A Little History Lesson
(I know, I'm sorry but it is necessary)
This is a little bit about the history of ghost's and stories about haunted places!
The history of ghost's and stories about haunted places starts before anciet times. They are believed to have originated before the written language.
Ghost stories and tales of spirits who come back from the dead to haunt places where they have unfinished business have become popular in folklore for many different cultures. There are many styles involving historical figures from queens and politicians to writers and gangsters. Many of which who died very early in life, and/or had mysterious or violent deaths.
The concept of a ghost, aka a specter, is based off of the ancient idea that a person's spirit is a separate part of the human entity, and may continue to exist after a person's body has died. Due to this idea, many societies began to use rituals and "spells" as a way of ensuring that the dead person's spirit would not return to the land of what we know as, "Land of the Living."
Places believed to be haunted are often associated with some negative occurrence or emotion from the ghost's past; these places are often former homes or the place where their body had died. Beside the actual ghostly apparitions, traditional signs of haunting range from out of place, or mysterious noises, lights flickering or being turned on and off, odors that are unusual or come out of nowhere or breezes when there are no windows open to cause the unusual movement of objects, bells that ring with no one touching them or musical instruments that seem to play with no one else around.
During the first century A.D., the great Roman author and statesman "Pliny the Younger" recorded one of the first notable ghost stories in letters, which became very famous for the vivid way they account of life during the heyday of the Roman Empire. "Pliny" wrote that the ghost of an old man with a long, white beard and wore rattling chains, was haunting his home. The Greek writer "Lucian" and "Pliny's" fellow Roman Plautus also wrote memorable ghost stories.
In the year 856 A.D., the first poltergeist was reported to be at a farmhouse in Germany. The poltergeist apparently tormented the family that was living there by throwing stones around and lighting fires, among many other frightening things.