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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

oped editorial

EDITORIAL: Let us have our ghosts

The existence of ghosts has been deliberated for ages without any hard-evidence conclusions in either direction.

We are here to say: they are real. And even if one thinks they’re not, he or she should be respectful of and open to the idea that they are.

Take a walk through a centuries-old home, a small abandoned town or cemetery, and you’ll feel the chill of spirits who have departed their bodies and now lurk in a world beyond ours.

Skeptics of all ghouls and spooks will simply shrug this off, but before they do, we ask that you consider this: how do you know they’re not real?

To disbelieve in ghosts is to dismiss the possibility that there is something or someone here besides us. To think we're here on this earth alone would be self-centered.

The existence of ghosts or spirits would answer many questions for those of us who still inhabit a physical form. We’re not just talking about doors opening and closing or lights turning on and off. We aren’t talking about white-sheeted ghouls. That’s horror movie stuff.

We’re talking about eerie chills, gut feelings and, most importantly, the coincidences that never feel like coincidences.

Personal experiences also influence why people believe ghosts are real. No matter how much science or brains you put into explaining things, there are just some things that cannot be explained, and we should trust in that. 

Ghosts would answer the question of where all this energy we store in our bodies goes after death. Regardless of belief in heaven or hell, we are capable of holding an insane amount of energy. If energy cannot be created or destroyed, it has to go somewhere. 

So why not entertain the idea of that energy being turned into a supernatural projection on our material world? 

Self-proclaimed mediums and psychics attempt to explain these coincidences in an almost therapeutic way. From big-shot Hollywood psychics like Theresa Caputo, Tyler Henry or Matt Fraser to ordinary people who can only connect with a few choice spirits, all mediums strive to do is to bring closure to those who have lost loved ones or friends.

These psychic “readings” have the same effects many religious beliefs in the afterlife do. People yearn to explain death in a way that makes them feel comfortable enough to keeping living.

“Long Island Medium” and “Hollywood Medium,” as well as numerous ghost hunting television shows and movies, prove the existence of ghosts is a commonly-shared belief. 

A poll from HuffPost/YouGov finds that 45 percent of people believe in ghosts or after-life spirits. And we should let them.

Shrugging off the supernatural world isn’t just misguided, it’s rude. Ghosts are a fun, harmless and spooky way to not only explain the departure of a loved one’s spirit, but also to maintain the hope that there is still some type of contact with that person.

Like most things that people choose to believe in, it’s comfort-driven. Some people find comfort in believing that we are soulless organisms, others find comfort in the opposite. 

Since we can neither prove nor deny the existence of bodiless entities like a god, spirits, aliens or ghosts, there is no point in trying to undermine what comforts others. 

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