Celebrity Ghost Stories

I believe in God.

I also believe in ghosts.

My belief in the former was actually facilitated by the multiple experiences I had with the latter. It proved easier to have faith in God once I believed in ghosts, especially after  my college education had destroyed Young Earth Creationism in my mind.

As I’ve made clear in the past, I primarily believe in both of these things due to personal experiences, of events that I strongly believe actually happened to me.

This does not mean that I consider myself gullible or easily fooled. I try not to make any firm conclusions prior to at least a minimal preliminary investigation.

In fact, I am quite skeptical about fantastic claims and somewhat reluctant to make them myself, especially without some form of corroboration. A good friend of mine was involved in a number of my personal ghost experiences and verifies to this day that my recollections have been accurate, if not even conservative, so I am somewhat comfortable in saying my own ghost stories are true.

Before I wrote about Scott Patterson’s alleged supernatural experience at the New Mexico State Prison, I watched a lengthy documentary about the violence that took place during the infamous riot. While I cannot attest to the veracity of his ghost story, I can verify that the events he claimed that happened during the riot did indeed happen.

Actually, the obscene violence during riot was even worse than what Patterson described. However, that does not necessarily mean that Patterson’s story is true. It merely lend some credibility to the back story of his account, and most people watching his video interview about the incident in question would reasonably conclude that Patterson apparently believed what he was saying, whether or not it was actually true.

When Daniel Stern began his own celebrity ghost story of an adventure on the moors of England by saying, “I’m not a superstitious, supernatural sort of guy. I have a record [of believing] the world is real and everything goes according to plan…” my ears perked up because the skepticism he expressed echoed my own thoughts at one point in time.

Admittedly, Stern’s story easily fit my version of the Big Picture. It would have been easy to accept his haunted honeymoon story on face value.

Except for the fact that my mind doesn’t work that way.

My cursory investigation of Stern’s story produced considerably different results than the same effort looking into Scott Patterson’s tale of haunted New Mexico State Prison.

A routine internet search for Widecombe located this letter from the secretary of the Widecombe local history group, who described the community as thriving, not spectral.  As one astute observer humorously noted, “I never heard of a ghost town having a website.”

Me neither.

Rather than driving ten miles on the rim of his flat tire as he claimed, apparently Stern and his new bride could have enjoyed a night in the picturesque Rugglestone Inn in Widecombe.

Translation: I don’t know what happened to Stern and his wife, but I seriously doubt the experience that he described actually occurred as he “remembers” it.

The evidence simply does not support his version of events.

I’m not questioning his veracity as much as the accuracy of his memory, because I don’t know of a motive why he would deliberately lie. Still, it would almost be charitable to say his account was laughably wrong and easily proved so.

But why did he tell a tale that seems obviously untrue?

The obvious motive for lying would be if his story was part of a publicity stunt, but I don’t know that Stern’s career needs that kind of jolt to improve his popularity at this point and he didn’t seem to be promoting a movie about ghosts.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Stern is already worth $12 million bucks.

Therefore, I don’t think he needs the money.

So why would he lie? It isn’t a rhetorical question; I have no earthly idea.

If he was telling a story he believed to be true, the easiest explanation would be that Stern and his wife stumbled onto the set of a zombie movie –yet as an accomplished actor with a film credits as both actor and director, it hardly seems plausible that Stern would not have recognized a movie set.

The bottom line is that I don’t know what happened…the only thing I can say is that I would not be the least bit reluctant to visit Widecombe and spend the night–though I would not make the same claim about the New Mexico State Prison.

I think the prison probably is haunted. I’d have to get paid a lot of money to spend the night there.

In yet another episode of Celebrity Ghost Stories,  Actor Dave Foley said, “I grew up pretty much as an atheist. But I also know from my personal experience, and the experiences of many people I know who I respect and think are intelligent people, that the ghost phenomenon is real.”

Foley recounts an incredible tale, but comes across as an intelligent and credible witness. He claims to have personally seen a man vanish into thin air (while running through the wall of his apartment) on multiple occasions.

He even had a “reasonable” explanation for why this kept happening to him.

But I still don’t get it.

I don’t understand is how anyone could accept evidence of the supernatural while refusing to believe in a supernatural Creator. Foley simply says that he can”t explain why ghosts exist.

I would easier believe all these people are liars when they claim to have seen a ghost.

But that would also make me a liar, though not a celebrity.