Casper the Friendly Ghost, Patrick Swayze in Ghost and the Headless Horseman are just a few examples of poltergeists in Hollywood. If seeing an apparition on the big screen doesn't fill the need for a fright fix this Halloween, then try seeking out the real thing.
According to Mason Winfield, founder of Haunted History Ghost Walks Inc., some of the most famous haunted places in Buffalo are not known for their apparitions or ghost encounters, but for physical psychic phenomena that has occurred there.
According to Winfield, physical psychic phenomena take many forms, including unnatural sounds, moving objects, electrical phenomena, odors and being touched by something unseen.
"If psychic effects were money, to call a house 'haunted' would mean that it is rich," Winfield said.
There are multiple sites in the City of Buffalo as well as more rural areas that have experienced either ghost sightings or phenomena, Winfield said. The most popular city sites are the Central Terminal, Richardson Towers, City Hall, the Allendale Theater, Town Ballroom and Shea's Buffalo Theater.
All city locations are accessible to the public, but the rural sites are private residences and could be hazardous to enter. The graveyards that are allegedly haunted and all other graveyards are illegal to enter after sunset, Winfield said.
The sites around Buffalo offer different layers of historical context and meaning, which allows them to be more appreciated by someone who respects this kind of science.
According to Winfield, the idea of a ghost or apparition is constantly being misled in the media.
"I'm not very impressed by TV ghost hunting programs," Winfield said. "They get a video of a shadow in an attic and go right to the assumption that it's the spirit of little Johnny, still pissed off about having died there back in nineteen-o-whatever."
According to Winfield, people do see ghosts, or at least think they see them, and many people claim to sense spirits, but ghosts are not material things.
"A lot of untrained and uninterested people see ghosts," Winfield said. "'It's the farmers that see the fairies,' as Irish poet W. B. Yeats noticed."
Of the ghosts that have been reported, most seem as though they are not self-aware, Winfield said.
"If 'unfinished business' is the reason so many ghosts return, they've come a long way to finish walking across the room or sweep the floor," Winfield said.
According to Winfield there hasn't been a case to prove that ghosts have either hurt or killed someone or something. The psychic realm seems to be less focused on harm.
Many people interpret phenomena as hostile, but it's the witnesses' own perception that makes it look scary. Occasionally, there are a few instances that look a bit suspicious and creepy.
"I get some remarkable stories from pre-adolescent humans who should have no capacity for artifice," Winfield said.
According to Winfield, the negative side of the psychic realm seems to affect Native Americans as well as children, and there are many stories to be told from the Seneca region.
"From what I hear, the medicine people of our own Seneca and Tuscarora neighbors can whip up a world of trouble for someone foolish enough to ignore their first reasonable requests for a change of attitude," Winfield said.
Many times there are patterns in the psychic energy that occurs at sites to make people believe that something is going on. According to Winfield, there is usually something that gives the human imagination a boost.
At famous haunted sites, there are constant reports of physical psychic activity. Even a little evidence counts, since most do not believe in ghosts or the psychic and are intrigued by the possibility.
"Inns, pubs and hotels seem to prosper on the possession of a ghostly rumor," Winfield said. "Theaters, it is widely said, can't thrive without a ghost."
For students looking to breathe new life into their Halloween rituals, experiencing the haunted might be the best medicine. According to Winfield, not only is it fun and exciting, but also it's nice to know the world is just a little more complex than tests and homework.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
