Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld - Ghost Mysteries: Unraveling the Worlds Most Mysterious Hauntings

A re you the kind of person who would love to see a ghost? If you thought a place was haunted, would you be the first person through the doornotebook and pencil in hand, camera ready? Or would you want to run away fast?

For many people, thinking of ghosts conjures up images of ghoulish forms dripping blood and dragging chains. In horror movies, disturbed mummies plot revenge, and zombies lumber out of their coffins intent on devouring every living creature in their path. In novels and short stories, creepy ghosts like the Bloody Baron and the Headless Horseman may send shivers down your spine. If your first impulse is to run, relax. Most people who have reported seeing a ghost say the whole experience was pretty tame.

Its said that every year on All Hallows Evethe night of October 31the spirits of the dead rise up from their graves and wander through the land of the living. But ghost sightings have been reported in all seasons and at all hours of the day and night. Would you know a ghost if you saw one? Most people who believe theyve seen a ghost say that, at first, it looked like an ordinary person. But when they tried to get near the ghost, it disappeared like a mist. It may have looked as if it moved through a wall, or it may have vanished into thin air or sunk into the ground.

What are these mysterious apparitions? Expert ghost detectives study peoples ghost sightings. Over the years, they have investigated thousands upon thousands of ghost reports. Some, of course, are just very good stories told by people who want to entertain or creep out their friends. But some reports come from people who are truly puzzled by what they have seen and heard and felt. Whatever these ghostly appearances are, investigators have noted a few types that seem to happen again and again.

The most common is called a crisis apparition. Many people have experienced this. They see a strange, ghostly image of a friend or relative, only to learn that person has died or been in some kind of serious trouble that day. Sometimes the ghost does not appear as an image but only as an eerie or ominous feeling. One schoolteacher reported feeling chilled to the bone while teaching a summer-school class on a hot, muggy day. He put on his suit jacket, but even that didnt help. For a few minutes he still felt cold. When he got home, he received a phone call from a relative, telling him that his twin brother had drowned in a boating accident that day. A crisis apparition happens only once and then is never felt or seen again.

In certain places, many people have seen the same ghost appearing at different times. In this kind of haunting, the spirit of one who has been dead for some time is said to linger, or to be stuck repeating the same activity, in one place. For years, people reported seeing a ghost haunting the Drury Lane Theatre in England. Other ghosts had been spotted in that theater, but this ghost kept returning. It appeared at various times as a soft green glow, a moving blue light, or as a handsome young man the actors nicknamed The Man in Gray. Whatever it was, something strange was going on in that theater, and many people experienced it.

Sometimes ghosts are thought to lurk around battlefields or other places where awful things have happened. A phantom soldier has been spotted wandering around The Little Roundtop in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Thats the site of a famous Civil War battle. Legend has it that he is looking for his troop and still doesnt know hes been killed. Some people report phantom voices at Gettysburg, and even phantom smells. You often hear it said that ghosts are the souls of people whove suffered some violence in life. But are ghosts mean and violent themselves?

Poltergeists, also known as noisy ghosts, are about as violent as ghosts get. Poltergeists are heard but never seen, and they dont seem to haunt places so much as particular people . Wherever that person goes, weird things happen. Rapping or knocking sounds are made, but no source can be found. Vases fly off shelves. Lights flicker on and off. Furniture moves of its own accord. But even with all the objects flying around, people are rarely harmed by poltergeists.

So, are these eerie feelings, misty visions, and strange rappings caused by the spirits of the dead who have somehow slipped back into the world of the living? Are they vivid hallucinations? Or are they mere figments, imagined by people who hope or even expect to see ghosts because of dramatic descriptions they have heard or read about? People have been experiencing ghosts for thousands of years. And people have wondered about them for thousands of years too.

Ghost detectives say that theres not much they can do to prove or disprove a haunting from long ago. But when a new ghost appears or a new haunting begins, they can be a big help. If you are lucky enough to have a chance to investigate a ghost, dont run. Try to pay attention and remember everything you see, hear, and feel. Take pictures. Record any sounds. Write everything down so you dont forget any details. Can you think of any ordinary explanations for your ghostly sighting? A good ghost detective asks good questions and gathers all the evidence!