How to Believe in Ghosts

Rationality has its rewards and scientific research is rigorous, but sometimes you just want to believe in something magical, spiritual, supernatural and maybe a little scary! Ghost stories fascinate us from childhood, fill our libraries, line the video store shelves and are depicted in the visual arts, so it’s no wonder the majority of Americans believe in ghosts. You, too, can make the leap beyond logic and into the ghostly realm; follow these steps to learn how to believe in ghosts.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Fictional books about ghosts
• Internet access
• Movies about ghosts
• Video or DVD player
• Television
• Non-fiction books about ghosts

1. Read fictional ghost stories. The printed page is a potent influence, and there are plenty to choose from at library and bookstore. See Resources below.
2. Read non-fiction books about ghostly encounters, haunted houses and unexplained nocturnal meanderings. See Resources below.
3. Watch every ghost-oriented movie you can think of.
4. Search the Internet for Web sites devoted to ghosts, poltergeists, wraiths, spirits and otherworldly phenomenon.
5. Ask your friends and family for personal experiences of ghostly encounters—you may be surprised at how many they offer.
6. Visit graveyards on a regular basis, walking among the headstones and nameplates, feeling the presence of lives lived, histories beneath the earth and spirits walking with you.

Tips & Warnings

• Discovering a good friend who believes avidly in ghosts will help you overcome rational resistance to what popular culture has reduced to a cartoon character, rather than the spiritual remains of a living person.
• Believing in ghosts won’t make you a bad person, change your religion, derail your moral compass or make you Goth, but it could add a frisson of mystery to everyday existence.
• Don’t make your belief in ghosts the center of your world (unless you plan on making a living at it), or your loved ones may grow tired of your single-minded obsession and leave you for someone more interested in the living.