Great post. I guess I was thinking more of attack the ghost itself. But that is a tried and true way to do it.
Trey said...
I think I was thinking more of the attacking kind of Ghost. So yours and Trey's would be to figure out why it is here and use that.
Neat idea. Something that would be perfect for an Occult Poet in Ghosts of Albion to do!
Salt has a long standing connection to the supernatural. It is also simple to get and use. I am sure there is a connection there.
Then maybe they can move on.
I've heard salt before though, but never tried it so I can't tell you if it really works.
Kill it with fire! Always a good choice.
If the ghost believes, an exorcism should send it away.
Well thought out. So a Spirit Zapper or Spirit Trap in a way.
Death echoes could be dispersed by setting up a counter-noise generator - like the ones in noise-cancelling headphones, but on a room- or house-sized scale. Remember those multiroom speakers that transmitted sound through the house wiring? this would be the lo-fi DIY way of implementing this.
Intelligent/Interactive ghosts would be best handled through negotiation. The trick would be to get them to stay still long enough to have a meaningful chat. So I'm thinking EM Pump combined with Carnacki's electric pantacle with Spirit Box as vocal translator. Then have the conversation - what you want, what they want, how to find agreement, that sort of thing...
Poltergeists as rogue PK in children/teens also fits this model, so ground them via conductive jewelry, cutting their hair shorter, and good old patience as they grow out of this phase should work as well.
You said no supernatural, so I'm going to call the "demonic hauntings" of current TV ghost hunting fashion "anomalous idiopathic EM fields" and recommend Faraday cages around the sensitive spots. It doesn't destroy it, but it does contain it...
Cool. I like this approach. I always figured that it was something that you can bring into your home, salt is something that is like life.
Not a huge fan of calling that sort of thinking"mundane only," but salt's about as mundane as you can get.
The Kripke Trinity - salt, iron, burn the bones - works really well as weapons for adventure stories like SPN, though their meaning and uses in traditional ghost stories is quite different...
So if I am facing a ghost, then a fire hose. I like it!
Either destroying the links of the ghost to the mundane world (if possible) or destroy its mortal remains might work.
The whole reminds him/her that he/she is already dead is tricky because I'm not sure a ghost is willing to listen.
Keithboyle pretty much covered the scientific/technobabble angle.
Another option is running water. According to the Celtic tradition large bodies of water (especially rivers and lakes) are doors into the afterlife, for this reason a ghost can't cross running water. If someone can force a ghost close enough to a river or a stream the proximity might do the trick.
I think I was going with "things I have laying around the house or garage". Granted that also rules out fire and the fire hose. I have a garden hose though and a sprinkler that looks like a turtle for my lawn. I am so screwed.
I threw out the Carnacki reference because, frankly, it's Tim who's asking the question. The real-life analog to what Hodgson described is a Faraday cage - aka the shielding & grounding frame inside the computer that you're using to read these words.
Mongo avoids the [tech] like the plague: even if the terms aren't that familiar, they're not entirely meaningless or made-up if I can help it...
That's only good for guys dress in sheets going "boooooo". ;)
Haha!! Scooby Doo for the win!
Be scarier than the Ghosts. Of course! The Doctor Who Offensive.
Thanks all!
Keithboyle's first suggestion brings to mind BBC's 1972 Christmas ghost story The Stone Tape.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen The Stone Tape, but if it's a Christmas ghost story, then I'm going to have to see if NetFlix has it.
ReplyDeleteWell, if a pipeline can ground magic in "Dresden Files", I guess that killing a ghost with a firehose is a legitimate option.
ReplyDeleteInteresting comments. My problems is that I never met a ghost that was attacking or scary just sad and lonely or with a message to deliver. Those of course,are the real ghosts, not the fictional ones.
ReplyDeleteTaking the jargon out and focusing on the garage-tech, an EM Pump is just a stereo amp with nothing plugged into it but cranked to 11 and a Spirit Box is a radio (or TV) tuned to a spot between stations (some of the fancier ones are constantly running up and down the radio spectrum to avoid getting stuck. Faraday cages can be built using conductive wire mesh. Chicken wire in layers, aluminum screening... maybe not in everyone's garage, but likely easily obtained from Home Despot or S-Mart...
ReplyDelete@Hose use, the Chicago way: most applications won't work unless you have water pressure. Which means cistern, water tower, muni supply, or well - none of which are very portable or small enough to make tactical use of through the aforementioned turtle sprinkler except as swinging a heavy thing around your head to define a perimeter.
ReplyDeleteNow, setting aside the "mundane only" for a moment: popping the head off the water supply and blessing the water inside (maybe toss in a rosary and head of garlic or two) then kicking on the lawn sprinklers sounds like a good perimeter defense against vampires & other susceptible undead. Just have to make sure the remnants of the deadies don't kill your lawn as they get soaked with impromptu holy water... And never forget the value of a super soaker in this context.
And while we're setting aside that mundane-ness, my favorite way of destroying a demon is to show them up as amateurs:
"Your mother sucks..."
"Does she swallow?"
"Eh?"
"Does she swallow? Because, you know, that'd be even nastier, what with that hell flavored-spunk... Is this your first day or something?"
"No, I am Vhgvoygb, Eternal Lord of Vile Madness..."
"Lord of lame unpronounceable pretentious BS, more like it. Just go home before I must laugh your amateur-hour cheap carny spookshow ass out of existence..."
BTW - thanks for the tip on The Stone Tape.