Here is something I'm working on and trying to understand today. In upstate New York State we recently had a murder/suicide. A husband shot and killed a wife who was divorcing him, then turned the gun on himself.

A friend of mine works at an area church where the husband worshipped as a youngster. She is also quite sensitive to the spirit world, so it was not a great surprise for her to spot the dead husband standing in the rear of the church one evening as she was closing up. He didn't communicate why he was there, but she expects to see him again. What brought the man there?

In another rather famous story (see my N.Y. State Ghosts, Vol. 1) I relate the story of St. Paul's Rectory in Greenwich, (Washington County) New York. In short, the story goes like this:

In the late 1800s there was a local man much admired by the citizens of Greenwich. He worked at the local bank and befriended many. He was made vestryman at St. Paul's Episcopal Church and became a community leader. Church members and others invested their life savings at his bank. Then came the day when the bank auditor arrived. Knowing that he would be discovered as an embezzler, the banker hurried home and hanged himself in the barn.  Less than a month later, people began telling of strange events at St. Paul's Rectory. Few seemed to connect the haunting with the dead vestryman/banker.

It wasn't until my book was published that we began to formulate a theory about such after-death events. Over a hundred years have passed since the banker's suicide. Why is he still there? Is there a principle about the after-death state that we can use to understand ghosts elsewhere?

Father Harris, the pastor at St. Paul's during the mid 1960s, once gave a sermon to churchgoers about the existence of the ghost at his home, the rectory. Fr. Harris had a friend, a retired commercial artist named Paul Fung, who often dropped in for a visit. One hot day, Paul went upstaris in the rectory to get a drink of cold water, but stopped in his tracks on the stair landing. At the stair top, leaning over the railing and looking at him, Paul saw a white-robed man with long, shoulder-length hair and a beard. The artist rushed downstairs (apparently no longer thirsty) and drew the face that he had just seen. It probably is quite exact, as Paul knew his  business. I reproduced that face sketch in NYSG, V.1, and many, upon first seeing it, think it is Jesus-like.

Well, maybe that is what the dead banker wants them to see. Ghosts seem able to project their image as they wish. Some can show themselves either younger or older than they were at death. Some can show themselves in their burial clothes or wedding dress, or some other easily-identifiable garment. This man is showing himself as a Jesus figure. Why?  After body death, when the true soul personality must now confront the just-ended life, there can be great anguish about what was done or not done in that life. To some, apparently, it can feel like the "hellfire," which some souls have communicated after their death. Still, the being retains enough of its ego (self-created image) that it can continue lying to itself. Instead of honest confrontation with one's shortcomings (or sins, if you will) the being keeps projecting, "Yes, but I was a holy man. I was a big shot in the church; everyone loved and admired me!" There is a refusal to see what he actually made of his life--the sorrow he caused to hundreds. He is still trying to live a lie and his untruthfulness makes it impossible for him to see The Light.

It is that dishonest inability to confront truth that keeps many stranded in the world of spirits: unable to return to a body and make things right, but also unable to face their own personal truth of dishonesty.  Traditional religions have taught members to seek a "getting right with God" or some form of "confessing sins" before we depart the body. In that way, we don't lie to ourselves or to the universe after death. That makes our transition much easier.

So, the ghost banker apparently still resides at the rectory. Will the husband murderer/suicide remain long at the other upstate New York State church?  My friend is ready to help him not get "stuck," but instead to accept his behaviors and crime, and thus pass into The Light, where (she assures him) that all sins can be forgiven.

In ancient times, whenever killer tornados or earthquakes or famines came upon society, the old-timers naturally assumed that "the powers that be" (a term of ignorance--signifying that they knew nothing first-hand about what things were, or why events happened, but referring essentially to gods which they believed lived in or controlled each person, animal and/or object). It was posited that "the gods" were angry and were retaliating against humankind. Must be we did something bad, they mused, or must be someone in society (almost always a weak or powerless individual) has screwed up. Then followed a ritual execution of that individual, so everyone could "get right with god." Sometimes, they only scapegoated the victim and cast him or her out of society, or shunned them.

Eventually, once the major religions came to believe in just one god or Creator, these ignorant ones (who nevertheless wanted to have power and control all aspects of life) assumed it was He who was angry and had to be appeased by sacrifices of some kind. Women and children were the most common sacrificial victims, though the Aztecs and Mayas also were willing to part with virile young men, whose hearts were ripped out and presented to the sun.

How to keep God happy?  This effort has gotten to the state of being terribly involved and complicated rituals, whereby people spend much of their waking life trying to buy God's favor. Ritual prayers and sacrifices are still a major part of even the monotheistic religions, though few today execute human beings. Nevertheless, the unclean ones often get dead by stonings or burnings or murder which is sanctioned against "sinners."

Now, I'd like to mention the Gaia Concept. It is an old theory that appears to have been fostered by some ancient Greek philosophers, and was taught among the Mystery Teachings. It said, "Everything is alive." Well, that sounds like pantheism (there are gods everywhere) all over again, so how could this be anything better than paganism with a ritzy name? Let me urge you to google "Gaia" and see for yourself what it really means, and I'll get back to you after you have done some pondering.
 
Is there a consciousness of sorts in the soil and bedrock of our earth and even in the physical part of other planets? The Hindu teachers and Buddhists say yes. If so, as we think and act (sending out small amounts of energy, which either is or is not holistic, in the process) might the earth be reacting to the great negativity with which we live our lives? Mind you, this is the same energy that ghost hunters find in each deceased entity, which was once living in a physical body. If so, then how do we decrease the frequency of the escalating number of storms and quakes? Must we continue living in environmental crises? Let me know your thoughts, and I'll say some more about the conclusions that I have come to.