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“What an amazing night. We had so many creepy things happen. The staff were great and very knowledgeable. We will definitely be returning.”
Ghost tours are popping up everywhere. This review from Old Parramatta Gaol shows how addictive they are, how they suck you in for more creepy encounters with the troubled inmates of Parramatta past. Plus, the staff are so helpful – the gaol website says they will supply paranormal investigative equipment if you don’t have your own. Ghost tour operators are skilful, good at telling scary stories without making the jump scare moments too obvious.
Last year Steven Zepeda from Berkeley University completed a PhD about ghost tours. Zepeda concluded that we probably like it when the “supernatural” experiences on these tours are fragmentary, ambiguous and can be explained away. What raised the hairs on your neck during a tour will be nothing by the time you are having a soothing cup of tea back at home. Clever, the supernaturally cynical might say, it keeps you coming back for more.
It seems that we want a fun way to escape the same-same-ness of everyday life. And, bonus, these tours sometimes incorporate food and conviviality. I had this full-service on a pub ghost tour one time. And I am still “haunted” by the stories of unwitting drinkers being kidnapped for a life at sea. In my corporate jobs, working adjacent to the Rocks in Sydney, I used to have uncomfortable daydreams of being pushed through all those clammy tunnels under buildings and boardrooms.
I don’t think we ever want to be taken entirely out of our comfortable lives and into a new dimension. But it seems we are open to the thrill of something a little bit “extra”, the door to the supernatural just a little bit ajar.
