This first article about ghosts and paranormal will talk about their origins... Since when do they exist ? And what were the traditions behind ghosts ?

Undertale Napstablook Fanart - by AnatexD -  https://www.deviantart.com/anatexd/art/Undertale-Napstablook-Fanart-580009515

First thing first, let me describe the words ghost and paranormal :

• A ghost is simply the souls or spirits of dead humans and animals. It's mostly qualified as an invisible presence.

• Paranomal regroups all the phenomens in pop culture that can't be scientifically proven.

  A long time ago, during Stone Edge, people used to burry deads by putting giant rocks on their tombs, because they believed that their souls could escape their bodies.

  The first ever written story about ghosts was Epic of Gilgamesh, a mesopotamian epic poem, which tells the story of a hero and his friend's ghost, which was represented by a transparent shadow. This story was written on a clay tablet, in -1800.

In mesopotamian culture, mesopotamian hells were called “Irkalla”, “Kur” or “Ershetu”, they were the destination of the deads's souls.

Most of the mesopotamian revenants were unwanted visitors who got sent back in their land by using priests, exorcism, amulets and charms.

Epic of Gilgamesh tablet - https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Epic_of_Gilgamesh

  In Ancient Egypt, they also believed in ghosts with bird faces, called “Khu” which represented the dead spirit. They thought that when people died, their souls were brought to the “room of truth” and were judged by “Osiris”, a god from the egyptian pantheon.

Osiris - representation by the artisan Sennedjem (unknown period) - https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osiris

  In greek mythology, they thought “Cerberus”, a multi-headed dog who keep the entrance of hell, was preventing deads to leave Adès's kingdom. Adès was considered as the king of the underworld.

  Otherwise, in China, their beliefs in ghosts were influenced by their practice of cults for ancestors. In chinese culture, the 15^th night of the 7^th month is called “Ghost day” and more general July is called “Ghost month” because at this period, ghosts and souls come out of the underworld. This month is considered as dangerous...

https://mustsharenews.com/hungry-ghost-festival/

  As we saw, the origins of ghosts date from a long time ago, and severals countries had their own interpretations, cultures, and beliefs around them. But most of the time, they were related to fear, and hell... but what about now ? See you in my next article talking about ghosts and paranormal in today's society ! 

   Now, we're going to see how ghosts and paranormal are represented today. Actually, they're everywhere… in movies, series, books, video games... I'm sure that you already have an example in mind. If you are searching for some ghostbuster, you came to the right place !

        Napstablook - A ghost character from the game "Undertale" By Toby Fox                       Kaonashi or "No Face" - A youkai (japanese's folklore ghost) from "Spirited Away" by Hayao Miyazaki

                     https://undertale.fandom.com/wiki/Napstablook                                                                             https://giphy.com/gifs/spirited-away-no-face-ayMW3eqvuP00o 

  First of all, let me refer you to the most popular possession story of all time : the story of Anneliese Michel. This happened in the 60s : Anneliese grew in a german catholic believer family. Everything was fine for her until she turned sixteen : she started to have convulsion seizures. Doctors as diagnosed her as epileptic, and she was sent in a psychiatric hospital for one year, because doctors thought that there was a psychological problem behind her many crisis. But even there, she was feeling so bad that she become depressed. She started to believe herself that she was possessed by evil. On 1975, priests went to her house to do an exorcism on her for the first time.

Anneliese died on July the 1^st, in 1976 at 23 years old.

This sad story inspired many movies, as The exorcism of Emily Rose in 2005, which is based on her story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exorcism_of_Emily_Rose

  Loads of films are also based on true stories of people that had experiences with ghosts or/and paranormal. A very famous couple that has inspired some famous horror films was the Warren couple. Ed and Laurraine Warren were two americans paranormal investigators : this means that they were ghosthunters. His profession was to be a demonologist as she was a clairvoyant. Today, there is a museum called “ The Warren's Occult Museum” located at the back of the Warren's house, that contains all the haunted objects and artifacts that they could have worked on.

Both inspired the movie The Conjuring  in 2013 about a haunted family and it's prequel Annabelle in 2014 inspired by the doll, also The Conjuring 2 in 2016.

             https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conjuring                     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conjuring_2                         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annabelle_(film)  

  My personnal favorite is the horror movie The Shining  in 1980 that was inspired by the hotel "Stanley" situated in the Colorado. This hotel is knowned to have many ghosts apparitions. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shining_(film)

  To make a quick summary, we saw that many films are inspired by real possesion stories : either a person, objects or even an isolated hotel. Now ghosts and paranormal are a part of today's culture in order to scare people. For me, this confirms that humans as always been afraid of what they can't explain...