From all parts of the world, many people have shared their scary ghost stories. They claim to have experienced real and eerie ghost sightings. Of course, many are just a hoax, but there are people who are genuine about their claims. Whether they are sightings of real ghosts from the deceased or just the mind playing tricks, the phenomenon is open to debate.

According to a HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted in December of 2012, there were 45 percent of Americans that said they believe in ghosts. While 32 percent said they do not believe, there were 23 percent that were unsure. The percentage for believers is surprisingly high.

Some people accept that ghosts are real because it gives them comfort. If they think they have seen a spirit of a dead family member, it gives them a sense of peace that their loved one is not entirely gone. They think they are with them everyday in the form of a spirit. Although many people may consider this to be nothing but a kooky and preposterous belief, the believers see their personal anecdotes as direct evidence for the supernatural.

Near-Death Experiences: Study Suggests Awareness May Continue After Brain Shuts Down

The largest ever medical study on near-death experiences (NDEs) and life after death suggests that life can continue after death. The study on this particular subject has changed what was previously thought as impossible. A team of researchers in the UK have spent the last 4 years analyzing the experiences of cardiac patients. The scientific study involved 2,060 patients. They were from 15 different hospitals located in the UK, United States and Austria.

Here is what the most surprising results from this new fascinating study suggests:

Unlike previously thought, the brain likely doesn’t shut down within 20-30 seconds after the heart stops beating. Therefore, it is certainly not impossible to still be aware of your surroundings even after you have been declared dead. Sound like an amazing discovery?

There was nearly 40 percent of survivors who had described having at least some form of “awareness” when they were said to be clinically dead. Patients said they experienced real events for up to a total of three minutes after the brain was expected to be entirely shut down. After being resuscitated, the patients claimed to have accurately recalled the events.

The new study has opened doors into more considerable research on near death experiences and what happens after death. It was previously thought that patients who experienced NDEs were just relating hallucinatory events. As long as we keep looking at the results objectively, we may discover even more surprising results in the future. Although there is still going to be skepticism regarding life after death, for some, the evidence from the study may bring more hope that ghosts exist.

Ectoplasm: Communicating With The Dead

Ectoplasm is said to be a thick and sticky supernatural substance associated with hauntings and used during communication with the dead. The term was coined by French physiologist Charles Richet in the year 1894. During a spiritualistic trance in a dark room, spiritual energy is supposed to discharge from the orifices on the body of a physical medium and then form the material for the demonstration of spirits. The spirits are then capable of interacting.

Reports of ectoplasmic phenomena has declined since the second World War. Interestingly, psychical researchers (the study of paranormal and psychic phenomena) actually have their doubts whether previously reported cases ever existed. Despite the popularity for the term ectoplasm in popular culture, the physical existence has never been proven and is not accepted by science. In fact, on many occasions, it has been proven to be based on fraud.

6 Spooky Ghost Stories

A Creepy Haunted House: Monte Cristo Homestead

Located in the town of Junee, New South Wales in Australia is a large historic property called Monte Cristo Homestead. It was built in 1885 by a local pioneer named Christopher William Crawley. Him and his family stayed at the property up until 1948. Under the care of several caretakers, the home remained vacant until it was purchased by Reg and Olive Ryan in 1963.

This two-story home on a hill is said to be the most haunted home in the entire continent of Australia. It has been studied and explored by a lot of ghost hunters. There have been many reports of ghost-like figures, invisible auras, weird lights and even animal mutilations. The reports are said to be caused by a number of disastrous occurrences in the home’s history.

Three of the incidents include a young child (during the time of the Crawley family) that was said to have been fatally dropped down the stairs, a stable boy that was burnt to death and a maid that fallen from the balcony. Oddly, there was even more occurrences. The tragic incidents also include the imprisonment of a mentally impaired man for many years in the dairy and the murder of a caretaker in 1961. This spooky home now operates as a museum, antique store and a tourist attraction that brings in thousands of curious and extremely terrified visitors a year. Visitors claim to have had encounters with the ghosts in the home.

A Frightening Cemetery Story: Goodleburg Cemetery

Some of the oldest graves in Western New York are located in the Goodleburg Cemetery. This place is filled with many ghost stories. Perhaps the most popular, is the story of a doctor by the name of Albert Speaker. He once performed many unsafe and illegal abortions.

Speaker had a home that was located on a small hill across the street from the cemetery. According to folklore, he had been burying the fetuses and the women that couldn’t survive the procedures in either the water or burial for many years. After a lot of deaths and burials, the dead fetuses and women were said to have began to haunt him. He supposedly got tired of it and committed suicide by hanging himself on a tree located on top of a hill. There are now rumors that Speaker is still hanging around the graveyard wearing his white lab coat.

Other Creepy Stories From The Same Cemetery

Another popular ghost many claim they see when they visit the cemetery is a lady dressed in white. She is known as the “Lady in White” that still roams the area. She is said to be one of the dead patients that has also been spotted in other areas surrounding the cemetery.

Another common phenomenon claimed by visitors is the sound of crying babies and women by the back pond. People also claim to have seen ghost fetuses that actually crawl around the cemetery. One group of people said that after visiting the cemetery, they put their car lights on and got an unexpected surprise. Besides the foggy windows and natural smears on the vehicle, they also saw that the car was completely covered with many child hand prints.

The cemetery has taken a lot of vandalism from visitors and many ghost hunters. This has forced the police to patrol the area on Halloween and ban parking in roads located nearby.

Asylum Haunting: Athens Mental Health Center

Athens Mental Health Center (also known as The Ridges) was an asylum for the criminally insane. The place was open for business on January 9, 1874. The building had 544 rooms with almost 2,000 patients by the early 1900’s. The excessive crowding eventually lead to declines in treating patients. The medical center had closed its doors for business in 1993.

The Hauntings

A patient by the name of Margaret Schilling had vanished from a ward on December 1, 1978. Her body wasn’t found until 42 days after she was missing. Her dead body was eventually found by a maintenance man in an abandoned top floor of ward N. 20. It was later reported that the official cause of her death was heart failure. Why she actually died of heart failure still remains an unsolved mystery. To this day, a stain the shape of a human figure is still visible on the floor where she passed away. It is claimed that here visible spirit can also been seen peeking from a window located in the same room. There have also been claims of people that say they hear female spirit voices and gurneys that make high-pitched sounds.

Children And Ghost Sightings

After the release of the movie Poltergeist in 1982, more and more children had become not only frightened, but also fascinated with the idea of ghosts. For others, it isn’t just the idea of ghosts, but also the curiosity of finding out what and who is showing themselves to them.

A Story Of A Child Who Claims To Have Seen Spirits

In Tennessee, a little girl claims a ghost has been following her around since she was four. She describes the ghost as a dark shadowy figure. After moving into a home in Alexandria Tennessee at the age of 10, she was said to have met ghosts as well as their murderer.

She told her mother one morning that she had awakened for an unknown reason. She woke up and saw a little boy crying on the floor. She claimed the boy had asked her not to kill him. She thinks this was an actual replay of his death. This is not the only sighting. She also said she saw a 3-year-old and her parents get murdered. Although her mother didn’t believe her in the beginning, she did later because of the other odd things that had happened in the house. For example, a baby doll supposedly came to life to try and kill her and her siblings.

The Strange Haunting Of Dolley Madison

A popular ghost story many of you may be aware of is the haunting of Dolley Madison (the wife of James Madison). Although she died on July 2, 1949, she still hasn’t really left the White House. She is said to still be watching over her former rose garden (White House Rose Garden). She is also said to be seen in the Octagon House and the Dolley Madison house where she spent her final years. Since the mid-19th century, people claim to have seen her ghost on the porch rocking in a chair. They say she smiles at the people passing through.

Aokigahara: The Suicide Forest

The suicide forest in Japan has many sad and creepy sides to it. It is documented that during the period leading up to 1988, there has been about 100 suicides that have occurred at the forest every single year. Between 2002 and 2003, it is recorded that 183 bodies were found. In 2004, a total of 108 people had committed suicide in the forest. Whether it was from drug overdoses or hangings, the number of suicides and attempted suicides keep increasing.

The forest is so associated with suicide that it actually led officials to put up signs in both Japanese and English for visitors. The signs were designed to help deter visitors from suicide and encourage them to seek some professional help if they are headed in that direction.

A very old Japanese tradition known as Ubasute, was claimed to have been practiced even before the forest became a popular place for suicide. The practice involved the placement of the sick and elderly to lay and die in the forest. It is believed that even today, Y?rei (angry spirits) haunt the forest to encourage the suicidal to go through with the act of suicide.

The Stanley Hotel

The Stanley is known for being a hotel with plenty of reports of ghost activity. It was built by a man by the name of Freelan Oscar Stanley. Him and his twin brother are the co-founders of Stanley Motor Carriage Company.

Little did Freelan Stanley know that one day, the hotel he built would become an obsession for paranormal investigator’s. With over 400 rooms, there is plenty of room for investigators to hunt for ghosts. Guests, along with employees claimed to have seen them in many areas throughout the hotel property.

The Stanley inspired Stephen King to write the novel called The Shining, which was published in 1977. In 1980, based on King’s novel, the movie The Shining was released. It was directed by Stanley Kubrick, with Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall.

So not only has The Stanley Hotel terrified and fascinated many, it has also been an inspiration to create entertainment for horror fans.

The above video is about ghost stories from a real-life haunted Texas hotel. It’s very creepy!

If you are skeptical about the existence of ghosts, did the info make you reconsider your view? If you are open to the possibility of their existence, do you have a real ghost story of your own? You may know a family member or friend who has experienced a spooky sighting.