* * * This message was from Doug Freyburger to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.m * * *
         * * * and has been forwarded to you by Lord Time * * *         
            -----------------------------------------------             

{at}MSGID: 
{at}REPLY:
<4nm53cFb14a
Methuselah Jones wrote:
> Doug Freyburger wrote:
>
> > I think it predates the arrival of Christianity.  If the god(desse)s
> > "exist" they sure don't arrive in human bodies.  So if
they "exist"
> > they must have some other nature.  Spirits.
>
> Definitely, the concept of body = hindrance is a very primal idea, and is
> present in some form or another, to a greater or lesser degree, in most
> spiritual philosophies.

Bodies die in ways that are quite obvious.  Spirits, to the
extent they can be detected at all, seem to go on for
generation after generation.  So I don't think the idea is
body=hindrance.  I think the idea is body=mortal,
spirit=not.  Whether immortality is all it's cracked up to
be was nicely addressed by Tolkein but I'm not aware of
ancient lore that addresses it that way.

Folks see ghosts and decide they are the spirits of dead
ancestors.  That's a progression by an individual from
having a body to not having a body and it isn't automatically
a good thing.  The well known spirits (the various pagan
pantheons) were viewed as spirits that had acheived
not-having-a-body to be a good thing.  Maybe by it being
their natural form, maybe by acheiving it.  And so the SF
theme of the Vorlons is a merger of ghost stories, ancient
pagan pantheons, a view of progress as a never ending
sequence.
                                                                           
                             
--- SBBSecho 2.11-Win32