Those of you who pay attention will know that I’m fond of medieval ghost stories. Recently I’ve been thinking about writing another one. There are a couple of candidates, including this absolutely insane story recorded by Froissart, about a ghost called Orton, who is essentially a breaking news service for a French knight known as the Lord de Corasse.
As usual with writing projects, I need to let it stew a bit before I get to work. But in the meantime, I have been wondering - have you ever seen, encountered or experienced anything ghostly? Historical or otherwise… Do you believe in that stuff? If you do (or if you don’t), why do you think we are so fascinated with the supernatural?
As usual, I’ll round up the best answers on Friday in First Draft.
I tend to be a skeptic on any matters supernatural but my mothers experience had me question that. At a family vacation to Gettysburg she decided to stay by herself and cook on a local campground as opposed to going to the local tavern with the rest of the family (so you know her experience was not influenced by the other spirits.) She swears to this day a Yankee soldier appeared on the periphery of the campground, nodded at her, then disappeared into the dark woods. For years I assumed she was playing a joke on us but she’s been insistent to this day she saw it, and has never made similar claims.
My rational mind thinks maybe it was a drunken civil war reenactment dude who wanted a hot dog but who knows!
I've never seen a ghost but I once saw a white stag that was ghostly! It actually felt more like a vision and a warning. I was driving at night down into a canyon in Sedona, Arizona. It was pitch black and the road was very winding. When I looked out the side window there was a white stag staring at me. He stood there for an instant and then turned and ran away. I suddenly felt a strong sense of dread which made me turn around immediately and head back. I don't know if it was real (white stags are not common in Sedona, Arizona) but looking back, I feel as if it was a warning and that I was protected from something that was ahead on the road. I have since learned that Sedona has some spiritual vortex sites–where energies merge and coalesce! Yikes! Thank you white stag!
I have never seen, encountered or experienced anything supernatural, nor do I believe in the validity of ghosts. That being said, I think general fascination with the supernatural is an extremely normal human behavior, playing both to our brain's insatiable need to understand and our desire to be entertained with a good story.
To me, ghost stories are just a haunting form of fiction that contains the looming potential for reality and the unknown to collide (in ghost form).
Since we are dealing with the unknown, the form they take and the purpose they serve is entirely up to the author and allows for creative yet plausible scenarios. They can speak to our fears, teach a lesson, keep alive an old tale, or just be used for fun.
Pair this with how our brain functions to literally figure out everything and plan for it, even when it's not possible, and it makes sense to be drawn in. Our minds are racing to put two-and-two together, to try and fill in the "blank space" that exists for the supernatural answers we don't have.
To sum it up, I think the unknown aspect of it ignites our interest and the story itself entertains and engages our imagination.
I believe in the spiritual world, but that being said, I don’t know what it is or how it works. Do the souls/ghosts of people wander the world? Can we see and interact with them? I don’t know. It’s a mystery! Maybe that’s why we’re so drawn to it? The allure of the unknown, it stirs our curiosity and imagination with all the seemingly impossible possibilities? I wonder if it would still be so alluring if we actually understood it?
I think it’s a phenomenon that some people can experience and some can’t. Something you’re born with or not.. I like to think of it as spirituality, separate to religion. Personally I’ve had a definite (to my knowledge) couple of experiences. One was as a 19 year old at a boyfriends. The house was 1930s I think. I was washing up with no one else in the room. I felt a breathe on my neck and someone touch my shoulder. Turned round and no one was anywhere near. Started shouting for my boyfriend and explained what had happened. He tells me an old woman lived in the house before and had a ‘strange’ death! He didn’t specify and I didn’t ask! Suffice it to say I was bricking it going to the toilet in the night after that 😂 ! Also my Cottage is Victorian and when I first lived here, I saw the outline of a woman with a full skirt and bustle walking in part of the garden. However, it was misty at the time and I’ve never seen her again!
I do think old buildings have history absorbed into them and if you’re in tune with spirituality/open to it, you will experience something at some point..
I, too, have had experiences at Gettysburg. My family and I stayed at a campground that was on one of the battlefields and I heard guns going off all night. We were also at Devil's Den were I saw a gentleman in full Confederate garb. When I tried to point him out to my family he had utterly vanished. For anyone who has been to Devil's Den they will know it is very easy to hide, but it was all the way at the top by the parking lot...there was nowhere to hide.
On a funnier note, and earlier visit to Gettysburg, my now husband needed to flatulate while we were on ghost walk at night. He was hanging back when we where walking by the buildings that where used as the infirmaries when he noticed someone pacing back and forth behind him, he just thought yeah well and let it rip anyway. When he turned around there was no one there. We came to find out, a little later in the tour, the hill that we had been on just so happened to be where they would practice marching drills.
I have had many other experiences also, not at Gettysburg, but they are not that interesting.
I believe some people may be more sensitive to that sort of thing then others. I am the type that doesn't even watch scary movies because I scare that easy. When stuff does happen I get freaked!
I don't know if I believe in ghosts, but I saw ghosts ( or something like that) about 4 or 5 times, and only knew it after talking about it with other people. Of all of them, I remember 3 in particular:
1.- My parents owned a 300-year-old house in the middle of a beautiful garden. Friends and family saw frequently a woman in white walking on the balcony, and my dog barked often at a wall where there was only a pot. I always thought my dog was crazy. Apparently, I saw that woman several times as a child, but I always believed it was the curtains moving in the wind. The curtains were also white.
2.- When I was a History student, I practiced paleography at the National Archives, located in a large old house in downtown. I went three times a week, and I arrived very early to be alone. I always heard loud noises and laughter in the room just behind me. One day, the noises did not let me concentrate, and talk to the guy who works there. He laughed, looked for some keys and opened the door. The place was empty. There was no one inside.
3.- I was a curator in a museum. One day I was working late, two hours after the museum's closing time. I needed to check an archaeological masterpiece, so I went alone from my office to the hall. I saw an older man, dressed in gray, through the glass of a showcase. I didn't say anything, went back to my office, and called security. They told me, very calmly, that the museum been empty for an hour at least. Also, they were watching on the security camera, and no one was there. Next day I reported the incident to the Director. He told me with a big smile that the old man was his grandfather, the first owner of the museum. He passed away suddenly of a heart attack 50 years ago.
Like Fox Muder, I want to believe...but I tend to be skeptic sometimes.
Hi Dan! For some wierd reason I didn't receive this post in my email on Wednesday.
I know I'm late for the discussion, but either way I wouldn't add anything useful, as I don't believe in ghosts. I'm not even a Halloween fan (I'm hiding myself under a table atm as I can feel everyone hurling rotten tomatoes at me 🤣). But the stories are entertaining though. And, sometimes in my case, good for a laugh (did I mention I'm a disbeliever? 🤪). But guess what: against my better judgement I actually do believe in God. Go figure!
I have not experienced any supernatural encounters. My mind is usually at war when it comes to this topic. I’m more scientifically inclined and like to see the evidence myself. However, growing up in Thailand where there are many superstitions, I can’t seem to shake the idea that spirits exist.
I avoid horror films with ghosts because I am a scaredy-cat. (Watching The Ring and The Grudge broke me) And it absolutely freaked me out when my daughter was a toddler and spoke about a man she saw in the corner of her bedroom!!! 😱 I never wanted to ask her anymore questions about that man and, luckily, she never mentioned him again.
Not had any ghostly experiences. I do however know I've had an out of body experience. In 1981 when I was eleven years of age, I fell out of a caravan bunk bed, hitting my head against the wall. This triggered an epileptic fit (something that I'd never had before). I was taken with my mother by ambulance to the local cottage hospital. On waking up several hours later I told my now late mum that I awoke and saw her and the ambulance nurse looking after me so I knew I was safe. To this she told me that I didn't come round once on the journey at all. Even now 41 years on the vividness of that experience is still so clear and sharp.
I don't believe in ghosts. One of my ancestors would have been mentioned in a story about hauntings in Missouri had the author gotten the story right. My ancestor, James Nelson, was accused, with two other men, in a triple murder. A witness to the murder was a deaf 8 year-old girl who didn't know sign language. The author of the book mixes the names up. But, says that the girl, Goldie Riser haunts the group home she lived in until she died. Sometimes I think ghost stories involving real people disrespect those deceased persons. Here is this girl who probably witnessed her mother and half-siblings being murdered, but now the picture on the wall falls off because someone didn't secure it well enough. But, let's blame a dead woman who witnessed assault and murder.
I can make short shrift of this 😛 Never seen/encountered/experienced nor believe in anything ghostly. I remember occasions when I experienced something akin to an unexpected, lightning insight out of nowhere (oh, that's a pleonasm), does that count? Probably not, they were very sensible thoughts for once, so definitely not the same as something supernatural.
It's an overstatement that "we" are so fascinated, I personally couldn't care less. But perhaps for those that are fascinated it's a sidestep from religion and the need to believe in 'something', a need to believe slash wishful thinking there is more between heaven and earth ?
Edit: I'm suddenly reminded of a slightly lame joke: We all need something to believe in. I believe I'll have another beer.
I tend to be a skeptic on any matters supernatural but my mothers experience had me question that. At a family vacation to Gettysburg she decided to stay by herself and cook on a local campground as opposed to going to the local tavern with the rest of the family (so you know her experience was not influenced by the other spirits.) She swears to this day a Yankee soldier appeared on the periphery of the campground, nodded at her, then disappeared into the dark woods. For years I assumed she was playing a joke on us but she’s been insistent to this day she saw it, and has never made similar claims.
My rational mind thinks maybe it was a drunken civil war reenactment dude who wanted a hot dog but who knows!
I've never seen a ghost but I once saw a white stag that was ghostly! It actually felt more like a vision and a warning. I was driving at night down into a canyon in Sedona, Arizona. It was pitch black and the road was very winding. When I looked out the side window there was a white stag staring at me. He stood there for an instant and then turned and ran away. I suddenly felt a strong sense of dread which made me turn around immediately and head back. I don't know if it was real (white stags are not common in Sedona, Arizona) but looking back, I feel as if it was a warning and that I was protected from something that was ahead on the road. I have since learned that Sedona has some spiritual vortex sites–where energies merge and coalesce! Yikes! Thank you white stag!
I have never seen, encountered or experienced anything supernatural, nor do I believe in the validity of ghosts. That being said, I think general fascination with the supernatural is an extremely normal human behavior, playing both to our brain's insatiable need to understand and our desire to be entertained with a good story.
To me, ghost stories are just a haunting form of fiction that contains the looming potential for reality and the unknown to collide (in ghost form).
Since we are dealing with the unknown, the form they take and the purpose they serve is entirely up to the author and allows for creative yet plausible scenarios. They can speak to our fears, teach a lesson, keep alive an old tale, or just be used for fun.
Pair this with how our brain functions to literally figure out everything and plan for it, even when it's not possible, and it makes sense to be drawn in. Our minds are racing to put two-and-two together, to try and fill in the "blank space" that exists for the supernatural answers we don't have.
To sum it up, I think the unknown aspect of it ignites our interest and the story itself entertains and engages our imagination.
I believe in the spiritual world, but that being said, I don’t know what it is or how it works. Do the souls/ghosts of people wander the world? Can we see and interact with them? I don’t know. It’s a mystery! Maybe that’s why we’re so drawn to it? The allure of the unknown, it stirs our curiosity and imagination with all the seemingly impossible possibilities? I wonder if it would still be so alluring if we actually understood it?
I think it’s a phenomenon that some people can experience and some can’t. Something you’re born with or not.. I like to think of it as spirituality, separate to religion. Personally I’ve had a definite (to my knowledge) couple of experiences. One was as a 19 year old at a boyfriends. The house was 1930s I think. I was washing up with no one else in the room. I felt a breathe on my neck and someone touch my shoulder. Turned round and no one was anywhere near. Started shouting for my boyfriend and explained what had happened. He tells me an old woman lived in the house before and had a ‘strange’ death! He didn’t specify and I didn’t ask! Suffice it to say I was bricking it going to the toilet in the night after that 😂 ! Also my Cottage is Victorian and when I first lived here, I saw the outline of a woman with a full skirt and bustle walking in part of the garden. However, it was misty at the time and I’ve never seen her again!
I do think old buildings have history absorbed into them and if you’re in tune with spirituality/open to it, you will experience something at some point..
I think I'd best sit this one out.. My only comment they make great stories.. 😉
I, too, have had experiences at Gettysburg. My family and I stayed at a campground that was on one of the battlefields and I heard guns going off all night. We were also at Devil's Den were I saw a gentleman in full Confederate garb. When I tried to point him out to my family he had utterly vanished. For anyone who has been to Devil's Den they will know it is very easy to hide, but it was all the way at the top by the parking lot...there was nowhere to hide.
On a funnier note, and earlier visit to Gettysburg, my now husband needed to flatulate while we were on ghost walk at night. He was hanging back when we where walking by the buildings that where used as the infirmaries when he noticed someone pacing back and forth behind him, he just thought yeah well and let it rip anyway. When he turned around there was no one there. We came to find out, a little later in the tour, the hill that we had been on just so happened to be where they would practice marching drills.
I have had many other experiences also, not at Gettysburg, but they are not that interesting.
I believe some people may be more sensitive to that sort of thing then others. I am the type that doesn't even watch scary movies because I scare that easy. When stuff does happen I get freaked!
I don't know if I believe in ghosts, but I saw ghosts ( or something like that) about 4 or 5 times, and only knew it after talking about it with other people. Of all of them, I remember 3 in particular:
1.- My parents owned a 300-year-old house in the middle of a beautiful garden. Friends and family saw frequently a woman in white walking on the balcony, and my dog barked often at a wall where there was only a pot. I always thought my dog was crazy. Apparently, I saw that woman several times as a child, but I always believed it was the curtains moving in the wind. The curtains were also white.
2.- When I was a History student, I practiced paleography at the National Archives, located in a large old house in downtown. I went three times a week, and I arrived very early to be alone. I always heard loud noises and laughter in the room just behind me. One day, the noises did not let me concentrate, and talk to the guy who works there. He laughed, looked for some keys and opened the door. The place was empty. There was no one inside.
3.- I was a curator in a museum. One day I was working late, two hours after the museum's closing time. I needed to check an archaeological masterpiece, so I went alone from my office to the hall. I saw an older man, dressed in gray, through the glass of a showcase. I didn't say anything, went back to my office, and called security. They told me, very calmly, that the museum been empty for an hour at least. Also, they were watching on the security camera, and no one was there. Next day I reported the incident to the Director. He told me with a big smile that the old man was his grandfather, the first owner of the museum. He passed away suddenly of a heart attack 50 years ago.
Like Fox Muder, I want to believe...but I tend to be skeptic sometimes.
Hi Dan! For some wierd reason I didn't receive this post in my email on Wednesday.
I know I'm late for the discussion, but either way I wouldn't add anything useful, as I don't believe in ghosts. I'm not even a Halloween fan (I'm hiding myself under a table atm as I can feel everyone hurling rotten tomatoes at me 🤣). But the stories are entertaining though. And, sometimes in my case, good for a laugh (did I mention I'm a disbeliever? 🤪). But guess what: against my better judgement I actually do believe in God. Go figure!
Logical thinking VS ingrained beliefs
I have not experienced any supernatural encounters. My mind is usually at war when it comes to this topic. I’m more scientifically inclined and like to see the evidence myself. However, growing up in Thailand where there are many superstitions, I can’t seem to shake the idea that spirits exist.
I avoid horror films with ghosts because I am a scaredy-cat. (Watching The Ring and The Grudge broke me) And it absolutely freaked me out when my daughter was a toddler and spoke about a man she saw in the corner of her bedroom!!! 😱 I never wanted to ask her anymore questions about that man and, luckily, she never mentioned him again.
Not had any ghostly experiences. I do however know I've had an out of body experience. In 1981 when I was eleven years of age, I fell out of a caravan bunk bed, hitting my head against the wall. This triggered an epileptic fit (something that I'd never had before). I was taken with my mother by ambulance to the local cottage hospital. On waking up several hours later I told my now late mum that I awoke and saw her and the ambulance nurse looking after me so I knew I was safe. To this she told me that I didn't come round once on the journey at all. Even now 41 years on the vividness of that experience is still so clear and sharp.
I don't believe in ghosts. One of my ancestors would have been mentioned in a story about hauntings in Missouri had the author gotten the story right. My ancestor, James Nelson, was accused, with two other men, in a triple murder. A witness to the murder was a deaf 8 year-old girl who didn't know sign language. The author of the book mixes the names up. But, says that the girl, Goldie Riser haunts the group home she lived in until she died. Sometimes I think ghost stories involving real people disrespect those deceased persons. Here is this girl who probably witnessed her mother and half-siblings being murdered, but now the picture on the wall falls off because someone didn't secure it well enough. But, let's blame a dead woman who witnessed assault and murder.
I can make short shrift of this 😛 Never seen/encountered/experienced nor believe in anything ghostly. I remember occasions when I experienced something akin to an unexpected, lightning insight out of nowhere (oh, that's a pleonasm), does that count? Probably not, they were very sensible thoughts for once, so definitely not the same as something supernatural.
It's an overstatement that "we" are so fascinated, I personally couldn't care less. But perhaps for those that are fascinated it's a sidestep from religion and the need to believe in 'something', a need to believe slash wishful thinking there is more between heaven and earth ?
Edit: I'm suddenly reminded of a slightly lame joke: We all need something to believe in. I believe I'll have another beer.