New England Ghosts

Here are 135 researched ghost stories that you have never heard before. Historian, investigator and storyteller David J. Pitkin spent 9 years interviewing across New England to present these tales of returned relatives, store ghosts, campus ghosts, spirits in old hotels and inns, and modern restaurants--and, of course, haunted residences. Aiming not to scare you, but to draw you into profound thinking about the life that continues after your body dies, he continues in his role of teacher. We must all pass through the state of being a ghost, he tells us. See whether or not you think he makes his case. Accompanied by 75 photos, his eighth book demonstrates how common are the appearances and antics of the departed, who have been experienced by the living for thousands of years. He often discovers who these unique personalities are and why they remain among us when something better still awaits them. Not that many of them are to be feared, as they are just continuing what they struggled with in life.

Here are 135 researched ghost stories that you have never heard before. Historian, investigator and storyteller David J. Pitkin spent 9 years interviewing across New England to present these tales of returned relatives, store ghosts, campus ghosts, spirits in old hotels and inns, and modern restaurants--and, of course, haunted residences. Aiming not to scare you, but to draw you into profound thinking about the life that continues after your body dies, he continues in his role of teacher. We must all pass through the state of being a ghost, he tells us. See whether or not you think he makes his case. Accompanied by 75 photos, his eighth book demonstrates how common are the appearances and antics of the departed, who have been experienced by the living for thousands of years. He often discovers who these unique personalities are and why they remain among us when something better still awaits them. Not that many of them are to be feared, as they are just continuing what they struggled with in life.

From his first ghostly experience of hearing footsteps on a no-longer-existing barn hayloft floor to the present, David J. Pitkin has been intrigued with the deeper dimensions of death and its aftermath. Research led him to the story of an unhappy young man who had taken that walk almost 40 years before, only to throw himself off the ledge with a noose around his neck. Since that first surprise, Pitkin has interviewed over 1,400 people and has printed over 750 of those stories in eight books. He has traveled North America and the Caribbean gathering even more as-yet-unwritten tales. For Pitkin, a retired history teacher, research is the key to identifying the entities and their still-unfulfilled purposes that seem to remain after bodily death. Unlike many purveyors of fear, Pitkin finds it even more tantalizing to scientifically explain the ghost phenomenon as a natural progression from bodily striving to eternal existence. All people will be ghosts after life ends, he says. A popular interviewee on radio and television, Pitkin is also a storyteller. He says his mission is to enlighten people, not frighten them. And most often, ghosts are the remnants of deceased loved ones and not terrible demons. Still, he cautions impetuous young investigators about dabbling in ghost matters without knowledge and protection.