sky to heaven - the invisible life.

A ghost story.

Do you believe in ghosts?

It was Halloween, and I asked a friend that question, and to my surprise she said, “Yes, I do.”
“Why? Have you seen one before?”
“Nope,” she said. “But my cousin did.”
“What???”

“My cousin and her husband rented an apartment a couple years ago. One night she was dreaming, and she saw a girl moving towards her, arms extended and reaching for her neck. My cousin woke up and screamed. A couple nights later, the same thing happened. This time when she woke up, the girl was still there. She threw a Bible at it (which she had prepared beforehand), and the ghost disappeared. She was so scared that she and her husband moved out of the apartment soon after.

“Before she moved out, the landlord and the police came to her apartment. They said that a girl had previously lived in that same apartment. She had recently broken up with her boyfriend. After the break up, she had moved out. But not long after, she returned and committed suicide by throwing herself off the roof of the building. The police were looking for her very last place of residence, after she had moved out. They showed them a picture of the girl – it was the same girl as the ghost.”

“Did your cousin believe in ghosts before this happened?”
“Nope. ”
“How about her husband?”
“No. And after this happened, he still doesn’t know what to think. He never saw the ghost.”
“What about her father?”
“He doesn’t believe in ghosts.”
“Not even after this happened to his own daughter??”
“That’s right.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. He just doesn’t believe. He can’t accept that they exist.”
“How about you?”
“Yes, I believe. She’s my cousin. She’s not the kind of person who would just make it up.”
“Did she tell a lot of people about this?”
“Nope. Only to people who she’s close with. She doesn’t like to talk about it.”
“Why not??”
“Because she thinks nobody would believe her. She doesn’t want other people to think she’s crazy. It’s something personal.”
“I believe her.”
And for the rest of that day, I just thought about ghosts.

Beliefs of reality are learned.

Most people don’t want to believe ghosts or aliens are real – and maybe you don’t, either. Because if they are real, their reality may turn your whole life upside down. Their reality will defy your reality – everything you have believed until now. Just like most people 500 years ago didn’t want to accept that the world was round – because it would have defied everything that they had ever believed to be true. It would have forced them to reject everything that they had ever learned. All their teachers, parents, friends, and loved ones would have been wrong. The world wouldn’t have changed one bit, because the world had always been round, whether they believed it or not – but they would have had to change in order to accept the truth.

Beliefs that oppose our own cherished beliefs are dangerous and threatening, because our beliefs form the core of who we are and how we live. If other people are right, that means you might be wrong. And if you’re wrong, that means you have to change your world view – and perhaps your life. And most people don’t like to change unless they have to. If you accept that your own belief is either incorrect or incomplete, and that another person’s belief is more accurate, then you have to be humble, open-minded, and gracious enough to admit that you made a mistake. You have to admit that other people are right and you are wrong – and very few people like to do that, either. Especially when their pride, ego, authority, reputation, or career is at stake. That is why it is easier to just say, “They’re crazy,” or “They’re deluded,” “They just want attention,” or “It’s just a hoax.” You want to think that they have a problem – not you. That their view of reality is wrong, and yours is right. So you immediately attack their personal credibility – to defend your own beliefs. You attack their sanity to maintain yours.

Put yourself in another person’s shoes. Would you ever say to the world, “I saw a ghost,” or “I saw an alien”? No, you probably wouldn’t – because you’d know that other people would think you were crazy. Who would want to marry or do business with someone who said they’d seen a ghost or a UFO? They’d be the laughingstock of their town or city. It’s very un-cool and outdated to be a believer of such things, while it’s very mainstream and normal not to be a believer. By claiming they’ve seen a ghost or a UFO, a person gains 15 minutes of attention in exchange for a potential lifetime of ridicule, embarrassment, backtalk, and social ostracization.

Right now, you’re still probably resisting the existence of ghosts and aliens. That’s quite normal - if you don’t believe in ghosts or aliens, it’s not your fault. From the time we were young, people we loved have told us at bedtime, “There’re no such thing as ghosts,” and “Aliens don’t exist.” All this time, we believed them – we had no reason not to. We automatically believed in their nonexistence - because people we believed, loved, trusted, and looked up to, told us that it was so and lived as if it were so. Our parents, relatives, teachers, priests, friends, and heroes. We accepted what they said based on faith – our faith in those we loved and respected. (Imagine the reverse - if your parents had believed.) If we had chosen to believe in something different from our parents and peers, we would have had to set ourselves in opposition to those we loved. We would have had to stand against the beliefs of the ones we loved and respected – and to risk their ridicule and criticism. And so it is no wonder that we still believe their teachings today.

Do your own research - you may be surprised.

I recently asked a co-worker if he believed in aliens. He said, “Have you seen the TV show X-Files?”
“I’ve only seen one or two episodes. What does that have to do with you?”
“Well, there’s a poster on Mulder’s basement wall which says, ‘I want to believe.’ That’s how I feel. I want to believe, but I just don’t.”
“I think you don’t want to believe. Most people don’t want to believe. Because if you really wanted to believe – you would find a way to believe.”
“I do want to believe. I just don’t have the evidence.”
“If you really wanted to believe, you would have first researched the subject. Have you ever done any research on it at all? Read any multiple eyewitness accounts of UFO incidents?”
“No.”
“That’s why I think you don’t want to believe. You never even looked at the research, or conducted your own survey and asked other people what they believed, or if they had ever seen any UFOs. You only watched a TV show.”

After this conversation, my co-worker… still doesn’t believe in ghosts or aliens. Myself, I didn’t accept the existence of ghosts or aliens until just recently. Like most ordinary people in mainstream society, I never gave them much thought. I believed ghosts were just myths, and that aliens probably did exist, but only far, far away in distant corners of the galaxy. Neither ghosts nor aliens intruded into my life, so I had no reason to care about their reality. They neither helped or hurt my life – they weren’t even there. They seemed to have no effect on my existence whatsoever; so as far as I was concerned, they didn’t exist at all. But it was only after I did some of my own research that I gradually came to accept the existence of ghosts and aliens. With regards to aliens, I join a list of believers and witnesses which include U.S. presidents Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter, as well as General Douglas MacArthur, Astronauts Gordon Cooper and Edgar Mitchell, entertainers John Lennon, Dan Aykroyd, and Shirley MacLaine, among others. But of course, you didn’t know so many famous individuals with reputations to protect believed in UFOs, did you? A year ago, I didn’t know either – and that’s because I’d never done any homework on it.

Your beliefs produce your reality.

You may wonder why I care about the existence of ghosts and aliens, even though I have never seen any - and I may live the rest of my life without ever meeting any. But if aliens do exist, then our view of the universe and life will be turned upside down – and this may revolutionize how we live our own lives on this planet. I care because if there really are ghosts, that means there is probably life after death. And if there is life after death, perhaps we should not worry so much about dying and making a living – but instead about living a good life. Life after death would mean that life is actually much longer than we think, and we can be comforted by the fact that death is not the end of our existence, but a door into the beginning of another one. If there are ghosts, that means that we are not just our bodies, but we also have a spirit half to ourselves – something invisible that we cannot see. That besides our fragile human bodies, we may also be something far more everlasting – that in addition to our physical powers, we may also possess spiritual powers we are unaware of. So perhaps we may need to pay attention not just to our bodies, but also to the state of our “spirits” – that we live not only a physical, material life, but that we also live an invisible, spiritual life.

Every belief is a statement (or guess) about the nature of reality. So it is not only our beliefs about ghosts and aliens that affect the way we live life – nearly all of our beliefs affect the way we live and feel about our lives. Some people believe that life is difficult – and because of their belief, they experience great hardship, suffering, and frustration. Other people believe that life is inherently enjoyable – and because of their belief, they experience life with greater joy. Some people believe that life is all about money – so they spend their lives making money, spending money, and thinking about money. Some people believe that life is all about fun – so they spend their lives trying to have fun. Some people even believe that life is about nothing at all – so you can imagine how they feel and live their life. Many people have even killed for their beliefs, and continue to do so now. People have killed for Christianity and for Islam, for democracy and for tyranny, for capitalism and for communism, for money and for love. If you wish to understand any man or woman, seek to understand their beliefs, and why they hold such beliefs.

Because we see that as a person believes, so from there does that person live their life. Beliefs are very powerful and influential forces. They can expand your universe or limit it; they can open up your heart and mind - or they can close them. They can divide us from each other, or unify us; they can motivate us to be selfish, or to aid one another. They can influence us to become more tolerant or intolerant, delivering us closer to love or away towards hate and indifference. How have your beliefs affected you and your life?

Our beliefs have serious consequences: they affect the way we see the world and the way we live in it; the way we view other people and the way we relate to them. Beliefs help produce your reality and your life. Your beliefs can even heal you - that is why placebo effects can work. And your beliefs can hurt you also - that is why self-fulfilling prophecies occur. Beliefs can save life or kill life. As one wiser than me once said, “As you believe, so let it be done for you.” So our beliefs should be carefully questioned and examined – simply accepting the beliefs of others without question is unwise. For in the end, we ourselves are responsible for how live – and also of what we believe. So of all the things in life we must be careful of, we must be most careful of our very own beliefs.