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Why are we Scared of Ghosts?

When I was little, I watched a movie that completely terrified me. The main character of the story is a woman whose new husband tries to drive her insane by making it seem as if the nasty spirit of his dead first wife is coming to get her. To accomplish this, he hides human skulls in strange places for her to discover. In the end, the REAL ghost-skull comes to avenge itself against the man, by flying through the air with horrible screams, latching onto the man's throat with its teeth, and killing him. The movie's title was; "The Screaming Skull." Boy I hated that movie! Scared me to death! Especially at night, when I was all alone in my bedroom, trying to get the image of that skull out of my head so I could get to sleep.

What title do you first think of when considering ghost movies? Maybe you saw "Ghost", about a man-ghost trying to protect the woman he loves. How about "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir", an older film about the ghost of a sea captain and his romance with a living woman. Sweet story. But on the other hand, have you seen "The Grudge", in which innocent people are preyed upon by an upset spirit, or "The Haunting", a movie both made in the sixties and a few years back, concerning a group of people investigating a house that may be haunted. Seen "13 Ghosts", "Poltergeist", or Stephen King's "The Shining"? If you weren't afraid of ghosts before seeing these movies, you'd be thinking twice afterward!

What did these stories, plus countless other movies, books, folktales and even cartoons, ingrain into our collective subconscious? It taught us that ghosts are something to fear. If you see a ghost, you are expected to scream, run and hide, die of fright, or eat a Scooby-snack. You're supposed to be afraid if you are alone at night and hear unexplained sounds. Anything even the tiniest bit supernatural is to be avoided. Ghosts and their stories are scary, spooky and sometimes downright evil.

Ghosts have always been a source of fascination and fear. There exists in humans the primal fear of the unknown, which has helped us to survive, to be cautious when stepping into unfamiliar territory. Ghosts also represent death, another unknown. What exactly happens to us when we die? If we go somewhere else nice, why are the ghosts still here? Will I get stuck wandering about in some horrible place? What if a ghost appears to me? Will it hurt me? These are common basic fears, and these fears have been strengthened through our storytelling.

But

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