'fess Up! Which One of Ya'll Here Believe In Ghosts?

[DADavenport]

I was talking about the old Stanley Hotel in Estes Park below in the discussion "Saturday Night Question" and I thought this would make a fun topic.

I'm writing some articles for the Left Coast Crime 2008 site...A Coloradan's
view of fun things to do in Denver when you are writing about the Dead...and everyone coming has wanted local Ghost Tours. Including a day trip to Estes Park and the Stanley. That's why I'm doing the Ghost Tour there at the Scottish Festival, so I can fill them in. That leads me to this question...

How come so many crime/mystery writers and fans LOVE ghosts and goblins? Is it because we love the chills up the spine? Could it be that hauntings are usually connected to crimes, unsolved mysteries and the grisly and macabre doings of our fellow man?

And how many of you actually do believe in the supernatural, other than God or Goddess?

Come on. Let's tuck another couple under the belt and 'fess up! We're all barflies here, and who loves a ghost story more than a bar full of writers!

[Karen J. Laubenstein]

...and a very tough creative writing teacher.

[DADavenport]

Hagerstown is charming. My Aunt and I have done a lot of genealogy research in their little Historical Center there. Also in St Mary's down in South Eastern Maryland. I intend to move back home one day, when I'm an old, widowed lady. Miss Maryland a lot.

[Maryann Mercer]

Let's just say I know there's something out there that can't be explained, and I try really hard not to get in its way :o) My acupuncturist has a poltergeist in her rehabbed train depot, complete with unexplained accidents (including a broken elbow) and chilly breezes. She has now made peace with 'her' and always greets her on entering. Her significant other however has never had any problems. Did a ghost tour in Scotland and was suitably creeped out...where there is history, there are ghosts.
Maryann

[Julie Morrigan]

Perhaps one of the reasons I love ghost stories so much, whether headless horsemen, grey ladies, shades with clanking chains or 1st world war pilots on the turn of the stairs, is that I grew up in a house that had been exorcised at the request of the local priest (who took tea there every Sunday, in an increasing state of nervousness). Tell you what, though, judging by the weird stuff that happened while I lived there (which was after the event), it didn't work!

I love a good scare - but I much prefer it to be on film or in print.

[Daniel Hatadi]

I love the concept of ghosts and I want to believe, but I can't, so I just enjoy them in a fictional sense. The meaner, nastier and more brutal, the better. It's all about the appreciation of self-induced fear for me.