About

 

I blame all of this on a townhouse.

When I was in third grade, my family moved into one. One night, I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a figure standing in my bedroom doorway.

Obviously, this was not ideal.

I froze. My dog started barking at it, which was particularly unhelpful because up until that point I could have eventually convinced myself I was seeing things. Thanks, dog. 

My bedroom happened to have another door, so eventually I made a run for it and spent the rest of the night in my parents' room. And that could have been the end of it.

It was not.

Once I got over being terrified, I wanted to know what I'd seen. My mom bought me a notebook, and I started documenting every strange thing that happened in the house. What happened, when it happened, where it happened...and, for reasons known only to my third-grade self, the weather. 

Apparently I was eight years old going, Interesting apparition. Let's check the barometric pressure. 

Hey, I feel like it's fine.

Eventually, I got a camera. Then a recorder. Then more equipment. You know how these things go.

Since then, I've investigated cemeteries, a daycare, Goatman's Bridge, and the Myrtles Plantation, among other places. I've spent a lot of time sitting quietly in dark rooms waiting for something to happen. 

It's considerably less exciting than television makes it look. And that's kind of the point.

*I Have a Bone to Pick With Ghost Hunting*

I love the paranormal. I also think we've gotten a little ridiculous about it.

Turn on a paranormal show, and there's a decent chance you'll see someone wandering through a dark building, hear a noise, watch six grown adults scream and run away from it, and then be told they just encountered something terrifying.

Guys.

The noise was the thing we came here to investigate. Why are we running away from it?!

Somewhere along the way, a lot of paranormal investigating stopped being about investigating. The observation, documentation, experimentation, and good old-fashioned sitting down and paying attention got replaced with gadgets, theatrics, and dramatic reactions. Ugh.

I'm not anti-equipment. Far from it. I've collected plenty of it over the years. I just don't think anything I've bought is necessarily more impressive than the equipment every one of us walks into an investigation carrying.

Sight. Hearing. Touch. Smell. Even taste, although I strongly recommend not licking the haunted house. Unless it looks tasty and you're up to date on your shots. Then go nuts.

Our senses are constantly collecting information. The problem is that our brains are also very good at deciding which information isn't important and throwing it away. I've always wondered what we're missing.

So, Do I Believe in Ghosts?

Yes.

However, not every cold breeze is a spirit. Not every photograph with a weird blob in it contains the face of someone's dead grandmother. Houses make noises. Cameras do strange things. Human perception is flawed.

Rule those things out first.

Then let's talk about what's left.

That's the part that keeps me going.

I respect the attempt to approach paranormal phenomena thoughtfully, even when the subject itself is pretty damn weird. I don't think skepticism ruins ghost hunting. I think it makes the unexplained things that survive scrutiny considerably more interesting.

Welcome to Haunted Courtney

I started Haunted Courtney in 2011 because I outgrew the notebook.

Here you'll find my theories about the paranormal, experiences from investigations, haunted places, ghost-hunting techniques, opinions about paranormal culture, occasional complaints about ghost-hunting television, and whatever strange question has gotten stuck in my head lately.

I don't expect you to believe everything.

I don't believe everything.

But I do think we have a tendency to overlook the things we've already decided aren't worth noticing.

Sometimes they're nothing.

And sometimes?

Well, that's why I still keep looking.

— Courtney