Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Ancient Ghosts


[from The Anomalist] "The First Paranormal Investigator Northern Ghost Investigations -- To track this guy down, you have to travel back a mere 2000 years to Greece where a man called Athenodorus Cananites shared his ghostly encounter with none other than Pliny the Younger, who had an insatiable desire to record many interesting things for us to read 2000 years after he died. The story involves a cliched appearance of a ghost in chains that leads to the scene of a murder, but as Northern Ghost Investigations points out, what's more important is that this is evidence that ghosts were a common topic of conversation even that far back in history."

If you've not had a chance to read Finucane's Ghosts: Appearances of the Dead and Cultural Transformation, you really should. In this volume, he explores early accounts of such spirits as well as their cultural significance and how it mutates throughout history. It is quite telling, especially as to how we've come to view ghosts the way we do with all their attendant stereotypes and trappings.

No comments: