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In fact, you deny things which you are afraid of. Your denial simply shows your fear. You say, “I don’t believe in ghosts.” If you really don’t believe in ghosts, then from where can the fear come, then why should you be afraid? For what? But your disbelief is nothing but a way of hiding your fear.

Remember: your belief is out of fear; your disbelief is out of fear. If you live in fear, whatsoever happens to you is going to happen out of fear. I see religious people going to the temples and the mosques and the churches out of fear, and I see atheists denying God out of fear. If I look deeply I don’t see any difference between the theist and the atheist. They are both the same – reacting differently, but the situation is the same, and the fear is the same. Their differences are only superficial. In each atheist the theist is hidden. And in each theist the atheist is hidden – that’s why it is so easy to convert them.

Have you heard the famous story of Khalil Gibran?

It happened in a city. There were two great philosophers – one was a theist, the other was an atheist – and the whole town was getting bored with them, because they were both continuously trying to convince the town. They puzzled everybody because they would roam around and talk to people, and one day a person would talk to one philosopher and would become a theist, and another day he would come across the atheist and he would convince him of atheism, and so on and so forth. The whole town was in great confusion. Their life became impossible. People want to live. They are not much concerned about atheism or theism. These are just their ways to deceive themselves. But the confusion was too much, and deceiving was impossible because the other was always there – and both were very convincing.

The people of the town decided, “Let these two discuss and debate and decide. Whosoever wins, we will be with him. We are always with the winner.” People are always with the winner. In Soviet Russia they are Communists and atheists; they have the power. In India they are all theists. Do you know that before 1917 in Soviet Russia everybody was as religious as they are in India? It was one of the most religious countries – and what happened? What kind of religion was that? What happened? The same country turned absolutely anti-religious! This country can turn absolutely anti-religious. Once Communists are in power, this country will turn absolutely anti-religious. This religion is all bogus. This is just fear. So whosoever is in power, people follow him. If atheists are in power, then they must be right. Power is right; power convinces people.

So in that town, people gathered and they said, “Tonight is a full-moon night and we will stay awake the whole night, and you both discuss and debate and decide. And whosoever wins, we will follow him. We always follow the victorious.” In India we have an ancient saying that truth always wins. In fact, the case is just vice versa: whatsoever wins becomes the truth. People are always with the winner. So it happened: that full-moon night, both philosophers debated and discussed. They were both very great logicians. But by the morning the town was in even more confusion: they had convinced each other, so the atheist became the theist and the theist became the atheist. But the trouble continued.

These are not really two different things.

You say: [I don’t believe in ghosts…]

You believe; you are simply trying to deceive yourself – hence the fear. You know that when you are alone in the night they are there. But you are unnecessarily afraid of poor ghosts. Compared to human beings, they are very innocent people. Have you ever heard of any ghost turning into an Adolf Hitler, or Genghis Khan or Tamerlane? Have you ever heard of ghosts creating Hiroshima, Nagasaki, preparing for the Third World War? Have you ever heard of ghosts doing any harm? Their harm, if sometimes you hear some stories, is more or less trivial – small things.

I have heard about one young ghost…
The young ghost got very scared when his friends told him too many human stories.

And I have also heard…
Then there was the ghost who did not believe in people.

They are also afraid of you! And you say you are afraid that when you are alone in the night: [I feel that they are there and they want to speak to me…]

I have also heard…
The father ghost told his son, “Spook only when you are spoken to.”

Don’t be worried. They are already very worried; they are afraid of you. Ghosts are simple people, very simple. In fact, they are the same people as you; they just don’t have bodies so they can’t do much harm.

But the fear does not come from ghosts. Fear is there, and out of fear come the ghosts. You are afraid and you would like to project your fear somewhere or other – because to be afraid without any reason to be afraid makes people more frightened. Just to be afraid will be too much; you will not be able to bear it. You need something to be afraid of. So people create their ghosts.

In America they are afraid of Communists. In Russia they are afraid of capitalists, and so on and so forth. People create their ghosts. Hindus are afraid of Mohammedans; Mohammedans are afraid of Hindus. Everybody is afraid of everybody else. Man is afraid of woman; the woman is afraid of man. Children are afraid of their parents, and parents are very deeply afraid of their children. Students are afraid of their teachers, and teachers are very much afraid and trembling inside because of their students.

It is fear, fear is there. And to know fear in its purity is to get beyond it. So don’t bother about ghosts. If somebody convinces you there are no ghosts, or somebody convinces you that they are very beautiful people, that won’t solve the problem. You will simply shift your fear onto something else. Fear will remain; you will find another cause.

It makes no difference. Down the ages man has been changing his philosophy, the causes, but basically human reality remains the same. For example, in the past people were afraid of ghosts; they used to become possessed by ghosts. Jesus relieved many people of ghosts. Then philosophies changed. Sigmund Freud created new ghosts, new explanations of the same fear: schizophrenia, paranoia – new explanations, new dressings, but the same old problems.

First people were possessed by ghosts – and it was easier, those ghosts were not so difficult. Even a simple man like Jesus relieved many people just by a single touch. Those ghosts were simple. The ghosts that Sigmund Freud has created are very difficult: you have to lie down on a couch for five years, and then you get up and all the ghosts get up with you! And again you will be lying on another couch with some other psychoanalyst… and the same story will be repeated again and again. Slowly, slowly, if you don’t have much money, understanding will arise that one has to live with these ghosts. There is no point, why not enjoy them?But if you have money then there is a great problem; then the understanding will never arise. Understanding never arises in rich people because they can afford it. Understanding arises only in poor people because they can’t afford it, they have to understand. They are forced to understand. That’s why psychoanalysis is not a business in poor countries. Who can afford lying down on a couch for five years talking nonsense to a stupid person looking at you? Nothing happens. But in the West people have money and time – and what to do with it?

And communication has become so impossible. Nobody wants to talk to you, so you have professional listeners. They are the psychoanalysts: they are professional listeners: you pay for them; you talk and they listen. You feel good. At least you have one audience, and a very expert one. And he listens very attentively; at least he shows that he is listening attentively. It feels good – at least there is one person who understands you, listens to you, pays attention to all the rubbish that you are talking. You feel good, enhanced; your ego feels good. But the problem remains where it was. It doesn’t change.

The problem can only be changed if you understand it directly, immediately. Fear is there. Don’t bring any cause as to why the fear is there – of ghosts, of illness, of disease, of old age, of being fat, of falling in love, of being killed, or of being a murderer. Listening to thousands of people, I have come to see all kinds of fears. Somebody is afraid that if he does not control himself enough he will commit suicide. Now that fear is there. Somebody is afraid that if he doesn’t control himself he will kill somebody. Somebody is afraid that he is becoming old, somebody is afraid that he is getting fat, or she is getting fat – people are afraid of a thousand and one things. If you are not getting fat, you are afraid maybe you are getting thin. One has to be afraid. It is very difficult to find a person who is not afraid of something or other.

So, to me, those things are irrelevant. Fear is the basic thing. Why is man afraid? Don’t go into reasons and causes and explanations. Go directly into the fear. So the next time you are alone in the room, just close the eyes and go into your fear. Don’t bother about ghosts, just go into the fear. Tremble if trembling comes, but don’t find any explanation that you are trembling because of the ghosts. That is just an explanation to explain away the fear. Just go into trembling, tremble for no reason at all. If you feel like screaming, scream for no reason at all – but go into the fear itself; don’t bring anything else in-between you and the fear. That is a trick of the mind. And if you can go deep down into the fear, you will be surprised: the deeper you go, the more and more fear dissipates, disappears. When you touch the very core, the very bottom core of it, it has disappeared. You are simply there, utterly silent. There is no ghost there, even you are not there. All is silent, utterly silent, absolutely silent.

That silence is joy, that silence is fearlessness.