<b>Memory as Presence: Ritual and the Philosophy of The Ghosts Movement</b>

<p dir="ltr"><b>Abstract</b></p><p dir="ltr">In a cultural landscape dominated by immediacy, productivity, and isolation, <i>The Ghosts Movement</i> offers a quietly radical alternative: a philosophy of presence grounded not in detachment, but in memory, ritual, and shared time. This essay explores the theoretical, emotional, and practical underpinnings of the movement, positioning it as a response to the erosion of communal ritual in secular Western life. Drawing on thinkers such as Charles Taylor, Byung-Chul Han, bell hooks, and Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, it examines how the<i> Ghosts Movement</i> reclaims the sacred through everyday practices of remembering, listening, and presence.</p><p dir="ltr">Rather than retreating into the ‘now’ as a form of bypass, the movement invites participants to walk consciously with both light and dark, to honour the ghosts we carry as part of the fabric of living time. Memory is not treated as nostalgia, but as a portal to embodied presence. Ritual is not reserved for religion, but rediscovered through silence, circles, and gestures of ordinary reverence.</p><p dir="ltr">Through an analysis of the movement’s manifesto, trilogy of books, and weekly reflections, this paper argues that the<i> Ghosts Movement</i> enacts a living philosophy, one that bridges individual and collective experience, and reweaves time as relationship rather than escape.</p>