Ghosts won't hurt you.....but people certainly might!
Ghost-busting the misconceptions! – Sue St. Clair and Matthew Didier
I just came across an article on another website that, in big bold letters, pronounced that "Real Paranormal Investigators Say That Ghosts Will Hurt You" or something along those lines.
It goes on to relate how thousands of evil ghosts like those of serial killers, and insane people (nice sensitivity towards mental illness eh!) roam about wishing to hurt the living. "And do not believe any ghost hunter who tells you otherwise. They are not real"
Are you frightened? Heck, I know I am! Apparently, there are legions of marauding spooks and spectres ravaging your towns and villages and us ghost people give you a false sense of security making you lambs for the spectral slaughter! (We're probably on the take from these phantom menaces...)
Thankfully, this wonderful website seems to know what they are talking about, and for a fee, I'm sure can help you out with all the psychopathic, murderous, roaming ghosts that are bothering you! (...was this an epidemic of which we were preciously unaware?)
By looking through this site that decries all of us awful “ghost people”… because we don’t send you their way to protect you from the marauding ghosts… it becomes evident that they have troubles with these awfully inconvenient things called "facts". If you check through our files, the SPR, ASPR, CPRI, and any other large established organization that collects reports, cases of genuine harm associated with ghosts are very rare if not completely unheard of.
In fact, over the last two-hundred years of notations on paranormal reports in North America, there are only two documented cases of ghosts being “accused” of physically harming people that have been somewhat validated by third-party neutral authorities. One is the death of John Bell in relation to the Bell Witch case in Tennessee in 1817. The other is the attacks on a woman known as The Entity Case from California in the 1970’s. These cases were not only studied by people “involved” in the paranormal as such, but medical authorities and other people with reasonable related credentials to what they were looking into.
When looking into cases of possible physical harm and “ghosts”, we do remove cases where the people did not seek appropriate third-party verification (they simply did their own reporting without any backup,) and people who have a previously documented history of hoaxing.
So, using these reliable statistics, your chances of winning over one-million dollars in a lottery twice in your lifetime are greater than being hurt, injured, or killed by a ghost. Even these cases I found that say a "ghost" hurt a person do not stand up well to absolute scrutiny... and honestly, I have yet to find a single cases that offers absolute proof that a spirit caused physical harm to a human.
That said, the number of "bumps", "bruises", "bangs", and other injuries caused when people tried to "flee" a perceived ghost or were startled by an experience exist... but realistically, it's still difficult to say even those situations are numerous enough to start taking any type of major protective steps to prevent things...
In essence, a helmet and pads are really not needed... unless the haunting is on the fifty-yard line of your local football field.
Also, in reading the article from these nitwits, I was reminded that The Spiritualist Church, (which was established in the 19th century,) actually encourages positive spirit communication, and it's members routinely contact spirits... and this is a Christian group that believe that spirit communication and interaction is through God... and no, tetanus shots, hand sanitizers, and kevlar vests are NOT being handed out at their meetings to defend against the vicious gangs of thug-like apparitions.
Still, according to that website, why listen to statistical facts, long held spiritual practices, or even common sense when you can just believe them without question! I mean, we (that being pretty much everyone other than them,) apparently are big fat poopy head liars who only wish to feed unsuspecting people to killer ghosties!
And who are these bastions of knowledge? Personally, I'd never heard of them before today, and I have been on the internet since 1995 looking into this subject online… and on the old ghost BBS/Fidonet and newsgroups since 1989.
This in my opinion is yet another way to bully poor frightened people into opening their wallets, and to intimidate younger people who want to start up their own groups because according to the author unless you research/investigate their way you are doomed to being possessed, chased down by angry insane ghosts of murderers, lose your presents Santa was going to bring to you this Christmas, and you will be letting the terrorists win.
These nincompoops smack more of BAD Hollywood crud, and cheesy fiction than a serious academic approach to a sensitive topic... and realistically, they are basically pandering to fear and ignorance... and have no concepts of the truth to the study of which they are speaking of.
When we receive reports from people who claim to be harmed by ghosts we investigate their claims, and have yet to come across a single case where natural causes could not be ruled out, meaning some people will automatically blame "ghosts" for negative occurrences because that is what they have been led to believe is the case by fiction, bad reality TV, and sensationalised websites.
Proper investigation tends to rule out the supernatural or lend highly to the probability that something other than a ghost is to blame for bruises, bumps, feelings of being hit, held, sat upon, or pinched. There are both medical, and psychological reasons why people occasionally experience these things, and believe they are occurring because of some external, and unseen force. The fear they experience is very real....but it is not because of a nasty, homicidal ghost out to get them.
Like I said, and it's something everyone should consider... we can only find the two valid cases of physical harm by a ghost... and even they are questioned to this day.
Conversely, exorcisms do have a body count… more than ten people have died between 1997 and 2009 in North America due to botched or inappropriately carried out exorcisms… usually with the victim being starved, dehydrated, and even beaten to death.
We can also mention the many people who’ve been defrauded and even bankrupted by shamans, “house clearers”, fraudulent psychics/sensitives/mediums, and the like also offering to “help” with a ghost…
All in all, it’s something to consider... is the perceived and marketed “cure” worse than the symptoms?
Statistics seem to say yes… they are.
