Ghosts and Poltergeists?

[abcrystcats]

Has anyone ever heard of the Bell Witch?

They just did a movie about this with Donald Sutherland (An American Haunting) and I went to see it. The movie was just OK, in my opinion. I liked it but I didn't love it.

It did get me to thinking, however. Whenever someone says a movie is "based on a true story" my skepticism synapses go into overdrive and I spend the next several thousand brain cells trying to prove just how untrue the movie story really is.

I remembered the Bell Witch very vaguely. It was one of dozens of spine-tingling true ghost stories I read as a child.

So I got on-line, and to my surprise I found this:

http://www.bellwitch.org/

It's a very nicely designed website kept by man who appears to be a serious historian, Pat Fitzhugh. I ordered his book, and even heard his radio broadcast through another website. He doesn't believe the ghost was anything more than a fairly malevolent hoax -- or at least that's what I've gotten so far. I'm eager to read his full theory about it.

So, the real question is, do you believe there are such things as ghosts? Poltergeists? What, if anything, do you know about this particular haunting, circa 1820 in Tennesee?

I took this amazing class in community college. It was part of the philosophy and logic department, and the sole purpose of the class was to "debunk" all ghost stories, Area 51 legends, astrology, Nostradamus, and anything supernatural. It was a GREAT class, and the text was written by the instructor himself. He ALMOST convinced me that every cherished supernatural legend or belief was wrong. He fielded dozens of protests from all over the room, every day, and he did it very well. It was all logic. Reason. Pure and simple.

But some part of me still holds out.

This is very educated crowd, so I'm asking: What do you believe about these things, and why?