Theology In Videogames: Ghosts

Theology in Videogames is a series in which I point out theological aspects and phenomena in videogames and analyse them from the perspective of different religions and cultures. In this instance, I will look at ghosts. Now, a lot of videogames contain them in one way or another; some have friendly ghosts, and others have creepy and neutral ones, and of course, some portray them as evil and hostile. So which is the most correct? Well, the answer is more complicated than that.

Ghosts are an interesting phenomenon, being one of the few universal beliefs that have existed in every religion and culture that we know of. They are the materialisation of a dead person’s soul and are regarded as unnatural in almost all cultures. The human soul was mostly symbolised as a bird or, in some cases, a different animal, but the belief in most cultures was that after a person dies, their soul takes the form of a complete reproduction of their own body, even including the clothes they wore when dying. In European cultures, ghosts have often been believed to be composed of a misty material resembling a human’s breath. Both Latin and Greek show this belief, with the Latin word for breath being Spiritus, the same word for spirit. In Greek, Pneuma means both of these expressions as well. Multiple cultures, mostly Western, also believed that ghosts were a sign of pending death: seeing your own ghostly double meant you were going to die soon.

Almost no game has any representation of the type of ghosts seen in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Levant. That is very unfortunate as these cultures are very interesting, and videogames based on their world and creatures can be very compelling. They had a lot of similarities, and their portrayal of ghosts is one of those. In Mesopotamia, ghosts were thought to take the memories and personalities of the person who had died. They travelled to the world of the dead and had an existence similar to that of living people. The family of the dead had to make offerings to them in order to ease their conditions. Not doing so was thought to cause bad luck to the family. The Egyptian belief is similar, although more nuanced than that. They assumed that the soul had multiple parts, each representing a different part of the person. They also believed that the dead had a journey matching that of the sun, at night, they are in the underworld, but because of the mummification and preservation of their body, when the sun rises, they get to “live” again.

Now, there are some games that touch on ghosts in Judaism and the Hebrew Bible, although not very well. The Binding of Isaac does so, but there is a lot of prevalent Christian influence there that makes it very different. I think it’s a better example of Judaism, though, as there are a lot of Kabbalistic understandings shown there. In the Hebrew Bible itself, there aren’t a lot of mentions of ghosts — all the instances referencing the spirits of the dead condemn the practice of communicating with them and disallow it. Only later did Judaism evolve to believe in the existence of ghosts in the material world, referenced in the Talmud, although there are Jewish scholars such as Maimonides who believe these references should not be read literally. Looking for games featuring ghosts based on Muslim beliefs was tough, and I came out empty-handed, unfortunately. Islam’s belief in ghosts is very unique and interesting. There are two kinds of ghosts these being pure souls and impure souls. It believes that both kinds of ghosts can interact with the living. Improper burial can cause the dead person’s spirit to remain in the material world. The pure souls remain close to their place of burial, but the impure ones seek revenge and travel across the world, trying to get it. Some Muslim beliefs argue that evil human souls turn into demons, and I’d love to see a game based on that!

Greco-Roman beliefs and theologies exist in many videogames, a prime example being Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which is why it is very sad that ghosts go underrepresented in almost everyone. I could not find a game really delving into how ghosts worked according to them, and while it makes sense since ghosts have changed nature multiple times in these cultures, it’s a huge disappointment. The earliest records of them in Greek culture don’t show them to be feared, but they are actually helpful and are called upon to aid with prophecies — that is something actually explored in some videogames, although not to its full extent. Their appearance isn’t consistent, with some accounts showing them to be made of smoke and some showing them to appear as the dead person, even having the wounds that killed this person. In later Greek sources, ghosts are more feared, who could do either good or bad depending on their own choice. Spirits were believed to hover around where the corpse was located, and cemeteries were considered dangerous and scary places for the living. The Romans believed ghosts would haunt places until what bothers them and prevents them from passing on would be fixed, such as requiring a proper burial instead of the way they were buried after death. Ghosts could be used to exact revenge, writing a curse on a piece of pottery and placing it into a grave — an interesting idea that could be made into some very interesting games but, for some reason, has not been used. The form of ghosts seen in most horror games comes from other European cultures. They had stories of ghosts in their folklore and believed ghosts were something to be afraid of, with the White Lady being the most prominent one — a woman who has died tragically and is now seeking peace. Player sightings in the Grand Theft Auto series and the ghosts Phasmophobia have those or similar. 

Ghostwire: Tokyo and some other games made in Japan feature an East Asian understanding of ghosts, mainly the Japanese and Chinese beliefs, which are similar in some ways but still different. Chinese belief in ghosts is that they are to be respected but also feared. They are often harmful, but there are some that are friendly, which is the basis for the game. It is possible and even encouraged to communicate with the dead in Chinese culture, and there is a yearly festival celebrating spirits coming back from the lower realm for one day. In Japanese culture, ghosts are thought to be spirits who are unable to progress to a peaceful afterlife. Asian beliefs in ghosts vary a lot, and there aren’t any games that display the very interesting Indian beliefs. They believe that ghosts are restless and can’t move on from the world because of different possible problems, and there are even some spirits that try to turn living people into ghosts, too, calling their target from behind. In Thailand, sleep paralysis is caused by a ghost called Phi Am — this is a belief that can be used to create an amazing horror game!  An amazing title I found which incorporates Indonesian folklore is Pamali: Indonesian Folklore Horror, which is a lot more interesting than what you usually see in most videogames featuring ghosts.

Another great belief that can be used to create a game is the Buddhist one. A possible plane of existence into which a person can be reborn is the realm of Hungry Ghosts. The people reborn into this realm bother communities and only stop if they are fed by people who were not their relatives. Buddhists express compassion towards them by celebrating the Ghost Festival. This can be good for a horror game or even a survival one.

In my opinion, videogames don’t nearly cover enough possible forms of ghosts — it’s a cultural universal, and yet more than 90% of games use the European folklore type. There are so many more options and thousands of years of changing beliefs in ghosts that can be used to make titles incorporating them more interesting. Do you think ghosts can be more interesting in gaming? Do you have any ideas for something to be covered in this series? Let me know in the comments!