How Can Ghostly Sightings or Activity Be Explained?
Although I’ve encountered people who were demonically possessed/oppressed, I’ve personally never seen an apparition or experienced ghostly activity. But some individuals insist that they have seen paranormal goings-on and it’s highly doubtful that all of them are lying. How can such things be explained from a Scripture-focused Christian perspective?
Let’s start with the question: Are ghosts mentioned in the Bible? They are, but the specific meaning is uncertain. To explain, the disciples mistook Christ for a “ghost” when they were out on the Sea of Galilee after 3:00 AM and the Lord miraculously walked on the water to meet them on their boat (Matthew 14:26 & Mark 6:49). The Greek word for “ghost” in these two verses is phantasma (FAN-tas-mah), which is where we get the English word phantom. It literally refers to the manifestation of an apparition. Of course the person seeing the ‘phantom’ doesn’t know its actual nature because it’s a supernatural phenomenon (assuming of course that what they’re experiencing is authentic). In the case of Christ walking on the water, he obviously wasn’t a phantom, but the disciples mistook him for one.
Christ was again mistaken for a ghost by the disciples after his resurrection when he suddenly appeared to them in his glorified body:
While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
37They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
Luke 24:36-39
The Greek word for “ghost” in this case (verses 37 & 39) is pneuma (NYOO-mah), which is the common word for spirit in the Greek. Depending on the context, this word can refer to the human spirit, the Holy Spirit, an unclean spirit, an angelic spirit, breath or wind.
This brings us to the uncertain nature of the apparition that people claim to witness; and I mean uncertain to the person seeing the phantasmal phenomenon in question:
- Is it the activity of a demon (fallen angel or evil spirit) mistaken to be a ghost (the soul/spirit of a person who has physically died)? If so, is the demon merely carrying out its usual business or is it intentionally deceiving people into thinking it’s a ghost?
- Is it a disembodied soul of a physically dead person stuck on this plane or returning to this plane for some purpose?
- Is it “flash from the past” or “residual energies”?
Interestingly, the iconic movie Ghostbusters entertains all three of these possibilities.
Another possibility, of course is that the person claiming to see the paranormal happening is either delusional or simply lying. Needless to say, if the individual is known for telling dubious stories and drawing attention to himself/herself, their claims should be dismissed out of hand. In this article we are solely talking about ghostly goings-on that people have actually encountered.
Now let’s address each of the three prospects in more detail including potential biblical support:
1. Demonic activity
This is the typical explanation for spectral phenomena from Christian ministers. In other words, the paranormal activity that someone encounters is the actions of evil spirits and mistaken by witnesses as ghostly hauntings. Since demons are deceptive by nature it’s possible that the filthy spirits are deliberately misleading people into believing they’re encountering ghosts, at least in some cases (John 8:44 & Revelation 12:9).
We know from the Scriptures that satan can masquerade as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), which means that his demonic underlings can do the same thing and this could include masquerading as one’s departed spouse or what have you. Perhaps this is why the Torah expressly forbids contact with the dead or dubious spirits (e.g. Deuteronomy 18:9-14).
What about ghostly activity in a manor, such as the sound of chains in the attic or the appearance of an apparition? Could this be the presence of an evil spirit? Yes. Let me explain: The Bible reveals that there are demonic hierarchies (Ephesians 6:12) and so higher ranking devils rule over whole countries, like “the prince of Persia” and “the prince of Greece” noted in Daniel 10:13 & 10:20. Lower ranking demons would be dispatched to smaller areas accordingly. For instance, the conglomerate of demons named “Legion” begged the Mighty Christ not to send them out of the region of Gerasenes (JAIR-uh-seens) (Mark 5:9-10), which suggests that this area was their assigned territory, their ‘home.’
This is supported by the fact that the devil is “the god of this world” and thus “the whole world is under the control” of the kingdom of darkness to one degree or another (2 Corinthians 4:4 & 1 John 5:19). Some places are under greater satanic control than others, as witnessed by what Christ said about the city of Pergamum in Revelation 2:13. To carry out this diabolic control, demonic underlings are assigned areas according to their rank — countries, counties, cities, villages, neighborhoods and, hence, abodes within these neighborhoods.
Now consider that Christ said impure spirits naturally seek “arid places,” which means dry, waterless areas (Matthew 12:43). This isn’t referring to places that are physically dry, like deserts, but rather spaces that are spiritually dry; that is, places where God is absent. You see, the LORD is likened to Living Water in the Bible — God is The Fountain of Life who gushes forth life (Psalm 36:9). This corresponds to what Christ said about Himself and the Holy Spirit:
…Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.
John 7:37-39
The Lord encourages those who are spiritually thirsty — spiritually dry — to come to Him and drink. He then points out that those who receive the Holy Spirit will have “rivers of living water” flowing within them.
The key to repelling demonic spirits in your personal life is to stay well-watered by cultivating a relationship with the LORD. Saturate yourself with the things of God: prayer, simple communion, Scripture reading & meditation, praise & worship, fellowship with genuine believers, mutual submission (Ephesians 5:21), etc. As you do this, you automatically stave off wicked spirits. How so? Because demons seek dry places — waterless spaces absent of God’s presence.
Another thing to consider is familiar spirits and I’m not talking about the human “spiritists” noted in Leviticus 19:31, 20:6,27 & Deuteronomy 18:9-14. These sorcerers (not cons) have regular contact with a spirit guide — a demon — and hence mislead people accordingly. The evil spirit in these cases would be the “familiar spirit” since it is familiar with the spiritist with whom it regularly makes contact.
Yet, it is presumed that there are demons that become familiar with the person to which they’re assigned. To explain, there are angelic spirits who are assigned to individuals (Hebrews 1:14 & Matthew 18:10) and thus it is assumed that the kingdom of darkness does likewise since satan’s kingdom habitually counterfeits God’s kingdom. The evil spirit in question naturally becomes familiar with the person it’s assigned to because it’s around him/her all the time. Thus, when the individual physically dies, the spirit is able to mimic him/her and deceive living loved ones. Two plus two equals four.
What does all this have to do with ghostly activity? As detailed above, the scriptural evidence shows that evil spirits are assigned to nations and regions and, therefore, cities, towns, neighborhoods and… domiciles. But they are most entrenched in “dry places,” places where God’s manifest presence & influence is absent. For instance, in the late 1st Century satan set up shop in Pergamum in what is today western Turkey (Revelation 2:13).
This explains why houses should ideally be blessed and consecrated to the LORD, as well as church facilities. When I purchase a motel room I immediately bless it and play some praise & worship music. Why? It drives filthy spirits away (they might be in the next room, but they won’t be in my room). Meanwhile church facilities can have religious demons lurking in them to hinder biblical truth and effective ministry. They need to be driven out. You can read more about this kind of spiritual warfare here.
While all of this reveals that demonic spirits can be the cause of ghost-like happenings, and perhaps are likely the cause, there are no accounts in the Scriptures of evil spirits being mistaken for ghosts by rattling chains in the attic or what have you.
However, since most cases of supposed hauntings are associated with feelings of fear, disturbances, insomnia, strange noises, bad odors, scratches on walls, broken objects, shadowy figures and possessions — not to mention the occasional involvement of occultic items, like Ouija boards, and the typical eerie nature of the locales — all of this lends credibility to this explanation, aka demonic activity. Think about it: Why would there be this in-built dread of ghosts if they were merely people who have passed from this natural realm, including loved ones?
2. A person who has physically died, but has delayed entry to Heaven or Sheol and is therefore stuck on this plane (or returns to this plane from Heaven or Sheol)
This is the typical definition of the term ‘ghost’ — a person who has passed away appearing to someone still alive on Earth, typically as an apparition. Are there any examples of this in the Bible? Yes, but only in reference to the Sovereign God permitting people to return from Sheol/Hades or Heaven for a brief time:
- God allowed the prophet Samuel to be resurrected from Sheol to prophesy to King Saul and be a witness to the witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:3-20). This was actually Samuel, albeit in disembodied form, and not an illusion or evil spirit, as proven here.
- Moses and Elijah visited from Heaven during Christ’s earthly ministry (Matthew 17:1-8), which you can read about here.
In both of these cases they (Samuel, Moses and Elijah) would technically be ghosts — physically dead people manifesting to individuals in the natural realm.
Another possibility (I stress possibility) is that witnesses of a ghostly sighting are observing the passing of a person’s soul to Heaven or Sheol. For instance, there was a horrible traffic accident wherein a woman died. A passing motorist snapped a shot at the scene on her phone. It showed a light going up to the sky with an orb in it, which experts said wasn’t doctored. While not definitive proof, the mother of the woman who died was understandably comforted by the picture since it presumably showed her daughter’s soul going to Heaven.
What about a delayed entry to Sheol or Heaven, if indeed such a thing even occurs? Again, I’m just listing this as a possibility. The classic movie Ghost entertains this option and features characters having a delayed entry to Heaven or immediately being escorted down to Sheol. One character, a ghost, is shown haunting a train car because he was not yet willing to pass from this plane and had a fixation for the train car for one reason or another. Meanwhile Evil spirits are also depicted in the film as shadowy figures. Of course this is just a movie and the scriptwriters were merely speculating on the afterlife.
While the Bible shows Samuel being resurrected from Sheol to give a message to Saul, as well as Moses & Elijah visiting Christ on the mountain, there’s no evidence of a deceased person having a delayed entry into Sheol or Heaven, the latter being depicted in Ghost. However, this doesn’t mean it absolutely cannot happen, just that the Bible is silent on the topic. Opponents of this possibility argue that the Scriptures say “people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27), but this verse contains zero details, not to mention judgment for unsaved people doesn’t occur until after the millennial reign of Christ (Revelation 20:11-15), which means souls are held in Sheol for a very long time before resurrection & judgment and the verse says nothing about these important details. In other words, the verse is a simple statement of general truth rather than a detailed one of more complex truth.
3. “Flashes from the past” or “residual energies”
This proposed explanation means that the person seeing the ghost is simply picking up residual images of former events. In other words, he or she perceives something that happened in the same location on the timeline, but at some point in the past. For instance, a man testified that he saw a wounded Civil War soldier moaning in pain on the ground of a path while visiting Gettysburg. He was convinced of what he saw and others supposedly saw the same apparition on separate occasions.
To understand this principle on a much smaller scale, simply wave your hand in front of your eyes and you’ll observe images of your hand in its trail. These fleeting images aren’t your real hand because your hand is no longer there, yet you saw them.
A variation of this explanation is that the paranormal activity is due to residual “energies.”
While the Bible is silent on this possibility, it doesn’t necessarily negate it as a valid explanation on certain occasions. The Scriptures don’t directly mention germs either, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. (Germs are indirectly acknowledged in the Bible via God’s laws for the Hebrews on diet, sanitation and quarantining, as observed in Leviticus 11-13, which was well over 3000 years before germs were discovered in recent centuries).
Closing Word
This covers the spectrum of possibilities, although I’m sure there are minor or mixed variants. Even if one discovers evidence that most cases can be pinpointed to one reason, this doesn’t discount that some cases may be attributed to others. For instance, the go-to response from ministers is that any ghostly goings-on a person experiences is absolutely the activity of evil spirits, but when Samuel was resurrected from Sheol to prophesy to Saul he wasn’t a demon, neither were Moses & Elijah when they visited Christ on the mount of transfiguration; on both occasions they were the real persons who had passed from this plane to the other side. In short, they were what we would understand as ‘ghosts.’
I think it’s pointless and perhaps even unhealthy to pursue the topic further since the Torah expressly forbids contact with the dead and unclean spirits (e.g. Deuteronomy 18:9-14) and therefore people who are overly interested with the subject are treading the borders. Paul had a guideline for New Testament doctrine: “Do not go beyond what is written” (1 Corinthians 4:6). So, with subjects like this, my advice is to stay within the wise parameters of God’s Word and leave mysteries as they are. Some things will remain a mystery on this side of glory (Deuteronomy 29:29) yet, ultimately, everything will be revealed in eternity (Luke 12:3); for now we know in part, but then we shall know fully, even as we are fully known (1 Corinthians 13:12).
Related Topics:
Spiritual Warfare — The Basics
Christianity — Does it Weaken People or Empower?
Exorcism and the Believer’s Authority
Demonic Spirits — How to Deflect Them
Comparing Jesus Christ with… Superman
Hermeneutics — Proper Bible Interpretation
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