"By far the most common type of spiritual manifestation is the 'Residual Haunting', a sort of psychic recording of people and events from the past that have been branded into a specific location.
Usually a Residual Haunting consists of an individual apparition performing a simple, mundane action such as walking up or down a staircase, strolling through a garden, or dancing in a ballroom. The action is repeated with the same 'people', on specific days, at the same time of day, and it is uneffected by the presence of any observers or changes to the location over time.
My very first in-person investigation, which I completed just yesterday evening, was of this type. Hopefully this is just the first of many curious cases."
-Sebastian Pott, September 1949
Prof. Pott wrote this in the first of his practically innumerable notebooks and re-wrote it a year later so he could designate it 'Curious Case #1', the beginning of over 100 such investigations collectively referred to as 'The Curious Cases'.
As noted by Prof. Pott, Residual Hauntings are the most common PKE event and the Ghostbusters respond to dozens of them that can often be removed, if requested, without the use of Proton Packs and Neutrona Wands. A well placed Ghost Trap is usually all you need. The majority of the spectral entities involved are Class I to III and their Intensities tended to be Shades/Shadows or Vapors.
The potential range of possible images and sounds that can and have been associated with a Residual Haunting are so numerous it is impossible to list them all here (or anywhere for that matter). It is the rarer, less common expressions of the phenomenon that stand out and catch the attention of paranormal investigators like the Ghostbusters and Professor Pott.
For example:
Curious Case #1: The Meticulous Maid of the Hotel Bethlehem
"I was invited by a former college classmate to come visit him in Pennsylvania. The invitation was to accompany him in investigating the many strange claims and ghost sightings at the Hotel Bethlehem in the city of the same name. I accepted. I had heard more than a few stories about the hotel's numerous departed occupants who, for whatever reason, had still not checked out.
The Hotel Bethlehem,
Bethlehem, PA,
Photo from the late 1930s.
After a lovely dinner and some catching up, my companion and I attempted to obtain evidence of the hotel's multiple spirits by setting in place a number of different evidence gathering methods on the floors where the majority of sightings had been made. These included:
Fingerprint powder and graphite sprinkled about to reveal all too Human means of opening and closing doors and windows. A similar approach using fine grain sand would show footprints.
An old refurbished dictaphone was used to try and record any abnormal sounds.
Each of us carried a thermometer to accurately gage the temperature, confirming hot and cold spots as real and not just our own perceptions.
Finally, I had my Uncle Jack's old camera, a contraption that he himself had modified to snap more quickly than what is standardly available. It also uses film with a remarkable sensitivity to light that allows for surprisingly sharp images in dark conditions.
The two of us than chose places to position ourselves, moving a bit now and then for a different angle. After a few hours we would go to other floors and repeat the process. It was quite humorous explaining what we were doing to the odd maid or bellhop when they would see our gear and strange behaviour. That said, they seemed well away of the supernatural claims attached to their place of employment and were more than happy to let us go about our experiment so long as we did not disturb other guests.
The night was largely uneventful. We could very little in the way of sounds, only a few minor cold spots, and there wasn't so much as a ball of light to seen. We eventually gathered all our equipment back up and returned to our rooms, a bit disappointment but well aware this was quite common with these sort of ventures. I suddenly remembered that I'd left an extra roll of film hidden on one of the floors and left my room to retrieve it.
Upon returning to our floor, I saw what I thought to be a lovely young woman coming down the hallway towards me and, for some reason I can not explain, I stopped in my tracks and waited for her to get closer. She was pushing a handkeeping cart or trolley as they are sometimes known. She stopped about 10 feet from me and looked me right in the eye, though I there seemed to be no sense of recognition. She was, overall, faded in my view; a transparent image lacking solidity and color. I realized she was not of this world. Her features, which looked pretty from a distance, would be best described as...unclear. They lacked the sort of details one would use to identify an individual.
She appeared to sniff, pad here eyes with a handkerchief as if she'd been crying, put on a brave face (such as it was) and proceeded to the door of the room to her left (my right). The maid pantomined opening the door and, though it remained closed, walked right through it. I managed to snap a picture almost out of reflex or instinct, not aware I had done so until much later. I caught my breath, which had all but left me, and ran to the door myself. I tried to open it but it was locked, so I knocked hard and repeatedly. Nothing.
I immediately roused my partner and got down to the front desk as fast as I could. I'm sure I sounded the fool if not purely mad but the clerk took it in stride. They called over to a Manager and I asked him if anyone was occupying that room. He indicated that there wasn't. I then shared what I'd seen and was confronted with a number of looks ranging from confusion to face of someone trying to remember the words to an old song. Just then an elderly woman approached me and introduced herself as a long time patron of the hotel. She informed me that I had seen one of rarer spirits of the ediface, one that shows up only once in a long while.
My companion and I sat down with this veteran of the Hotel Bethlehem, I ordered us all a round of tea, and she explained that she herself had seen the same housekeeping apparition only twice in as many years as she'd been frequenting the establishment. The maid only appears on Friday evenings in September, only if there is no rain or snow or great heat, on the particular floor in question, at exactly 3 am. The woman said that if I had opened that door, I would find the room spotless; the bed perfectly made to near military standards, every nook and cranny dusted and swept, and every chair, pillow, and even the objects on the desk or in the cabinets would be neat, clean, and organized. A place for everything and everything in its place. This is simply what the spirit does; she appears, walks down the hall, stops to wipe her tears, and then enters the room at the end of the corridor and thoroughly cleans it.
My follow up research confirmed everything the elder dame has said. As far as the identity of the ghost, it is impossible to say. Clearly an employee from the past but there were no records of a member of the housekeeping staff dying at the hotel. Even more peculiar, he clothing seemed most modern; it was similar to the uniform currently worn by the staff instead of resembling the fashion of whatever period she died in.
I plan on returning and requesting that room. Perhaps I will see her again and be able to fill in the holes in our knowledge of the Meticulous Maid."
-Prof. Sebastian Pott, originally written September 1949 and later rewritten and amended in the Autumn of 1951.
In Ghostbusters terms, this is more of a local color/background occurance that reinforces the haunted nature of the location without having to start an exploration of the place by shooting positron streams through a historic landmark. That said, it could lead to something more. Perhaps the Meticulous Maid is connected to one of the more well-known ghosts or her appearance is a sign of a larger paranormal event on the horizon.
Adam Dickstein
Ghostbusters Inc., International
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Barking Alien
The Hotel Bethlehem in Bethlehem, PA is a real place and yes, it is claimed to be haunted. Take a look at this guide to some of the friendly spirits that can supposedly be found at the establishment.
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