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Psychologists in the UK are saying that "ghosts are the mind's way of interpreting how the body reacts to certain surroundings." The study done involved asking hundreds of volunteers to go into several historically haunted places in the UK and report when they felt something "ghostly" or paranormal in nature.

Their findings point to ghosts being all in one's head. If you're in a place that we, in general, think of as car scary we're going to think there's a ghost there. What's interesting is that the majority of volunteers all experienced what they thought of as a ghost in the same locations. The researchers attributed this to the body's natural reaction to magnetic fields present at those locations. The reason I think this is interesting is that ghost hunters use EMF level readers all the time to locate ghosts because the theory is that ghosts are made of energy.

So, depending on your point of view with regard to ghosts, the "body reacting to magnetic fields" idea proves or disproves the research and theories for both entities.

If you've been reading go fish for a while, you know I believe in ghosts for a pretty good reason. Let's just say I'm biased. But my question for the UK researchers would be this: how does one account for group sightings? What I mean is this: if I'm sitting in my livingroom with Craig and three other people, and all of us a] hear someone stomping down my stairs and b] witness a woman appear and then disappear in the doorway, does that mean all of our bodies are reacting to the magnetic fields in the same way by way of audal and visual hallucinations?

I agree with the UK researchers on one point only -- people are more likely to think a spot is haunted if it looks like it should be haunted. Dark, smelly, cobwebby, old...spooky. But that's just a feeling that something is there. Like I said, the research doesn't take into account physical manifestations, like things touching you.

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Christy is going to be checking in on Sassy throughout the week while we're gone. I offered her the use of the house while we're out of the country, but she declined. I knew she would. She's afraid to stay in the house by herself.

It's not anything to do with the idea of being alone in a house that isn't hers in a neighborhood she's not familar with. It's more to do with the fact that she's afraid of our ghosts. Christy once stayed overnight at our house [we were home], and saw our ghost cat in the middle of the night. She screamed so loud she woke us all up, including Sassy who was under the covers at our feet when this all went down.

And so she refuses to be in our house alone.

I don't argue with her about it. I could tell her that our extra house guests are pretty benign, but she's really freaked out by it. Many people ask if I sense things in their homes, and I will usually tell them if they really want me to. Christy asked me once and I flat out lied to her. She'd never sleep again if I told her that there was something in her house.

She never used to be so wigged out about this kind of stuff. To be honest, I think she only half believed in the idea of ghosts up until a few years ago. It's kind of hard to honestly believe in something that you haven't experienced first hand. But Christy used to be engaged to someone whose parent's house was extremely haunted [and not in a nice way], and she saw her first ghost there. And now she's 100% sure they exist, but she's scared about it.

If I were to ask you to stay in a house you knew to be haunted, even if it was only a ghost cat, would you? I'm not sure how people feel about this. I would imagine that if you think the idea of ghosts is bullshit, then it really wouldn't be an issue, right? I tend not to care too much about having them around me unless they're touchy feely ghosts. But what about you?

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BeerMary asked a week or two ago what it is about me that attracts ghosts. I don't really know the answer to that. I just think some people can see and sense spirits and some people can't. Maybe some people are just more open to the idea.

I've heard speculation that some hauntings are nothing more than a psychic impression left on the fabric of time. I've read that some scientists just believe people who see ghosts are sick in the head. I don't know what the answers are, but I don't think I have something wrong with me.

Even though I see ghosts/spirits/souls fairly regularly, I don't see every single one and I don't see them the same as other people might. My friend Brooke is able to see ghosts, but when we see the same one it looks different to her. She sees them a lot more clearly than I do. I don't know what that means.

You might know that I don't believe in God. I don't really believe in heaven or hell, although I do believe in a life after death. But I do believe in the soul. We know that energy can't be created or destroyed, and so I believe in the idea of reincarnation. I believe that it's a natural occurence, not controlled by any overseeing power or entity. Maybe ghosts are just souls that haven't been reincarnated yet.

---

For a nice change of pace [she says, eyes rolling] here are some ghost-related stories for you:

Legend of the Black Monk

Speculation about the ghost in Three Men and a Baby. I thought everything that could be said about this had already been said, but I guess not. But come on, it's still spooky!

Real Ghostbusters? Hey, it's the Central Minnesota Ghostbusters! Heh. Nice outfits.

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I like stockpiling good Halloween costume ideas. I think up ideas year round and I make sure I write them down somewhere. Because I know that people are always trying to come up with good ideas, I've decided to start posting them here.

So the good ideas that I've come up with recently:

• A freak show. This would be good for a group of people wanting to dress in a theme. There could be a bearded lady, two headed man, hunchback, three-legged man, Jo-Jo the Dog Boy, lizard lady, the half-man half-dog, pigman, etc.
• Greek gods and goddesses. Another good idea for a group, but would also work with just one person. All you need is a long white toga, sandals, and some alabaster-looking skin.
• Raining cats and dogs. Wear a raincoat and rainboots, carry an opened umbrella with stuffed dogs and cats glued to the top of the umbrella. You could hang stuffed cats and dogs from the sides of the umbrella with fishing string.
• A slinky. Buy a couple dozen hulahoops and glue them together so they form a long tube. Spray paint the outside of the tube silver and letter the word "Slinky" along the side lengthwise. Attach some sort of a shoulder harness to the inside. Paint your face and hair silver.

Hey, long hours of studying for my Spanish midterm and knitting give me tons of time to come up with costume ideas. Let it never be said I'm not a multi-tasker!

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So my trip to Eastern State Penitentiary last night was interesting. Something kept petting my hair. At first I thought maybe they had those gross strings hanging from the ceiling to freak everyone out, but Craig didn't know what the hell I was talking about -- he didn't feel a thing. Considering I felt someone stroking my hair about two dozen times, I'm going to chalk it up to one of the Pen spirits taking a liking to me. Oh, and the batteries in my Pencam were completely drained even though I put in brand new batteries before we left.

The ghost tour at the Pen is not frightening in the least. It's like any other made up spookfest now. It used to be much scarier. It puzzles me that the organizers wouldn't use the Pen to their utmost advantage -- I mean, it's haunted. Some freaky ass shit has happened there. Tell the stories and make it absolutely pee-your-pants scary. As it is now they barely even acknowledge that you're in a real prison. Instead they have people dressed like monsters jumping out at you, and weird glowing alien pods. Yep, that's some scary stuff, alright. For that, I could have paid less to go to the cheesy fright house set up down near the river.

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You may have noticed that I love Halloween with an all-consuming passion. What with the Halloween wedding and all, it would be hard to miss.

Because I am all about Halloween I have become the Halloween Costume Authority to friends and family across the globe. I am known for my good, albeit strange, costume ideas. Craig and I attend the Henri David Halloween Ball at the Wyndham Franklin hotel every year.

Last year Craig and I went as escaped mental patients from the former Byberry Mental Institution [conveniently located in Northeast Philadelphia]. I love costumes that are easy and let me act like a total lunatic. Two years ago I was the Queen of Autumn and Craig went in drag as a Southern Belle. I also love costumes that aren't really anything in particular, but allow me to just get really creative and wild [what the hell is the Queen of Autumn anyway?]. This year Craig and I are going as Frank Cross and the Ghost of Christmas Present from the movie Scrooged. I have been busily sewing layers upon layers of tulle onto an old ballet costume and painting things with glittery silver paint. This weekend I have to find a toaster at a thrift shop to complete the ensemble.

I am officially laying out a blanket invitation to all of you -- if you want to join us at the Ball this year, let me know! It's a fun [and funny] time and the costumes are outrageous! And what else do you have to do on Halloween night other than hide from the myriad of trick-or-treaters pounding on your door, right?

A lot of adults think Halloween and dressing up is for kids. I never could understand that. All year long adults are expected to act all adult-like and responsible. Halloween is the one night out of the year we can all dress up like someone else and be unlike ourselves. Henri David's motto: Don't Come As You Are, But As You Want to Be!

In the spirit of the season, I've made a list of really easy but funny Halloween costumes that can be made in less than 30 minutes. I challenge everyone who reads Go Fish to throw caution to the wind and dress up this Halloween. Even if you just sit around your house and watch scary movies, at least you will be in costume and that's important for your well-being!

The list:

The Jersey shore -- dress in blue [which is stretching it a bit, I know] and paste hypodermic needles, dead fish, seagulls, sand, shells, and random found objects [like socks, unrolled condoms, driftwood] to yourself.

The Universe -- dress in dark blue or black and attach glow in the dark stars and planets to yourself. If you're feeling especially industrious you could make a headpeice for yourself out of a baseball cap with the brim cut off, wire, and some styrofoam balls painted to look like planets

Autumn -- dress in brown and paste fake Fall leaves all over yourself

A road -- dress all in black and paint a double dotted yellow line up your middle or side of your body. Just to a be funny, glue toy cars onto your "road"...you can even make a big accident with fake blood and decapitated Barbies.

A picnic -- dress in green and pin a red and white checked napkin to your chest and then attach a plastic plate with fake food and utensils over the napkin. Add some plastic ants for some fun.

This is my battle cry: dress for Halloween or face the consequences!

---

In the spirit of Halloween I'm going to share with you one of the spookiest stories I know. And it's true -- I checked out all the facts myself after the fact.

My friend Angela used to live in an apartment near South Street in Philadelphia. It was above a record store and it was a long, narrow apartment. Basically, it was just a long hallway and there was a bathroom, kitchen, and two bedrooms off the hallway [in that order].

Angela was thrilled to get the apartment. It was in a great location [right in the heart of the action on South Street] and it was dirt cheap [her rent was $300/month in an area where two bedroom apartments went for $800/month at least]. She invited me over one night for a sort of housewarming-movie watching night.

It was June when she moved in and I only lived about six blocks away from her at the time, so I walked over after work. The minute I walked into her apartment I noticed the smell -- it was like mildew combined with rotten eggs. Not overpowering, but enough to notice. But Angela didn't smell anything. I asked her if her air conditioner had something wrong with it. Angela told me that she didn't have the air conditioner on, that her apartment was just naturally cool, wasn't that great?

It must have been 80 degrees outside, but Angela's apartment was like a refrigerator.

She gave me the grand tour of the apartment. South Street apartments are notoriously in bad shape. A lot of people move in there to party and don't really take care of the properties, so I wasn't surprised when Angela told me that the bathroom floor seemed to have severe water damage and was sinking a little. I thought maybe that's what I was smelling. And there was a pantry closet in the hallway that bowed outward, like the closet had been stuffed full of thing and warped the door.

As much as there was an explanation for everything, I felt really uncomfortable in the apartment. And I couldn't come up with a reason or put my finger on what I was feeling.

So Angela and I watched a movie. In the middle of the movie I excused myself to use her bathroom. I swear to you this is true -- as I was sitting on the toilet the sink faucet turned on. Not just the water, OK...I actually saw the knob turn. And then I heard a giggle. So I'm freaked out, and I'm trying to get my pants pulled up as quickly as I can. The door to the bathroom unlocks itself and slowly creaks open [picture the horror movie thing where that happens], and I feel something brush my ear.

I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I made some excuse to Angela and went home. Angela stayed in the apartment for a year, and I never visited her for more than 5 minutes at a time and never used her bathroom. I never told her what happened [even though she asked me, because she knows I can see/sense ghosts] and she never noticed anything out of the ordinary except the damn bathroom door would never stay locked or closed.

OK, so a year later I was working at a law firm. At this point I haven't thought of the apartment in quite some time. A temp comes in for the day -- her name is Julia.
Julia and I get to talking and I find out she used to live in the same apartment as Angela. Before I could get another word out of my mouth, Julia asks me if I saw the little kids in the bathroom.

I think I held my breath for a second. Julia sort of grimaced and said, "I'll take that as a yes." I told Julia about the bathroom and what she told me next still makes my hair stand on end.

Apparently, Julia lived in that apartment with her infant son. Julia kept seeing the ghosts of two little kids running around the house, and the same things happened to her in the bathroom. She got curious about what was going on, so she asked some of the long time residents about who lived in the apartment before.

A woman told Julia that the apartment had originally been a house about 20 years ago. A widowed woman was living there with her two small children. The woman went crazy and drowned her kids in the bathtub. When the police found the children the water was running in the bathtub and sink and there must have been 3 inches of water on the floor.

That sort of makes my household ghosts seem pretty tame, which is why I don't complain about them!

---

I was watching the Discovery channel last night while I was attempting to do some Logic work. It was ghost night, I guess. I'm always interested to hear about what other people are seeing -- I guess it makes me feel less like a freak for seeing ghosts.

Things have been pretty quiet around the house lately, which is good. When things get going, Craig gets freaked out and then I feel obligated to keep things to myself and only disclose them if he sees something too. Considering I can't keep a secret to save my life, it puts a strain on us.

One of the few times I actually shut my mouth voluntarily was when something really fucking frightening happened to me at Eastern State Penitentiary. Craig would have been wigged out for sure, and I didn't need that.

Eastern State Pen is in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia. It was opened in 1829 as a sort of experiment in solitary confinement as a way of reforming prisoners. The Pen closed in 1970 and has now been restored and gives historical tours. Part of the movie Twelve Monkeys was filmed there, and that stupid MTV show Fear did a show from the Pen.

There are lots of rumors and stories about the Pen being haunted. It's believable, all things considered. But I always sort of take that type of thing with a grain of salt because things like prisons, mental institutions, and hospitals are always supposed to be haunted. Unfortunately, I can tell you for a fact that the Pen has some activity.

Craig and I decided to take a tour one day in September a few years ago. From the minute I walked into the prison, I knew something was not good. I won't go into all the quasi-scary stuff that happened when I was there [mostly because it's a long long story and kind of boring], but I will tell you what scared the shit out of me.

At the end of the tour the guide drops you at what used to be the prison offices. Now it's sort of a little museum that houses letters prisoners wrote and homemade weapson confiscated from prisoners, etc. To give you some idea of what it looks like, the walls are grey stone and the ceilings are low. The rooms lead into one another through relatively short square doorways with no doors. There are no windows.

OK, so I was walking through a doorway into the next room when this thick gust of freezing air that smelled sweaty [for want of a better word] rushed at me. It hit me in the chest and head, and literally pushed through me. When I say that it pushed through me, imagine that someone stabs you through the hand -- you feel the blade go through your hand. This was sort of the same thing: I could feel the air travel through me and exit out my back. I was hit with such force that I had to hang on to the doorway walls so I didn't fall backward and hit the ground. It left me so shaken that I thought I was going to throw up.

Craig asked me if I was OK -- I was sort of panting at that point. I said yes and looked around for any sort of air vent that could explain what happened. It was really scary, and I was trying to find anything I could that would rationalize it, but there was nothing and I was stuck with the idea that a ghost had just passed through me.

As we were going to bed that night, Craig asked what I had done to myself. I looked down and I had a big bruise on my upper chest. I have to admit that I freaked out a little myself, and then I told him what happened. I'm more than a little apprehensive about going back to the Pen.

I know that not everyone believes in ghosts, and that someone reading this is going to think I'm full of shit or that there is some other explanation. Maybe there is another explanation. I've never been able to come up with one.

---

We all know that I live with my own ghosts, so this cracks me up. I wish all landlords were that forthcoming about that kind of stuff!

I forgot to add this morning that I took pictures of the dreaded pigion feeding lady who was out doing her evil work again this morning. If I was able to get a decent picture I will do something cruel and unusual...if not, I may follow her to work and deliver a copy of the city ordinance that states its illegal to feed the fucking pigeons. Argh!

I'm sitting here drinking a Dunkaccino, dreaming of New York. I have a fundraising conference in New York City on Friday, and I'm trying to come up with some things to do for fun. The conference is at the Marriott Marquis on Broadway at 45th Street. Anyone have any good suggestions?

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I live in a house with ghosts.

The activity itself seems to go in cycles. And now it's ramping back up. This past weekend I was laying on the floor of my livingroom with my eyes closed. I felt my cat walk past me and rub herself against my heiny [as cats do]...so I reached around to give her a scratch but I didn't feel her. Thinking she was probably sitting just out of reach [as cats do], I flipped over and didn't see her. So I called for her, and then Craig yelled down from the third floor that she was up there with him and had been for the last hour.

It was likely just the phantom cat....I've been living in this house for almost 3 years and from day one we've seen the apparition of a cat on the stairs to the third floor and the second floor hallway. He's rubbed ankles, tripped people by walking in between their legs [as cats do], and done normal cat type things. We're not talking an evil demon cat or anything. He just hasn't been really "active" lately and I've never seen or felt him on the first floor, so that's something new.

I also have been noticing figures walking through the kitchen for the last couple of weeks. Nothing real concrete -- just images of people crossing the kitchen occasionally.

We've only had two other phenomena since we've been living here. One was the grey torso of a man that would appear to peek out of the kitchen doorway into the livingroom. That happened nightly for about 6 months and then it stopped. And then the last one happened only once [and I'm glad of it because it sort of scared the bejezus out of me for some reason]...I was in the bedroom looking in the mirror above my dresser. When looking in the mirror you could see the bed reflected in it. At any rate, I looked up and saw the crystal clear reflection of a woman in a long nightgown sort of drape herself over the pillows of our bed. I whirled around and she wasn't there anymore, and I couldn't see her in the mirror either....but I remember what she looked like because she was so clear....she had long brown hair, was kind of petite.

Lest you think I'm insane, my husband has seen the torso and the cat, and many others have seen the cat.

It wasn't always like this -- I grew up in a relatively normal house. And when I moved to college there were no ghosts in my dorm...or even in the first there apartments that I lived in. The fourth apartment I lived in is the one.

I lived in a bilevel apartment in South Philly for about 3 or 4 years. It was super dirt cheap [even by South Philly standards], and I didn't understand why until I moved in. Everything was fine at first -- I lived by myself and I knew that you could spook yourself out at things so I never really gave any consideration to the fact that I might have a ghost.

The layout of the apartment is this: you walk in the front door to the livingroom and then through to the kitchen and then there was a small bathroom off the kitchen. There was an enclosed staircase in the kitchen that led up to the bedroom, which was the only room on the second floor.

OK, so I was dating Craig at the time so he was over at least 2 or 3 nights per week so I wasn't alone 24/7. But no matter who was there, I kept getting a really horrible feeling of being watched when I was in the bathroom. Since I was alone most of the time, the bathroom door was open when I was in the bathroom....and then I started to see a grey shadow standing in the kitchen. It didn't have form or anything but you felt it staring at you in a very hateful way. I thought maybe it was just me imagining things -- I mean, the bathroom was always about 2 degrees even in the summer and, like I said, it's easy to freak yourself out when you're alone.

One day Craig said, "You're going to think I'm crazy but I keep seeing something staring at me in the bathroom." And about half a dozen other people said the same thing. So I knew I wasn't completely insane.

The staircase to the second floor was another problem spot....everyone once in a while whatever was in the kitchen would fuck with me by chasing me or following me up the stairs.

But I didn't want to move because the place was so cheap and I could deal with something that just didn't like me being there, so long as things never got physical. Considering that I no longer live there, I'm sure you can guess what happened: things got physical.

Craig moved in during my last year at the apartment. I was taking night classes so I wasn't getting home at night until about 9pm almost every day. I got home one night and Craig was sitting on the steps of the apartment building reading a book.

He told me that he was laying on the couch watching TV when he felt a sharp pinch on his hip. He thought maybe it was just one of those weird bodily aches and pains thing. But then it happened 3 more times in the exact same spot. So he looked at the skin on his hip and there were what looked like finger mark bruises. So he grabbed a book and left the house because that was just too freaky.

I came home the following week from class and he was sitting in his car outside the building. This time he had been washing dishes in the kitchen. He had been collecting soda caps for one of those contests and they were sitting on the counter next to the sink. He watched all 15 of them pop off the counter one by one, and got so freaked out that he ran out of the house. We never did find the caps -- who knows where they went.

But neither of us felt comfortable with the direction that was going so we moved out about a month later.

And now we live in this house [there was a house in between the South Philly apartment and where we are now that was pretty normal]. Nothing seems threatening here and I'm prone to just living with it.