If you’re a Halloween nut, or even just someone with a year-round spooky side, you’re surely a sucker for ghost tours. While some people might think such things only suited to children, adults who have been through the world’s best ghost tours agree that they will definitely raise the hairs on the back of even the most intrepid visitors’ heads.
Ghost tours are about much more than indoor labyrinths propped up inside basements. Whole cities offer them, in fact. You might actually be surprised at some of the urban spots whose streets tell spooky stories of their own.
If you are someone that is easily spooked, some of these destinations might not be for you. But learning more about your personal tendencies could help you decide.
If you’ve ever wondered about what it is exactly that makes some people more easily scared than others, there may be a logical explanation. The brain acts differently for different people when presented with identical stimuli. Learning more about this can offer greater insight into your particular tendencies when presented with sudden or shocking sights and sounds.
You can get more in touch with this tendency by answering online test IQ questions to figure out how your own cognitive senses work. We’ll discuss this further below, but first let’s take a closer look at some of the creepiest ghost towns around the globe…
When you think about haunted cities, arguably the first place that comes to mind is New Orleans. With its bizarre and mysterious history, a tour through the city’s French Quarter will take you to numerous spots with supernatural legends behind them.
The origins of New Orleans’ creepy side are complex and manifold. The city has seen more than its share of epidemics, from yellow fever to malaria, cholera, and smallpox, each of which wreaked havoc on the area. In the 19th century, voodoo took root there, which took on followers hoping to find meaning in its unusual practices. Each of the spots on your New Orleans tour will give you a picture of the suffering seen by different parts of town.
While this Scottish city has a lot to offer tourists, perhaps the most popular is the underground vaults that used to house the city’s undesirables and which harbor stories of mystery. Otherwise known as “Whisky Row,” the Edinburgh vaults are said to house the souls of those that were once forcibly replaced there, and a walk through it will fill you with tales of former residents such as “Bloody George MacKenzie.”
Indeed, upon exiting the vaults you will undoubtedly have chills running down your spine and need to head to the nearest pub for a glass of the actual drink. Fortunately, the city is replete with it.
Many people forget that it was, in fact, the Irish that created Halloween as a holiday. Indeed, the country as a whole and Dublin in particular have a lot to offer lovers of the paranormal. A tour through Dublin will take you through the infamous Kilmainham Gaol, where many leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were imprisoned and executed. Once a prison, Kilmainham is now a museum, and in it you will hear tales of prisoners' souls that reportedly continue to haunt the premises.
A creepy Dublin tour will also take you through streets with famous stories of grave robbers, as well as the Glasnevin Cemetery. To fully grasp the importance of Halloween, a guided visit to its country of origin is a must.
Let’s not forget the most famous place in history for witchcraft. The city of Salem, Massachusetts was the infamous spot where countless women were tried for witchcraft back in the 17th century.
Tales abound of the souls of drowned women who continue to haunt the graveyards and other parts of the town. When you visit Salem, you will both gain an incredible lesson in real history, and also experience the spookiness of the area’s continuing legends.
For all of human history, people have grappled with the question of superstition. Is it logical? Is there something to it that naysayers simply don’t understand? Or is it simply a remnant of pre-technological times that more rational people have had the sense to do away with?
This and related questions all come down to the way individuals - and whole societies - approach the world. One could wonder at countries that appear to be so proficient at technology, for example, and yet can’t seem to stop throwing salt over their shoulders all the time.
An effective way to break down and examine your individual way of thinking is to take an IQ test. A new online test is available that will not only give you a numerical idea of where you stand on the IQ spectrum, but also break down your thinking types into clear and logical categories. This will help you understand yourself better, and also figure out what you need to do to improve upon individual faculties.
Whether it is October or July, you can always experience the thrill of some of these global spooky towns. A trip through one of these places will offer you a glimpse into their sometimes horrifying past, and probably leave you feeling much better about your own town’s comparatively peaceful past.
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