Fear is something that we all experience. Some of us are able to control it much better than others. Fear is usually defined as an emotional response to threats and danger. Some people confuse fear and anxiety. Anxiety is similar to fear, except that there is usually no threat involved and maybe even no real danger. Some people suffer anxiety on their jobs. The anxiety may come from something as simple as waiting to see who gets picked for that next promotion. There are some cases that have been reported of people getting so scared that their hair turned white overnight. Supposedly this happened to Marie Antoinette the night before her execution. Today, scientists believe that it would take at least several weeks for anyone's hair to turn gray, even from fear. The reason for this is that the hair you see was already grown a while back, so if the roots turned gray, the hair would still take about seven weeks to grow out to the point where your head of hair would be completely gray. There is another story going around stating that a snake grabbed a boy in Afghanistan, but was not strong enough to crush him. It would not let go and held the boy all night and he got so scared that his hair turned gray.

Some people are very scared of certain places. They fear them because of the belief that they are haunted and that they will be harmed somehow if they go into these places. Others fear places because they think that they are cursed. Still others are scared of the dark, because they fear that something is lurking there. When we were children many of us had this fear, but as we got older we realized that there was nothing in the dark that didn't exist in the daylight. Some people just never get over this particular fear. They are easy to spot, they are the ones that leave their bedroom lights on all night. This fear seems to be played upon by those paranormal investigators who insist on turning out all the lights before they investigate. This really reinforces the fear of the dark for those that have it.

Many years ago I had heard the story of a man that was told if he could stay overnight in a so called haunted house, he would receive some money. I don't remember the amount or why it was put up, I just remember that he accepted the challenge. That night he went into the creepy, large, country home of a former millionaire and made himself comfortable There was no electricity in the house and the house was in terrible shape. Many of the windows were broken and the wind whistled through them across some of the rooms, blowing the dirt and cobwebs around. The house was very large as I said. It had a huge living room area, dinning room, den, a couple of bathrooms and the usual kitchen, pantry, food storage areas and this was only on the first floor. A long winding staircase led up to a second level that had, I believe, seven or eight bedrooms, most of them with their own bathrooms. They were on either side of a long hall. Above that floor was a huge attic. The house was noisy and the guy didn't pay much attention to this, writing this off as an old house in need of repair. He had brought a book, a flashlight with spare batteries and some food, along with a sleeping bag and tape recorder. He started to read his book, thinking about the promise of money to come, easy money. As the night went on, nothing unusual happened and I guess he began to believe that this was the proverbial “piece of cake”.

Somewhere around 1 am he began to hear what sounded like a very distant moaning sound. It seemed to be coming from somewhere upstairs. He believed this was the wind. As he lay there in the dark, the moaning began to get louder. For some unknown reason he decided to turn on the recorder. When morning came the man that put up the money came into the house to pick up the guy, but what he found would alter his life forever. There on the floor, with the sleeping bag next to him was a dried out body with white hair. Something had killed this guy and made him into a mummy, after turning his hair white. The man called the authorities, but not before he decide to confiscate the tape recorder without telling anyone. He had noticed that it was in the on position. The batteries had died because it was recording too long. He brought the recorder home, changed the batteries and played it. He could hear the moaning sound getting louder and then he heard the guy saying that this was baloney, he would never be scared away by someone making believe they were a ghost. Then there was loud clanking noises like footsteps, but wearing metal shoes. He heard the guy curse and say that he wasn't going anywhere. As the footsteps got closer to the guy, he could tell because they sounded louder, he could hear the guy panic and he started to yell “get back”. The yelling turned into a blood curdling scream and then there was nothing.

There was a legend that supposedly, the owner of the house had purchased a suit of armor from one of those famous haunted castles in England and that after he set it up on the second floor, people began to hear strange sounds at night. It is said that at that point, the family began to get ill and eventually, they all died out in a short period of time and the home became abandoned. This is one of those stories that there is no way to verify, but it does make one wonder, doesn't it?

For those people that would like to stay in a haunted house there are quite a few that are available. Some of them are even right here in this country. One popular, so called haunted home is the former residence of Lizzie Borden The house has been turned into a bed and breakfast. Lizzie Borden was accused of using an ax to kill her parents. The home where she lived is said to be one of the most haunted places in this country and you can stay right in the room where she did her dirty deed for under $300 per night. The house is located near Boston, it is about an hour away in Fall River. If you would just like to visit a famous haunted place, without staying there or paying a large fee, you can visit a couple of Edgar Allan Poe's residences. His last residence was said to be the Poe Cottage. It is located in the Bronx, New York. He lived there with his family from 1846 to 1849. For the small fee of $5.00, you can go through it. It is being restored right now and that is always said to bring out the ghosts. Poe died under mysterious circumstances in Baltimore, Maryland. He also lived in a home in Philadelphia for two years as well as in other places. Poe has been associated with haunting and ghosts ever since his death. It probably has something to do with the type of stories that he used to write.

You have to wonder how certain places get a reputation for being haunted. Why is it that in some places there are thousands of people that have seen ghosts? Yes that is right, thousands. One of the places that I am talking about is Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Can all these people be seeing things? There are some very strange stories that involve this place. I have even heard stories about several people seeing a ghost at the same time. If this is not a deliberate hoax, than it is quite unusual. I remember a guy that entered a building and then came out saying that he couldn't believe the dramatization that was put on to make the building look like a functioning hospital with actors and such. He was then told that there was no hospital there, but there used to be during the civil war and that there were no actors around and the building was now some kind of office. This really scared the heck out of that guy. It is not only battlefields that might be haunted, but also ships like the Hornet, the World War II aircraft carrier turned museum. It is in San Francisco Bay. Hundreds of people, including staff, have reported seeing the ghosts of seamen on the ship and even one that sometimes conducts tours to unsuspecting tourists. These tourists have been known to tell the people that operate the museum, that the tour was great and the young seamen was so knowledgeable and helpful. What they didn't know was that this seaman died in the war. Their tour had been conducted by a ghost, or so it is said. I wonder what their reaction would have been if they had known this beforehand? Would fear have kicked in?

Is there really any reason to be afraid of the paranormal? The true answer is no. If you don't believe in it, then there is nothing to fear and if you do, then you should realize that it would not be in a spirit's power to kill someone, only make them as scared as possible, if you let them.