By
Eilis Flynn
Everyone’s
got a personal ghost story, whether they’re believers or not. It’s that
something that can’t be explained, something that no matter how much
rationalization goes into it, remains a bit—off, somehow, sending shivers down
your spine. And it’s not just a few people here and there, either. Every
culture has a belief about ghosts.
With
my friend and workshop copresenter Jacquie Rogers, I present a series of
workshops looking at familiar myths and legends and how they change as we look
at them around the world. I was an anthropology major and write fantasy and
paranormal, so this works well into what I’m interested in. But as I was doing
the research on ghost stories around the world, I realized something
interesting. Most of the time I’ve been doing the research, it’s been more or
less an academic interest I’ve had, research for the sake of research. But in
the case of ghosts, there’s more than a smidgen of belief. No matter how
rationally I look at ghosts, no matter how dry and academic, I know there’s
something there that can’t be explained away.
Whether
it’s a message from an ancestor or an odd vibe in a place that turns out to
have had a dark past, ghosts are everywhere, in more ways than you can imagine.
Well, maybe you can imagine it. Jacquie and I have gone through many forms of
mythological creatures in our journeys along the Silk Road, and it wasn’t that
surprising that sometimes we wouldn’t be able to find a true example, depending
on the creature we were hunting. We found that stories about vampires are
scarce in China (the hopping vampire was the best of it there), while
werewolves couldn’t be found in native form a lot outside of Europe, faeries
were thin on the ground also out of Europe (but then there were plenty under
other names), and dragons could be found in variations, but ghosts … ghost
mythologies can be found anywhere and everywhere. Where there is death,
there is a ghost myth. There are feetless ghosts in Japan and hungry ghosts
in China (complete with a festival to go with it), a friendy ghost named Casper
in American kiddie entertainment, séances in any number of variations in every
culture that has a ghost legend in order for the living to speak with the dead.
Intrigued
by ghosts? Of course you are. We all are. Some of us are terrified, but we are
still drawn by them. Before there were myths and legends about dragons and
faeries or werewolves or vampires, there were stories about ghosts. As I
mentioned before, ghosts—or more precisely, stories about and the presence of
deceased ancestors or others no longer on this mortal plain—have been around
since humankind itself has been around. As long as there have been people of
one kind or another, people who have experienced death among their kind or
against another, there have been ghost stories.
It’s
not hard to say why ghost stories have been around for so long. Death and
speculation about what lies beyond death have been the source of fascination
for humans from the time that humans started to develop their own cultures. Was
it that odd feeling of being watched when there was no one else around, or some
sign that a recently deceased relative was somehow, inconceivably, sending a
message from beyond? While there are many variations of how ghosts are
perceived, one thing remains the same, whether as a source of comfort or
terror: They are with us, unseen. Sometimes they indicate their presence,
sometimes they are mute, sometimes the manifestation is human in form, sometimes
when something is simply moved—the variations seem endless. As long as mankind
has been sentient, there has been a ghost story waiting to be told at the
fireside.
Come
along and check out what kind of ghosts you can find all over the world. Let us
take you on a walk around the world to examine those myths, and see how they
shift, change, and evolve as we travel. We’ll be looking at ghosts all around
the world at Savvy Authors (savvyauthors.com), starting on Monday, November 11,
to November 24. Come join us and find out what kind of ghost story spooks you
in particular!
Eilis
Flynn and Jacquie Rogers can be found haunting their own websites at
eilisflynn.com and jacquierogers.com.
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