Japan's Tsunami Ghosts

[Cheerful Charlie]

http://www.npr.org/2014/03/16/290615034/tsunamis-ghosts-haunt-japanese-earthquake-survivors

Tsunami's Ghosts Haunt Japanese Earthquake SurvivorsRACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

It's been a little more than three years since the biggest earthquake in Japan's history, a quake that caused an unforgettable tsunami that killed some 20,000 people.

But the earthquake also had quieter consequences that didn't make headlines. In the London Review of Books, Richard Lloyd Parry investigates a peculiar phenomenon revealed in the aftermath of the storm. His piece is called "Ghosts of the Tsunami."

RICHARD LLOYD PARRY: People reported neighbors - neighbors who died in the tsunami - appearing at their houses and coming and sitting down in puddles of water.
......
MARTIN: And how were these episodes, these apparitions connected to the tsunami?

PARRY: They were mainly ghosts of people who had died in the tsunami. For a lot of people, it was simply strange and disturbing or sometimes comforting dreams about their lost loved ones. Other people who hadn't experienced loss saw spooky figures on the beach. There was one man who hated to go out because he saw eyes of people in puddles. But then Reverend Kaneda also had a couple of even stranger cases of people who actually seemed to be possessed by spirits of people who died in the tsunami.

So we have people seeing apparitions, some very vivid.

I have written in the past about such things and how I believe such anomalous experiences are one of the root causes of why there is religion. How did the rumors of Jesus of Nazareth's resurrection start? What was the nature of Paul's vision on the road to Damascus? Here is a good explanation of these sorts of things, how they can happen. Its well worth googling for this story, giving us clues to how these sort of ideas start and become the nucleus of an entire mythology.

I find this story to be very interesting for the perspective it can give us.

 

[gog]

Japanese belief in ghosts seems to sustain despite material and educational advancement.

 

[Thomas II]

http://www.npr.org/2014/03/16/290615034/tsunamis-ghosts-haunt-japanese-earthquake-survivors

Tsunami's Ghosts Haunt Japanese Earthquake SurvivorsRACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

It's been a little more than three years since the biggest earthquake in Japan's history, a quake that caused an unforgettable tsunami that killed some 20,000 people.

But the earthquake also had quieter consequences that didn't make headlines. In the London Review of Books, Richard Lloyd Parry investigates a peculiar phenomenon revealed in the aftermath of the storm. His piece is called "Ghosts of the Tsunami."

RICHARD LLOYD PARRY: People reported neighbors - neighbors who died in the tsunami - appearing at their houses and coming and sitting down in puddles of water.
......
MARTIN: And how were these episodes, these apparitions connected to the tsunami?

PARRY: They were mainly ghosts of people who had died in the tsunami. For a lot of people, it was simply strange and disturbing or sometimes comforting dreams about their lost loved ones. Other people who hadn't experienced loss saw spooky figures on the beach. There was one man who hated to go out because he saw eyes of people in puddles. But then Reverend Kaneda also had a couple of even stranger cases of people who actually seemed to be possessed by spirits of people who died in the tsunami.

So we have people seeing apparitions, some very vivid.

I have written in the past about such things and how I believe such anomalous experiences are one of the root causes of why there is religion. How did the rumors of Jesus of Nazareth's resurrection start? What was the nature of Paul's vision on the road to Damascus? Here is a good explanation of these sorts of things, how they can happen. Its well worth googling for this story, giving us clues to how these sort of ideas start and become the nucleus of an entire mythology.

I find this story to be very interesting for the perspective it can give us.

I find it interesting too...I'll research it and let you know what I find...

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Google also for visitation hallucinations. These are these sorts of hallucinations and are will known. The latest book by Oliver Sachs, "Hallucinations" mentions them prominently also.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ghost-stories-visits-from-the-deceased/

A Common Hallucination
Mourning seems to be a time when hallucinations are particularly common, to the point where feeling the presence of the deceased is the norm rather than the exception. One study, by the researcher Agneta Grimby at the University of Goteborg, found that over 80 percent of elderly people experience hallucinations associated with their dead partner one month after bereavement, as if their perception had yet to catch up with the knowledge of their beloved’s passing. As a marker of how vivid such visions can seem, almost a third of the people reported that they spoke in response to their experiences. In other words, these weren’t just peripheral illusions: they could evoke the very essence of the deceased.
...
And there, our knowledge ends. Despite the fact that hallucinations are one of the most common reactions to loss, they have barely been investigated and we know little more about them.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/books/hallucinations-by-oliver-sacks.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Books of The Times
When You Can’t Believe Your Eyes
‘Hallucinations,’ by Oliver Sacks
By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
Published: November 26, 2012

Many psychical or paranormal experiences, Dr. Sacks suggests, may in fact be hallucinations stemming from bereavement, isolation, sensory deprivation or “drowsy or trancelike states.” Whatever their cause, he says, hallucinatory experiences “generate a world of imaginary beings and abodes — heaven, hell, fairyland.”

In response to physiologically based visions, we create narratives to explain what we’ve seen, and when old-fashioned figures like devils and witches “are no longer believed in, new ones — aliens, visitations from ‘a previous life’ — take their place.”

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http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/10/1.../www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/10/18/o.end.of.life/

(OPRAH.com) -- Throughout my years of working with the dying and the bereaved, I have noticed commonly shared experiences that remain beyond our ability to explain and fully understand. The first are visions.

As the dying see less of this world, some people appear to begin looking into the world to come. It's not unusual for the dying to have visions, often of someone who has already passed on. Your loved one may tell you that his deceased father visited him last night, or your loved one might speak to his mom as if she were there in the room at that time.


There's a lot going on here.