Do Ghosts Exist?

I had to upload it to youtube because when I tried to upload it from my computer it didn't work. :)

Psychics and Ghosts

A secret that a spiritual medium recently revealed to Postsecret

"What the Bible says about: Ghosts, and Psychics." angelfire.com. N.p., 07/08. Web. 22 Apr 2010. .

I read an article on a website that talks about what the bible says about ghosts and psychics. The bible says that Satan rebelled against God and was cast down into hell along with his fellow fallen angels, also known as demons. God created man in his image and therefore Satan hates man because they have a relationship with God that no angel could ever have. Satan is jealous and hates us for our relationship with God so he wants to deceive us. He tries to get us to reject God so that we will share his same punishment. Satan uses “ghosts” because he wants people to believe that these are the spirits of people who have died, but instead they have overcome the chains of death and have returned to roam the earth. These ghosts are not apparitions of loved ones, but instead are fallen angels masquerading around pretending to be people that we once knew. Some of these “ghosts” appear to people claiming that they want to help them and giving them evidence that they know things that has happened in the person’s life. Because these demons have been around longer than we know, they retain certain knowledge about our lives and use that knowledge against us. 2 Corinthians 11:14 tells us that Satan and his angels are able to disguise themselves as helpful spirits: “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. (15) Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works”. God can send to us helpful spirits, but unless this spirit comes forth and says that they are sent from God, then they aren’t really a helpful spirit, but instead a fallen angel. As for talking to the dead, it’s forbidden by God and it’s not likely that you will call forth a good spirit because if you call forth an evil spirit then it will gladly show itself.

Being a Christian myself, I can’t help but to believe this. The bible doesn’t go in to much detail about ghosts and spirits, but if it tells me that ghosts are fallen angels disguised as helpful spirits then I can’t help but to believe it because it’s all a part of the faith that I have in God. It makes sense that nobody defeats death because in the bible it says that when we die we either spend eternity in heaven or spend eternity in hell. There’s no in between. As for people who actually talk to ghosts, I now believe that that’s a load of bull crap. A person who wishes to hear from a loved on is easily deceived by their medium and the medium takes advantage of that.

Bass Cemetary

A few friends and I went to Bass Cemetary for our interaction to see if we could have any encounters with the supernatural. Bass Cemetary is said to be haunted by the spirits of civil war soldiers and slaves. It is rumored that occult groups practice their rituals there, leaving behind animal carcasses that they have sacrificed. We didn't see any during our visit, but some of my friends have told me that when they have visited bass they have seen the carcasses. We didn't actually see any mists, figures, etc., but whenever I go to Bass I always have this eerie feeling, like something is following me. It's probably just a psychological thing. However, after I took a picture of Bradlie, Shawna, and Tatum, we saw an "orb" in the top right corner of the picture. I hear noises often whenever I go to Bass, but I have to remember that it's located in the woods and there's many of things that could have caused the noises, including the people that I may go with.

I thought that the interaction was the best part of this project. It was interesting to get together and talk about everyone's beliefs on this topic and going ghost hunting was a lot of fun. We stayed there for a good while and we didn't see any appartions or witness any other paranormal activity, so that makes me feel a little bit better about ghosts. When I started out researching this topic, it scared me to death. Now I think that people could have encounters with demons, but it won't happen unless you call upon them. I stayed in a "haunted" grave yard and I didn't see anything that would make me believe that there are ghosts.

Haunted Halls of Ivy

W. Barefoot, Daniel. Haunted Halls of Ivy: Ghosts of Southern Colleges and Universities. Detroit: Detroit Publishing Company, 2004. 87-91. Print.




I read the book Haunted Halls of Ivy: Ghosts of Southern Colleges and Universities by Daniel W. Barefoot. My book is basically a collection of thirty nine ghost stories about ghosts that take up residents in the universities and colleges throughout thirteen southern states. For more than two hundred years college professors and college students have witnessed and reported supernatural occurrences that they have experienced throughout college life. Many of these schools have had students who have committed suicide, committed murders, or died from accidental causes. Vivid reports of paranormal activity in the places where these unfortunate students lost their lives offer the idea that the spirits of these people reside there. The cool thing about this book is that after you have read the stories that have taken place in these colleges, you can visit and form your own opinion on these spirits that have supposedly roamed the halls for many years. One particular story that was scary to me was the story of Isabella from Northwestern State University in Louisiana. Isabella was beautiful and had many suitors, but when a dashing young man from the East came to Natchitoches on business one day, she fell deeply in love and the couple agreed to marry. Just days before the wedding, her lover was killed in a duel, rumored to be a duel over another woman’s heart. Isabella was devastated and decided to become a nun. On a stormy night the sisters in the convent grew scared and decided to go down to the basement, but not Isabella. She locked her door and stayed in her room. The next day the sisters came to check on her and found “a knife thrust through her heart and her bloody handprint stained a wall” (Barefoot 88). Not long after her burial her ghost began roaming the halls of the convent, which was later acquired by the state of Louisiana to serve as the campus of Louisiana State Normal School. Isabella’s ghost remained throughout all the changes that the building went through. The school went through many changes. In 1944, the state legislature changed the name of the school to Northwestern State University. Isabella has kept residence in the school although some of the halls she once resided in have been torn down. Some of the students even throw her parties for her spirit to move to new parts of the school. Nobody knows if she is happy with these changes, but people can still see her bloody handprint on the wall to whatever hall she makes her new home.

This book was very interesting to me because it told detailed stories about the people that attended these schools and it drew you in to these people’s lives and their deaths. Knowing a little bit of background information on these ghosts’ previous lives makes them seem more real. The people that have experienced paranormal activity in the areas that these people’s lives were taken have given some evidence that supports the idea that these spirits still exist. It was a book that I definitely couldn’t read late at night because it gave detailed descriptions of hauntings and of the fate that these people faced and it was a little bit scary to me.

This book has somewhat convinced me that spirits may exist. I still think that sprits are demons masquerading around as people who have previously lived to deceive us into thinking that the chains of death can be broken. My pastor is a good family friend of ours and he was at my house this past Friday. He has also read this book before when he was doing a study on the supernatural. He explained that, being a pastor, he wanted to explore the supernatural from all points of view so that he can further his knowledge of what happens to us when we die. We both discussed our beliefs on the topic and we agree that these collections of stories about these people probably took place, but we think that their spirits aren’t really them at all, but instead are demons that roam the halls to deceive the students. The students that were still living know exactly what happened to these students whose lives were taken away so they are easily influenced to believe that the paranormal activity that has occurred around them are the spirits of those same people who have died. Which, they may be, but I’m convinced that ghosts are just a tool that Satan uses to throw us off. In the bible it says that Satan and his followers can disguise themselves as an angel of light to trick us, and I think that is exactly what ghosts are: demons who make us believe that they are a “helpful” spirit, or sometimes they may not pretend to be helpful and are just harmful spirits. Not to sound preachy at all, that’s just the way that I see it.

The Hauntings at Sloss Furnace

Brown, Alan. Haunted Places. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississppi, 2002. 19-25. Print.




Many of us who live in Alabama have grown up with the belief that Sloss Furnace is haunted. Many people have died at Sloss, but there is said to be only two ghosts that take up residence at Sloss. One of the ghosts is the spirit of a young girl who came to Sloss in the 1900's. The girl was unmarried and pregnant and felt like an outcast because to be pregnant out of wedlock back then was a huge deal. She had sneaked in to the gate and walked over to one of the furnaces while the men were pouring iron into the sows. The men were very busy and "they caught sight of her climbing to the top of the ladder, but it was too late. She had jumped off of the latter and plummeted into the molten iron" (23). Shortly after her suicide a ceremony was being held at the furnace where local politicians and company executives were listening to a speech given by a company official, when suddenly a white deer ran by. This deer is believed to be the ghost of the young girl. The other ghost is the spirit of Theophilus Calvin Jowers. Jowers was given a job of removing the old bell of Alice furnace No. 1, dropping the bell into the furnace, and replacing it with a new bell. Jowers was standing too close to the top of the furnace and lost his footing and fell down into the furnace along with the bell. Furnace workers reported feeling a chill in the air when they stood on the bridge at the Alice No. 1 and also reported seeing Jowers ghost in the sweltering heat.

My aunt worked at Sloss Furnance during her freshman and sophomore years of college because she is an art major and wanted to learn a thing or two about cast iron. She's never been one to believe in ghosts, but after working at Sloss for two years she's changed her mind. She said that when she was standing near the machines or near the furnaces that you could hear unexplained noises and feel a cool chill through the air. She and a few of her freinds would stay late and roam around the furnace to see what all this paranormal activity was about. She never said anything about seeing apparations, but she said that she could feel a presence following her. She doesn't believe in ghosts to the extent that some people do, but she definitely thinks that there has to be something to all this ghostly activity that people talk about. After hearing her stories, I think she could just be freaking herself out. She insists that spirits really do exist in Sloss. She's never seen a white deer running through the furnace or seen the apparation of Jowers, but she says that many other people have died at Sloss and that those could be the spirits that she has encountered.

Recorded Poltergeist Activity

Unbelievable poltergeist activity [Video]. (2008). Retrieved on April 14, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5_RpNgxptQ&feature=related.

This video is about a guy who had been experiencing some paranormal activity in his home. At the ten second mark of the video, he tells us that "I would often return home from work to find the door leading to my attic wide open". Many unexplainable occurrences have happened, so he set up a camera in his living room, hoping to capture the poltergeist on tape. Many strange things occur such, as radio interference, orbs floating around, doors opening and closing, and paper towels on the coffee table ending up on the couch. The man's dogs seem very upset with whatever presence they sense in the house. This footage was recorded during the middle of the day on March 14th 2008.

This video seriously scared the crap out of me! I've seen ghost hunting shows before, but I always believed that people just psyched themselves out and I never understood what the host would be freaking out about. This video seems so real, and the dogs reaction to whatever is going on around them really makes this video that much more believable. I think that this man really does have a spirit living in his home.

Seances and Ectoplasm

Kallen, Stuart A. "Ghostly Communications." The Mystery Library: Ghosts. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Lucent Books, 2004. 36-41. Print.




In one section of The Mystery Library: Ghosts, by Stuart A. Kallen, it talks about spirits innteracting with a medium. Seances are most often conducted with many sitters, or witnesses. These sitters are grouped around a small table while the medium calls forth a spirit. Seances normally take place in a dark room only lit by a single candle. The medium chants to raise the dead, and the sitters either hold hands or place their hands palms down on the table. Using self-hynosis and breathing techniques, the medium begins their spirit communications. Events at a seance can be unpredictable. An example of this occured in 1892 when Charles Hill Tout was allegedly possessed by his father's ghost when it took control of his body during a seance. Sometimes during the course of a seance, ghosts materialize in human form to communicate with the medium or the sitters. They are said to take form of a slimy substance called ectoplasm. Ectoplasm's presence in the human anatomy has not been established biologically, and "as far as is known, ectoplasm exists for no other purpose than to provide construction material for spirits of the dead returning to visit spirit seances" (Kallen 40).

I've seen plenty of movies where the characters perform seances to communicate with deceased family members or friends, but I've never heard of anyone who participates in them in reality. I don't ever plan on participating in a seance, but I would like to find out more information about them. I still can't decide if I believe in ghosts or not because I've researched seances and found that many seances that have been performed have been fake so that the medium can get money from the sitters. But how do you explain ectoplasm during real seances that actually occur? If ectoplasm's presence in our bodies hasn't biologically been established, then how do you explain what it is when it's coming out of a medium's mouth, ears, or eyes? I'm not sure if seances are a way to really connect with spirits, but I think that the author gave enough evidence to convince me that something, whether it has to do with communicating with spirits or whether its black magic, goes on during these practices.

Amityville Horror

The Amityville Horror. Dir. Andrew Douglas. Dimension Films, 2005. Film.



A family, the Lutzes, moves in to a house that was the scene of a grusome murder the year before. Ronald DeFeo Jr., who was the oldest son of the family that lived in the home prior to the Lutzes, brutally murdered his parents and his two brothers and two sisters using a .35 caliber in November of 1974. The Lutzes haven't been in their new house long when they start to see the ghost of Ronald DeFeo's sister, Jodie DeFeo, and theystart to see terrible things such as disfigured bodies, insects gathering in the house, and hearing ghostly voices George Lutz begins to act differently throughout the course of the movie. He becomes a danger to the rest of his family. When a priest is invited to the house to bless the home, he leaves after being swarmed by flies. He warns Kate Lutz by saying, "Mrs. Lutz, get you and your family out of that house. Right now!". Kate tries to get her family out of the house before anything too terrible happens, but the spirits are trying to take over George and make him an endangerment to the ones that he loves.

This movie doesn't really scare me because I think that the Amityville Horror was a total fake. Ronald DeFeo Jr. claimed that he heard ghostly voices telling him to murder his family. What some people do not know is that Ronald DeFeo Jr. was into some hard drugs and had a rough childhood. His actions came from his own desires, not the desires of a "ghost" living in his house. As far as the movie goes, I thought it was a great movie. I hate movies that end with a main character dying, so this movie earned major points for keeping everyone alive, aside from the DeFeo's. As for the "true" story behind the movie, I think it was just a scam for the Lutzes to get money for their "haunted" home.

Poltergeists are bull crap..

Netzley, Patricia D. "Poltergeists." The Mystery Library: Haunted Houses. San Diego, California: Lucent Books, 2000. 30-48. Print.

This week I read about poltergeists in The Mystery Library: Haunted Houses, by Patricia D. Netzley. The word poltergeist is derived from the German words poltern, meaning noisy, and geist, meaning spirit. Basically what these certain spirits do is make loud noises, move objects around, and push, pinch, and shove people. They might can also cause unexplainable fires or strange incidents related to water, such as appearing in a room of puddles with no cause. One of the most common cases of poltergeist activity was the incident of The Amityville Horror. Kathy and George Lutz and their three children moved in to the house in Amityville, New York in 1975. The home had been the site of a murder in 1974. Within a few days the family began to hear banging doors and windows and mysterious noises. The poltergeist started to use physical contact with the members of the Lutz family. The family claimed that they were pushed, pinched, and beaten, and Kathy Lutz reported that she levitated off of a bed on one occasion. The family also reported that green slime had dripped from the ceiling. Only twenty eight days after moving in, the family abandoned the house. The previous occupant of the house, Ronald DeFeo Jr., murdered his parents and four siblings in the house and pleaded insanity during his trial. He told the judge that a ghost had forced him to commit the killings, but the jury believed that DeFeo just wanted his parents insurance money. DeFeo's attorney, William Weber, believed the Lutzes' faked the occurances in the house to make money off of it. The house inspired author Jay Anson to write a book, titled The Amityville Horror, which became a best-seller and also became a movie in 1979.

I don't believe in poltergeists at all. I'm still not even sure if I believe in ghosts, but I do think that if ghosts do exist that they wouldn't try to scare or hurt people for no reason. I think that the Amityville Horror was just a scheme for the Lutzes' to make money off of their home. On page 45 it says that "new owners had moved in to the house, and they were experiencing absolutely no poltergeist activity. Moreover, they felt that the Amityville book and movies were damaging to their quality of life by turning their house into a tourist attraction" (45). If the house really was haunted, then why don't the people living there now undergo any supernatural experiences like the Lutz family did? I really do have mixed beliefs about ghosts. I can't decide if I believe in them or not because some of the research that I collect makes them seem real, but then as I countinue to study the topic I find other research that convinces me otherwise. I'm still so confused..

The Red Lady of Huntingdon College

Windham, Kathryn Tucker, and Margaret Gillis Figh. "The Red Lady of Huntingdon College." 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The University of Alabama Press, 1987. 97-106. Print.

Huntingdon College has been haunted since 1910. Several students have seen apparations of two women wearing red who walk the dormitory halls during the course of the night. The first ghost was seen when the college was located in Tuskegee before it moved to Montgomery. She was seen one night on the top floor of the dormitory, known as Sky Alley, after all of the lights were turned off at ten o'clock. She was walking up and down the halls of Sky Alley in a red evening dress and she carried a red parisol. She made no sound and stared straight ahead as she strolled the halls. The students who saw the spirit gathered in one room and pushed a washstand against the door to be sure that they were safe from the ghost. Although the door was secured, the students could still hear the tap,tap noise of her footsteps throughout the hall. At dawn the sound of her clacking heels died away and she was spotted disappearing. None of the students saw the ghostly spirit again and nobody could explain the reason for her appearance at the college. The second ghost, however, had a plausible reason to come back for visits. She was a former student named Martha who attended Huntingdon College when it moved to Montgomery. She was originally from New York but she came to Huntingdon because her father specified in his will that his daughter must attend her grandmother's alma mater. Martha was dressed in red when she arrived to Huntingdon and she brought a red bedspread and red curtains for her windows. Most accessories throughout her room were also red and when asked about it, she refused to explain her obsession with the color. Her room was on the fourth floor of Pratt Hall and many students that resided on the fourth floor sensed that she was different from them because she was wealthy and they mistaked her shyness for arrogance. Martha isolated herself from the other students and rarely spoke to her roomate. Her roomate became frustrated with Martha and asked the housemother if she could move out. Martha had many roomates and one by one they all requested to move out. Finally, the president of the dormitory moved in with Martha. The girl was known for her ability to make friends and get along with most people, so she figured she could help Martha come out of her shell. Martha remained solitary and any attempted friendship that her roomate tried to make had failed. The roomate packed her belongings and prepared to leave. Just as she was leaving, Martha returned to the room. She became upset and confronted her roomate on her departure; "So you couldn't stand me either, like all the rest of your stuck-up friends. I was beginning to think you really wanted me to be your friend, but you hate me just like the rest. Well, I'm glad to be rid of you! Take your things and go! But I'll tell you one thing, my dear: for the rest of your life you'll regret leaving this room." Martha was saddened by the fact that the person who she believed to be her only friend couldn't stand her either. She formed a habit of wandering the rooms where other girls got together, but her presence made all the other girls flee, leaving her alone. Her behavior became very strange. She would wait until the lights were out to visit one dormitory after another and stare in to space as if she were in a trance. She began walking up and down the halls throughout the night and alarm the other girls by opening and closing their doors, then hurrying back to her room. One evening after Martha had not attended any classes or meals for the day, her former roomate (the dormitory president) decided to check on her to make sure she was alright. She opened the door to Martha's dorm and screamed. Girls from all over the fourth floor of Pratt Hall ran from their rooms to see what the commotion was about and found the dormitory president lying in a faint within the doorway of Martha's room. They found Martha dressed in her red robe and draped in her red bedspread with blood around her on the floor. Martha had slit her wrists and bled to death. Students at Huntingdon College still say that on the date of Martha's suicide each year, rays of crimson light flash down from her window and "the Red Lady" returns to haunt the halls of Pratt Hall.

My beliefs about ghosts and spirits are being greatly altered as I continue to research this topic. I used to believe that ghosts and spirits were just made up and now I'm starting to believe that they actually do exist, and that scares me. Personally, I'm not quite sure if I believe that these accounts really occured because I don't want to believe that they really occured. However, the authors of my book provide some supporting evidence that these events really took place. One of the authors of my book, Margaret Gillis Figh, is a former English teacher of Huntingdon College, so she would know firsthand about the Red Lady that roams the halls of the institution. I believe that the spirit of Martha still visits every year on the date of her suicide to fulfill what she prophesized to her former roomate who left her when all she needed was a friend.