By now, self-isolating people are so familiar with the interiors of their homes that any aberration is cause for immediate, electrifying concern. Did the curtain move by itself? Why did the potatoes move from the counter to the living room? Is there a demonic spirit living in the medicine cabinet, forcing it open when no one is in the bathroom? Maybe these questions can be answered by logic, but let’s consider another option, for fun: perhaps you are quarantining with a ghost.
The New York Times talked to a few people who believe that they’ve been self-isolating with a spectral presence, and while I’m glad to report that none of the experiences the people have had appear to be evil, I’m still shaking in my house slippers at the thought of what it would be like to share my space with an unpredictable visitor from the afterlife. Some people reported seeing full-body, spectral figures in their kitchens or discovering items previously thought to be lost unearthed from the bowels of their home, as if by a ghostly, invisible hand.
Quarantining with a ghost that’s been in your space for a long time is probably comforting on some level, especially if you live alone, but there’s always the chance that the benevolent spirit that leaves the light on in the kitchen will turn on you. Maybe you disrespected the spirit by heating up a Pop Tart instead of eating it cold, out of the package, and now they want to make you pay. It’s sobering to think of how quickly a Casper the Friendly Ghost situation could go south, but you know what? We must be alert and sharp and ready for anything.
To be fair, none of the alleged ghosts in the Times piece are malicious, but the fact that they even exist (allegedly) in the first place is scary enough to me! The skeptic in me thinks that this phenomenon is because we’re all starting to lose it in ways that feel more and more alarming, but also, maybe it’s because ghosts are real, bitch!