Ghosts and Spirits: Examining Japanese, Jewish and Native American Cultural Beliefs

Since Halloween is just around the corner, and ghoulies and ghosties are on everyone's mind, I thought it would be a gread time to explore how various cultures handle paranormal beliefs. Summarized in this article are the basic belief structures of the Japanese, Jews, and Native Americans.

We Americans, on the whole, are quite open-minded about the paranormal. In fact, more than 30 percent of all Americans say that they believe in ghosts. Let me go on record as saying that I believe ghosts are "possible." I've never seen one or heard one but I know some very reliable people who have.

However, let's put our beliefs aside for a moment and take a look into the basic belief structures of three other cultures with regard to ghosts and spirits:

Japan

The Japanese culture, which is rich in superstition and the paranormal, is also very open to the belief of a spirit world. In fact, many individual cultures of Japan believe that the living are always surrounded by spirits.

Some among the ancient Japanese believed that spirits were the cause of disease and hunger. They thought that evil spirits who were seeking retribution even brought on natural disasters like tidal waves, hurricanes, and floods.

Another popular belief had spirits caught between the land of the living and the world of shadows. These believes said that an unpurified human soul would return to the land of the living as a ghost. Oftentimes, these spirits were believed to have returned because of certain unpardonable sins like envy, jealousy, or anger. It was those unforgivable sins that spurred them on to seek revenge.

Today, many Japanese still believe that spirits who are not delivered through prayer by those who love them, can be caught in limbo between the land of the living and the land of the dead. For this reason, many Japanese death rituals are very specific and highly honored.

The Jewish Faith