13 Days of Halloween: #8 Ghosts
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Do you believe in ghosts? If so, have you ever seen or heard one? Or had an unusual interaction that you can’t explain? A 2019 poll of Americans found that 46% believe in ghosts. In 2009, that number was 32%, and in 1990 it was 25%. As an aside, only 7% of Americans in 2019 said they believed in vampires.
Ghost hunting has become a popular—and lucrative—topic over the past decade. TV shows, books, YouTube channels, phone apps, and special equipment that “detects” spirit energy or allows entities to “communicate” with the team are prevalent and give viewers an inside seat to any paranormal action. How much is real; how much is staged? Probably more is staged than eager believers realize.
Here are a few facts about “ghosts” and a couple of my personal experiences that confirmed my own belief in their existence.
The word “ghost” in its earliest root form comes from a Proto-Indo European word gheys, (4000 to 2500 BC) which translates into “fear,” “terrify,” and “trembling.”
Portrayals of ghosts as white translucent mists may come from an ancient belief that they were the dead person’s spirit that you could see, much like breath in cold air. The Latin word for breath is spiritus, which evolved to also mean “soul.”
·All cultures in the world have ghost-related beliefs and stories.
·One of the original “ghost hunters” was a female investigator named Eleanor Sidgwick. She became president of a prestigious Victorian “ghost club” called the Society for Psychical Research established 140 years ago, in 1882. These British ghost clubs at the time were associated with universities like Oxford and Cambridge.
People report seeing many types of ghosts—apparitions, mists, poltergeists, shadow people, intelligent (relevant responding or reacting to a stimulus such as a question,) and residual (unaware of the current physical world and playing like a video loop, over and over.)
In spite of the many purported sightings and testimonials throughout the ages, scientists point out that there is no concrete evidence to support the existence of ghosts. However, Albert Einstein is said to have pondered this question from the “Law of Thermodynamics:” if energy cannot be created or destroyed but can only change form, where does the body’s energy go upon death?
Regarding my own experiences and interactions, I’ve had several, as some of my friends can attest.
One common experience that many people have is finding random coins that appear seemingly out of nowhere. It’s a widespread belief that these are, literally, pennies from Heaven that loved ones send to say hello from the other side. After my parents passed away, I was clearing out their house. I had emptied a bedroom of furniture and boxes and swept and mopped the hardwood floor. A few minutes later when I passed by in the hall, I saw something on the floor: a quarter, the only object in the room.
I also inherited my grandmother’s dishes, which I decided to use and got rid of my own. I moved from Ohio to New York and packed the dishes carefully into a box with paper toweling between each dish. I unpacked them, rinsed, dried, and stacked them on the counter. I was thinking about how I would use them for dinners with friends as I placed them in the cupboard. Something fell out of one of the stacks of plates as I lifted it up. It was a dime that was obviously not there when I stacked the plates. Hello, Grandma.
In Oregon, I was driving south on 101 through a resort town. Traffic was bumper to bumper but slowly creeping forward. I noticed a young couple in their 20s hiking north on the right side of the road. He was clean cut, blondish hair, stocky build, wearing a brown bomber jacket and cargo pants and a backpack, using a walking stick. She was slightly taller than he, with dark hair a little longer than shoulder length, wearing a flowy, mid-calf flower-print dress, hiking or Timberlake boots, and an open zippered parka with a hood. She looked at me with stunning blue eyes, and I noticed her hair was wet and sort of stringy. I knew in an instant that she was dead, that she had drowned by slipping off of a pier, and that these two loved each other very much and had made plans together. She was still with him. I was unnerved because this was completely unexpected. A few seconds later we had passed each other. I looked in my rearview mirror, and he was the only one there, continuing on.
