Weisberg Tim - Haunted objects: stories of ghosts on your shelf

O ur ideas of ghosts are formed by the stories we read or see on television. Sometimes theyre molded by a personal experience we have.

Ghosts, or more accurately, ghost stories, are everywhere around us, but we do not understand as much as we might think about what a ghost truly is. We fall back on what we have seen on television or heard from others. In investigating ghosts and ghost stories, Ive even found evidence that implies ghosts learn how to be ghosts based on what the person believed about the paranormal when they were still alive.

But can an object be haunted?

My story starts in the library.

Before the days of after-school child-care programs, I walked about half a mile to the local public library after class. I spent my time between the stacks, pulling out books and reading all types of tales until 5:30, when my mother picked me up. I read about dinosaurs and the universe and about countries in Asia I knew I might never see. There were two books I kept rereading, and looking back, it is not too much of a leap to see how they might have affected the rest of my life.

The first book was about how to be a private detective. It taught you how to sneak around the house, open doors without a sound, and interview suspects. The other was a collection of stories about unexplained happenings. One story featured a witchs grave where grass wouldnt grow, and one was about Daniel Webster fighting the devil on a cliff not too far from where I lived. There was also the story of a painting said to be haunted. It was of a castle with a light in one of the towers that would go on when odd things were happening in the house. If there was no ghostly activity, the window was black; if the ghost was around, the window was lit. There was even a time when a shadowy figure appeared in the window. In each instance, the paint-on window was dry. I was drawn into this story, and since then, my passion for all things unexplained has never left me.

Looking back, my analytical brain and my experience tell me this story has to be a piece of folklore. I accept there are things in this world I will never understand. Looking for ghosts and researching hauntings and folklore is often about discovering what can be possible based on scientific fact.

For example, people often say they feel a chill or a heat wave before something ghostly happens to them. Ghost hunters measure changes in temperature, believing the two are connected. The science makes some sense, but it cant be proven yet. I can handle that as a potential link, but dry paint that appears and disappears? It spits in the face of every scientific fact and pseudoscientific paranormal factbut that doesnt make the story a lie.

Years later, the story about the painting is one I still remember. It was not only the creepy nature of the tale, but also how normal the story started. It was just a picture. My father is an artist, and while I grew up, our walls were covered with framed bits of his creations. Could any of these lure a ghost? No one had died in our basement and I know the house wasnt built on an old cemetery. I was pretty safe. But those pictures any of them could be a haunting waiting to happen.

If I only knew then what I know now. When asking if an object in your house is haunted, it is important to look at what we think we know about ghosts. The honest answer is very little. There are many theories out there, but some come to the surface more than others.

A spirit is the essence of a person or a moment in a persons life, somehow trapped in a way we can perceive. It might take the form of what we call a residual hauntingthis means the essence is trapped, and lacking any consciousness, it acts like a recording of a moment or a person.

Think of it like this: A woman gets thrown down the stairs, screams, and dies when she hits the bottom step. Now, every night, at the time of her death, the residents of the house hear a scream and a series of pounds on the stairs and may even see the woman fall. She cant talk to them or move to a different room. They cant communicate with her. From a homeowners perspective, all you can do is try to change the environment to break up the energy, or accept it and hope it runs out of juice. Keep in mind that some residual hauntings in Europe have lasted for centuries.

Its recommended to stay away from dolls and yard sales, and especially dolls at yard sales.

The other type of ghost is what investigators call an intelligent haunting. This has nothing to do with an actual IQ. It basically refers to a ghost with a mind that is still active and a body that can interact with its environment. It may be able to go from room to room, answer questions, and impact its surroundings in a variety of ways. The easiest way for ghosts to communicate is through electrical devices (see Uncle Webbs story on P. 52), but they are not bound by rules. They can move things, travel from room to room or off the property, and manifest in different ways. One day there might be banging on the wall and the next day there might be an orb of light or a shadow in the room. It is difficult to predict what will happen next, although it is important to remember there are few cases in which people get hurt by ghosts.

There are many types of other paranormal elements that fall outside of these definitions. Poltergeists, which are generally associated with thrown objects and loud noises, may not be ghosts at all, but telekinetic energy from the living. Things like time slips, doppelgangers, and shadow people may not be ghosts, but often occur in connection with other unexplained phenomena in a specific location. Elementals, or spirits created by forces in nature instead of the remnants of living people, are ill defined but still blamed for turning on the faucet when no one is in the room. Then there are demons and dark forces that were never human and seem to have a sinister purpose for being in your house and may even try to possess you.