Churchyard
It is not difficult to understand why the churchyard has
come to be regarded as the special haunt of ghosts. The popuEncyclopedia
of Occultism & Parapsychology 5th Ed. Churchyard
293
lar imagination may well be excused for supposing that the
spirits of the dead continue to hover over the spot where their
bodies are laid.
The ancient Greeks thought the souls of the dead were especially
powerful near their graves or sepulchres, because of some
natural tie binding body and soul, even after death. The more
earthly a soul was, the less willing it was to leave the vicinity of
its body, and in consequence, specters encountered in a
churchyard were more to be feared than those met with elsewhere.
The apparitions witnessed at the tombs of saints, however,
were to be regarded as good angels rather than as the
souls of the saints themselves.
