All ghosts evil?

[Asperion]

I recently got wondering why there is this convention that all ghosts must be innately evil. Afterall the ghost (from modern belief) comes from a formerly living human. If that human was good in life why does he suddenly become evil when he becomes a ghost? I do not want to hear this thing about good spirits going onto their spiritual rewards since then the bad spirits would then go onto their reward as well and there would be no ghosts for this world. Also one cannot say that good people do not have spirits since then that also would be true for bad people as well and (again) no ghosts. As a result living people have spirits and upon their death will be released as a ghost that will still possess the original personality as the person had in life (either good or bad). That means that not all ghosts will be evil, nor will all ghosts be good.

Can anyone come up with some reason why all ghosts will be either good or evil other that saying "thats the rules"?

[dmjalund]

Ghosts generally "can't let go" of the real world. They have unfinished business. Otherwise, exspecially in a fantasy campaign, ghosts can be bound to the mortal plane by evil magics.

[Lucius]

who told you ghosts are always evil?

Lucius Alexander

And what did they say about palindromedaries?

[Escafarc]

I blame Hanna Barbera.

[Midas]

Can anyone come up with some reason why all ghosts will be either good or evil other that saying "thats the rules"?

<Midas pulls out a thimble and stares deeply into it. Seeing a speck at the bottom, he uses a high power microscope to read the label of the speck: "Midas's knowledge of Native American Religion".>

According to Navaho belief, death is almost The End. When someone dies, the good part ceases to exist. The evil part lingers on to torment the living as a haunt/poltergeist until it too, vanishes into oblivion.

[CrosshairCollie]

Depends on the game world. It could well be that only people who are evil are punished by being forced to remain on the mortal plane instead of resting. It could just be that only evil ghosts create conflict and thus create stories.

I recently ran a game where a spirit was haunting a manor house because his wife's body had been dug up and dragged off. Certainly not evil, but he was incredibly angry and lashing out at everybody and everything.

My personal view, though, is that there's not an 'always evil' anything.

[McCoy]

I blame Hanna Barbera.

Huh?

[teh bunneh]

In my game world, ghosts (all of the undead, in fact) exist in violation of every law of god, man, and nature. They're also known as "strangers," because they aren't from here and they don't belong here. Their very existance is a blight, and all right-thinking creatures are repulsed by them. There's also the fact that they can spread their curse, sometimes even just by seeing one you could be cursed to become one. So yes, they're evil.

But that's just my game world. I can easily see another campaign where they're neither good nor evil, or even purely good (ancestor spirits come back to advise their descendents, for instance).

[Escafarc]

Huh?

Well all the Ghosts turned out to be evil miscreants who would of gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids

[McCoy]

I recently got wondering why there is this convention that all ghosts must be innately evil.

Don't know where this came from as I've never before heard that all ghost must be innately evil. Only thing I can think of that would justify that is a Christian belief that good people go to heaven, and if a ghost is hanging around it somehow was not good enought to get into heaven, but SOMEHOW has managed to evade or pospone judement and hell, so is still in disobedience to god. (Actually this is a distortion of the official version, which is only saints go directly to heaven, everybody else, good or evil, sleeps in death until judgement day).

Prechristian sources vary on why someone might become a ghost, most of which can fall under the category "unfinished business." In Hamlet, which I believe was based on a pre-Christian story, Hamlet had to decide if the apprition he was seeing was actually the ghost of his father, whose torment was increased by the fact that his murder was unavenged, or an impostor sent by the devil to temp Hamlet into the sin of murdering his uncle, who in this case would have been innocent of the old king's death. Demon or spirit crying for vengence, hard to pick a good side in that case.

If we take the official Christian stance that all the dead are sleeping until judgement day, any ghost is not what it appears/claims to be and is lying. You could use this as a start for why ghost are innately evil.

[McCoy]

Well all the Ghosts turned out to be evil miscreants who would of gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids

Exactly. Every one of the ghost turned out to be fakes. Which says nothing about the nature of genuine ghost.

[FrankL]

If we take the official Christian stance that all the dead are sleeping until judgement day, any ghost is not what it appears/claims to be and is lying. You could use this as a start for why ghost are innately evil.

Official with which branch? I'm a seminary grad and I am aware of only a few groups that believe in the mortality of the soul as some call it (or soul sleep). Luther did believe it (and some Lutherans still do), but John Calvin wrote a treatise against it. The Catholic Church condemned it as a serious heresy at the 5th Lateran Council in 1513. And the Eastern Orthodox believe in a conscious state between death and the final state which is neither heaven nor hell. The just rest in light while the evil suffer in darkness until judgment day when they go to Heaven or Hell.

Most protestant groups believe that upon death the soul goes to either Heaven or Hell immediately. The official Catholic teaching is that most believers will spend time in purgatory after death being purified for Heaven. The wicked go to Hell immediately.

But your analysis of Hamlet is spot on.

[IndianaJoe3]

I recently got wondering why there is this convention that all ghosts must be innately evil.

I think this is more of a horror trope than a fantasy trope. Evil ghosts (and other supernatural beings) make perfect antagonists in horror. In fantasy, ghosts tend to be more varied.

[CrosshairCollie]

I think this is more of a horror trope than a fantasy trope. Evil ghosts (and other supernatural beings) make perfect antagonists in horror. In fantasy, ghosts tend to be more varied.

Good point.

[McCoy]

Official with which branch? I'm a seminary grad and I am aware of only a few groups that believe in the mortality of the soul as some call it (or soul sleep). Luther did believe it (and some Lutherans still do), but John Calvin wrote a treatise against it. The Catholic Church condemned it as a serious heresy at the 5th Lateran Council in 1513. And the Eastern Orthodox believe in a conscious state between death and the final state which is neither heaven nor hell. The just rest in light while the evil suffer in darkness until judgment day when they go to Heaven or Hell.

Most protestant groups believe that upon death the soul goes to either Heaven or Hell immediately. The official Catholic teaching is that most believers will spend time in purgatory after death being purified for Heaven. The wicked go to Hell immediately.

But your analysis of Hamlet is spot on.

I stand corrected.