It’s that time of year: houses are decked out with spooky decorations, treats are laid out for trick-or-treaters, and children make or buy their costumes for Halloween night. According to many scholars, Halloween hearkens back to early pagan and Christian festivals, when ghosts of the dead were thought to roam the streets and gifts were laid out to pacify these souls, as well as to ensure a good crop the coming year. But what about today, when a holiday celebrating all things scary and ghoulish has become almost as popular as Christmas and Easter? Is Halloween a good thing?

Mary Baker Eddy tells us in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures that “… children should be assured that their fears are groundless, that ghosts are not realities, but traditional beliefs, erroneous and man-made” (p. 352). She goes on to state that “the age has not wholly outlived the sense of ghostly beliefs. It still holds them more or less,” before assuring us that “when we learn that error is not real, we shall be ready for progress, ‘forgetting those things which are behind’ ” (p. 353).

It is obvious that children should not be taught that ghosts are real, or something to be feared (although there’s probably nothing wrong with silly Halloween decorations!)—but what about the ghosts that adults entertain? The memories of painful experiences and stressful situations; the “what ifs,” the “if onlys,” the “shoulda, coulda, but didn’ts” of adult life that may haunt and rob us of our peace of mind?

Mrs. Eddy touches on this point, too, in her comments about the value of human history in Retrospection and Introspection: “Mere historic incidents and personal events are frivolous and of no moment, unless they illustrate the ethics of Truth. To this end, but only to this end, such narrations may be admissible and advisable; but if spiritual conclusions are separated from their premises, the nexus is lost, and the argument, with its rightful conclusions, becomes correspondingly obscure. The human history needs to be revised, and the material record expunged” (p. 21–22).

For years I had dreams about stressful experiences, from everyday things like not finding a uniform item when trying to make a formation in my Naval Academy days to the more painful rehashes of bad decisions or experiences. I found that not only these dreams but memories of past failures, remorse of past sins, and pain of past injustices would haunt me, even though they were long gone.

We can celebrate Halloween by prayerfully expunging the ghosts of bad dreams and bad memories.

A few years ago, I found myself actually praying in my dreams during these nightmares. Then I started praying about those painful waking memories of past mistakes, failures, losses, and injustices as they came to my thought. As I turned from the bad memories to the standpoint of “perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration” (Science and Health, p. 259), I knew that neither God nor I as God’s expression could be a victim or suffer from injustice or loss. I could forgive myself for my own mistakes and failures, as Jesus forgave others, and I could also forgive those who had wronged me on the same basis. I knew that man’s true identity as God’s image and likeness could not be harmed from these past events. As I prayed the haunting pain and remorse began to fade from my consciousness. Since we see that consciousness determines experience in Christian Science, I found—and still find—that expunging those negative dreams and memories gives me a greater peace of mind whether asleep or awake. 

Recently, a resident of the rehab facility I visit as a Christian Science chaplain told me he was having dreams of the devil, disguised as an old man, telling him he was going to die. The man wanted to know if this was a prophecy of his death. We prayed about it together, recognizing that “ghosts” in any form don’t come from God and can’t have power over us. He put his foot down, so to speak, in prayer, and when the dream came again, he firmly told the “devil” to leave. He hasn’t had the dream of death or the devil since.

Today, Christian Scientists can celebrate Halloween by prayerfully expunging the ghosts of bad dreams and bad memories—as well as other worn-out conceptions relating to old age, heredity, gender, and race. Since God cannot suffer from a bad dream, a painful memory, or a false belief, neither can we as His image and likeness. In fact, Halloween can be a perfect reminder to prepare our thought for Thanksgiving by giving gratitude that those ghosts can no longer haunt us! And we can prepare for Christmas and Easter, too, by purifying our thought for the birth and resurrection of Christ in our hearts.