Communicating With The Dead – A Series

What is it that the ghosts want when they present their shadowy, creepy former selves to former relations that barely remember them, if at all. What makes the dead, seemingly at random, project select images of living relations they have harmed to the living and send illiterate messages to support the images. Impersonal technology seems to work for the dead as much as the living. It seems that the use of cell phones in the afterlife have replaced the rattling of chains, the slamming of doors, and the tipping of lamps. What urgent messages do they have in death that they couldn’t tap out in life?

Is it to say almost incoherently, “I am still alive and want to tell you about me, that I am not the shameless, selfish oaf you might remember me as. Here is a picture of someone that I professed to care for and honour, someone who you know better than I do and have seen during holidays I did not participate in because I belonged to another family of cult ideologues…but let me tell you about me and my life in death. I may be dead to you but I need to tell you about my life now to say that I am sick. How are you by the way, fine, fine, now about me and how anything you have heard of me when I was living is untrue and that I am a good dead person that never gave two fucks about you when you were growing up.

Most ghosts of clear conscience have the sense to let the living be and get on in whatever afterlife they found find themselves in. It would be a comfort to know that bad people ended up in bad places by degree ( and not necessarily a measure of flaming temperature ) of discomfort depending on how much of an asshole they were. It would be good to know that good people ended up in good places free of life’s pain brought on by assholes. Some of the un-living are in transition that lurk and hover, wanting unearned redemption or absolution from the living they ignored or caused harm to in life.

Ghosting, also known as simmering or icing, is a modern term which describes the practice of ending all communication and contact with another person without any apparent warning or justification and subsequently ignoring any attempts to reach out or communication made by said person. The term originated in the early 2000s, typically referring to dating and romantic relationships. In the following decade, media reported a rise in ghosting, which has been attributed to the increasing use of social media online dating sites. The term has also expanded to refer to similar practices among friends, family members, employers and businesses.

There is now too what may be called ‘reverse ghosting’ where people once, twice, or three times removed from friends or relatives feel compelled to reintroduce themselves, even after death. Surely there must be a digital process or spiritual excision of sorts to keep the dead at bay. An exorcism or de-platforming perhaps.

Boo!