Fiction about time travel can be used to impart information both about dimensions and about history, as in Alan Moore's Jerusalem (London, 2016). The ghost John thinks that Prince Rupert was Charles I's son, not his nephew.
Ghosts make excellent time travelers. See here. Being invisible and intangible, they cannot alter past events. Thus, Oliver Cromwell writing a letter to his wife is unaware that John is reading it over his shoulder. (Cromwell's statue (see image) holds a Bible and a sword, representing theory and practice.)
In Jerusalem, a suicide bomber spends eternity in his exploding form. Other ghosts give him a wide berth.
Cromwell and suicide bombers: two phases of our history.
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteI think of ghosts not as being ectoplasmic but as simply being the disembodied souls of deceased persons. Which means we are all ghosts, because of the souls we have! (Smiles)
Yes, I know you have doubts about the reality of the soul. And whether it survives the death of the body.
And is the picture of that expletive deleted Cromwell's statue the one seen outside the Houses of Parliament? What I thought when I first saw the statue was how it was placed behind both a steel link fence and a stone wall. Plainly, Cromwell still arouses such strong hostility that any statue of him needs to be protected!
By contrast the statue of Charles I at Trafalgar Square in London was totally unprotected. Which I inferred as meaning Charles I was far more popular than Cromwell!
Sean
Sean,
DeleteHi. I have only just seen this comment. I don't seem to have received any email notification of it. Yes, outside Parliament. I think it's quite a good statue as statues go. There is a bust of Marx at his grave in Highgate Cemetery. It had to be made massive enough to prevent people stealing it, blowing it up etc. We have a varied history.
Paul.
But can souls become visible?
DeleteKaor, Paul!
DeleteResponding to both your comments here. But, there are some persons I have so much contempt for I would not want them honored by statues. Cromwell being one of them, largely because of his brutality in both England and Ireland.
I remember seeing pictures of that rather awkwardly massive bust of Marx. While he cannot honestly be called personally responsible for the atrocities of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot, etc., I would have preferred Marx not be commemorated like that.
You raised an interesting question: can the souls of disembodied deceased persons be seen? I think it might be at least possible that is the case. Fr. Herbert Thurston, SJ, has investigated such things in his book GHOSTS AND POLTERGEISTS. If my memory is correct, Fr. Thurston thinks a small percentage of reports about ghosts cannot be dismissed as fraudulent or mistaken. And that sometimes ghosts do make themselves physically known to others.
Hope you get notified of this comment!
Sean
Sean,
DeleteNo notification but I sought it out.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
DeletePuzzling, but I'm glad you found it.
Sean