THE

WORD

GHOSTS

(Continued)

Desire Ghosts of Dead Men

WHILE the mind remains with desire after death it correlates, links and holds the many desires together in one mass. The mind is held by desire after death only so long as the mind is unable to distinguish itself from desire. When it refuses to identify itself with and distinguishes itself from desire, the mind leaves desire. If the physical body is merely supposed to be, but is not really dead the dominating desire may hold the desire mass together by acting through the physical ghost on its physical body. When the physical body is dead and the mind has left desire, the desire mass has neither co-ordinating form nor intelligence to direct it. So it must divide, and the forms of the many desires which were experienced during physical life detach themselves.

Desire demands sensation, but can of itself not supply it. The writhing desire mass hungers for sensation, but being bereft of the physical body and deserted by the mind, its sensibility feels only its own hunger. Turning in its many hungers on itself for satisfaction and finding none, the desire mass breaks up. From the mass of desire there develops what in Sanskrit is known as the kama rupa, the desire form. This is not the only, but the chief desire of the life just lived. There is not one desire form only, but many desire forms. They develop from the desire mass, and the desires pass into forms exhibiting or indicating their own natures.

There are three chief roots of desire in the living, which give rise to the many desire ghosts of dead men. The three are, sexuality, greediness, and cruelty; the foremost is sexuality. Desire ghosts of dead men are principally specializations after death of what in the living man were sexuality, greediness, and cruelty. The three are together in a desire ghost, but two may dominate the other so that it may not be as apparent as the two. The strongest of the three is the most apparent.

Greed and cruelty will dominate sexuality in a wolf desire ghost, but greed will be more pronounced than cruelty. Sexuality and cruelty will be more apparent than greed in a bull desire ghost, but a bull desire ghost will evidence sexuality more than cruelty. Sexuality may be subordinate to greed and cruelty, or greed subject to sexuality and cruelty in the cat desire ghost, but cruelty will be the most manifest. The form in which the three are most apparent is the hog desire ghost.

In these animal forms the predominating traits are apparent. In some animal shapes the strongest trait is least apparent; such an animal shape is the octopus desire ghost. Greediness and cruelty are most evident, and yet sexuality dominates all other tendencies in the octopus desire ghost. A snake may not seem to exhibit any one of the three chief desire tendencies, yet the snake desire ghost is a specialization of sexuality.

When the desire mass has reached the stage of breaking up, one or several desire ghosts are developed out of the mass of desire. The remainder of the mass does not develop into desire ghosts, but breaks up into numerous parts, each of which passes into and animates and energizes various physical animal forms. How the desire mass enters into physical animals is a subject for a special article and will not be treated under desire ghosts.

Not each of the many desires which have acted in the physical body of a man can after death become a desire ghost. Desire ghosts of dead men develop from those roots of desire which have been named, sexuality, greed, cruelty. That portion of desire which becomes a desire ghost assumes the form of the animal which most truly expresses its nature. These forms are usually of predatory animals. Desire ghosts of themselves cannot take the forms of animals which are timorous or harmless. A desire ghost may with the aid of the mind assume the shape of a harmless or a timid animal, but that is not strictly a desire ghost.

Of course, desire ghosts of dead men are in no sense physical. They cannot be seen by physical sight, though they may be seen in a dream. If desire ghosts could choose, they would not appear in the forms in which they do. They would if they could, take forms which would cause no fear nor distrust. But the law compels the ghost to take up the form indicating its nature.

When a desire ghost is seen it will not usually have the well-defined outlines of a physical animal. The stronger the desire the more definite will be the shape of the desire ghost. But however strong the desire, the shape of the desire ghost of a dead man will be irregular and variable. From the squirming desire mass will roll out a shape having perhaps human semblance, but changing into shape of wolf, red of eye with panting tongue and hungry teeth. The wolf desire before death will become the wolf desire ghost after death. The wolf desire ghost of the dead will be large or small, strong or weak, bold or slinking. In like manner will the other desire ghosts develop out of the desire mass, if there are others, and the remainder of the mass will disappear.

To continue their existence desire ghosts of dead men must feed upon or through desires of the living. If the living did not feed the desire ghosts of the dead, these desire ghosts could not live long. But they do live long.

To the matter-of-fact man of the world, with his so-called common sense and matter-of-fact conceptions, who is confident that things are as he sees and understands them to be, it might seem unreasonable that there should be such creatures as desire ghosts of dead men, and that they should feed on living men. But desire ghosts of the dead do exist, and they do feed on and are fed by living men. Refusal to believe or understand facts which one is unaware of, does not dispose of the facts. If some of these very persons understood the facts concerning desire ghosts of dead men and their means of life after death, they would stop feeding these ghosts and would refuse to entertain them. But some persons are likely to entertain and to feed the creatures even though aware of their existence.

A glutton who makes appetite his god, does not know that he is obsessed by and is feeding a hog desire ghost, and he may not care. The greedy man who hunts and preys upon the wants and weaknesses of men and who traffics in their bodies and brains and homes to appease his insatiate greed, is allowing a wolf desire ghost of the dead to hunger in and feed through him. The tiger or cat purrs softly around or in the one who delights in cruelty, always ready to bite through spiteful words and strike some cruel blow. The man of gross sensuality who gives free rein to his desire allows such beasts of sensuality as the boar or bull or ram desire ghost of some dead man to perpetuate its existence through him; and a woman of like nature lets a sow or an octopus desire ghost of the dead live through her body. But there are epicures of sensuality who breed and who feed their desires and desire ghosts.

(To be continued)