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2003-10-31 - 6:41 a.m.

A Ghost Story

If ever there’s a day for believing in ghosts, this is the day.

I’m not a ghost tracker. In earlier posts I’ve adamantly discredited the supernatural or paranormal. Simply put: I don’t believe in ghosties and ghoulies! So okay, yeah, I have seen Casper, but he’s the only spectral presence I’ll acknowledge. Shirley MacLaine may be one of my favorite actors, but we don’t share the same beliefs about the here after or spiritual life.

There are, however, plenty of people out there who wholeheartedly believe in the “spirits who have crossed over.” Not only do they believe ghosts live cheek to cheek with us mortals, these ghost hunters spend a lot of time investigating and tracking them down in an effort—many claim a successful effort—to document their existence. Ghost hunters, not to be confused with ghost busters, roam the country (and other countries) with an arsenal of scientific instruments ranging from simple 35-millimeter and digital cameras and infrared video cameras to more sophisticated gadgets able to read and record abnormal hot or cold zones, electromagnetic field detectors and gizmos able to sense and document reflective bodies.

According to spook aficionados, ghosts, though quite possibly occupying the seat next to you in Starbuck’s or Applebee’s, vibrate at a different frequency than third dimension, thus making it impossible to see them. Nevertheless, these experts say, that doesn’t mean a ghost can’t connect with us by affecting one or more of our senses:

• An electric light or appliance may flicker on and off.

• An object, maybe a picture of the ghost when in a corporeal body, may move on the wall.

• Strong, overwhelming floral fragrances.

• A tickling sensation (a ghost kiss) on your body.

• Pressure on top of your head, which means the opening of your crown charka to receive incoming messages.

• A cold breeze passes through a room.

• Thumping, knocking, tapping or bumping sounds in a room.

By all accounts, the most popular places haunted by ghosts are places where acts of violence occurred. Mark Nesbitt, former park ranger turned author (and obvious ghost seer) has penned five books about The Ghosts of Gettysburg. He alleges the most haunted places in America are sites around the Civil War Battlefield of Gettysburg. During the first three days of July 1863, 51,000 Americans became casualties in the war between the North and South. Nesbitt claims fields where battles were fought and the homes and backyards in Gettysburg where the wounded were sheltered and later died are sites of strange, unexplainable events which can only be attributed to civil war ghosts.

We’re not without ghost sightings in Kirksville. There’s an old two-story brick home in the north part of town rumored to have been a part of The Civil War Battle of Kirksville. Nesbitt’s ghosts may indeed haunt civil war sites, but despite the canon ball embedded in the wall at The Sloan House our ghost was not haunting the old, ramshackle house. Kirksville’s ghost was sighted at Campbell Apartments on the university campus. I suspect the ethereal presence of the elderly woman reportedly wandering around in the apartments was fueled by cannabis or tequila. Or both!

Are ghost enthusiasts pioneering a new frontier of scientific investigation? Or are they all deranged and deluded?

Have another cocktail, ghoulies!!

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