I have spent the night in an allegedly haunted house, a Victorian era farmhouse my (suspiciously lie-prone) girlfriend grew up in, and have witnessd its “hauntedness” by way of inexplicably moved furniture. But it’s really just not that scary to leave, come back, and wonder why the couch is sitting away from the wall by a foot and a half. I think at some point we played Ouija in the attic there, trying to summon the ghost of her great-grandmother.

Oh ho! It’s counting, but not displaying, trackback comments. I should fix that!

Well, I don’t believe in ghosts either, so to me all haunted houses are houses that some people are willing to declare haunted. Being a full-blown cynic, I’d probably only be interested if there was a cool photoessay or magazine article to wrangle out of it. There would be no thrill for me to do it just because it’s “haunted.”

Growing up, there was a large barn in our neighborhood thought to be haunted. It was within eyeshot of our local park, but between the two were a few acres of spooky, wild corn. I never spent the night, but a friend and I did break in once. (I’d like to point out that at this time in my life, I believed in ghosts to the extent I probed that belief at all, which wasn’t very far.) Once we got in and adjusted to the darkness, we saw rows and rows of picnic tables and some garbage cans with our town’s name stenciled on the side. It was just a warehouse for the park district. It was fairly orderly, too, totally belying the horrors suggested by the dilapidated exterior.

We did find a root cellar nearby that contained a few animal skulls. We tried to imagine the bizarre cult that sacrificed squirrels and rabbits to their dark deity, but really we both knew they were the leavings of a coyote’s meal.

In any case, I can’t go anywhere without my purse. I could be convinced to leave it behind if I could share the dime bag. After all, it’s a decadent house.

Do we get toilet paper? The tube could come in handy. A foil wrapped chocolate bar would complete the bill.

If there’s no physical danger involved, I’d do it.

Would you do it on a dare or would it take the promise of a large sum of money?

Is this a really neat house? Would it make an interesting photo project? I might consider it on a “dare” in that case. Otherwise, there’d have to be enough money to make it worth my while to go sleep on a floor somewhere.

Cynicism has it’s ups and downs. I also kick puppies.

I would never, ever spend the night in a haunted house. Even if I had a flashlight and a sleeping……