Ghost Sighting Stories

Every area has its own local folklore surrounding ghost sightings, usually in mysterious places such as abandoned buildings or deserted woods. There is wide skepticism as to which stories are real, but it’s safe to say that the idea of ghost sightings thoroughly intrigues most people, whether they believe in the paranormal or not.
Many ghost sightings are accepted as true because of their common occurrences and because of the mass quantity of people who believe them to be true. Perhaps the most famous ghost is that of Mary, Queen of England and Ireland, commonly known as Bloody Mary. She is widely believed to appear as a reflection in a mirror after repeating her name three times, or some variation of this practice. Another largely circulated ghost story is that of the Headless Horseman, an American Revolutionary forever immortalized in Washington Irving’s short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Ghost stories became exceedingly popular in the Western movement of Gothic literature, representative of Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde and Henry James.

Some ghost stories are widely accepted as a rich part of an area’s local culture, even by people who are open disbelievers of the existence of ghosts. The Tower of London, a nearly 1,000-year-old castle in which many people were tortured and executed, is one of the world’s most common structures for ghost sightings. Many British residents circulate tales of haunted happenings in and around the tower, most famously of a beheaded Anne Boleyn returning for vengeance. Another area speckled with mysterious sightings of beings from beyond the dead is the American South, particularly elaborate with stories of dead soldiers from the American Civil War. These stories are so instrumental in the development of a local culture that many courthouses and government buildings have visual portrayals of an area’s most famous ghosts.

Ghosts have played a busy role in the development of cultural beliefs for thousands of years. Ancient Egyptians believed that spirits existed long after the death of their human body, and Mexico’s Day of the Dead and America’s Halloween are annual celebrations of ghostly beings. It is a testament to the long-term worldwide belief in ghosts that spirit-rich literature such as Homer’s “Iliad” and Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” are accepted as classic works with no skepticism regarding the fact that both of them feature ghosts as main characters.

With a prolific history of ghosts, it is no wonder that millions of people experience ghost sightings every day. A belief in the paranormal is not unlike most religious beliefs in that it helps to explain things that you cannot understand, although many people still fear ghosts as a topic of terrifying legends of horror. Regardless of personal beliefs, it is clear that ghost sightings are an evident part of our world history and that they will continue to be circulated.