.” According to Hebrew tradition when Jesus says this He implies not only that other men will indeed forgive you if you forgive, but to forgive, and you will be forgiven by God.

Why do we need forgiveness especially from an omnipotent, all-loving God? Perhaps that is not the question we should be asking. Perhaps we need forgiveness from ourselves. Forgiveness is required for the remission of sin. Sin may be simply defined as missing the mark. I like to think of it as acting (or thinking) in such away that denies our Divine Father and recognition of our Spiritual individualization of the omnipotent God. Therefore, we may deduce that forgiveness is required when we miss the mark. For example, this can be easily seen when we do not fulfill our duty to another person and require forgiveness from them. We could say we missed the mark of duty to that other person or sinned against them.

Ah great Sunday school kind of material. Now lets get crazy.

Let me first of all state that I have never seen a ghost, apparition, ghoul or any other type of phantom. However, I have very close friends from the nursing industry that often report to me being visited by apparitions of their recently deceased patients. Additionally, numerous historical accounts have documented paranormal activities relating to the deceased in every nation and culture. It is not my objective, however, to prove or disprove these accounts, it is sufficient to say a great amount of evidence speaks to the existence of a spiritual realm in which these ghosts reside.

These realms I cannot describe to you, though I would love to speculate of their properties. However, I believe that as we pass on, our body may die, but our state of consciousness continues on. Therefore, whenever we “miss the mark” we allow ourselves to become separated from the universal principle of Unity with the Infinite. Could a ghost be the embodiment of a soul in some state seperated from the Infinite Source not embrassing its true nature? I don’t know if there is a continuum to this level of separateness, but I do know that the Infinite operates with Love, which we cannot forever separate ourselves from.

Could this by why spirits linger in the earthly realm? What keeps these passed beings in their state of separation? Could perhaps a longing to for forgiveness from something, someone, or themselves motivate them from continuing onto greater levels of conscious existence? The mystery remains.

Great ghost picture provided by Current Obsession


14 comments:

Bob Johnson said...

Lol, love it Jesse, interesting look at why there are ghosts, I am of the same thinking as you, a ghost or apparition is separated from God, for some reason, hasn't found it's way, and is probably too late to do so. Not to forgive will only eat you up inside, after all God forgave us our sins, if we don't do likewise how can we truly know and eventually be with God?

Sherer said...

Haha, thanks for the support bob, I was curious as to how people would respond to this one. I have an active imagination and am often thinking about one step beyonddddddddddd. Thanks for stopping by.

Jesse

Caroline said...

What a great thought provoking post. Can I just say one thing...your writing is incredible!

OK...back to forgiveness! I believe forgiveness is vital to the soul. Forgiveness is very difficult...it's easy to stay angry and live in regret. To forgive oneself is to give up the ego (and the ego holds on tightly). Maybe these ghouls and ghosts are egos floating around waiting for their souls to return? But the souls have moved on. So the ego's are left behind "boo hooing" and creating all sorts of chaos.

Sherer said...

Caroline,

Ah now we have a discussion going! Excellent. I really like that idea. The ego as ghosts. This may explain why they often take the physical form of the deceased as they identify themselves to that physical form. I, however, have never thought of the ego as beings its own entity capable of thought on its own, movement, ect, but rather thought of the ego as a necessary part of the individualization process described by Carl Jung. However, I these are topics that are perfect for this kind of discussion - because all we can really do is speculate.

Thank you very much for your comment.

Caroline said...

I need to re-fresh myself with Jung. My Mom is a huge "Jungian" fan (spent 20 years studying him). I feel like my ego is that crazy banshee in my head...running wild and causing lot's of chaos. It seems to make sense that when our spirit "moves on"...the last thing it wants to take is the ego. Poor ego...it gets no respect!

Anonymous said...

What an interesting theory about ghosts. This could explain why they sometimes move on with the help of an exorcist or priest to reunite them with the rest of their being that has moved on. We are much more than we appear and our bodies emanate through the many dimensions of reality. Could it be that though most of their soul has moved to the next realm (or dimension) still a trace of them remains 'stuck'?
What you say about forgiveness is true too - and forgiving ourselves does indeed lead to liberation. But then I wonder - what do you think about ghosts of animals? I have a spirit cat that visits my house once in a while. He is a happy soul (I think) and I wonder how he got 'stuck'?

Sherer said...

Healing Stones,

Hmmm, Ghost animals. A very good question, I have heard abou tthis phenominon as well. Truely everything must be spirit, including animals. All forms of matter must be classified as the very lowest "form" of spirit. Therefore, if spiritual developments of all things gravitating back to the one originating source is what is meant by spiritual growth then I see no problem with the spiritual developments in our feline friends among other animals and "lower" forms of intelligence.

What a fantastic question! If anyone else has thoughts on this I would welcome your thoughts.

Jesse

Sherer said...

Caroline,

I wish eckart tolle was a frequent reader of this blog, I would ask him if the ego continues on after death. Then we get into a conversation about the soul seeking further spiritual development in a quest for freedom from the ego, reincarnating itself.

Great point. I tend to speculate that the ego dies with our body. However, this would be a great explaination for ghost - because the true spirit needs no ego.

Jesse

HEALTH NUT WANNABEE MOM said...

I have never seen a ghost myself but absolutely believe that they do exist. Many a reliable and very sane person has told me of their ghost experiences. I always wonder why they are still here and not there (wherever there may be). Loved this post.

Sherer said...

Thanks heidi,

I wanted to do something a bit different here. I actually would really like to see a ghost as crazy as that sounds.

I am thinking about doing a really basic post on eating health and such, is it okay if I use your site as a referrence for people to go to?

Jesse

Swubird said...

Sherer:

I agree with Bob's comment. However, I must say that I have never believed in ghosts. To me, they're like UFO's. There have been a million sightings, but not a shred of tangible, or earthly evidence. Why? Maybe it's because they have been very careful not to leave anything behind, and maybe they were never here in the first place. At any rate, I'll be the first in line if anybody can show me one.

As to forgiveness, I believe that it lies at the very core of a civilized society. Without forgiveness, we have nothing.

Happy trails.

Sherer said...

Thanks SWU,

I appreciate the comment as always. I am with you, I would love to see a ghost and a UFO, but the scientific evidence really is not there yet. However, I do believe the theoretical evidence abounds which makes the subject fun.

Jesse

Anonymous said...

Hi Jesse

Excellent observation and perception on the existence of ghosts.

My wife is a nurse. She has witnessed many deaths...too numerous for her to recount.

I have a tendency to agree with this deduction of yours.

...and Bob was bang on the money.

Excellent.

~JD

Sherer said...

JD,

Bob is always on the money - kinda makes me mad sometimes. haha I kid.

Thanks for stopping by as always, I am very impressed with the new site, I think its going to be huge to have your site open to the public. Allowing those with an interest acecss to these amazing original works.

Thanks