Why are we drawn to spooky stories? Is this related to spirituality? I鈥檝e been thinking about these questions this October as I discovered and became hooked on the podcast
I鈥檝e found that there are ways these stories intrigue and benefit me, even spiritually.
Much of my life from is pretty logical and mundane. Over time, I get pretty agnostic about inexplicable things. Ghost stories distance me from cynicism and draw me into mystery. They also remind me that I鈥檝e had some of my own uncanny experiences, and that I don鈥檛 see or understand everything around me. They humble me intellectually. I also find they can strengthen my sense of the relevance of religion and spirituality to real life. These stories sometimes re-engerize my personal questions about God and other spiritual things.
Paranormal stories can prompt new questions that tap into unexpected relief or joy. They can get people out of ruts in their thinking. Allen Simon, author of a Substack called , recently about how he reached a point during his undergraduate years when all his reading and searching for truth as a student came to feel meaningless, like a drag. Then, he attended a retreat where religious scholars and social scientists discussed intriguing case studies of 鈥渘ear-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, past life memories, and paranormal phenomena like precognition and ghost sightings.鈥� Despite his skepticism, something clicked. He told himself, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 care if these things are real or not鈥鈥檝e found my people. They鈥檙e the people who ask those questions about whether there鈥檚 more to life than the terrestrial [junk] I see around me on a day-to-day basis.鈥� Allen loves how paranormal accounts invite us to ponder whether 鈥渢hese anomalous experiences are actually at the heart of who we are as humans," or in other words, whether humans have a less understood, second spiritual dimension that makes life full of intriguing possibilities.
Ghost stories in particular sometimes connect me with the beauty of spiritual longing and the possibilities of unexpected grace, connection, forgiveness, or healing. The accounts that I like the most are not the scary, dark ones, but those that are intriguing, familial, and poignant and that include some kind of mysterious reaching across a divide.
For example, I was moved by鈥檚 incredible story shared at a live event with Spooked. As a boy in the 70鈥檚, Blake woke up in the middle of the night to find a man dressed in a shirt from the 50鈥檚 searching his drawers and examining his collection of birthday cards from relatives. The same figure appeared years later when he was grown and married. From photos, he recognized this figure to be the estranged, white grandfather he had never met. Through seeking spiritual care, he came to the realization his grandfather鈥檚 visits were not menacing, but suggested sadness, regret, and a desire for John to forgive him for his unkindness to his black father. Through prayer and learning more through family history research, John came to peace. He felt compassion and forgiveness for his grandfather, and was never visited by him again.
In , a Scottish bagpiper named Steve kept having paranormal incidences with a ghost who seemed to play the bagpipes at historical sites. These freaked him out. But little by little, these encounters gained greater meaning and became less frightening. Other people helped him recognize the identity of the ghost, James Reed, a Jacobite rebel who had been executed hundreds of years before. Once when the ghost was glimpsed, he had a huge smile on his face to see Steve in the space. He seemed to want to connect. Steve would go on to have many instances sensing that James Reed wanted to be part of his life and his musical ventures. He came to feel this was a way for him to heal from his traumatic past and early death. Both of them shared a passion for bagpipes, and one of Steve鈥檚 ancestors had fought alongside James.
In a third , a young boy felt comforted and protected by a benevolent spirit that seemed to live on his family鈥檚 farm land. When it was time for him to leave his life in the country behind, the spirit seemed to send a message that they were also leaving that validated that it was time for a new life.
It can be helpful and healthy to bring a dose of skepticism to paranormal stories. There is no need to believe everything we hear or let these stories shape our personal frameworks, such as our theologies, or whether or not we are religious. But it鈥檚 also okay to thoroughly enjoy how intriguing these stories can be. Even if we hold them at a distance, we can explore what they suggest about life, human needs and spiritual longings, what is important to us, how we make meaning out of life, and what could be possible and pertinent for us spiritually and otherwise.
