The biblical ambiguity on ghosts

The account of Samuel's appearance to Saul in Endor is an excellent response to believers who say there's no such thing as ghosts. I like to throw that out all the time, along with the Transfiguration appearances of Elijah and Moses.

The Tanakh doesn't teach of an immediate afterlife. Instead it talks of going down to Sheol. Sheol is where everyone goes when they die. In a literal sense it means the graves where people are buried, but in later Hebrew thought it also came to refer to an afterlife destination where the dead await the Resurrection. In Christian thought this is on the Last Day, when Revelation says hell (Greek: hades, the word the Septuagint uses in place of Sheol) and the sea give up all their dead.

In other word, when you die, it's like going to sleep, but everyone awakens at the same time.