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Why Ghosts are a Thing

By Marco Gutierrez —

Videogames are useful beyond giving us a good time. In my previous post (Life is an RPG), I argued video games are great mental models for approaching life. Today I want to explore an idea that many games have shown me through fascinating stories: How do Ghosts come into being?

Now, let me explain. I'm not crazy (at least I'm not deranged). I don't believe I can see ghosts, nor do I believe in the supernatural. Yet while I think the modern materialistic & scientific view of life is important, I think we've too quickly disregarded our intuition as a valid and useful way of navigating life. There seems to be a reason why we are drawn to certain stories, and it's certainly not logical cohesiveness (I'm looking at you, Pinocchio). I can't prove it to you, but my intuition tells me that, the more meanings we correctly decipher, the better lives we'll be able to live. For lack of better words, I think that life's most valuable truths are nested in the shadows of the puppets of our entertainment. And we are not paying enough attention to those shadows.

I hope that today's article will spark your interest in these "hidden" meanings, the origins of ghosts being one of them. If you wish to learn more about this great alternate way of looking at the world, I highly recommend that you check out (at least the beginning of) the following video:

As I often do, I'll be exposing the idea of ghosts with a story. This is one of my favorite stories of all time. It's a story that's part of a great game titled The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. This game (and the books that came before it) is known for its rich fantastic setting and phenomenal writing. It follows the adventures of Geralt of Rivia, a witcher. In this fantastic world, a witcher is just another craft/trade. Witchers make a living by traveling the world while ridding towns and villages of whatever supernatural problems they may have (in exchange for coin, of course). Witchers may remove a curse, deal with an infestation, or kill a beast that endangers the roads leading to towns.

Now let's go over one of the best ghost (and love) stories I've ever had the pleasure of reading/playing: A Tower Full of Mice.

Note: The world of The Witcher is crude and realistic (even in its fantastic setting). While I won't be disclosing NSFW or gory content, the topics the story revolves around are probably not appropriate for children: Reader discretion is advised.

At some point in the game, Geralt is reacquainted with Keira Metz, a witch who is currently hiding from the witch hunts occurring in the larger cities. Keira gets a hold of a magical lamp after visiting some catacombs with Geralt (who had to go there for reasons of the game's main story). Keira then asks Geralt to come to her hut. Upon arriving, Geralt sees Keira using the lamp to talk with what appears to be a ghost/lost soul. Keira tells Geralt about the curse of the isle on a lake, a popular tale among the local peasants who claim that none who go there return. Wraiths are allegedly haunting the place.

Keira doesn't know how the place got cursed but really wants to break the spell (for a reason that won't be clear until the end of the quest). Keira wants to identify the source of the curse but only knows that it's somehow linked to the tower on the isle. It was the tower of a lord from some time ago. The lord had taken refuge from the recent invasions of the land.

Claims in the village are that peasants, desperate with hunger, sailed to the isle to beg for food. But they met their end there. The villagers say the lord had the peasants poisoned. Very few survived. Yet even those who escaped the isle soon suffered agonizing deaths. Strangely, they did not seem to have been poisoned. Keira reveals there was a mage in the isle who told her some details, like that the lord didn't seem like a cruel man. Keira says this mage was her friend and died in the same incident as the peasants.

Keira gives Geralt the magic lamp and instructs him to establish a rapport with the spirits who wander the isle; they could point them in the direction of the curse's source. Keira gives an excuse not to do this task herself: She says the isle gives a magical aura so powerful she can't stand getting close to it. Geralt then goes to the isle and enters the tower.

The place is full of rats, who seem to be feeding on the corpses of the victims of the incident. Based on the clues that Geralt finds in the tower... Peasants didn't come to the tower to ask nicely; weaponry could be found on the floor along with the bodies. From what Geralt can see revealed by the spirits and the lamp... the peasants had a strong resentment towards the noble. Looking at his corpse, they thought he had too quick of a death and mentioned his sons and daughter could suffer for him still. The peasants didn't understand why there were so many rats in cages (as if they were all pets). This only helped to distance them from the noble and create a stronger bitterness inside them.

When Geralt gets to the spirit of the noble, he can hear the following line:

Don't start, Anabelle! Back to your crafts! Always bending my ear about fool peasants! I'll not hear of them again! That simpleton turned your head! But one Graham hardly make the rest courtly, one and all.

... only to be interrupted by what seemed to be a servant:

My lord! Peasants! They're through the door, in the tower!

Geralt also sees visions of spirits meeting their end at the hands of mysterious forces while they are trying to take piles of gold from the tower. When getting to what seemed like the highest story of the tower, Geralt finds signs on the floor that suggest something was dragged across it. Geralt then turns a lever that opens a secret passage to the mage's laboratory (the real highest story of the tower).

The laboratory seems pretty well equipped. Geralt finds documents that make it clear that the mage was experimenting with humans (the peasants) and rats. It seems the noble and the mage must have had a deal where the noble would find subjects for the mage's tests. But it seems the reason for the experimentation was to try to cure a disease, most likely the Catriona plague (a disease part of this fantastical universe akin to the bubonic plague). And the human subjects were already infected with the plague.

Finally, Geralt finds the spirit of Anabelle, who seems to have been the noble's daughter. To pay due respect to the dramatism of the story, let's look at this conversation as is uttered by each character:

Anabelle: Why did you leave? You claimed to love me. I'm cold. Why has no one come for me? I cannot leave this place. I see no way out. Who are you? Do you seek to hurt me as well?
Geralt: I'm a witcher. I want to lift the curse that grips this island. Your turn to tell me who you are. The other ghosts, they couldn't see me.
Anabelle: I'm special, always was. The rare beauty, the lord's daughter. These lands, as far as the eye can see, were ours. My family and I, we hid in the mages tower to await the war's end, the end of hard times. It was not to be forever.
Geralt: The mage who lived here, who was he?
Anabelle: Alexander. I hardly knew him. He spent most of his time locked away in this tower. He's dead too you know? They're all dead! Mountains of corpses! Yet I stand here alone! All alone! They've all abandoned me, even he who promised me everlasting love. You will abandon me as well!
Geralt: If I can lift the curse, you yourself will be free to leave. Tell me what happened here. Peasants sailed to the island to ask for food. Is that true?
Anabelle: No, they came to rob and kill! They thought us rich, believe we'd stowed ourselves away here to laugh at their misery. Yet we had little food as well, too little to share with those who came. They slaughtered everyone... I heard my father cry out, but the mage told me not to reveal myself or let anyone in. He gave me a potion. If i was discovered, I was to drink it... He said everything would be all right.
Geralt: What kind of potion was it? Remember its smell, what it looked like?
Anabelle: I remember only that i feared to drink it.
Geralt: Didn't trust the mage?
Anabelle: In the village they claimed he meddled in disease. Not curing it, but causing it. They said he lured rats into the tower, infected them with the Catriona. Only rumors, surely. But I was afraid, so horribly afraid... And then I heard him, my beloved Graham. He called to me... I opened the door for him, but others rushed in. They lunged at me and... and...
Geralt: Your beloved failed to save you? Why?
Anabelle: There were too many leave... "Leave her be!" he shouted. He grabbed at them, tried to stop them. They just laughed...
Geralt: Did they hurt you?
Anabelle: They gripped my arms, tore up my dress... I managed to free myself and drink the potion, and then... nothing
Geralt: Poisoned? That how you died?
Anabelle: No, for I later awoke. I was alone, it was dark. Only there were rats... everywhere. Dozens. Hundreds. And I... couldn't move.
Geralt: Sleeping potion. Effects hadn't worn off yet. You are paralyzed...
Anabelle: They were everywhere, all over me, like insects. My face, my hands... I felt them rip open my skin, then crawl into my stomach... They tore me apart, and I could not even scream... Have i not suffered enough? Why can't I leave this place?!
Geralt: You weren't the last to die on this island. Found a fresh corpse in the tower.
Anabelle: The island's a dangerous place. Folk should not venture here - I too wish to leave.
Geralt: The dead man - looked like a monster had attacked him. Recently. The tower home to anything else?
Anabelle: How am I to know? There's lots of wraiths here. I hear them whispering every night.
Geralt: Not talking about ghosts. A monster who hunts here. You must have noticed something...
Anabelle: I don't know! I've noticed naught - why do you ask?! Why must you press me so?! You're to be my savior, not my tormentor!
Geralt: Can you talk to the island's other specters?
Anabelle: No, I'm alone here. The others, they flee when they see me. I know not why. You do not fear me, do you?
Geralt: No. Used to dealing with ghosts. Though... gotta admit, there's something about you. You're... different. How can I help you?
Anabelle: A curse born of hatred binds me to this place. Only love's power can hope to lift it, but... who could love a wraith?
Geralt: And your beloved - he dead too?
Anabelle: Graham... No, he lives. I would know if he died. But he fled and abandoned me! Left me here all alone!
Geralt: Maybe you could strip the curse of its power by forgiving him. You might cleanse the isle. Your beloved who is he? A noble's son?
Anabelle: No, a poor fisherman. My father objected. Strongly. He did not see us together. Oh, I miss him so... Each night I walk to the island's shore to gaze upon the village. Does he remember me still?
Geralt: Hm, said before you can't leave the tower.
Anabelle: Did I? You must have misheard.
Geralt: I don't think so.
Anabelle: I... I don't know anymore. It's all a nightmare to me...
Geralt: As i see it, you're the curse's focus. The other ghosts on the island - their auras aren't nearly as strong as yours. My medallions started pulsating as soon as we started talking.
Anabelle: I don't know what you mean, but you do seem to know some things. You could be right. My fate is tied to the isle - I feel that. Perhaps because I'm heiress of these lands?
Geralt: It could be your blood ties to the land, the base of the curse, that is. If so, forgiving Graham, laying your resentment to rest, should lift it.
Anabelle: I... loved him. I'm prepared to forgive him. But i must know that he regrets what he did. Take my bones to him. He must bury them. This will be our farewell. Will you speak to him? Will you do this for me?
Geralt: Really sad story, but something's not right. Got a feeling...
Anabelle: What is it?
Geralt: You're not telling me everything. You know the island's dangerous, but refuse to tell me about the monster that lives here.
Anabelle: There is no monster!
Geralt: I think you're lying. Question is: why? Yo protect the beast, or is it that --
Anabelle: Stop! I will not hear this!
Geralt: I can't help you. Taking anything off this cursed island, from any cursed place - just too dangerous. And a dead woman's bones? That's asking for trouble.
Anabelle: They said witches are heartless beasts. Will you bring Graham here, then? I so long to say goodbye.
Geralt: Annabelle listen --
Anabelle: You never wished to help me! And here I hoped someone would finally take pity on me. Stupid woman that I am!

At this point, Anabelle turns into a Pesta, a specter, and attacks Geralt. Geralt defends himself and banishes Anabelle, albeit momentarily. Geralt then tells Keira what he found out about the curse. Keira tells Geralt where he can find Graham. So Geralt pays him a visit.

Geralt: I wanna talk.
Graham: You're deaf, dammit? I told ye-- who are you?
Geralt: I'm a witcher.
Graham: What of it? Why should I care?
Geralt: I've been to the island. I know what happened there.
Graham: What'd you want of me?
Geralt: Wanna talk to you about Annabelle.
Graham: Annabelle. What can you know about her?
Geralt: I met her, talked to her...
Graham: Annabelle's dead. Drank poison. And I... I couldn't save her.
Geralt: Did you love her?
Graham: Aye, somethin' mad. Loved her so deep I believed we'd come through, believed we'd be together. Course, 'twas not to her father's linkin' - his daughter and a plain lout!
Geralt: What happened on Fyke Isle? You gotta tell me.
Graham: Twere where Millie, Finch and Faulkner - they rallied the men, all roughs, to go to the isle, take back what was ours from the noble. They knew I was known at the tower, that the lord's servants would open the gate for me seein' as i sold them fish.
Geralt: They forced you to go with them?
Graham: No, I... I saw my chance in it. For Annabelle and me to flee. But... it all spun in a chaos. Our boys from the village, they started killin' everyone! Annabelle, they wanted to rape! Twere then she drank the poison. Mage must've gave it'er. I ran out the tower, hollerin' that I wanted to die, cursin' them all to hell. Don't force me to speak of it. No more, please.
Geralt: Said you were hollering as you fled the tower, the island. What exactly did you say?
Graham: I... don't remember. I wanted them to pay - for what they'd done to her!
Geralt: Might've cursed them. There's a powerful magic aura on Fyke Isle. Passions, evil intent, strong emotions of any kind can activate it. Your words could be the curse's source.
Graham: She took the poison, because of them.
Geralt: It wasn't poison. Annabelle drank a strong sleeping potion. Mage wanted to protect her, make it look like she was dead. Convinced everyone.
Graham: But... that means... is she...? You said you spoke to her.
Geralt: Spoke to her ghost. By the time she awoke, tower was full of cold corpses. And rats. She was warm meat. Rats ate her alive.
Graham: You mean... she was alive the whole? But... can't be! She was cold all through, like a corpse. I shook her, begged her, "Open your eyes!" I never thought...
Geralt: It's not your fault. No guilt in not knowing - and you couldn't know it wasn't poison she drank.
Graham: Gods, what'ave I done! If I'd a stayed behind to bury her... I'd a noticed she was alive. It might'ave ended different, ended well!
Geralt: If you'd stayed on the island, I doubt you'd have survived.
Graham: I'd take death over leavin' her to the rats like that! But there's naught I can do about it now!
Geralt: Wrong on that count. Annabelle needs you. You can help her.
Graham: Is she still there... in the tower? Can I... see her?
Geralt: Yeah. One thing you should know, though. In death, Anabelle turned into a pesta.
Graham: A "pester"? What's that?
Geralt: More than a restless ghost. A plague maiden, a powerful wraith filled with grief and hatred that drive her, give her the power to sow disease and death.
Graham: She suffers... How am I to help her? Gods know I'm willin'.
Geralt: Annabelle thinks you abandoned her.
Graham: Gods! She... hates me! And all this time she's thought I ran, abandoned her?
Geralt: Yes. Go to the tower, talk to her. Maybe you can convince her that's not how it was.
Graham: I thought she'd died... I'd never left her there otherwise!
Geralt: A curse has imprisoned Anabelle and the other spirits on the island. Love can shatter its power, free her and them.
Graham: Just as in the legends...
Geralt: If you know the legends, you know one kiss is enough to break an evil spell. On one condition - that it's a kiss from someone whose love is true.
Graham: I told you, I said I love her with all my heart! Take me to her, please.
Geralt: It's dangerous, there are risks involved. Understand that, don't you?
Graham: Course. I'm no coward. I'll not run this time.
Geralt: Nothing, let's go.
Graham: I'm ready.

Geralt then takes Graham to the tower while protecting him from all the dangers of the isle. Geralt, Graham, and Anabelle settle things... I highly recommend that you try to watch the ending. The game developers did a great job portraying Anabelle in her ghost form. I'll describe the events here, but her appearance in the game gives the story a punch that cannot be described by words. I'm sharing the video of the exact moment of the reunion.

Anabelle: You have not forgotten. You've returned for me.
Graham: I-is-is th-that...?
Anabelle: Don't you recognize me? It's me, Anabelle, the one you abandoned, remember?
Graham: Anabelle, I-- I was sure ye was dead. If i'd known otherwise, I'd a never have left ye! I'd do anythi' for ye, I would. Ye know that well. Believe me, I beg ye.
Anabelle: Prove it... Kiss me.
Geralt: Graham, careful...

After looking back at Geralt, and with some reluctance, Graham gathers the determination to kiss Anabelle. Remember, she is currently looking like a Pesta. She looks like a true levitating corpse. She doesn't have her jaw anymore. And as a result, her tongue is largely falling out of her head. And yet, Graham proves his love. He comes close and strokes Anabelle's face as Anabelle twirls her falling tongue into Graham's hand. And just before the viewer thinks Graham is going to kiss a corpse... Anabelle turns into her live form, even if briefly (for the time of the kiss).

The couple hold one another in a moment of true bliss. Just before Graham falls to the floor... dead.

Anabelle: At last!

Anabelle (in her live form) approaches Graham's corpse as she vanishes into a black cloud. The curse has been lifted.

This is one of 2 endings of the story. This is the good ending. Perhaps you (the reader) thought Geralt was being too rough when he didn't want to just take Anabelle's bones to Graham. I can't blame you. After all that Anabelle went through, it's difficult not to feel for her. But Geralt is a professional. He knows he shouldn't blindly trust in anybody, not just because tragedy befell them. If the player (as Geralt) takes the bones to Graham for him to bury, Anabelle manifests in Graham's house as the pesta and kills Graham. The curse is also broken, but it was broken through revenge, not through righting wrongs, clearing misunderstandings.

I can't overstate how well-written this story is. It's a love story embedded into other common life problems. Everybody had their interests, the peasants wanted the riches and gold; they were jealous of the wealth they thought the noble had, even if there was not nearly as much wealth as they thought. Keira just wanted the research of Alexander, she was planning to use it to cure the Catriona and gain the favor of the kings to escape the witch hunts. Graham wanted to escape with Anabelle, even if he knew his peasant fellows would tear the tower down.

I really wanted to share with you this story, because (as any good story) it has many motifs that I want to talk about. Isn't the peasants' resentment something that we see so much today? And how silly it is! There wasn't even that much wealth to begin with. It makes me wonder just how many other problems we create for ourselves in life that are really made up in our minds. But more of that for future articles.

I challenge you to find a single instance of successful & popular media that has portrayed ghosts as coming out of anything other than tragedy, evil, and/or misunderstandings. It's never the case that ghosts are supernatural beings that have existed long before humans. Ghosts are quite distinct from demons or beasts. Why is that, exactly? Isn't it fascinating that we as a collective humanity agree that this supernatural concept of ghosts has certain characteristics exclusive to them? Even stories from way before the internet was a thing all seem to collectively agree (even though authors have no way of having known of one another's existence) that ghosts come into being when a very gnarly deed takes place unpunished. For me, this is proof that intuition exists and is a thing we know very little of, even if we use it on a daily basis.

I continue to think of the significance of all the details of ghost stories like this one. Is the sleeping potion an allegory for what happens to rape victims? I've heard such victims tend to zone out as a result of their tragic events. Isn't that like being asleep? And perhaps our best approximation of how it feels is like being eaten alive by rats while being unable to scream for help.

And what about that idea of not taking things out of a cursed place? I think what this means is that... if you make it harder for things to resolve, you are bound to suffer too. It's odd, but these stories teach us of a sort of karmic justice that governs the universe. Of course, I'm not here to tell you to believe in it or not. But I just want you to reflect upon what you've experienced in life. My observations indicate that.. indeed, when people create ghosts (voluntarily create evil tragedy) they end up paying the consequences (one way or another), sometimes with their own lives.

All these ideas are tightly connected with the work of Dr. Gabor Maté. If you are interested in what a licensed physician has to say about the connection between sickness and stressful situations akin to the story of today, I suggest you read his book: When The Body Says No.

That's all for today. I hope you enjoyed the article. If you find my articles valuable and you'd like to support me, you can do so by...

Thank you and have a great week ahead!