Haunted Locations or Legend

[UglyNRude]

Sponsor Messages

Its funny how a legend is born and thousands of people suddenly experience ghosts by visiting nothing but a legend.

Lets look at some of these legends.

Shoe tree's most states have lots of these. Its said an old man kills children and then hangs there shoes in the tree. Lots of these are born for other reasons, graduating seniors throw their shoes in the branches to say good by to high school.

Crybaby bridges again some states have multiple of these and the stories vary but most are a mother's baby is killed and her ghost comes looking for it. The baby is said to be heard crying.

Suicide bridge again there seem to be many of these in states across the us, a teenager was to have either jumped off and dies or hung himself. Most involve train tracks and its said as a train goes by you can hear screams.

Haunted camp once again these are scattered in most states, rumors om multiple campers are murdered and their ghosts live on. These are spread every year as campers sit around a campfire and tell ghost stories.

There are lots more but we will just pick these few

Now lets research these, most are just that legends that spread from state to state and grow as they are told. Now its possible one of these had something happen to launch the legend but then it spreads and grows from state to state. Then people who are easily influenced hear the legend and experience exactly what the they have heard will happen. The legend then gets roots and will grow as the story is retold, often getting more gruesome and gory.

Now what kind of person are you? Do you automatically believe what people tell you? or do you search for the truth?

---

When investigating paranormal don't rely on assumptions, base your decisions on evidence.

[Napman]

We have this problem in Calgary with a old ghost story that started on a website. I wont tell the story because of all the people looking for this place have broken fences and have been even arrested for trespassing on private property.

[scarygirl67]

My dad used to tell me "if you think you found the answers...start asking more questions." So I look for the story behind the story...and often there are six stories behind that!

As you mentioned, UNR, there are many legends that are the same exact story with a different location. One legend that comes to mind are "railroad ghost lights"...of someone who was killed on a railroad track (for some reason, they are always looking for their head!) These are everywhere across the country. These often originate at a source where yes, someone died...and stories are born of these lights. Many of these legends claim to go back for years, but in all reality, most can be traced back well within the last century...and well after automobiles were invented. Headlights can reflect from many miles away, so seeing a light of an apparent unknown origin can most always be explained this way.

However...I do think that as long as the story is presented as a LEGEND, and not as fact...I think the stories themselves can give a town a lot of character. They're fun to listen to, and they are fun to sit around a campfire and tell. But if they are presented as fact...that is when it bothers me.

[trolldoll1681]

i guess it depends on how many people and generations have actually witnessed these. of coarse the stories can get blown way out of proportion.

[sundayangelmona]

Yes this happens all around the world.Even more in rural places or villages where people are telling stories..I noticed that in my town there is not so many legends or stories.But when I came to my granny in her village almost everyone had different legend.

So if anything did happen,from mouth to mouth one truth becomes something completely different.
I always try to look both sides and then I can choose what to believe.
But often for some things I don't need to look but feel,and you just know the truth.

[NigelH]

We have loads of legends over here in the UK, old wives tales that go back centuries. Some amazing stuff locally, like viking ships sailing down rivers, mysterious pools of blood that appear from nowhere, and we have a number of Shuck sightings too.

I'm more of an investigator then a believer, but I do enjoy the old tales, and have visited a few of the local sites, just to satisfy my curiosity

[LMC]

(08-01-2010 06:37 AM)UglyNRude Wrote:  Its funny how a legend is born and thousands of people suddenly experience ghosts by visiting nothing but a legend.

Now what kind of person are you? Do you automatically believe what people tell you? or do you search for the truth?

yes it is funny on all the thousands of tourists visiting cause of a legend/myth...

The type of person I am??? I am both, I believe, than investigate... I guess you can say I have to have a reason to investigate right???

Hawaii has allot of legends from Pele the Goddess of the volcanoes to don't drive Pali hwy with pork in the car! Don't let me get started on the Menehunes of Hawaii lol yet I also grew up with those legends kind of hard sometimes to look at them as just a story... yet I do believe in what you posted UNR it always starts off with a story than builds into a impossible mystery

this was a cool thread to bring up good points on Myth/legends thank you

[Wondering_Zombie]

I'm an extremely skeptical, logical person but I'm also a believer. Typically before I consider something to be a "paranormal phenomenon", I need to out rule any and all logical explanations for why something could have been seen or heard.

I also do, however, find it extremely interesting how people's minds work. I believe a lot of paranormal experiences are based on an unstable physiological state of mind because the person is expecting something unexplainable to happen. Then when anything happens, they automatically jump to the conclusion that it's a spirit because that's what they want to believe it is. It's part of the reason I love watching ghost hunting shows. It's funny to see them freak out over simple noises or their own shadows.

Anyway, I'd love to do an experience regarding such a topic. Basically, I'd want to get a group of people who are a mixture of skeptics and believers. Then split that group into two separate groups. One group would spend the weekend on a secluded property for the weekend and just be told it's nothing more than a normal bed and breakfast. The second group would stay in the same location on another weekend but get told some made up myth or ghost story before they are asked to stay the weekend.

Then I'd just want to see and compare the number of ghost sightings and experiences both groups reported on a non-haunted location, just to see how the state of mind changes. Perhaps even run the experiment for a month but asking both groups to return but then flip the story:

Week 1: Group A stays the weekend; is told nothing
Week 2: Group B stays the weekend; is told a story
Week 3: Group A is asked to stay again; this time told the story
Week 4: Group B is asked to stay again; this time is told the story is fake

[UglyNRude]

There have been testing done where psychics are told a made up story then asked to walk through it, it has fake pictures to also collaborate it. They all report that they are feeling the made up people.
It was done by Darren Brown if I remember right.