More on haunted houses

It is October, after all.

As someone who grew up fascinated by ghost stories and “Creature Features” I think haunted houses have always been at the top of my list. From the old black and white movies - The Haunting, The Uninvited - to the next generation - The House That Would Not Die, The Amityville Horror - it wasn’t a huge leap for me to want to write about haunted houses, starting with LIVING CANVAS. I’m a little sad that more modern interpretations turn into slasher flicks, as if the only thing that can scare us now is being sliced and diced. I prefer to stick with the fear of the unknown.

As I write my next haunted house book, I’m trying to stick to “the rules” that I have established for my ghosts, which is often colored by the rules of other authors and screen writers over the years. Ultimately, I come back to my own limited (and probably questionable) experiences, and the experiences of “sensitive” people I’ve met. Those seem to be supported by the ghost hunter shows I’ve also been watching to get the mood. At a recent author event, a reader asked me if I’d had any encounters in the cemetery where I started the EPITAPH series. The simple answer is no, although I walked the cemetery in the middle of a crisp September afternoon. 

Which asks the question, why do ghosts only show up at night? And why do the ghost hunters only work in the dark? I suppose the easy answer is because it’s easier to see a “manifestation” in the dark. The hazy, misty, amorphous shapes that make up a ghost. However, the sensitive person I spoke with in my recent research saw her manifestations in broad daylight. So what are the rules?

1. The dead can’t speak. This is supported in the Bible when a dead man wants to go back to warn his family to straighten up. Similar to what Dickens references in A Christmas Carol. The Lord tells the dead man those he wants to warn have the information they need, the same as he did. The result is in what we do with that information.

2. In order to see a ghost, you need to be open to the possibility. As much as they need to expend energy and intent to be seen, we need to expend energy and intent to see them.

3. When a person passes, their energy remains. Sometimes only for a moment, and sometimes as residue, like seasoning in an iron skillet. 

Finally- do ghosts really exist? The answer is very subjective. For me, its a matter of entertainment. When my parents talked about dying, I asked jokingly if they would come back and be my guardian angels, which earned me a resounding “no.” I read a book not long ago about a woman whose little sister died, and she was so overwhelmed with grief that she wouldn’t let the spirit go. As a result, the dead sister’s ghost couldn’t move on and grew more grisly as time went on. When we keep the people we lose dear in our hearts, they always walk with us, whether we see them or not. More memory than ghost.

For more about spirits and haunted houses, I stumbled on this blog that you might enjoy. 

https://samanthagentry.blogspot.com/2022/10/7-signs-your-house-could-be-haunted.html