Eagerly Embracing Eerie Eidolism Quiz

Answer: A belief in ghosts

Eidolism is a belief in ghosts. Although not all dictionaries carry a definition for the word and its etymology is hard to trace, it appears to come from the word eidolon which most dictionaries do define as a phantom or apparition. Eidolon comes from the Greek eidolon which meant "appearance, reflection in water or a mirror" and later meant "mental image, apparition, phantom." It comes from the root eidos meaning "form" (Source: online etymology dictionary [OED and so throughout the rest of the quiz]). Spectrology and phantasmology both mean the study of ghosts and the like. Spiritualism is the belief that the soul/spirit lives on after death and that the soul/spirit of the departed can communicate with the living through mediums and in other ways.
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Bonus ghost jokes:
Q: What did one ghost say to another?
A: Do you believe in people?
Q: What did the little ghost have in his rock collection?
A: Tombstones.

Answer: Ectoplasm

Ectoplasm's non-paranormal definition comes from biology where it means the outer part of the cytoplasm of a cell, the opposite of endoplasm. This meaning can be traced back to 1883. Its use in relation to spiritualism comes from around 1894 when it was coined by French scientist Charles Richet, although the "Online Etymology Dictionary" (OED) traces it back only to 1901 and gives no source. In either case the meaning is the same and the word was used to describe spiritual energy that manifests itself outside of a medium in physical form. It has since been broadened out to describe any spiritual energy found in physical form. Whether the substance truly exists is another debate altogether.

In the movie "Ghostbusters" and its sequel, ectoplasm is usually seen as a greenish, slimy substance that coats whatever a ghost comes into contact with. Slimer the Ghost was not originally given a name but by the time of the sequel he had been so designated. In the sequel, the team finds a river of pink slime (ectoplasm) flowing under New York City.
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Bonus ghost jokes:
Q: What kind of street does a ghost like best?
A: A dead end.
Q: What does a ghost swim in?
A: The Dead Sea.

Answer: Wraith

The word wraith is of unknown Scottish origin dating back to the early 1500s. The "Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology" defines a wraith as "the apparition or double of a living person, generally supposed to be an omen of death." There are purported cases of famous people who saw their own wraith just prior to death, including Queen Elizabeth I, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Catherine the Great of Russia. In the case of Catherine, it is reported that right before her death she saw her wraith sitting on her throne and ordered her guards to shoot it.

In Irish folklore a fetch is comparable to a wraith but does not necessarily portend death. If the fetch is seen in the morning it is supposed to be a sign of long life but if it is seen in the evening or at night it is a sign of impending death. The fetch is akin to the German doppelgänger in the fact that neither are necessarily an omen of death but may be such. A doppelgänger however tends more towards the wraith in meaning as it is usually associated with evil or misfortune and not good, although not necessarily to the extent of death itself.

The Nazgūl are also called Ringwraiths. They are nine men who have fallen under the power of Sauron and hunt the One Ring. They are near-immortal driven by the pursuit of finding the One Ring. They appear in all three books of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. In "Stargate Atlantis" the Wraith are the main enemy race of aliens that confront Atlantis. They are a vampire-like race that sucks the life-force out of any human they come across. They are a cross between humans and an alien insect called the irratus bug.
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Bonus ghost jokes:
Q: Why are ghosts bad at telling lies?
A: Because you can see right through them.
Q: Why are ghosts cowards?
A: Because they've got no guts.

Answer: Samuel

When Saul fell out of favor with God, he sought out the witch of Endor, a medium who could contact the dead (I Sam. 28). There is some debate within the Jewish and Christian communities about exactly what is meant by this story but the text itself is quite clear. It was Samuel who appeared to Saul after he had died and was summoned by the witch. Samuel did not give Saul the answer he had hoped for and predicted that the next day Saul and his sons would die in battle and go to be with Samuel.

It is interesting to compare this story, which clearly indicates that the 'ghost' or, more appropriately, soul/spirit of Samuel came back to this earth from wherever he was after his death and spoke to Saul, with the story of Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. Most interpret the story of Lazarus to be a description of Sheol where the dead who died before the death and resurrection of Christ went to await the final judgment. The righteous went to Abraham's Bosom and the unrighteous to torment. Abraham's Bosom would be where Samuel had come from. In the story the rich man begs Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn his kin of what awaited them if they did not change their ways. Abraham replied that if they did not listen to Moses and the prophets surely they would not listen to Lazarus, even if he did arise from the dead. In the same way Saul had not listened to or sought out the prophet Samuel while he was still alive and only sought Samuel's counsel after his death to avoid what was coming but not to repent his evil ways. Saul never repented and Samuel said his fate was sealed.
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Bonus ghost jokes:
Q: What do ghosts dance to?
A: Soul music.
Q: What is a ghost's favorite bird?
A: Scare crow.

Answer: Spirit guides

Spirit guides are the disembodied spirits that mediums, psychics, and channellers contact. They are not human or of this world but rather exist in the spiritual world. Although most spirit guides appear to have been human at some point in time, it is not necessarily true that they are the ghosts or spirits of people who have passed on. In this instance they are seen as what might be called guardian angels or something along those lines. Of those who embrace the concept of spirit guides, some spirit guides have become well known. One such guide is Black Hawk, a Native American guide who was favored by Leafy Anderson, founder of the Spiritual Church Movement. Black Hawk was a real historic figure and leader of the Sauk tribe. He fought against US interests both in the War of 1812 and in the Black Hawk War of 1832. It is beleived that it is his spirit that guides people.

"Ghost Whisperer" was a TV drama based at least partially on the work and real-life ghostbusting experiences of Mary Ann Winkowski. She was a paid producer on the show's five year run. In the movie "Ghost" Whoopi Goldberg played a con artist medium who gets contacted by the ghost of Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze). In "The Sixth Sense", Haley Joel Osment's character sees dead people and is helped in dealing with this by child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis). It turned out that Dr. Crowe was really dead and needed to resolve some issues before he could crossover which he does by helping Osment's character.
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Bonus ghost jokes:
Q. Why did the ghost go to the doctor?
A: To get a Booster shot.
Q: What medicine do ghosts take for colds?
A: Coffin drops.

Answer: Philosophy

The "ghost in the machine" was a phrase coined by British philosopher Gilbert Ryle in his 1949 book "The Concept of Mind" which discussed Descartes' mind-body dualism. In 1967, Arthur Koestler wrote the book "The Ghost in the Machine" which delved more fully into the concepts first put forth by Ryle. The basic principal that the idea that a person is two parts, body and mind, and that the two co-exist but are separate from one another as put forth by Descartes is fundamentally flawed because neither can exist without the other and to categorize them together is inherently erroneous. As science gains more of an understanding of the brain and how it operates, philosophy is left with the problem of determining what makes us an individual and what is merely a process of biology. Is there a part of a person that exists outside of the biological mechanisms that take place in the brain (i.e. the ghost in the machine) or can it all be explained by the mere mechanics of biology? The whole discussion makes Jasper's head hurt and he is glad he is no longer human so that he does not have to ponder such deep questions.
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Bonus ghost jokes:
Q: Who did the ghost invite to his party?
A: Anyone he could dig up.
Q: What is a ghost's favorite party game?
A: Hide-and-go-shriek.

Answer: Native American

The Ghost Dance came into being in 1889 among the Paiute tribe in Nevada and spread from there throughout the different Native American tribes. Wovoka, aka Jack Wilson, was the religious leader who introduced the dance and ritual as a means to bring peace between the Native Americans and the Whites. As it spread throughout the tribes it remained a mostly peaceful dance until it was adopted by the Lakota (Sioux) of the Plains. Where Wovoka preached co-existence, the Lakota interpreted the dance as bringing in the renewal of the earth and the removal of the Whites from their territories. The dance highly alarmed the government officials in charge of dealing with the Lakota. These agents believed Sitting Bull was behind the movement. Thousands of US troops were sent onto the reservations and Sitting Bull was killed during an attempt to arrest him for not stopping the Ghost Dance. Later that same month the Wounded Knee Massacre took place in which 153 Sioux were killed, most of them women and children. Public outcry in the East led to a removal of the US troops from the Lakota reservations and a reinstatement of past treaty agreements that had been curtailed during the Ghost Dance 'uprising'. Jasper was shocked to hear that a simple religious dance could cause such terrible events to transpire.
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Bonus ghost jokes:
Q: What happens when a ghost gets lost in the fog?
A: He is mist.
Q: Why did the game warden arrest the ghost?
A: He didn't have a haunting license.

Answer: Spectre

Spectre (Br. sp.) or specter is defined by dictionary.com as "a visible incorporeal spirit, especially one of a terrifying nature." The OED traces its origins back to 1600 and the French word spectre which comes from the Latin word spectrum. Of particular interest is the word's association with the creation of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein". According to the "Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology" Lord Byron was reading aloud "Fantasmagoriana, or Collection of the Histories of Apparitions, Spectres, Ghosts, etc." by Jean Baptiste Eyries to Percy Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (later Mary Shelley), Claire Clairmont, and J. W. Polidori while they were consuming opium and talking of writing ghost stories. From this came Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" which was published approximately two years later.

In the James Bond universe, SPECTRE stands for 'SP'ecial 'E'xecutive for 'C'ounter-intelligence, 'T'errorism, 'R'evenge and 'E'xtortion. It is a terrorist organization that Bond faces. The organization plays a more prominent role in the movies than it does in the novels.

The US Air Force operates the AC-130H Spectre and the AC-130U Spooky II gunships as heavily-armed ground-attack aircraft. They are converted transports that have been outfitted with everything from GAU-2/A miniguns to M61 Vulcan 6-barrel Gatling cannons (20 mm) to L/60 Bofors cannons (40 mm) to M102 howitzers (105 mm).

In "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman, Spectres or Spectres of Indifference are spirit beings who escape the void between the universes each time a new window is opened by the Subtle Knife. They feed upon human souls and leave people in a zombie-like state.
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Bonus ghost jokes:
Q: Who protects the shores where spirits live?
A: The Ghost Guard.
Q: Why do girl ghosts go on diets?
A: So they can keep their ghoulish figures.

Answer: Bhoot

A bhoot is the ghost of a deceased person in the traditions of the Indian subcontinent. Although the specifics differ depending on the locality, in most cases the bhoot is a troubled spirit that has not been able to move on to the other side. They appear most often in human form but can assume the form of animals if they so desire. The dead giveaway though is that their feet point backwards. Most of the time they float above the ground even if imperceptibly because the earth is considered sacred. A specific bhoot called a churail is a female spirit that many times attempts to seduce young men and many believe if the man falls for the churail she will cause his death. Bhoots are supposed to fear water and iron or steel objects so many people keep these around to ward them off.
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Bonus ghost jokes:
Q: What should you say when you meet a ghost?
A: How do you boo, sir?
Q: When does a ghost have breakfast?
A: In the moaning.

Answer: Phantom

Phantom and phantasm are closely related both etymologically and by definition but in this case only phantom applies to these three examples. Both are defined first as an apparition or specter and then as a creation of the imagination or illusion. Both can be traced back to the early 1300s. At first phantasm carried more of the traditional meaning of ghost or apparition with phantom gaining this by the late 1300s. They come from Latin via French. (sources: "Random House Dictionary", "Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition", and OED)

The F-4 was called the Phantom II and was the most widely deployed jet fighter used by the Navy and Air Force during the Vietnam War. "The Phantom of the Opera" was a novel written by Gaston Leroux and published in 1909-1910. It was adapted into an award-winning Broadway musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1986. Phantom pain is pain felt in a limb or body part that is no longer there.
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Bonus ghost jokes:
Q: What's a ghost's favorite Broadway play?
A: Phantom of the Opera.
Q: What do you call a ghost's mother and father?
A: Transparents.