Over a decade ago, I searched for a Haunted Formula. I studied 50 often-reported haunted locations and looked for similar factors - construction, age, trauma, moving water nearby, railroad nearby, and geology. I gave a number for each factor the location had to see what the top scoring sites were. Then, I used this formula to evaluate a potentially haunted location I was going to investigate so I could see the odds of it potentially being haunted ahead of time.
Now that I'm in Georgia, I've been very distracted by the traumatic history of the Civil War and the Trail of Tears, the Cherokee population, and more. But, it's hard to ignore there is something different about Georgia. There are mining areas in the Northwest with gold, caves, and it's hard to ignore the Georgia soil - red clay.
Now, plenty of places have clay soil, but the dry locations do not support conductivity, however, wet clay soils are conductive. With around 50 inches of rain a year in Georgia, not to mention creeks, rivers, and lakes, the soil here is conductive.
Some of you might recall on the show "The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch" on History Channel, Travis Taylor did an experiment on ground conductivity by placing a lightbulb tube in the ground and it lit up. This was a concept born from a Nikola Tesla experiment long ago.
In my study for the Haunted Formula, I found that moving water when it has particulates in it, becomes conductive. Moving water causes negative ions and it is conductive. Interestingly, humans react to negative ions with feels of euphoria, which is why standing near a waterfall can be very relaxing.
So, you have conductive soil, conductive water, and a state with many traumatic incidents. It seems like a perfect recording device.
In fact, there was a before its time British movie called "The Stone Tape" that played with this theory in that an electronics company was looking for a new recording material and found that stones could hold past events and create hauntings.
I definitely learned that stone structures make ideal haunted vessels. In fact, Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Kentucky is incidentally the largest cut stone structure in America.
Back to my haunte formula - the geology I discovered-
Limestone: 13 of 14 highly haunted sites were built upon limestone.
Shale: 12 of 13 sites.
Sandstone: 20 of 22 sites..
Granite: 1 of 2 sites.
Now, let's take a look at historic Atlanta. This area is in the Piedmont geological region. It contains granite, schist, and gneiss. Right now, the commercial buildings are mostly built of granite, limestone. In fact, Stone Mountain is the largest exposed granite in the world and it has a quartz dome. You can't get more conductive than that. There is also the Brevard fault line running right under Atlanta, creating a tectonically active and constant tension. As well, you have numerous rivers running through this clay, among this geology, with tectonics at play, and then buildings made of stone set upon them.
It rather reminds me of a pinball machine with a ball that bounces off of these obstacles. Ding-Ding-Ding!
If you have a conductive soil and then build atop it with other haunting-related stone types, you may be building an antenna atop the land that once had bloodshed and battles.
Note: High granite content can put off dangerous radon and homes in these areas should have shielded foundations as over long term, it can cause cancers and health problems. When buying a home in these areas, it would be a good idea to get radon testing as part of the inspection.
When the South is proud of her ghosts, there might be a very real-world reason. These folks have live upon it and have come to accept its dynamic qualities. Events upon a great recording site with buildings creating a new vessel to activate them, you may be in a very legitimately haunted state!