Читать книгу Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country - Michael Varhola - Страница 8
ОглавлениеWelcome to America’s Haunted Road Trip
BY VIRTUE OF THE FACT you are reading this book, there is a pretty good chance you believe in ghosts or are at least open to the idea that something referred to as such might be real. If so, you are in pretty good company. Surveys over the years tend to show that more than half of all Americans believe in ghosts and other supernatural phenomena. Some 61% of participants in a September 2013 Huffington Post poll, in fact, indicated that they “believe some people have experienced ghosts.” (Those overall numbers skew up by as much as 8% and down as much as 16% based on factors that include gender, age, political affiliation, race, education, and geographical region).
Paranormal phenomena that you or someone you know might have experienced can vary widely, from the subtle to the profound and the comforting to the disturbing. Many people not seeking supernatural experiences have felt the presence or touch of recently departed loved ones, for example, or even seen them, often just once, as if in final farewell. Others have at various points, and perhaps in places reputed to be haunted, experienced things like disembodied footsteps, inexplicable cold spots, or sounds with no discernible sources, including someone calling their names.
Those who are psychically sensitive, exposed to extremely haunted sites, or actively engage in paranormal investigations of various sorts, of course—including what have been widely referred to for some years now as ghost hunts—might experience any number of other things as well. These can include anomalies not audible to the naked ear or visible to the naked eye captured in recordings or photographs, such as electronic voice phenomena (EVPs) in the former and orbs, mists, or even coveted full-frontal apparitions in the latter.
Our intent with the America’s Haunted Road Trip series is to provide readers with resources they can use to personally discover and explore publicly accessible places that might be occupied by ghosts or the sites of other paranormal activity. We are not in the business of trying to prove that any particular place is or is not haunted; every single one of the places that appears in Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country certainly could be, and I firmly believe that a number of them definitely are. The purpose of this volume and the others in the series is to tell everyone, from the casual historical traveler to the hard-core ghosthunter, about places of potential interest to them and to provide actionable, concrete information about how to visit those places.
As noted, all of the places covered in this book and the other volumes of the America’s Haunted Road Trip series are, to a lesser or greater extent, publicly accessible; there is simply no point in creating a travel guide to places people cannot easily visit. Sorts of places we cover in our guidebooks therefore include appropriate bridges, cemeteries and graveyards, churches and other places of worship, colleges and universities, government buildings, historic sites, hotels, museums, neighborhoods/districts of towns or cities, parks, railroads, restaurants and bars, roads and highways, shopping areas and malls, sports stadiums, and theaters.
Sorts of places we do not cover in our guidebooks or encourage people to visit generally include assisted-living facilities; elementary, middle, or high schools; hospitals; private homes and residential apartment buildings; private property; or prohibited areas like abandoned mental institutions or condemned buildings. It also bears mentioning that all potentially haunted places, their intersection with the other world notwithstanding, are still subject to all the hazards of the real world. So, show due respect to other good people and watch out for bad ones, do not fall afoul of local laws, be prepared for environmental hazards, and, in keeping with the mantra of respectful exploration, “take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints.”
Beyond that, we hope this book and the others in the series will be useful to you and that you have an enjoyable, informative, and fulfilling journey on your own haunted road trip!
—Michael O. Varhola
Editor, America’s Haunted Road Trip
