Some days ago I was talking to a religious believer, a Hindu. We had a discussion – how could it be different – about religion, god and different beliefs. In this conversation he said something that caused a flood of thoughts, which is why I want to write to you about it. His statement was ‘If you believe in God, you also believe in ghosts and magic’.
It is really funny what kind of different reactions this kind of phrase can have! If you are living in the west and are not very deeply involved in the spiritual or esoteric scene, you may think that this should be something that a non-believer says when he wants to make fun of believers. In the west, the idea of believing in ghosts and magic is in general rather ridiculous. Ghosts belong into ghost stories, magic into fairy tales or modern fantasy novels. Say the word ‘magic’ in front of a young person in the west and the first thing that comes into his or her mind will be ‘Harry Potter’. A book, fiction, a movie, something unreal, something that is made for entertainment and created by fantasy.
In India, things are a bit different. Of course magic is and stays fiction, that is a fact, but here religion has created such a big belief in superstition that people actually believe in magic! They believe in ghosts and they believe in supernatural powers. They don’t think it is fiction! If you believe in god, you believe in magic and ghosts – of course, all the stories in scriptures tell you that those things do exist! Scriptures are full of magic and once, when I told Ramona one story of a scripture, she was laughing, saying that it sounds just like Harry Potter! In the west, people know that this is fantasy but here, it is presented as though it is history, as though it truly happened and if you reach a certain kind of consciousness, it can happen again!
It is thus not only children who believe in ghosts and magic, it is also adults. Consequently, it is not only children who are afraid – adults, grown men are afraid, too. As usual, religion has instilled this fear because it helps them control and manipulate people. There are the stories of ghosts and then there is religious advice what to do against such dangers – rituals, ceremonies and more.
Unfortunately adults teach this fear to their children! Children get afraid of such stories in every country but in the west, parents start teaching them already early that this all is just fantasy and unreal. In India however, the parents will hang something in front of the door so that the bad magic cannot enter or show their child that there is a knife under their pillow which the ghosts are afraid of.
By telling your child what you do against the ghost, you encourage your child to believe that the ghost is real. You create fear, a fearful young person who will always check whether all superstitious measures against evil are taken before doing anything. You make your son or daughter dependent on ceremonies and rituals, on priests and people who tell them more about magic, ghosts, demons and evil energies.
The fact that makes this even worse is that even highly educated people are caught in such illusions and in this fear. They teach their children about science and medicine but they also teach them fear. They use ghosts as threats, saying ‘Don’t do this, a ghost will come!’ They tell their children there is a ghost in the storeroom and if the child does not behave, they say ‘Be good or we will lock you into the storeroom!’ They even invent a scary name for that ghost with which they will always frighten their children. My father just yesterday said that he and my mother never made us afraid. They never used such threats – and that is why we were never afraid of ghosts or magic and never even feared darkness.
It is a pity that people still believe in such utter nonsense and teach it to their children. You are creating another generation full of unnecessary fear, trapped in their hesitation, handicapped by ancient fantasy stories.
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