I Do, I Do, I DO! Believe in Ghosts

By Sarah

The major news media seemed shocked last week when an expertly timed poll revealed that one third of us believe in ghosts.

Well, duh. Everyone knows that if you don't believe in ghosts they come to haunt you. Look at this guy. Thanks to his skepticism, he has a spooky back seat driver.

Frankly, I don't know how a person can't believe in ghosts, though I doubt highly that ghosts haunt graveyards in order to spook the occasional curious crowd of teenagers. That makes no sense. The living spend very little time around the place where their remains will lie, so why would they haunt it when they're dead? That's like going on vacation and showing slides of where you threw your trash.

No. Ghosts are merely reflections of obsessions. The lighthouse caretaker who is so bound by his duty to insure no ships crash on his coast that a certain part of his spirit still cannot leave. The nurse who walks the halls caring for patients. The murder victim who, having died prematurely, continues to believe she's alive. Ditto for some children or teenagers.

How do I know? Because the British say so. Our friends from London are perfectly sane, normal people (aside from a rather odd Big Brother fascination) who talk about ghosts like they discuss dogs. (Though perhaps not with the same loving tone.) To them, ghosts are just what come with old houses - on the same par with a creaking floorboard or a tipped foundation. Slightly troublesome, but not concerning.

For example, Anna - the wife and mother in this family - tells the story of a house her friend owns that  is haunted by a nanny who patrols at night insuring everyone is safe and sound. Anna herself has seen this specter moving from room to room, through walls and such. One afternoon she looked up to see the nanny peering at her from the upstairs window.

Still don't believe me? Consider a former editor of mine, a delightful woman not given to fancy in the least who, after living in her Manhattan condominium for many years, woke up one night to find a nicely dressed old man studying her from across the room. After giving her a good long look, he neatly draped his coat over his arm and walked through the wall.

She never saw him again.

But forget hearsay and friends of a friend. Here's a video posted on youtube (one of several) showing a ghost who haunts a pantry that opens and closes at night. For full effect, I'd watch this one first and then this one and finally, this one, the freakiest of all. (Though what the hell is a short escrow.) Also, here's a website (of many) devoted to ghost photographs.

(Okay...so I procrastinate when I'm hammering out first drafts.)

Here's my favorite. It's of a Toys 'R Us where strange things were happening, toys were falling off shelves (is that strange for aToys 'R Us?), etc. It's the guy leaning against the wall in the back. He wasn't there when the photographer took the photo.

Or was he? Here's a link to read more.

Do I believe in ghosts ? Well, that depends on how you define ghost. Charlie and I had our honeymoon haunting I've told you about in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. And then there was this cottage my family rented on Lieutenant's Island off of Wellfleet. It was an old duck hunting cottage, isolated and small. A tinderbox. Even as a teenager I could not sleep in the back bedroom because "something" would visit me at night. Sometimes I'd feel fingers running through my hair, other times I'd wake bolt upright, frightened out of my wits. I hated that room.

Years later, when my brothers and I were renting the cottage and overlapping stays with friends, my brother asked if I'd ever felt odd about that back bedroom. He and his then wife had actually seen the ghost. A friend of mine woke up screaming in that room claiming there was a hand around her neck while my best friend since age four, a devout Catholic and Stephen King freak slept like a rock.

So those are my ghost stories. You've probably got a rational explanation for these sightings. (I'm reading Alan Lightman's book now.) Or maybe you believe, too. Either way, there is no better season than now, when the line that separates the living from the dead is at its thinnest, to dish.

Happy Halloween!

Sarah

Comments

[Kathy Reschini Sweeney]

Not sure if this qualifies, but many times when I'm struggling to find the right word, I hear my Pupup's voice giving me the one I'm searching for. He spoke seven languages.

Boo!

[Laura (in PA)]

A friend of mine has a ghost in her house who opens her basement door. Her dog reacts to it, as did her grandchildren when they were toddlers. Other people who come into the house sense his presence. The cable guy asked her if she had a ghost, because he felt it behind him in the basement, and someone working on her bathroom now told her he keeps thinking her husband is coming in the room, and he turns around and no one is there.

She decided it's the guy who built the house and lived there with his family for many years. She bought the house from his kids.

[Harley]

Sarah! It's 4:25 in the morning and I couldn't even get halfway through Video Clip #1, The Pantry Ghost! WAY TOO SCARY! AAAAAGGGHHHHH!

[Nancy Martin]

Nope. Not gonna look at the videos. No way. Forget it. Not Gonna Do It!!

Totally Creeped Out in Pennsylvania

[toni mcgee causey]

I just posted my ghost story over here:

http://murderati.typepad.com/murderati/2007/10/i-never-believe.html

That's really freaky about feeling the fingers through your hair, Sarah. I think that would be all it would take to ensure I was never back in that cottage again.

[Maryann Mercer]

I'm a believer. So is my acupuncturist, who has a (healed) broken elbow and scraped shins from inexplicably falling down the stairs not once but several times during the renovation of an old railroad depot. The ghost's name is Sarah, and it took several placating words and an invitation to tea on those same stairs to calm the spirit. Katie still says hello to her whenever she's near the stairwell. Her golden retriever, Norma also felt the presence. Rick, her significant other didn't feel a thing :o)
When we were in Scotland, my daughter and I visited the Edinburgh vaults...yes, a tourist thing, but there is definitely a feeling of unrest in some of the rooms, and one of our party swore someone was trying to pick his pocket.
Why not believe? Anything is possible in this world...and that includes hauntings. Not looking at the videos though. Not me. Just talking about the vaults was enough to creep me out this morning :o) And who could forget The Legend of Sleepy Hollow? Also very scary!

[William Simon]

I ain't afraid of no ghosts.....

(But you won't see me going anywhere near these places; as someone once said, if I'd been the star of AMITYVILLE HORROR, it would have been a MUCH shorter movie. "Oh, look at the wood floors! And the pretty walls! And the chandelier! And look in the kitch--***GET OUT***.... too bad we can't stay....")

[William Simon]

Memory clicked...that's an old Eddie Murphy routine..:)

[Maryann Mercer]

Almost forgot to mention voodoo...I entered a small shop off the beaten track in New Orleans (not a tourist spot) and got the most eerie feeling. No one was around or answered me so I left, but it was like a prickling at the back of my neck. Not frightening, just odd.

[michele]

Great ghost post, Sarah!

I don't believe in the tv movie version of ghosts --the "looks like a see-through version of the dead person" type of ghost. But I do believe in "presences" because of a personal experience I had that I may have shared before. I was in the room when my father died, and I had the most profound experience of his soul leaving his body and hovering near the ceiling. Then it left. Since then, I've believed in the afterlife.

I don't believe in UFOs either, but I saw one just a couple of weeks ago near my neighbor's house when I went to a trunk show she was hosting. It was oval, black in the center and glowing green around the edges, and when I turned to look at it, it zipped away. I'm sure it was something totally explicable and not an alien spaceship. But it sure as hell *looked* like an alien spaceship.

I know -- this stuff may sound crazy, but I swear I was completely lucid on both occasions, wide awake and not even a glass of wine in my system.

[Josh]

You see, this is why I have that aluminum foil hat in my office. I wonder what its limitations are, if there are standard limitations. Harley? You know more about them than I do.

[William Simon]

Michele-

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." HAMLET, Act 1, Scene 5

In my opinion, that sums it all up....

[SarahS]

Kathy - That experience you had is one that I've had many, many times while writing, especially when in "the zone." Only, it's my mother's voice. (I think. I dunno. She was such a know-it-all when it came to words.) Here's an example:
Yesterday my character was thinking about an award she got for distinguished public service as a TV reporter. "Peabody Awards," my inner voice said.
Peabody Awards? Was that a joke? "George Peabody," the voice said again.
Looked it up online and this is what I found:
"First presented in 1941, the George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished achievement and meritorious service by broadcasters, cable and Webcasters, producing organizations, and individuals."
Of course, it might have been my subconscious. Probably was - still, it saved me time and aggravation.

Maryann: Freeeeeky. Thanks for sharing. Don't like the idea of ghosts pushing someone down the stairs though. Last night I had to assure my son that no one ever died from a haunting. Cough. Then again - he never saw The Haunting. (The 1960whatever version.)

Michele - that is such a touching story. I don't know how I missed it before. My mother's own father came to visit her the night he died. (Though she thought he was still alive.) Sat at the edge of the bed and took her hand.

Me? Nothing. Except for dreams. And my mother budding in to remind me to rework something I was gonna let slide.

Thanks, everyone!

[Elaine Viets]

Fascinating post, Sarah. When my grandmother was dying of cancer I was awakened at 3 AM and I heard her voice saying, "I don't want to die. I don't want to die." Then she said, "Sissy, take my plants in the kitchen and take care of them." I couldn't get to see her because the roads were closed for a terrible ice storm. She died that night and I took her plants and they lived for another 20 years.

[Pam aka SisterZip]

Dear Hubby said his grandmother came to him the night she died. He was about 11; he said when he woke up in the middle of the night, she was sitting on the edge of his bed, smoothing the chenille bedspread. He said he sat up and said, "Grandma?", she stood and left the room. So when I had my experience with John Edward (the psychic, medium...whatever, he didn't make fun of me. He is a firm believer.

[SarahS]

And....what happened with John Edward?

Excuse me if you've told us and I've forgotten.

[SarahS]

Elaine, that story makes me both sad and comforted.

[janetlynn13]

Pam, What happened with John Edward?

I went to a John Edward event with a whole lot of skepticism, but I tell you what, it was believable. It could have been staged, but with all those people, it didn't look it.

[Mary Storyteller]

On the Delta Queen, there I was sleeping in a lounge (my extreme allergy to mold kept me from sleeping in my stateroom - they moved me the next day) and heard an odd tapping sound through the night. I got up periodically to walk to my room and listen in on my sleeping niece, and noticed the photo of Mary Becker Green, first woman licensed river pilot; I thought she'd be interesting to visit with. The next day I read stories of her "haunting" her boat; I figure she was on guard duty. The steward said, "no one will mess with you in here." Right!
http://www.llewellyn.com/bookstore/article.php?id=49
St. Charles "sightings": On the Goldenrod showboat, there were rumors of a ghost, Victoria, who saved an electrician from falling off a ladder. At Lindenwood College, Mary Sibley watches over the girls in Sibley Hall. At the Mother-in-Law House restaurant, there were problems until staff started beginning their days by saying "We love you, mother-in-law."

[Mary Storyteller]

When I told a story at our high school talent show, someone told the drama teacher of seeing an angel over my head. My mother had always been very supportive of my storytelling, wouldn't miss a performance.

[Jan Brogan]

Great post. Of COURSE there are ghosts, and not just because my husband and I had to wake up at 5 a.m. and get the hell out of an inn in Nova Scotia because it was definitely haunted. There are ghosts because we need to believe in them. Afterlife confirmed for good or ill!

[Mary Storyteller]

About the Delta Queen, supporters are working to extend the exemption that has allowed it to continue despite its wooden structure (painted for 20 years with fire-retardant paint, and the hull is metal). If the effort fails, this will be its last year of cruising.
I had better links, but this is a start -- PLEASE CLICK ON , OR CUT AND PASTE THIS LINK, THEN CLICK ON FEEDBACK POST A COMMENT, THE ARTICLE WILL OPEN.
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=COLUMNISTS04
Thank you,
Mayor John Lewis

[Mary Storyteller]

found the one with glorious photos
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/us/25delta.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

What will Mary Becker Green do without her boat cruising?

[Pam aka SisterZip]

One of my best friends had died of cancer in June of 2003. She was a huge fan of John Edward. She had even signed up for tickets and had planned on going to NYC when they came through. On October 2, 2003, John Edward was on Larry King Live and I decided to call in because she was such a fan. I spent 45 minutes getting a busy signal and I said, "Come on,Linda. You've got some pull...get me on that show." The next time I dialed I got through and was the last phone call taken. Here is the transcript of my section:

KING: St. Charles, Missouri, hello.

CALLER: Hi, Larry. Hi, John.

EDWARD: Hi, how are you doing?

CALLER: Pretty good. I wanted to see if there's any messages, but also tell you, John, that a very good friend of mine just recently passed and she was very big fan of yours. And I just want to thank you for your work because she was really into that. We would talk about you all the time.

EDWARD: Oh, thank you.

CALLER: I have a feeling she got me on the phone here. But let's see who else comes through.

EDWARD: Thank you for saying that. Sometimes it's very hard to do this work and kind of -- I joke around and say I walk around with a bull's eye on my butt and to do this work, you know, people want to shoot you down, but it takes one person like you saying that, it makes it all worth it. So thank you.

The first thing is I have, again an older male figure whose coming through. I don't know if your dad passed.

CALLER: No.

EDWARD: But, I'm getting a male figure passes. And this person passes that -- I don't know if it was a skin cancer issue or somebody had something skin related. A disease or issue of the skin. Is your friend's dad passed, as well?

CALLER: Yes.

EDWARD: I have to tell you, there's an issue with the blood that comes up where there's a severe toxicology bad blood, poisons in the system. So, I don't know if she was on heavy medication or chemotherapy before she passed.

CALLER: Yes, yes.

EDWARD: OK. She's the person I think coming through. She wants me to tell you she's with her dad. Okay? And I don't know if you missed out on seeing her right before she passed.

CALLER: Yes.

EDWARD: But you were with her a lot. You talked to her often?

CALLER: Yes.

EDWARD: Do you have the rug hook, or the rug thing or a needle point or something embroidered?

CALLER: Cross stitch.

EDWARD: Is that the same thing?

CALLER: Yes.

EDWARD: Is that hers that you had or you made it for her?

CALLER: She gave me something that was cross stitched by someone else.

EDWARD: Okay. She's bringing that up to let you know that this is her. She's also talking about, you know when you watch the "Golden Girls" the group meeting in the kitchen over the cheesecake.

CALLER: Yes.

EDWARD: She's telling me that you would do that with her. Like, you would either force her to eat something that she didn't want to eat or tried to get her to eat something foodwise, you had the mutual food thing. Do you know what I'm talking about?

CALLER: Oh, yes.

EDWARD: She also making me feel like I need to talk you about -- either the name of the dog is Max or I need to talk to you about a gray dog like a Schnauzer. What's Max?

CALLER: Max was her dog.

EDWARD: Is that her dog?

CALLER: Yes.

EDWARD: Just know that she's okay. Thank you so much for calling.

KING: Of all the times you have been on, this was incredible.

EDWARD: Thank you.

KING: That Max. By the way, to top it off. After you do something like this do you have to melt down?

EDWARD: I do. I have to sometimes go out dancing or go to a movie.

KING: You're a good man.

EDWARD: Thank you very much.

KING: John Edward. "Crossing Over with John Edward" is seen a you will over the country. And of course the new book, "After Life: Answers From the Other Side" foreword by me.

And me will be back to tell you about tomorrow after this. Max.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[Pam aka SisterZip]

On my video tape copy of the show, you can hear me gasp after he mentions her dog's name. The other things were fairly generic, but he had me at Max. The name & basic description of the dog was right on. I think Larry was even impressed at that one.