Another relatively recent theory is that some older, "haunted," buildings may have toxic molds, or possibly used toxic building materials that may trigger hallucinations. Couple this with the planted suggestion that the building may be, "haunted," and there's little surprise they see something that adds to the myth.
All that said, I certainly do not discount events on the spiritual plane, and indeed, decades ago, while a student at Gettysburg College, I had one experience for which I can not muster a, "rational," explanation.
I also had one or two notable personal experiences with no evident rational explanations. Like a window to somewhere briefly opened. One thing I know for sure: You can’t MAKE them happen, no matter how hard you try. They happen when they want to (or when God sees fit).
I’d love to hear your Gettysburg College story, Joe, if you’d care to share it here.
I’ve seen ghosts, several, different times, years apart. I was with three unbelievers on those separate occasions who to their dismay saw the ghosts too.
Unbelievers don’t believe in ghosts until they see one. Then, suddenly they’re a believer.
Back in the early 80s I was walking up the stone steps above Harper’s Ferry on my way to Jefferson’s Rock.
I looked up to see a monk coming down the steps and moved aside so he could pass.
I said something to my then-boyfriend and when we turned to look at the monk, he made a right turn and went into the old church.
Went on up to the rock and hung out for a bit and on the way down, I stopped to look the church.
It was not open at all and there was no door where he went in but I could see that a door of some sort had been blocked in, at some point.
Pretty much just shrugged and went on with my life.
Decades later, someone told me I’d seen the “ghost monk” and didn’t even know it.
It was hardly even dusk so who would expect such things.
St. Peter’s Catholic Church, built in 1830, was the only church in Harpers Ferry to survive the war. When troops on Maryland Heights would shell the town, the priest at St. Peter’s, Father Costello, a British subject, would hoist the Union Jack up the steeple. Fearful of an international incident, both sides spared the church, which was also used as a hospital. Visitors have reported seeing an old priest going down the path beside the building, of an evening, turning and walking through the wall as though it were a door.
Yep, that was exactly what I saw happen yet I totally “missed it” ;D
I’ve never seen anything weird myself, but I have always thought that perhaps some weird stuff that folks claim to experience could be something to do with time in some way, either how our brains perceive time or even manipulate time.
Freegards