A-Z of Horror: G is for Ghosts

Real or imagined? You tell me.

One thing that we all have in common is that we are all going to die. With that in mind, we are fascinated by the idea of what happens after death. Do we slip into eternal darkness, or is there a “life” beyond the final heartbeat? For those who believe in ghosts, spectral beings are seen as a sign of proof of the great beyond. For skeptics, the belief is that people cling to the idea of ghosts to make dying seem somehow better.

The Different Kinds of Ghosts

If we are to go down the path of ghosts being real. then we need to talk about the different varieties that exist. Residual hauntings are essentially believed to be spirits that are attached to a place or person, and which play on a loop. You might hear stories form countless people seeing the exact same thing at different times in a singular location.

Then there are intelligent hauntings, where the ghosts are able to communicate with the living. Some seem to have a message to send before they can move on, while others seem to be spiteful and wary of those who step into their home to investigate. Regardless of the type, there is a definite fascination with ghosts and what they might represent.

Are they proof of an afterlife or are they some shared delusion brought on by the human brain reacting to conditions within a certain place. If it is the latter, then how do we explain situations where the same spirit has been seen countless times by people spanning decades?

My Personal Experience with Ghosts

I have a few stories that I can share, but I am going to settle on just two. The first one came when I lived in Calgary in a basement suite that felt off from the moment I moved in. I later found out that woman who owned the place, who was a friend to my mum, had a son who died in the basement. I saw lots of different things in my time there, the strangest of which was a full body apparition going down a hallway with a dead end. Two of my friends were visiting at the time, and they saw it, too.

The second incident happened in our current home, which was very active for a while before going quiet. There is a possible explanation behind that, which I will share another time. A lot of the activity took place in our little galley kitchen, with growls and items thrown all part of regular life. One weekend, we had the grandkids staying over, and while watching a move at night, lights off, things got weird. One of the girls was sitting beside me and kept shining a little flashlight I had given her toward the kitchen. She eventually said to her sisters, “Hey, let’s go to the kitchen to find out who has been bothering us.”

Despite these stories, and a few others, I still fall into the skeptical category. My head tells me there is a logical explanation, even if I can’t figure it out.

My Ghost Book and Movie Selection

If you are a fan of ghosts, you have countless media to choose from. For the book, I am going with a classic and selecting Ghost Story by Peter Straub. I read this one when I was a kid and loved it. As for my movie pick, why settle on one ghost when you can have thirteen? So, let’s go with Thirteen Ghosts.

Coming Up Next

That is all I have on the subject of ghosts, so it’s time to move on to the next letter in the alphabet, which is