Blog: My Thoughts on Ghosts

This summer, my family and I went on a long vacation and were able to see the famous Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. It was a really cool experience, and not only were we able to explore the Molly Brown Suite which was full of gorgeous memorabilia from her life and provided an awesome view of the town and hot springs, but we also got a tour from my dad as he pointed out rooms that were blocked off. He would visit the hotel often as a kid to visit his grandparents who lived there and I’ve grown up hearing about the strange experiences he had with the hotel’s most infamous residents, the ghosts. While we didn’t see any paranormal stuff, I’ve always wondered about whether or not ghosts are real, so here are my thoughts.

First of all, let me get this out of the way. I think the vast majority of ghost encounters are fake. A lot of places and people may advertise things to be haunted as a way to attract tourists and make money and those “ghosts” that you’re encountering are a bunch of smoke and mirrors, with many places going out of their way to add a spooky atmosphere, even using hidden speakers playing noise at a frequency of 19-20 Hz, causing anxiety, fear, and optical illusions.

An example of people using tricks to convince people that a ghost is in the room is Harry Houdini’s many trips to the psychic with his friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Ironically, the creator of the very logical and reasonable detective, Sherlock Holmes, believed strongly in ghosts and the ability to contact the spirits of the dead (as did many people in the years following WWI) while Houdini – the man who could escape from pretty much anything as if by magic – was extremely skeptical and had very good reason for it. Every time he went to a seance with Doyle, he was able to find out the medium’s tricks. He always carried a flashlight with him and showed the medium doing things such as tapping on the table, ringing small bells attached to her toes, and dropping objects from her skirts to make people believe that a ghost was in the room. His most famous debunk was when Doyle claimed that his wife, Jean, could channel spirits and would attempt to channel Houdini’s mother. Skeptical, Houdini agreed to participate in the seance, and Jean sat down and as if animated by some other force, began to write on a piece of paper (a form of spirit communication called spirit journaling or automatic writing). However, when she gave the paper to Houdini, he grew furious since it was written in English and was signed with a cross at the bottom. His mother spoke only German and was Jewish. Thus ended Houdini’s friendship with Doyle and to further prove his point, Houdini asked his wife to try to contact him once every year after he died, though she was never successful.

Furthermore, if people believe that they’re going to see a ghost, a lot of the time, they may trick themselves into thinking that there’s actually a ghost. The mind is great at tricking the body, causing hallucinations that can make you think that something that’s not there is touching you, that you’re hearing something that’s not there, etc. This can once again be heightened by creating a spookier atmosphere that puts the person on edge.

However, though I think many ghost encounters are hoaxes to get famous on T.V. or urban legends, I still think that there are cases where what they’re seeing is from the other side. Take for example how Disney employees have seen a ghost that they believe to be Walt Disney himself walking around the park. There are also a few other examples of ghosts reportedly being caught on camera getting onto the rides, though some of them look like glare from the camera. Visitors have also reported and caught on camera other paranormal activity, especially on the Pirates of the Carribean ride, though some of the pictures look to be photoshopped.

Another example of ghosts existing is the Hotel Colorado itself, which has had so many hauntings that people have consistently seen that thousands of books have been written on the topic. People can’t hallucinate seeing the same exact thing at the same time with other people. Additionally, entire rooms have been closed off because of how haunted they are. For example, when I went there, my dad pointed out where his grandparents’ neighbor once lived, and it’s now marked as an utilities closet because of all the hauntings that happened there.

Some more evidence of this is that the Hotel does not openly advertise itself as being haunted on its website or anywhere else. You can get a copy of a report done by some paranormal investigators on the Hotel at the front desk, but only if you ask for it, which makes the guests’ reports of the Hotel even more credible. The Hotel also has no reason to try to fake the hauntings because it often charges several hundred dollars per night and is advertised to richer people, not the riffraff.

To end this though, I do want to put in a disclaimer that I don’t think all ghosts are good and I don’t think we should go actively looking for them (that thing that you summoned with the Ouija board isn’t Bob in a white sheet). I do think that there are a lot of cases where the ghosts in question are not the spirits of the past but are demons who are trying to mess with your head. So, in that case, it’s better to just enjoy your surroundings, have fun, and not be trying to summon anything that may want to hurt you.

Happy Halloween,

M.J.