Ghosts of the dead appear in 101 belief systems on 5 continents. Half blame a bad death or missing rites, and the dead come back on set days of the year.
Our dataset has 149 belief systems that record the ghosts and spirits of this world, 570 kinds in all, in 7 types: 130 demons, 129 ghosts of the dead, 107 nature spirits, 68 monsters, 63 guardians, 57 ancestor spirits and 16 tricksters. Counting every kind the sources describe as the spirit or corpse of someone who has died, ancestors included, gives 181 kinds in 101 belief systems on all 5 continents, and 50 of those give the cause as an unnatural death, or having no one to make offerings and funeral rites left undone.
As for whether the dead can see us, all 34 belief systems with data on this say contact is possible in one way or another. The most common way is that the dead come back on set days of the year, in 19 of them. And on whether we'll meet again, 24 say yes, but most mean rejoining the ancestors as a group. Only a few talk about meeting one particular loved one.
Thai ghosts and the peta
Our data lists 12 kinds of Thai ghost: the pop, the krasue, the krahang, the phi tai hong, Mae Nak, Nang Takhian, the phi phrai, the Phra Phum land guardian, the peta, Nang Tani, the phi kong koi and the phi kala yak, a treasure guardian. A phi tai hong is someone who died suddenly and unnaturally, shot, drowned or hit by a car. It tends to stay at the place of death, and if it died in a rage it is dangerous. The protection the source gives is keeping the 5 precepts, since the ghost is believed to slip only into people who don't. Mae Nak died in childbirth with the baby still inside her, and today she has a shrine at Wat Mahabut. The phi phrai is a village girl who drowned and pulls people under because she wants company.
The peta is the ghost Thais talk about most in moral terms. Theravada Buddhism says petas come from heavy karma, such as killing animals, harming one's parents or monks, or greed. One kind beats its own head with a red-hot iron hammer without end, because in a past life it struck its parents on the head. Another, the paradattupajivika peta, lives on merit that others dedicate to it; without that it must eat its own blood and pus. The Tirokudda Sutta says petas come back and stand outside the walls of their old homes, at crossroads and by the doors. Merit given to the monks and dedicated to them reaches them the way rainwater runs from high ground to low, but weeping does the dead no good.
The traditions around Thailand also set days when the petas come back. Sat Duean Sip in the South holds that ancestors stuck in hell are let out to ask their descendants for merit from the 1st to the 15th day of the waning moon of the 10th month. In Laos and Isan, Yama is said to open the hells over the same period. In Cambodia, the Pchum Ben festival tells that Yama opens the gates of hell for 15 days, and if a peta searches 7 temples for merit from its descendants and finds none, it curses them.
Where the world's ghosts come from
One note first: traditions with large written canons, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, the Abrahamic religions and Chinese religion, come with far more detail than the rest. A belief system with no ghosts in our data doesn't mean it has none, only that the sources we checked didn't record them. The answers to where ghosts come from fall into 4 broad groups.
The first is a bad death, found in 33 belief systems, most of them in Asia. Japan has the yūrei, born of a sudden or violent death, and the onryō, who died in anger and brings disaster and plague. Japan's remedy is to worship and soothe them until they become goryō, protectors. Korea has the wongwi, the ghost of an unjust death. Latvians believe someone who was killed must wander as a lietuvēns until the end of their allotted lifespan, choking people and cattle at night. The Miskito, in the Americas, have the Latawira, spirits of violent deaths that linger where they died and cause accidents.
Within this group, the ghost of a woman who died pregnant turns up in 5 belief systems. Besides Mae Nak, the Aztecs had the Cihuateteo, women who died in childbirth and haunted the crossroads at night. Java and Sunda have the kuntilanak, so pregnant women in Java carry a nail, knife or scissors. Malay folk belief has the pontianak and the langsuir, and the way to subdue one is to drive a nail into the back of her neck, which turns her into a human woman.
Another clear subgroup is the ghost of the drowned, found in 6 belief systems. 5 of them are in Asia and tell of ghosts that pull or lure people into the water; the sixth is the Slavic rusalka. Besides the Thai phi phrai, Vietnam has the Ma da, which grabs legs or tips boats so that it can be reborn. China has the water ghost that must “catch a substitute,” and Korea has a water ghost that lures people in with its voice.
The second group is the dead nobody feeds, or whose rites were never finished, found in 28 belief systems. The Sumerians believed that someone who died without descendants to pour libations through the clay pipe would come back to haunt the living. The Greeks said the unburied could not cross into the underworld. In Haitian Vodou, the dead whose relatives mourn them improperly come back complaining of hunger, cold and damp and asking for offerings. The Zulu must perform ukubuyisa to bring a dead person's shade home, or it becomes an evil spirit. And the Chinese source on the kinless dead, the “ho hia ti” of Thai-Chinese households, says that in essence they are no different from ancestor spirits; the only difference is whether anyone worships them.
The third group isn't the dead at all. The krasue, the head that flies at night trailing its entrails like a lantern, has relatives in 8 more belief systems across Southeast Asia: Vietnam's ma lai, Bali's leyak, the Philippine manananggal, the Malay penanggalan, the Dayak kuyang and the Khmer ahp, with Vietnam and the Philippines contributing 2 belief systems each. Wherever the source gives an origin, it is a living person, usually a woman who practises sorcery, and most accounts have them hunting women in childbirth or newborns. The Balinese say a leyak is an ordinary person by day, and Malays plant pineapples under the house to keep the penanggalan away.
The last group is the spirits of place: 107 kinds of nature spirit and 63 kinds of guardian. Thailand's Nang Takhian must be asked permission with offerings before her tree is cut for a boat or a house. The Philippines has the kapre, a cigar-smoking giant in the trees, mischievous but harmless until his tree is felled. Malays leave offerings for the jembalang tanah whenever new land is opened, and Cambodians build shrines to the neak ta under big trees.
Wandering or bound to a place?
The short answer: die in the wrong place and you stay there; have no one to send you off and you wander. 35 kinds of ghost of the dead are said to be bound to a place. The sources give a cause for 16 of them, and 13 of those died unnaturally: 6 violent deaths, 5 drownings and 2 deaths in childbirth. These ghosts stay where they died or in the water. The Burmese nat sein is someone who died in an accident or by violence and is then worshipped as a nat at a shrine; legend says King Mindon fell ill after ordering a shrine torn down. The ancient Romans believed the lemures, spirits of the violently dead, haunted the house, so during the Lemuria festival in May people threw black beans at midnight and banged bronze pots to drive them out.
20 kinds of ghost of the dead are said to wander. The sources give a cause for 16, and 12 of them wander because no one made offerings or performed the rites. The Toraja call the dead whose funeral was left incomplete bombo, wandering spirits who bring misfortune on the family; the remedy is to complete the Rambu Solo rite. The Marapu of Sumba say the spirits of those not yet given their rites drift about bringing harm to relatives because they feel neglected, until the Patiingu rite is held. The Shona tell of the shave, spirits of strangers who died far from home and wander until they find a human body to possess.
If the dead have descendants to look after them, they usually stay with the family. 29 kinds of ghost of the dead follow a person or a lineage, and 16 of them are ancestors who follow and protect their descendants. For another 93 kinds of ghost of the dead, the sources do not say where they stay, so this picture comes only from the ghosts the sources describe in detail.
Why ghosts haunt, and what they want
Counting one belief system as one voice, the 101 belief systems with ghosts of the dead give two main reasons why the dead become ghosts. The first is dying unnaturally, through violence, drowning or childbirth, found in 33 belief systems. The second is having no one to make offerings, or an incomplete funeral, in 28. After those come grudges or unjust death in 11, the person's own sins in 10, and dying unmarried or as a child in 8. But for 92 of the 181 kinds of ghost of the dead, the sources give no cause at all.
Each cause haunts for its own reasons. China's ghosts without kin have no one to light incense for them, so they pester people to be fed. The Korean gwishin stays on earth because it must finish taking revenge or caring for a loved one first, so Koreans scatter salt or beans to keep it out of the house. Korea's maiden ghost is a woman of marriageable age who died unmarried; she tends to latch onto women of the same age and harm them. The Tamils have the reverse case: women who died young or before marriage are worshipped as virgin goddesses out of the community's guilt and pity, and the source does not say they harm anyone.
As for what ghosts want, the sources say so for 74 kinds of ghost of the dead. 30 want food, incense, offerings or merit; 10 want a funeral, a burial or a way home; another 10 want someone to take their place or to take someone with them; 10 want respect or for rules to be kept; 8 want human blood, flesh or souls; and only 2 want revenge, such as the Korean wongwi, which seeks revenge on its killer. So most ghosts in our data haunt because they lack something the living should give them, more than to take revenge.
The Toraja deal with this before a ghost can even form. Someone who has died but not yet had the Rambu Solo rite is called tomakula; makula means hot or sick. The family still feeds them rice, water, cigarettes and betel, caring for them like a living person, and they are not counted as truly dead until the great rite draws near.
Are there good ghosts? How ghosts differ from guardian spirits
Yes, but almost all of them are ancestors. 36 kinds of ghost of the dead are kind, or both kind and harmful; 27 of them are ancestor spirits, and 15 follow and protect their descendants. Counted by belief system, 28 of the 101 with ghosts of the dead have at least one kindly ghost of the dead. The Zulu amadlozi are relatives who have died and can bring either blessings or illness, so their descendants sacrifice cattle and burn impepho. Of the 89 harmful kinds of ghost of the dead, the sources give a cause for 64, and the picture that emerges is of people who died the wrong way or had no one to look after them.
There are kindly ghosts that are not exactly ancestors, too. In Taiwan, seriously ill patients set up an incense table near the hospital when they are admitted and discharged, to honour the wandering ghosts of those who died there before, called the hospital lords, and thank them for their protection. The Javanese have Wewe Gombel, a ghost who takes children neglected by their parents without harming them and returns them once the parents repent, and the danyang, the spirit of the village founder who first cleared the forest, whom the source says disturbs no one and only protects the villagers.
As for guardian spirits of place, in this data the spirits that stay in one place, guardians and nature spirits together, number 128 kinds, and 115 of them are not dead people: they are the owners of trees, mountains, water or houses. Their attitude differs too. Ghosts in the "ghost of the dead" category are harmful in 85 kinds and kind in just 1, while guardian spirits are kind in 29, harmful in 23 and both in 15. Guardian spirits turn harmful when their territory is violated, by cutting trees, clearing land or over-hunting, and they want permission, seasonal offerings and respect, whereas ghosts of the dead want food, incense, a funeral or someone to take their place. Burma offers a clear example: the forest and mountain nats punish anyone who destroys large trees.
The line is not always sharp. The Javanese danyang and the Khmer neak ta are ancestors or heroes who became guardian spirits of place, and Khmer communities hold a yearly feast for the neak ta. On the Thai side, the phra phum chao thi is classed as a guardian of the place, not a ghost of the dead, and the Thai source notes that the North does not favour spirit-house shrines for the phra phum, because the ancestral phi pu ya already protect the household.
Can the dead see us?
Among the belief systems that answer this, the most common way the dead come back to us is on set days of the year, in 19 of them. Hindus have Pitru Paksha, when the ancestors are believed to leave the world of the fathers and stay at their descendants' homes for a month; if crows eat the offering, the ancestors have accepted it. Japan has Obon. Bali has Galungan, when the ancestors come down to their families for 10 days. Zoroastrians have 10 days and 10 nights before Nowruz, when the fravashi of the dead return home. The Romans said that once, when the Parentalia was neglected, the ancestral ghosts came out howling through the streets of Rome. And in Bolivia, All Saints' welcomes the souls at noon on 1 November and sends them back on the 2nd.
The second way is dreams, in 10 belief systems. In Homer's Iliad the ghost of Patroclus comes to Achilles in a dream, with the same face, voice and clothes he had in life, and asks to be buried. The Ksitigarbha Sutra of Chinese Buddhism says that if you dream of ghosts weeping, they are relatives from past lives still trapped in the lower realms asking for help, and you should chant the sutra 3 or 7 times. Aboriginal Australians say dead relatives appear in dreams and sometimes help heal a dreamer in pain. On the Thai side, though, the sources we checked found nothing on the dead visiting in dreams in folk belief, and the commentary that lists 4 causes of dreams doesn't include it.
Whether the dead know what happens to us is something several religions argue about among themselves. The Talmud goes back and forth through its stories and concludes along the way that the dead “know their own pain, but not the pain of others.” In Islam, Ibn Umar reports the Prophet telling the dead at the well of Badr that the living hear no better than they do, but Aisha objects that the Prophet said they “know,” not that they “hear.” Catholics teach that the saints intercede for the living but forbid calling up the dead, while Luther wrote early on that the dead are asleep and aware of nothing. Theravada Buddhism says relatives reborn as petas are aware of it, and rejoice, when we make merit for them.
Will we meet again?
24 belief systems say yes, but read closely, most mean rejoining the ancestors as a whole line. Some Tai and Lao traditions say the khwan travels back to the city of the thaen to join the ancestors. The Akan go back to their maternal ancestors at Asamando. Māori spirits travel to Cape Reinga and on to join the ancestors in Hawaiki. Few speak of particular people. In the Samajivi Sutta the Buddha tells Nakulapita and Nakulamata that a husband and wife equal in faith, virtue, generosity and wisdom will meet both in this life and the next. Qur'an 52:21 says believers will have their believing offspring join them, and Paul comforts the grieving by saying the living will be caught up together with those who have fallen asleep.
Some stories tell of trying and failing. In the Kojiki, Izanagi follows his dead wife Izanami down to Yomi but breaks a taboo, has to flee, and seals the way with a great boulder. As for the Vietnamese idiom that calls dying going to join one's grandparents, the source itself says this is evidence at the level of language, not a teaching that people really meet.
What they really share
Put every continent together and the ghost of the dead, almost everywhere, is a dead person who is missing something from the living: merit no one dedicated, food no one offered, a rite no one performed, or a death that came too soon. So the remedies look alike around the world. The Thai peta waits for merit. China's kinless ghosts get three-walled shrines and offerings in the seventh month. The Dayak hold the Tiwah to send the soul on to Lewu Tatau. And the Sakha (Yakut) once shut the spirits of the untimely dead into birch-bark vessels on the roof beam and kept feeding them.
Not what you might expect
The krasue and the pop, the ghosts Thais fear most, aren't in the ghosts-of-the-dead category at all. Both are living people who dabble in magic, and anthropologists explain the pop as a mechanism of distrust within a community: whoever is accused gets driven out of the village. Elsewhere, people fear ghosts in other ways. The Tao (Yami) hold that every disaster comes from the anito, so at funerals they wear rattan helmets and armour and carry swords. Hawaiians who meet the night marchers must lie face down and keep still. And the Taíno had the simplest ghost test of all: touch the belly, because the dead have no navel.
Back home
Next time Sat Thai, the Chinese Ghost Festival or Sat Duean Sip comes round, you'll be doing what at least 19 belief systems in our data also do: keeping one day of the year open for the dead to come home, with something ready for them, whether rice, merit, or just saying their name.
Frequently asked
What is a peta, and what makes someone one?
Theravada Buddhism says petas come from heavy karma such as killing animals, harming one's parents or monks, or greed. Thai belief says someone who struck their parents on the head is reborn as a peta that beats its own head with a red-hot iron hammer. In our data petas appear in 6 belief systems, all in Asia.
How is a peta different from an asurakaya?
Khmer belief says the asurakaya is always hungry and thirsty like a peta, but bigger and longer-lived. Theravada Buddhism tells that the asuras once lived in the Tavatimsa heaven until, drunk, they were thrown down from Mount Meru by Sakka.
How many kinds of Thai ghost are there?
Our data has 12: the pop, krasue, krahang, phi tai hong, Mae Nak, Nang Takhian, phi phrai, the Phra Phum land guardian, the peta, Nang Tani, the phi kong koi and the phi kala yak. Of these, only the phi tai hong, Mae Nak, the phi phrai, the peta and the phi kala yak are ghosts of the dead.
Do the dead really visit in dreams?
10 belief systems in our data describe the dead coming through dreams, among them Chinese Buddhism, ancient Greece, Islam and Aboriginal Australia. But the Thai sources we checked found nothing on this in folk belief, and the commentary that lists 4 causes of dreams doesn't include the dead.
Will I see the people I love again after death?
24 belief systems say yes, but most mean joining the ancestors. Theravada Buddhism speaks only of spouses equal in faith, virtue, generosity and wisdom, while Islam speaks of believing offspring joining their parents.
Why do ghosts haunt people?
In our data, most ghosts haunt because they lack something. Of the 74 kinds of ghost of the dead whose wants the sources record, 30 want food, incense, offerings or merit and 10 want a funeral; only 2 want revenge. China's ghosts without kin are a clear example: no one lights incense for them, so they pester people to be fed.
Which ghost is the kindest?
Of the kindly ghosts of the dead in our data, 27 of 36 kinds are ancestor spirits. Among those that are not exactly ancestors, Taiwan's hospital lords are a clear example: patients set up incense tables to thank them for protection. The Javanese danyang, the spirit of a village founder, is described by the source as only protecting the villagers.
Are household ghosts the same as guardian spirits of place?
No. In the Lao and Isan spirit-belief source, the phi huean is the ancestral spirit of the house, worshipped at a spirit shrine. The phra phum chao thi is classed as a guardian of the place, not a ghost of the dead, and is honoured with garlands, flowers and food. The Thai source also notes that the North does not favour phra phum shrines because the ancestral phi pu ya already protect the household.
Sources for the traditions cited (71)
All 149 traditions
Asia (70) · Theravada Buddhism (Thai) · Mahayana / Chinese Buddhism · Tibetan Buddhism · Hinduism (Vedic / Puranic) · Jainism · Daoism and the Chinese celestial/underworld bureaucracy · Japanese folk religion (Shinto realms + Buddhist-syncretic afterlife layer) · Mesopotamia (Sumerian / Babylonian) · Ancient Greece · Zoroastrianism · Thai cosmology: Traiphum Phra Ruang (31 planes) + the Thai spirit (phi) world · Korean shamanism (Musok) — Korean-language sources · Vietnamese folk religion / ancestor worship (Đạo Ông Bà) · Philippine Anitism (Tagalog / Visayan) · Balinese Hinduism (Agama Hindu Dharma) · Kazakh & Kyrgyz Tengri beliefs · Bon (Tibet) · Religion of the state of Chu · Proto-Indo-European religion (reconstructed) · Religion of the Shang dynasty · Religion of the Western Zhou · Ancient Iranian religion (Achaemenid state and pre-Zoroastrian layer) · Scythian and Saka religion · Hurrian religion · Phoenician religion (Levantine city-states) · Sumerian religion · Early Korean state religion (Goguryeo & Silla) · Göktürk (Türk Khaganate) religion · Palmyrene religion · Xiongnu religion · Southern Chinese folk religion (Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese; incl. Thai-Chinese practice) · Confucianism (Ru / Rujiao) · Hakka folk religion · Ryukyuan religion (Ryūkyū Shintō) · Ainu religion (Japanese sources) · Dongba (Naxi religion) · Atayal traditional religion — Utux and Gaga · Seediq and Truku traditional religion — Utux and Gaya · Amis (Pangcah) traditional religion — Kawas · Tao (Yami) traditional religion · Tengrism — Turkic/Mongol and Sayan-Altai layers (Russian sources) · Buryat shamanism · Evenki shamanism · Nanai (Hezhe) shamanism · Pre-Islamic Arabian religion (Hijaz and central/northern Arabia) · Georgian pre-Christian religion (Iberian state cult and highland folk religion) · Batak religion / Ugamo Malim (Parmalim), North Sumatra · Bugis native religion: Tolotang (Towani Tolotang) and the La Galigo cosmos · Burmese nat worship (folk religion of Myanmar) · Đạo Mẫu (Vietnamese Mother Goddess religion, Tứ phủ) · Kaharingan (Dayak religion of Borneo; afterlife data mainly Ngaju) · Dusun (Kadazan-Dusun) traditional religion — Sabah, with the Dusun of Brunei · Hmong traditional religion (kev dab qhuas) · Iban religion (Pengarap Iban / adat), Sarawak and West Kalimantan · Kejawèn (Javanese religion / kebatinan) · Kalash religion (Chitral, Pakistan) · Karen animist layer (37 k'la souls, rice spirit) · Khmer folk religion (neak ta spirits, Pchum Ben, rice mother) · Lao / Isan spirit religion (Satsana Phi, the phi and thaen cults) · Malay folk belief (bomoh/pawang, semangat, hantu, Main Puteri) · Maldivian folk belief (fanditha magic, jinni and sea spirits; pre-Islamic layer) · Marapu (native religion of Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara) · Tagalog and Visayan native religion from Tagalog/Cebuano sources (anito, Bathala, babaylan) · Sarna dharma (Santal, Munda, Ho, Oraon … of the Chota Nagpur plateau) · Sinhala folk religion (devala gods, the Four Warrant Gods, yakku and tovil) · Sukhothai-era spirit cult (Phra Khaphung Phi, 13th–14th c.) · Sunda Wiwitan (Sundanese native religion; Kanekes/Baduy and others) · Tamil village (folk) deities — nattar teyvam / siru teyvam, hero stones · Timorese traditional religion (lulik, uma lulik, ancestor cult) · Aluk Todolo (Toraja ancestral religion, South Sulawesi)
Africa (18) · Ancient Egypt · Yoruba religion (Ìṣẹ̀ṣe) · Akan religion · Zulu traditional religion · Igbo religion (Ọdịnanị) · West African Vodún (Fon, Ewe, Gun) · Dogon religion · Kongo religion · Swazi traditional religion · Shona traditional religion · Malagasy traditional religion (Fomba Gasy / fivavahana nentim-paharazana) · San religion · Dinka traditional religion · Nuer traditional religion · Lugbara traditional religion · Acholi traditional religion (Jok) · Bambara (Bamana) traditional religion · Living Amazigh / Maghrebi folk religion (Yennayer, Tislit n Anzar, saints' shrines, jnun)
Europe (26) · Ancient Greece · Ancient Rome · Norse · Proto-Indo-European religion (reconstructed) · Scythian and Saka religion · Göktürk (Türk Khaganate) religion · Xiongnu religion · Ainu religion (Japanese sources) · Tengrism — Turkic/Mongol and Sayan-Altai layers (Russian sources) · Buryat shamanism · Tuvan shamanism · Sakha (Yakut) traditional religion — Aiyy · Evenki shamanism · Nanai (Hezhe) shamanism · Ob-Ugrian (Khanty and Mansi) traditional religion · Slavic paganism (East, West and South Slavs) · Latvian traditional religion (incl. modern Dievturība) · Lithuanian traditional religion (incl. modern Romuva) · Finnish and Karelian traditional religion (Kalevala tradition) · Sámi traditional religion · Hungarian pre-Christian religion and táltos folk belief · Irish (Gaelic) pre-Christian religion and mythology · Welsh (Brythonic) pre-Christian religion and mythology · Basque traditional religion and mythology · Etruscan religion · Romanian folk religion and folklore
Americas (38) · Aztec (Mexica / Nahua) religion · Maya religion (K'iche', Yucatec and other Maya) · Inca / Andean · Lakota · Candomblé · Umbanda · Santería (Regla de Ocha / Lucumí) · Haitian Vodou · Taíno religion · Quechua (Andean) religion · Aymara religion · Kogi religion · Mapuche religion · Palo Monte (Regla de Palo / Palo Mayombe) · Revival Zion (Zion Revivalism) · Kumina · Winti · Cult of María Lionza (Venezuelan espiritismo) · Dominican Vudú (Las 21 Divisiones) · Guna (Dule) religion — Ibeorgun · Bribri religion · Miskito traditional religion · Jumbie / duppy belief (anglophone Caribbean folk belief) · Pipil (Nahua of El Salvador) religion · Lenca religion · Guaraní religion (Mbyá, Avá/Ñandeva, Paĩ Tavyterã/Kaiowá) · Tupi / Tupinambá religion (coastal Brazil) · Shipibo-Konibo cosmology · Qom (Toba) religion of the Gran Chaco · Wayuu religion (La Guajira) · Navajo (Diné) traditional religion · Hopi religion · Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) religion · Inuit religion · Wendat (Huron) religion · Yanomami religion · Selk'nam religion (Tierra del Fuego) · Hawaiian religion (traditional)
Oceania (4) · Māori · Aboriginal Australian · Fijian traditional religion (iTaukei, pre-Christian) · Tahitian / Society Islands religion (Māʻohi, pre-Christian)
How we counted: 370 traditions from every continent, living and ancient, from sources in dozens of languages. One tradition, one vote, and only where a source confirms it. A tradition missing here is not evidence it lacks the belief, only that we found no document. Scriptural religions (Buddhist, Hindu, Chinese, Jewish, Christian, Muslim) are described in more detail than oral ones, and some records come through missionaries or outsiders. This page does not judge which belief is true.