Looking for Casper

Looking for Casper

Dear Cathy:

I’m planning on having a haunted house this Halloween, and I would like to use real poltergeists. Is there any way that I can temporarily bring poltergeists into my house for the holidays?

Signed,
Looking for Casper


Dear Looking:

I am glad you have asked me this question. This important holiday information was not even mentioned in Martha Stewart’s special Halloween addition of her magazine!

Most people get confused about the different hauntings available. If you are looking for something along the lines of a shrieking form holding it’s head and walking down the hall you are actually looking for a repetitive image haunting. This is the kind of ghostly occurrence that repeats the same sequence over and over again. These instant replay ghosts are like looking at a tape recording of high intensity emotion. This is why these images are often associated with grief and trauma. In Bellingham there is a hotel where you can hear a man pacing and a woman screaming in pain where a woman died in childbirth. In my house a woman repeatedly comes down a stairwell and puts away laundry in a cupboard. Neither the stairs nor the cupboard currently exists in the house. I don’t know what her great trauma was but she is an intent housekeeper. I have however been unable to get her to also fold my clothes while in this state of angst.

If you are looking for the interactive variety of haunting this becomes a bit more complicated. An aspect or fragment of the person does not go into the light and they avoid the other-side-welcoming committee that comes to pick them up. This can happen because they have unfinished business, died in a confused state or because they have a feeling that they are going to hell for stealing that eraser in 4th grade. Often they will stay connected to their house and think they are still the owners. Some are gracious hosts and some want you out.

The E.R. Rodgers restaurant in Steilacoom is a great example of both types of ghosts. My father grew up next door to the house that has served as a private residence, boarding house and now a restaurant. He had many stories about the “ghost with red eyes” that looked out the front windows of the house overlooking the water. Recently I was walking into the downstairs women’s bathroom and actually excused myself and moved to the side as an upset women in a long taffeta dress cut directly in front of me hurrying to some unknown destination, disappearing into the bathroom wall. The interactive ghost, a scruffy old man, resides upstairs and stands on the stairs and harasses the restaurant guests and staff, turning lights on and off and moving things around in the kitchen. You can often smell his pipe smoke upstairs in the late evening. I understand nobody wants the job of being the last one out.

If you would like a list of some of the other haunted places in the area you can go to and for online sounds of ghost wailing and photos go to . A good list, but they neglected the very haunted Capitol building and the old woman that haunts the women’s bathroom at the Olympic Hotel across from Sylvester Park.

If you are looking for a true poltergeist experience, (poltergeist means, “to knock” and “spirit” in German), I have two words – adolescent girls. Loud knocking, objects moving about on their own, voices, particular odors and apparitions are the hallmark of poltergeist experiences. These experiences tend to focus around a preteen female who's hormones and the stress of that age combine and finally release subconsciously in flinging dishes and loud rapping’s. Activity has also been associated with very stressed teens and young adults of either sex but there is nothing like a group of 14 year old girls to stir up a bit of Halloween haunting. The energies surrounding adolescence is a very powerful force.

In other times and cultures young adults were initiated into adulthood and taught skills to begin to run energy through their bodies and direct these emerging energies into effective creative forces. Today’s adolescents move into this energetically powerful time unassisted by the older wise ones in the village and end up flinging things through the air willy-nilly. This might be a little disconcerting for the family down the block, but can assist you wonderfully in creating the atmosphere you desire for that special Halloween effect. Be sure to get a note from the girl’s parents before proceeding.

Place 4 agitated teens in the corners of the room, for best results keep large amounts of Halloween snack sized snicker bars close at hand. Encourage them to look in the mirror by candlelight repeating the name “Bloody Mary” until totally worked up. Place an assortment of small easy to fling objects in the center of the room and enjoy!