This week I watched an absolutely crazy thread on Greg Newkirk’s Twitter feed regarding a house that was bought by ghost hunters and reopened to exploit some seriously sad things that happened in that house. Let’s look at the origins of what became “Willow’s Weep”:
In the video the lady states “There was a man who committed suicide there, he fell into the chair” and we are immediately shown a chair with a hat sitting on top of it, giving the impression that nothing has changed in the house since that tragic event and that distressed chair is the very same chair that the deceased sat in for a number of days before he was found…
But not so fast. There are two sides to a story, and in this particular example, it goes much deeper. I have found there are two types of investigators at this critical branch. Type A will get excited that there is a new potentially haunted place to investigate and rush in to get whatever spooky content they can for their brand. Type B will take a step back, look at the evidence being presented, do some actual research on the location, and substantiate (or debunk) what is being reported. I understand the appeal of being a type A investigator, you are on the chase and it’s going to be a fun time. What we sometimes forget I feel is this…most ghosts were people. The voices you may hear on your equipment were once there in that space. Whether the alleged haunting is their wandering spirit or simply residual energy (or in some cases, egregors caused by a group of people who have built up a tulpa to interact with them in a specific place, therefore making it a haunting by association rather than a destination. Let’s touchback on the news reports about this particular haunting:
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the fundraiser campaign that was started to make a movie based on this particular location. If you had any doubts the ghost hunter was milking this house to make the most money he could from it, let me alleviate those thoughts right now:
I speak a lot on the Caretaker blog of a place that has similar notoriety: Red Ash. It has all the classic tropes: Witch grave, hell hounds, spirits, Satanic cult rituals, and an eight-foot-tall Goatman legend. But no one is discussing the time when the area was just like everywhere else in these hills. Near forgotten, like Glenmary and New River. Until the legends started to swirl and you guessed it….guided tours willing to show you all the creepy things in a cemetery. Meanwhile, families who buried their kin in this place for the last one hundred years have to worry about the destruction of tombstones and graffiti sprayed everywhere by folks who just want to aid in the ghostploitation rather than ask “Wait, when did these stories start?”. So ask yourself, what kind of ghost hunter do YOU want to be?
(Special thanks to Michelle Belanger for the bullseye title)
BYRD OF ILL OMEN 