Aerosol spray on canvas, 4 coffee. OST: DEBAUCHERY "Butcherman" [link]

My tribute to one of my fav Death Metal bands, check the original here [link]
Free hand work with the background and fire, brush on the details. The image is a metaphor, not a religious attack.

Since the dawn of time mystics and religious leaders have tried to discern what types of spirits are behind the events of the world. Importantly, were they good spirits or evil ones? In traditional religions shamans and the like would have the important duty of contacting spirits and finding out if they were benevolent or malevolent1. Throughout the middle ages priests would bring in revenue doing exactly the same thing. New Agers and modern mystics pride themselves on how they can "feel" if a spirit in a particular room or location is good or evil, helpful or harmful.

It holds that if we have free will to choose our actions whilst alive, and that our life comes from our soul, then our soul is what has free will. Our bodies are just biochemical machines; those who believe in free will and souls no doubt hold that it is the soul that allows free will to be exerted upon our otherwise mindless bodies. As the source of free will, the soul must also have free will after bodily death.

This means that you cannot have spirits that are good or evil: They are capable of free will just as any other higher life. To say that a spirit is "evil" or "harmful" or "bad" is saying that it has no free will to act haphazardly. Although some humans seem to be almost purely evil, and some humans almost always attempt to do good, the vast majority exist in the middle ground. Spirits, at least the ones that are departed humans, continue to have free will and no doubt continue to mostly occupy the middle ground, being sometimes good, sometimes bad.

The Human subconscious and environmental factors determine if we find a particular place spooky or whether we think a good or evil spirit might reside there. Most the time it is human projection. But given the existence of free will it seems that no spirit is either "good" or "evil": They will sometimes be good, sometimes be evil, just like Human beings. In addition, evil spirits can trick us into thinking they are good spirits, and sometimes even the most kind and benevolent person simply comes across as nasty (like God in the Old Testament): It is dangerous and wrong to pronounce that spirits are "good" or "evil", benevolent or malevolent.