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alone. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise considering that the only real criteria for a haunted house is a creepy atmosphere, a fairly rich history, and a few eyewitness accounts. So, where are some of the best places to go, to see a “real” haunting? How about two of the most haunted places on earth?: • Whaley House – Located in San Diego, California, this is the current reigning champion for the nation’s most haunted house. The abode was partially built on an old cemetery, as well as some of San Diego’s first public gallows. The residence has stood there for the past 148 years.

Placement of the house, has made it a prime scene for many gruesome acts over the past century.

Because of this, vast arrays of ghostly sightings have occurred on this property. These include the ghost of a young girl who accidentally hung herself on a clothesline whilst running down a hillside.

Noted thief Jim Robinson, was hung 5 years before the house was built. His place of death now resides between the parlor and music room. Visitors have reported feeling a coldness and constriction of the neck, when around the archway that separates these rooms. Along with these two ghosts, there are numerous accounts of phantom scents in some rooms, cries of nonexistent babies in other rooms, and various apparitions that have been seen in the house’s mirrors and windows. • Borley Rectory – Not to be outdone by the States, England is also host to a number of haunted places. The most haunted of which is, allegedly, Borley Rectory, in the small town of Borley, in Essex. The rectory (lodging for priests) was built in 1863, on the site of an ancient monastery. Interestingly enough, it was built on a spot that was already known to house a ghost (a nun who was bricked up alive, in one of the monastic cellars). The rectory has since had numerous sightings of the nun, as well as many poltergeist activities, where various objects would be smashed, or displaced. Strange sounds, odors and cold spots are all known to occur there as well.

While both of these places claim to be haunted, one must ask if haunting is even a real thing, or just a psychosomatic phenomenon. Are ghosts real, or just figments of our imagination? This remains a controversial topic among the general public. A recent Harris poll (February 2003) found that a whopping 51% of people surveyed, believed in ghosts. Of course belief in something, and the reality of it, are not always one and the same. After all, there was a time when much of the world believed that the planet was flat, and that disease was caused by the influence of the stars. While