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How to Believe Ghost Stories
如何相信鬼故事
Your aunt says she was unable to sleep a wink because her Airbnb on the Cape was haunted by a pirate. Your uncle, who survived a heart attack, claims to have a new zeal for life after talking with his deceased father in heaven. Does believing their stories mean believing in ghosts? No, it doesn’t. Because a story can be true in different ways.
你姑姑说她睡不着觉，因为她在好望角的爱彼迎住宿上有海盗出没。你的叔叔在一次心脏病发作中幸存下来，在与他已故的父亲在天堂交谈后，他声称对生活有了新的热情。相信他们的故事意味着相信鬼魂吗？不，不是的。因为一个故事可以用不同的方式让人信以为真。
Now is the time for ghost stories—and not just the kind intended to scare the kids at night. It’s also the perfect moment to reconsider how we think about other seemingly unexplainable tales. If someone tells you they’ve seen a ghost—or had a near-death experience (NDE) in which they departed their corporeal self—resist the urge to scoff. There’s a difference between ghost stories that are accurate and ones that are real.
现在是讲鬼故事的时候了——而且不仅仅是那种为了在晚上吓唬孩子的故事。这也是重新思考我们如何看待其他看似无法解释的故事的绝佳时机。如果有人告诉你他们看到了鬼，或者有过濒死体验（NDE），在濒死体验中他们离开了自己的肉体，要克制嘲笑的冲动。准确的鬼故事和真实的鬼故事是有区别的。
Unlike the scary stories we like to tell in the dark, first-person reports of ghost sightings warrant a presumption of truth. Unless you have good reason to think otherwise, trust that your aunt really did see a specter and that your uncle really did hear his dad’s voice. The fact that they saw and heard these things helps explain why she’s so tired and he’s so energized. And rather than rolling our eyes at stories that sound unexplainable, we can accept the profundity of these experiences and respect their sincerity without being committed to their accuracy.
与我们喜欢在黑暗中讲述的恐怖故事不同，第一人称目击鬼魂的报道需要作一个对真相的假设。除非你有充分的理由不这么认为，否则你要相信你的姑姑真的看到了幽灵，你叔叔真的听到了他父亲的声音。他们的所见所闻有助于解释为什么她如此疲惫，而他如此精力充沛。与其对听起来难以解释的故事翻白眼，我们可以接受这些经历的深刻性，尊重它们的真诚，而不必保证它们的准确性。
