As a fiction writer who is a natural psychic, I intgrate experience and knowledge of the paranormal into my work. I am also an avid reader of paranormal fiction, and am often entertained by the way other authors explain such events. I can usually tell who’s done their homework versus who is going with popular, if completely misguided, myth.**
I was rereading one of Lynn Kurland’s novels and a scene triggered a memory. I’d forgotten to include it in my recent article Do Animals Have Souls.
As I recount in Angels and Engineers, I have seen ghosts on more than one occasion at the Whaley House in San Diego.
I never take my abilities for granted and find the experiences richly rewarding. This one, however, truly surprised me.
I was standing several yards away from the house, the outbuilding to my back, facing toward the back right side of the historical home. As I stood there, a ghost came out of the house and walked forward to meet another ghost who was riding up on a ghost horse.
As I watched in fascination, the rider dismounted and handed the reins to the handler, casually, and as if he had done it on several previous occasions. The two male ghosts, dressed in period western apparel, chatted amicably as if they were old friends. The horse seemed oblivious to the traffic nearby or the presence of multiple life forms. I use this term because to the horse, perhaps a ghost is a legitimate life form, though we consider them the undead. Mixed in with the ghosts were living humans. The horse didn’t pay any real attention to either.
I have observed that for ghosts, time does not seem to pass. The scene I witnessed at the back of the Whaley House certainly supports this observation. The horse did not seem to be in distress or in any way aware of its state of existence. This is consistent with the spirits of cats that I’ve interacted with. In many cases, this is the way it is with humans, which is why I’m not a big fan of people who shout at spirits to go to the light.
For more information about this and other haunted locations, see Angels and Engineers.
** Victoria Laurie does a spectacular job in her Ghost Hunter novels. They are truly some of my favorites. Lynn Kurland also does a good job in her paranormal romances.
