The Eternal Question: Is There Life After Death?

By Kaitlin Young

Why do people spend so much time and effort into explaining and exploring what happens after death instead of living and appreciating life as it happens? What is the obsession with death?

My Interest In Ghost Hunting

When I was in high school, I was really interested in the paranormal TV shows because I thought all of the history and creepy locations were really cool. I actually joined a local ghost hunting group and participated for fun in my free time. A lot of the people I met throughout my time in the field seemed to be obsessed with finding out more about what exists after death. Some of the team members were neglecting their personal lives, their relationships, and their careers and retirement funds in order to participate fully in their quest for the answer. I witnessed some of my older friends lose their jobs, their homes, and their loved ones. I began wonder if learning more about death was worth wasting life, when in the end, we find out the answer anyways.

Quick History of Ghost Hunting ghost hunting can be traced back

as far as 50BC to the philosopher Athenodorus and his search for a chain rattling ghost in Athens

The first paranormal research group, The Ghost Club, was formed in London in 1862 and included people such as Charles Dickens and William Butler Yeats

1880s marked the beginning of societies dedicated to the scientific methodology of ghost hunting and paranormal phenomena including the Society of Psychical Research in London and New York

In the 1920s and 1930s, Harry Prince, a famous magician and amateur archaeologist dominated the field

The 1960s and 1970s brings about the iconic mental image of middle aged men in horn-rimmed glasses and tweed with Polaroid cameras. Hans Holzer, the investigator in the case inspiring The Amityville Horror, started ghost hunting in this period.

The 1980s movie Ghostbusters changed the face of ghost hunting with it's display of high tech modern electronics. That image remains today.

While ghost hunting and the mission to find life after death has been around for a centuries, the recent popularity and intrigue in the subject is astounding. The popularity of the television show Ghost Hunters has spawned numerous other paranormal shows including Paranormal State, Destination Truth, Ghost Mine, A Haunting, and My Ghost Story, just to name a few from the ever increasing list of programs. Small research groups are being formed all over the country. Rhode Island in itself has over a dozen ghost hunting teams. But besides the increase in media coverage, is there another reason people search for ghosts?

Interviews...

In order to get an idea of why people are so interested in hunting for ghosts, I interviewed over fifteen people involved in ghost hunting at the 2013 Rhode Island Paranormal Convention in Woonsocket on June 1st and then contacted others in the following weeks through email and phone calls. Apparently the paranormal field is very competitive and in fear of the information being used against their ghost hunting group by rival ghost hunting groups, most of the interviewees refused to give full names or asked that their name not be used. There were 13 women interviewed and 12 men. The ages of the interviewees ranged from 31 to 57, which seemed to be the overall age range of people at the event.

Questions Asked

Why are you so interested in hunting for ghosts?

What do you think ghosts, or the anomalies considered ghosts, are?

How would you describe your life regarding relationships, successes, and monetary stability?

Why are you so interested in hunting for ghosts?

Almost everyone when faced with this question answered that in some form or another that they wanted to find out what happened after we die, and if these anomalies are in fact the spirits of deceased people. 20 out of 25 of those interviewed admitted to having some sort of paranormal experience which prompted them to join the field. 10 people admitted that they hoped to somehow communicate with a deceased loved one.

Examples of Answers

Riley, 43, female said “I have always been interested in ghosts. I've always felt like ghosts, like spirits, are physically attracted to me. They want me to reveal to the world what really happens after death.”

Interviewee #7, 35, male said “I had a near death experience when I was 18. I got into a bad motorcycle accident...my heart stopped at the hospital and they had to bring me back...ever since then I've been obsessed with finding out what there is behind the veil. I think we [ghost hunters] can find the answer.”

Interviewee #18, 42, male said “Ghosts are cool, and I was wicked into the whole tv show thing, so I decided to get into it. I kinda want to know what ghosts are and if they can tell us what happens...I mean, if there is an afterlife, why the f*** are there

dead people sticking around here for?”

What do you think ghosts, or the anomalies considered ghosts, are?

21 out of the 25 people interviewed said they believed that ghosts were the spirits of people who had deceased. The other 4 people admitted that they did not fully believe that ghosts are necessarily spirits of the deceased, but that the anomalies could be due to psychological or environmental factors.

Examples of Answers

Wendy, 39, female said “Ghosts are the spirits of those who have died. I have no doubts in that at all. About five years back, I got a phone call from my grandma. She kept telling me that she loved me and to not worry. I called my mom to tell her about the weird phone call and to ask if grandma was alright, and she said she had passed away that morning and that she was waiting to talk to me. Grandma had called me that afternoon.”

Interviewee #4, 51, male, said “I don't think we have enough to go by to say that these things we consider ghosts were once living people. There is no physical scientific proof. I think that if someone believes that there is a ghost in their house, of course they are going to see a ghost.”

How would you describe your life regarding relationships, successes,

and monetary stability?20 out of the 25 interviewed admitted that ghost

hunting had a negative monetary impact because of the travel expenses, the time taken away from work, and the price of expensive electronics such as EMF meters and night vision cameras.18 out of the 25 said that they felt as though they put off other life goals such as travel, having a family, and going back to school because of their hobby. Lastly, 13 of the 25 people admitted to having relationship problems, and out of those 13, 6 were currently facing divorce or were divorced.

Examples of Answers

Julie, 51, female, “In all honesty, my personal life has been hard to maintain since I joined the group. I work from the Department of Defense, so I work 9 to 5, sometimes more, Monday thru Friday. And then every Friday and Saturday night I have an investigation and Sunday I do housework. There's not a lot of time to do much else.”

Jay, 38, male said “I don't spend a lot of time with my wife anymore. She's not interested in paranormal experience, probably because I talk about it a lot. I'm pretty sure she's starting to resent it.”

But Why Are People Obsessed With Finding the Answer?

And is the search worth it?

Is it Healthy to Search for the Answer?

“Belief in Life After Death and Mental Health Findings from a National Survey” discussed the connections between believing in life after death and certain mental health issues.

“The results confirmed...that belief in life after death was significantly associated with lower symptom levels on all six psychiatric symptom clusters...association found for the anxiety, phobia, and obsession compulsive symptom clusters.”

“Belief in life after death may help to put one’s experiences in a broader context. If this life is only a small part of things to come, daily problems and even major traumas may be seen as merely temporary or ethereal. If life transcends death, one’s core identity may be seen as spiritual and apart from the material world, so health, financial, and relationship problems may seem less threatening.”

The reassurance of life after death that Ghost Hunting may give to many of those involved in the field may allow for a detachment from things such as personal life and financial well being. This could show why and how many ghost hunters do not seem overly concerned about the deficits in their lives.

Why the Need to Search For a Continuation of the Soul?

In Death, Nagel suggests that man is obsessed with living forever in the physical form but tends to neglect the idea that the key to existence resides in the soul

Maybe those searching for life after death are beyond this standard, and are searching to prove, in their own way, that soul transcends the physical.

But is it worth wasting life in this physical plane to find the answer?

Why So Much Interest Now?

Elisa Medhus, physician and author for the Huffington Post, tackles the question as to why people are so interested all of a sudden in life after death?

Medhus states that “...the Internet helps us create micro-communities where we can share those "paranormal" experiences in a safe, anonymous place free from scorn. The number of websites dealing with life after death has skyrocketed in recent years as have the number of movies and television shows dealing with the afterlife and all things supernatural. Suddenly, the taboo becomes a more comfortable "well, maybe I'm not so crazy after all" thing.”

She also mentions that the decline in “dogmatic, inflexible religious denominations” is allowing for people to think more freely about life after death

My Opinions on the Matter

I think I saw a ghost once, when I was younger. At the time, I had a really kooky great aunt with a lot of cats, who I always thought was a witch, so in my eight year old mind, she seemed the logical choice to go to with this information. I asked her what it meant and her response was one of the most insightful thoughts anyone has shared with me to date. She told me that ghosts are meant to remind us to live our lives to their fullest, before our time is up and we regret all of the things we did not do before the end.

Even after reading everything regarding the benefits of believing and searching for life after death, such as decreases in mental health issues, a feeling of continuation, and a feeling of community, I do not think that I could personally rationalize spending that much time searching for what happens at the end. I would rather focus on my life now. The end of a story is rarely written first, and I feel that if we focused on the resolution, we would miss out on the rising action, the climax, and the falling action.

My Opinion Continued

At the same time, I now have a full appreciation for the decisions of those who have decided that they want to spend their lives taking part in something that they enjoy. Everyone has a right to do what makes them happy. Believing in life after death gives someone hope and comfort in the fact that our soul lives on. It gives people a feeling of purpose. On the other hand, I feel as though people who are searching to answer that question themselves but have not had physical proof may fall into depression. Searching endlessly for something that may not be able to be physically expressed can probably be devastating to someone's beliefs and feeling of purpose.

Many of the people I interviewed accept the fact that some aspects of their lives such as relationships and careers are not at great places, but they still focus on what makes them happy, which is a commendable choice. Very few people choose their personal happiness over what society deems acceptable.

“Those who have lived a good life do not fear death, but meet it calmly, and even long for it in

the face of great suffering. But those who do not have a peaceful conscience, dread death as though life means nothing but physical torment. The challenge is to live our life so that we will

be prepared for death when it comes”. Unknown author

Works Cited

"The History of Ghost Hunting." Litchgate Research Group: Critical Thinking Meets the Paranormal. Litchgate Research Group, 2011. Web. 17 July 2013. <http://www.litchgate.org/history.html>.

Flannelly, Kevin J., PhD, Harold G. Koenig, MD, Christopher G. Ellison, PhD, Kathleen Galek, PhD, and Neil Krause, PhD. "Belief in Life After Death and Mental Health Findings from a National Survey." The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 194.7 (2006): 524-29. Print

Nagel, Thomas. “Death” from Mortal Questions. Copyright 1979 by Cambridge University Press.

Medhus, M.D., Elisa. "Life After Death: Why the Growing Interest?" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 20 Jan. 2013. Web. 22 July 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elisa-medhus-md/life-after-death-why-the-_b_2495960.html>.

"Why Ghost Hunting?" 25 People Interviewed by Kaitlin R. Young. n.d.: n. pag. 1 June 2013 and 15 June 2013.

Images Cited

http://www.webstocknet.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/brown-lady-ghost-picture.jpg

http://www.angelsghosts.com/mother_ghost_back_seat_of_car_famous_ghost_picture.html

http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.com/2007/03/does-soul-weigh-21-grams.html

http://www.psychics.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/pic8_combermere1.jpg