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Namah Think it Over

post-traumatic stress is likely as old as human The Unquiet Dead
civilization.” The sorts of symptoms after
battle were very clearly what we would According to psychologist Edith Fiore (4), the
call now post-traumatic stress symptoms. unquiet dead are spirits of people who die
[Soldiers] “described hearing and seeing suddenly, who do not know they’re dead.
ghosts talking to them, who would be the Kardec suggests they may roam around
ghosts of people they’d killed in battle — and on Earth’s plane, and may attach to the
that’s exactly the experience of modern-day living, causing illness and mental distress
soldiers who’ve been involved in close hand- (5). It is possible hungry ghosts (or the
to-hand combat (2).” Professor Lendon, of the unquiet dead) are a wider collateral of war,
University of Virginia, explored the history of alongside human diseases and viruses they
warfare in his book, Soldiers and Ghosts (3), may enable. Physician Gabor Maté (6) used
with its required obedience, discipline and the term ‘Hungry Ghosts’ as a metaphor
killing. for people who were addicted, who had
an insatiable yearning, but could never be
satisfied. However, it is probable the term
is not a metaphor for peoples elsewhere in
the world, who are spiritist, aware of actual
spirits of the dead, who are acquainted with
unsettled hungry ghosts. Ghosts as non-
physical entities are familiar to populations
in the East, among Indigenous Americans,
Aboriginal Australians, and in Africa.
Cultural insights around ghosts
Ghosts in Eastern cultures
The discipline of medical anthropology
claims there are always multiple narratives Ghosts found in Chinese and Vietnamese
around human illness causation.We suggest Buddhist cultures represent non-incarnate
a deeper understanding of spirits and hungry beings, driven by intense emotional needs.
ghosts may enable our society to better Hungry-ghosts are described in Buddhist,
acknowledge mental ill health and distress Taoist, Hindu, Sikh, and Jain texts as remnants
and its relationship with trauma and war. Of of the dead who are afflicted with insatiable
course, the explanatory models we humans desire, hunger or thirst, as a result of bad
hold for causes of illness and mental distress deeds done during their lifetimes. They
are like ‘Liquorice All-Sorts’: we choose are also found in every part of the Far East,
whichever models fit with our current beliefs. from the Philippines to Japan and China,
In order to expand on this topic, we consider Thailand, Laos, Burma, India and Pakistan
the writings of the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo (7). The value judgment about ‘bad deeds’ is
Ashram, plus insights from psychiatrist, Dr. not found in Western spiritist groups: they
Soumitra Basu; medical anthropologist and are simply beings who are unsettled, have
shaman Dr. Alberto Villoldo; and additional not been buried or prayed over.
research from South America and Africa.

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