Agree
As Halloween draws closer, I know some of you will agree with me when I say the veil is thin. Since I was young, I have believed in ghosts, spirits and the afterlife, having often encountered things that I cannot explain. I have also visited mediums and been told secrets by them that no person apart from the dead could know, cementing my position firmly as that of a believer.
Skeptics will try to underpin my belief in the supernatural with two main arguments: Firstly, there is no empirical evidence. To disprove this, all I can say is that there is also a lack of disproof. Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, and I will leave it at that to avoid a back and forth which could become endless.
Secondly, some will argue there is always a psychological explanation for the unexplained. In response to this, I believe that my family and I, (some being skeptics themselves) are credible witnesses, and we believe that the event that I will recount really happened. While this article will be largely anecdotal, after you hear my ghost story, I hope my experience will encourage the skeptics to open their third eyes to the unexplained phenomenon of the paranormal.
My story begins in a small town in Appalachia, where I spent my summers with my grandparents until I was 15. Known for its rich history, folklore and specific regional superstitions it’s only fitting that my first encounter with a ghost occurred here. This particular summer, our usual hotel arrangement had fallen through and my great grandmother suggested that we stay in the home of her friend who was merely “away” for the summer.
The paranormal activity started shortly after we arrived. At nights, knives and forks would rattle within their draws, we’d hear banging on the windows and the rope swing out back would sway by itself. The real haunting happened about a week into our fated stay.
My siblings and I were staying in a bedroom together, which had been converted into a hospital-esque room for the elderly lady who lived there. Following the activity of the entity the nights before, my siblings opted to sleep in with my parents in the smaller bedroom, leaving me alone for the night. I drifted off to sleep and awoke in the dead of the night feeling a cold breeze.
As I came to my senses, I realised that the hospital bed I was asleep in was drifting across the floor with me in it, as if I was being pushed. I sprang out of bed immediately and sprinted to my parents’ room and we left the next day. They felt the energy shift as well and it wasn’t until years later that they told me the previous owner of the house, my grandmother’s good friend, had died in the house, and in fact in the room where I had slept alone.
It still gives me chills to this day to remember the sensation of being pushed across the floor by a bodiless being. In the wake of my ghost story, which is nothing but the truth, and one of many, I hope some of you doubt your skepticism and embrace this spooky season with a newfound belief in the paranormal. It is real because I have seen it and the sheer number of paranormal encounters reported over the centuries cannot be ignored. so, be on the lookout for the signs of ghosts, ghouls and spectres, and never doubt your instincts that tell you someone is watching...
Disagree
Fear of the unknown drives us into believing many things. From monsters appearing in our wardrobes or under our beds when we were kids, to the fear of bad luck from walking over three drains in a row. We all have our own superstitious beliefs that affect how we make decisions.
Take me for example. I believe in karma and the fact that bad deeds will reflect absolutely horrendously on me at an unknown point in the future. But I have absolutely no evidence that this has ever affected me either positively or negatively—and if I gave you any examples you could probably demolish them with a single sentence.
Karma of course is a superstition, but it’s nowhere near the main superstition. Ghosts of course are where things take a turn. According to a 2014 YouGov poll, 34% of Brits believe in ghosts, while only 23% say they’re religious.
This odd dichotomy puts a spanner in Ella’s belief that skeptics will disagree with her based on the fact that there’s no empirical evidence of ghosts existing. But this is the exact case with religion. So why do more people believe in ghosts than religion?
I can only offer the most logical explanation that I personally believe to be the case—it makes a damn good story to tell to your friends. Before you dogpile on this, you’ve got to hear me out. I’m not one to shy away from telling a good story, and I know for a fact that ghost stories intrigue most people.
A story of a ghost terrifying and terrorising you while you were alone in your home is a lot more interesting than a book falling because of a light breeze from an open window. It might not even be a conscious effort to make a good story out of a scary situation. Our subconscious minds are constantly attempting to rationalise the odd and bizarre situations that we sometimes experience.
Even if the only way to do so is by forcing yourself to believe that a ghost is lurking in the dark and unknown corners of your house and haunting you. But that brings me to a point that’s always bugged me about the paranormal and “scary” ghost stories. Why are ghosts always scary in these stories?
If ghosts exist and are constantly haunting people, surely even 1 in 10 would be helpful in at least some way. Maybe they’d roll that pen you lost a few weeks ago from under your bed, or gently remind you of some forgotten thought. Personally, I’d love that—a spectre that goes around haunting people but in the best way possible.
My point being that unknowable occurrences force the mind into the worst-case scenario. One in which you’re being haunted or stalked by entities the human mind can barely even comprehend. While Ella may have a pretty damn good Appalachian-themed ghost story, I have absolutely nothing that compares.
Nor do I have any belief in the supernatural or cryptids or creatures that lurk in the shadows. But maybe ghosts really exist and I’m just naive. Who am I to tell you your story’s a lie?