Every April The Train Ghosts Through Albany

Following Abraham Lincoln’s 1865 assassination, two coffins—one containing the president’s body and the other bearing the exhumed remains of his young son, Willie, who had died in the White House—were placed on a train pulled by a steam locomotive for transport back to the Lincolns’ home state of Illinois, where they would be buried. All along the route from Washington to Illinois, people lined the tracks to bid farewell to the president who had fought and won the Civil War.

The funeral train was made up of nine cars. The ninth car, which had been built to take the living president and his family on rail trips, was the one in which Lincoln and Willie were carried. [Read more…] about ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S GHOST TRAIN

What Is A White Lady?

White lady ghosts appear to people in cultures all over the world. White ladies are a type of traditional ghost—always female—that is invariably connected with a local legend of great personal misfortune. As the name suggests, they are almost always dressed in white.

Most stories that explain the appearance of white ladies involve romantic tragedies of one sort or another, with betrayals by a husband or lover being the most common, and the untimely death of a betrothed or other lover, or of the young woman and future white lady herself, running a close second.

White lady ghosts are almost exclusively rural manifestations, and they are known to haunt castles, houses, cemeteries, and even entire landscapes that are associated with the terrible loss they suffered in life. [Read more…] about WHITE LADIES

“It Is A Good Idea To Press One Eyeball Slightly. . .”

What should you do if a ghost suddenly looms before you? Right off the top, we can advise that you not scream and run—especially if it’s dark. This is because you could hurt yourself by tripping and falling, or by running into something. If you’re on a stairway, you could even take a neck-breaking tumble—which would no doubt then be blamed on the (probably) innocent ghost.

Also, it’s almost never a good idea to turn your back on something you think might be dangerous, be it a bear or a disembodied being.

Nor should you throw a rock or other object at the ghost just to see if it’s real; your projectile is is likely to travel right through the wraith and break something or injure someone on the other side. And, again, you wouldn’t pelt a bear with a rock, so why would you throw one at a ghost?

Beyond these few safety advisories, noted British ghost hunter Peter Underwood offers some further guidance on what to do if you see a ghost in his 1986 book, The Ghosts Hunter’s Guide. The thing that Underwood stresses most is to stay still and remain calm—ghosts almost never harm anyone. Their boo is worse than their bite.

“There is nothing to fear,” says Underwood. [Read more…] about WHAT TO DO IF YOU SEE A GHOST

Poltergeists Are Playful—But Not Much Fun

What are poltergeists? This is one supernatural question that most of us think we’re qualified to answer—after all, we’ve seen the movies. Therefore you likely already know that poltergeists are those most physical of disembodied spirits—that they are able to make noises, open and close doors, move furniture and other objects from one place to another, throw things, pull blankets off of beds, occasionally pinch, bruise, or even leave bite marks on people’s skin, and in other ways manipulate their surroundings in a playful, mischievous, or destructive manner. Of all the different kinds of ghosts, they’re probably the most worthy of worry—if you believe in them, that is—because they are capable of causing pain and property damage.

What most people might not know is that the term “poltergeist” was first used in print by Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther (1483-1546), who was a firm believer in the malicious activity of evil spirits.

Unlike other sorts of ghosts, poltergeists almost always remain invisible. According to a 19th century tract on ghosts quoted by Owen Davies in his 2007 book, The Haunted: A Social History of Ghosts, “A ghost’s power of making noise, and exerting what seems to be great physical energy, is often in inverse ratio to his power to make himself generally visible, or, at all events, to his inclination to do so.” [Read more…] about WHAT IS A POLTERGEIST?

Ghosts, Classified By Kind. Which One’s In Your Attic?

How many kinds or types of ghost are there? Until recently, we would have said one “regular” disembodied type, and a handful of “walking dead” variations. But then we read Roger Clarke’s book, Ghosts—A Natural History: 500 Years Of Searching For Proof—and learned how wrong we were.

Clarke is British, and it turns out that during the mid- to late 20th Century a small group of British ghost hunters threw the same level of passion into classifying ghosts that lepidopterists from Britain once invested in capturing and classifying the world’s butterflies. Except, there are a lot fewer species of ghosts: eight to be exact. Or is it nine? Or twelve?

In a chapter titled “A Taxonomy of Ghosts,” Clarke relies heavily on the work of ghost hunter and ghost-story collector Peter Underwood to describe each of eight types of apparition. He begins with the most primitive kind, which Underwood called an “Elemental.” Elementals are ghosts that move little if at all; instead they glare at passers-by from a single location—often from within an old burial ground. Underwood described them as “race-memory manifestations” in that they usually are dim reflections from the distant mythological past of the community in which they occur. According to Clarke, American ghost hunters might consider elementals to be demons rather than ghosts, as it is not clear whether they ever were human. [Read more…] about THE EIGHT TYPES OF GHOSTS

More Folks Than You Might Think Have Seen A Ghost

Personal encounters with the supernatural are surprisingly common among people in cultures around the world. In fact, an impressive portion of us have had a personal experience with a spook. In the majority of cases, the ghosts are those of departed loved ones, including pets. But a significant number of reported paranormal events involve the disembodied spirits of complete strangers.

In addition, according to a roundup of public polling results published in Psychology Today, belief in ghosts among Americans almost tripled between 1978 and 2005. [Read more…] about HOW MANY PEOPLE SEE GHOSTS?

The Walking Dead: Ghosts You Can Touch And Feel

Acording to European folklore, not all ghosts are vaporous, intangible spirits. Some of the dead return to haunt the living in the same bodies that carried them through life.

From the Middle Ages forward, these material or “solid” ghosts were called “revenants,” a word derived from the Latin word for “returning.” Prior to medieval times, the Vikings talked of animated corpses they called draugar (singular: (draugr or draug) which sometimes guarded buried treasures and/or possessed magical powers. [Read more…] about REVENANTS, VAMPIRES, & ZOMBIES

Spirit Worship: The Foundation Of All Spirituality

When early humans first contemplated their universe—the living world around them along with the night sky, the wind, the depths of waters, and their own dreams—they determined that unseen spirits were at work in and behind everything they saw. Eventually groups all around the world who had no contact with one another independently developed supernatural beliefs that centered on the respect, fear, or worship of spirits, often including the ghosts of their own dead ancestors and other loved ones. Rituals inspired by these beliefs included ceremonial interment of the dead, sacrificial offerings of food and other goods to disembodied beings, magical procedures for the handling of animals killed during a hunt, and an array of other actions taken to maintain the goodwill of the spirits.

These similar belief systems together are known as animism, and they formed the foundation of all later, more “sophisticated” religions. However, not only does animism continue among some native peoples of the 21st Century, but contemporary religions are still nourished by their hidden animistic roots. In fact, in Hinduism as well as in Buddhism as it is practiced in many countries, animism is not hidden at all, but openly and tightly entwined. [Read more…] about ANIMISM

What’s The Difference Between Ghosts, Demons, And Spirits?

Are ghosts and demons the same? Is every spirit a ghost? If not, what are the differences? And what about angels?

First off, a spirit is any supernatural, usually incorporeal (bodiless, massless) being. Ghosts, demons, and angels all are types of spirits. Clearly, then, not all spirits are ghosts. In fact, in the set of ancient belief systems known collectively as animism, everyone and everything has a spirit, including animals, birds, trees, and rocks.

Nor are demons and ghosts the same. While both are spirits, there is one important distinction. [Read more…] about GHOSTS, DEMONS, AND SPIRITS

People In Thailand Provide Shelter To Ghosts

In Southeast Asia, particularly in Thailand, the Buddhist religion mixes more or less comfortably with a much more ancient belief in spirits, known in the West as animism. Many, if not most, people in this region believe that ghosts and other invisible disembodied spirits move among them constantly. These spirits can be good or evil, and they can cause mischief or serve as protectors.

In order to stay on the good side of these ghostly visitors—and perhaps even to enlist their unseen assistance—families and businesses alike erect and maintain miniature dwellings where the spirits can rest. These spirit houses can be found in front of homes, shops, factories, office buildings, and company headquarters. They also overlook places in need of special protection, such as fish ponds and gardens. [Read more…] about SPIRIT HOUSES