I’m not sure whether you believe the existence of ghosts or any such spiritual powers people across the world believe without a doubt in their mind. As you may agree that such stories exist in all cultures and all ages, there have always been people who listened to it with a pinch of suspicion. They have their reasons for suspicion and doubt.
Earliest ghost story I can recall is one from ancient Rome around 1900 years ago recorded by Pliny. Pliny was a Roman politician and a judge and is also one of the few surviver and an eyewitness of Pompeii disaster. A disaster that turned a whole city into ashes. Anyway, his ghost story is the oldest one I can recall.
In rome during that time there was a large abandoned house filled with all kind of diseases and fear. During the night people hear noises from inside which is similar to clashing irons and rattling chains. Immediately after the sound silences there appears a figure of an old man with white brows, long beard and hairy chest. His hands and feets chained, as he move people hear the rattling noise from the chains draggin on the ground. This happens every night.
People used to live in that house but they all gone mad due to this unimaginable fear. Death took them over giving an escape from this internal suffering. After their death, the house was abandoned to the gosts.
Though the house was put on sale, no one seem to buy it. Even the thought of buying didn’t come to anyone’s mind. Days keep rolling on. It happened one day a philosopher whose name is Aknodorus from Athens saw the house on sale. He was surprised to see such a low price for a well built house. He began asking people about it and finally found the owner. People told him the story about noises and what happens there every night. Also about the previous tenants and their doomed fate. The more stories he heard, the more interested he became of buying it. Finally he bought and moved in.
As the evening came nearer Aknodorus asked to keep a couch in the living room along with a lamp and a writing table. On it he kept his writing materials as if he is planning to write a whole book. He began writing in order to stay focused and avoid distractions from stories he heard before, he directed all his energy into writing.
For a while the night was silent. Soon the rattelling and smashing of iron began. Aknodorus did not move his eyes away from the paper or stopped writing. The noise wouldn’t stop. It only increased until it seem to be coming from right infront of the living room door. Finally, Aknodorus paused, he turned his head and looked toward where the noise was coming. He saw a ghost standing just as it had been described. It stood there pointing it’s finger.
Aknodorus showed his palm as if asking the visitor to wait. Then lift up the pen and began writing. The ghost became impatient, shook his chain right above the philosopher’s head pointing it’s finger towards something. This time he took the lamp and followed the ghost as it moved floating in the mid air. Upon reaching the courtyard near the entrance of the house the ghost disappeared in to the ground.
Now then Aknodorus marked the spot on the ground where it disappeared. The following day he asked the governer to dig the spot. After digging the spot they found a skeleton of a man held in chain tied both hands and feet. They removed the skeleton from the spot and removed the chains and gave a proper burial in the grave yard. Since that day onwards the house was haunted no more.