Do real hauntings needs ghosts?
When someone reports their house, or another building, is haunted, they may assume that there is a ghost involved. However, in most cases that are investigated diligently, no actual apparitions are reported. Since, from the cultural point of view, ghosts or apparitions are central to the idea of a haunting, where does this leave us? Most reports of hauntings include some of the following: • odd sounds: footsteps, bangs, scratching, moans, screams, music, whispering • odd sights: flashes of light, shadows, floating lights, things seen in the ‘corner’ of the eye • odd smells: often unpleasant, sometimes sweet • odd feelings: headaches, static build-up, cold areas, touches by unseen things • object movement: doors, taps and light switches found open/on, objects lost and sometimes recovered, objects falling (eg. pictures, ornaments) • pet reaction to ‘unseen’ things In addition: • an apparition may, or may not, be seen Since hauntings have many common features you could argue that, even if
