Holy Ghost?

[craig johnston]

when i was a very small child, my cousins and i would jump up and down on our beds shouting 'the holy ghost is full of holes!'
it was a fun game, and one i would love to play again today. however, the decline in the standard of bed making added to our growth and lack of geographical proximity renders this impossible.

what is this holy ghost? i've never figured it out. ok, so you've got god. the old bloke with the beard, and his son jc, the one who did that trick with the water, turning it into wine etc, but the holy ghost? there aren't even any pictures that i know of. what a mysterious, errm, thing it is.
surely, as one of the holy trinity, you'd expect to get a it more press. is the holy ghost just reticent? or does it suffer from an inferiority complex of some sort? or is the holy ghost deliberately staying out of the limelight for some tactical reason? does anyone have any answers?

the only song it has is the magnificent 'holy ghost' by the bar-kays. pretty good going, if you are just going to have one song, why not make it a blistering piece of timeless funk mayhem?

[trisherina]

I don't think the holy ghost is all that reticent. Go to a local church with one of the following words in its name, and you will likely learn plenty about the holy ghost:

• victory
• spirit
• evangelical
• alive
• pentecostal (but only some, so be careful!)

Be prepared for the topic of "speaking in tongues" to be a big subject, since this is frequently described as the manifestation of the presence of the holy ghost. Why? Oh, this bit of Acts

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Art

The holy ghost is most often depicted as its supersecret Christian symbol, the dove, in religious art.



Sometimes the holy ghost is depicted in human form, especially in depictions of the trinity:



(to save time and tiresomeness and so you can have more fun with your Christian friends, many of whom love this icon, I'll let you in on the quick interpretation: the holy ghost is the dude on the right)

Sometimes you will also see the holy ghost depicted as a something or wispy other, not human but not dove either, cruising down like a supernatural seabird to touch your inner city or something equally representative of the downtrodden.

Lyrics

Since you seem keen on the holy ghost as opposed to spirit or what have you, I am forced to give you Bon Jovi:

I want to lay you down in a bed of roses
For tonite I sleep on a bed of nails
I want to be just as close as the Holy Ghost is
And lay you down on a bed of roses

[Stephi_B]

As for pictorial representation, I know the dove, but also this little flames
above the heads of those who "are filled with the holy ghost":


Never quite understood the concept after I grew up (yeah well and after my Cath R.E. teacher kicked me out of his course and I had to go to the ethics course I lost the chance to learn about it ), as a small kid I understood it like it is something god sends from the sky and which somewhat enhances your brain power or wisdom. Yes and on Sundays grandpa always said to me "Come on let's go to church, you can need some of that holy spirit" - actually I loved to go to church with him, but not cos of this holy ghost thing I never felt, but cos I was always allowed to go to the pub with him afterwards...

More seriously, I think the holy ghost is the Christian name for godly/heavenly/higher/supernatural inspiration, enlightenment or spirit which is hard to put into words or forms, maybe therefore the airy (dove/other birds) or fire-like (flame) representation.


To your other problem, well the geographic thing is difficult, but as for the device to jump on:
Either put several mattrasses on top of each other, yeah or check around at my boss' he's got a real cool trampoline in his garden (he also has a dart disk and table-football ) which even easily caries our vice-boss who is tall and quite strongly built

[craig johnston]

i've got a theory:

god = groucho
jesus = chico
holy ghost = harpo

am i getting warm?

[Frieda]

i didnt drop out of religion class ( stephi) and to me it was explained as the thing, a feeling, something that comes to you when you like totally, completely wholeheartedly believe in god, and trust in god. if you have god in your heart, your body and your soul, then you will radiate the essence of god, and that's the flame fire thingy.

[auntie aubrey]

Originally Posted by craig johnston

i've got a theory:

god = groucho
jesus = chico
holy ghost = harpo

wait wait wait.... so speaking in tongues.... is like that episode of "i love lucy".... where lucy sees harpo in the mirror and they move in unison! IT ALL MAKES SO MUCH SENSE NOW!!!! WE ARE ALL LUCILLE "LUCY" ESMERELDA MCGILLICUDDY RICARDO!!!

this has changed my perspective on everything. WAHHHHHHHH!!!!

[Chico]

Did someone call me?

[auntie aubrey]

jesus!

[craig johnston]

spooky!

[brightpearl]

Originally Posted by Chico

Did someone call me?

That is in my top ten of favorite posts.

[brightpearl]

As for Ghosts which are Holy, the descriptions given here sound like the idea I got from being a regular churchgoer as a kiddo, although it wasn't talked about much. Perhaps that's because many of us don't understand it well.

As I've come to learn more about other religions, I've come to think that most religions describe the possibility of the same physical and emotional human experience, though they may have a different explanation. It's not always tied to a creator god, for instance, but there are some similarities. It seems to be commonly described in expansive terms, and it's usually thought of as the establishment or realization of a deep/true/fundamental connection with something else out there -- a god, or the universe, or the ancestors...

So, I think the Holy Ghost is mostly about a feeling of connectedness that heals our usual sense of disconnection from other people, from the divine, from things as they are. Everyone feels that something is missing, right? So perhaps being overcome by the Holy Ghost is the experience of the total absence of lack.

[Marcus Bales]

Originally Posted by craig johnston

when i was a very small child, my cousins and i would jump up and down on our beds shouting 'the holy ghost is full of holes!'...

Theological sophistication at an early age -- the entire theory of the trinity is full of holes, and the holy ghost is not the least of them.

Also, what kind of car did Jesus drive?

A Honda -- because in Acts, as Trish has shown, it says that the disciples were all in one Accord.

M

[trisherina]

Aside from helping mere mortals to babble nonsensically among their peers, the holy ghost is also supposed to be the big doler-outer of grace. I'm a complete ignoramus on such matters, but I never found substantive descriptions of grace to differ much experientially from those of religious enlightenment in the various other guises it takes for those who pursue it.

[Hyakujo's Fox]

He's just this guy, you know?

[Anna]

aka intuition inspiration imagination