I believe in ghosts(manes) as human spirits that will not rest before their final wish/justice is procured. I also believe that Quakerism has tried to appease the manes of Mani, I.e., divide flesh from spirit.

Haunted by a Ranter past, we have largely disowned the incarnational benefits of "the Word made flesh". This despite our lengthy use of "weighty Friend" to signal a flesh-and-blood measure of wisdom and grace. Apparently, the shades of a house divided have turned what was weighty into what is burdensome. Chains of accountability cast off, in the name of "equality of spirit", leaving many to roam without a home.

Meetings, like séances, that look to the spirit-world for assurances of earthly guidance. Elderly embodiment of a divine presence left to rot on the bone. Nowhere to turn for edification, let alone counsel, but the graveyard of Quaker history. Dead poets and expired publishers as the inspiration for our Society - fire in the belly without any visible guts.

Friends, we can not have our cake and eat it also, with Mani's dualistic approach to human life and divine worship. Or, via a filtered biblical echo: 'We can not claim to love God who we do not see, when we neglect that of God in Friends that we do see'.