Haunting Formula




Is there an ideal setting/structure/history for haunted places?

I’ve long wanted to sit down when I have free time (which is when?) and mark off the most widely accepted haunted sites in the US and find out a bit about the geology/railways/waterways/and the buildings structural materials to see if there are any similarities. This could be helpful in finding out what creates a haunted, sustains it, and what places are worth researching and which are not.

Randomly, I put the names of a few dozen of the most reportedly haunted places into a hat and pulled out 10. Here’s the findings:

Railroad tracks within a mile: 4
Water within a mile (stream/river/ocean—moving water): 10
Geology (mining land or granite): 6
Building made of stone: 6
Traumatic history: 10

Of course, being logic-minded, I can see correlations, but the question is—chicken or the egg? Do older homes made of stone and placed near waterways for the resources also have train tracks because they were near civilization and over the decades created enough history in the building to haunt it? OR do things like location and materials have a play in whether a place becomes haunted once something dramatic occurs there?

Some day when I get more time to make out a map and pinpoint them all, I can come up with a grading system for how many features they have to give them a scale number for haunting factor.

I’ve long wondered why mining towns carry so much haunting history. Anyone in the west who’s been to Bisbee, Globe, Virginia City, or any other old mining town will tell you that it feels different than other towns. There’s a kind of energy that’s just intense and exhausting. You feel drained by the time you even arrive there. Older homes from the early colonies, built of stone and near streams for water supplies, were surely good conduits, as well, if you believe in the theory that the earth empowers these conditions. Then again, mining towns had lots of accidents and older homes had lots of occupants, so there’s more chances that something bad happened there over the years.

These are all ongoing studies for me and I’m a person with a lot of questions and looking for correlations. I’ll keep you updated as I begin to piece together the map and find what geological/historic conditions they share.

Comments

  1. Great article Autumnforest-that is so correct about some places seeming to be literally "dripping" with a history-I do not know if it is cause I am kind of a melancholy person-but it seems as if I often catch a degree of sadness. best to you as always and I will try to get caught up on your other articles soon-still recuperating haha!!

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  2. great post! i'm so glad you're inclined to do this research. As I've mentioned before, I am fascinated by why these things happened. My mom has told me so many stories of different relatives' experiences and I'm just amazed that these encounters can happen. I would love to know all the answers, wouldn't we all.

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  3. Devin; Take care and get well. Glad to see you're up and around, checking out the blogs. It's never the same without you.

    Sandra;
    I agree! Right now I'm forming the big list of the most well-reported hauntings and then google mapping them to find out train tracks and waterways, then looking up geological conditions and histories. I always wondered if a place could be haunted for good reasons instead of murder and madness. The house I grew up in, my father vowed he'd haunt (and was seen there after his death), my mother, brother, sister, and neighbor vowed they'd haunt it and have passed on. There are reported hauntings of people staying because they love the place and I wonder if these conditions need to be present as well. Can't wait to get a future post written about what I find.

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  4. I loved this post. If you ever do get the time to put it all together I hope you post it

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  5. Dolly; I was so inspired by putting that bit of info together that I've started the research on 50 most haunted places in the US and comparing them with conditions and rating the level of actual evidence each place has for a haunting to see if places with the most evidence of haunting have actual ripe conditions for it. I can postulate from there, other places in the country that might make ideal haunted locales and see if there are reports of hauntings or disturbances in those areas. I'm curious to find out how this all works out. So far the research is exciting! The hardest and longest part is getting the geological surveys. Keep you posted.

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  6. I have found that the mining towns, old homes with lots of history and certain places like Sedona have lots of energy. Interesting post as always.

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  7. Neat post. Followers of Natural Magic will tell you that natural materials (stone, iron, wood, water) all do a much better job of generating, maintaining, or (alternatively) blocking or insulating energy than manmade or processed materials.
    (which is why the Frog Brothrs trick of holy water in the supersoaker wouldn't work lol)

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  8. I started the research on 50 of the most haunted places in AZ. I'm dividing it up by how much actual proof they have of haunting so I can give them a haunted rating. Then, I'm checking on the elements that seem to be conducive such as dramatic history, geology, waterways, and train tracks, as well as the composition of the building itself. I'm finding some amazing things so far that some places have such good conditions that they should be super haunting sites and they actually are ones that have a huge amount of evidence of haunting...Hmm... I'm also finding the most common ground factor so far is shale. I'm studying more about shale and will discuss that in the post I do when I'm done with the research. Exciting stuff! When this is done, I should be able to pick a place out on a map that would be an ideal haunting location...

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