This week: Real or Not Real? Edited by: NaNoKit  
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What (if anything) do you believe in that most people don't? Do you think ghosts could be real? What about dragons, unicorns or faeries?
This is not a newsletter to mock beliefs. We each of us have our own views and feelings about what exists now, what might have existed in the past, and what is merely the product of a rich imagination.
This week, then, the Spiritual Newsletter will discuss what is real, and what is not.
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Do you believe in ghosts? What about unicorns, faeries or dragons? Such questions may seem a little silly to some, but if you answered yes, you are not alone. Many people believe in something outside of their direct experience. Something they’ve never seen, or felt, and most likely never will. Others don’t quite believe, but are open to the possibility of there being more to life and existence than we currently know. I probably fall in the latter group. Especially when considering our history.
Imagine being the first person to dig up a dinosaur bone. You would have been puzzled, I’m sure. Nothing in your immediate experience would tell you what that bone could have belonged to. Nothing in human experience would provide you with the answer. We are still learning about the many life forms that inhabit this planet, and still discovering species that roamed the earth thousands, even millions of years in the past.
It is not inconceivable to me that there once lived a horse with a horn. There are, after all, quite a few horned creatures in existence. Such unicorns were probably very different to what we imagine them to be. For us to be able to say that unicorns were once real, they do not have to be the pure white beings we learned about in fairy tales. Likewise, dragons need not be the fire-breathing giants we’ve grown up with (much as I love them). We know that there once lived flying dinosaurs (Pterosaurs), and that some of them had a wingspan of up to 10–11 metres (33–36 feet). Now, would I love to meet a unicorn or fly a dragon? Sure! It’s not going to happen, though. Still, I find it oddly reassuring that they may have been around in some form, at some point in time.
I know more people who believe in ghosts and spirits than agree with me about dragons and unicorns. Perhaps this is because many people believe in some form of afterlife. It’s also not uncommon to have a bad feeling about a place; for a shiver to run down your spine and the hairs at the back of your neck to stand on end. Who hasn’t had a spooky encounter? I know that I have had a couple.
It hasn’t happened in some years now (thank goodness), but after moving into this place I often had the feeling that there was a … presence in the corner of my bedroom. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling. I’d sit at my desk, right next to the corner, and feel a chill. I’d be in my bed and feel watched. I didn’t tell anyone because, well, you don’t, do you? But then a friend of mine came to visit from Canada, and I gave her my bedroom as a guestroom. A few nights later she hesitantly brought up experiencing something weird… it was about the corner. And then, a while later, my sister came to visit, and again I let her use my bedroom as a guestroom, and the same thing happened. I have yet to understand how, or why. Plus it’s gone now, as said. These days, it’s a perfectly ordinary corner.
On another occasion my mom, sis, partner and I visited Lancaster Castle. The castle has a dark history . In 1612 a famous trial took place there, accusing several men and women of witchcraft. One 80-year-old gentleman passed away in prison, at the castle, whilst awaiting trial. Eventually two men and eight women were convicted and sentenced to death. As part of the tour we went into the holding cells and were locked up for a few minutes. In there, in the cold and dark, I felt rather sick and unwell, like I needed to get out of there, and fast. It may have been a mild panic attack. My sister felt the same way. There was something about the place that was just deeply unpleasant and I wouldn’t want to visit a second time!
Maybe history leaves an echo. Maybe I have an overactive imagination. I wouldn’t say for certain that ghosts exist. I actually hope that they don’t. That everyone moves on to somewhere wonderful after they pass away. Life is difficult, and we all deserve to be free of pain, free of sorrow and grief after everything that we go through. I’m not going to mess around with Ouija boards, though. Just in case. You can call me superstitious all you want, but I prefer to stay away from that sort of thing.
On the whole I feel that people are free to believe in what they wish. There are those who tie ribbons to trees, those who leave gifts in faery circles, and those who believe that every wood, every brook, every natural place has a guardian. I know that when I am in nature I feel a sense of peace. By simply sitting quietly in the woods I can, after a while, let go of my stresses and fears, and sometimes I am blessed with the presence of squirrels, and deer. I always feel rejuvenated after a visit.
Yet, we don’t often talk about people’s beliefs outside of the main religions. When you raise the subject you risk being mocked, or get accused of being the one mocking others. I understand that there are those who’ll say but science, and I highly respect science and the scientific method. Scientists too, though, have their beliefs. Religious scientists are quite common. And some fascinating scientific theories are about the unseen, and as yet unknown – the multiverse theory, for example, which proposes that there are other universes beyond or alongside our own, suggesting that the space and time we can observe is not the only reality.
It may be, then, that it is built into humanity to feel that there is something out there, beyond what we can sense in our day-to-day existence. And that’s pretty nice, I think. It adds a touch of wonder to our lives, and it may just be because I am a writer, but I believe that we’d be infinitely worse off without that which sparks our imagination.
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Spiritual: August 31, 2022 Issue [#11538]
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