Why have ghost forms altered throughout the years?

Question

Why do ghosts apparently manifest themselves differently from culture to culture?

Why do the appearance of ghosts evolve according to the current technology available?

Could there be a cultural explanation for how we perceive what we think are ghosts?

Answer 1

I maintain that ghosts will look like a normal living person, not a ball of light and not an orb and it can be confused with a living breathing person.

BB

Answer 2

no!! theres no cultural explanation! it just people's mind sets!

ghost're nothing but human souls after their death! n obviously this sounds scary. n when it comes to scare people, like in movies or in story books or something, it just depends on the authors!! they just want to scare people and they do it different form based on their experiences!!

n ya as people differ, ghosts differ from each other too : D

Answer 3

The belief in ghosts is universal, but the nature of ghosts is cultural.

I now live in Asia, and the perception of ghosts, how they look and act, and what they "do" as ghosts to scare us differs from my Western/USA perception of ghosts.

I can watch an Asian movie about hauntings and spirits that seems to terrify the audience and I  just laugh at how ludicrous it all seem.

But in reality, the "ghosts" are doing the same thing all ghosts do: haunt houses, walk graveyards, rattle chains blow out candles and appear suddenly with strange moanings and dire warnings.

What I am reacting to, then, is the "depiction" of the ghosts, which don't "look like" my cultural perception of a ghost. To me., its just some actor in makeup or a "special effect", but has no cultural resonance with me.



That is verified by films such as "The Ring" -- originally a Japanese Horror/Ghost story that was "adapted" for American audiences. Why? because western perceptions and sensibilities of what scares us (And what is "acceptable" for scaring us) often differs from a Japanese/Asian perception.  So the characters affected become American not Japanese, and the ghosts act out the seminal psychological fear we share as Westerners/Americans -- the "immortal serial killer" that cannot be stopped. That is a cultural fear, expressed traditionally in a form of supernatural fiction.

This has nothing to do with the "reality" of ghosts, except, as with religion, to illustrate that  "belief" and the "reality" is driven by cultural assumptions and needs of the believer(s).

Answer 4

Statistically, not all ghost sightings will be real. Some will just be people thinking that they have seen ghosts. These sightings are just a result of people's imaginations and these changes mostly result from changes in the presentation of ghost on TV and in camp fire stories, etc

For example, with alien sightings there were almost no Gray-Alien reports in the UK until Fire in the Sky was released over there. Gray-Alien sighting shot up after than.

What you need to look out for are the persistent descriptions such as people in period dress (This will naturally differ between cultures), or persistent phenomona such as poletguiest activity.

You also need to separate ghost sightings from wider cultural beliefs and myths as these tend to be regional and not actually related to ghosts.

Answer 5

First of all let me say that I am a believer.

I think that with paranormal "experiances" the viewer alters their perception to what the believe will be accecpted by the world. As people become more convinced in the existance of ghosts, the images upgrade and become more advanced. I mean 20 years ago people were convinced that floating sheets were all the evidance that they needed on paranormal existance, but now we need to see more to believe more, and so the perspective has been altered.

Answer 6

It is the difference between cave drawings and photographs.

Ghosts and spirits manifest themselves in different ways depending on the ability to perceive them. A modern ghost would not be found sitting in a field hitting rocks together as an old ghost would not be found behind the wheel of wrecked car sitting in a junk yard.

They are a reflection of their time and culture.

There isn't any difference between the 'quality of ghost' only the perception. A hundred and sixty years ago a light bulb in the ceiling would have been described as a fire on the ceiling.

Nothing has changed but the  people perceiving them.

Answer 7

Well I think if Buddha appeared as a ghost..he'd still look the same. Some things never change!