Ghosts

This topic includes the following subtopics:

Ghost References in This Novel

The only ghost story in The Passing of Merlin Zauber that qualifies as fiction is the one attributed to Alexander in Chapter 2: "Getting Adjusted." The others, discussed in Chapter 13: "Wizard Merlin," are phenomena that I actually experienced myself.

Here is a list of ghosts that actually appeared to me, rather than merely being dreamed about:

My great-great grandmother

My stepfather

My mother

This does not exclude various encounters that seemed to be apparitions. In the novel, I merely attributed my own ghost experiences to the character Merlin Zauber.

Alexander's Personal Ghost Story

Unlike the other ghost stories in The Passing of Merlin Zauber, Alexander's description of attending a concert of the Vienna Boys Choir (VBC)is pure fiction.

The automobile accident described at the beginning of Alexander's account almost happened to me, but was narrowly averted. I made it to the concert okay and presented an actual ticket to be admitted as a regular incarnate member of the audience.

While waiting for the concert to begin, I couldn't help thinking how lucky I was to make it, considering how narrowly I had missed what might have been a fatal accident. At that point, the idea popped into my head to imagine this concert attended in spirit, not body. This was an opportunity for literary improvisation that I couldn't resist. In contrast to the sober description below, the fantasy version, original titled "Choir of Angels," describes what might happen if a half-crazed music lover happened to attend a concert in spirit.

Of course, this started out as fun stuff, and not at all serious! To an extent, what follows is an outright spoof of my standard review below, as well as an elaborate parody of Robert Frost's "miles to go before I sleep" and Walt Whitman's "every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." Indeed, if the following review can be compared to a melody, then Alexander's ghost story is a jazzed-up, improvised version of the same melody.

I confess that I have never attended a concert as a ghost, but it seems to me that Alexander's description closely approximates what I imagine it would be like, based on what personal knowledge I do have. The concert that sparked this fantasy actually occurred in the early 1990s. Here, however, is a serious review that I wrote about a similar but later VBS concert:

I recently attended a Sunday afternoon concert of the world-famous Vienna Choir Boys. According to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra January Program (2003, pp. 15-16), this choir of singing boys was founded by the Habsburg Emperor Maximilian in 1498. Over the centuries the choir has been associated with such famous musical figures as Gluck, Mozart, Bruckner, the Hayden brothers, Schubert, and many others. Currently there are four touring choirs whose members range in age from nine to fourteen.

When the choirboys marched onstage in their sailor suits to stand at attention in two rows with hands clasped behind them, waiting for the entrance of the Kapelmeister (choirmaster) who conducted from the piano, I felt as though I had been transported to another era. This proved especially so when the boys began the concert with the Gregorian chant "Veni Creator Spiritus," which musically recreated the Renaissance. The sound of this choir is so sweet and pure that it seems otherworldly. The five seconds or so between the end of the first piece and the beginning of the applause indicated that the entire audience had been transported also.

At the beginning of the fourth selection, "Omnes de Saba venient," by Joseph Eybler (1765-1846), one of the boys stepped forward to sing a solo that was featured in the 1962 movie Almost Angels about a talented Austrian boy who joins the Vienna Choir Boys to become eventually one of its lead soprano soloists. Exciting as the movie performance was, this live performance made my hair stand on end.

The fifth selection was "Pueri Concinite," by Johann Ritter von Herbeck (1831-1877). This contains a solo so beautiful that I have listened to it over and over on a Vienna Choir Boys CD in my collection. This time, the exquisite solo was performed by a boy much smaller than the first soloist. This boy's voice was so fragile and delicate that by the end of his first phrase most of the audience was weeping.

The next five selections were composed by Franz Schubert, who as a boy had been a member of the Vienna Choir Boys. Schubert is clearly one of the several proprietary spirits of the choir, and each one of these songs was sung so perfectly that it was like hearing angels in Heaven. Schubert's "An die Musik" (To Music) is gorgeous enough to precipitate a mass levitation in any receptive audience.

The next two selections were by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), whose compositions for boy choral ensembles achieve a level of sweetness that no choir can attain better than the Vienna Choir Boys. In fact, one can easily imagine that the vacant areas onstage may have been occupied by angels from heaven learning how to improve their own ensemble singing.

After a short intermission, the boys returned to the stage dressed as if to participate in a baroque era musical gala. They sang various Brahms songs, danced a few courtly dances, and joked around. This represented a sharp contrast from the first half of the program, lifting the level of performance from the sublime to a more human, typically boyish level, that despite the excellence of its execution, was extremely charming.

The concert ended with a selection of Austrian folk songs, followed by polka and waltz songs composed by Johann Strauss, Jr. (1825-1899).

Even when the Vienna Choir Boys sing compositions by such modern composers as Edward Elgar (1857-1934) or Gerald Wirth (born 1965), they pull the audience back in time to the Renaissance, Baroque, or Enlightenment when perfection was an article of faith, and children were sometimes regarded as supremely competent souls housed temporarily in small bodies. This is perhaps why a performance of this choir of singing boys makes an audience feel as though it has attended a peak cultural performance, with implications verging on the religious.

Reference
Atlanta Encore (January, 2003). Profile: Vienna Choir Boys.
Atlanta's Performing Arts Publication. Atlanta: Atlanta Metropolitan
Publishing, Inc.

To compare the ghost story as I originally wrote it, go to www.matrixofcreativity.com and select "Choir of Angels" in the contents panel.

An Easter Ghost Discussion

I want to share a conversation that occurred on Easter Sunday, 11 April 2004. My wife and I had the honor of being members of a party supporting an infant baptism on that day. The baptism occurred as part of the Easter service in a large, impressive cathedral. Afterwards, during lunch, the conversation at the table turned to thoughts about the Resurrection.

While the newly baptized, two-month-old infant slept blissfully in her carrier, her father occasionally popping a bottle in her mouth, and while her mother kept an eye on the very active two-year-old sister, some of us fell to discussing the image of the risen Christ. Some thought that Christ was physically present before Mary Magdalene and the others, while some wondered if this Christ were really an apparition or a ghost.

I said while one must take into account that the Gospels were not written until long after the fact, there is, however, one clue that has always struck me as significant. When Mary Magdalene reaches out to touch Jesus, she is warned not to do so: "Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father" (John 20.17). If by chance Jesus were an apparition or a ghost, rather than a physical body miraculously brought back to life, Mary's hand would have passed through him as though it were a puff of smoke, for what would have been before her would be the energy body, which seems solid, but is not.

Then the baby's grandfather observed that the one exclamation that no one today would make, upon seeing the phantasm of deceased person, is "He is risen, indeed!"

I said that is because this is the Christian Easter message, the quintessence of the Church's doctrine, and for it to apply to any spirit but Christ would be seen as blasphemous. I said it is as though Christianity had taken out a patent on the concept. This is in line with the tradition that out of respect for Christ's crucifixion, St. Paul persuaded his executioners to crucify him upside-down, lest he be seen as blaspheming Christ's own death on the cross. I concluded with a remark that the concept of the "imitatio Christi" (Latin for "imitation of Christ") notwithstanding, in St. Paul's mind apparently not only the Resurrection but the Crucifixion had been in effect "registered" with the great patent office in the sky, and woe to him who would violate that patent.

Then someone at the table asked if anyone had actually seen a ghost. Before I could open my mouth the baby's grandfather told of an instance that he had experienced. He said that he was at the time working as a real estate appraiser. He described passing through the kitchen of a house that he was appraising, and seeing a small boy around eight years old. The boy just stood in the kitchen staring at him, not responding to the man's greeting. As he was getting ready to leave, he said to the lady of the house, "That's a fine looking boy you have." She said, "What did he look like?" The man said, "He was about eight, blond hair, blue eyes, wearing jeans, a striped T-shirt, and sneakers." The woman's eyes tearing up, she said "What you saw was my son, who died five years ago." The grandfather concluding by saying, "When the mother identified what I had seen, I somehow had the feeling that the boy didn't know he was dead."

I responded, "In my experience, that is often the case: once the deceased solves the mystery, and discovers that he is dead, he is rarely if ever seen again."

Someone at the table said, "You said 'in my experience.' Have you had personal encounters with ghosts yourself?"

Unwilling to go into the full extent of that experience, I said, "Well, here's one very personal example. Entering the house after attending my stepfather's funeral, I was astounded to see him standing in the entrance hall looking as real and substantial as if he were alive. It crossed my mind that either I had hallucinated the funeral or he didn't know he was dead.

"At the moment that thought crossed my mind, a look of recognition seemed to flicker across his face. Then he turned and started down the hall to his room. I followed after him, about four feet behind. Although the door to his room was closed, he went right through it without bothering to open it. When I opened the door, the ghost was gone."

After a long silence, the grandfather said, "Since I didn't know at the time that the boy was a ghost, I wasn't in a position to think 'He doesn't know he's dead.' But if, say, his mother had seen him, and thought that, then she might have exorcised his sprit. Is that what you're saying?"

I said, "Yes, that's exactly it." By then the luncheon was over, the party broke up, and we all headed for home.

Ghosts in the Light of Christianity

For a fuller understanding of the discussion that follows you should read "The European Priestess Before and After the Conversion," which is found on this website by clicking "Status of Women" on the contents panel. This is a scholarly essay that discusses the European priestess before, during, and after the advent of Christianity. The point of the lecture is to explain how women, once highly revered among the Europeans, were systematically degraded to second-class status following the conversion to Christianity, and how the phenomenon of witches and witchcraft came into existence.

The ancients, as amply recorded in Latin and Greek literature, as well as the European pagans, directed much of their priestly activity toward interacting with the spirits of the departed. Like the Buddhists and the Hindus, the Europeans believed in the concept of reincarnation, which always accompanies widespread belief in spirits.

The Christian church eventually decreed that the doctrine of reincarnation was "anathema," even though early Christians, like others, believed in reincarnation. From the Church's point of view, belief in reincarnation undercut the concept of the Resurrection as the reward for faith, and had to be eliminated. At the same time, the status of spirits were inverted so that ghosts and other apparitions were designated at evil spirits, or even devils from hell. Those who presumed to interact with these "spirits of the damned" were regarded as witches, and subject to trial and execution by burning, drowning, or hanging.

Understandably, this caused a great deal of confusion. Anyone who happened to see a ghost had therefore to fear that his very soul was in jeopardy. In some cases, when the ghost seemed obviously benign, it was deemed not a "spirit," but an "angel," which was regarded as a messenger from God.

Small wonder that in our current predominately Christian society ghosts get no respect and no appreciation.