If we take folklore seriously, most ghosts have a story to tell, a wrong to correct, or unfinished business.
When ghost hunters investigate a haunted site, most ghosts seem to fit that profile.
In almost every case:
– The ghost wants something specific to happen before crossing over. Or, the ghost is afraid to cross over for other reasons.
– In some cases, the ghost refuses to believe that he or she is dead. Ask them what year it is, and you’ll usually get the year the person died.
– It may be an energy imprint, not a ghost (or spirit) lingering at the site.
A few tales — such as the “green lady” stories of Scotland — offer other explanations. Green ladies remain in homes that they loved. Those are benevolent spirits. They protect the building and the people who live in it. Each “green lady” ghost isn’t trapped in the house. She could leave whenever she wants to. She’s happy to stay there.
Green lady ghosts are like the spirits of relatives. They visit us to check on our safety and happiness.
I’m not sure that I’d call that a ghost. The spirit isn’t trapped in our plane of existence.
By contrast, a banshee may also be a relative of the family it guards. Is the banshee trapped here? Is it a ghost, or — as much folklore suggests — part of the faerie realm? It’s difficult to establish boundaries and precise definitions.
In addition, we’ve seen evidence that some ghosts aren’t “dead people.” They seem to be alive and well… but in another dimension or parallel reality.
Until we’re sure that ghosts exist, and what they really are, we can’t be sure why they haunt houses… or any other location.
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With clear, practical advice, you’ll learn how to identify and debunk common sources of “hauntings,” from faulty wiring to hidden drafts.
But what if there’s no ordinary explanation? This guide also offers techniques to minimize and manage apparent ghostly activity, ensuring that your home is a peaceful place to live.
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What are you looking for when you hope to see a ghost?
Do you expect a specific shape or figure, or are you just looking for something odd?
The latter may be your best way to see something ghostly. As we’ve learned in recent years, the old models of “what a ghost looks like” may not apply. If you’re looking for something wispy or shadowy or pale, you might not notice a ghost right in front of you. (I’ve done that myself.)
The old rules may not apply.
In the 19th century, many people wanted to believe in ghosts. In most cases, they expected ghosts to look translucent.
In even earlier times, the ghosts-in-sheets image probably referenced shrouds (usually light-colored sheets) that people used to wrap the decease
Today, we need to keep an open mind. Consider other possibilities.
Though some ghosts seem to appear as see-through, translucent figures, others can look entirely real. That is, they seem as solid and alive as anyone else you’d meet in a social setting.
Is that the ghost’s form of humor? Or are we seeing truly ancient spirits in their white shrouds?
Then there are shadowy figures, often called “shadow people.” Are they ghosts, too? So far, I’m not convinced they are, but can’t suggest what else they might be. Not yet, anyway.
But those are just visual effects. We have other senses. A total of five or six, depending on what you believe.
In ghost hunting, your attitude matters. A lot.
The surest way to decide that a site isn’t haunted, or that ghosts don’t exist at all, is to insist that they have to appear as you want them to, and when you want them to.
If you’re exploring haunted places to prove to yourself that ghosts aren’t real… Well, that’s one way to do it.
Be honest with yourself (and perhaps others) about your ghost hunting goals.
However, if you want a genuine encounter with a ghost, it’s vital to keep an open mind.
Ghosts will appear — if they appear — in the form that they want to, or perhaps by whatever means they can.
Look for anomalies. Note anything that seems odd, strange, or unlikely.
That could be a ghost, doing what they can to let you know that, yes, ghosts exist. And they are there with you.
graphic courtesy of Jason Antony and FreeImages.com
In the past, ghost hunters could discreetly slip into haunted sites that weren’t clearly open to the public. If it was public property – or abandoned – and it wasn’t posted, some investigators thought, “Why not?”
I’ve always advised against investigating sites that aren’t clearly open to the public for ghost research.
For example, in New England, Danvers (MA) State Hospital site has been notorious for trespassing, vandalism, and arrests of well-meaning ghost enthusiasts.
It’s one of many locations with eerie reputations, and vigilant security or police patrols.
Like many other locations in isolated spots, it’s easy for police to observe trespassers from a distance. Ghost hunters are at risk as soon as they drive up the road or driveway, or turn on their flashlights. Quite literally, they shed light on their own crimes.
Modern equipment and the police
Today, surveillance cameras and other devices – similar to the tools we use in our research – make trespassing even more risky.
The following December 2015 story – from KUTV (Utah, USA) – is a good example of what can happen if you break the law.
‘Haunted’ Property Owner Asks Trespassers to Keep Out
By Amy Nay Sunday, December 13th 2015
(KUTV)In Northern Utah, authorities are looking to the public in help finding a few people they want to talk to after vandalism was discovered at a former Catholic retreat believed to be haunted. The pictures are clear, taken from surveillance video a new property owner installed in recent weeks… Despite multiple signs posted on the property – “No Trespassing” and “Keep Out”, threatening fines and jail time for violators, individuals are still coming through the area… In some publications and online sites, the area has been described as a good ghost hunting location, a fun place to take a date and get a thrill, but authorities say this is no laughing matter. (Emphasis added.)
That particular location – St. Anne’s, in Logan Canyon – is mentioned at many websites, including credible YouTube videos, as a reliable place to find ghosts. You can even find St. Anne’s ghost story at otherwise-trustworthy websites like the Weird US site.
This is why you must investigate site accessibility, even before you decide if a location might be haunted enough to explore.
If you don’t, or if you choose to risk getting caught, the quality of surveillance footage – day or night – can be good enough to convict you.
Don’t expect to see warning signs.
Don’t waste your time looking for the cameras, either. They can be tiny or well-concealed in hollowed-out tree branches or fence posts.
Modern surveillance equipment has become inexpensive and easy to use. Many locations are using it to detect trespassers, and fine them for vandalism they might be responsible for.
In the case of the Utah ghost hunters, that’s a $10,000 door that someone had kicked in.
(Really, if you’re facing a jury and trying to explain that, yes, you did trespass, but no, you didn’t damage anything, do you expect them to believe you? Is ghost hunting worth that risk?)
More about trespassing and the law
Trespassing can be a felony in some American communities. Jail time can be as much as a year, and fines can be as high as $4,000 per person, at the discretion of the judge.
If you’re an American convicted of a felony, you can be denied your right to vote in the U.S. You can also be denied travel to some other countries, including Canada and parts of Europe. If an employer or landlord runs a background check on you, a felony conviction looks very bad.
Since my earliest articles at Yankee Haunts (mid-1990s) and HollowHill.com, I’ve always focused on haunted locations people can investigate, with permission. Nearly all sites I talk about – at websites, on TV and radio, and in books – are open to the public.
What happened to the kids who were caught in Utah could happen to anyone. Don’t take that chance.
How to stay safe
If you’re not sure whether a location is open to the public for ghost investigations:
Visit the location and look for signs, or ask the staff (if any) about restrictions.
Ask the reference librarian at the local public library, or check with the regional historical society.
Stop at the local visitors’ center or chamber of commerce, and verify the location and the hours it’s open to the public.
Of course, I always recommend visiting each haunted site during the daytime, to evaluate it for research and plan your investigation.
But, if that’s not possible, be sure to confirm when the location is open to the public for ghost hunting, and if any fees, rules, or limits apply.
Or, limit your ghost hunting to daytime hours, as well as ghost tours, public ghost hunting events, and ghost vigils.
Learn the best ways to find ghosts, in local (and legal!) places…
With step-by-step instructions and expert tips, you’ll learn how to conduct thorough investigations that reveal the true nature of haunted cemeteries and graveyards.
This is the classic guide, updated and expanded. It goes far beyond the basics. Whether you’re a seasoned ghost hunter, or someone intrigued by eerie places, this book is your key to unlocking the mysteries that lie within haunted cemeteries.
I used to say that most “ghost orbs” were dust, insects, humidity, or something else
Then, a long-time friend challenged me. He insisted that all orbs were ghost photos.
After that – for over six years – I tried to create fake convincing “ghost photos.” I wanted to prove I was right.
So, I tried to recreate circumstances I’d blamed for photos with orbs, apparent vortices, and so on.
I took all of these pictures in low-light conditions. I always used the flash on my camera to highlight the deceptive object or issue. I wanted to create false anomalies.
Hair in “Ghost Photos”
The first group of photos are things that could look paranormal if you didn’t know what was in the picture. Half of the photos show a single piece of hair or a few strands of it. That could happen if a photographer has long hair (as I do) and doesn’t pin it back.
The other photos in this first group show camera straps.
I used to think pictures of camera straps always showed both ends of the strap exiting the frame of the photo.
Not true.
Now I know camera straps can look weird. And, it can “vanish” from one side of the image.
Sometimes, both ends of the camera strap seem to disappear, so, the “vortex” seems suspended in front of the photographer.
Also, my camera strap is almost black. The reason it looks white is because the camera’s flash is very bright, and it highlights the camera strap.
About 90% of the “vortex” pictures I’ve seen were probably camera straps, or something like them. If you use a camera strap (recommended, especially in dark settings), be sure to loop it around your wrist or — if it’s a very long strap — over your arm or shoulder.
(I lost my original photos when this site moved to new hosting. I’m still looking for those photos among my backups. Until then, the following thumbnail illustrations show the kinds of pictures I’ve featured.)
The Fake Orbs Problem
The second group of photos shows how difficult it is to create convincing, fake “ghost orbs.”
The first few pictures are flash photos taken on a densely foggy morning. Even the one with the white lines (a spiderweb) doesn’t show convincing-looking orbs.
Next, you’ll see smoke photos. Unless your camera is sensitive to smoke, you’d need to be surrounded by smokers for smoke to be a significant issue. Regular cigarette smoke barely showed up. When we tested clove cigarettes (a different density of smoke), that was slightly more convincing.
Incense looked anomalous in my photos. However, unless your team is using a sage smudge, or the client burns lots of incense at home, I’m not certain we need to worry about smoke.
I could not get chimney smoke to show up in photos. Unless the weather is “just so,” hot air — and wood smoke — rise into the atmosphere. Smoke is not likely to descend and remain thick enough to be an issue. However, smoke from a nearby campfire could be an issue.
The remaining photos show random samples of test photos, trying to create lens flares and fake orbs. Insects, house lights, and even sparkly, reflective jewelry produced nothing noteworthy.
After years of study, using film and digital cameras, I finally had to admit that I’d been mistaken about false, ghostly anomalies.
True Confessions about Ghost Photos
For nearly 10 years, I was a hardcore skeptic about orbs in ghost photos. And, I said so, in my articles.
So, I need to make a few points very clear.
Orbs are much harder to fake than I’d expected. Moisture, reflective surfaces, and even house lights rarely create convincing orbs. Most lens flares are too obvious to confuse with unexplained orbs, and lens flares are far more difficult to create in typical ghost hunting circumstances.
Camera strapscan cause “vortex” images, even if one or two ends of the strap seem to vanish in the photo. Keep your camera strap wound around your wrist or arm.
Hair can cause weird looking lines and swirls, some of them dotted with an orb at the end. They can look like vortex images, too. Wear a scarf if you’re taking ghost photos.
Cigarette smoke is very difficult to capture in a photo. We tried traditional cigarettes (it’s nearly invisible) and clove cigarettes (before the ban). Cloves gave better results, but still aren’t enough to worry about.
Smoke from the right incense can appear ghostly. However, unless you’re using sage smudges at a site, I don’t think that’s an issue. Cone incense and incense on charcoal dispersed too quickly to photograph. Stick incense produced the best results, but someone had to wave it right in front of the lens, even on a still night.
Fog causes faint, repeating orbs. In hundreds of foggy photos, I saw nothing I’d confuse with a ghostly orb.
Jewelry, house lights, and spider webs don’t seem to create confusing images in photos.
Don’t take my word for it.
Run tests with your own phones and cameras. That’s important. Know how they respond to these kinds of issues. No two cameras have the same sensitivities.
Then, you’ll know if you’ve taken an actual ghost photo… or something else.
Halloween can be a whirlwind for many ghost hunters. Events, parties, investigations… and then the big night itself. Are you ready?
Ideally, Halloween research plans are prepared far ahead of Halloween night. However, even if you’ve been too busy, it’s not too late to organize your Halloween plans for ghost hunting success.
To help you, I’m sharing my own Halloween checklist. I’ve used some variation of this, every year for the past dozen or so years. I hope it’s useful and helps you make the most of Halloween ghost hunting opportunities.
In my book about haunted cemeteries, I mentioned ghost hunting opportunities at unmarked graves, and graves just outside cemetery walls.
At the time, I described many of them as the graves of “sinners,” or people whose lives (or deaths) did not allow them to be buried in consecrated ground.
During a recent Saturday investigation in Concord (NH), I discovered another explanation for those graves.
The answer surprised me. It’s Quakers (also known as “Friends.”)
Quakers and unmarked graves
Apparently, between 1717 and 1850, gravestones and memorials at cemeteries were considered “vain monuments” and – according to a decree by members of the Quaker faith – had to be removed from Quaker graves.
In other words, some (perhaps many) unmarked graves aren’t anonymous because the families were too poor to afford gravestones, or because the markers were stolen, but because the burial plots belonged to Quakers.
On the other side of the fence (literally, in this case), mainstream Christians objected to members of the Friends Church or Religious Society of Friends – generally known as “Quakers” – being buried in consecrated ground. This was because Quakers aren’t baptized, or – in Quaker terms – “sprinkled.”
This adds up to a disturbing thought, though it may explain why some homes and fields seem haunted, with no obvious explanation:
Quakers have been buried in fields, and family plots – also unmarked – near their homes. In other words, you may have walked over Quaker graves many times without realizing it.
Old North Cemetery, Concord, NH
I discovered this during some post-investigation research about the Old North Cemetery in Concord, New Hampshire. I’d been there with Lesley Marden and Sean Paradis, and we spent about two and a half hours researching the site.
Sean and I had been there before, and I’d investigated the cemetery on my own, during daytime hours. (It’s on the edge of downtown Concord, in the middle of a busy residential area.)
Though the site may be haunted after dark, and we noticed many anomalies at the cemetery, I don’t consider Old North Cemetery profoundly haunted. It is intriguing, nevertheless.
The cemetery is L-shaped and covers nearly six acres and – according to the National Historic Register application – it’s comprised of three areas: The main cemetery, the Minot Enclosure (sort of a cemetery-within-a-cemetery), and the Quaker Lot. (That’s not quite true, as I’ll explain in a few minutes.)
The cemetery was in most frequent use between 1730 and 1958.
The Quaker Lot
Though I’d been to Old North Cemetery before, I hadn’t noticed the odd, open field in the back of the Minot Enclosure. That field has just a few markers, and one of them reminded us of a bunker marker.
It’s indicated by the arrow, and the Friends’ (Quaker) marker is in the oval. That part of the cemetery is separated from the Minot Enclosure by a cast iron fence (with a break in it) and a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.
To reach the Quaker burial lot, you’ll exit Minot and walk through the main Old North Cemetery, to where the Quaker Lot begins. (It’s not fenced off from the main cemetery.)
Once you’re standing in what looks like an open field, about 10,000 square feet, you’ll see just a few markers. The main one is the slanted memorial listing many of the people buried in the Quaker Lot. The lot was purchased in 1811, according to the terms of the will of Benjamin Hannaford. He’s one of the people buried in the lot.
At left is the memorial marker. (Due to the late-afternoon lighting, I had to increase the contrast in this photo, for the lettering to show at all.)
At the back of that memorial, you can see a metal marker for Levi Hutchins. I think it’s a military marker, and it’s just sort of leaning there. No one knows where Levi Hutchins was buried, so there’s no actual place for the marker.
On the other hand, Levi Hutchins’ wife, Phebe, does have a gravestone. Levi flew in the face of Quaker traditions and commissioned a headstone for his late wife. That’s it in the photo at the lower right.
The history of the Quakers in Concord is an interesting story.
The part that caught my attention was that the Friends (Quakers) built a meetinghouse in 1815, but in 1816 the state bought the land from them (it’s where the Concord State House is, now) . The city moved the meetinghouse to a location just east of the Quaker burial lot, fronting on North State Street. (Sean, Lesley, and I had wondered about the odd landmarks on the property.)
In those days, that was the edge of the city.
In 1845, the meetinghouse was sold and moved again, to become a school building. The land it was on was purchased by the city in 1911, for the sum of $300, because it was “in a very bad condition and a disgrace to our city.”
So, that’s an added reason why the Quaker Lot (and land near it) may be more active than other parts of the Old North Cemetery.
And, from the popular, gated entrance to the cemetery at Bradley Street, the Quaker Lot is – as you might expect – at the back left corner.
Quaker-related activity at Minot Enclosure?
We spent considerable time at the Minot Enclosure, an exclusive section of the Old North Cemetery, surrounded by an elaborate cast iron fence and containing 62 graves. There, we noticed that random gravestones had been turned so they faced slightly away from the Quaker Lot.
Those random and very slight turns weren’t consistent with vandalism. That was one of many mysteries we wondered about as we walked around the cemetery.
Now that we know about the Quaker Lot, Sean Paradis has raised an interesting question:
The Quakers in the Quaker Lot are from a time when gravestones were considered “vain monuments.” Just feet away, the Minot Enclosure is where the 14th U.S. president, Franklin Pierce, is buried. Might the activity within the Minot Enclosure be based on the mutual uneasiness of the Quakers and the upper social register in the Minot Enclosure?
That’s a stretch, but it’s fun to speculate.
However, as I was studying the cemetery records, I realized that Old North Cemetery isn’t just a combination of three cemeteries. I discovered a fourth section of the cemetery, not often mentioned.
The Prison Lot
According to the National Historic Register application, “The Prison Lot, comprised of a long 10′ x 75′ rectangular lot just west of lots #384 and #385 in the center of the cemetery, appears on all maps drawn after the 1844 western addition to Old North Cemetery.”
The report also states that the cemetery records note that there are at least a dozen graves there, but no records of the names of the deceased in those graves.
And, since the old State Prison – built in 1811 – was replaced in 1880, there’s probably no way to determine who might be in those graves. (The photo on the left shows that 1811 prison, on two acres near the Court House. It was attached to a three-story superintendent’s house.)
Unmarked graves + prisoners + no records of any kind to tell us who they were… That’s a formula for hauntings. (If anyone’s giving “ghost tours” of downtown Concord, NH, take note.)
And, in general, if you’re going to visit or investigate Old North Cemetery, I recommend reading the full National Historic Register application, linked below.
(Note: I’ve tried downloading it three times, and it consistently crashes my Adobe PDF reader. If that happens to you, notice which page you’re on when it crashes, and then use the “go to” page function when you reopen the PDF, to pick up where you left off.)
Both the main cemetery and the Minot Enclosure deserve separate articles, which I’ll write later. Today, it’s important to share what I learned about Quaker burial practices. Remember, as it says in one history of the Society of Friends, “By 1700 the Society gained considerable influence in most of the New England and middle-Atlantic colonies. Quaker migration to the southern colonies, especially North Carolina…”
In other words, unmarked Quaker graves – and even unmarked (and forgotten) Quaker burial lots – may exist throughout the eastern United States, as well as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Canada.
What you need to know about all Quaker graves and burial lots
Expect no grave markers for burials before the late 1840s.
Quaker graves could be in Quaker burial grounds, near the person’s home, at the far corner of a family farm or homestead, or in a rural location. I found one reference that said Quakers “always regarded the physical remains of a person as spiritually insignificant.”
The burial was intended to be as inexpensive as possible, within the law. One Quaker historian commented, “Well into the 20th century, it was not unusual for a country burial to have an unembalmed body.”
In some Quaker cemeteries, especially before 1850, coffins were placed in the first available slot in the cemetery, not in family groups. Philadelphia’s Arch Street burial ground (between Third and Fourth Streets), in use until 1804, was organized so the coffins were four layers deep and none had markers of any kind.
Despite rumors and folklore, I found no evidence of any Friends (or Quakers) being buried upright. There was no rule against that practice, but no provision for it, either.
In the 20th century and later, Quakers generally chose cremation.
Quaker beliefs about death
I’ll let William Penn have the final word about the Friends’ (Quakers) attitude towards death. This is from a poem published in 1693:
And this is the Comfort of the Good,
that the grave cannot hold them,
and that they live as soon as they die.
For Death is no more
than a turning of us over from time to eternity.
References
Old North Cemetery, Concord, NH – National Historic Site application (PDF)
When ghost hunters investigate a haunted site, most ghosts seem to fit that profile.
HAUNTED OR NOT?
The first group of photos are things that could look paranormal if you didn’t know what was in the picture. Half of the photos show a single piece of hair or a few strands of it. That could happen if a photographer has long hair (as I do) and doesn’t pin it back.
Halloween can be a whirlwind for many ghost hunters. Events, parties, investigations… and then the big night itself. Are you ready?
In 
Though I’d been to Old North Cemetery before, I hadn’t noticed the odd, open field in the back of the Minot Enclosure. That field has just a few markers, and one of them reminded us of a bunker marker.
At left is the memorial marker. (Due to the late-afternoon lighting, I had to increase the contrast in this photo, for the lettering to show at all.)
The history of the Quakers in Concord is an interesting story.
According to the National Historic Register application, “The Prison Lot, comprised of a long 10′ x 75′ rectangular lot just west of lots #384 and #385 in the center of the cemetery, appears on all maps drawn after the 1844 western addition to Old North Cemetery.”