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Why Are Ghosts Never Fat?

asparagus

asparagus

Junior Acolyte
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I have read a load of accounts of ghostly experiences but it occurred to me today that I have never come across a description of a fat ghost, or if you prefer the ghost of a fat person. I'm not saying there are absolutely no examples - though I'd like to hear some - but certainly nowhere near the proportion of larger men and women in the population. Most ghosts seem to come from periods in the past thousand years or so, and although nutrition was not to modern standards in those days and obesity was rarer, there have always been bigger than usual individuals particularly in the upper classes from which so may ghosts seemingly come.

More generally, most ghosts encounters seem to be fairly interchangeable as to the build of the spirit, so to speak. There don't seem to be many especially tall or short ghosts, not as many as you would expect from a random sample of the population. Why should this be?

Perhaps I am completely mistaken - what does everyone think?
 
The Preta (hungry ghost) cited in various forms from India through eastern Asia are ravenous gluttons for something (food, other substances) and are often described as having large bellies, though they're otherwise described as emaciated.

The Thai Pret (a variation on the Preta) is typically described as being abnormally tall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preta
 
asparagus said:
I have read a load of accounts of ghostly experiences but it occurred to me today that I have never come across a description of a fat ghost, or if you prefer the ghost of a fat person. I'm not saying there are absolutely no examples - though I'd like to hear some - but certainly nowhere near the proportion of larger men and women in the population. Most ghosts seem to come from periods in the past thousand years or so, and although nutrition was not to modern standards in those days and obesity was rarer, there have always been bigger than usual individuals particularly in the upper classes from which so may ghosts seemingly come.

More generally, most ghosts encounters seem to be fairly interchangeable as to the build of the spirit, so to speak. There don't seem to be many especially tall or short ghosts, not as many as you would expect from a random sample of the population. Why should this be?

Perhaps I am completely mistaken - what does everyone think?
Click to expand...

... you make a good point ...
 
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Genies in bottles are usually fat. Ghost-monks are a traditional UK spook and it is hard to imagine them being very different from the corpulent figures in genre paintings. Quite why anything so physical as fat should have a spiritual dimension is puzzling, though - perhaps - no more so than skin and bone. :skull:
 
Who ate all the Psi?

ghostbustersLOGO.jpg
 
I suppose there's different kinds of ghosts aren't there. There's the sort you know, like when you see Aunty Mabel appear next to your bed, or Bob from down the road digging in his garden when it turns out he died last week. And they could be fat because they'd look exactly like they did in real life (that's how you know it's them). (in the context of your reading, I probably wouldn't mention that Mabel was fat because it's irrelevant to the story and would sound rude. So it wouldn't get into the account).

But you are thinking more of the traditional haunted castle type ghost I think. And they're not of someone you know, they're of a White Lady or a fuzzy shadow or a gentleman in tudor style tights. And maybe they're a different sort of thing. Maybe like a sort of archetype of somebody/something, like a concept that you may or may not be expecting to see.

I'm not particularly arguing that ghosts do or don't exist. But I'm supposing it's also relevant whether one believes the appearance of the ghost is something totally objective out there that people are witnessing. (There's a remarkable lack of clear photos as you will know). Or, if we assume ghosts do indeed exist, whether most of the 'seeing' goes on in the brain, and the brain is interpreting a ghostly signal from out there in the environment, but there isn't a photographable object thing out there. Maybe if people don't expect to see a fat or tall White Lady (etc) then their brains just show them the bog standard average BMI one.

it's a good question.
 
Eponastill said:
it's a good question.
Click to expand...
'Tis.

The stereotypical classic ghost 'shape' (Casper, and earlier: the first-known western 2D representation would be interesting to identify) can be thought of as being an ectoplasmic equivalent of either a burial shroud / winding sheet containing a corpse or perhaps a quasi-elemental wraith.

Both tend to be seen as being characteristically-thin, always more incorporeal than corpulent. I suspect that the classic all-in-one serpentine spririt shape will have had its origins upon the tombstones and canvases of the early medieval era, and that there may well have been strong pressures countering the representation of such entities in any form.

I'll come back to this topic, please, as there are many interesting aspects within it.
 
In fiction there is the 'Fat Friar' from Harry Potter.
 
Eponastill said:
I suppose there's different kinds of ghosts aren't there. There's the sort you know, like when you see Aunty Mabel appear next to your bed, or Bob from down the road digging in his garden when it turns out he died last week. And they could be fat because they'd look exactly like they did in real life (that's how you know it's them). (in the context of your reading, I probably wouldn't mention that Mabel was fat because it's irrelevant to the story and would sound rude. So it wouldn't get into the account).

But you are thinking more of the traditional haunted castle type ghost I think. And they're not of someone you know, they're of a White Lady or a fuzzy shadow or a gentleman in tudor style tights. And maybe they're a different sort of thing. Maybe like a sort of archetype of somebody/something, like a concept that you may or may not be expecting to see.

I'm not particularly arguing that ghosts do or don't exist. But I'm supposing it's also relevant whether one believes the appearance of the ghost is something totally objective out there that people are witnessing. (There's a remarkable lack of clear photos as you will know). Or, if we assume ghosts do indeed exist, whether most of the 'seeing' goes on in the brain, and the brain is interpreting a ghostly signal from out there in the environment, but there isn't a photographable object thing out there. Maybe if people don't expect to see a fat or tall White Lady (etc) then their brains just show them the bog standard average BMI one.

it's a good question.
Click to expand...

Yes, I was thinking mainly about haunted castle-type ghosts. And it is interesting if you follow the logic of 'seeing' ghosts in the brain with the idea that the brain conjures up a standard average image, neither tall short or fat.

I do like the idea that the mind perceives a ghostly signal of some sort and the brain then brings up a representation of this invisible entity, based partly on expectation and context. For instance, if I was working alone at Hampton Court late at night I might perceive an incorporeal signal and my brain may produce an image of a woman dressed in what I imagine to be period costume. Then next day I would go around telling everyone I had seen the ghost of Catherine Howard.

This sort of theory would explain why ghosts never appear in photographs and why ghosts always seem to be wearing clothes. Of course it says nothing about the crucial question of whether the signal the brain responds to is linked to something real or is essentially imaginary.
 
EnolaGaia said:
There's another line of explanation briefly mentioned in this Reddit thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ghosts/comments/71800w/why_are_there_never_any_obese_ghosts/

One poster who claims to be a medium capable of 'materializing' ghosts states it takes a lot of (the medium's) energy to materialize a ghost, and thus fat ghosts are thus more laborious, and hence less likely, to get visibly materialized.
Click to expand...
Plus it's harder to hide larger amounts of the material to be 'materialized'. :)
 
Plus we're having to believe in mediums as well as ghosts now. Occam's razor, people :)

To be less sceptical, surely anyone that sees a ghost is by that notion a medium. And I don't recall people getting worn out after seeing ghosts. There's the old "ooh it got really cold" thing as though energy is being sucked out of the environment (or is that just for Most Haunted style ghost hunting programmes). But not out of the person?

I'm sure there's some large-medium-skinny joke in there somewhere as well.
 
ghosts are spirits of the dead from bygone days before mac donalds and burger king where invented.
 
I have 'liked' your joke but that doesn't mean to say that sort of dreadful humour should be encouraged. Shut the door on your way out.
 
Eponastill said:
I have 'liked' your joke but that doesn't mean to say that sort of dreadful humour should be encouraged. Shut the door on your way out.
Click to expand...
:agree::bmonk:
 
EnolaGaia said:
The Preta (hungry ghost) cited in various forms from India through eastern Asia are ravenous gluttons for something (food, other substances) and are often described as having large bellies, though they're otherwise described as emaciated.

The Thai Pret (a variation on the Preta) is typically described as being abnormally tall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preta
Click to expand...

Plus there are two types of Hungry Ghosts in Japan:- Gaki & Kowai (btw, it's a very interesting site)

James_H said:
In fiction there is the 'Fat Friar' from Harry Potter.
Click to expand...

You mean at the local Chippy? :D

But seriously, I think that the reason of why there aren't any "fat ghosts" is because they use their fat reserves to visually haunt until there there is hardly anything left. Thats when you just get audio/smells & sensations of being watched as there isn't enough energy to manifest.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
Windsor castle is one of England's most haunted buildings.
Amongst its plethora of spectral occupants is old 'Enery the Eighth imself, who was hardly anorexic.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2005/10/12/windsor_castle_ghosts_feature.shtml
Click to expand...
Well that's interesting in itself isn't it. Because he wasn't always fat, although we think of him as being a big fatty. He was renowned for being very handsome when he was young ("so I understand"). So to 'recognise' his ghost, he has to be the fat version because we think he's going to be fat. Whereas maybe a thin handsome version wouldn't get named and famous. Hmm does this connect to my 'you see the ghost you expect to' theory?

I bet he'd rather you saw the handsome lithe version. You know, if he were alive and that.
 
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