It seems
as though ghost stories have been haunting us forever. Whether in a Medieval
castle with turrets or the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, stories of ghosts
continue as part of literature. The fact is, I’ve written quite a few myself,
both in short stories and novels.
Why the
continued interest? Sarah Begley in her TIME article appropriately published in
the October 31, 2016 issue, discusses GHOSTLAND: An
American History in Haunted Places. Author Colin Dickey, is quoted as stating
in this nonfiction book that ghost stories reveal “the contours of our
anxieties” and “the nature of our collective fears and desires.”
Why are
we inclined to want to believe that ghosts or spirits exist beyond death? There’s
an old spiritual that says: “Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants
to die.” We would
like to believe that we do in fact have souls and the possibility of an
afterlife.
The popular 1986 motion picture, Ghostbusters, set off a virtual mania regarding ghost hunting. It
was followed by an animated cartoon series which pursued the same theme for
children and also met with enthusiasm. And now we have a recent updated adult
film with a female cast.
But truth is stranger than fiction. Ghost hunting has become an
avid though admittedly unusual hobby for many people. These individuals are
joining groups or organizations that hunt for spirits of the dead. Groups are
proliferating that attempt to use scientific methods to locate ghosts. In fact,
it’s a hobby that many people enjoy throughout the world. These organizations
research, photograph, document, and, in some instances, seek to remove those
ghosts that have proved inconvenient.
Groups have sprung up across America Alabama Arizona California Florida Georgia Hawaii Illinois Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York , Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania South Carolina Tennessee Texas Utah Washington , West Virginia Wisconsin
International organizations exist
everywhere. Their purpose is to find scientific evidence of ghosts and an
afterlife. Organizations exist in such places as the United Kingdom Scotland Australia New Zealand Belgium Sweden Asia , in such far flung locations as Singapore
Today’s ghost hunting organizations take
pride in using the most modern technology possible. A variety of recording and measuring technology are used by ghost
hunters who visit haunted houses, graveyards and other eerie locations,
attempting to capture empirical evidence of paranormal beings. These ghost
hunters utilize the latest in sound, video and still-image recording, as well
as sensors that detect changes in temperature, electromagnetic fields and
radiation.
Every state, every country, has its own
unexplained paranormal spirit phenomena. Many ghost hobby organizations make
the distinction that they are not hunting ghosts so much as investigating
paranormal phenomena. They even offer to examine private dwellings and
businesses for free. One reason these groups shy away
from the term ghost hunting is because the term “hunting” suggests the sport or
hobby of pursuing something with intent of killing it. The groups merely intend
to investigate, carrying out a detailed examination or inquiry, especially with
documentation with intent of finding truth, reason, and cause. For the most
part, they are ordinary people, curious and fascinated with the paranormal.
The groups take several initial
steps when starting an investigation. They use video cameras, digital
recorders, heat sensors, and motion and electric magnetic field detectors to
record whatever may be happening at a particular site. Clairvoyants also
provide their impressions. Psychic mediums serve as a channel between the
living and the dead. Eventually, the groups puts together a report and discuss
findings with the owner. Group members are known to specialize in electronic
voice phenomenon, commonly called EVP; these are voices that supposedly do not
come from a human source. Special software is used to determine whether a voice
is in human or paranormal range. Findings are then authenticated by experts
with a group called Haunted Voices.
Supposedly, there is a difference between “spirits” who died in a normal way and can communicate and move around and ghosts whose souls do not know they’re dead. In the case of the ghosts, they are believed to have died tragically and are stuck in space and time and can’t move or go from place to place; they don’t understand their predicament and need help in order to move on. Unlike poltergeists, who are nasty, and know they’re dead, ghosts don’t harm the living.
Do average people really believe in “spooks”? It appears that worldwide interest in the paranormal will not soon abate. Many people would like to believe there is an afterlife, a beyond. Ghost researching continues to remain an enthusiastic leisure activity for hobbyists.
As for me, I’ve written about the legends of the Jersey Devil in my co-authored novel THE THIRD EYE: A PINE BARRENS MYSTERY.
Some of
my short ghost stories have appeared in the anthologies: BETWEEN THERE, VOL. 2, LIVING DEAD, and
MISSOURI GHOST STORIES as well as such magazines as BLIGHT and HYPNOS.
If you are
a writer, do you write ghost stories? Tell us something about your most recent
work in the genre. As a reader are there any ghost stories you would recommend to fellow readers?
