The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

ALSO INSIDE SKEPTIC

in this issue

Haunted Houses

• Who Believes in Ghosts?
• Earliest Ghost Stories: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Israel, and the Roman Empire
• Ghostly Evolution
• Christian Ghosts
• Ghosts and Witch Hunts
• Spirits in the Age of Science
• Is that a G-G-G-host?
• Illusions and Hoaxes

By Daniel Loxton. This issue’s cover features a digital painting by Daniel Loxton. Reference modeling provided by Isabella Loxton. Thanks to classical folklorist Debbie Felton for research notes.

from the Introduction

Hello!

In this issue we’ll summon our courage, light a candle, and venture inside the ancient horror of haunted houses. Imagine walking dark hallways, peering into abandoned rooms. We strain to recognize unfamiliar shapes in the shadows. A cold draft stirs the cobwebs; outside, wind moans through the trees. We climb creaking stairs up into the unknown. Ahead of us, we — wait, did you hear something? Were those…footsteps? Our skin prickles with fear and tension. Breathless, trembling, we call into the darkness, “Is somebody there?”