Tag Archives: Spirit communication

Tombstone Ghost Story

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Waitress
Residence: Glendale, AZ
Language: English

“So me and my friend right. We took this trip to Tombstone and we did one of those ghost tours in I think it was a funeral home I’m pretty sure. It used to be an old funeral home in Tombstone. And she busted out this um what do they call it? A spirit box where they are just really loud. She had me and my friend stand up facing away from the audience, and there were these purple lights on us too, so you could kind of see if there was any shadows or movement or whatever from the ghost. And um apparently like people had told me afterwards that they had seen the ghost moving my hair cuz it was down and really long at the time. Anyways, with the spirit box, it just saying a lot of random stuff and all of a sudden all you could hear was it really clearly say BITCH! And then my friend just falls to the ground and grabs me and everybody fell.”

Context: The informant was about 14/15 and went on a birthday trip with her friend to Tombstone on Labor Day weekend. Tombstone is a well-known western town in Arizona, known for their ghost tours and mock shootouts. The ghost tour was in the basement of one of the stores which had been somewhat preserved from the time it was a funeral home. The host used a spirit box on her laptop, grid lights, and a barrel of offering which she had audience members stand in front of to invite spirits to touch them. The friend who collapsed claimed that she didn’t know what happened, similar to a short blackout, and she avoided any supernatural experiences for a long time afterward. The host ended the ghost tour after this incident.

Analysis: Although this ghost experience was somewhat institutionalized, the suggestibility of the experience and the host lead the informant into having a true ghost experience. Ghost boxes are devices that skip through radio channels, and the ghosts are supposed to highlight words in response to questions people asked. Initially, the experience had been fun for the informant, being told her hair was being moved by the ghost. This validated and strengthened the belief in the phenomenon in the moment. However, the experience took a turn when the ghost insulted them and her friend collapsed, suggesting that the ghost had pulled her down. With the ghost tour occurring in a wild west funeral home with many violent deaths, the host herself acknowledged the danger by concluding the tour after this hostile incident. Ghosts have been suggested to be especially tied to property and being hostile towards unwanted visitors, which could be a factor for the incident. 

Spirit-Medium Friend

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Residence: Simi Valley, CA
Performance Date: 4/6/23
Primary Language: English

Context:

LB is a 20-year-old female who had a friend in High School, AS, who allegedly could see, hear, and sometimes communicate with the spirits of the dead. AS claimed to regularly be ignoring spirits when engaging in normal conversation and only mentioned that she perceived them after the fact. LB, who is deeply disturbed by paranormal activity and the supernatural, remembers being horrified by AS’s abilities.

Text:

Interviewer: “What’s one time you remember AS having one of these ghost-medium episodes?”

LB: “Once we were at my neighbor’s house dog-sitting at night and we were on a call with another friend. Out of nowhere, AS asked if I could hear knocking and I said no and got super confused. It didn’t take me long to realize what was happening, and I told our friend on the phone that we had to go. AS didn’t like a lot of people knowing about how she experienced this stuff. So she continued to hear the knocking and I still didn’t, so clearly we figured it was a supernatural thing. Then we freak out and get the dogs back into their kennel quickly and book it out of there. I was the one driving us home, but kept noticing AS looking behind us while we were in the car. I told her to stop because it was freaking me out. She didn’t tell me why at the time, but she eventually told me she saw a girl running toward us behind the car screaming for help.”

Analysis:

In those high school years of transitioning from childhood to adulthood, people feel like they are in a very liminal space. Therefore, it is common for youth to take on and be more aware of the liminal realm of the supernatural. Just as college students are more likely to believe in ghosts, the same can be said for high schoolers as they begin to become more aware of their futures and potential as future working members of society. They start to learn to drive, to work a minimum wage job, and as a result, eventually pay their own taxes.

For this reason, it makes sense why AS would be experiencing or perceive to be experiencing these episodes of spirit communication. Whether or not any supernatural activity occurred or if it was mostly in her head, AS’s mind was nevertheless in the bordering realm between childhood and adulthood, making her more superstitious overall.