What is considered a Halloween haunted house?

Well, it’s that time of year again. Time for all the ghouls and demons to come out of the woodwork. Time for children to dress up in imaginative costumes and go around their neighborhoods asking for treats. Yes, it’s that enjoyable annual holiday: Halloween. During this holiday, one popular tradition, for many, is to go to the local haunted houses. In these creepy habitations, people delight in the chance to entertain their primal fears. Many of us get a kick out of a good scare.

Haunted houses have probably been around since buildings and man’s fear of spirits have been around.  However, Halloween haunted houses haven’t been around quite that long. A haunted house is a site where paranormal phenomena and supernatural events have been reported to exist.

Of course, these are just false haunted houses. Annual occurrences of smoke and mirror type frights. They are fun because everyone plays along. The demons are actors, the ghosts, props. These haunted houses are fun because both spook and spooked, know that no one is actually going to be hurt in the process. So then, what of real haunted houses?  

Here the rules change. This time the scares are real, and the safety of the victim is placed into question. No one comes face to face with the supernatural. That is, assuming that there is such a thing as “the supernatural.”

So, where are some of the best places to go, to see a “real” haunting? How about two of the most haunted places on earth:  

• Whaley House – Located in San Diego, California, this is the current reigning champion for the nation’s most haunted house. The abode was partially built on an old cemetery, as well as some of San Diego’s first public gallows. The residence has stood there for the past 148 years. Placement of the house has made it a prime scene for many gruesome acts over the past century. Because of this, vast arrays of ghostly sightings have occurred on this property. These include the ghost of a young girl who accidentally hung herself on a clothesline whilst running down a hillside. Noted thief Jim Robinson, was hung 5 years before the house was built. His place of death now resides between the parlor and music room. Visitors have reported feeling a coldness and constriction of the neck, when around the archway that separates these rooms. Along with these two ghosts, there are numerous accounts of phantom scents in some rooms, cries of nonexistent babies in other rooms, and various apparitions that have been seen in the house’s mirrors and windows. 

• Borley Rectory – Not to be outdone by the States, England is also host to a number of haunted places. The most haunted of which is, allegedly, Borley Rectory, in the small town of Borley, in Essex. The rectory (lodging for priests) was built in 1863, on the site of an ancient monastery. Interestingly enough, it was built on a spot that was already known to house a ghost (a nun who was bricked up alive, in one of the monastic cellars). The rectory has since had numerous sightings of the nun, as well as many poltergeist activities, where various objects would be smashed, or displaced. Strange sounds, odors and cold spots are all known to occur there as well.  

While both of these places claim to be haunted, one must ask if haunting is even a real thing, or just a psychosomatic phenomenon. Are ghosts real, or just figments of our imagination? This remains a controversial topic among the general public. A Harris poll in February 2003 found that a whopping 51% of people surveyed, believed in ghosts.

The Halloween haunted house is unique to this holiday and they should be cropping up anytime now with a call for actors who wish to participate. One should contact the local theater group for more information or the local chamber of commerce. Don’t miss out on all of the fun.

So this Halloween, if someone dares you to spend the night at the local “real” haunted house; just remember the famous words of investigative authors Robert Baker and Joe Nickell:

 “There are no haunted places, only haunted people.”