ghost

ghost, soul or specter of a dead person, usually believed to inhabit the netherworld and to be capable of returning in some form to the world of the living. According to descriptions or depictions provided by believers, a ghost may appear as a living being or as a nebulous likeness of the deceased or, occasionally, in other forms. Belief in ghosts is based on the ancient notion that a human spirit is separable from the body and may maintain its existence after the body’s death. In many societies funeral rituals are believed to prevent the ghost from haunting the living.

Ghosts in the ancient world

Belief that the dead might return is among the oldest recorded ideas. Across the ancient world it tended to follow a shared logic: A spirit came back when something had gone wrong—an unavenged death, unfinished business, or a body left without proper burial. Sometimes the living responded by trying to keep the dead in the ground, an impulse that has left physical traces. In the ancient city of Kamarina in southeastern Sicily, the Passo Marinaro cemetery, used from about the 5th to the 3rd century bce, has yielded two graves in which the bodies appear to have been deliberately weighed down. In one, large fragments of an amphora (a heavy two-handled storage jar) were laid over an adult’s head and feet. In another, five large stones were placed on the body of a child. Researchers interpret the weights as an attempt to pin the dead in place so they could not rise, a material sign of what scholars term necrophobia—the fear that certain corpses might return as revenants to harm the living.

In ancient Mesopotamia a neglected or improperly buried spirit was thought to affect the mental and physical health of the living. Before providing treatment, a physician would first press a patient to confess whatever offense might have summoned the dead and only then attempt to drive the ghost back with prayers and protective charms.

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Ancient Egyptians sometimes bargained with their dead in writing. Mourners left letters to the dead, asking the deceased to intercede against an enemy, settle a dispute, or grant a blessing. One bereaved husband from the New Kingdom era (c. 1539–c. 1077 bce) wrote a letter insisting that he had never wronged his late wife so that her spirit might stop appearing to him.

Roman author Pliny the Younger (61/62–c. 113 ce) penned a story about a house in Athens that had been abandoned because it was believed to be haunted by the ghost of an emaciated old man in chains. In the story, the Stoic philosopher Athenodorus rents the house and follows the apparition into the courtyard, where it suddenly disappears. He marks the spot and, while digging there the next day, reveals bones wrapped in chains. After the remains are gathered and given a public burial, Pliny reports, the haunting ceases.

Ghosts in folklore worldwide

The telling of elaborate, grisly ghost stories, often in a setting enhanced by darkness or a thunderstorm, is a popular pastime in many groups, particularly among children. Traditions concerning the return of the dead are found in cultures around the world:

• La Llorona (Mexico and the wider Latin American world): La Llorona (Spanish; “The Weeping Woman”) is the ghost of a woman, often named Maria, who is said to have drowned her two sons and then herself. She wanders the Earth crying for them, and misfortune is said to befall anyone who hears her siren-like wails. The legend is among the region’s frequently documented ghost stories. It has inspired Mexican films such as La Llorona (1933) and La maldición de la Llorona (1963; The Curse of the Crying Woman), Hollywood movies such as Mama (2013), The Curse of La Llorona (2019), and The Legend of La Llorona (2022), and the Guatemalan horror film La Llorona (2019).
• Pocong (Indonesia and Malaysia): The pocong is the ghost of a person whose Islamic burial shroud (kain kafan) was not properly untied after burial. In Islamic burial practice the shroud’s bindings are loosened after the body is placed in the grave; if they are not untied, the deceased may return as a hopping spirit trapped within the cloth. The pocong has become one of Southeast Asia’s most recognizable horror figures, anchoring many film franchises and also being used by Javanese volunteers to help enforce a lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Kuntilanak or Pontianak (Indonesia and Malaysia): The kuntilanak is the vengeful ghost of a woman who died in childbirth, said to announce her approach with the scent of frangipani blossoms before appearing as a beautiful woman who turns monstrous. She is an antagonist in the supernatural horror video game DreadOut (2014).
• Gwisin (Korea): A gwisin is the ghost of someone who died with unresolved business, often described as suffering from han, the Korean concept of lingering grief and resentment over personal or collective memory of suffering.
• Churail or Chudail (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh): The churail is the ghost of a woman who died during pregnancy, identifiable by her backward-turned feet as she returns to seek vengeance. The figure has drawn renewed attention through feminist reinterpretation, notably the 2020 Netflix film Bulbbul, which recasts her as a symbol of resistance rather than menace.
• Duppy (Jamaica and the wider Caribbean): A duppy is the spirit of someone who has died, capable of lingering to help or to trouble the living. By tradition a duppy may be controlled by a practitioner of obeah, a system of magical belief and ritual used to ward off evil. The word has entered popular music, most famously through Bob Marley’s 1970 song “Duppy Conqueror.”
• Night marchers (Hawaii): In Hawaiian tradition a huakaʻi pō is a procession of the spirits of ancient warriors and chiefs, said to march along sacred routes on nights honoring gods. The figures taking part in such processions are commonly called night marchers in English.
• Multo (Philippines): Multo are generally the harmless ghosts of deceased family members or friends who return to visit the living or attend to unfinished business. Sometimes they appear with malevolent motives. The term recently reached new audiences through “Multo,” a 2024 single by the Filipino band Cup of Joe.
• Amatongo (the Zulu people, South Africa): The amatongo are the venerated ancestral spirits of deceased family elders, who may take possession of a living descendant to deliver guidance, healing, or prophecy. First documented in detail by the English missionary Henry Callaway in his 1870 ethnography The Religious System of the Amazulu, the amatongo remain central to Zulu ancestor veneration.

Signs of a haunting

A place that is haunted is thought to be associated by the haunting spirit with some strong emotion of the past—remorse, fear, or the terror of a violent death. Individuals who are haunted are believed to be responsible for, or associated with, the ghost’s unhappy past experience (compare possession). The traditional visual manifestations of haunting include ghostly apparitions, the displacement of objects, or the appearance of strange lights; auditory signs include disembodied laughter and screams, footsteps, ringing bells, and the spontaneous emanation of sounds from musical instruments. See also ghoul, kobold, and poltergeist.

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