By Sharon Hill 

What happened to the chain-rattling, stone-throwing, hair-raising physical manifestations of entities we used to hear about from the old days? Did the ghosts get lamer or is the changing face of paranormal activity a reflection of ourselves and our needs?

Today’s ghost hunters on weekend jaunts and on TV and seem to know very little of the long, convoluted, vibrant history of haunts and ghost lore. They would do well to pick up a copy of Roger Clarke’s A Natural History of Ghosts: 500 Years of Hunting for Proof (Penguin, 2012) and have a look at how ghosts have changed through time. A worthy companion to Finucane’s classic Ghosts: Appearances of the Dead and Cultural Transformation (Prometheus, 1996), this is a highly readable historical look at ghosts from a cultural perspective. You certainly don’t have to be a believer to enjoy it and learn along the way.

In January of 2014, the world heard a harrowing story about a woman and her family experiencing demonic possession and paranormal activity in their Gary, Indiana rental house. What made this story so compelling to so many people and what has happened since?

By Sharon Hill

I recall it was a Sunday (Jan 26) when the story of Latoya Ammons and her three children appeared on the Indianapolis Star news website. I had a feeling it was going to be a popular story and wrote it up right away on Doubtful News. It was clear to me from the detailed piece by journalist Marisa Kwiatkowski that the case contained some serious flaws.

It sounded just like a Hollywood movie. Dramatic behavior was described by the police, a priest and health professionals who were disturbed by the case. Yet, as with almost all of these astounding cases, we see described the typical behaviors related to “possession” (none of which have ever been verified other than by religious believers to be actual demon possession). We are offered many eyewitness reports and opinions but no solid evidence of bizarre events - no photos or videos. The witnesses who describe the events, especially Ammons herself, hold a belief in the reality of the supernatural. Even the police interpreted events in a paranormal light, seemingly swallowing the stories they were told at face value. A sense of religiosity in the victims’ daily lives is apparent. A credulous priest encouraged the belief in demons and performed an exorcism. The story snowballed.

Kwiatkowski revisited the circumstances around publishing the story which became the “most-read piece in The Indianapolis Star's history.” 

Why did it strike a chord with so many people who were fascinated and frightened by the story of the house from Hell?