- photo by Paul h. Williams

Human beings are made of two main elements - the mind and the body. One is abstract and the other physical, the physical being the vessel in which the abstract exists. When the body dies, the mind can no longer be stimulated. It cannot act, and does not respond to messages. Is death then the end of life, of mind and body?

Millions of people the world over do not think so. They believe that after the body expires, some non-physical persona of the deceased transmigrate into another being in another dimension, place and time, and sometimes such mystical entities even present themselves to the living, who call them ghosts, which are also known as duppies here in Jamaica.

The discussions on the existence and non-existence of duppies are very potent, replete with more emotions and speculations than facts. Academic scholars and clerics have delved in the realms of metaphysics seeking answers. There have been claims from people that they have talked to dead relatives in their dreams or through seances, and that they had seen things that the regular man is not able to see.

Explanations

Various explanations have been given as to how duppies exist and why they cannot exist, and invariably, religion is the foundation of the arguments proffered for and against. Yet, the discourses are always inconclusive. The bottom line is, there is no account of anyone who had ever sat and had a conversation with a duppy. No one has ever died and returned to tell tales from the other side.

So what we end up with are duppy stories, and they might just be - figments of our very active imaginations that have rooted and grounded themselves in our collective psyche. Thus, ghosts have been the subjects of books, movies, documentaries, investigations and research. They have become a part of folklores and folklores have morphed into somebody's reality and belief system. Duppies, then, are here to stay, whether in people's minds, or in their own corners of the universe.

Despite the lack of concrete evidence, many Jamaicans believe in the existence of duppies and what they can do. And for those of us who were brought up with nightly doses of duppy stories just before bedtime, we can recall the dread in which we lay in the dark, worried that under the bed was a 'spirit' lurking to jump into our bodies just as we fell asleep. Until this day, some people do not sweep their floors at night, lest they sweep dust on to their 'visiting' relatives. And all the world is a stage.

So, in search of the 'truth', His Story went looking for people who claimed they have come face to face with duppies, who have had some 'sightings', and the first stop was in St Thomas, that bounteous parish to the east of St Andrew, where there is water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. Just outside of Bath, we met a deacon who claimed he knew a thing or two about the supernatural, and were it not for his Christian background, he could be "big in this thing!"

"I was standing at my father's house, and gazing down the road, and see a man leaning on a tree, and I was excited about that, because I don't know what that was, so mi go in and call mi daddy ... straight away mi father come, and look and realise that it wasn't somebody natural and say I must get inside ... That was when I was about like 12," Deacon recalled.

Youth's 'spirit'

He was concerned, but not scared, and was to have many more such sightings, like one night when he and his wife were coming from church. It was a little while after a youth from their community was buried. At a certain point along the way, he said he saw the youth's 'spirit' walking towards his wife, and he pulled her out of his way. Back at home, he explained to his wife why he had to pull her closer to him.

Apart from seeing them, he claimed he also had the ability to sense when duppies were in his presence, and his penchant to discern such was a gift. "Anywhere at all that I am, and things no right, me know straight away ... If yuh even sick and mi come a yuh house ... and evil forces deh round the area, as mi come inna the house mi know, but sometimes you don't trouble these things because these things no concern yuh," he declared.

After saying he was divulging too much of his "secrets" his story took to the skies, for flying duppies flapped their wings right into the picture. These are the ones he called fallen angels. "Yes man, dem thing deh have two wing, man ... how yuh mean if mi see them ... at night man, and yuh hear them wing whistle like a dove," the ageing Maroon claimed.

The appearances can occur anywhere he said. "They can meet you face to face out there so, and stop yuh in the miggle road enuh, can come straight inna yuh house ... dem not hiding from yuh!"

Well, they are certainly not hiding from Deacon. They can be brazen as he said, just like the female duppy that once stood looking at a friend of his while he slept. "This guy was snoring and mi see this woman just walk up and when the woman come up ... a no dream mi a dream yuh nuh, mi say mi not sleeping, and the woman come up and rest her hand pon one of the column ... and a look pon the guy, soh straight away mi just wake up the guy ... and mi just rebuke har in the name of the Lord ... and chase har away." And, she "tek way herself".

So, what manner of man is Deacon? How has he come to be 'seeing' these apparitions, and you and I cannot? Yet, the burning questions that Deacon and others who claim to have that special 'gift' cannot, and perhaps never will be able to, answer, are: What exactly are duppies/ghosts? Where do they live? Are they aware of their existence? How can they exist without a body, a brain? Will they live forever? Do they age? Can they communicate with the living? And, how possible is it to see something that has no physical form? Oh, for a ghost of a chance!

paul.williams@gleanerjm.com