Robb Demarest, Amanda Quill, and St John Alexander

The 2025 Halloween season brought another opportunity to visit some of Vancouver’s most active paranormal locations with St. John Alexander, reporter for CTV News Vancouver.

My friends and fellow paranormal investigators, Amanda Quill and Robb Demarest, and I spent time with St. John in two haunted spots in New Westminster to capture footage and stories about their ghosts.

It was lots of fun, as usual, working with St. John to help him get two terrifying tales ready for broadcast right around Halloween.

Location 1: Native Art Gallery
We visited the Native Renaissance Art Gallery on Carnarvon Street. Artist and gallery owner, Jay Groening, has heard phantom footsteps on the ground floor above him while creating his artwork in the basement. And the business owner next door has seen a ghostly figure in the basement of her consignment store that she describes as ‘black or grey’. Amanda has been tracking this entity for a long time. Check out St. John’s story and video about this location here.

Location 2: The Gatehouse of B.C.’s Most Haunted Former Prison
Our next stop was the Gatehouse of what was once the B.C. Penitentiary. Amanda, Robb, and I have investigated this castle-like building several times together in the past. We all know how very haunted it is, especially in the basement where holding cells used to be. Amanda and I both felt like we were being watched from behind while shooting our scenes in the long, dark hallway down there. And Robb, of Ghost Hunters International fame, once recored an angry, male voice in one of the former jail cells that said it was going to slit his and Amanda’s throats. Thanks to that ‘charming’ incident and others, Robb believes the Gatehouse is the most haunted place in Western Canada. See St. John’s story and video here.

Enjoy!

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As paranormal investigators who’ve spent decades looking for ghosts in British Columbia and beyond, between us we’ve visited hundreds of haunted places. But there’s something special about New Westminster that keeps drawing us back. We have a certain attachment to the ghosts of New Westminster, and we’ve had the privilege of witnessing some of these supernatural phenomena firsthand.

Let’s take you on a journey through some of the most haunted locations in New Westminster.

CPR Station: A Hub for Historical Hauntings

CPR Station, New Westminster | Image by Greg Mansfield

One of New Westminster’s most intriguing haunted places is the old Canadian Pacific Railway station. Built in 1899, this historic building has witnessed countless arrivals and departures – and not all of them have moved on.

During our many visits to Kelly O’Bryan’s Restaurant, which now occupies the old station, we’ve discovered some fascinating paranormal activity. Staff members share stories with us of unexplained phenomena, including mysterious footsteps of a woman in high heels on the upper floor, a self-opening door to the kitchen, and an inexplicable occurrence with a particular dining table where stacked chairs repeatedly fall for no apparent reason.

Perhaps most intriguingly, customers have witnessed the apparition of a young girl at the top of the interior staircase, vanishing into thin air, while others have seen strange shadows and the silhouette of a woman throughout the restaurant. The basement seems especially active, too, with employees reporting soft, disembodied voices calling their names.

Recent paranormal investigations have even captured electronic voice phenomena (EVP) recordings in the basement, suggesting that this historic transportation hub continues to host some of the most active ghosts of New Westminster.

Irving House: Where the King of the River Still Roams

One of our favorite haunted locations is Irving House. Built in 1865 for Captain William Irving, the “King of the River,” this historic home is now a museum. It’s also a hotbed of paranormal activity. The ghosts of New Westminster seem particularly active here, with numerous reports of unexplained phenomena.

The house itself seems alive with energy. Visitors often report hearing strange noises, seeing walls shiver, and even catching glimpses of a petite lady in period dress – believed to be either Elizabeth Irving or her daughter Mary. The master bedroom, where Captain Irving died in 1872, often shows an unexplained indentation on the mattress, as if someone’s still lying there.

Some employees at the Irving House Museum catch the distinct smell of pipe tobacco wafting through the halls – a signature of the captain’s presence. The white feathers that occasionally drift down the staircase and the faint sound of bagpipes outside add to the home’s mysterious atmosphere.

The Met Hotel: A Home for Some Ghostly Residents

The Met Hotel – New Westminster | Image by Greg Mansfield

The Met Hotel, housed in the historic Burr Block, stands as one of the few survivors of the Great Fire of 1898. It’s also home to some of the most active ghosts of New Westminster. During investigations here with her Coldspotters team, Amanda has encountered some fascinating phenomena.

In 2012, Amanda recorded an EVP of a female entity who identified herself as Mary, a former prostitute. The hotel’s most famous spirit, however, is George, a former caretaker who died in his basement lodgings. Staff members often report seeing him floating through hallways and walking through walls.

The basement, where George lived and died, has a particularly heavy atmosphere. During one investigation, a Coldspotters member experienced George’s playful side when invisible hands clapped loudly in front of her face – a prank that, we later learned, George was known for playing during his lifetime.

Samson V Museum: A Personal Encounter with a Sailor’s Spirit

The Samson V holds a special place in Greg’s heart, as it’s where he had one of his most memorable paranormal encounters. In October 2022, while exploring the inside of this historic snag boat, Greg witnessed something he’ll never forget – a shadow figure moving swiftly through the galley. The apparition was grey and transparent, with the clear form of a man wearing a thick sweater and sporting cropped hair.

This ghostly figure is believed to be Frank Creeden, the vessel’s chief engineer who died of a heart attack in the engine room in 1942. Over the years, many staff members and visitors have reported similar sightings, describing the full-bodied apparition of a sailor who brushes past before vanishing into thin air.

The Gatehouse: Echoes of Incarceration

The Gatehouse, New Westminster | Image by Greg Mansfield

The Gatehouse, once the entrance to the notorious B.C. Penitentiary, is a present-day monument to New Westminster’s darker history. The ghosts of New Westminster seem particularly active here, perhaps due to the building’s connection to countless troubled souls who passed through its doors.

Amanda has had several remarkable experiences here, including seeing a full-bodied apparition of a man on the ground floor. The basement, which once housed holding cells, seems to be a focal point for paranormal activity. During investigations, we’ve recorded multiple EVPs, including the voices of adult males and, surprisingly, a little boy and a barking dog.

Fraser Cemetery: Spirits Among the Stones

Fraser Cemetery, established in 1869, offers a different kind of haunting. Here, the ghosts of New Westminster take on a gentler nature. Visitors report seeing a young woman in a white Victorian-era dress who appears to guide people toward specific gravestones. There’s also a playful spirit of a little boy who’s been seen perched on benches or playing among the monuments.

During an investigation with our celebrity ghost-investigator friend, Robb Demarest, and some Coldspotters members in 2021, we witnessed the distinct, heavy smell of rose perfume following us throughout the lower half of the cemetery. Roses were out of season at the time, however, and none could be seen anywhere. When Greg called out to ask who was wearing the perfume, the scent suddenly went away. One of our team members who knows about such things said it was the scent of the cemetery’s guardian spirit.

Bernie Legge Theatre: Spectres in the Spotlight

The Bernie Legge Theatre in Queen’s Park has become known for its theatrical ghosts. Three distinct entities are said to haunt this venue: a “Woman in White” who appears as darting white lights between seats, a mischievous little boy who kicks the backs of seats, and an old fisherman who appears in reflections in the lobby and green room.

The Paramount Gentleman’s Club: A Stage for the Supernatural

The Paramount, New Westminster | Image by Greg Mansfield

The Paramount, which once hosted a scene in the original adaptation of Stephen King’s “It,” has its own share of supernatural activity. Staff have reported seeing chairs move on their own, bathroom doors slamming shut, and apparitions of both a woman in white and a little boy.

The Ghosts of New Westminster: Their Stories Live On

These ghosts of New Westminster aren’t just random phenomena – they’re echoes of the lives that helped shape this city. As paranormal investigators, we’ve learned that sometimes the most important part of ghost hunting isn’t just documenting the supernatural but understanding and preserving the stories behind these hauntings.

The next time you’re walking through these historic streets, remember – you might just be sharing the sidewalk with some of New Westminster’s oldest residents.

If you’d like to see many of these haunted places for yourself, Amanda leads a fascinating Ghosts of New Westminster walking tour from August to early November.

And if you want to delve deeper, you can find more detailed accounts of some of these locations and other haunted places in Greg’s book, Ghosts of Vancouver: 41 Haunted Places, available on Amazon.

Greg Mansfield and Amanda Quill

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The Samson V stern wheeler, berthed in New Westminster, was launched in 1937 and served as a snag boat on the Fraser River. Its job was to remove logs and other obstacles in the river that would interfere with vessels and fishing. It was turned into a floating museum after being decommissioned on Halloween in 1980. The boat is haunted by the ghost of a crew member who died on board it in the 1940s.

My paranormal-investigator friend, Amanda Quill, and I recently spent a couple of hours with CTV News Vancouver reporter, St. John Alexander, on board the Samson V. We were there to record a story about its ghosts for the Haloween 2022 season.

Check out St John’s story about the haunted boat on the CTV News Vancouver website, and click on the video to watch it.

As he always does when he covers haunted locations, St. John did some very cool videography and editing. In the video I comment a couple of times about the haunted boat and play the ghost (leaning over the boiler).

I’m excited to report that while on board the Samson V, I saw a shadow figure move inside the galley. This isn’t featured in St. John’s story, as he was in another part of the boat videoing at the time. My sighting was very brief and had me shaking my head at what I witnessed. But I’m convinced it was genuine.

Amanda heard footsteps and picked up on the ghostly presences, too.

The Samson V is a fabulously haunted, atmospheric location! I plan to add a new chapter about it in the next edition of the Ghosts of Vancouver book, which I’ll publish in October 2023.

Amanda Quill, left, and St John Alexander, right, on board the Samson V.

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Amanda and St John in O’Bryan’s Haunted Basement

A few days ago, Amanda Quill of Coldspotters and I spent some time in New Westminster with St John Alexander of CTV News Vancouver.

Last October, St John and I filmed a story about the ghosts of Waterfront Station. We had a great time doing that, and the piece aired on CTV News at Six (Vancouver) a couple of days before Halloween 2019.

St John got in touch last week to say he was keen on doing more ghost stories for this year’s spooky season. He wanted to focus on haunted places in New Westminster. I suggested we visit Kelly & Carlos O’Bryan’s restaurant and Irving House (both of which are featured in Ghosts of Vancouver: 39 Haunted Places).

We all met up at O’Bryan’s. They kindly gave us privileged access to its basement storage area where disembodied voices have been heard. St John interviewed me about its ghosts and filmed Amanda doing some investigating. Then we both watched as he did some video-camera wizardry to get atmospheric shots of the underground area. You can see his story and video here.

We ate a delicious lunch in O’Bryan’s, which they kindly gave us free of charge. Then we moved on to Irving House.

At Irving House we met museum curator, Oana Capota. St John interviewed her about the house and what she knows about its resident spirits. And in between filming our interviews and action shots, Oana kindly gave Amanda and me separate tours of the place.

The Library at Irving House

It was truly amazing to see the inside of Irving House! It’s like a time capsule from over 120 years ago. Original furniture and household items from the late 1800s imbue the place with history. Oana showed me the infamous bed in an upstairs bedroom where a ghost was seen in the 1960s. Downstairs, the small library on the ground floor drew my attention. This is where a weird light anomaly appeared some years ago. The library has a mildly dark, brooding atmosphere but the rest of the house evokes a warm, inviting feeling. Check out St. John’s story and video about the Irving House here.

If you’re enthusiastic about places that are both historical and haunted, make a point to enjoy a meal at Kelly & Carlos O’Bryan’s restaurant and visit the museum at Irving House.

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People often ask me where Vancouver’s most haunted places are. This is a tricky question to answer, however. Exactly how can we determine whether somewhere is “most haunted”?

Do we measure it by how many ghosts are in a location? Or by how many people have had spectral encounters there? Or should it also be based on how spooky a place feels?

I take two things into account to answer the most-haunted question. The first thing I consider is how many ghosts haunt a place. The second is the number of separate sightings or other weird things that have happened there. Add it all up, and the higher the number of ghosts and incidences the more (or most) haunted a place is.

My Top-10 List of Vancouver’s Most Haunted Places

With the calculation done, the following is my top-10 list of Vancouver’s most haunted places:

1. Riverview Hospital – This old psychiatric hospital is in Coquitlam, but it’s within the boundaries of Metro Vancouver so it counts. Its decaying buildings are awash in negative energy and riddled with ghosts. It’s currently a location for movie and television productions. Crew members and security guards see shadow figures, apparitions of former patients and staff, a phantom dog, strange lights, and objects moving on their own. Some hear disembodied footsteps and voices, doors and windows banging, and patients’ bells ringing in empty wards.
2. Waterfront Station – It was here on the Ghosts of Vancouver website, over 10 years ago, where I first declared this location as downtown Vancouver’s most haunted place. At least eight ghouls haunt this magnificent building. Security guards and other people who work there have regular encounters with them. There are probably other ghosts in residence at the station, too, but it’s hard to say how many.
3. Burnaby Art Gallery – The gallery is in an old mansion that used to be a summer residence, a priory and, later, a schoolhouse for a nefarious cult. The ghosts include those of its former owners, a monk, and several traumatized children.
4. Hycroft Manor – There haven’t been many reports of paranormal activity in this beautiful, big old house in recent years. But six spirits still roam its hallways and make noisy disturbances.
5. Old Spaghetti Factory – Of all the haunted places featured on the Ghosts of Vancouver website, the Old Spaghetti Factory gets the most page hits. This is for good reason – this restaurant has been a Gastown fixture for nearly 50 years and is a favourite among tourists. It’s lavishly decorated inside with an old trolley car and many other historical artifacts. At least four spectres haunt the place. One regularly spooks the restaurant’s staff members, especially after closing hours.
6. Hotel Vancouver – We all know about the ghost of the lovely Lady in Red who haunts this venerable old hotel. But do you know about the spectre of a man who is seen on the upper floor? Or how about the guest room so frightening you won’t ever get to stay in it?
7. Seaforth Armoury – I’m privileged to have had an inside tour of this historic military facility. Several ghosts of soldiers haunt the armoury, including a regimental bag piper. He plays a sombre tune throughout the building. Over the years, many brave regimental members have had strange and terrifying experiences there.
8. J.W. Horne Block – A long-time anchor tenant of this wedge-shaped building – Salmagundi West – went out of business in 2018. This is a shame because that curios shop stocked some of the most intriguing antiques and nick-nacks in the city. Many ghosts were attached to the used jewellery and other old items that were for sale there. Staff members and customers regularly encountered the spooks. I haven’t heard whether the current tenants – a teapot store and an antique shop — have had any paranormal encounters. Time will tell.
9. HMCS Discovery – When will we ever learn to not disturb native burial grounds? This Canadian-military base sits on top of an old First Nations grave site. Burial boxes once rested on trees branches and, later, cholera victims lay buried in the ground. Many personnel have had frightening experiences in and around the base.
10. Stanley Theatre – While the Vogue Theatre is Vancouver’s best-known haunted performance venue, the Stanley Theatre has more ghosts – three to be exact – who get up to more hi-jinks than at the Vogue. Many staff members have experienced weird things at The Stanley, mostly after-hours.

Buy my book to learn more about these places. All the locations are featured there except Riverview Hospital, which I’m working on for a future edition.

Happy Halloween!

The post Vancouver’s Most Haunted appeared first on Ghosts of Vancouver.

I agreed to share my knowledge of the station’s ghosts with him. I also arranged to get us into a third-floor office in the station where strange things have occurred.

St John (pronounced sin-jin) and I met up outside Waterfront Station toward the end of a rainy afternoon. When I got there I was surprised to see him do his own camera work. Other TV reporters I’ve worked with have had camera operators with them. But St John explained that all CTV News reporters now do their own videoing.

Read About the Shoot

I watched as St John took some exterior shots of the building. He then had me present an introduction about the station and its ghosts to the camera. After that, we moved indoors and went up to a passageway on the third floor. This passage is next to an office where a frightening thing happened to an employee in 2013.

While St John took various shots of the hallway, we bumped into an employee of the office in question. He enlisted her help to video some short scenes to recreate the haunting experience from a few years back. She was a trooper! We then set up the camera and me on a staircase so I could describe the paranormal incident.

With permission from a friend who co-owns the business, we moved into the office to do some further shots. We then wrapped up and I parted from St John in the parking lot outside. He said he was going to do a few more exterior shots after I left. But the rain was heavy at that point, so I don’t know if he was able to carry on.

It was a great experience working with St John. He’s an intensely energetic, witty, and fun-loving guy. He was into the paranormal vibe and was obviously having fun with the assignment. I admire his creative skills with the camera and in directing. It’s a lot of things to juggle by himself!

Watch the Stories

Click here to see St John’s Vancouver ghost stories, including our Waterfront Station segment.

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And now I’m pleased to announce that their new book, Everything British Columbia: The Ultimate Book of Lists, has just been published. The publisher kindly sent me a courtesy copy, which I received a few days ago.

My list – Greg Mansfield’s List of B.C.’s 10 Most Haunted Places – appears on pages 138 and 139.

It’s a terrific book. Sure, you could say I’m a bit biased because I contributed to it (but no, I wasn’t paid). And also because I’m a trivia and history nerd. I really do think the book’s great, though, because it’s full of fun and interesting facts about B.C.’s geography, history, flora and fauna, personalities, food and drink, and more.

The authors placed my list of haunted places in a section devoted to the paranormal, which also features UFO*BC’s 10 Most Compelling Close Encounters and Thomas Sewid’s List of 8 Facts About B.C.’s Rich Sasquatch History. These subjects are right up any paranormal enthusiast’s dark alley.

Can you guess what locations I included in the list of B.C.’s most haunted places?

Five of them are in the Lower Mainland, three are in Victoria, and two are in the interior. I put Victoria’s Empress Hotel in at #10. If you want to know the rest, you’ll have to check out the book!

Everything British Columbia: The Ultimate Book of Lists is available in bookstores and online (chapters.indigo.ca, amazon.ca). With the Holidays just a few months away, it’s going to make a great stocking-stuffer!

The post B.C.’s 10 Most Haunted Places appeared first on Ghosts of Vancouver.

Late on a clear night in the fall of 1982, when my correspondent, Marie, and her two girlfriends were 18 years old, they spent some time hanging out at Spanish Banks. After some star gazing on the beach, they hopped back into a Honda Civic driven by one of the girls and headed home via the University of British Columbia (UBC). Marie sat in the back seat. As typical teenage girls, they chatted and laughed as they went along the dark road, around the edge of UBC campus and south on SW Marine Drive towards the turn-off at West 41st Avenue.

While travelling along the stretch between UBC and West 41st, Marie’s friends in the front of the car suddenly became quiet as they stared at the road ahead. Marie wondered what was going on, and she looked at the road and saw what appeared to be a glowing ping pong ball, suspended in the air about a foot above the tarmac. As the car sped along, they seemed to drive right over it. But there was no sound of the vehicle hitting anything.

This happened so quickly that Marie wasn’t sure what she’d seen, or whether she’d actually seen anything at all. But when her two friends exclaimed, “Did you see that?” it was obvious that they’d all seen something weird. Her friends then explained that they’d seen a cluster of glowing balls floating above the highway just before the car drove over them.

Both of Marie’s friends were shocked by seeing the strange lights, but Marie was merely disappointed that she hadn’t seen the whole cluster of them. She begged her friend to turn the car around at the next opportunity and drive in the opposite direction to see if they could see the lights again. But both friends were so scared that they refused to go back.

As they drove home, they talked about what they’d just seen and tried to figure it out. They agreed that it couldn’t have been headlights from an oncoming car because there were no other cars on the road with them, in either direction.

The girls never spoke about the incident with each other again. Ultimately, Marie lost touch with the two friends and hasn’t communicated with them in decades.

Marie returned to SW Marine Drive a few months after the sighting, and has since driven along that stretch of road several times. But she never saw the glowing balls again.

Today, SW Marine Drive is wider than it was 35 years ago, and is better lit by streetlamps. Marie wonders what it was she saw that night, and speculates whether it was something paranormal, such as an orb or ghost light.

Marie’s email arrived at a time when I’ve been thinking a lot about ghost lights and what they might be. This is because I’ve been reading Shanon Sinn’s excellent book, The Haunting of Vancouver Island, in which he tells about a strange, glowing ball of light he saw at Keeha Beach, near Bamfield, in 1998. In my own research, I’ve also come across reports of ghost lights and glowing mists, including some seen on the Upper Levels Highway in North Vancouver.

I can’t say for sure, of course, what Marie and her friends saw all those years ago. As an open-minded skeptic, my own thoughts run to headlights from oncoming cars reflected on the road surface or in the car’s windshield. Light can be diffused and defracted by trees, of which there are many along the sides of SW Marine Drive. So even if the girls didn’t see an oncoming car at the time, the light from a car far away or around a corner may have bounced off trees and reached them. But reflected or defracted headlights don’t look like glowing ping pong balls. They look like headlights.

Shanon Sinn’s sighting of a ghost light on Keeha Beach seems to defy normal explanation, too. Standing on the beach late at night, he saw a ball of light weaving around and through dense trees at the top of a nearby cliff for some time. When he climbed the cliff the next day to investigate, he found the rock face difficult to ascend. At the top, it was hard to walk around and treacherous near the edge. It would have been a very dangerous prank for someone to pull on a stranger at night on a remote beach, which makes that unlikely. As for the possibility that Shanon saw a ship’s light, that’s unlikely, too, as the light danced in and around the trees, seemingly with intelligence.

In earlier times, ghost lights were known as Will-o’-the-Wisps. They were thought to be created by faeries, or the lanterns of wood sprites. More modern and scientific attempts to explain the phenomena theorize that they’re the result of swamp gas, which creates a bioluminiscent glow. Others say they’re plasma balls created by an electromagnetic build-up where tectonic plates collide. Neither of these seem to be good explanations for what Marie and Shanon witnessed, however.

Have you seen a ghost light or glowing orb you couldn’t explain? Do you have any good photo evidence of them? Or do you have a theory about what they are – natural phenomena or paranormal? I welcome your contributions.

The post Ghost Lights on Southwest Marine Drive appeared first on Ghosts of Vancouver.

From his post, it’s apparent that Dr. Nickell visited Vancouver and its Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant in the spring of 2016.

Dr. Nickell draws from my article about the restaurant, and uses it and other online articles it inspired to base an attack on the notion that the location is haunted. I’m compelled to comment.

Near the beginning of his blog entry, Dr. Nickell repackages material from my article, in which I discuss and disprove conjecture that’s been published elsewhere about the restaurant and its ghosts. Understandably, Dr. Nickell concludes that the conjecture and conflicting information are symptomatic of folklore at work. He makes a valid point, and raises an important issue about supposedly true ghost stories. This is the fact that it’s often very difficult to separate fact from fiction when researching and discussing the paranormal.

In my own research for the Ghosts of Vancouver website, I’ve encountered many articles that contain misinformation about haunted locations. This typically includes false details about a building, its history or its ghostly inhabitants. I came across a local newspaper article, for example, that reported that the ghost of a young man seen in Gabriola House is one of the original owner’s sons, who supposedly committed suicide there. This is simply untrue. As Dr. Nickell would say, folklore was at work. Local legend also says that Gabriola House has an underground tunnel connecting it to another building several blocks away. Again, this is folklore.

I disagree with Dr. Nickell, however, in his sweeping implication that when a report about a haunted location contains false information or has folklore attached to it, the existence of the ghost(s) is therefore false. Such inaccuracies do not negate the fact that some people see apparitions or experience strange occurrences in certain locations.

At the Old Spaghetti Factory, for example, despite some false or exaggerated aspects of stories attached to the trolley car inside the restaurant, certain staff members and customers have actually seen an apparition or have had strange experiences in the car and throughout the restaurant. I have spoken with some staff members who’ve had experiences, and they’re perfectly forthright and truthful when they talk about their encounters. Folklore does not play a part in what they witness first-hand.

In his blog entry Dr. Nickell also writes, “…others conclude the ghost must have somehow arrived with the tram car when it was installed in 1969 (“Ghosts” 2016; “Haunted Tales” 2016). But then where was the ghost before it showed up in 1969—possibly for half a century or more?”

Here he questions speculation about where the ghost may have come from. (Incidentally, I first raised this in my article, which the other articles he cites borrow heavily from.) But all this does is poke holes in my speculation, which was never presented as fact. And as for where the ghost may have been before 1969, how is this relevant to disproving its existence? It’s not as if an answer to that question would prove or disprove anything.

Dr. Nickell then writes, “The spirit—what some believe a form of life energy—appears “in full uniform,” although such clothing and accouterments would have been entirely inanimate objects. But Ghosts—being expressions of the imagination—can be any way people want, and ghosts are typically attired and equipped as appropriate to the mental imagery and the storytelling drama (Nickell 2012, 25–30).”

Here Dr. Nickell asserts that ghosts are “an expression of the imagination.” This generalization doesn’t do the subject justice, however. While I agree that many, many ghost sightings can be debunked as misinterpretations, hallucinations, tricks of the eye or imagination, fraudulent statements and so forth, some cases and supporting photographic evidence exist that cannot be so easily dismissed. In my opinion, it’s absurd to proclaim that all sightings of ghosts, of which there are many thousands documented, are all expressions of the imagination. But by referring to his own concept of mental imagery and storytelling drama (Nickell 2012, 25–30), Dr. Nickell seems to have made up his mind.

One of the classic arguments against the existence of ghosts is, if ghosts are indeed real phenomena how is it that most are seen wearing clothing? It’s a good question. Unlike Dr. Nickell, however, I don’t claim to have a definitive answer.

An alternative theory to explain why ghosts are seen in clothes is that some ghosts are created by slips in space-time. That is, scenes from the past occasionally replay themselves in certain locations and can be observed in current time. This may seem unbelievable, but it’s not outside the mind-blowing realm of quantum physics for such phenomena to happen.

Another theory suggests that some ghosts are disembodied human consciousnesses in energy form. As such, they’re able to project themselves as they were in life—fully clothed and of certain ages. I know this theory is seen by hard-core skeptics as preposterous. It does, after all, require a stretch of the imagination. But nobody can disprove or prove this theory. And it’s no more preposterous than claiming that all encounters with ghosts are simply products of the imagination. Furthermore, it’s worth briefly mentioning that some scientists are grappling with the possibility that human consciousness may not all be localized in the brain, which goes against long-held scientific paradigm.

Dr. Nickell also sets his arguments up for a fall when he implies that the Old Spaghetti Factory can’t be haunted, because he didn’t see or experience anything unusual during his visit, nor had anyone with whom he spoke. This is like declaring that bears don’t live in the forests near Vancouver, because he didn’t see one when he hiked there, and neither had anyone on the trail with him. But ghosts, like bears in the woods, don’t appear on cue, and many people don’t encounter them on an average journey into the forest.

I don’t wish to be too hard on Dr. Nickell, because I too am a skeptic. But just as he holds reports of ghosts up for scrutiny, his arguments must stand up to similar review.

I respectfully challenge Dr. Nickell and hard-core skeptics like him to have a more open mind. While it’s essential to be on guard against false reports or misinformation about ghosts and the supernatural, there are far too many reports to simply dismiss them all as being in the observers’ imaginations.

By eliminating falsehoods and isolating truly mysterious cases, we can hopefully get to some truth. But hardline skeptics throw the baby out with the bath water – they disregard the small number of cases that cannot be explained away, because their minds are already made up. They do themselves and others a disfavour by not keeping their minds open to the possibility that there might be more to the universe than is in their rigid world views. After all, modern science has only scratched the sub-surface in an attempt to explain the makeup of life, the universe and everything.

Nobody has all the answers. Meanwhile, ghost sightings persist.

Reference

Vancouver’s “Haunted” Old Spaghetti Factory. 2016. http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/entry/vancouvers_haunted_old_spaghetti_factory/ (accessed January 10, 2017).

The post Center for Inquiry’s Skepticism and the Old Spaghetti Factory appeared first on Ghosts of Vancouver.

Image courtesy of Jacy Schindel, CBC Vancouver.

I had the pleasure of doing a walk-around with Deborah Gobel (reporter) and Jacy Schindel (camera operator) from CBC TV Vancouver this past Saturday. We visited some of my favourite haunted locations in Gastown – Waterfront Station, Lamplighter Pub, Gaoler’s Mews and the Old Spaghetti Factory.

The segment aired on the CBC Vancouver news program that night.

Jacy also put together an excellent photo essay on the CBC news website.

Happy Halloween!

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