Playing Host to a Ghost

Playing host to a ghost is not necessarily a bad thing. Ghosts seldom present any physical threat to the living, after all, and they tend to be self-absorbed, more concerned with their own problems than causing trouble for anybody else. Resident spirits can even be comforting, provided they belong to benevolent ancestors or departed friends, or even to a charmingly sorrowful soul who is just looking for company.


Viewed with a coldly commercial eye, a haunting can even have practical value. Harmless but interesting haunts add a certain romantic cachet to a house – especially in cities such as Savannah or New Orleans that take pride in their past – and that cachet can enhance property values. Similarly, the odd phantom footstep or spectral sigh, assuming there is an eerie story attached, can make the difference between a mediocre bed-and-breakfast and a booming destination hotel.

All this having been said, however, most of us would probably prefer to confine our households to the living, simply because ghosts are scary. Faced with the chilling certainty that some stranger is invisibly among us, its nature unknowable and motives and intentions unknown, our first reflex is to scream. But to whom?

To a priest, is one answer. In times past – and sometimes even today – spirt infestation was deemed a religious problem, best solved by religious means. There has never been a society, primitive or modern, pagan or Judeo-Christian, that lacked the necessary technicians, whether witch doctors or shamans or clergy. Tibetan Buddhists still use a rite called shedur that involves summoning a protective goddess to oust an offending spirit. And, of course, the Roman Catholic Church still occasionally employs the ancient rite of exorcism.

Some purists argue that exorcisms are to oust demons, not ghosts. But other experts dismiss this distinction as mere semantics, contending that a ghost, broadly defined, is any alien spirit that impinges on the world of the living, not just spirits of the dead. Demons qualify, therefore, and demonic possession is the invasion of a soul by some foreign entity rather than the invasion of a dwelling. Indeed, the most ancient human problem with spirits has not been so much with the haunting of property as the haunting of souls, and these spirits, by definition, were evil.

The Catholic Church perfected its rite of exorcism early, in the 4th century, and it has changed little since. Originally, the rite was built into baptism and could be applied both to the faithful and those outside the Church as necessary. But not all ecclesiastics could be exorcists; a certain charismatic quality was needed. Some priests, for example, showed such power they could drive out evil spirits by the force of their prayers alone, or by the laying on of hands.

As Christianity spread, however, paganism waned and demonic possession became rare. "It is only Catholic missionaries laboring in pagan lands," according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "who are likely to meet with fairly frequent cases of possession." Still, all reports of possession must be taken seriously and closely investigated, but only by those who have led brave and blameless lives and prepared themselves through prayer and fasting – clergy who have immunized themselves against demonic invasion.

Source: Carl A. Posey, Discovery Travel