Ever wondered: do ghosts age, or get older with time?
Everyone has different beliefs and understandings about what ghosts, or spirits are, and how they interact with us in this world. Many people believe that they are in a sort of purgatory until they can finish what they needed on earth. Others believe that spirits are those with unfinished business. Still others believe that ghosts or spirits are here to guide or instruct us, sort of like guardian angels. See my post on seeing white figures for more on this. However, a question that I have gotten before, is do ghosts age, or get older with time? Although there is no known firm answer on this, I wanted to do my best to answer it.
Do Ghosts Age?
If you’re familiar with ghosts (or as many prefer to call them, spirits) you’ll know that they can appear to us any many different ways. However, we typically see them as we last remember them.
This is most likely due to the fact that when we die, our bodies die with us, but our spirit remains the same. Although spirits often appear in human form, to make it easier for us to cope with loss, and understand their appearance, they have no physical form.
So to answer the question of, do ghosts age, the answer is no.
This isn’t because time is not passing for them, but because their is no body to age like we think of aging.
To us, aging or growing older is the withering of our body and mind over time, but our spirit and soul does not age.
When we are interacting with ghosts or spirits, it is this soul that we are interacting with.
Even in the cases where ghosts have appeared consistently over time in the same place, like the ghost of Newstead Abbey that I talk about in this post, people typically report similar sightings and describe a similar look and appearance.
It would seem that even though ghosts have no physical form, even the form that appears to us does not age or grow older with time.
Do Ghosts Grow Older?
Some of the ancient Eastern religions believe that each person actual carries with them 3 separate bodies, or as they often refer to them, coverings. The first is what we see, and what we associate with aging, the physical body. The second is a luminous body known as the astral form, and finally we have what they call a subtle, casual body.
When a person dies, the physical body fades away and is buried or cremated, but this does not impact the astral form or the casual body.
When we see a ghost, or a spirit, what we are seeing is the astral body, which is still present here on earth. This astral body does not age, and has never aged. Only the physical form that we leave behind when we pass away ages.
If Ghosts Don’t Age, When Do They Leave This World?
There are varrying beliefs about this, but in it’s most simple form, ghosts are the soul, or astral form, of a person who has died, but has been unable to “pass over” from this world onto whatever lies beyond. This could be because they are here to protect someone or something, or it could be because they have unfinished business in this world, or it could be because they have yet to decide where they want to go onto.
Some people even believe these spirits are stuck here because they have not been able to accept that they died in the first place, and therefore have not been able to move on.
Ultimately, ghosts or spirits will move on from this physical plane when they have accomplished or accepted what they need to in order to let go.
Final Thoughts On Ghosts Aging
Ultimately, the question itself is off, as aging really only is ever associated with our physical form. Our spirit, our soul, our astral form, whatever you want to call it does not age. The ghosts or spirits we see are just visible corporeal forms of these concepts, and therefore cannot possibly age or get older.