Ghost in the Machine

I grew up in NJ, the state that is home to the Jersey Devil and Weird NJ magazine. That being said, there are literally hundreds of documented hauntings throughout the state. There are the infamous, like Annie’s Road in Totowa. Despite spending many nights trying to freak one another out as teens, we never saw anything there. To me, its more of an urban legend than anything else.

 

Actually, many of the quote on quote haunted locations are nothing more than urban legends. Or are they?

 

In order for some of these stories to have legs, and be passed from one generation to another, there has to be a kernel of truth. I remember hearing about the Leni Lenape marching on River Road in Edgewater, as did my some of my friend’s parents and even their parents. No body has ever actually seen the marchers (supposedly the equivalent of the night marchers in Hawaii, so if you did see them-you weren’t long for this world), its just hearsay.

 

For me, my fascination with the paranormal has a lot to do with my love of history. Most investigations start with historical background on a site. What may have caused a particular site to be haunted? Who might be haunting it? A place like Gettysburg is pretty obvious, but a post war cape cod in suburbia might not be the place you’d expect to see a Revolutionary War soldier. After doing some digging, it was determined that a skirmish had been fought at the creek running behind the property (and running water is supposed to be a conduit for paranormal activity), and this apparition might have been injured or killed in it-and is somehow tied to the land.

 

When I watch all my ghost shows, I am really interested in the stories, its like behind the music for ghosts. It makes me wonder why some spirits remain, and others don’t. My other big question is why does it seem like the vast majority of ghost reports seem to be for the Victorian era through the early part of the last century. Do people see cave men ghosts? (maybe those are Big Foot sightings) What about disco era? My personal opinion is the Victorian era saw the rise of spiritualism, and an interest in the paranormal. If you expect to see a ghost, you will. That being said, there are reports all overEngland of seeing Roman soldiers marching, and re-enactments of the Wars of the Roses and the Spanish Armada sailing in the channel. America, of course, is a much younger country, so maybe our ghosts are younger…