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There are so many things to be scared of in this world. You can be scared of illness, of failure, of being alone. It seems to me though, the most widely held fear is not that of this world of all, but of the next. The fear of ghosts, or spirits, or supernatural beings, is a fear held true by many, played up by the media, all the while being publicly embraced.

The fear of ghosts is an easy fear to justify. The truth of the matter simply being that as human beings, we love three things; knowing everything, having control over everything, and knowing how to predict what we don't have control over. The supernatural fits none of these, which is in part hat makes it so spectacular. As human beings, we fear what we do not know. Whether it is a curiosity based fear or a deep petrified fear, we always fear what we don't know. It's proven through history. Every great invention, every great idea, was at one point in time feared. Take civil rights, or space exploration, or the common surgery. All were feared.
The basis of fear of ghosts comes from the unknown. We know hardly anything about the afterlife, whether or not there is one is topic for debate. We have no idea what ghost really look like, because not everyone sees them, and even more so, we fear those who can. We fear the idea that there may be nothing after death, that we may just be spirits wandering around. With this we fear the undoing of civilized religion, and we fear the damnation of believing in something other than religion.
Not a single thing about the afterlife, ghosts, or the paranormal in general is known. At least not known as a fact. Across the world, many different cultures have many different views on ghosts. Many embrace the thought of a spiritual after life, partially led here on earth, while others believe we go somewhere else when we die, nowhere near here.
Things with the paranormal and ghosts are not and have never been very clear. Many people's view today are contradictory. A prime example; The majority of Americans celebrate Halloween. Yet not many stop to think about what there actually celebrating. The origin behind Halloween was to not only celebrate the dead, but believers would put to plates of food for their ancestors, inviting them to come have a meal with them. It is probably safe to say, most American don't think about this.
While Americans as a whole are typically quite scared of ghosts, many societies in the rest of the world are not. Actually, many embrace the idea of spirits and ghost wandering around the world with us day to day. Their religion and society does and has accepted it for years and they have grown up with the idea, thus limiting the unknown to them. They readily embrace and reach out to ghosts simply because they do not fear them, they respect them.
Taking something taboo or something feared and making it readily available and acceptable to society is a large task, but it has been done in the past. Perhaps one day, we will live day to day with ghosts and not fear them. Perhaps we will seek them out to learn form them, or ask their advices, or hear their stories. Perhaps.but not with so much fear, and to beat that we must knowso the real question is who is wiling to take the first step?

Learn more about this author, Kim Bonnalie.
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