Copyright © 2002 Michael Gavin

"Is it the bleak and barren changes to the landscape that invite the increase in spirit activity during the fall holidays?"
In the quest for paranormal proof, these year-end celebrations offer more than their share of opportunities for success. Landscapes aside, the holidays are a time for family and friends. It's also a time when we seem to find an added abundance of paranormal activity. It might be just be the weather. Or, perhaps it is for no other reason more important than the ties that bind one generation to the next.

Ancient Truths
Halloween is a time when our passion for the paranormal seems to be most accepted. Ancient Celts believed that the dead returned to the living in order seek a host to possess for the next year. Eventually this time of the year became known as Halloween. The belief that the veil between the realm of the living and the dead is at its thinnest at this time of the year still holds true today, and probably helps to feed the increase in activity that researchers experience at this time. It is more likely, however, that an atmospheric effect, and not the mysticism associated with Halloween, is what brings apparitions more easily into view this time of the year. According to Joshua P. Warren's book How to Hunt Ghosts (Simon & Schuster) it's the cooler months of fall and winter that offer drier conditions and an abundance of static electricity. Warren, who has been a consultant for the Travel and Discovery Channels, does acknowledge that Halloween can be a bounty for ghost hunters. He suggests that researchers follow the media's increased attention to the paranormal during this time of the year for leads on credible locations worthy of investigative attention.