Can ghosts be seen with gross eyes, as is sometimes reported after tsunamis?
Question, can ghosts be seen by people with physical eyes? Many people report sightings of ghosts, say after tsunamis or earthquakes.
Answer, yes, it's possible. The ghosts usually don't have gross bodies, but at a certain level they have various kinds of powers. So by those powers, they may sometimes do certain things, by which they may become manifest at a physical level also.
Broadly, there are three modes of interaction. It could be communication, there could be apparition and there could be possession. So communication refers to like planchets, some disembodied spirits may communicate in particular ways.
Apparition refers to where they make themselves manifest in a particular form that is visible and then there are possessions where they enter into particular people and speak through them. The subtle world is very complicated and we have very little understanding of it. Just like, sometimes we see that some people have mystic powers by which they can do with their subtle senses or subtle body, things which cannot be done with the physical body.
So that means that they can see through walls or they can see clairvoyance, the ability to see what is there in a book or an envelope without opening the envelope. Now, these are abilities that have been documented occasionally, although the validity of such documentation can be open to scientific debate. But the point is that in the tradition, such abilities are not considered uncommon or otherworldly.
They are seen occasionally and these abilities themselves indicate that the mind can interact or function in the physical realm without necessarily requiring a physical body. There is psycho-kinesis where somebody can move a spoon without touching the spoon, bend the spoon. So psycho is mind, kinesis is motion broadly.
So mind causing motion. So just as such phenomena are talked about in the tradition, such phenomena have been investigated to some extent by contemporary science also. So the point is that the subtle body can act in gross ways, can act on the gross body or on gross matter in various ways.
So of course this experience, this what I gave was that of subtle affecting the gross without the medium of a gross. But similarly they can manifest also at a gross level for a particular time in a particular way. So apparitions have been seen widely.
Apparitions is certain ways in which certain ghostly beings manifest. They have been widely seen and documented. So can they speak? Yes, sometimes they can.
The important thing is presently they are in disembodied form. Depending on the strength of their desires, depending on the kind of karma they have had, the karmic stock will still be there. Different ghosts can also be having different levels of powers.
Ghosts are also individual living beings and some ghosts may be able to manifest as apparitions, some may not be able to. So that can vary depending on ghosts. But some ghosts, some humans have some extraordinary powers which other humans don't have.
Similarly some ghosts may have some extraordinary powers that other ghosts don't have. So there can be myriad ways in which the subtle may interact with the gross. And our scriptures don't focus so much on that subtle area.
They do talk about extraordinary things happening through the domain of the subtle. But that's not what the focus of the scripture is. It's more on the spiritual.
So there could be various complex things that could happen in which the subtle can manifest as the gross also. Not exactly manifest as the gross in physical terms. Usually when people see an apparition then they cannot touch the apparition or even if they touch the apparition the apparition may not burn or may not get cut.
So it may not be exactly the way the gross is. But I would say in principle it could be possible. Thank you.