Ghosts are simply a mechanism people use to deal with death, says David Cronenberg, who has directed several horror films. Surprisingly, he doesn't believe in an afterlife but says after his father died, he felt a presence. Cronenberg attributes this to familiarity — a father's words and mannerisms imbedded in his son’s nervous system. Writers Margaret Atwood and Graham Gibson discuss ghosts as psychological phenomena in literature.

Atwood explains, "The ghost story is a way of examining the self coming to terms with the self."

• One type of ghost parapsychologists call an "apparition of the dead" appears to the grieving. The spectres usually come to relatives shortly after the death to console or indicate they will be a guardian spirit.
• "Crisis apparitions" appear in visions to tell loved ones they have died.

• "Deathbed apparitions" appear as divinities or dead loved ones to dying people in their last moments of life.
• "Reciprocal apparitions" appear in hauntings where the spectre and the living person experience each other simultaneously, often involving an out of body experience.

Medium: Radio
Program: IDEAS
Broadcast Date: Oct. 31, 1983
Narrator: Alberto Manguel
Guest(s): Margaret Atwood, David Cronenberg, Graham Gibson
Duration: 3:03