Ghosts From Our Past: Both Literally and Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal

by Erin Gilbert

  Examples of Haunted Theaters: Bobby Mackey’s Music World (Wilder, Kentucky), Lincoln Theater (Decatur, Illinois), Metropolitan Opera House (New York City, New York), Stonebrook Theatre (New York City, New York)

  Inns and Hotels: All it takes is one suicide or murder for a hotel to pick up a reputation for being haunted. Unfortunately, most inns and hotels will exaggerate the degree to which they are haunted for publicity. And if they’re boasting about it, the phenomena is most likely family-friendly—nothing too exciting is going to happen. The hot tub’s never going to bubble red with blood. If you’re interested in investigating a real haunted hotel, we suggest finding one where hotel management vigorously denies any paranormal activity.

  Examples of Haunted Inns and Hotels: Castle Hill Inn (Newport, Rhode Island), Jerome Grand Hotel (Jerome, Arizona), The Mercado (New York City, New York), Silver Queen Hotel (Virginia City, Nevada), The Stanley Hotel (Estes Park, Colorado)

  Battlefields: Because of the huge number of deaths occurring on battlefields, it makes sense from a statistics standpoint that at least some of the fallen would return as ghosts. Apparitions of soldiers are often seen repeating their final actions, over and over. Additionally, some experts believe that mass emotional trauma causes buildups of telekinetic energy at battlefields, which in turn triggers visual disturbances in the minds of parapercipients. Unlikely, but who knows?

  Examples of Haunted Battlefields: The Alamo (San Antonio, Texas), Gettysburg (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), National Battlefield Park (Richmond, Virginia)

  Prisons: Neither of us has been to prison, so we can’t tell you how haunted the vibes are in “the joint.” Most facilities, however, have long histories of suicides, murders, and other atrocities. Paranormal incident reports occur at the highest rates in those former prisons where executions have taken place—it seems that some prisoners never get to leave, even after dying.

  Examples of Haunted Prisons: Alcatraz (San Francisco, California), Eastern State Penitentiary (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), West Georgia Correctional Facility (Newnan, Georgia)

  Hospitals: Surprisingly, hospitals aren’t particularly known for being overrun with ghosts. However, there are plenty of exceptions, especially in the cases of old, abandoned asylums such as the Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky—a former tuberculosis clinic spooky enough even without any paranormal happenings.

  Examples of Haunted Hospitals: Bellevue Hospital (New York City, New York), Danvers State Hospital (Danvers, Massachusetts), Metropolitan State Hospital (Waltham, Massachusetts), Rolling Hills Asylum (Bethany, New York), Waverly Hills Sanitarium (Louisville, Kentucky)

  Cemeteries: Final resting places such as graveyards aren’t the best places to hunt ghosts. Nobody, not even ghosts, wants to hang out on such hallowed ground. While reportedly haunted graveyards do exist, we don’t suggest ghost hunting at these locations. Respect the families of the deceased. Don’t be a creeper.

  Examples of Haunted Cemeteries: Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery (Midlothian, Illinois), Boot Hill Cemetery (Tombstone, Arizona), Howard Street Cemetery (Salem, Massachusetts), St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 (New Orleans, Louisiana), Westminster Hall and Burying Ground (Baltimore, Maryland)

  The 13 Most Haunted U.S. Cities

  Baltimore, Maryland

  Boston, Massachusetts

  Charleston, South Carolina

  Chicago, Illinois

  Fort Lauderdale, Florida

  New Orleans, Louisiana

  New York City, New York

  Portland, Oregon

  Salem, Massachusetts

  San Antonio, Texas

  San Francisco, California

  Savannah, Georgia

  Washington, D.C.

  None of which are in Michigan. Sigh.

  Source: Josephine Bandette. The Occult Encyclopaedia: In Thirteen Volumes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1919.

  Research the Location

  Once you’ve settled on a location for your investigation, you’ll want to do some serious research before ever setting foot on-site. Look up its history at the county assessor’s office. Better yet, check with your local librarian to see if there’s any documented history of paranormal activity associated with the site. Librarians love to do research. They shouldn’t have any problem sifting through a hundred or so years of newspapers on microfiche to answer your query (allow four to six weeks for a thorough investigation, and don’t forget to tip). In addition to a history of paranormal activity, you’ll also want to know the history of the people who’ve lived and died at the site—and a detailed history of the land itself. Once you have that in hand, you’re ready to begin the metaphysical examination!

  Haunted History: Case Studies

  by Patty Tolan

  As an NYC transit station agent, I had plenty of time to read. Especially on the overnight shift. Sure, every once in a while a subway rider would interrupt me, but I’d interrupt them right back. Hey, it’s the Big Apple. I had my own one-person book club going for a long time in my little subway booth. This wasn’t an Oprah deal—no Franzen or Tolstoy. I’ve always been more of a history buff. Here’s a selection of haunted locations, prepared especially for the revised edition, courtesy of the extensive research unwittingly funded by the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

  Aldridge Mansion (New York City, New York): This stately West Village brownstone (Figure 10.1) is the only nineteenth-century home in New York City “preserved both inside and out,” according to the Aldridge Mansion Museum’s website. While that sounds like some marketing nonsense, the story behind the building’s haunting isn’t: One morning, Sir Aldridge awoke furious when his breakfast wasn’t waiting for him. He called out to his servants, but no one responded. Sir Aldridge found their lifeless bodies in their quarters. They’d been stabbed to death by his eldest daughter, Gertrude. To spare the family public humiliation, the embarrassed patriarch locked her in the basement, where he fed her through a slot until she passed. Years later, when a new owner moved in, her remains were discovered and the mystery of the servants’ deaths was finally pieced together. After repeatedly hearing strange sounds emanating from the basement, however, the new owner sealed the door shut. Despite the precautions, Gertrude Aldridge’s ghost continues to haunt the Aldridge Mansion—ask Erin about her, if you doubt it.

  Figure 10.1.

  Aldridge Mansion

  The Stanley Hotel (Estes Park, Colorado): Stephen King was inspired to write The Shining after staying at this once-isolated mountain resort in 1973. “The man or woman who insists there are no ghosts [in this world] is only ignoring the whispers of his or her own heart,” King wrote in an introduction to the 2001 edition of the classic horror novel. Although he didn’t experience any paranormal phenomena during his visit to the Stanley, the room he and his wife stayed in—Room 217—is supposedly haunted by the ghost of a chambermaid who died there in a gas explosion in 1911. The ghosts of the hotel’s original owners, F. O. and Flora Stanley, are also said to haunt the premises, alongside a fright of other spooks.

  The Borley Rectory (Borley, Essex): This mansion is often called “the most haunted house in England.” This is partly due to the paranormal activity reported by residents since the house was built in 1862, and partly due to the efforts of celebrity ghost hunter Harry Price to publicize it as such. Convinced he needed longer than an overnight stay to investigate it, Price rented the house for twelve months. From May 1937 to May 1938, dozens of volunteers observed plenty of strange happenings, including three ghosts that made contact through séances—all of which are documented in Price’s book The Most Haunted House in England. Although the rectory was destroyed in a fire soon after the conclusion of the year-long stakeout, the site allegedly remains haunted by the spirit of a nun that walks the grounds at night.

  112 Ocean Avenue (Amityville, New York): A mother, father, and four of their children were discovered murdered at this nondescript suburban
house on Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York, in 1974. The culprit—the fifth child in the family, Ronald DeFeo, Jr.—was convicted of second-degree murder and is currently serving six concurrent life sentences. A new couple moved into the home the next year, but moved out twenty-eight days later due to a deluge of paranormal activity. Some of the alleged phenomena, such as pig hoofprints in the snow outside their house, are easily explained: A PIG RAN THROUGH YOUR DAMN YARD. Other activity, such as green ectoplasm oozing from a keyhole to the playroom door in the attic, sounds a little freakier. Paranormal investigator Hans Holzer thoroughly investigated the home but did not find any of the elusive ectoplasm. The case remains open.

  The Mercado (New York City, New York): This elegant and iconic Midtown hotel has one of the weirdest histories of any building in Manhattan, which is saying something. All sorts of massacres happened at the site even before the building was built. Weird stuff still happens there. Did you know that no other section of New York has more power outages? Now you know! There’s also a disproportionate number of traffic accidents on the streets bordering the building, especially on 49th Street. As if all of that wasn’t enough, it was also ground zero for the Fourth Cataclysm.

  Cashen’s Gap (Dalby, Isle of Man): In September 1931, the owner of a farmhouse known as Cashen’s Gap heard an animal rummaging in the attic. According to Harry Price’s account, James Irving attempted to draw the creature into view by making a series of animal calls—all of which were returned. Even stranger, the unseen creature repeated words! After a few days of this back-and-forth, the creature seemed to achieve fluency. It announced itself as Gef, and told Irving and his wife, “I am a ghost in the form of a weasel and I shall haunt you with weird noises and clanking chains.” The spooked couple promptly set out rat poison to rid themselves of the talking creature, with no success. Gef retaliated by killing their turkeys. “I am the eighth wonder of the world,” Gef proclaimed from within the wall. He also clarified that he was actually the spirit of a mongoose, not a weasel. They caught sight of Gef a few times, always in passing—Gef was quick, and they usually saw no more than a flash of a bushy tail or its tiny, sharp teeth. Ultimately, Price did not see or even hear the talking mongoose during his investigation, which he chronicled in The Haunting of Cashen’s Gap. Gef reportedly showed back up after Price left. The mongoose explained to the owners that he’d been on vacation. I’ll be straight with you: This was a very weird book. Also, I want a talking pet mongoose. Or a talking weasel. I’m not picky, so long as the damn thing talks.

  * * *

  Patty Tolan is the Ghostbusters’ resident municipal historian. Before becoming a metaphysical commando, she worked for the MTA in New York City. She’s not sure which job is more dangerous.

  Chapter 11

  Conducting the Metaphysical Examination

  A Methodical Examination

  You have the tools. You have the location. Now it’s time to conduct the metaphysical examination.

  While your first instinct may be to kick in the doors, ion detectors drawn, you need to slow your roll. We know you’re excited to check out the site and put all of that high-tech gear to use, but we must urge caution. This is a highly scientific endeavor. As such, we will use the scientific method, the standardized system of inquiry used by scientists worldwide.

  The scientific method begins with a question. For example, you might ask, “Is this house haunted?” Next, you will formulate a hypothesis—in our case, “This house is haunted by a paranormal entity.” The hypothesis could be more specific than that, but it doesn’t have to be. From there, you will begin to collect data in order to test the veracity of the hypothesis.

  Step One: Interview Parapercipient(s)

  Gathering data generally starts with an eyewitness interview. If you’re investigating a site that’s reportedly been haunted for hundreds of years, you may not have access to any of the parapercipients—because they’re long since deceased (and possibly ghosts themselves now!). However, we can’t stress this enough: Unless you have a firsthand report of the spectral activity, you’re probably just wasting your time.

  Face-to-face interviews are preferred. However, you can speak to them over the phone if they’re located some distance from you. Follow up at a later date in person, prior to setting foot on-site.

  Conducting good interviews is a skill anyone can pick up. You don’t need to be a journalist, or even a people person—all you need to do is watch a little Law & Order or NYPD Blue. Interviewing eyewitnesses works best when done in pairs so you can play good ghost hunter, bad ghost hunter. You don’t want to get too rough with them, though. Anyone who has seen a ghost—or anyone who even thinks they’ve seen a ghost—is bound to be in rough shape already.

  Alternative Explanations for Ghost Sightings

  According to the SPR, “The unsupported evidence of a single witness does not constitute sufficient ground for accepting an apparition as having a prima facie claim to objective reality.” That’s just a fancy way of saying that witnesses can be mistaken or misleading. During the interview phase of a metaphysical examination, it’s important to rule out alternative explanations through careful cross-examination of parapercipients.

  Misidentification: Textbooks frequently cite misidentification as the number-one cause of false reports. This may be due to several factors. First and foremost, parapercipients are by and large not trained paranormal investigators. They don’t know what to look for. They must rely solely on their senses, which are known to be deceptive. Also, reported paranormal phenomena most frequently occurs in the darkness, whether within a darkened room or at night (or within a darkened room at night). Low-light conditions play tricks on us all the time, as anyone who’s gone out with someone they initially met in a dimly lit bar knows.

  Hallucinations: You don’t need to be feverish or tripping to hallucinate. Many parapercipients report seeing ghosts when going to sleep or waking up. Not coincidentally, this is considered prime time for hallucinating, as the brain drifts through altered states of consciousness on its way to and from the Land of Nod. Hypnagogic hallucinations occur while you’re drifting to sleep; hypnopompic hallucinations occur upon waking. Fun fact: Hallucinations while you’re sleeping are called “dreams.”

  Naturalistic Explanations: Naturalistic explanations include mice, raccoons, or other animals; household issues such as a settling house, faulty electrical wiring, drafts due to poor insulation, or infrasound from A/C or other sources; and weather such as wind and rain. All of which are SUPER BORING EXPLANATIONS.

  Hoax or Fraud: Hoaxes aren’t as common an occurrence as skeptics would have you believe. While people may lie about seeing ghosts from time to time, they’re certainly not doing it for the attention, which is mostly negative. Admitting you’ve seen a ghost in front of your peers can be a traumatizing experience. Why anyone would open themselves up to ridicule for no good reason is beyond us! That’s why publishing Ghosts from Our Past: Both Literally and Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal is risky. However, it’s a risk we have to take . . . FOR SCIENCE.

  Source: Hollis Queens. Parapsychology; or, The Science of Psychical Phenomena. New York City: Harper and Row, 1989.

  Step Two: Evaluate the Evidence

  Ready to visit the site? Not so fast. You don’t want to go off half-cocked. Always go off full-cocked, as Abby’s uncle used to say. We think what he was trying to say is, “You’re not prepared for the test unless you’ve done all the homework.”

  After conducting your interviews, you may need to restate your hypothesis. Instead of believing the location is haunted, for instance, you could be convinced the parapercipient is hallucinating. It’s up to you whether or not you want to continue the metaphysical examination. If you’re still reasonably confident you’re dealing with potentially paranormal phenomena, the next step involves examining the evidence.

  What type of “evidence” are we talking about here? Certainly nothing along the li
nes of DNA. We wish! It would be great if ghosts left behind hair samples or skin flakes. The closest spirits come to leaving anything behind is ectoplasm, which is incredibly elusive, for reasons we’ve already discussed.

  The typical evidence collected during paranormal investigations is frequently of a far lesser quality than what you may be familiar with on cop shows. Instead of physical evidence, ghost hunters must rely on photographs, audio recordings, and other secondhand sources. Unfortunately, these are all easily faked. Not every spectral photograph or video is fraudulent, but the potential is there. That’s enough to invalidate most evidence in the eyes of skeptics.

  In the end, any evidence provided by parapercipients should be closely examined and cataloged alongside interview transcripts and the rest of your case files. Don’t place too much weight on it, though. The only evidence you can truly trust is that which you collect yourself. If you’re still confident you’re dealing with a legit spook, then it’s time to do your own inspection.

  Step Three: Inspect the Location

  We advise you to allot as much time as possible for your on-site inspection. You don’t need to rent out the location and monitor it for an entire year like Harry Price did with the Borley Rectory, but we do suggest at least one stakeout, which should last eight hours minimum.

  Many investigators like to do overnight stakeouts—there’s less noise pollution from the outside world, and most people in our line of work have full-time jobs or school during the day. If you’re expecting something along the lines of a slumber party, however, you’ll be mightily disappointed. Being locked down in a haunted house is way more fun than some stupid slumber party. Instead of staying up all night discussing crushes and hitting each other with pillows, you’ll be sitting in silence waiting for ghosts!