A Social Anthropology of Ghosts in Twenty-First-Century America

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.
net/publication/272295214
A social anthropology of ghosts in twenty-ﬁrst-century America
Article in Social Compass · December 2014

DOI: 10.1177/0037768614547337
CITATIONS READS
19 2,421
2 authors, including:
Joseph Baker
East Tennessee State University
55 PUBLICATIONS 969 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
All content following this page was uploaded by Joseph Baker on 16 February 2015.
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

547337
research-article2014
SCP0010.1177/0037768614547337Social CompassBaker and Bader: A social anthropology of ghosts in twenty-irst-century America
social
Article
compass
Social Compass
2014, Vol. 61(4) 569–593
A social anthropology of © The Author(s) 2014
Reprints and permissions:
ghosts in twenty-first- sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0037768614547337
century America scp.sagepub.com
Joseph O BAKER
East Tennessee State University, USA
Christopher D BADER
Chapman University, USA
Abstract
Although belief in ghosts or analogous concepts is prevalent cross-culturally, including
in contemporary Western cultures, social scientific treatments of spirit belief and
experience often dismiss such views as superstitious, or overlook this dimension of
culture completely. Using mixed methods, we examine ghost belief, experience, and
media consumption, as well as the practice of ‘ghost hunting’ in the United States. Results
from a national survey demonstrate that these beliefs and practices are common and
concentrated strongly among younger generations of Americans, especially moderately
religious ‘dabblers.’ Fieldwork with multiple groups centered on ‘hunting’ ghosts reveals
several notable themes, including rhetorical appeals to both science and religion, magical
rites, the extensive use of technology to mediate evidence and experiences of ghosts, and
the narrative construction of hauntings. We argue that the inherent liminality of spirits
as cultural constructs accounts for their persistence, power, and continual recurrence.
Keywords
American culture, ghosts, haunting, paranormal, spirits
Résumé
Bien que la croyance liée aux fantômes ou à des concepts analogues est courante
dans de nombreuses cultures, y compris les cultures occidentales contemporaines,
les traitements sociaux et scientifiques qui lui sont réservés la relèguent au rang de
Corresponding author:
Joseph O Baker, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, East Tennessee State University, Box 70644,
Johnson City, Tennessee, TN, USA
Email: bakerjo@etsu.edu
Downloaded from scp.sagepub.com at East Tennessee State University on November 12, 2014
570 Social Compass 61(4)
superstition, ou la négligent complètement en tant que dimension culturelle. Employant

des méthodes variées, les auteurs examinent des croyances en la présence de fantômes,
des expériences personnelles, la consommation médiatique, ainsi que l’exercice de « la
chasse aux fantômes » aux États-Unis. Les résultats d’une enquête nationale démontrent
que ces croyances et ces exercices sont communs et concernent les générations les plus
jeunes d’Américains, particulièrement des « dilettantes » modérément religieux. Le travail
de terrain consacré à la chasse aux fantômes parmi de multiples groupes révèle plusieurs
thèmes notables tels que des appels rhétoriques à la science ainsi qu’à la religion, des
rites liés à la magie, une utilisation extensive de la technologie pour négocier l’évidence
et l’expérience des fantômes, et une construction narrative des apparitions. Les auteurs
soutiennent que la liminalité inhérente aux spectres, considérés comme construction
culturelle, explique leur persistance, leur pouvoir, et leur récurrence continuelle.
Mots-clés
culture américaine, fantômes, hanter, paranormal, spectres
If it – learning to live – remains to be done, it can only happen between life and death.
Neither in life nor in death alone. What happens between two, and between all the ‘two’s’
one likes, such as between life and death, can only maintain itself with some ghost, can
only talk with or about some ghost [s’entretenir de quelque fantôme]. (Derrida, 1994: xvii,
emphasis in original)
Introduction
Ghosts or analogous supernatural entities are ubiquitous cultural objects across time and
space, a fact noted by social anthropologists, both classical (Durkheim, 1995 [1912]:
242–275; Lévy-Bruhl, 1966 [1927]) and contemporary (Boyer, 2001; Cohen, 2007;
Delaplace, 2012: S131). This results from the natural tendency of the human brain to
perceive the ‘soul’ (or some synonymous construct) and body as distinct and to posit
anthropomorphic supernatural agents. The generalized cognitive bifurcation of anima as
distinct from material reality intuitively allows spirits to exist or persist without bodily
presence (Bloom, 2004, 2007; Cohen et al., 2011). While spirit concepts are cross-
cultural, the narrative content given to experiences of and beliefs about spirits is highly
flexible, molded into culturally specific expressions.
In the United States, media with paranormal themes and content have never been as
varied or widely available as they are at present. For example, before the mid-1990s,
Americans who desired ‘non-fiction’ paranormal content were limited to a small selection
of television shows such as In Search Of (1976–1982) and Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious
World (1980) and rare theatrical releases such as Legend of Boggy Creek (1972) and
Legend of Bigfoot (1976). By 2012 there were, at a minimum, 31 paranormal ‘reality’
series that aired new episodes, ranging from shows about Bigfoot and other mystery
beasts (Finding Bigfoot, Monsters and Mysteries in America, Mountain Monsters),
UFOs, and aliens (Ancient Aliens, Chasing UFOs) to the paranormal in general (Fact or
Faked: Paranormal Files, Destination Truth). The most frequent and successful subject
Baker and Bader: A social anthropology of ghosts in twenty-first-century America 571
of paranormal television programming, however, has proven to be ghosts, with dozens of

examples spread across the networks, including Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Ghost
Stories, Celebrity Ghost Stories, Haunted Collector, The Dead Files, Ghost Mine, and
Haunted Encounters.1 Accompanying this media expansion, public opinion polls indicate
increasing belief in ghosts (Kwilecki, 2009).
Coinciding with the cultural diffusion of the paranormal, a rapidly expanding
proportion of Americans have begun claiming no religious affiliation (Hout and Fischer,
2002; Pew Research Center, 2012). Far from indicating a disenchanted secularity,
increasing numbers now claim the de-institutionalized (but not atheistic) identity of
‘spiritual but not religious’ (Chaves, 2011). There are, however, differing subsets of
people with ‘no religion’: those who are disbelievers in the supernatural in general and
those who retain supernatural beliefs outside a specific religion (Baker, 2012; Davie,
1994; Storm, 2009). A substantial majority of those claiming no religion maintain
privatized supernatural beliefs and more than a passing interest in religion (Baker and
Smith, 2009; Lim et al., 2010). This is particularly the case among the youngest generation
of American adults (Clark, 2003; Putnam and Campbell, 2010).
So how do people who are neither institutionally religious nor fully irreligious express
their interest in spiritual and supernatural pursuits? One potential outlet is paranormalism,
which is most likely to be of interest to religious ‘dabblers’ who privatize religious belief
but are not fully committed to exclusivist religious groups (Bader et al., 2010; Bainbridge,
2004; Baker and Draper, 2010; Goode, 2000; Mencken et al., 2009; Mencken et al., 2008).
Perhaps no set of cultural phenomena better fits the definition of non-institutionalized
religion/spirituality than the paranormal. Irwin (2009: 16–17) defines the paranormal as
‘phenomena that have not been empirically attested [to] to the satisfaction of the scientific
establishment’. Sociologists have also noted that belief in the paranormal represents
supernaturalism that has not been institutionalized into mainstream religious traditions
(Bader et al., 2010; Northcote, 2007).2 Put another way, UFOs, Bigfoot, ghosts, psychic
phenomena, and other paranormal subjects share the feature of being entities and/or
powers not currently ‘claimed’ by major religious organizations.3 Belief in such entities is
a form of spiritual exploration not officially tied to conventional religious forms and is
typically less organized than conventional religions (Stark and Bainbridge, 1986).
With the American religious landscape recently moving towards de-institutionalization,
it becomes increasingly important to understand the nature of paranormal beliefs in this
context: who holds them, their relationship to conventional religiosity, and the manner in
which enthusiasts frame them. We contribute to this literature by closely examining
ghosts. Specifically, we examine ghost belief, experience, and media consumption, as
well as ‘ghost hunting.’ Using mixed methodology, we outline some of the basic
population parameters and patterns of ghost experience and belief for Americans in
general, while highlighting the cultural and interactional dimensions of ghosts. To do so
we collected and analyzed quantitative data from a national survey of Americans and
qualitative data from fieldwork with multiple ghost-hunting groups.
Quantitative data
Data on ghost belief, experience, and media consumption are taken from the 2005 Baylor
Religion Survey (BRS). The survey was funded by the Templeton Foundation and
designed by Bader, Mencken and Froese (2007). It contains the most extensive set of
questions on the ‘paranormal’ ever put to a national sample of American adults (Bader
et al., 2010). For comparison, the demographic results of the 2005 BRS are similar to the
results for the 2004 General Social Survey (Bader et al., 2007).
The Gallup organization collected the data in the fall of 2005 using a mixed-mode
sampling design. Potential respondents were first contacted by phone and asked if they
would be willing to complete a mailed questionnaire. Gallup attempted to contact 7,041
potential respondents; 2,603 people agreed to participate and provided valid mailing
addresses. A total of 1,721 questionnaires were returned for a response rate of 66.1% for
the mailed survey phase and total combined response rate of 24.4%, including all
refusals, breakoffs, and incomplete phone interviews. Gallup created a weight based on
data from the Census Bureau that incorporates population parameters for region, gender,
race, age, and education. We employ this weight in all our analyses.
Measures
Dependent variables. To assess levels and patterns of belief in, experience of, and
consumption of media about ghosts we used six items from the BRS. To assess belief we
created an additive index of three items. The first asked respondents: ‘Does each of the
following exist?’. ‘Ghosts’ were specifically included in the battery, alongside a number
of more conventional, religiously supernatural items (e.g. angels). Answer choices were:
absolutely not (1), probably not (2), probably (3), and absolutely (4). Forty-nine percent
of respondents answered probably or absolutely with reference to ghosts. The remaining
two items were taken from a battery of questions on the ‘New Age’ that asked respondents:
‘To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements?’. Included in the
battery were: ‘It is possible to communicate with the dead,’ and ‘Places can be haunted’.
Answer choices ranged from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5), with undecided
(3) as the middle category. Twenty-one percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed
that it is possible to communicate with the dead and 39% agreed that places can be
Eigenvalue of 2.25, and each item loading at ≥ .844. The items were combined into an
haunted. A principal components analysis of these items produced a single factor with an
index with a Cronbach’s α = .831.

To assess ghost experiences and consumption, we used three items with no (0) and yes
(1) as outcomes. The two items addressing experiences were part of a battery with a
prompt reading: ‘As an adult, have you ever done any of the following?’. Included in the
battery were: ‘Visited or lived in a house or place believed to be haunted’ (yes = 22%)
and ‘Consulted a Ouija board to contact a deceased person or spirit’ (yes = 8%).4 The
question about media consumption was included in a battery with a prompt reading:
‘Have you ever read a book [on], consulted a web site [about], or researched the following
topics?’. Included in the battery was: ‘Ghosts, apparitions, haunted houses, or electronic
voice phenomena’ (yes = 25%). To analyze patterns in these data, we conducted OLS
regression models for the belief index and logistic regression models for the binary
outcomes.5 We used the results of the binary logit models to portray graphically the
effects of age, our primary independent variable of interest.
Independent variables. Age was measured in years ranging from 18 to 93. In addition to
age, we examined patterns for gender, race, education, income, marital status, and
religion. Gender was a dummy variable, such that women = 1. Race was coded as a series
of dummy variables for white, African-American, and ‘other’ races.6 White was used as
the excluded category in multivariable models. Education was measured in attainment
categories ranging from 8th grade or less (1) to post-graduate or professional degree (7).
Annual family income was measured in categories ranging from less than $10,000 (1) to
more than $150,000 (7). Marital status consisted of a series of dummy variables for never
married, currently married, cohabitating, divorced or separated, and widowed. Currently
married respondents served as the reference group in multivariable models.
To account for the influence of religion, we controlled for religious tradition and level
of religious practice. For religious tradition, we used a dummy variable series based on a
modified version of Steensland et al.’s (2000) RELTRAD schema, which classifies
religious traditions in the United States into: evangelical (conservative) Protestant,
mainline (liberal) Protestant, black Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, ‘other’ religions7, and no
religion. To differentiate respondents with no religion who still believe in God in some
way from those who are theistic disbelievers, we used an additional question to split the
no religion category. Respondents were asked: ‘Which of the following comes closest to
your belief about God?’. An answer choice of ‘I don’t believe in anything beyond the
physical world’ was included. Respondents who claimed no religion and answered that
they were materialists were grouped together, while religious ‘nones’ who maintained
some form of theism were classified into a separate category. These categories were coded
into dummy variables that could be used with the rest of the RELTRAD scheme.
To account for religious practice, we created an additive index that combined
frequency of attendance at religious services, measured from never (1) to more than once
a week (9); frequency of prayer outside of religious services, measured from never (1) to
several times a day (6); and frequency of reading sacred texts, measured from never (1)
produced a single factor with an Eigenvalue of 2.24 and each of the items loading at ≥
to several times a week or more (9). A principal components analysis of the items
.852. Because of the sizable difference in scale between the attendance and scripture
reading items and the prayer item, the measures were mean standardized before being
summed into an index with a Cronbach’s α = .83. Recent research also indicates that
there is a curvilinear relationship between conventional religious practice and paranormal
belief and interest (Bader et al., 2012; Bader et al., 2010; Bainbridge, 2004; Baker and
Draper, 2010; Orenstein, 2002). To control for this pattern we created a quadratic term
for the religious practice index. Finally, to account for whether a respondent was open to
novel or heterodox religious ideas, we included a question that asked whether respondents
thought of themselves as ‘religious seekers.’ Responses were no (0) and yes (1).
Quantitative findings
Table 1 displays two OLS regression models predicting the ghost belief index. The first
includes sociodemographic predictors and the second adds the variables for religious
tradition, religiosity, and religiosity squared. Younger Americans (β = -.209; p≤.001),
Table 1. OLS regression predicting ghost belief index.
Variable Model 1 Model 2
b β b β
Sociodemographics
Age −.040*** −.209 −.043*** −.225
Gender 1.042*** .172 1.141*** .189
African-Americana .649* .055 1.910*** .165
Other racea .750* .058 .532 .041
Education −.096 −.050 −.088 −.045
Income −.170** −.088 −.263*** −.135
Never marriedb .124 .015 −.305 −.037
Cohabitatingb .977* .063 .445 .029
Divorced/separatedb .406 .049 .153 .018
Widowedb .149 .012 .037 .003
Religion
Black Protestantc —– −1.177* −.083
Catholicc —– .929*** .124
Jewishc —– −.370 −.017
Mainline Protestantc —– .772*** .107
Other religionc —– 1.761*** .127
None (disbeliever)c —– −1.890*** −.122
Nonaffiliated believerc —– .641* .059
Religiosity —– −.241*** −.205
Religiosity squared —– −.091*** −.180
Religious seeker —– .727** .069
Model stats
Constant 9.968*** 10.615***
N 1448 1392
Adjusted R2 .106 .249
Source: 2005 Baylor Religion Survey.

a: Reference is white.
b: Reference is currently married.
c: Reference is evangelical Protestant.
*p<.05; **p<.01; ***p<.001 (two-tailed tests).
women (β = .172; p≤.001), African-Americans (β = .055; p≤.05), those of ‘other’ races

(β = .058; p≤.05), and those who were cohabitating (β = .063; p≤.05) all had significantly
higher levels of ghost belief in Model 1. Furthermore, lower income leads to higher
belief in ghosts (β = -.088; p≤.01).
These variables remain significant after controlling for religion, with the exception
of cohabitation, which is mediated to statistical non-significance by religious controls.
There are also substantial suppressor effects for African-Americans and income after
accounting for religion. The difference between blacks and whites is 3.2 times larger
in Model 2 compared with Model 1, indicating that levels of ghost belief are much
higher among African-Americans after accounting for levels of religious practice and
religious tradition. Because African-Americans have higher levels of religiosity than
whites in the US (see Ellison and Sherkat, 1995), accounting for this factor substantially
increases the size of the difference in ghost belief between black and white Americans.
Further, black Protestants had significantly lower levels of ghost belief than
evangelicals (β = -.083; p≤.01), leaving the difference between blacks and whites as
the difference among those not in black Protestant faiths. As with the effect for race,
the size of the effect for income increases after accounting for religion, which is
reflective of people of lower socioeconomic status engaging in higher levels of
religious practice, especially privatized versions such as prayer (Baker, 2008;
Schwadel, 2008).
As with paranormalism more generally, there is a significant curvilinear relationship
between religiosity and ghost belief (β = -.180; p≤.001), such that those at mid-levels of
religious practice tend to have stronger belief in ghosts than those at the extremes.
Concerning religious tradition, Catholics (β = .124; p≤.001), mainline Protestants (β =
.107; p≤.001), ‘other’ religions (β = .127; p≤.001), and nonaffiliated believers (β = .059;
p≤.05) have higher average levels of ghost belief than evangelicals, while the nonaffiliated
who do not believe in God have significantly lower levels of belief (β = -.122; p≤.001).
Religious seekers have significantly higher levels of belief than non-seekers (β = .069;
p≤.01).8 Overall, the strongest predictors of level of belief in ghosts are, in order of
strength: age, religiosity, and gender.
Table 2 displays the results of binary logistic regression models predicting haunting
experience, use of a Ouija board, and researching ghosts. The models are again structured
such that sociodemographics are entered first, then religious variables. For the sake of
brevity, we focus on the final models for each outcome. Women and those with lower
levels of income are significantly more likely to have experienced haunting and used a
Ouija board. Those with lower incomes are more likely to have researched ghosts, while
the variable for gender fell only just above statistical significance (p = .052). Black
Protestants are less likely than evangelicals to have experienced a haunting, while those
in the ‘other’ religion category are more likely than evangelicals to have used a Ouija
board and researched ghosts. For all three outcomes, religiosity exerts a significant,
negatively curvilinear effect such that individuals at mid-levels of religious practice are
the most likely to report ghost experiences and ghost media consumption. Religious
nones who do not believe in God are less likely to have experienced haunting, while
religious seekers are more likely to have used a Ouija board and researched ghosts.
Notably, age is strongly and negatively significant in each of the binary logistic
models. To better illustrate the effects of age, Figure 1 displays the predicted probabilities
for claiming a haunting experience, using a Ouija board to contact the dead, and the
consumption of media about ghosts for individuals ages 18 to 90, while controlling for
all of the other variables in the second-stage models. Net of other factors, an 18-year-old
American has a probability of .39 of reading about ghosts, .38 of claiming a haunting
experience, and .11 of having used a Ouija board. By comparison, a 90-year-old has a .09
probability of consuming media about ghosts, .06 of claiming a haunting experience, and
just a .01 probability of having used a Ouija board to contact the dead. These results are
even more striking considering that older individuals have lived longer, and therefore
had more opportunity to experience or consume the matters in question. Although we
576
Table 2. Binary logistic regressions predicting ghost experiences and media consumption (odds ratios reported).
Variable Experienced Haunting Used Ouija Board Researched Ghosts
Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2

Sociodemographics
Age .968*** .969*** .969*** .968*** .974*** .974***

Gender 1.442** 1.536** 2.661*** 3.314*** 1.181* 1.241
African-Americana .617 1.437 .352* 1.244 .299*** .480
Other racea .991 .911 1.931* 1.648 1.618* 1.451
Education .980 .999 .929 .937 1.051 1.078
Income .788*** .775*** .890 .828* .912* .868**
Never marriedb 1.076 1.049 1.166 .886 1.578* 1.329
Cohabitatingb 1.604 1.303 1.022 .662 1.701 1.315
Divorced/separatedb .959 .959 1.715* 1.247 1.294 1.085
Widowedb .797 .905 .508 .551 1.437 1.531
Religion
Black Prot.c —– .341* —– .135 —– .576
Catholicc —– 1.125 —– 1.206 —– .990
Jewishc —– .549 —– .558 —– .692
Mainline Prot.c —– .885 —– 1.216 —– .967
Other religionc —– 1.365 —– 2.374* —– 1.714
None (disbeliever)c —– .185** —– .371 —– .511
Social Compass 61(4)

Nonaffiliated believerc —– 1.198 —– .631 —– 1.090
Religiosity —– .882*** —– .758*** —– .896***
Religiosity squared —– .965** —– .954* —– .964**
Religious seeker —– .913 —– 2.444*** —– 1.593*
Baker and Bader: A social anthropology of ghosts in twenty-first-century America
Table 2. (Continued)
Variable Experienced Haunting Used Ouija Board Researched Ghosts
Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2

Model stats
Constant (b) 1.101** 1.234** −.909 −.700 .121 .360
N 1579 1518 1579 1518 1579 1518
−2 log likelihood 1527.856 1402.073 794.943 694.693 1682.633 1561.929
Nagelkerke R2 .121 .154 .122 .204 .099 .131
Source: 2005 Baylor Religion Survey.

a: Reference is white.
b: Reference is currently married.
c: Reference is evangelical Protestant.
*p<.05; **p<.01; ***p<.001 (two-tailed tests).
577
Probability of Ghost Belief, Experience, or Consumpon 0.45
0.4 0.39
0.35
0.38 Haunng Experience
Ouija Board Use
0.3
Consumpon of
Books/Web Pages
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.11
0.1
0.09
0.06
0.05
0.01
0
18 23 28 33 38 43 48 53 58 63 68 73 78 83 88
Age
Figure 1. Probability of ghost belief, experience, or media consumption by age.
cannot distinguish between aging and generational effects without longitudinal data, it is
evident that the youngest generation of American adults has substantially greater belief
in, experience of, and interest in (religiously deinstitutionalized) spirits. Whether
heightened interest in ghosts reflects the liminal nature of apparitions aligning with a
particularly liminal period of life in late adolescence and young adulthood (see Evrard,
2010) or generational shifts in relation to institutional and non-institutional
supernaturalism remains an open question.
While quantitative analyses can tell us much about broad patterns of ghost beliefs and
experiences, the inherent limitations of survey data restrict a deeper understanding of the
multivalent cultural meanings of apparitions, as well as the processes by which people
come to experience, believe in, and retell narratives about ghosts. To examine the cultural
and interactional dimensions of ghosts in contemporary America, we must turn to
qualitative fieldwork.
Qualitative data
We conducted participant observations and informal interviews with three groups
dedicated to ghost hunting and other practices related to the detection of and
communication with spirits. By spending time with multiple groups, we were better able
to identify some of the commonalities and variations at play in ghost belief, practice, and
experience. We use pseudonyms for all groups to protect the confidentiality of our
informants.
The first group, which we shall call the ‘Southwestern Ghost Hunters,’ is a collection
of individuals in a small Texas town united by their interest in the occult and hauntings.
Our primary informants from this group included a self-identified ‘warlock,’ a medium,
and a psychic. We engaged the members in a variety of informal conversations about
their beliefs and practices, and accompanied them on ghost hunts.
The second group, ‘Southeastern Ghost Tours,’ is an organization offering night
walking tours of allegedly haunted historical sites in the Southern Appalachian
Mountains, a region rife with folklore about spirits (see Gainer, 2008; Montell, 1975;
Roberts, 1988). As one of the researchers, I enrolled in its publicly available course
entitled ‘Ghostology.’ After contacting the leader of the group and paying the fee to take
the course, I attended the class and participated in all of the activities designed to teach
students the group’s preferred method of locating and communicating with ghosts. The
primary method employed by the group is divination through dowsing, a method not
used by either of the other two groups studied.
The third group, ‘Appalachian Specter Investigations,’ is a group that also offers
ghost tours in the same region as the Southeastern group. Because of their competition in
a niche market, the two groups have a highly antagonistic relationship, and were quick to
distinguish themselves from their competition. In studying this group, we attended
multiple public lectures intended as presentations of their ‘best evidence’ for the
hauntings they investigated. We also engaged group members in informal settings, which
allowed us to ask follow-up questions about their experiences, beliefs, and methods
pertaining to hauntings.
While all three groups made extensive use of technology to conduct investigations of
hauntings, the Appalachian Specter group emphasized the technological elements of ghost
hunting to a greater degree than either of the two other groups. Henceforward in the text we
refer to these groups as Southwestern, Southeastern, and Appalachian respectively.
We employed a strategy emphasizing participation over overt observation roles during
our time spent with all three groups. That is, we engaged in the group’s activities as naturally
and inconspicuously as possible. When they engaged in a practice or activity, so did we,
excluding things such as the bodily channeling of spirits. After leaving spaces of mutual
presence, we took extensive field notes on everything that could be recalled, focusing on
generating the greatest amount of detail possible, with no initial consideration for overarching
narratives or themes. In instances where multiple authors were present at the same interaction,
each took their own set of field notes to maximize the amount of information retained and
provide multiple perspectives. After taking the initial set of notes, we subsequently coded
the field notes for emergent themes, took ‘notes on notes’ (Kleinman and Copp, 1993), then
narrativized our experiences in short pieces detailing the most noteworthy and interesting
elements of episodic interaction with the group. All of these writings became the data
analyzed to assess the common and divergent themes in the three groups.
Qualitative findings
Through our various fieldwork with ghost hunters and mediums, we identified four
notable themes: appeals to science; appeals to religion and magical rites; the role of
technology in constructing experience and ambiguity; and the role of narratives and
‘deathlore’ (folklore about death; see Montell, 1975) in constructing ghost belief and
experience.
Scientific rhetoric. Appeals to science were generally made in an effort to legitimize both
the activities and the views of ghost believers, while also problematizing the idea that we
live in a disenchanted, fully rationalized world. For example, at various points throughout
the ghost-hunting class, the instructor referenced quantum mechanics, parapsychology,
and Stephen Hawking’s views of relativity. In each instance, science was referenced to
validate claims made, while at the same time questioning conventional, rationalized
understandings of reality. The instructor stated that efforts to locate and communicate
with ghosts were built on theories of quantum mechanics and relativity. Experimental
research shows that such appeals increase the perceived legitimacy of paranormal claims
(Brewer, 2013).
Students also took photos in an effort to capture ‘ghost orbs,’ especially those with
‘Kirlian emanations,’ and were told to take multiple pictures of the same spot in order to
have ‘control pictures.’ In spite of institutional science’s rejection of paranormal subjects,
the appeal to and use of scientific rhetoric is a common feature of subcultures built
around paranormalism (see Ben-Yehuda, 1985; Cross, 2004; Hess, 1993). By citing
controversial areas of science (such as parapsychology) and fields that cast doubt on
commonsense understandings of the world (such as quantum mechanics), the instructor
simultaneously sought the legitimacy granted by ‘science’ and used such rhetorical
appeals to cast doubt on the taken-for-grantedness of mundane reality.
Rhetoric of (deinstitutionalized) religion and magical rites. Each of our fieldwork experiences
produced an understanding of the inherently syncretic nature of ghost belief. Although
such views are often considered beyond the bounds of exclusive, organized religious
institutions (e.g. Korem and Meier, 1980), ghost believers themselves rarely consider
their beliefs to be isolated from either privatized versions of more conventional religious
beliefs (especially angels and demons) or ‘New Age’ belief systems (especially astrology).
While there are many people with conventional religious beliefs who hold these to be
their exclusive interest in the supernatural, ghost believers tended to hold a plethora of
other supernatural beliefs.
For the Southwest group, this ‘pluralism’ was expressed with reference to the bricolage
of ritual practices and beliefs commonly referred to as New Age (see Heelas, 1996; Pike,
2004; York, 1995). Three members of this group maintained at least semi-regular
professional activity in New Age circles through their roles as a medium, a psychic, and
the entrepreneur of a small café that functioned as a meeting house for locals interested
in New Age themes and services. In this group, there was virtually no discussion of
traditional religious versions of supernaturalism, but there was an extensive integration
of ideas from astrology, Tarot, neo-paganism, and the occult. New Age elements were
used to frame hauntings, and often as a means of communicating with apparitions.
For the Southeastern group, both traditional religion and generalized paranormal
beliefs and practices were integrated with belief in hauntings. The instructor of the ghost-
hunting course had also experienced Sasquatch sightings and held a deep interest in
UFOs and a wide variety of other ‘stigmatized knowledge’ (see Barkun, 2003). The
group also offered ‘Bigfoot tours’ of densely wooded areas with reported Sasquatch
sightings. Still, the course on ghost hunting opened with a traditional Christian prayer
and throughout the day included claims such as ‘Jesus was the greatest metaphysician
who ever lived,’ and that Jesus was able to walk on water because he understood the
dynamics of quantum physics. The primary technique used to communicate with spirits
was dowsing, a practice derived from magical forms of divination. The Southeastern
group included the greatest diversity of cultural traditions within its domain of beliefs
and practices.
In the Appalachian group, there was an emphasis on traditional Christian religious
beliefs and practices accompanied by a rejection of other streams of culture, which
were subsumed under the broad umbrella of the New Age or the paranormal. Indeed,
the competition between the Southeastern and Appalachian groups for advantage in the
niche market of ghost tours and services led to the Appalachian group drawing firm
distinctions between itself and the more generalist group. This was accomplished
through the use of rhetoric dismissing the ‘crackpot’ views of the Southeastern group,
which incorporated elements from other paranormal subcultures such as UFOlogy. The
practitioners from the Appalachian group did, however, make frequent reference to
entities from traditional Christian religion, particularly Satan and demons. They
claimed that there were differences between hauntings by ghosts that were the spirits
of specific individuals and those that were the result of demonic activity, but they
considered supernaturalism outside of ghost activity and traditional religious sources
to be blatantly false.
In spite of their disagreements over the content of the symbiotic tradition(s) they were
drawing on, both groups employed ritual prayers, blessings, and curses in efforts to
communicate with, control, or ward off spirits. The Southwestern group used ritual
protection prayers to keep their bodies from being contaminated by spirits, such that they
could be in communication with apparitions without becoming completely possessed by
them (see Cohen, 2009; Cohen and Barrett, 2008). The Southeastern group used ritual
prayers and blessings in a similar manner, but employed them primarily as positive rites
for seeking the guidance and protection of spirits. Meanwhile, the Appalachian group
used ritual cleansings and exorcisms to rid places of malevolent or unwanted spirits.
While the contents of the belief systems of each of the groups were distinct from
one another, they all used similar ritual means for cleansing or protection. These rites
had the character of magic, where practitioners attempt to control or appease spirits
through prescribed bodily movements, sacred recitations, and direct commands to the
spirits. The goal is one of performing the rite in order to produce a this-worldly result
(Eleta, 1997; Luhrman, 1988). In all three cases, consistent with Durkheim’s ([1912]
1995: 42) observation that ‘The magician has a clientele, not a Church,’ clients
actively sought the ritual assistance of the group to produce the desired outcomes.
Each group drew some of its rationale and beliefs from larger currents of religious
thought – New Age/neo-pagan (Southwestern), Christian (Appalachian), or both
(Southeastern) – and also employed ritual elements drawn from the realm culturally
defined as magic, casting doubt on the often rigidly delineated academic distinction
between religion and magic (e.g. Stark, 2001; Geertz, 1975; Hammond, 1970;
Luhrman, 2012: 190–192; Tambiah, 1990). Durkheim’s distinction between clientele
and community proves more useful, although this delineation can also be ‘fuzzy’ in
application.
Ghosts in the machines. In all three groups, ghost experiences were vicariously channeled
through a wide variety of technological media, a process fusing science and spiritualism
that has been dubbed ‘techno-mysticism’ (Potts, 2004; also see Harvey, 2013). Indeed, the
recent explosion of amateur ghost-hunting groups is at least partly due to the increased
accessibility and affordability of the ‘necessary’ equipment, as ‘the “scientific laboratory”
has also been able to be integrated into the residential-private sphere’ (Mayer, 2013: 366).
Serious ghost hunting in the contemporary West requires digital thermostats,
electromagnetic field readers, AM radio scanners (‘ghost boxes’), night vision technology,
and photography – moving and still – of all manner of imputations (e.g. radiographic,
digital, film). Electronic voice phenomena (EVPs), where recorded aural anomalies are
magnified and collectively experienced as indirect evidence of ghosts, are one of the most
common evidentiary objects and techniques in spectral subcultures. This aspect of
experience is collective in the sense that it is shared by believers. Rather than serving to
clarify empirical reality – as might be expected from highly sensitive, technical, and
empirical assessments of physical surroundings – the wash of ambiguous sensory input
blurs perception, substituting the uncanny for the everyday and giving carte blanche to the
imagination.9 Instead of the body (or objects acting as an extension thereof) serving as the
medium between the material and the ethereal, it is sensory data channeled and projected
by various forms of technology that breaches the division. Even the individual we
interviewed who most explicitly identified herself as clairvoyant and an ‘active channel’ to
the spiritual realm used forms of technology such as EMF meters to search for hotspots
where the voices would best be heard. At the same time, the production of data poured forth
by the various forms of technology often requires individuals to play the role of the medium
for the playback audience, so that a voice makes inquiries of spirits, which then allow a
seeming dialogue to be deciphered at selected points on audio recordings.
The extensive use of technology is also tied to the scientific rhetoric of paranormal
investigation. The various forms of technology allow participants to take measurements,
set up quasi-experimental scenarios (often combined with mediumship), and make
interpretations of the data generated. The ability to derive meanings from ambiguous
sensory information serves to enhance mediums’ powers while simultaneously requiring
a participatory stance that affirms shared cultural frames as individuals come to an
agreement about meaning (Wirtz, 2005). The ability to participate actively in this non-
exclusive, democratized expression of folk science constitutes one of the primary appeals
of paranormalism (Molle and Bader, 2013). Appendix 1 provides an explanation of some
of the most common argot used by ghost enthusiasts, including expressions relating to
the use of technology.
Narrative constructions of reality and experience. A final theme that emerged from our
fieldwork was the role of narrative in ghost belief and experience. In settings where
ghost belief is espoused, debated, and maintained, narrative is the central interactional
feature. The particular narrative and rhetorical features of the retelling and construction
of paranormal experiences have been outlined in fine detail, particularly by Bennett
(1986, 1987, 1999) and Wooffitt (1992, 2006). A central feature of narratives recounting
paranormal experiences is their use of rhetoric and style to neutralize preemptive or
potential skeptical objections from a ‘rationalist’ point of view (Childs and Murray,
2010), although recent research suggests that this narrative feature may be uniquely
Western (Ohashi et al., 2013; Delaplace 2014).
Narratives in the settings we observed took three primary forms: historical framing
via deathlore, shared interpretation of empirical or narrative information (vicarious
haunting experiences), and experiential recollection. Like extra-sensory ‘religious’
experiences, hauntings and apparitions are inseparable from the stories that frame them,
and researchers generally have access only to narratives rather than to experiences per se
(see Yamane, 2000). In each of the groups studied, historical deathlore was used to ‘set
the mood’ of a haunted location, explain perceived anomalies detected via technology
and experienced in such locations, and retrospectively (linguistically) reconstruct
experiences; in short, before, during, and after ghost encounters.
The ghost-hunting class taught by the Southeastern group provides an instructive
example. Before the class session began, the instructor told pupils deathlore about the
location of the class, a historic hotel. Throughout the course, he made reference to these
and other deathlore stories, introduced where called upon by the situation. The instructor
also told the class that ‘historical accounts can be used to verify information obtained by
dowsing.’ Deathlore was the primary rhetorical frame of haunted experience in the two
other groups studied as well. For example, the Appalachian group used deathlore to
frame the photographic and EVP evidence they presented. In the Southwestern group,
deathlore was also central to an understanding of haunting experiences, i.e. in explaining
‘who’ was doing the haunting.
Concerning vicarious hauntings, these experiences occur in a number of ways. Some
primary expressions are consumption of ghost-themed media, individual or collective
assessment of information generated via technologically mediated reality, and affirmation
of others’ personal narratives of ghost experiences. Consumption of ghost-themed media
includes viewing movies, television shows, and web sites centered on ghosts, as well as
reading about ghosts. This form of vicarious experience tends to be the most privatized,
although it can clearly be shared as well. The assessment of data generated by technology
occurs almost incessantly in the process of a ghost hunt, and also typically well after the
event through analysis of the gathered information, such as listening for EVPs and
inspecting photographic and video footage. While this process may begin individually
(e.g. a person gets a spike on a Gauss meter while walking around a haunted space or
hears a voice in a playback), it moves quickly to collective assessment as others are
called in to confirm the evidence. Accordingly, evidence gathered through technology is
often consumed in a collective setting where believers affirm each other’s views that the
information is evidence of spiritual activity. This usually involves a discursive process
where those who may initially be skeptical or oblivious to the evidence presented are
persuaded of the data’s validity through verbal cues.
Consumption of others’ personal narratives of spectral experience is the most powerful
form of vicarious experience. As with religion, people are more likely to be persuaded by
the beliefs and experiences of others they know and trust than by ‘disembodied appeals’
via the media (Bainbridge, 1997), at least initially. This form of vicarious experience is
so powerful that it becomes a primary fount of belief. Many people believe in hauntings
primarily on the strength of the experiential testimony of trusted others. For example,
when we were following the Southwestern group, a woman assisted the medium the
entire night, vicariously experiencing apparitions through the commands and utterances
of the medium. She told us she ‘had no special gifts’ like the medium and considered
herself ‘an amateur ghost hunter at best,’ but nonetheless she believed in the medium’s
power, which she fed on (and supplied credence to) by shadowing her in order to
experience hauntings second-hand. As this example shows, in many cases the line
between vicarious and direct spectral encounters is not absolute.
Experiential recollection of first-hand haunting experience is the bedrock of ghost
belief. For believers, direct experience of apparitions is the most powerful and dramatic
event that can occur to the still living. Often it is a direct encounter with a spirit that spurs
individuals’ deeper interest in paranormal topics, including ghosts (Mayer and Gründer,
2011). Among individuals in all three groups, recollections of spectral encounters formed
the core of what makes ghosts compellingly real and cognitively intriguing. Whether it
was the self-proclaimed warlock of the Southwestern group’s experience of awaking in
the night to a howling, malevolent apparition at the foot of his bed or the Appalachian
group’s primary investigator’s recounting of a ritual cleansing in which light bulbs
splintered into shards, personal stories of ghost encounters are the primary form of
evidence believers present for the reality of apparitions. Indeed, although the Appalachian
group regularly presented a wide range of technologically mediated information as
evidence, personal narratives consistently held the most sway over audiences. Skeptical
audience members regularly questioned the authenticity, veracity, or interpretation of
mediated evidence, but never (at least in the presence of the interlocutors) questioned the
legitimacy of personal encounter narratives. To do so would be tantamount to calling the
narrator a liar. This ‘just so’ characteristic lends the personal narrative its central place in
ghost lore (as well as in mainstream religion).
Discussion
In this mourning work in process, in this interminable task, the ghost remains that which
gives one the most to think about – and to do. (Derrida, 1994: 98)
While anthropological perspectives emphasizing cognition provide clues to the

prevalence of spiritual concepts and percepts, they have been rightly criticized as
overlooking the emotive and experiential aspect of spirits and possession (see Espírito
Santo et al., 2010). So, beyond their intuitive cognitive appeal (Boyer, 2003), what makes
such beliefs so persistent and compelling? Turner’s (1969) concept of liminality, initially
analyzed as a distinct phase of ritual but later metaphorically extended beyond the bounds
of ritual per se (1980, 1982), provides a key theoretical insight. By definition, ghosts
violate a number of binaries held as central tenets of human, and especially Western,
thought. Primary examples include body/soul, life/death, past/present, presence/absence,
human/inhuman, and material/ethereal. This violation of fundamental categories of
thought, this ‘in-between-ness’ (liminality) lends spirits a potentially powerful cultural
position (Gordon, 2008; Van Wagenen, 2004) onto which varying cultural manifestations
can be projected (see Davies, 2007; McCorristine, 2010). For instance, a particular
physiological experience, such as sleep paralysis, can be understood in widely divergent
ways according to the experientialist cultural frame of reference (Hufford, 1982). Thus,
the substantive content of spirits reflects (and acts back on) specific cultural contexts
(Finucane, 1996), ranging from narrative schema about (in)human strangers (Delaplace,
2012) to renewing in-group community (Wirtz, 2007), and even to complex, ambiguous
encounters between ‘us’ and ‘them’ (Giumbelli, 2014). Like substantive content, the
degree and timing of the interpenetration of the material and spiritual is highly variable
across cultures (Harris, 2014). Thus, spirits are a highly flexible cultural concept that
produces innumerable permutations through creative narration.
The trend in the Western world toward the privatization and de-institutionalization of
religion has opened up space for paranormal spiritualism to play meaningful cultural
roles. As formal religion ebbs, paranormalism and informal religion flow. Across recent
studies in Western countries, younger people have higher levels of belief in the paranormal
than older people (Anderson, 2010; Bader et al., 2012: 716; also see Belyaev, 2011). It
seems that younger generations have both considerably more interest in the paranormal
and less interest in organized religion than previous generations. Studies of institutional
religious involvement in the US (Schwadel, 2010) and UK (Crockett and Voas, 2006)
suggest that the effects are more generational than life-course dependent.
Beyond its prevalence among general populations, paranormalism also haunts the
borderlands of what is considered legitimate knowledge in numerous academic fields,
including sociology (Northcote, 2004), (para)psychology, anthropology (Turner, 1993)10,
history (Pamié, 2014), and philosophy of science (Collins and Pinch, 1982; Pinch and
Collins, 1984; cf. Nickles, 1984), by materializing discontinuities in space (Bell, 1997)
and time (Derrida, 1994). This points to the usefulness of analyzing the processes by
which some objects and phenomena come to be classified as ‘paranormal’ for accounts
of institutionalized knowledge boundaries. At the same time, innovative cultural studies
scholars can use specters as a key interpretive concept in post-colonial and inter-cultural
analyses (e.g. Blouin, 2013; Brogan, 1998). Meanwhile, Derrida’s (1994) talk of specters,
apparitions, and ‘hauntology’ continues to ripple out from philosophy into the humanities
more broadly (Davis, 2005). The liminality and transposability of the paranormal in
general and ghosts in particular extend their importance beyond folk experience and
belief into formalized epistemologies. Ghosts haunt multiple audiences – outside, but
also inside academe.
Ghost (or analogous) beliefs and experiences are prevalent and highly flexible
concepts, allowing them to exist, persist, and thrive even in ostensibly secular, rationalized
cultural contexts (Bubandt, 2012; McCorristine, 2010). Their ability to transcend the
constraining dualisms of modernity confers upon spirits a potential for deep literary,
metaphorical, and experiential power. By existing simultaneously within and beyond
time, space, and life itself, the constraints of post-Enlightenment rationality can be
shattered by phantasm, at least temporarily. Rather than banishing such ‘superstition’ to
the past, the crumbling façade of modernity as a totalizing project provides spirits with
ample space to haunt perpetually in the present.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our informants for their time and for sharing their experiences. Melissa
Schrift and Michael Blouin provided insightful comments on this research and ghosts as cultural
constructs. Scott Gossett generously provided assistance with translation. We are also grateful to the
anonymous reviewers for directing us to helpful and relevant literature in the anthropology of spirits.
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or
not-for-profit sectors.
Notes
1. The amount of paranormal content available on television at any given time is actually
much larger, given the frequency with which networks air repeats of current or concluded
paranormal shows and one-time specials about the paranormal. If fictional movies and
television shows with paranormal themes, such as the Paranormal Activity (2007–2012) and
Last Exorcism series (2010–2013) are included, the paranormal has become a near ubiquitous
feature of American popular culture. While systematic data about the number of paranormal
themed media are not available, the spread and specialization of entertainment media in
general, especially television and the internet, ensure that paranormal media is more diverse
and readily accessible now than in the past.
2. It is worth noting that while exclusivist religions may attempt to restrict members’ belief in
and practice with cultural objects labeled ‘paranormal,’ such groups and individuals may still
believe in the supernatural power of the paranormal. For instance, 21% of respondents to
Wave II of the Baylor Religion Survey (2007), a representative sample of American adults
with telephones, agreed with the statement ‘Certain paranormal phenomena (such as UFOs
and Ouija boards) are the work of the devil.’ Respondents agreeing to the statement tended
to be of lower socioeconomic status, to be Evangelicals, and/or to have high levels of service
attendance and biblical literalism.
3. There exist, of course, a few exceptions, such as the Unarius Academy of Science, Aetherius
Society, and Raelian movement, which incorporate beliefs in extraterrestrials into their
theology, but these are small, fringe religious movements that are largely unknown outside of
their existing memberships. One example of a recent belief system rejected by science that
was able to transition into a religious movement is Scientology.
4. A Ouija board is a flat surface with numbers, letters, and basic words inscribed on it.
Individuals ask questions of spirits and, while touching a seer object, allowing it to move
around the board to report answers. A patent on the device is currently held by Parker Brothers
games, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., toy makers.
5. We also conducted bivariate analyses for all the independent variables and the outcomes;
tabled results available upon request.
6. This category includes Native Americans (58%), Asian-Americans (14%), and individuals
with mixed racial/ethnic identities (28%). Among the major groups in this category, Native
Americans had the highest percentage of respondents that ‘absolutely’ or ‘probably’ believed
in ghosts (72%), while Asian-Americans and those of mixed racial heritage each had 56%
believers.
7. The ‘other’ religion category consists of all other religious groups, and in the BRS sample
is composed mainly of Mormons (27%), Unitarians (19%), and Buddhists (18%). Because
of the wide diversity of groups in the category, it functions as a catchall to limit cases from
listwise deletion rather than being a substantively meaningful grouping. Among the major
groups in this category, Buddhists had the highest percentage of respondents that ‘absolutely’
or ‘probably’ believed in ghosts (86%), followed by Mormons (55%) and Unitarians (54%).
8. Unfortunately, the first wave of the BRS did not include a question whether an individual
was ‘spiritual.’ The second wave did, but only included one question about ghosts. Using
two questions to classify whether respondents thought of themselves as ‘spiritual’ and/or
‘religious,’ we created four categories: religious and spiritual, spiritual but not religious,
religious but not spiritual, and neither. Fifty-nine percent of the spiritual but not religious
‘absolutely’ or ‘probably’ believed in ghosts, compared to 51% those who were religious and
spiritual, 50% of the religious but not spiritual, and 39% of the neither religious nor spiritual
(χ2 = 34.7; p≤.001). A more thorough assessment of the paranormal beliefs of those who are
spiritual but not religious is an available avenue for future study.
9. This use of technology by amateur ‘ghost hunters’ contrasts with attempts to investigate
potentially naturalistic sources of anomalous experiences, where technology is deployed in
more specific, controlled ways (e.g. French et al., 2009; Tandy, 2000; Tandy and Lawrence,
1998; Wiseman et al., 2003). In general, the proliferation of amateur ghost hunting poses
a threat to the credibility of professional parapsychologists, who have long fought against
charges of amateurism (see Mayer and Schetsche, 2011; Potts, 2004).
10. An entire journal was recently founded dedicated to anthropological studies of the paranormal.
See: http://paranthropologyjournal.weebly.com/. General studies on how paranormalism
relates to epistemology include Espírito Santo and Blanes (2014) and Hansen (2001).
References
Anderson K (2010) Irish secularisation of religious identities: Evidence of an emerging new
Catholic habitus. Social Compass 57(1): 15–39.
Bader CD, Baker JO and Molle A (2012) Countervailing forces: Religiosity and paranormal belief
in Italy. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 51(4): 705–720.
Bader CD, Mencken FC and Baker JO (2010) Paranormal America: Ghost encounters, UFO
sightings, Bigfoot hunts, and other curiosities in religion and culture. New York: New York
University Press.
Bader CD, Mencken FC and Froese P (2007) American piety 2005: Content and methods of the
Baylor Religion Survey. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 46(4): 447–463.
Bainbridge WS (1997) The sociology of religious movements. New York: Routledge.
Bainbridge WS (2004) After the New Age. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 43(3):
381–394.
Baker JO (2008) An investigation of the sociological patterns of prayer frequency and content.
Sociology of Religion 69(2): 169–185.
Baker JO (2012) Perceptions of science and American secularism. Sociological Perspectives
55(1): 167–188.
Baker JO and Draper S (2010) Diverse supernatural portfolios: Certitude, exclusivity, and the
curvilinear relationship between religiosity and paranormal beliefs. Journal for the Scientific
Study of Religion 49(3): 413–424.
Baker JO and Smith BG (2009) None too simple: Examining issues of religious nonbelief and
nonbelonging in the United States. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 48(4): 719–733.
Barkun M (2003) A culture of conspiracy: Apocalyptic visions in contemporary America. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Baylor University (2007) The Baylor Religion Survey, Wave II. Waco: Institute for Studies of
Religion.
Bell MM (1997) The ghosts of place. Theory and Society 26(6): 813–836.
Belyaev D (2011) ‘Heterodox religiousness’ in today’s Russia: Results of an empirical study.
Social Compass 58(3): 353–372.
Ben-Yehuda N (1985) Deviance and moral boundaries: Witchcraft, the occult, science fiction,
deviant sciences and scientists. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bennett G (1986) Narrative as expository discourse. The Journal of American Folklore 99(394):
415–434.
Bennett G (1987) Traditions of belief: Women, folklore and the supernatural today. New York:
Penguin.
Bennett G (1999) Alas, poor ghost! Traditions of belief in story and discourse. Logan: Utah State
University Press.
Bloom P (2004) Descartes’ baby. New York: Basic Books.
Bloom P (2007) Religion is natural. Developmental Science 10(1): 147–151.
Blouin MJ (2013) Japan and the cosmopolitan Gothic: Specters of modernity. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Boyer P (2001) Religion explained: The evolutionary origins of religious thought. New York:
Basic Books.
Boyer P (2003) Religious thought and behaviour as by-products of brain function. Trends in the
Cognitive Sciences 7(3): 119–124.
Brewer PR (2013) The trappings of science: Media messages, scientific authority, and beliefs
about paranormal investigators. Science Communication 35(3): 311–333.
Brogan K (1998) Cultural haunting: Ghosts and ethnicity in recent American literature.
Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
Bubandt N (2012) A psychology of ghosts: The regime of the self and the reinvention of spirits in
Indonesia and beyond. Anthropological Forum 22(1): 1–23.
Chaves M (2011) American religion: Contemporary trends. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Childs C and Murray CD (2010) ‘We all had an experience in there together’: A discursive
psychological analysis of collaborative paranormal accounts by paranormal investigation team
members. Qualitative Research in Psychology 7(1): 21–33.
Clark LS (2003) From angels to aliens: Teenagers, the media, and the supernatural. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Cohen E (2007) The mind possessed: The cognition of spirit possession in an Afro-Brazilian
religious tradition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cohen E (2009) What is spirit possession? Defining, comparing, and explaining two possession
forms. Ethnos 73(4): 101–126.
Cohen E and Barrett J (2008) Conceptualizing spirit possession: Ethnographic and experimental
evidence. Ethos 36(2): 245–266.
Cohen E, Burdett E, Knight N et al. (2011) Cross-cultural similarities and differences in person–
body reasoning: Experimental evidence from the United Kingdom and Brazilian Amazon.
Cognitive Science 35(7): 1282–1304.
Collins HM and Pinch TJ (1982) Frames of meaning: The social construction of extraordinary
science. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Crockett A and Voas D (2006) Generation of decline: Religious change in 20th century Britain.
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 45(4): 567–584.
Cross A (2004) The flexibility of scientific rhetoric: A case study of UFO researchers. Qualitative
Sociology 27(1): 3–34.
Davie G (1994) Religion in Britain since 1945: Believing without belonging. Oxford: Wiley-
Blackwell.
Davies O (2007) The haunted: A social history of ghosts. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Davis C (2005) Hauntology, spectres, and phantoms. French Studies 59(3): 373–379.
Delaplace G (2012) Parasitic Chinese, vengeful Russians: Ghosts, strangers, and reciprocity in
Mongolia. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 18(S1): S131–S144.
Delaplace G (2014) What the invisible looks like: Ghosts, perceptual faith, and Mongolian regimes
of communication. In: Blanes R and Espírito Santo D (eds) The Social Life of Spirits. Chicago
University of Chicago Press, 52–68.
Derrida J (1994) [1993] Specters of Marx (trans. Peggy Kamuf). New York: Routledge.
Durkheim E (1995) [1912] Elementary forms of the religious life. New York: Free Press.
Eleta P (1997) The conquest of magic over public space: Discovering the face of popular magic in
contemporary society. Journal of Contemporary Religion 12(1): 51–67.
Ellison CG and Sherkat DE (1995) The ‘semi-involuntary institution’ revisited: Regional variations
in church participation among black Americans. Social Forces 73(4): 1415–1437.
Espírito Santo D and Blanes R (2014) Introduction: On the agency of intangibles. In: Blanes R and
Espírito Santo D (eds) The social life of spirits. University of Chicago Press, 1–32.
Espírito Santo D, Halloy A and Lienard P et al. (2010) Around ‘The mind possessed: The cognition
of spirit possession in an Afro-Brazilian religious tradition’ by Emma Cohen. Religion and
Society: Advances in Research 1: 164–176.
Evrard R (2010) Psychiser le maître absolu : Solutions pubertaires par le paranormal. Adolescence
28(4): 841–854.
Finucane RC (1996) Ghosts: Appearances of the dead and cultural transformation. Amherst:
Prometheus Books.
French CC, Haque U, Bunton-Stasyshyn R et al. (2009) The ‘Haunt’ project: An attempt to build
a ‘haunted’ room by manipulating complex electromagnetic fields and infrasound. Cortex 45:
619–629.
Gainer PW (ed.) (2008) Witches, ghosts, and signs: Folklore of the Southern Appalachians.
Morgantown: West Virginia University Press.
Geertz H (1975) An anthropology of religion and magic, I. The Journal of Interdisciplinary
History 6(1): 71–89.
Giumbelli E (2014) Amerindian and priest: An entity in Brazilian Umbanda. In: Blanes R and
Espírito Santo D (eds) The social life of spirits. University of Chicago Press, 179–197.
Goode E (2000) Paranormal beliefs: A sociological introduction. Prospect Heights: Waveland.
Gordon AF (2008) Ghostly matters: Haunting and the sociological imagination, 2nd edition.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Hammond D (1970) Magic: A problem in semantics. American Anthropologist 72(6):
1349–1356.
Harris M (2014) Enchanted entities and disenchanted lives along the Amazon rivers, Brazil. In:
Blanes R and Espírito Santo D (eds) The social life of spirits. University of Chicago Press,
108–125.
Harvey J (2013) The ghost in the machine: Spirit and technology. In: Jenzen O and Munt SR (eds)
Ashgate research companion to paranormal cultures. London: Ashgate, 51–64.
Hansen G (2001) The trickster and the paranormal. Philadelphia: XLibirs.
Heelas P (1996) The New Age movement: The celebration of self and the sacralization of modernity.
Oxford: Blackwell.
Hess DJ (1993) Science in the New Age: The paranormal, its defenders and debunkers, and
American culture. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Hout M and Fischer CS (2002) Why more Americans have no religious preference: Politics and
generations. American Sociological Review 67(2): 165–190.
Hufford DJ (1982) The terror that comes in the nights: An experience-centered study of
supernatural assault traditions. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Irwin HJ (2009) The psychology of paranormal belief: A researcher’s handbook. University of

Hertfordshire Press.
Kleinman S and Copp MA (1993) Emotions and fieldwork. Newbury Park: Sage.
Korem D and Meier P (1980) The fakers: Exploding the myths of the supernatural. Grand Rapids:
Baker Book House.
Kwilecki S (2009) Twenty-first-century American ghosts: The after-death communication–
therapy and revelation from beyond the grave. Religion and American Culture: A Journal of
Interpretation 19(1): 101–133.
Lévy-Bruhl L (1966) [1927] The ‘soul’ of the primitive. Chicago: Henry Regnery.
Lim C, MacGregor CA and Putnam RD (2010) Secular and liminal: Discovering heterogeneity
among religious nones. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 49(4): 596–618.
Luhrman TM (1988) Modern magic. Journal of Contemporary Religion 5(1–2): 1–3.
Luhrman TM (2012) When God talks back: Understanding the American evangelical relationship
with God. New York: Vintage.
McCorristine S (2010) Spectres of the self: Thinking about ghosts and ghost-seeing in England,
1750–1920. Cambridge University Press.
Mayer G (2013) A phenomenology of the ghosthunting scene in the USA and in Germany. In:
Jenzen O and Munt SR (eds) Ashgate research companion to paranormal cultures. London:
Ashgate, 363–376.
Mayer G and Gründer R (2011) The importance of extraordinary experiences for adopting
heterodox beliefs or an alternative religious worldview. Journal of the Society for Psychical
Research 75(902): 14–25.
Mayer G and Schetsche M (2011) Methods and methodology of anomalistic single case studies.
Edingen-Neckarhausen: Gesellschaft für Anomalistik.
Mencken FC, Bader CD and Kim YJ (2009) Round trip to hell in a flying saucer: The relationship
between conventional Christian and paranormal beliefs in the United States. Sociology of
Religion 70(1): 65–85.
Mencken FC, Bader CD and Stark R (2008) Conventional Christian beliefs and experimentation
with the paranormal. Review of Religious Research 50(2): 194–205.
Molle A and Bader CD (2013) ‘Paranormal science’ from America to Italy: A case of cultural
homogenization. In: Jenzen O and Munt SR (eds) Ashgate research companion to paranormal
cultures. London: Ashgate, 121–138.
Montell WL (1975) Ghosts along the Cumberland: Deathlore in the Kentucky foothills. Knoxville:
University of Tennessee Press.
Nickles T (1984) A revolution that failed: Collins and Pinch on the paranormal. Social Studies of
Science 14(2): 297–308.
Northcote J (2004) Objectivity and the supernormal: The limitations of bracketing approaches in
providing neutral accounts of supernormal claims. Journal of Contemporary Religion 19(1):
85–98.
Northcote J (2007) The paranormal and the politics of truth: A sociological account. Charlottesville:
Imprint-Academic.
Ohashi Y, Wooffitt R, Jackson C et al. (2013) Discourse, culture, and extraordinary experiences:
Observations from a comparative, qualitative analysis of Japanese and UK English accounts
of paranormal phenomena. Western Journal of Communication 77(4): 466–488.
Orenstein A (2002) Religion and paranormal belief. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
41(2): 301–311.
Pamié S (2014) Historicist knowledge and its constructions. In: Blanes R and Espírito Santo D
(eds) The social life of spirits. University of Chicago Press, 218–239.
Pew Research Center (2012) Nones on the rise: One in five adults have no religious affiliation.
Available at: http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Religious_Affiliation/
Unaffiliated/NonesOnTheRise-full.pdf (Last accessed 12/16/2013).
Pike SM (2004) New Age and neopagan religions in America. New York: Columbia University Press.
Pinch TJ and Collins HM (1984) Private science and public knowledge: The Committee for the
Scientific Investigation of the Claims of the Paranormal and its use of the literature. Social
Studies of Science 14(4): 521–546.
Potts J (2004) Ghost hunting in the twenty-first century. In: Houran J (ed.) From Shaman to
scientist: Essays on humanity’s search for spirits. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 211–232.
Putnam RD and Campbell DE (2010) American grace: How religion divides and unites us. New
York: Simon and Schuster.
Roberts N (1988) Ghosts of the Southern Mountains and Appalachia. Columbia: University of
South Carolina Press.
Schwadel P (2008) Poor teenagers’ religion. Sociology of Religion 69(2): 125–149.
Schwadel P (2010) Period and cohort effects on religious nonaffiliation and religious disaffiliation:
A research note. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 49(2): 311–319.
Stark R (2001) Reconceptualizing religion, magic, and science. Review of Religious Research
43(2): 101–120.
Stark R and Bainbridge WS (1986) The future of religion: Secularization, revival and cult
formation. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Steensland B, Park JZ, Regnerus MD et al. (2000) The measure of American religion: Toward
improving the state of the art. Social Forces 79(1): 291–318.
Storm I (2009) Halfway to heaven: Four types of fuzzy fidelity in Europe. Journal for the Scientific
Study of Religion 48(4): 702–718.
Tambiah SJ (1990) Magic, science, religion, and the scope of rationality. Cambridge University Press.
Tandy V (2000) Something in the cellar. Journal for the Society of Psychical Research 64: 129–140.
Tandy V and Lawrence TR (1998) The ghost in the machine. Journal of the Society for Psychical
Research 62: 360–364.
Turner E (1993) The reality of spirits: A tabooed or permitted field of study? Anthropology of
Consciousness 4(1): 9–12.
Turner V (1969) The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.
Turner V (1980) Social dramas and stories about them. Critical Inquiry 7(1): 141–168.
Turner V (1982) From ritual to theatre: The human seriousness of play. New York: PAJ
Publications.
Van Wagenen A (2004) An epistemology of haunting: A review essay. Critical Sociology 30(2):
298–298.
Wirtz K (2005) ‘Where obscurity is a virtue’: The mystique of unintelligibility in Santería ritual.
Language & Communication 25(4): 351–375.
Wirtz K (2007) Ritual, discourse, and community in Cuban Santería: Speaking a sacred world.
Gainesville: University of Florida Press.
Wiseman R, Watt C and Stevens P et al. (2003) An investigation into alleged ‘hauntings’. British
Journal of Psychology 94(2): 195–211.
Wooffitt R (1992) Telling tales of the unexpected: The organization of factual discourse.
Hertfordshire: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Wooffitt R (2006) The language of mediums and psychics: The social organization of everyday
miracles. Hampshire: Ashgate.
Yamane D (2000) Narrative and religious experience. Sociology of Religion 61(2): 171–189.
York M (1995) The emerging network: A sociology of the New Age and Neo-Pagan movements.
Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Author biographies
Joseph O BAKER is an assistant professor in the department of sociology and anthropology at East
Tennessee State University and a senior research associate for the Association of Religion Data
Archives. He has published numerous articles on the sociological aspects of religiosity, secularity,
the ‘paranormal,’ and public views of science. He is the author of Paranormal America (New York
University Press, 2010), and his latest book, American Secularism, will be available from NYU
Press in 2015.
Address: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, East Tennessee State University
Box 70644, Johnson City, TN, USA
Email: bakerjo@etsu.edu
Christopher D BADER is a Professor of Sociology at Chapman University and affiliated with the
Institute for Religion, Economics and Culture (IRES). He was principal investigator of the first
two waves of the Baylor Religion Survey, a nationwide survey of US religious beliefs. He is
associate director of the Association of Religion Data Archives (www.theArda.com), an online
archive of religion survey data funded by the Templeton Foundation and Lilly Foundation and
supported by Penn State University and Chapman. He is the author of two books, America’s Four
Gods (OUP, 2010, with Paul Froese) and Paranormal America (New York University Press, 2010),
and has published numerous articles and chapters on the sociologies of deviance, criminology,
education, and religion.
Address: Department of Sociology, Chapman University, 1 University Drive, Orange, CA, USA
Email: Bader@chapman.edu
Appendix 1. The argot of ghost hunters.
Baker and Bader: A social anthropology of ghosts in twenty-first-century America

View publication stats
Term Explanation
Cold spot Ghost hunters believe that ghosts absorb the heat or ‘energy’ in an area in order to manifest, leaving a
spot in the room that is colder than the surrounding area. When feeling a cold spot or detecting one by
the use of a thermometer, they believe a ghost is present.
Electronic voice phenomena (EVP) The purported voice of a ghost captured on a recording. Ghost hunters frequently use hand-held
recording devices during their investigations. They will ask questions of the ghost while the device is
running. In most cases, the ‘voice’ is not heard during the process of recording but is discovered only upon
playback and manipulation of the recording.
EMF (electro-magnetic field) An EMF meter detects electronic and magnetic fields. Ghost hunters believe that ghosts produce magnetic
meter energy, which they can detect with such a device.
Ghost/Spirit A ghost is generally believed to be a manifestation of a deceased person. Sometimes people claim to have
seen a ghost. At other times, they believe that a ghost is present on account of their hearing strange noises
or voices, witnessing or noting the movement of household objects without an obvious explanation, or
detecting unexplained odors. Generally, the ghost is believed to have become ‘trapped’ on the material
plane or to have some form of unfinished business on Earth. At times, ghost hunters may determine through
their investigation that the ghost is actually a ‘residual haunting’ or ‘nonhuman/inhuman spirit’ (see below).
Haunting The claim that a particular area receives regular visitations from a ghost.
Medium/Psychic/Sensitive A person who claims to be able to communicate with spirits. Mediums may claim the ability to see or
communicate with ghosts that are not visible to others, to psychically witness past events that produced
the ghost and/or to enter a trance state in which the ghost speaks through them.
Nonhuman/Inhuman spirit/demon At times ghost hunters will claim that a ghost is not the spirit of a human person that once lived on Earth.
Nonhuman spirits are often believed to desire to harass, harm, or even possess the people they haunt. It is
in demonology that ghost subcultures draw most heavily on mainstream religious traditions.
Orbs/Ghost orbs/Spirit orbs Some ghost hunters believe that ghosts can manifest as small orbs of light. Sometimes these ‘orbs’
are visible to the naked eye; however, most of the time, the orbs are visible only on examination of
photographs taken at the haunted location.
Residual haunting In some cases, ghost hunters believe that some ghosts and nonhuman spirits possess intelligence, making
it possible to communicate with them. In other cases, it is believed that, by some unknown means, a home
or location has ‘recorded’ past events and replays them on a regular basis. For example, if the owners of a
593
haunted home claim to witness a young girl walking down a hallway at a particular time, ghost hunters may
conclude that the home has a residual haunting and that it is not possible to communicate with the ghost.

A Social Anthropology of Ghosts in Twenty-First-Century America

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

A Social Anthropology of Ghosts in Twenty-First-Century America

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

A social anthropology of ghosts in twenty-ﬁrst-century America

Article in Social Compass · December 2014

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

superstition, ou la négligent complètement en tant que dimension culturelle. Employant

of paranormal television programming, however, has proven to be ghosts, with dozens of

index with a Cronbach’s α = .831.

Table 1. OLS regression predicting ghost belief index.

Variable Model 1 Model 2

Source: 2005 Baylor Religion Survey.

women (β = .172; p≤.001), African-Americans (β = .055; p≤.05), those of ‘other’ races

Variable Experienced Haunting Used Ouija Board Researched Ghosts

Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2

Age .968*** .969*** .969*** .968*** .974*** .974***

Social Compass 61(4)

Variable Experienced Haunting Used Ouija Board Researched Ghosts

Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2

Source: 2005 Baylor Religion Survey.

Probability of Ghost Belief, Experience, or Consumpon 0.45

Figure 1. Probability of ghost belief, experience, or media consumption by age.

While anthropological perspectives emphasizing cognition provide clues to the

Irwin HJ (2009) The psychology of paranormal belief: A researcher’s handbook. University of

Baker and Bader: A social anthropology of ghosts in twenty-first-century America

You might also like

Age .968* .969* .969* .968* .974* .974*

Probability of Ghost Belief, Experience, or Consumpon 0.45