Haunting Question

Debi

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After many years here of reading about the paranormal, something recently came to my attention.

We now have a fairly large group of members who live across the pond. I've noted that their descriptions and approaches to the paranormal differ a bit from how we in the U.S. perceive and handle the hauntings here. Which brings me to my question....is there a cultural difference in how the paranormal manifests? Is there a difference in how we approach a haunting here vs. there?

What are your thoughts on this? Is it all semantics? Does the type of haunting differ? Does it have to do with culture, bias, older energy at work, older spirits? Do you even see a difference?
 
There is a basic difference in the people in the US from the people in say Europe. The US was and still is populated mostly by people that left the homes of their ancestors and came here to try for a different life. We are a nation of mavericks and even today the people that come here are little different from those that preceded them here. You see the same thing inside the US as you travel west. Texas is the way it is because we drew the more aggressively adventurous from all over the US when we became a nation. Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, and Jim Bowie were all from somewhere else and not native. Retiring peace-loving people don't go running towards a war.

People should all be seen as equal under the law and in their rights but that doesn't in any way mean that people are the SAME. We are all, both genetically and culturally, molded and influenced by those that came before us. I suspect that as far as the paranormal and how people deal with it is no different. Americans tend to more aggressively deal with things that we don't understand. There is a patience that you have in Europe that you won't see here for a long time. they live surrounded by a history that goes back thousands of years. It gives you a depth and view that is different from what we have here in the US. Here 200 years is forever. People in Europe live in houses that have been around longer than the US has been a country.

Culturally the US is like a teenager and still changing and growing. Europe has the weight of time and history-making them act in a more measured and careful way. You see this in nearly everything and not just the paranormal.

All this is offered in my humble opinion with a full understanding that I am wrong almost as often as I am right...
 
There is a basic difference in the people in the US from the people in say Europe. The US was and still is populated mostly by people that left the homes of their ancestors and came here to try for a different life. We are a nation of mavericks and even today the people that come here are little different from those that preceded them here. You see the same thing inside the US as you travel west. Texas is the way it is because we drew the more aggressively adventurous from all over the US when we became a nation. Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, and Jim Bowie were all from somewhere else and not native. Retiring peace-loving people don't go running towards a war.

People should all be seen as equal under the law and in their rights but that doesn't in any way mean that people are the SAME. We are all, both genetically and culturally, molded and influenced by those that came before us. I suspect that as far as the paranormal and how people deal with it is no different. Americans tend to more aggressively deal with things that we don't understand. There is a patience that you have in Europe that you won't see here for a long time. they live surrounded by a history that goes back thousands of years. It gives you a depth and view that is different from what we have here in the US. Here 200 years is forever. People in Europe live in houses that have been around longer than the US has been a country.

Culturally the US is like a teenager and still changing and growing. Europe has the weight of time and history-making them act in a more measured and careful way. You see this in nearly everything and not just the paranormal.

All this is offered in my humble opinion with a full understanding that I am wrong almost as often as I am right...
You offer some great insights there, Dan. I was thinking in the same direction on that part of it. What I'm also seeing, however, is a difference in the actual "haunts", or paranormal activity itself. It often seems to present as much less aggressive across the pond. Now, is that due to our own perception of the paranormal here ie. the almost automatic reaction of exorcise everything, or is it the activity itself presents as more benign? And it seems to be much more accepted as almost a natural state of things there. I believe that the past history of Druid/Celtic acceptance of it as normal may be an influence there.
 
Hi, a very good question that i was asking myself a few days ago : why are there more, and more dramatic paranormal events in America then there are here.

I think it is kind of a taboo and in all honesty, the majority of the people here don't believe in ghosts and spirits like you do. Not saying that this is a good or bad thing

I just think the people here in general are more 'sober' and that it has nothing to do with the past history of Druid/Celtic acceptance. I've seen a few paranormal investigation shows from your continent and for us its between cringy and laughable. I'm not ruling out the existence of ghosts and other inter dimensional beings, but the way people seeing to react to it varies between ... hysterical and aggressive. Here we just... don't even consider the paranormal. And I know that's TV but still... reading the stories on some forums makes me raise my eyebrows on occasion.

Now, I have heard some stories and seen some things in my youth that could be paranormal, but with some skepticism you could also rule it out and go on with your life.. Just saying.

Lets just be blunt about it - I have the feeling that at your continent there are a helluva lot more hauntings going on your side of the pond. Its like its dead here on that part. (no pun intended! ... or perhaps i do :blush:)

I do think it is a very cultural thing on your part. But perhaps there is a more sinister explanation:

Indigenous people from the continent of america were slaughtered by those who now live on the same soil that they used to. Perhaps this is all part of a huge curse from those who were killed because they were different, were dark, and spoke a language the foreigners did not understand?
 
Indigenous people from the continent of america were slaughtered by those who now live on the same soil that they used to. Perhaps this is all part of a huge curse from those who were killed because they were different, were dark, and spoke a language the foreigners did not understand?
As one who is Native American by birth, (half of me anyway...), I have to disagree with that option.

Now, I do know quite a few members from your side of the pond who are believers. Hey, you have the Fae over there, and quite a few paranormal investigators that I know on your side as well. Irene Allen runs her own network over there of Paranormal podcasts, so it's not like you are lacking in reports or believers. I think it's a bit of the old stiff upper lip approach to life! ;) And hey, how about those haunted castles and pubs you guys have over there?

I'm not talking about the amount of hauntings, I'm looking more at how they are approached or perceived when they occur, honestly.

Having had many a paranormal experience myself I have to say I am a believer that something beyond this world exists and we sometimes interact with it.
 
As one who is Native American by birth, (half of me anyway...), I have to disagree with that option.

Now, I do know quite a few members from your side of the pond who are believers. Hey, you have the Fae over there, and quite a few paranormal investigators that I know on your side as well. Irene Allen runs her own network over there of Paranormal podcasts, so it's not like you are lacking in reports or believers. I think it's a bit of the old stiff upper lip approach to life! ;) And hey, how about those haunted castles and pubs you guys have over there?

I'm not talking about the amount of hauntings, I'm looking more at how they are approached or perceived when they occur, honestly.

Having had many a paranormal experience myself I have to say I am a believer that something beyond this world exists and we sometimes interact with it.

I hope I was not disrespectful with that option, my apologies.

Old stiff upper lip approach to life huh? That's funny...

Well those pubs, I never visit them because i'm not really an outgoing person, and the castles? Well if you like old churches then yes, they might have something to them. The place where i lived for over 20 years and was born had a castle from the year 800 and that graveyard picture I shown you also hosts a crypt that is quite old. (should have mentioned that in that topic). And I do think that something roams there.

And let me focus on this part:

I'm not talking about the amount of hauntings, I'm looking more at how they are approached or perceived when they occur, honestly.

Well perhaps the old stiff upper lip approach does it.

ghost: "booh"

stiff Dutch man :"must be the wind"

ghost: sad


I don't know what is different and why. I suppose we are more rational about?
 
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After many years here of reading about the paranormal, something recently came to my attention.

We now have a fairly large group of members who live across the pond. I've noted that their descriptions and approaches to the paranormal differ a bit from how we in the U.S. perceive and handle the hauntings here. Which brings me to my question....is there a cultural difference in how the paranormal manifests? Is there a difference in how we approach a haunting here vs. there?

What are your thoughts on this? Is it all semantics? Does the type of haunting differ? Does it have to do with culture, bias, older energy at work, older spirits? Do you even see a difference?

I wonder whether the people are any different. Maybe its the place itself that is different instead.
How does the past matter? Why?

North America is large. Which part of North America are very crowded with people? How many years back?

Sometimes, Is paranormal connection to the place's past?


Are people all different, or are people all the same? And does access to paranormal change between people? or is access to paranormal about the same on every street, in every school, in every hospital, in every forest?

Is paranormal different through different folks kin? or just through individual souls only?
If you experience the Central Plains with ancestory 1/4 British Isles, 1/4 Southern and 1/4 Eastern Europe.....
Then what heritage do you see parannormal through? Do you think kin or mentoring basically changes accessing paranormal ?
 
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What are your thoughts on this? Is it all semantics? Does the type of haunting differ? Does it have to do with culture, bias, older energy at work, older spirits? Do you even see a difference?
OZ in general is a laid back country,the aboriginals are very much into the spiritual side of life but don't get too excited about much and just accept the paranormal as normal.The whites are generally a race of knockers, so anything you do or think is criticized.Some like myself tend to favour the aboriginal way of thinking on this and always open but not too worried about it.
 
I think Ozentity’s statement is broadly true. I think culture influences how just about any form of the paranormal - not just hauntings - is perceived and processed. Social norms, morals, religion, etc. When a society has ingrained paranormal as part of their culture, members of that society are likely to rely upon a paranormal answer or cause just as easily as Americans accept (maybe even prefer) a scientific answer.

Just yesterday, I heard a young American woman mostly reject a form of paranormal answer to her personal experience because it was contrary to her Christian beliefs. Strange to me for someone to reject a secular paranormal cause because it conflicts with their religious paranormal views.

Though I’m not a student of the European ways, I would expect Debi that my American ways of viewing a haunting would be different than those across the pond.

Editing to add in my own selfish interpretation too based on my own life experiences (which can at times be contrary to other paranormal views). I believe that some instances of ghosts or haunting can be caused by our own psychic thoughts influencing the outside environments.
 
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