Ghostland

1. The main work of haunting is done by the living.

The main work of haunting is done by the living.

Ghosts are projections. The author argues that ghosts are less about the spirits of the dead and more about how the living interact with the past and places. We project our anxieties, fears, and desires onto spaces, creating the feeling of being haunted.

Making sense. Ghost stories are a vital, dynamic means of confronting the past and those who have gone before us, helping us make sense of the living. They reveal the contours of our anxieties and the things we can't talk about in any other way.

Relationship between place and story. Ultimately, the book is about the relationship between place and story: how the two depend on each other and how they bring each other alive. Haunted places are memory palaces made real, physical spaces that retain memories that might otherwise be forgotten.

2. Haunted places reveal uncomfortable, hidden histories.

The past we’re most afraid to speak aloud of in the bright light of day is the same past that tends to linger in the ghost stories we whisper in the dark.

Unspoken truths. Ghost stories are a way of talking about things we’re not otherwise allowed to discuss: a forbidden history we thought bricked up safely in the walls. They cover over the gaps and in the process help us assuage our anxieties, providing a rationale after the fact.

Shadowlands. Uncomfortable truths, buried secrets, disputed accounts: ghost stories arise out of the shadowlands, a response to the ambiguous and the poorly understood. They offer explanations for the seemingly inexplicable, address injustices after the fact, and give expression to our unstated desires and fears.

American history's nightmares. Our country’s ghost stories are themselves the dreams (or nightmares) of a nation, the Freudian slips of whole communities: uncomfortable and unbidden expressions of things we’d assumed were long past and no longer important. They foreground what might otherwise be ignored in patriotic speeches and sanctioned narratives.

3. Architecture shapes our perception of the uncanny.

Any building whose construction is a little bit off, as often as not, has spirits swirling about it.

Unheimlich spaces. The feeling of unease in haunted places is often tied to architecture that feels "unhomely" or "uncanny." Buildings that are distorted, labyrinthine, or defy logical layout can create a sense of wrongness that we attribute to the supernatural.

Beyond utility. Buildings are not just functional; they are designed to send messages and evoke feelings. When the original purpose or message of a building becomes obsolete or conflicted, the structure itself can feel anachronistic and unsettling, ripe for haunting.

Memory palaces. Houses, in particular, feel alive because we spend so much time living and dreaming in them. They become repositories of our memories and those of previous occupants, and the physical space can seem to vibrate psychically with these accumulated experiences.

4. Ghost stories evolve to reflect societal anxieties and blind spots.

Paying attention to the way ghost stories change through the years—and why those changes are made—can tell us a great deal about how we face our fears and our anxieties.

Adaptable narratives. Ghost stories are not static; they are retold and embellished, adapting to suit the needs and anxieties of different eras and communities. This evolution reveals what a culture is grappling with at a given time.

Reflecting fears. The legend of the Leeds ghost changing from a slave to an immigrant reflects shifting anxieties about race and class. The story of Sarah Winchester's house reflects anxieties about women living alone, wealth, and the violence of westward expansion.

Whitewashing spirits. In places like Richmond's Shockoe Bottom, the prevalence of white ghosts despite the area's history as a major slave market highlights how ghost stories can reinforce cultural blind spots and efface uncomfortable truths about the past.

5. Belief in ghosts is deeply intertwined with technology.

Media and medium were two sides of the same coin.

Technological mediums. From the telegraph and photography to audio recorders and infrared cameras, nearly every major communication technology has been appropriated by ghost seekers. The ability to send and receive disembodied messages or capture unseen phenomena fuels belief.

Spiritualism's legacy. The Spiritualist movement, which exploded in popularity alongside the telegraph, saw technology as a means to bridge the gap between the living and the dead. This tradition continues with modern ghost hunting gadgets and reality TV shows.

Ghosts in the machine. In the digital age, ghosts appear in technological static, glitches, and algorithms. Social media profiles of the deceased and images repurposed by algorithms create new forms of cyber revenants, haunting our online spaces.

6. Civic spaces are haunted by changing ideals and neglect.

Hauntings keep alive neglected spaces and make them relevant to their communities once again.

Purpose-built structures. Civic buildings like prisons, asylums, and courthouses are built to project specific ideals (order, healing, justice) and permanence. When these ideals change or the buildings fall into disrepair, they become anachronistic and unsettling.

Failed utopias. Kirkbride asylums, built with utopian ideals of moral treatment, became symbols of neglect and abuse due to overcrowding and underfunding. Their imposing facades, meant to inspire confidence, now evoke dread and house stories of suffering.

Monuments to gaps. Cemeteries, shifting from central churchyards to distant garden parks, reflect changing attitudes towards death and urban space. Neglected graveyards and modern cemeteries alike can become haunted, monuments to historical gaps and the forgotten dead.

7. Economic decline and social upheaval fuel hauntings.

The haunted house is a violation of this comfort, the American dream gone horribly wrong.

Ruined dreams. Places associated with failed economic ventures or social collapse, like foreclosed homes, abandoned factories, and ghost towns, become haunted by the dashed hopes and struggles of those left behind. The American dream gone wrong creates spectral residents.

Class conflict. Haunted house stories often have an underlying class dynamic, where the folly or wealth of the privileged (like Sarah Winchester or the rich owners of foreclosed homes) unleashes a haunting that traps or affects the less fortunate locals.

Cities in decline. Entire cities haunted by what they once were, like Detroit or Binghamton, use the language of haunting to process economic hardship, job loss, and demographic shifts. Ruins become physical manifestations of historical decline and lost prosperity.

8. Ghost stories offer alternative, often marginalized, histories.

Ghost stories are about how we face, or fail to face, the past—how we process information, how we narrate our past, and how we make sense of the gaps in that history.

Voices from the margins. Folklore and ghost stories, passed down through oral tradition, can act as alternative histories, preserving the stories and experiences of the oppressed, the marginalized, and those whose voices were otherwise silenced. WPA slave narratives, for example, reveal ghost stories tied to the trauma of slavery.

Contested narratives. Ghost stories can also be co-opted or manipulated to reinforce dominant narratives or efface uncomfortable truths. The absence of black ghosts in some Southern locations or the distortion of stories like Chloe's or the Lalaurie Mansion's highlights how folklore can be shaped by power dynamics.

Unresolved pasts. Ghost stories often center on unfinished endings, broken relationships, and things left unexplained. They provide a space to address injustices after the fact and give expression to unstated desires and fears, particularly when official history falls short.

9. The uncanny feeling is central to haunted places.

The haunted house is precisely that which should be homey, should be welcoming—the place one lives inside—but which has somehow become emptied out of its true function.

Familiar yet strange. The uncanny, or "unhomely," is the feeling evoked by something that is familiar yet subtly wrong or unsettling. Haunted places, especially homes, exploit this feeling by taking spaces meant for comfort and security and making them feel alien or threatening.

Distorted reality. Architectural quirks, strange layouts, unexpected sounds, or objects that seem out of place contribute to this sense of the uncanny. These anomalies cry out for explanation, and often, we turn to ghosts to provide it.

Psychological effect. The feeling of unease can be a psychological response to a place's history, its design, or simply our own expectations. Whether supernatural or not, this feeling is a core component of the haunting experience.

10. Dark tourism commodifies trauma and history.

Ghost tours are popular with tourists, explains geographer Glenn Gentry, because they “allow access to dissonant knowledge, dirty laundry, back stage.”

Selling the past. The phenomenon of dark tourism turns haunted places and tragic histories into commercial attractions. Ghost tours, haunted houses, and paranormal investigations become entertainment, offering a salacious underbelly of history.

Packaging trauma. Cities like Salem and New Orleans have built thriving tourist industries around their haunted reputations, often packaging complex or tragic histories into easily digestible, sometimes fabricated, stories for consumption. This can lead to the trivialization or distortion of the actual events and suffering.

Ethical questions. The commodification of trauma raises ethical questions about profiting from past suffering and whether such tourism truly honors the dead or simply exploits their stories for entertainment and financial gain.

11. Ghosts are a way to process unresolved trauma and grief.

Ghosts bridge the past to the present; they speak across the seemingly insurmountable barriers of death and time, connecting us to what we thought was lost.

Coping with loss. Ghosts can give us hope for a life beyond death and help us cope with loss and grief. Their presence is the promise that we don't have to say goodbye to our loved ones right away, and that what was left undone might yet be finished.

Seeking closure. The search for ghosts is often a form of mourning, an attempt to work through grief and loss by seeking communication or reassurance from the departed. This is seen in the motivations of early Spiritualists and modern ghost hunters alike.

Collective trauma. Ghost stories can also be a way for communities to process collective trauma, such as the aftermath of disasters like Hurricane Katrina or the lingering impact of historical injustices. They provide a narrative framework for events that are otherwise overwhelming or inexplicable.

12. The future of haunting involves technology and information overload.

Information,” he said, “is killing ghost stories.”

New spectral forms. As technology advances, new forms of haunting emerge. The Internet of Things creates automated homes that seem to act on their own, while social media platforms house the digital ghosts of the deceased, appearing unexpectedly through algorithms.

Uncanny technology. The "Uncanny Valley" phenomenon in robotics and CGI shows that as technology becomes more lifelike, tiny imperfections can make it more unsettling, creating new sources of the uncanny that might be interpreted as ghostly.

Information overload. While some argue that ubiquitous information is killing traditional ghost stories by dispelling mystery, the sheer volume and fragmentation of information can also create new gaps and ambiguities, potentially fueling new forms of haunting in the digital age.

Last updated: June 12, 2025