Our Ghosts, our selves

Last night, over a few glasses of wine, a conversation between a friend and me happened upon the topic of ghosts. She fully believes in the presence of ghosts and their powers, while I remain skeptical. I tend to have issues with the whole idea that 9 out of 10 living people are, at their core, good while 9 out of 10 reported ghosts seem to be, at their core, mean spirited. Ghosts would be so much more useful if they provided back massages, delivered yummy wine or solved our 10th grade science questions.

The topic has lingered in my head throughout today, however, and I wonder if ghosts do exist; not in the traditional/Casper form but in our learned defenses. Recently, a nervous feeling translated itself quickly into exhaustion and resulted in my earlier-than-necessary departure from a lovely group of interesting people at a bar. Was an internal ghost of previous experiences triggered and exhaustion merely natural defense? If I am to believe in ghosts, and all their omnipotency, they are those of previous circumstances, so old all but the gut feeling has faded, but can compel genuine emotion and action. Ghosts are scary after all, even if they are those of nice people.

But I would prefer a wine-bearing, chemistry problem solving masseuse instead.