How to overcome the fear of ghosts?

Note: This article adapted an answer from myself in Zhihu. The original question on Zhihu was "How to overcome the fear of ghosts?" Next, I will tell you how I dispel the fear of ghosts bit by bit.

1, the first impression of ghosts: ghosts will catch people!

I have been particularly curious about ghosts since I was a child.

When I was 2-5 years old, adults sometimes told me that there were ghosts in the world, so I must listen to them, or the ghosts would come and take me away.

However, as a curious boy, this kind of words will cause me endless questions: what does a ghost look like? Like people? Do ghosts catch people? Why are they arresting people? Are there any good ghosts who can't catch people? How do ghosts catch people? What happens when they take them away? ...

In short, as far as I can remember, it seems that no adult will try to cheat me twice with such words.

However, he was still a child at that time. In fact, they will still be very scared when they lie to me. After all, who doesn't want to be taken away by things they don't know or understand for no reason?

2. Newborn calves want to see ghosts ...

From the age of five, I have been very bold and brave (in fact, ignorance and "two"). Often in order to win the praise of my friends, I dare to do things that others dare not do, for example, provoke a mad dog and run, provoke some "loafers" and run, jump from the second floor to the sand downstairs ... This is the first background.

Background 2: I live in a small rural area in the south. There are often some ghost stories in the village, among which haunted pavilions, haunted old houses and haunted mountain roads are the most frequently heard. Below, I have heard several versions (these stories are all told by these people themselves and then spread):

(1) Uncle Jia, who was in his fifties at that time, went out at two o'clock in the morning (why did he go out at two o'clock? In order to catch up with the morning market after five o'clock, I picked a wooden stool weighing 100 Jin and ran to the market ten kilometers away to sell it. On the way, I was so tired that I stopped to sit on the slate, lit a cigarette, and then I arrived at the pavilion where I stopped (there used to be a pavilion every three or five miles on the path). After a while, a stranger came behind. Seeing that he was resting, he stopped to sit next to him. After greeting, I asked him to borrow a light with the accent of the village next door. Uncle naturally borrowed the light for him and then chatted with him for a while. After smoking two cigarettes, uncle wants to continue on his way. The big man let him go first, and uncle left.

Three or four days after returning home, the butcher in the next village picked up meat and went to the village to sell it. Uncle Jia chatted with him about the big man who looked strange that day and asked the butcher if he knew him. The butcher asked him with frightened eyes where he met him. Uncle said that the butcher picked up the meat and left. Uncle naturally refused to do it, pulling the butcher and insisting that he make it clear. In desperation, the butcher said that the man fell to his death on a nearby cliff as early as six years ago. . . From then on, Uncle Jia could never catch up with the night.

(2) Brother B is a hunter, who is active in the mountains all the year round, and catching wild boar at night is his specialty. One day, he went to check traps and hidden mines (detonators used to fry wild boar) at night. After that, he went home and walked to a stone step at the entrance of the village. He was addicted to cigarettes and sat down to smoke. Just as he was smoking, looking at the moonlight and thinking a lot. He happened to see a family with bright lights and smoke curling up. He didn't pay attention at first, thinking that someone might be eating supper. But when he stood up to leave, he suddenly thought something was wrong and ran away. . . It turned out that the house he saw was a famous haunted house in our village. No one lived in it for decades, and no one dared to go in during the day. ...

(3) Aunt C has always been known for her boldness. One day, she set out from her home in a neighboring village at eleven o'clock at night, walked halfway to the gazebo and sat for a while. I'm very upset. I'm still thinking about the injustice I suffered at my parents' house. At this moment, it seems that someone patted her behind her. When she turned around, she saw a shadow flash by. She suddenly stood up and wanted to go home quickly. When she walked quickly to the door of the pavilion, there was a sneer in the pavilion. . . Since then, Aunt C has never walked at night again. Later, the haunted story came from that gazebo. Then someone took the lead in asking the mage to do something. Since then, I have never heard of anyone meeting a ghost there.

Besides, there are many others, so I won't list them one by one for the time being.

Back to myself, one year, the TV station broadcast "Liaozhai". I watched a little and liked it very much. Then I found my father's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, which I read and understood. After reading it, the biggest feeling is that some ghosts also have "conscience", and good ghosts will not harm people.

So, one day, I made up my mind to go to the haunted gazebo to see what ghosts really look like. Then you can show off in front of your friends and gain new authority. And I heard that ghosts are afraid of peach trees, so I specially prepared a peach stick during the day.

So, I slipped out of the door at night with a peach stick and no flashlight. Walking on the road, I am actually very scared. When I arrived at the pavilion, I almost felt someone following me, and my palms were sweating all the time. For me at that time, in a word: everything is a ghost! However, it suddenly occurred to me that if I told my friends what ghosts were like the next day, they would certainly worship me more and more, and more and more people would become my "followers"; I gritted my teeth and rushed into the gazebo. Then, I shouted: ghost, come out and let me see you!

Well, you must have thought of the result: I didn't see a ghost, and of course I wasn't taken away by a ghost, but was taken back by my parents. Yes, I sat in the gazebo waiting for the ghost, and finally I only waited for my family with flashlights. . .

3. watch a ghost film: after "scaring urine", dismantle the platform ...

After the fourth and fifth grade of primary school, VCD and DVD became popular in rural areas, so it became fashionable to get together to watch CDs on weekends. Little boy, the most exciting things are martial arts action movies and horror movies. Horror movies are mainly composed of various zombie movies and ghost movies (Ching-Ying Lam is the favorite zombie movie).

At first, I satisfied my imagination of ghosts and deepened my fear of them. I often turn off the lights with my friends to watch ghost movies, listen to ghost stories told on the radio (Ghost Blowing Lights is the most frequently heard), and then scare each other. The most terrible thing is that when a movie or radio station is extremely quiet, someone suddenly screams or suddenly stands up, which will scare others to death. These scenes, although extremely warm to recall now, were often almost horrible at that time.

Here comes the climax. Once, at eleven o'clock on Saturday night, my friends and parents were not at home, and four or five people met to see Mr. Zombie (now think about it, it's really classic! )。 The first clip left a deep impression on me: disciple A played a zombie to scare disciple B, which was very realistic, just like the real zombie in the movie.

I really thought it was a zombie at first (it was quite scary that he suddenly jumped out from behind the door), but just after he succeeded in scaring disciple B, his dentures fell out and he spoke!

Then, after he took off his zombie suit, he became a real person!

This suddenly reminds me that these zombies are all played by people, and the ghosts in those ghost films are all the same, all played by people! It turns out that all I've been afraid of is people!

God, I almost screamed at the sky: these storytellers and horror movies have scared employers and employees for more than ten years!

In this way, over the years, those ferocious ghost zombie images in my heart have collapsed. The fear of ghosts just disappeared from my heart.

Knowing this, after watching ghost movies and zombie movies, my attention began to turn to the acting skills of the actors who played those ghosts and zombies. Then I kept thinking: What's there to be afraid of when a bunch of actors are playing there? !

Of course, at this time, the fear of ghosts has not completely disappeared. In the middle of the night (especially when a person walks at night), I am still a little afraid of thinking of ghosts.

4. Reflection: Four questions about "ghost"

After I entered high school, I read more and more miscellaneous books and thought more and more questions. And began to try to explain some phenomena and problems in life according to various theories. I also thought about ghosts, and then found that people who believe in ghosts (especially those who can catch people, beat people and eat people) must face the following problems:

(1) If ghosts have no bodies (souls as the saying goes), what form do they exist in? How can we possibly see or feel them? You know, the naked eye can only see things with both shapes and materials. The same is true of other human senses.

If they are invisible to the naked eye, then they are definitely not in our world, or at least not in our time and space (if time and space are really multidimensional). If they are not in the world we live in, how can they influence us? It's even less likely to hurt us.

(2) If a ghost has a body, it is either a zombie or a mummy. However, since the body is dead, what activities does it rely on? As far as we know, it is impossible for all living things to come back from the dead. So, how did the body move? (that is, where does the motivation for their activities come from? ) This problem is also a fatal one for people who believe in ghosts and zombies.

(3) The first two questions can be compromised. You can say that ghosts exist. But I never believe that ghosts are better than people. They can catch people, beat people and eat people. The reason is simple: the dead person is very weak at the moment of death, no matter how he died. Needless to say, those who are born, sick and dead, and those who die abnormally usually die of devastating injuries to their bodies. Those who have suffered so much harm have died. How did they suddenly get stronger after they died? This is ridiculous.

Of course, some people will say: since ghosts are changed by the dead, they don't belong to the same world as us, so they can't be understood in a human way and logic. These problems are all thought from the perspective of people, so you naturally can't figure out the problem of ghosts.

Faced with this statement, my answer is still: since they don't belong to the same world as us and can't be understood by our logic, of course they can't influence us, let alone catch us or defeat us.

Because, once the ghost wants to influence or hurt us, the following things will happen.

(4) They will inevitably use some media that can be felt and recognized by us, so they will be understood and grasped by us. As long as we can understand the enemy, no matter how powerful they are, we can always find weapons or methods to deal with them. Therefore, no matter whether we shoot ghosts or zombies in movies, we can always find something to beat ghosts or zombies in the world, and humans can use these things to destroy ghosts or zombies. For example, the zombies in Mr. Zombie are afraid of glutinous rice, chicken blood and peach swords. And fire can directly burn them to death.

5. Summary: Fear comes from the unknown.

Finally, let me briefly summarize the reasons why I was afraid of ghosts before:

I was afraid of ghosts at first, because I was afraid that ghosts would take me away like adults said.

Later, I was afraid of ghosts and didn't know what ghosts looked like.

Later, I was afraid of ghosts, thinking that ghosts might suddenly appear like in movies and hurt myself, and I didn't know how to deal with them.

In short, there are things I don't know in this process.

Then let's imagine: if we know what ghosts look like, know the law of their activities, know what influence ghosts may have on human beings, and then know how to prevent them, is the ghost still terrible? I don't think they are scary at all. They are like a snake or a virus. Although we are afraid of being bitten by snakes and getting all kinds of diseases, we are not as afraid of them as we are now, because they are not insurmountable.

So, in a word, the fear of ghosts is actually our natural fear of the unknown and uncertainty. Our fear of ghosts and worship of God are actually the same root.

Therefore, in order to overcome the fear of ghosts, we must constantly know (reflect) the world and ourselves. Only by knowing what the world is like, what kind of existence we are, and the meaning of our existence (urging ourselves to do things seriously) can we truly be fearless of ghosts and gods.

Above.