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Why so many ghosts from the 1800s?


Medusa

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Hi guys! I'm new here so forgive me if this subject has been brought up before.

Why is it that you never hear of hauntings where the story goes back just a few years? I've never heard of a ghost dressed like they were from the 1980s, with the big hair, spandex, etc. Seems like in most stories, the ghosts are from the 1800s - early 1900s.

I think alot of hotels, B&B's, restaurants, etc., make up the stories for business. Stories that are really old are harder to prove than something that happened recently. Anyone have any thoughts?

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my thoughts are this, old bars and restuarents ect have been around a lot longer giving them more probablility for a reason for a ghost to remain, also perhaps it takes many years for a ghost to build up enough energy to actually be noticed

i also feel that back in those times deaths were a lot more harsh and a lot more abundant again giving the probability of a haunting to take place

there are however recorded evps of more recent hauntings only a few years from the actual death, this again goes with my theory of a spirit building enough energy to be noticed, voice alone would not need as much energy as a full body aparition

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My father died in 1993 and he has made his presence known several times in my mother's house... Also, one of our family friends passed on, and when his twin brother spent the night in his old house, all the cupboards flew open and he was so unnerved, he had to leave...

I see what you mean though.. you hear more about old ghosts than "new" ones.. If you think about it, it could be an issue of medical advancement... say Sally May died because she was bitten by a rabid possum in the 19th century and she was only 21... 21 was too young to die.. she doesn't want to let go... Today if a 21 yr old is bit by a rabid possum, and yes, I know someone who was, all they need is a series of gut shots and a swift kick in the **** for harrassing a possum that was clearly infected... it was tracking around in the yard in the daytime and he prodded it with a stick... he deserved to be bit, imho...

Humans live longer nowadays and dying at a young age is rare in the scheme of things, so we tend to accept our deaths and choose to move on...

This is just one theory, I'm sure I could come up with another if i wasnt soo damn tired... original.gif

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... and also...

If someone were to witness a ghost from the 1800's, more than likely the ghost would be in period clothes.. and I dont mean sweats and a t-shirt.. therefore, the ghost would be more noticeable... if you see a transparent 80's throwback, you're more likely to turn your head and feel sorry for the poor kid...

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I have 2 ideas,

1. They are ghosts, spirits which have never passed over yet. As the others have said a lot of people died young and probably don't realise it. Common in a place that has a resident ghost.

2. They are spirits who have crossed over and are linked to you in some way, whether they are family members or past live connections. They can come and go at will.

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Medusa very good point! I never taught of that.

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When I was in college I followed a girl in a blue bathrobe into a shower room that had no other exit and found the room empty. If it hadn't been so obvious that there was no other way out, there's no way I would have thought she wasn't flesh and blood. I mean, she wasn't transparent or anything! So I think maybe there are a lot of modern ghosts (and you do hear stories about some of them), but a lot of them go unnoticed because they just look like normal people.

As Aquaryus said, period clothes from the 19th/early 20th century stand out but if you see someone in clothes from the 1980s you don't pay any attention.

Another possibility is that the older ghosts have been around long enough for people to hear the stories and spread them around.

A few stories I have heard about more recent phantoms include a running man in England who was seen within a decade of his death, two or three accident victims who have been seen where they died, and a sweet old lady who spent her whole life trying to restore an historic old house and now haunts the caretaker's cottege where she died in the 1980s.

Sorry I don't have more specifics on these, btw. It's very late and I'm listing them off the top of my head. I think I saw the running man and the accident victims in Ghost Hunter's Guide by Peter Underwood. The caretaker's ghost is from Missouri Ghosts by Joan somebody. dontgetit.gif

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Hi grin2.gif

There are countless reports of people seing ghosts that appear to be contempory or modern.

There are also reports of very very anchient ghosts as well, so they most certainly are not all from the 1800's

Happy Christmas

Hammy x x x

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Why is it that you never hear of hauntings where the story goes back just a few years?

Darn good question? One, I'm asking myself right now because I experience the same. Old ghosts not new ones. I think you might have something there.

I think alot of hotels, B&B's, restaurants, etc., make up the stories for business. Stories that are really old are harder to prove than something that happened recently.

Right again, except it is usually the patrons that start them and the business hangs on to them for monetary purposes.

I don't want to disprove the ghost thing though because I experience many of them on a daily basis, but your're right, you never "hear" of a modern ghost.

Ya know, just like we receive dreams, ghosts, spirits, whatever you want to call them can give us pictures that depict a person in clothes. I myself think that they are just a substance of some sort but do not wear clothes at all.

I feel like an idiot. I just remembered that I saw my grandfather at the end of his bed in 1989 when I was staying at my grandmother's house. It's early.

I also think that when people see a ghost they all to often asssume that it is from somewhere in the past and do not relate to the fact that they are dwelling amongst us from yesterday or today.

Edited by atrueoriginall
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Hi grin2.gif

There are countless reports of people seing ghosts that appear to be contempory or modern.

There are also reports of very very anchient ghosts as well, so they most certainly are not all from the 1800's

I saw probably one of the oldest ghosts in the universe in my bedroom. It was an extraterrestrial. Long Beach, CA 1998.

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A lot of the best ghost stories, particularly in the US, are from the 1800s, and I believe this is because our better-known haunted houses were constructed during that period. But there are just as many, if not more, ghost stories from the 20th century; they just aren't as well-known or repeated as often. In the UK, ghost stories go back hundreds of years simply because many of the haunted castles, etc. were built hundreds of years ago. People have even seen spirits of Bronze Age men, Druids, Roman soldiers, etc.

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nessie and ogopogo if they exist could very well be dinosaur ghosts, it would actually make more sense because there is no physical proof of either, but if they were actually ghosts then that would close the case

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How come we don't see Dinosaur Ghosts!! They been walking our planet for 50 million years?  whistling2.gif

400786[/snapback]

Actually, there's supposed to be a ghostly T-Rex haunting a canyon somewhere near the Grand Canyon. The story goes that there's rock carvings there that look just like a T-Rex, which puzzles experts because how would the indians have known what a dino looked like. So one night an amateur archaeologist was camping there so he could study them and his dog started acting weird. He looked around and a T-Rex sort of shimmered into existence, took a few steps towards him, then disappeared.

I saw that in one of those pamphlets you pick up at the grocery store. Don't remember the name, sorry. The place where it happened was something-supai gorge or something.

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Some people believe the dragons of days gone by may have been the ghosts of dinosaurs. There have also been reports of a dinosaur spirit in Texas. I know I'll get a lot of flak for saying this, but I'm not sure animal spirits return unless, in life, the animal had a close human association, or, in the case of graveyard dogs, were intended to be guardians. Also, the dinosaurs were reptiles and I've never heard of a ghost snake or lizard.

I have gathered a lot of information about ancient ghosts and by ancient, I mean ghosts of people who lived more than 1,000 years' ago. These include the spirit of the Bronze Age man on horseback seen on Bottlebrush Down, Dorset; the apparition of Boudicca, the Warrior Queen; the Druids; prehistoric spirits observed at Brodgar Circle during the full moon, etc.

As for why some ghosts return on horseback, drawn by carriages, or wearing clothes, I don't know. If only the spirits of individuals were able to return, then all ghosts would be naked.

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Hmm... I live in a very small town, and we only have four well known local ghost stories. Three of which happened recently in the last hundred years. Only one is actually what i would consider old. We dont know how old... but old enough no one remembers the story behind the hauntings. (someone should make a post for local ghost stories) happy.gif

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Until March 2003, I lived in an apartment complex that is said to be one of the most haunted locations around although it is only 40-years-old, having been constructed in 1964. It started out with only a single ghost, a banshee-type spirit that cried from a nearby hillock just before a resident of the apartments died. Over the years, it acquired more and more ghosts, including the spirit of a former manager, or "Lady in Red"; two phantom cats, one white, the other black; a phantom black car from the 1960s; the spirits of a woman and boy, also from the 1960s--he always appeared wearing a "Herman's Hermits" t-shirt; whispering noises and the sounds of phantom voices; a baby crying in the night when no one living there had a baby; lights flashing on and off; unexplained streaks of blood on carpets, towels, shower curtains, etc.; blue lights floating about inside the haunted apartment that was never rented; inexplicable cold winds blowing through apartments when no doors or windows were open; and many other strange occurrences. Last March 16, a lady who had lived there for more than 20 years died and within two weeks of her death, people were claiming to have seen her ghost. The apartment where she lived was rented in June, but the people stayed less than a week, leaving in the middle of the night.

I have always wondered why some locations seem to attract spirits while others, which have just as many deaths, etc. have none at all.

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Also, the dinosaurs were reptiles and I've never heard of a ghost snake or lizard.

Oh! One of the coolest ghost stories I know! This is from a book about ghosts in the northwest US. (I've read about every ghost book I could get my hands on since I was a little kid. Sorry I can't always remember the names. I can find out if anyone wants to know.)

Anyway, a family went for a day trip to a nature preserve somewhere in Oregon. While they were there they caught a snake and the boys wanted to take it home. Oddly enough, Mom said no. disgust.gif So instead of taking the snake home they decided to just take a picture of it. The dad held the snake and the mom carefully focused the camera and took a picture and then they let it go.

When they got home and had the film developed they had a perfect picture . . . of the man's empty hands. cool.gif

Loretta

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This turned into a pretty interesting topic! You folks have some good theories. It's true not *all* ghost stories are from the 1800s but just seems like you hear more about them, I guess because, like you guys mentioned, the stories have been around so long. And who's to say that we're not surrounded by modern ghosts all the time? I surely don't touch everyone I see to see if they're real! Hell, I try not to touch anyone! happy.gif

Ghost dinosaurs! That's tooo funny! And ghost animals - I never thought about it. I guess animals just generally don't have the desire to come back. Like snakes don't have relatives and friends - you know, things they'll miss.

Interesting... Thanks!

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