Saying hello to “ghosts” is just talking to parts of yourself so you stop being scared and learn who you are.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, why is it that all over the world, throughout the ages, people have had such a great capacity to imagine ghosts?
And they said, "Now it is becoming too difficult! Such a respected brahmin, well versed in the ancient law -- and the ghosts are not afraid even of him. And this is not right" -- because when they removed the can, the teacher was smelling of kerosene because it was a fresh tin, I had just emptied it. They all smelled him, and they said, "This is strange! And why were you going there? And what happened to your lamp?" The lamp was dropped there; in such a critical moment to remember it.... Somebody said, "Go and bring his lamp," but nobody was ready to. So I told his student, "You can go. You know the mantra, `Hare Krishna, Hare Rama.'" He said, "That mantra is useless! Even my teacher could not... he was repeating the mantra, and just as he was repeating the mantra, the can came down with…
Beloved Osho, I have noticed that when you leave the discourse and pass through the door, you often look to your left. Are you simply saying "hello" to the ghost?
"Well," says Goldstein, "I guess that's the way it goes. You have got your friends, I have got mine." People think Anando lives alone -- she has such a beautiful congregation! Right now I am telling her to have some conversations, and soon you will see her addressing the congregation. There will be nobody, but she will enjoy her own revelations. And one thing is good about ghosts: you can say anything to them, in any language; right or wrong, it does not matter. Ghosts are almost like God. People are praying all over the world every morning, every evening, to a god. And it is not that their prayer is absolutely useless -- although there is no God. If they are praying with tears in their eyes and love in their hearts, and a feeling of gratitude surrounding them, whether God exists or not is not the point. The…
I don't believe in ghosts and yet I am afraid of them. When I am alone in the night, I feel that they are there and they want to speak to me...
IN FACT, YOU deny things which you are afraid of. Your denial simply shows your fear. You say, I DON'T BELIEVE IN GHOSTS. If you really don't believe in ghosts, then from where can the fear come? then why should you be afraid? for what? But your disbelief is nothing but a way of hiding your fear. Remember: your belief is out of fear, your disbelief is out of fear. If you live in fear, whatsoever happens to you is going to happen out of fear. I see religious people going to the temples and the mosques and the churches out of fear, and I see atheists denying God out of fear. If I look deeply I don't see any difference between the theist and the atheist. They are both the same -- reacting differently;, but the situation is the same, and the fear is the same. Their differences are…
Beloved Osho, when you said that there are no ghosts, it is only man's fear, I thought, "well, that's that; there are no ghosts. Osho says so." I was happy to believe you and put the matter aside, comforted that I knew something for sure. But this is belief. You have told us not to believe blindly. And my experience with ghosts is not connected with fear but with friendliness. I feel I am now in a predicament. I have pulled a nail out of your neem tree. Please help!
Chetana, if you have friendly experiences of ghosts then ghosts exist. Friends are such a valuable thing that even if ghosts need to exist for friendship, they have to be allowed to exist! If you are having friendly relationships, that's great. Just Milarepa has to be afraid now. Do you think Milarepa is a ghost? Poor Milarepa, he is a real man. And if you have other ghosts as friends then he should be alert.
Beloved Osho, you spoke the other morning about rising through the different levels of consciousness and bringing light to their respective counterparts in the unconscious. Are special techniques needed for this, or will watchfulness of the mind, the body, and the emotions simply bring us through these different levels?
He said, "The woman you were talking about. I believe in ghosts; just this is enough. But no more than this! I have heard the sound, and I don't want to get into all that trouble that that other woman had" -- because the story had spread all over the city that that woman... She stopped coming to the house because she became so afraid. She had a constant fever for three or four days; even after she became conscious and went to her home she had a fever, the fear went so deep. And the old man said, "I don't want to get into that trouble. Just open the door and let me go to my home!" I said, "You are such a God-believing person. This is the time to test your God." He said, "I am not going to listen to you; you are a dangerous fellow. God?…