Haunted Nation: investigating the paranormal and American spirituality.
Daniel Wise (Ph.D., American Religion) explores ghost belief, encounters with spirits, demonic activity, metaphysical religion, Halloween fandom, and enchantment in American culture. Haunted Nation was founded in 2022 to offer thoughtful resources on these topics and more.
Latest Posts
Halloween Nostalgia
Halloween is nostalgia all the way down. I have spent time reading Halloween Facebook groups over several years. I have also engaged Facebook Halloween communities in conversation about what they love about Halloween. I have read on the history of Halloween and observed the Halloween-loving subculture in the United States. I wouldn’t say I have…
The History of Ghost Hunting
Part I – 19th-Century Spiritualism The phenomenon we call ghost hunting today – the stuff we see on TV shows like Ghost Hunters and Kindred Spirits, and the stuff local paranormal investigation teas do – can be traced back to a social and spiritual movement that began in the 1800s called Spiritualism A haunted house…
Where did the idea of a residual haunting come from?
Who dsicovered residual hauntings? If you are a paranormal investigator, watch a lot of ghost hunting TV, or partake of other ghost hunting media, then you have probably heard of a residual haunting. As I explain in my post defining “ghost,” a residual haunting is said to be caused by the imprint of a person’s…
Are people who believe in the paranormal crazy?
If you were to meet a random person who believes in the paranormal on the street, chances are they would not be “crazy” or “out of their mind.” The fact is, the majority of the US population believes in at least one paranormal topic, whether that be cryptids like Bigfoot or Mothman, ghosts and hauntings,…
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