Of course the title quote is from William Shakespeare (specifically from The Winter's Tale Act 3, Scene 3) and it is telling that Shakespeare wrote so much about ghosts and spirits. Indeed, the idea of the spirit world is as old as time itself, and so why should the belief be any less in people now than then?
Science is partly to blame. We now have logical, precise explanations for almost everything. What was once called "psychic photography" is now a smudge on the lens of a camera or a moth caught in a flash of light. So in the face of all the scientific advances and explanations, why is the "business" of ghost hunting so popular?
I said "business" because there are hundreds of attractions that draw people in by claiming to be "haunted." The people who go to these sites are going because they like a good, scary story (the idea of the "haunted attraction" was blogged about previously: see "Selling You a Bill of Ghouls" so I will not rehash that argument here).
As a group, we have been to many "haunted" locations. We've been to the Waverly Hills Sanitorium in Louisville, KY, we've been to Octagon Hall, we've been to the Old South Pittsburg Hospital, we've been to the Thomas House Hotel. What do these places have in common?
They have built a business about advertising themselves as "haunted."
What have we found there? Well, besides some good E.V.P.'s at Waverly Hills, and filmed footage of a ball rolling by itself across the floor at the Thomas House, not much.
Where have we gotten the most activity? Out of the way places and private homes. The places that do not oversell themselves as "haunted" (the chilling results we got at the house known as Shackleford Corner still resonate with us today).
This blog post serves as a prelude to our investigation later tonight. We always hope that this will be "the one" where we find something. The point is: if a place is actually advertising itself as "haunted" feel free to go to it and enjoy it for the stories and the history, just don't go in expecting Hollywood type scares.
After all, there's no business like ghost business...
