Ghost Light

Sure, ghosts prefer haunting big, rambling places with a lot of history behind them. But not every disembodied spirit can afford spacious digs. And, come to think of it, it’s certain that a lot more people give up the ghost in cramped apartments, mobile homes, trailers, and hovels than in Victorian mansions.

Photographer Carolyn Srygley-Moore captured this image while waiting for a ride home after working a nightshift job in upstate New York. The trailer is unused, and she’d never before seen a light on inside of it.

She tells us she decided not to investigate further, which probably was a wise choice. . . .

Ghost Towns: Sometimes Deserted Even By Ghosts

As with individual abandoned houses and other vacant buildings, deserted villages, towns, and cities sometimes gain a reputation for being haunted. However, ghost towns are so named more for the absence of living people than they are for the presence of the spirits of dead ones.

In the U.S., when people think of ghost towns they tend to imagine the often picturesque ruins of old mining towns in the American West, complete with ghostly tumbleweeds bowling down otherwise empty streets. However, there are ghost towns on every continent, if not in every country. [Read more…] about GHOST TOWNS

Are There Ghosts In The White House?

The ghost of Abraham Lincoln haunts the bedrooms and hallways of the White House. And many reports of Lincoln’s ghost come to us not from a bunch of crackpots who have never set foot in the place, but from otherwise credible sources that include at least two other presidents, a first lady, and a member of European royalty.

In 1942, Queen Wilhemina of the Netherlands reported that one night while she was sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom as a guest of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, she was awakened by a knock at the door. When she opened the door, she was startled to the point of fainting by the sight of Lincoln standing before her in a frock coat.

Roosevelt himself told people that he sensed Lincoln’s spirit in the White House, and so did his cousin, President Theodore Roosevelt. First Lady Grace Coolidge, who lived in the White House from 1923 to 1929, said she she once saw Lincoln standing at a window and looking out at the Potomac River. President Ronald Reagan’s daughter, Maureen Reagan, also reported sighting a “figure” that may have been Lincoln’s. President Harry Truman reported getting up at night on several occasions in order to answer mysterious knocks on his bedroom door—though he never caught anyone, including Lincoln’s ghost, in the act. [Read more…] about IS THE WHITE HOUSE HAUNTED?

How Does A House Become Haunted?

People have talked about haunted houses for at least two thousand years. The oldest written story or account of a haunted house was penned by a Roman named Pliny the Younger, who wrote a letter describing a haunted villa in Athens. According to Pliny, in addition to a phantom who frightened passers-by, the deserted house was infamous for the crashing noises and the sounds of rattling chains that emanated from it at night.

Haunted houses are dwellings said to be inhabited by one or more ghosts who have some sort of attachment to the place that makes them unwilling or unable to leave it. In many accounts the living person who became the haunting spirit was murdered in the house; in others, the ghost him- or herself is that of a murderer. Ghosts are also said to haunt a dwelling because of a strong connection to someone or something inside it—a precious object, or a relative or other person who lives there or used to live there, and whom the ghost hopes will return one day. [Read more…] about HAUNTED HOUSES