Philosophy Now Forum

I'm a relative newbie to this place, but having looked through some of the conversations and debates I thought I might try and make some contributions of my own.
I thought I might start with a few questions that I have wondered about in regards to the subject of ghosts, most notably human ghosts and the afterlife.

The first-and perhaps the easiest one to put out there is this:

I like to watch a lot of programs about the supernatural and paranormal activity, such as Paranormal: Caught on Camera and The Unexplained with William Shatner, and whenever I see video clips or photographs of ghosts one thing has always made me wonder in their appearance.

Ghosts are said to be the manifestations of the spirits of dead people, created by the 'energy' within our bodies and which is released upon the death of the body. This energy principle I understand, and I think can possibly go right down to a microscopic, cellular level.

But what I 've wondered for a long time is, if the human body (which is ORGANIC and contains the 'energy' that keeps us alive and cognitive) is released upon death, then why is it whenever you see photos or videos of ghosts they always seem to be wearing clothing?

The clothes we wear are NOT organic, they are not 'alive' as it were in the same way our bodies are, they are very much synthetic and artificial, and although they may be made of SOME organic material such cotton or silk such material are very much a residue or 'by product' from another source, such has cotton fields or silk worms.

Why would the clothes that a person wears at point of death also be 'recreated' as it were too, in the same way there bodies have been in spirit form?

It's not just on paranormal TV shows and Youtube videos I see this, Hollywood seems to have been doing this for decades, from The X-Files to The Sixth Sense, and even Ghostbusters!
And you can go back even further to Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol and the description of Jacob Marley.

So basically I 'm asking why aren't ghosts actually NAKED if it's the ORGANIC, LIVING bodies that contain the spirits and the soul within and not the ARTIFICIAL clothes that they wear?

This question extends far beyond ghosts. Have you ever noticed how zombies wander around for years bumping into stuff all the time, but in all the TV and movies that depict them, their trousers are always intact in spite of half a decade of waking through hedges?

Petition your local law maker today and request - nay demand - that all zombies on every TV show should be dressed like Yogi Bear by the third year of the cataclysm.

JamesIan wrote: ↑Thu Dec 04, 2025 2:58 pm So basically I 'm asking why aren't ghosts actually NAKED if it's the ORGANIC, LIVING bodies that contain the spirits and the soul within and not the ARTIFICIAL clothes that they wear?

It's because the people "creating" the ghost pictures want to reach as many viewers as possible on the networks and venues that air their silly nonsense, and fabricated images of nude ghosts might not be suitable for younger viewers.

Besides that, some naked ghost bodies (say, for instance, that of the soon-to-be ghost of Donald J. Trump) might evoke uncontrollable laughter, which would defeat the purpose of trying to scare your target audience.
_______

if you give a ghost enough spirits will they slur their boos?

-Imp

The TV ghosts are trying to appeal to a larger audience.