Do ghosts really exist? Do you have to be afraid of it?

Do ghosts really exist or are they just absurd superstition?

When it comes to angels and demons, the question of ghosts usually comes up. What are? Angels, demons, souls from Purgatory, some other type of spiritual creature?

Ghosts are extremely popular and are the protagonists of countless films and television programs. There are also the so-called "ghost catchers", which turn the search for haunted houses into a job to try to capture even a small image of "ghosts".

Even if the Church does not officially explain anything in relation to the modern conception of what a ghost is, we can easily deduce who they are (for clarity, I will mainly speak of the modern / popular definition of ghost. They are the "ghosts" that we often find in films horror or in television programs. I do not classify the souls of Purgatory as "ghosts" in the modern sense of the term).

To begin with, ghost testimonies always revolve around something that frightens the individual, be it a moving object or a haunted house. Sometimes it is an image that someone has seen and that arouses terror. Often the person who believes he has seen a ghost has only felt a hint and it is that experience that produces chills of fear throughout the body. Would an angel act this way?

Angels do not appear to us in terrifying forms.

Whenever an angel appears to someone in the Bible, it is possible that at first the person feels fear, but the angel immediately speaks to dispel the fear. The angel shows himself only to deliver a specific message of encouragement or to help a particular person to draw closer to God.

An angel also does not seek deception, nor does he lurk around the corner to try and hide from someone. His mission is very specific, and angels often help us without realizing their nature.

Second, angels don't move objects around a room to scare us.

On the other hand, demons want just that: to scare us. The demons want to deceive us and make us believe they are more powerful, they try to scare us to obtain submission. It's an old tactic. The devil wants to tempt us to distance us from God and wants to make us feel fascination for what is demonic.

He wants us to serve him. Frightening us, he trusts that we will be sufficiently terrified to do his will and not that of God. As angels can "disguise" themselves so as not to frighten us (they often appear as ordinary human beings), demons can do the same, but their intentions they are very different. Demons can appear under some superstitious image, like a black cat.

The most likely thing is that if someone sees a ghost or has experienced something in the context of a ghost hunt it is actually a devil.

The last option of what could be a ghost is a soul of Purgatory, a person who ends his purification days on earth.

The souls of Purgatory visit people on earth, but it is typical that they do it to ask to pray for them or to thank someone for their prayers. For centuries, the saints have witnessed the souls of Purgatory, but these souls only desired the prayers of the people they visited or show gratitude after being admitted to Heaven. The souls in Purgatory have a purpose and do not try to scare us or intimidate us.

In summary, do ghosts exist? Yup.

However, they are not as cute as Casper. They are demons who want us to lead a life of fear to try and surrender to them.

Should we fear them? No.

Although demons can use various tricks, such as moving objects from a room or appearing to someone in horrifying form, they only have power over us if we allow them to. Christ is infinitely more powerful and demons flee before even mentioning the name of Jesus.

And not only. All of us have been assigned a guardian angel who is always at our side to protect us from spiritual threats. Our guardian angel can defend us from attacks from demons, but he will only do so if we ask for his help.