If you've been following my blog for awhile, you'll know that I have a fascination with ghosts. Not necessarily ghosts themselves, but the mere idea of them. The thought that they might possibly exist and walk among us unseen, based on the Scriptures mentioning the "rest" of death before the Second Coming.
Anyway, I recently finished reading Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. Normally, Koontz is third on my hierarchy of suspense/horror writers trailing Ted Dekker and Stephen King, but this one really piqued my interest thanks to it's subject matter don't worry, this isn't a book review. I bet there's no way in hell you can guess what it was. I mean, I didn't mention it in the title or anything.
Give up? Ghosts!
No way. You guessed. I'm disappointed.
Well, anyway, in the book, the character Odd Thomas can see ghosts when no one else can, but he's baffled by their mannerisms. They never speak or try to make any kind of verbal communication with the living. When they sense he can see them, they would regularly communicate with him using "impressions," as he calls them, to convey to him some need or feeling.
After feeling a number of these impressions throughout his life, he understands that only spirits with a fear or denial of their own death, or with some sort of unfinished business such as seeing their murderer brought to justice remain in our plane of existence.
That got me thinking about my previous assertions involving insomniac spirits. I know I don't sleep well if something has me agitated. I toss and turn, break things, or pace the floor until something happens to soothe my riled conscience. If death is but a rest, is this not likely for the dead as well? If something had them agitated before their death, such as a murder, wouldn't it be logical for them to be unable to rest peacefully?
It's fairly the same in Kubo Tite's famous manga series Bleach. Kubo-sama who writes the best "ghost stories" ever claims that spirits are unable to pass on if they're tied to the world by regret or fear. Except, in Bleach, if the spirits don't release the ties binding them to their past lives, they will not just continue to exist, but become malevolent spirits and seek to harm that which bound them in order to fill the void that formed in their soul.
Couldn't it also be the same in our case without the "malevolent spirit" part though I will have to ponder this some more? Could, after our death, we not be bound to something that prevents us from getting our eternal sleep? People always talk about "living without regrets" but why? If we just immediately pass over to another world where we don't even remember these regrets, what's the point? Could it be because maybe people know deep down that they won't be able to rest if they have regrets?
Interesting, interesting. Forgive my ramblings. Gomen nasai...
Sumimasen!
No comments:
Post a Comment