User:Letsbespooked

God and the Paranormal Religon and the paranormal have always existed side by side in an uneasy state of co-existence, when you stop to think about it the two are very closely intertwined. We are all born, live our lives and die, but what happens next is very much up for debate. The traditional Christian view, and very much so in relation to the Pope and the Catholic Church, is that sinners will go to hell, and the good or at any rate those that repent their sins before god, will go to heaven. Purists think that this is very much cut and dried it’s as simple as that, and any other thoughts on the matter are blasphemous. The question that many people ask however is that with so many ghostly sightings and unexplained paranormal activity reported all over the world there must be more to it. All these millions of people around the globe, some of them very religious like myself, surely all can’t be imagining these experiences, they can’t all be figments of our imagination, and whilst some will obviously be fabricated events and pure sensationalism, I think the majority will in the eyes of the observer by real. So where do these experiences fit into the grand scheme of things? I’ve always believed that, call them what you want, ghosts, spirits, poltergeists or psychic energies, they are all caught in limbo between this world and the next, for what ever reason unable to move on, unable to rest. The consensus of opinion is that this happens when a life is unexpectedly cut short, when someone dies before it’s their time. Stories abound of murder victims coming back from the grave to avenge their deaths, to seek justice where none has prevailed. People that have died in car accidents seen at the side of the road still trying to get home. Or people that have died in conflict forever fighting on for their cause unable to pass over

Often people are scared by ghostly ‘goings on’ I doubt many stop to think, like I do, that perhaps the spirit is in equal need of help. There is a small but growing minority of people that aim to help both parties involved in a haunting, the haunted and the haunter. Rescue work (see our section on the main page) can not only return peoples lives to some sense of normality, relieving them of the stresses and anxieties caused by a haunting. It can also by removing the ghostly presence in whatever form it has manifested itself, allow the tormented spirit to finally rest in peace and pass over to the other side, whatever you believe that to be.

Of course this is just a Christian perspective, there are numerous different religions and cultures that believe spirits are among us for completely different reasons. Many believe in reincarnation, and not just in human form. (Psychics also believe that spirits often show themselves to people in the form of animals!) Some believe that spirits are in the elements, in the very ground we walk on, or the air that we breathe, that they are there to guide and protect us. Certain Chinese and Malay religions believe very strongly in vengeance spirits. People that are suspected to have been killed by others are buried with a mirror in one hand and a knife or pair of scissors in the other so that they can seek retribution. The mirror allows them to pass freely between the afterlife and the living world, the knife to seek exacting justice. Only when this is achieved can they continue on their journey to the next world.

Whatever your religion, the paranormal is present in one way or another, in some more than others, but belief as in religion itself is an entirely personal matter.

Only you can decide.

Ian Bee, nigel skelton, julie, mel, barney

Let’s be Spooked