Ghosts

It's that time of year again. Halloween will be upon us soon and that means ghosts, goblins, and monsters everywhere we look. The other night while driving I tuned in to "Coast to Coast AM" on the radio (thank you Imler for the recommendation) and listened to some guy talk about his books on ghosts.

He goes on and on about all of these experiences he has had and whatnot and then finally gets to one really good story about a haunted place in Boston. He gets a call from a woman who says her studio is haunted and that she has video evidence. When he goes there he is in for a very nice surprise. The studio is for exotic pole dancing and the video's are of women performing on the pole. Apparently you can see these weird things in the video and the instructor likes to think they are the ghosts of men who enjoy watching the women.

My only question about the whole thing was: there are professional pole dancing instructors? Can I sign up for that class? To hell with yoga or ballroom dancing.

Anyways, the ghost thing always fascinates me. I watch all sorts of shows this time of year about ghosts and definitely enjoy watching Ghost Hunters, but must say that as an atheist I really have a hard time believing in ghosts.

The idea of there being souls who are left behind here on earth just seems rather silly to me. Why then do I love to read about these things or watch anything about them?

Well maybe I like the idea that maybe there is a scientific explanation. What if the "soul" is really just some kind of energy that every living creature contains and since energy cannot be created nor destroyed, maybe some of that energy just happens to manifest itself after people die.

I think the Buddhist and Hindu religions both say that basically there is a lifeforce out there and when you die depending upon your karma and whatnot you either come back worse off, or you get infused back into the collective lifeforce. It has been awhile since I studied either of those religions, and do not feel like looking anything up about them, but you get my point.

Eh, I definitely have not slept enough to think through this one, so I will just end it here. You guys tell me what you think about ghosts. I would be interested to know who believes and does not believe.