Of all the many mysteries of life, I think we can all agree that there is no greater question

than of what comes next. Is there some ethereal afterlife waiting for us after death? Or are we just

snuffed out like candles, leaving our bodies to decompose into earth? Countless scientists, philosophers, artists, poets, and theologians alike have all pondered

this most imponderable of questions, and so far no one has ever come up with a definitive answer.

Likewise, one related question that springs forth out of the belief that the soul lives on after death

is whether or not the spirit sometimes

remains here on earth or in short are ghosts real ghost stories are as old as

human civilization.

We can find examples of them that date back to our earliest literature.

In ancient Rome, the writer, Pliny the Younger, once wrote about the ghost of an old man that haunted a formerly vacant house,

that was now being rented by the philosopher Athenodorus.

On his first night in the house, the ghost appeared to Atenidorus in his study.

The old man's spirit looked emaciated, and his wrists and ankles were shackled by chains

that rattled eerily as he led the philosopher out of the house

and into the yard before vanishing.

The following morning Athenidorus felt compelled to dig up the spot where the old man's ghost had vanished,

only to discover the remains of a skeleton in chains.

A Thanodorus reburied the remains, giving him a proper funeral this time, and afterwards the ghost

never appeared to him again.

As far as ghost stories go, this story told by Pliny the Younger is pretty standard fair.

The tale of the ghost that tries to inform you where to find his remains is one that has been

told and re-told many times.

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