Was Ebenezer Scrooge really visited by 3 spirits?

Iron Woode

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 10, 1999
31,385
12,868
136
or did he suffer from a seriously guilty conscience and were the "spirits" really just a manifestation of that guilty conscience?

Discuss.
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
And what about poor Bill Murray, did he really live the same day over and over again for years on end?
 

Linflas

Lifer
Jan 30, 2001
15,395
78
91
Originally posted by: Iron Woode
or did he suffer from a seriously guilty conscience and were the "spirits" really just a manifestation of that guilty conscience?

Discuss.

As Dickens wrote the story he was in fact visited by 3 spirits. That was the whole point of the emphasis at the beginning about Marley having been "dead as a door-nail".
 

Iron Woode

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 10, 1999
31,385
12,868
136
Originally posted by: Bateluer
Wasn't it entirely fiction?
I am supposing that someone like scrooge exists and had an epiphany.

So therefore his spirits would be explained by a guilt complex.
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
Originally posted by: Iron Woode
Originally posted by: Bateluer
Wasn't it entirely fiction?
I am supposing that someone like scrooge exists and had an epiphany.

So therefore his spirits would be explained by a guilt complex.
If some such person existed, it tells you nothing about the experiences of this particular fictional character.

But if you randomly select a hundred stingy ghost-visited geezers you could use them to assign probabilities to find the most likely source of Scrooge's visitors, e.g.

Real Ghosts - 10%
Guilt - 40%
Mental Illness (schizophrenia, dementia, etc.) - 20%
Drug and Alcohol abuse - 30%

You would then be able to claim that statisically the most likely cause of Scrooge's visitors was guilt followed by booze or laudanum.

< dolby > SCIENCE! < /dolby >
 

Iron Woode

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 10, 1999
31,385
12,868
136
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Originally posted by: Iron Woode
Originally posted by: Bateluer
Wasn't it entirely fiction?
I am supposing that someone like scrooge exists and had an epiphany.

So therefore his spirits would be explained by a guilt complex.
If some such person existed, it tells you nothing about the experiences of this particular fictional character.

But if you randomly select a hundred stingy ghost-visited geezers you could use them to assign probabilities to find the most likely source of Scrooge's visitors, e.g.

Real Ghosts - 10%
Guilt - 40%
Mental Illness (schizophrenia, dementia, etc.) - 20%
Drug and Alcohol abuse - 30%

You would then be able to claim that statisically the most likely cause of Scrooge's visitors was guilt followed by booze or laudanum.

< dolby > SCIENCE! < /dolby >
I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.