I posted
my thoughts on a similar thread asking this question a few years ago. I'll paraphrase it similar to what Kops and Amur_Tiger said. Mufasa wanted Simba to return back to the Pride Lands with his mind set on becoming the future king of the Pride Lands, not on exacting revenge against Scar. He wanted what was best for his son to return back home with hope and optimism, and he was probably aware of Simba's immaturity so Mufasa didn't want Simba to return back home with anger and bitterness because he would likely carry that when he inherits the throne. Plus, it was done for story reasons. Scar's "guilt trip" tactic wouldn't work and be anti-climatic if Simba already knew the truth. And yes, Mufasa probably wanted Simba to find out for himself.
[quote="Elton John"]Because Simba was just.... Hallucinating isn't the right word... I believe that the intent of the creators of the first film was that Simba didn't literally see Mufasas ghost but that Simba was seeing Mufasa inside of himself in a slightly more ethereal form.
I always saw 'the great kings of the past' speech as a story passed down to comfort young royalty about the eventuality of their parents dying. Or possibly Mufasa made it up on the spot just to comfort simba.
It's that many took it as that being Mufasas actual spirit. So they just rolled with that in the sequels.
'Look harder, you see, he lives in you'. I see that as Rafiki seeing what made Mufasa, mufasa, inside of Simba.
'He's alive! I'll show him to you!'
His legacy was living on inside simba.
'Remember who you are, you are my son and the one true king'[/quote]
Nope. Listen to the audio commentary recorded by Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff, and Don Hahn. They never confirm Simba seeing Mufasa's ghost to be a hallucination and repeatedly say "Mufasa's ghost" throughout the scene. Seeing the sequence as hallucination may work as a theory, but it's not confirmed by the filmmakers.
The hallucination theory has been thrown for many years, but I don't believe it because it undermines the spiritual and mystic aspects of the scene and the father-son relationship arc. If the ghost was all in Simba's head, there's nothing encouraging or uplifting about everything Mufasa and Rafiki was trying to say. It's almost like saying "my ancestors/relatives don't live in me spiritually" and "they don't watch over the living when they pass away". And I don't believe Mufasa to be a liar like Scar is so I doubt he made it up on the spot.
[quote="Elton John"]But I could be very wrong since that scene was apparently supposed to be a reference to moses and the burning bush.[/quote]
That is in fact true. On the supplement on the 2003 DVD release called "Story Origins", Don Hahn admits the scene was directly inspired from
Hamlet when he sees his father's spirit in what follows to be Simba's "to be or not to be" moment and Moses's encounter with God through the burning bush where Moses acquires wisdom from the visitation.
[quote="Annie"]Or, perhaps it wasn't actually Mufasa after all and just the knowledge Rafiki has? But we see Rafiki talking to Mufasa in the wind in SP, so surely he would have known about Mufasa's murder?[/quote]
I think
Simba's Pride ruined that part concerning Rafiki's interaction with Mufasa's spirit. Never once in the original film was it shown that Rafiki can converse to Mufasa's spirit through the wind. And on an unrelated topic,
The Lion Guard ruins...utterly ruins by making Mufasa's ghost repeatedly appearing to give Kion advice. Mufasa should only appear very rarely and in the characters' most desperate moments.