Haunted Courtney

I've never really liked the title ghost hunter . I don't feel like I'm hunting ghosts. I'm trying to understand them. I'm trying to communicate with them. Everyone gets into afterlife research for different reasons, but I think, more often than not, it starts with a personal experience. Once something happens that you can't explain, you naturally start asking questions. Who? Why? How is any of this even possible? That's exactly what happened to me. I started asking those questions at a young age after a pretty significant experience, and I haven't really looked back since. The older I've gotten, the more I've realized that it isn't just about ghosts. It's about perspective. I look at life differently now. I don't spend much time worrying about reality television, celebrity gossip, or who's dating who. That's all just noise to me. Life is about so much more than that. The mystery of what happens after we die has...

This is something that's been driving me crazy lately. Every time someone talks about a paranormal experience, there's always that one person who confidently says, "Just tell the spirit to leave." As if it's that simple. I have to admit, I've never bought into that. Do people think their voice is some kind of ghost repellent? That a spirit is just going to hear, "Please leave," shrug, and quietly head for the nearest exit? I've never believed it works that way. If spirits exist, why would they suddenly obey us just because we asked them to? Why would they care what we want? It seems much more likely that if something is truly there, it will leave when it's ready...or if it's even capable of doing so. I've heard people tell terrifying stories about something they believed was haunting their home, only to end with, "Then I told it to leave, and I never had another problem." Well... I doubt it. But I think there are a...

I hope you're sitting down, because I'm about to burst your ectoplasmic bubble. Is "ectoplasmic" even a word? Let's just pretend I didn't make that up for the sake of this article. First, a little history. Ectoplasm first became popular in the late 1800s when mediums claimed they could produce a mysterious substance during séances. It was said to emerge from the nose or mouth and was supposedly too "light sensitive" to exist outside complete darkness. Convenient, right? As it turned out, many of those famous demonstrations were exactly what skeptics suspected. Once the lights came on, the "ectoplasm" often turned out to be tissue paper, cheesecloth, or some wonderfully appetizing mixture of gelatin, soap, and egg whites. Some mediums even swallowed the material beforehand so they could dramatically regurgitate it during the séance. I don't know about you, but I think I'd rather meet an actual ghost. So... Is tradi...

I have a love-hate relationship with technology. I love that I can find information in seconds or catch up with family and friends from my phone. But I also think technology has a way of clouding our minds if we let it. Ghost hunting has come a long way over the years, but I'm not entirely convinced it's been for the better. Don't get me wrong. I love new ghost hunting gadgets as much as the next investigator. Some of them are incredibly interesting. But somewhere along the way, I think we started relying on electronic beeps and flashing lights to tell us what our own senses used to. Years ago, if someone thought they were in the presence of something paranormal, they paid attention to how they felt. The hair on the back of their neck stood up. Their ears rang. Something just felt...different. Now we tend to stare at a screen waiting for it to tell us whether there's a ghost in the room. Sometimes I wonder if we've become so focused on the equipment that we...

I recently watched an episode of Paranormal Challenge , hosted by Zak Bagans. I've always respected Zak as an investigator, and for the most part, I still do. That's probably why I was so surprised by my reaction to the show. When it was over, I remember thinking... "What in the world did I just watch?" Is this really what ghost hunting has become? A competition? I'll admit, I wasn't a fan of the format. Ghost hunting has spent decades trying to be taken seriously, and then along comes a show where teams compete against each other as if investigating the paranormal is some kind of game show. That just doesn't sit right with me. What bothered me even more was the way some of the teams handled the equipment. In one episode, one of the investigators referred to technical equipment as "the thingy" and "the blinky thing." Really? That made me cringe a little. Ghost hunting already has enough skeptics. If we're going to ask p...

Can a ghost attach itself to an object? Can an object record a powerful event that happened with or around it and replay that event over and over? I've always found that idea fascinating. Personally, I believe that, in rare circumstances, a ghost can become attached to an object. However, I think most reports of haunted objects are actually the result of something else. One theory I've always found interesting is the idea of a residual haunting . A residual haunting is thought to happen when an object, or even a home, absorbs the energy from an intense event and later "replays" it. Some people believe these events can replay randomly or at a certain time, on a certain day, or even every year under the same conditions. The events most often associated with residual hauntings tend to be emotionally charged or violent. That's one reason battlefields are so often considered haunted. If residual hauntings are real, what people are witnessing may not be intelligen...

One thing I think we sometimes forget is that ghosts were people at one point. That means they probably weren't all the same. Just like the living, there would be kind spirits, grumpy spirits, sarcastic spirits, mischievous spirits, quiet spirits, and maybe even a few that are terrifying. We tend to lump all ghosts into one category, but people have never been that simple. Why would the afterlife be any different? I know the paranormal can be unsettling because there's still so much we don't understand. But sometimes it helps me to remember that, if I'm dealing with the spirit of a person, then I'm probably dealing with...well...a person. Someone with a personality. Someone with a sense of humor. Someone who had good days and bad days. Someone like you. Or me. Most ghosts probably aren't going to come floating down your hallway with blood dripping from a mangled stump while moaning, "My leg! Where's my missing leg?!" I mean... Unless they...