Ghosts

[poliphilo]

 People see them, hear them, smell them, even touch them.

I can't think of an instance where anyone tasted one, but that may just be because I haven't pushed my research far enough.

They are very well attested 

And the new science- as opposed to the old superannuated physicalist science- which people still cling to because they don't know any better- has nothing to say against them- has indeed cleared plenty of space for them to exist in.

Therefore ghosts exist.

But what they are is another matter.

In my view "ghosts" is a category into which all sorts of phenomena have been herded together- some of which the old physicalist science can explain but most of which it can't.

Too bad for the old physicalist science. (Oh drop it people! Do please drop it!)

And some are indeed the spirits of the dead.....

Comments

[basefinder]

Absolutely. I must say I found Professor Challenger to be an offputting character; too brutish and obstinate to make a convincing academic. But maybe that is just how he needed to be portrayed for this particular book?

I *think* I read The Lost World when I was a teen, but those details are lost in the mist of time.

[poliphilo]

There are 5 Challenger stories. The Lost World is the best known and The Land of Mist is my favourite. I have them in an omnibus edition.

Doyle when he's not writing Holmes is hit and miss. I'm rather fond of the Brigadier Gerard stories....