Most civilizations have their own beliefs of the afterlife and to best illustrate this we can refer to a opinion poll undertaken in 2004. The poll conducted by the Opinion Dynamics Corporation showed that 34 percent of Americans believe in ghosts, 92 percent believe in God and another 34 percent believe in UFOs.
Now, as stated, this poll was carried out by interviewing the American people and is not a full representation of the rest of the world. However, it does give us a pretty good grounding for research purposes.
Many of these civilizations have taught that the soul, or essence, of the departed “lives” in some form of spirit world where they are not governed by the earthly laws of physics or time.
In other words, they believed that their ancestors were above time and could see into the past, present and the future. Certain people believed that they could communicate with the departed and were often consulted by the people to get advice.
A specific form of divination, or fortune telling, came about called 'Necromancy'.
Today the word Necromancy is used interchangeably with 'magic', although with a slight occult connotation. Originally, however, the term simply referred to the art of being able to communicate with the spirits of the dead to foretell the future.
Necromancy was considered to be an essential skill for all true fortune tellers. Summoning spirits involved great preparations on the part of the fortune teller often involving fasting, secret rituals and incantations.
It is difficult to tell, thousands of years after they were written, whether the earliest records of ghosts were in fact literary inventions or actual observations of apparitions. According to the 9th century Greek poet, Homer believed that ghosts were benign, passive beings.
They didn't bother the living, and in turn the living didn't particularly worry about the ghosts. The Greeks believed that after death the soul departed for Hades, a nether region below the earth's surface ruled by the god Hades. Cracks in the Earth's surface, as well as caves and grottoes, were believed to be entrances to the underworld and these locations were often visited by priests and oracles.
Over time the Greeks beliefs towards ghosts and the afterlife changed. They no longer believed that they were benign beings, in fact they started to believe that ghosts were helpful and in cases even consoling, but the biggest change of all was that they thought that they could be at times threatening.
The Greeks also believed that ghosts were now noisy, restless beings and that they may even hurt or kill those who upset or who wandered too close. For centuries seers had been calling up the spirits for their advice and council, now the ghosts were making demands of the living! The ghosts thought to be most dangerous were those who died prematurely or who had met violent ends.
It was thought that the spirit of a deceased person sometimes hovered near it's grave, especially in the cases of violent premature deaths or suicide. Writing in his 'phaedo', the Greek philosopher Plato (427 – 347 B.C.) warned against “prowling about tombs and sepulchres, near which, as they tell us, are seen certain ghostly apparitions of souls which have not departed pure.” Ghost stories from ancient Greek and Roman periods must be taken with a grain of salt as such tales were often literary in nature.
The first written report of a haunted house comes from a letter written by Roman author, Statesman, and orator Pliny the younger (62? -c. 113 A.D.). He wrote to his friend, Lucias Sura, about a villa in Athens that no one would rent because it had resident ghost. In the dead of night (no pun intended) the noise of chains which grew louder and louder. Suddenly, the hideous apparition of an old man appeared who was said to be the very picture of abject filth and misery.
His long beard was matted and his white hair was dishevelled. His legs were weighted down by large irons that he dragged along while painfully moaning. His wrists were shackled by long cruel links. Every now and then he was said to have raised his arms and shook his chains (ever seen 'The Muppet's Christmas Carol'?) in fury.
Once, a few mocking sceptics who were bold enough to stay all night in the villa were almost scared senseless at the sight of the apparition. Worse still, disease & death was said to have struck those down who ventured into the building after dark.
This notorious reputation of the villa did not stop the philosopher from Athens, Athenodorus, from leasing the property. Short on money, he found the inexpensive rent too attractive to turn down. According to Pliny, Athenodorus met the ghost on the first night after moving into the property.
The philosopher heard the faint rattle of chains and then the old man appeared in front of him. The old man beckoned the philosopher to follow him. When he didn't the old man made more noise with his chains until Athenodorus decided to follow him (anything for a peaceful life I guess). The phantom moved into the garden and pointed to a spot on the ground then vanished.
He next day, Athenodorus told his story to the local authorities, who then dug up the garden. At the very spot indicated by the apparition, lay the bones of a human skeleton bound in chains. The bones were then given a proper burial, the house was ceremoniously purified and the ghost never appeared again.
The appearance of ghosts demanding a proper burial for their bones is a recurrent theme in classical Greek and Roman literature. However, what makes the above story so interesting is that this original case was written about before it's conclusion.
By the 3rd century, Christianity was making strong footholds in ancient Greece and Rome. To make conversion attractive to Pagans, the early Christian Church had to adopt, or adapt, many of the popular religious beliefs, especially those concerning ghosts and the afterlife.
Early Christian writers such as Justin Martyr verified that this new faith acknowledged life after death. He pointed to the Old Testament story of Saul as proof that Christians believed that the ghost of Samuel demonstrated Christian belief in the existence of a soul after death.
Other early Christians thinkers also argued that ghosts existed in spirit form only. Therefore, after death, all people would be social equals. This must have been a pretty attractive prospect for the slowly converting masses.
The draw to one of the oldest questions known to man clearly still has an unrelenting hold over us. Will it ever be fully answered? I guess only time will tell.
Source : Ghost Science