I think my fear of ghosts took hold when I was a kid and spent a lot of nights at my grandparents’ Civil War-era farmhouse. There’s just nothing like an old house with a dank cellar, a seldom-used second story, picture-window views of dark fields, and a few volumes of ghost stories on the bookshelves to foster a fear of the unknown. It also didn’t help that my aunt told me the place was haunted.

In the end I never actually experienced anything convincingly ghost-like there or anywhere else, so I’ve been able to mostly convince myself that ghosts aren’t real. I hope I’m right, but if you think your house is haunted, I’ll probably believe you in spite of myself. I’ll also offer you tips for getting rid of a ghost. Because I know all about it, now that I’ve combed through several books and websites by paranormal researchers, looking for the best ways to get rid of a ghost. I put the most common suggestions in my latest article: check it out.