Theoretical Ghosts

I didn't really know where to put this... I thought it could jog conversation about speculative fiction writing, but didn't know if it's appropriate for Writer's Block, especially as I have no working stories of this nature at this time. But, I want this not to be a debate, more of an "let's get ideas for stories going" thing.

Last night, I was browsing Fandom Secrets and saw a macro about cheesy paranormal reality shows and looked in on the anon conversation on the board, mostly disagreeing with the creator of the secret, holding up these shows as harmless fun. It was about ghost-shows, but Ancient Aliens was mentioned, because one cannot keep that kind of epic hair in a box. Anyway, I saw one signed commentator say something about how if people ever actually find evidence of ghosts, how they'd better be some kind of energy signature and not actually sentient because "it diminishes the life they had."

I got kind of irrationally angry at the statement, because I've seen similar statements in regards to stuck-up people trying to SHAME people out of believing in an afterlife of any kind, or "I don't believe in anything, therefore my life is more meaningful than yours / your life is meaningless because you believe it might continue." I HATE that kind of sentiment. If nothing else, I have to wonder, do atheists who don't believe in any kind of afterlife but who DESPERATELY WANT TO get some kind of pass just because of they technically don't actually believe in it? I once had to tell a friend of mine that she was not a "bad agnostic" because she wanted, for just a moment, to believe a deceased Catholic friend of hers was right in some way so said friend could "be somewhere." I said to my friend "This is a normal desire, you are just being human."

I wonder what she would have thought (when she was grieving) about finger-wagging people on her side of the fence thinking she was "diminishing" the life of her loved one by wanting them to have more?

Anyway, the argument that someone's now-life or the memory thereof is "diminished" because they've gone somewhere or became a ghost or that people are "diminishing" their friends/family by believing they might exist in essence somewhere, or that your life is less meaningful because you want a Heaven or something else just has never held water for me. Here is why.

When I go on a vacation somewhere, yes, I enjoy the vacation because it is a temporary, special thing I'll never have again. (Even going to Otakon for multiple years yields something different among a particular year's cloud of ota-funk). However, I do not go on to think "that experience was meaningless" or "diminished" in any way because I happened to have come home to mundane life to continue to exist. Nor do I think the years I spent as a baby are any less special for being what they are, or less special for my parents because I survived beyond age two.

That's how I think an afterlife (if there is one) would be, or even theoreretially becoming a ghost and hanging around an old house or family who can't see you would be - a fundamentally different existence. I mean, I hope that doesn't happen to me, because, frankly, haunting people sounds really, really boring. I want to explore alternate universes. Maybe die and go to Hyrule. Whatever. I'm not arguing for the actual existence of anything here. But, if I became a ghost in theory, I don't think even "Damn, they can't see me, time to rearrange chairs in the kitchen to try to scare these dolts" would diminish the meaning that my physical life had.

Actually, both "temporary and we all go into the dark" and "eternity of eternities" start looking nihilistic when I think too hard about them. One seems less meaningless to me, personally, (not saying which one here and... it actually seems to fluctuate... because I'm weird), but in the light of that, I really don't understand how someone's "soul" continuing makes their LIFE less, nor how people who loved them "wanting them to be okay' makes them bad in any way, when it's standard empathetic human emotions.

So, bringing this up... I thought these kind of thoughts could be poured over (again, I am NOT DEBATING THE ACTUAL EXISTENCE OF THINGS, just playing with philosophy and theory)... as a way to craft fiction. How can these ideas be used for stories about bored ghosts? Or a ghost trying to tell their materialist family that "No, I have meaning here!" and not being heard or something else?

Maybe one of us could write a story about a man going on a vacation after which he expects to cease to exist - would it make him enjoy his vacation more, or would he ( like me ) not be able to enjoy a lick of it?

edited 16th Dec '14 12:09:23 PM by Shadsie

Quick question:

What is your Typing WPM?

70-80 WPM last time I took a test.