Exploratory Essay Sample: Ghosts – Fact or Fantasy?

There have been numerous reports of ghost encounters and people claiming to have seen ghosts or spirits. However, are these encounters and stories true? Are ghosts real? Many people disagree about whether ghosts exist or not. Few people have also said to have encountered a ghost. But just because you have never seen it does not mean it is not true. Although not everyone has seen up close or physically visited Mars, it is still a real planet. There are many things in the world that people have yet to see, or that only a few have seen, but they are still real. If lots of things have yet to be discovered, it means that while there is no proof that ghosts exist, there is also no substantial evidence that they do not. One could argue that ghosts cannot exist because of materialism, though there are numerous objections to this concept. The concept of idealism can also be used to say that ghosts are real because it has to do with one's beliefs and ideas are reality. Augustine a philosopher even says he believed in spirits as well. All of these means that yes ghosts might be real. Just because you have never experienced or encountered it yourself does not necessarily make it fake.

First let us look at what is considered a ghost or spirit. People have different opinions and descriptions of what they consider to be a ghost but let us look at the definition. It states that it is “A disembodied soul, especially the soul of a dead person believed to be an inhabitant of the unseen world or to appear to the living in bodily likeness.” (Meriam Webster) This implies that they are not made of anything because no one knows what souls are made of. Real things, according to the concept of materialism, are only made up of matter, and that is all there is to reality. Nobody knows what ghosts are made of, but they are most likely not made of matter. This would imply that ghosts do not exist due to materialism. The materialism concept says that reality is matter, that it must be composed of atoms to be real. There is also an eastern view of materialism proposed by the Charvaka philosophers which says the only way we can know what is real is through our sense perception. This concept implies that if we do not know something or cannot perceive it with our senses, it does not exist, which is not entirely correct. For example, if we can only know what we can perceive with our senses, but someone says they baked pink strawberry cupcakes and called to tell you about them. You have never seen them, yet you know the person baked them and they exist even if you have never touched or seen them. So, one could tell you they saw a ghost and you never saw it, does it mean that it is real or not? If so many people claim to have encountered or seen ghosts, are they not using their sense perception to see them? Meaning, they could exist. Many people would say it is all in their heads or that they are dreaming, but no one will ever know whether or not it is true until they experience something similar. Though you have never seen a ghost it does not necessarily disprove the encounters of others who have claimed to see ghosts.

Furthermore, though this concept of materialism could argue that ghosts are not real there are also many objections to it. It does not take into account certain things such as ones experience, what they think, hope dream and more, their human consciousness. Human consciousness involves things like one’s own feelings, environments, and memories. It is something that is subjective and cannot be fully explained like other ideas. (Velasquez) As everyone's experiences and memories differ, one person may have seen a ghost while the other has not so who knows they could be real. The fact that one person sees a ghost and the other does not make either reality any less real. They have different thoughts and memories. One may have travelled to space and walked on the moon. While someone else may never have gotten to experience anything like that. But it was still a genuine experience so one seeing a ghost could be too. Though, as previously stated, there is no substantial evidence that ghosts exist, many people have opinions on the subject or have claimed to have seen a ghost implying that they could be real if we account ones human consciousness.

In addition, let us examine what idealism is. Idealism says that reality is made of ones mind, their ideas and not matter like materialism. That reality is spiritual and mental. Seeing that spirits and ghosts are said to be based off ones beliefs making it a spiritual thing one could use the idea of this to prove the existence of ghosts. There is also subjective idealism, which holds that reality is made up of one's own mind and, the minds of others. This could mean that one person has seen a ghost in their mind, but the other has not, but it is real and is reality. Even Augustine, a well-known philosopher, believes in spirits. He claims that because humans have material bodies, we belong to the lower material world, but because we have souls, we belong to the higher spirited world as well. That we are both matter and spirit and exist in two realities. (Velasquez) He claims that souls are immaterial, and as defined before ghosts are people's souls so would that not mean ghosts are real.

In conclusion, just because not everyone has personally encountered a ghost does not prove that they are not real. Even if you have never had a personal encounter, this does not invalidate the claims and stories of others. Ghosts are defined as the souls of dead people, and materialism could be used to argue that ghosts do not exist because no one knows what souls are made of. That for it to be real, it must be made of matter. Though this argument could be used, there are many objections to materialism because it does not take into account human consciousness. This means it would not take into account things like people's emotions, environments, and memories, which vary from person to person. You could also use idealism to argue that ghosts exist because it states that reality is made up of people's minds and ideas rather than matter. Meaning that because everyone has different thoughts and sees different things, one could have seen a ghost, making it real. Augustine, a philosopher, believed in spirits and that souls are immaterial, and that ghosts are souls, implying that they can exist. So, after looking into everything, it is possible that ghosts exist. There has not been enough evidence to definitively deny or confirm their existence. Nonetheless, many people believe they exist, and as I previously stated, the fact that you have never seen one does not disprove their existence.