Relating to you growing up in a minister's home, I grew up in the Russian Orthodox Church. The mere appearance's of the priests made quite an impression on me as a child. As you said, two options of either Heaven or Hell, and a strict adherence to specific principles. Certain question's asked were met with stoic temperament's.
I know in God, having too many experiences that extend beyond coincidence. There always has been a strong relationship between God and myself. An acute awareness, of sorts. With growing older, brought more questions with a better capacity for seeking answers.
Society tries to force fit God into a specific identity, self-determining what God is or isn't, will or won't do, what He can and can't do, all from mankind's limited perspective. That a Buddhist is going to Hell simply for being a Buddhist ? No one can determine how God develops any particular relationship with any one in particular. That God may use different methods with different cultures, is within the realm of possibilities.
Ghost or demon ? I tend to lean towards the side of ghost, too. Again, experiences. What may be possible within the spectrum of existence, would allow for numerous realities. With the ghost hunter activities, the ghost hunter's acknowledge that there seems to be differences encountered.
The EVP phenomenon, I find to be interesting, but also am aware that in using any kind of receiver, there are too many transmissions bouncing around to be able to determine if it has any validity. Most of the time, the "voices" caught really are not understandable, until the ghost hunter throws out a suggestion, and we say, " Oh Yeah ! I can hear "that" now ! " In re-winding the tapes, I listen again and again, and realize that different suggestions would also yield, " Oh Yeah ! I can hear "that" now ! ".
During the CB radio craze, we had a CB radio that we customized, removing the stops on the specific "channels", allowing us to scan through-out the bandwidths as we pleased. What we heard along the side-bands, sounded similar to many of the captured EVP "voices". Only after tweaking the frequencies, would the voices become clear. Hard not to notice that the ghost hunters aren't using anything to adjust frequencies, but get what they get with what they have, mini-recorders.
Although, I have a distinct feeling that technology is becoming closer to being able to "pierce the veil" between the physical and the realm's of the deceased. That would be a mind bender, if a time traveler from the future claimed that s/he had the capability to communicate with our own ghosts. And now that I've said that....
I agree with you, there are interesting anomalies in myth and legends. The myths and legends may be based on some truth, but are conveyed from a certain level of understanding. Even ruling out extra-terrestrials, a Roman Soldier would be considered a God to some cultures. I can only imagine the reaction of a simple culture, seeing a Roman Warship appearing just off the shoreline.
That the Earth is billions of years old, and has gone through some tremendous changes, is a given. That there may have been advanced civilizations ( pretty much long forgotten ) existing through-out the history of the Earth, is a good possibility. If they're technologies were built differently than our's, we might not even recognize it "as" technology.
If for example, some civilization was able to use quartz crystals as a component for some type of computer system, the whole built from natural materials, today, the remnant's of these machines, we would merely walk by without looking twice.
I have heard the term, "The Ancient One's", within several different ...um...disciplines. A reference to cultures that existed a very, very long time ago. From what I've heard, is that many of these "Ancient One's" are rather angry and upset, and some of whom are the one's being credited as "demons ".
If per chance that some groups of the pre-ancient civilizations survived, and still are active in some ways, we don't even have to include aliens from elsewhere. We only have to search our own backyard, so to speak.
All in all though, hard not to consider the mention that Satan was created to be the perfect deceiver, and actually within the allegory of Genesis describes how subtle and crafty Satan is...that his purpose is to create doubts and confusion, to "help us" rationalize justifications for our actions.
That he would create confusion and doubts about what happens to our essences after physical death, is something to be mindful of. That his hosts would use trickery and play on our desires, dreams and hopes, is a certainty.
The European/South American ghost I was referencing, was supposed to be the ghost of Adolf Hitler. And if there is a ghost of Hitler wandering around, that sort of might cause one to wonder about the idea of Heaven and Hell, wouldn't it ?
