ArcaMax

Time to talk about ghosts. For the first time in human history, we are living in a time when the conventional wisdom is that ghosts are not real. In fact, the belief that ghosts are real spiritual beings trapped somehow between life now and life in the world to come has been a part of human culture for more than 4,000 years. Cultures that had no interaction with ghost-believing cultures developed a belief in ghosts that is identical to theirs.

Here is what people everywhere and forever have believed about ghosts. Some ghosts are connected to a specific place and appear to those who visit haunted places. Some ghosts are connected to specific people and appear to that person in different places. Some ghosts are invisible and reveal their presence by moving things around in the physical world. Some are visible but almost transparent. Some speak and some do not. All ghosts seem to take the shape of dead people. That’s what we know about ghosts. It does seem rather stubborn to ignore the combined wisdom of every single religion in every part of the world.

The Hebrew Bible knows about ghosts. Deuteronomy 18:11 prohibits,“one who casts spells, or one who consults ghosts or familiar spirits, or one who inquires of the dead.” The most famous reference to ghosts in the Hebrew Bible is I Samuel 28:3-19, in which King Saul has the Witch of Endor summon the spirit or ghost of the dead prophet Samuel.

In the Christian Testament, Luke 24:37-39, Jesus has to persuade his disciples that he is not a ghost when they see him after his resurrection. In Matthew 14-28 they think he is a ghost when they see him walking on the water.

Islam also believes in ghosts and also Jinn which are spiritual beings that are not the souls of the dead. They live in barzakh, which is a barrier realm between life here and now and life in heaven.

A bhoota is a ghost in Hinduism who has been obstructed in their reincarnation and is stuck haunting places like cemeteries.

Despite this massive agreement of the world’s religions that ghosts are real, our secular age has transformed ghosts into subjects of horror movies. The approved wisdom of our time is that ghosts are not real and what one is seeing in ghost sightings is really just a hallucination.

Let me know what ghosts you have seen in your life, and we can share our common paranormal experiences. My electronic mailbag is full of missives like this one,

Q: Several years ago I was in a historic pub (1690) in England. While going down the stairwell, I had to take my hand off the rail and move to one side to let a young girl by, who was running up the stairs. She was probably about 7 or 8 years old, long blond hair with a ribbon in the back. She was wearing a blue dress with a white petticoat – very pretty. I thought she must have been there for a wedding or other event.

However, there was no one in the pub and only the owners were present, cleaning the floors from the night before. I asked them about the girl, and they said there was no one like that about. After talking about it, they said that the place had reports of the same girl, along with a little boy. I was told that they're ghosts who have been in the pub for quite some time. They've been known to make quite a bit of racket in the middle of the night with people complaining. There are also other apparitions that other people claim to have seen there. I've never believed in ghosts and still don't. What does all this mean? I'm absolutely certain of my encounter and hope you can provide some insight.

Thank you in advance from a regular reader of your column. – (From anonymous)

A: For me, the lesson of ghosts (yes, I have seen one) is that we are not alone in this life and that our soul’s journey does not end with the death of our bodies. Knowing this ought to give us hope that God who has bestowed within us our immortal souls will not abandon us to death and will hold us and shelter us and love us for evermore.

(Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including “Religion for Dummies,” co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman. Also, the new God Squad podcast is now available.)

©2026 The God Squad. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

(c) 2026 THE GOD SQUAD DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.