#01: And a Headless Horseman Tormenting Me!! From, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” – Washington Irving And so it ends with the ultimate Halloween story (as most of you expected) about the ultimate horror character: the restless spirit. In fact, it is the story of a restless spirit that gives Halloween its signature brand. Stingy Jack is a thief and con man, so skillful at his craft that he actually tricks the Devil into promising him that he will never be taken into Hell. But of course, he is too wicked for Heaven. So after his death he is cursed to wander through the darkest corners of the earth, with only a candle in a gourd to light his way. The genre is rich with stories about spirits who haunt the living in desperate efforts to obtain penance, revenge, or some other unfinished business. Or sometimes they are just looking to save a friend or loved one from an impending danger. Think Jacob Marley. Or Sam Wheat, one of the late Patrick Swayze’s most memorable roles. After malevolent deities, ghosts are the oldest monsters in world folklore. But there are many threads of discussion that assert ghosts do not exist. One analytical thread proposes that in times of extreme stress (such as violent death), humans can give off so much emotional energy that they leave a psycho-holographic imprint of the event-- sort of like burning a DVD. Under certain conditions, that recording can replay itself. But because the characters are merely images and not actually sentient beings, they cannot communicate with the living. (Right. Tell that to Macbeth. Or Hamlet. Or Mrs. Muir. Or Topper.) One ecumenical thread proposes that dead people are incapable of reanimation in any form. Instead, what we call ghosts are actually fallen angels impersonating the deceased. Advocates of this position claim that if a skillful makeup artist or animatronics engineer can turn actors into real-life avatars of long dead people such as Mark Twain or Abraham Lincoln, then beings who used to live in Heaven should be capable of far more amazing presentations. Which leads to my final thought. It is said that in times of national distress, Lincoln’s ghost can be seen wandering the corridors of the White House. I wonder if he has been spotted lately. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this. Maybe I’m on to something, and I shouldn’t stop now! Maybe I should start work on another series, like say, The 14 Days of Lupercal (Valentine’s Day)!! Nahh. “Props” to Geekholder (fence), 3DCafe (headstones), DeEspona (church), PhilC (cape), JoeKurz (spooky tree), AAppleyard (horse collar), DAZ, all the publishers of Poser, from Fractal Design to Smith Micro; and anyone I may have missed. Selections from the same shelf: “The Canterville Ghost,” Oscar Wilde “The Haunting of Hill House,” Shirley Jackson “Old Christmas Morning,” Roy Helton