I’ll bet ever since you were old enough to remember, you’ve avoided stepping on a crack, walking under a ladder, breaking a mirror, and black cats crossing your path.  These things fill us with foreboding…without really knowing why!  It’s just out there, in some mysterious realm.

While we take great pains to avoid these superstitious acts, we are inexplicably drawn to the supernatural, to ghostly things, and really do like to be scared out of our wits.  How else to explain that stories of ghosts and of journeys into the spirit world are one of the most popular of literary genres, that kids love haunted houses, that ghost hunters and psychics communing with the departed make great TV, that movies invoking the supernatural draw lines at the box office, and that people flock to Ghost Tours in cities with rich histories such as New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, Boston, and even little St. Augustine and Key West.

In cities and towns across America, resident ghosts, haunted places, ghostlore imbedded in cemetery history, and ghost sightings provide a wealth of material to the creators of ghost tours who tap into our ingrained fascination with the spirit world, a phenomenon that crosses all cultures, advanced and primitive; contemporary and ancient.

What do we expect to encounter on a ghost tour?  The list is as varied as the people on the tour.  Some hope to see evidence of some supernatural occurrence, to experience a ghostly sighting.  Many go, camera in hand, ready to capture the orb of a lost soul hovering overhead, just to prove they’ve seen it!  Others go expecting to have chills sent up their spine, to be scared stiff, or to see things that go bump in the night!  Skeptics go along for the ride, to prove to themselves that they are immune to such nonsense - and sometimes come away surprised!  Whatever the reason, at the beginning of a ghost tour, there is a universal sense of anticipation in the air of what is about to be.

What’s on ghost tours?  They are creative adventures, at times scary, gross, freaky, macabre, filled with superstitions, tales of unexplained phenomena, visits to places of plagues and disasters. Interwoven are tales of deaths that come too early, evil spirits that lurk, paranomal encounters.  Many, based on oral stories handed down generation to generation, are born of history-based tragedies: the human side of war, family feuds, tales of unrequited love, of lives cut short, of the innocent but flawed protagonist upon whom misfortune falls.  On ghost tours, ghostlore can be found in cemetery history, in isolated locations shrouded in mystery, in creaky historic houses, the site of many an unfortunate occurrence.

For the believer or the skeptic, and whether some ingrained expectation is met or not, ghost tours are imaginative ways to experience a city at night.  Based on regional superstitions and local lore, they are a great way to get a true sense of the flavor and character of the area and its people.  They are fun and great entertainment.  Believe it…or not!

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