Attachments

Ghosts, history, attachments...it's all quite curious when you stop to think of it.

I once attended a Ghost Hunting Class given by Donna Marsh. I recently learned she's a Nashville Ghosts & Hauntings Examiner for Examiner.com. Click here to check out her articles.

At any rate, in her class she'd brought up an interesting point I'd never considered before about child spirits, especially in schools. I happened to love my elementary school, which may or may not have been haunted. (Refer to an earlier post I wrote about Cheeseman Academy to see what I mean.)

But did I haunt it in a way? I had a great deal of affection for the place and a very strong attachment. Not quite as strong as for the house I grew up in, but...I used to dream about my school all the time. I sometimes wonder if I wasn't haunting it in a way before it got torn down. Kind of like an out of body haunting. I haven't dreamt of it since, so I don't think I'm haunting that site anymore.

But the point I'm trying to make is that wherever we have the strongest attachment is where, if we do ever end up as a ghost, is where we'll go. Kids often haunt schools because they have spent so very much time there. In some cases it feels like a home away from home. (I know my school certainly felt that way.)

When I think of the traditional haunted houses, I think of the old castles, manors, plantations or estates where, especially the womenfolk, didn't have much opportunity for traveling away from. They were as defined by their surroundings as their surroundings defined them. And if you happened to idolize, love and in general feel very safe in your surroundings, surely a part of your spirit would linger after your physical body passed from this Earth.

Hotels interest me for this reason. Especially resort hotels where wealthy people might pass a "season." I imagine you could form quite an attachment then too and decide to linger after life.

Bars and pubs, unless they were once houses, trouble me, though. I suppose if a very violent, unexpected death occurred an attachment could form. But those also seem the ones that it'd be easiest to "treat." (Meaning coax the spirit to move on.) Unless the person who died owned the place or something like that where they had a strong attachment for affinity sake.

All I know, I often dream of my childhood home and wonder by doing so if I ever "manifest" and cause the new owners alarm. That house will always be the penultimate of safety and comfort and happy memories for me. And if I ever do become a ghost, I'm sure that's where you'll find my spirit.