Ghosts have become very popular on television. There are now several of these so called reality ghost hunting shows on the tube. There must be a lot of people that watch these shows, or they wouldn't be on and even if they were, they would not get renewed. When you see them spinning off other ghost shows then you know that they are making money for someone. Why are these shows so popular when most people deny that they believe in ghosts? I have a theory about that, but my regular readers are probably saying that this is not so unusual because I seem to have a theory about most everything. Anyway, my theory is that while most people really don't believe in ghosts, they hold out the hope that they are wrong, because this would prove that there is life after death and almost everyone is scared of dying. Applying this theory to the ghost shows, it proves that they would get a large audience, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the theory is correct. People could be watching these shows because they do believe in ghosts, or they feel that they are entertainment, much like watching a comedy show. Anyway what ever the reason is, the shows do attract a rather large audience, at least one that is large enough to support advertisers and that is all that matters to the producers.

Ghosts have fascinated and scared people since the beginning of time. I have no way of knowing who was pegged as the first ghost, or in what time period that this occurred but rest assured that it probably extends all the way back to the dawn of time. I imagine that it was a lot easier to get scared in those days, so that is probably how legends of haunting started. People were very superstitious in those days and remained so until just recently on our earthly time scale. Even today, there are a lot of people around that believe in ghosts, although I believe that the numbers are far lower in the western world today than they have been in the past. Why don't we look at some of these so called hauntings and decide for ourselves if we think that a ghost was really involved or not.

One of the places that has the most famous reputation for being haunted is Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Some of the biggest battles of the American Civil War took place in Pennsylvania and Gettysburg was one of the biggest of the biggest. Somewhere around 170,000 soldiers clashed there. During the battle about 8,000 soldiers died from both sides and causalities were about 45,000. There is no wonder, with all this dead and wounded that the area around and in Gettysburg is considered one of the most haunted. One of my favorite stories regarding Gettysburg tells of a person on a tour of the battleground. He wandered off and went into one of the old buildings in the area and as soon as he entered, he saw crowds of people running around and bed upon bed of patients. He noticed doctors and nurses making their rounds. He decided he better leave. Later on, he was talking to someone who lived in the area and told them how he had entered a hospital by mistake and how bare it looked, it had looked more like a dormitory. The resident asked him where the building was located and when he indicated where he had gone, the resident replied in disbelief, that the building used to be a civil war hospital during the war, but had been turned into a school many years ago. The tourist had apparently entered back into the past or he had seen many civil war ghosts going on with their duties, or still laying in beds not realizing that they had all been long dead. Some people believe that there are time portals located in different areas all over the earth and these people would surely describe this as a trip into the past, but the majority of people would call this strange event a haunting.

Star Of India
Photo Source: Public Domain

Sometimes ships get the reputation of being haunted. One of the most famous is the Flying Dutchman, a legendary ghost ship that is said to sail the seas forever. Another is our own World War II aircraft carrier the Hornet, where not only have ghostly figures been seen, but the population of ghosts is said to be growing. Every one of the ghosts is supposedly someone that had served upon her during the war. Then there is one of the most historic vessels afloat. The Star of India was one of the first iron hull vessels ever built. It is the oldest iron hull vessel still active. The ship was built on the Isle of Man in 1863. A young stowaway was found on the ship and put to work. He fell from the top of the mast, which was about 100 feet off the deck and crushed both of his legs. It took him about 3 days to die. People that have gone on tours of the ship have reported numerous times that when they get near the mast that he fell from, they can feel a cold, clammy hand touch them. The galley has been non operational for many years, yet tourists report the smell of fresh baked bread coming from it and some have stated that they have seen pots and pans moving on the stove. Another area of the ship that is said to be haunted is the chain locker. When the anchor is raised, it was done by men inserting a wooden handle into a round wheel on the deck. They would all walk in a circle and the wheel would turn raising the anchor. Unfortunately for one crew member he was in the chain locker when the anchor was raised one day and he was crushed. These types of ships all had a lot of accidents, so there is no shortage of stories about them.

I have talked about this airplane before, but I think it is worthy of a retell, after all how many supposedly haunted planes are there? There are a lot of stories of hauntings on this one particular aircraft. The story goes that a crew member thought that he had too much partying and laid down in an area that was provided for the crew. When a stewardess went back to get him, he wasn't breathing. He had died while laying in the bed. Right after that is when the haunting reports started. Passengers reported hearing humming and singing coming from the crew cot area and when it would be checked there would be no one there. One worker who was performing maintenance on the plane had locked up the entire plane except for a tiny hatch at the bottom where he could get out through when he finished. While he was working he heard someone walking in the cargo area, but he thought that it was the other guy that he had got on the plane with, but then he noticed that he could see him through the window and he was outside. The next thing he saw was the bathroom door swing open and shut. He swears that there was no breeze or motion on the plane that could have ever caused this. He got so disturbed at this, that he will now only get on that plane if somebody else is with him.

It always seems that where ever there was death, usually violent but not always, there are reports of hauntings. Now we all know that one of the most dangerous places are roads. There are many fatal accidents on roads every year, so this makes them a prime candidate for being haunted. Black Oak Road in Ohio is not an exception, but the ghost that is said to haunt this road did not die as the result of any car accident. In the early 1800s a female servant was sent out in a storm, on foot, to get a doctor from the next town, for her ailing mistress. The weather was brutal and she should never have been out in it. The poor woman froze to death. It is said that on a cold winter's night if you are driving between Lafferty and Flushing in Ohio, there is a chance that you may see the ghost of this woman retracing the tracks that led to her death. Bridges are also other places that are famous for ghosts. One bridge or overpass, depending on what you want to call it, is named Crybaby Overpass in Cable Ohio. Many years ago it is said that a woman walked out on to the overpass or bridge and was carrying a baby in her arms. She jumped from this perch into the path of an oncoming train below. Both were instantly killed. This brings us to the current time. It is said that if you drive over the overpass or bridge in the middle of the night, your car will stall and you will not be able to restart it until you hear the whistle from a train. Wow how inconvenient!

Someone once said that there is nothing better than a good ghost story, especially if you are sitting out in the dark woods around a camp fire. There they were, a family that decided to camp out for a week. The weather was warm and they decided to sleep out in sleeping bags around in a circle, rather than set up the tent that first night. There were five of them, Joe and Pat and the three children that ranged in age from 8 to 12 years. They had just finished roughing it by eating steaks and roasted potatoes and they decided to sit around and tell ghost stories. It was too warm for a fire, so Joe took a flashlight and stood it up on the ground after he turned it on. The story telling went on for about two hours and then it was time to go to sleep. They all climbed into their sleeping bags and dozed off. A loud nose woke Joe and Pat up. The moon was full and they could see what seemed to be a large shadow that had the vague shape of a human, out in front of them. Both Joe's and Pat's eyes were riveted on this figure. As it got closer the two parents realized that the figure was far too large to be a person and they ran to the children, waking them up and running into the woods with them. The figure seemed to be getting closer. No matter how fast that they ran, they couldn't outrun the thing. They should have ran for the jeep, but they hadn't. They were now panting and sweat was running off their bodies as the figure came closer, it was huge but featureless. The children were exhausted as were the two parents and the thing was almost upon them. They collapsed in complete exhaustion and the figure seemed to float up to them. They were terrified. Then the shape reached them and they felt a cold feeling as it seemed to roll over them, much like smoke. They never found out what they had seen that day and they never went camping again.