Winter’s Longing
Dry leaves, a whirlwind
They made the shape of a man
My father, walking —pg
TGS News & Announcements
WORLD’S MOST HAUNTED COUNTRY
Which Country Has The Most Ghosts?
Britain, the nation that invented both the gothic ghost story and the eccentric pastime of ghost hunting, is the world’s most haunted country, with more ghosts per square mile than anywhere else on earth. This of course is not a provable assertion, but the Brits themselves are sure of it.
In the Introduction to his 2007 book, The Haunted: A Social History of Ghosts, writer and academic Owen Davies tells us that in the 1940’s a folklorist in Warwickshire “calculated that there was one ghost to the square mile in his district.” According to Davies, if we assume the same density of disembodied spirits throughout all of England, we’d come of up with a ghostly population of around 50,000. And of course Scotland’s lonely expanses—the setting for Shakespeare’s Macbeth—are no less haunted than England.
“There are more ghosts seen, reported, and accepted in the British Isles than anywhere else on earth,” declares noted British ghost hunter Peter Underwood in his 1971 book, A Gazetteer of British Ghosts. [Read more…] about WORLD’S MOST HAUNTED COUNTRY
ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S GHOST TRAIN
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
CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE FIVE
“I See Dead People”: The Sixth Sense
No collection of classic ghost movies would be complete without The Sixth Sense, the 1999 supernatural thriller that catapulted M. Night Shyamaian into prominence as a director. The movie stars Bruce Willis as child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe and Haley Joel Osment as Cole Sear, a boy with the ability to see the spirits of the dead. Crowe sets out to try to help Cole with his unusual problems, but by the end of the movie it becomes apparent that the boy has been helping his doctor at least as much as his doctor has been helping him. The boy also provides assistance to numerous other disembodied beings along the way.
Although the movie itself is not particularly chilling, the line, “I see dead people,” which Cole whispers to Crowe, became an instant classic in its own right and has remained in popular use ever since—often being employed in a humorous or ironic context, such as when people are driving past a cemetery. [Read more…] about CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE FIVE
WHITE LADIES
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
THE STRANGEST OUIJA BOARD STORY
It’s About How The Ouija Board Got A U.S. Patent
Of course there are thousands of strange tales concerning secrets, disclosures, and accurate predictions revealed during sessions with Ouija boards. But according to Ouija board historian Robert Murch, perhaps none has ever been stranger—or at least, more consequential—than an 1891 Ouija seance that took place at the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C.
In an interview with Smithsonian, Murch said that shortly after deciding to manufacture Ouija boards in the early 1890s, the game’s original investors found themselves in something of a bind. In order to stave off competition from Ouija board imitators, their company badly needed a U.S. patent on the product. However, in order to qualify for a patent, a “device” needed to be proven to work . . . and proving that Ouija “worked” in any practical sense seemed impossibly problematic. [Read more…] about THE STRANGEST OUIJA BOARD STORY
IS THE WHITE HOUSE HAUNTED?
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?
WHAT TO DO IF YOU SEE A GHOST
“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
CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE FOUR
Poltergeist (1982)—Or, Oh No! A Clown!
Clowns are always good for a horror-movie scare. And when you mix a toy clown with poltergeist activity at a haunted home in the California suburbs . . . yikes!
In this scene from Stephen Spielberg’s 1982 classic film, Poltergeist, tension builds during a quiet evening after bedtime. The kids are safely tucked in, and mom’s enjoying a hot bath. [Read more…] about CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE FOUR
WHAT IS A POLTERGEIST?
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?