A city is a map of its own scars. Every ‘haunted’ alleyway is just a place where the city’s skin is thin.
The first time I was confronted with the question I should have been prepared to answer was while giving a ghost tour in the French Quarter on a beautiful spring night in April 2015. It was at the end of the night, after the last stop, in front of the Ursuline Convent. On that night, in that particular spot on Chartres, it felt darker, quieter than the rest of the Quarter. A gentleman in a wrinkled button-down, drinking out of a plastic cup with Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar tattooed on the side, leaned in with whiskey on his breath, and asked, “So, do you believe in, umm, you know, evil ghosts… demons?”
It took me a minute to answer. Had I been my nineteen-year-old self, I would have blurted a “Yes!” But I was older now and much more cynical. Not to mention the lifetime of paranormal experiences I had racked up. I watched him slam back whatever was left in his cup before I quietly answered, “No, I don’t think I do.”
The disappointment was visible. After all, we’re standing in front of a centuries-old convent rumored to have housed the original New Orleans vampires, The Casket Girls. People love the idea of an ancient, primordial evil lurking in the shadows or possessing an unsuspecting victim. But why am I expected to believe in demons because I believe in ghosts? 
Let’s go down the supernatural wormhole of what to believe and what not to believe, and why it’s okay not to know.
- What are ghosts?
- Do ghosts and demons exist?
- Do we see what we remember?
Storytelling
I didn’t give tours for long in New Orleans. I moved into a different role in the haunted tourism industry, but the question stayed with me. Every time I did a paranormal investigation or ghost hunt, it crept back up from the shadows of my memories. And honestly, I wasn’t always certain of what I believed, but I found a way for my mind to make sense of my experiences that removed the fear of the unknown.
When I left New Orleans and moved back to Texas, I started Spell Caster Ghost Tours. We spend our nights walking through Georgetown’s and Round Rock’s secret past. And the “do you believe” questions still get asked. But now, over a decade later, I’m a bit clearer on my answer.
The Anatomy of a Haunting: Beyond the Horror Tropes
When we talk about the paranormal, we can’t help but immediately get the Hollywood-inspired imagery stuck in our heads—creepy side-eyed children, the eerie shadow man in a fedora, and pesky, malevolent poltergeists. But if you strip away the cinematic tropes, the mysticism of supernatural activity has been debated for centuries.
Have you ever walked into a room where a nasty row just took place? Have you noticed that you can “feel” the uneasy hostility still hanging in the air? The atmosphere is charged. Now, imagine that “charge” multiplied by decades of intense human emotion. Trauma lingers like a ghost.
The sound of a whimpering woman, the strong and fleeting smell of a cigar, or the residual energy of a soldier’s fear are all echoes of emotions we understand. But the dark and unsettling things we don’t understand, we call “demons.” It seems that demons are a man-made explanation for the leftover energies of a people’s darkness. Which can be reduced to just the haunting of someone who was probably a jerk when they were alive.
The Stone Tape Theory: Can Walls Remember?
In the world of paranormal research, there is a concept known as the Stone Tape Theory. It’s a hypothesis that doesn’t rely on “spirits” in the religious sense, but rather on geology and physics.
The idea is that minerals—particularly limestone, quartz, and sandstone (the very materials used to build our historic downtowns)—act as a sort of biological hard drive. When a high-intensity emotional event occurs, the theory suggests that the energy is “recorded” into the environment itself.
Under certain atmospheric conditions—perhaps a humid night, a spike in electromagnetic activity, or even the presence of a person with a particular sensitivity—the “tape” plays back.
- Residual Hauntings: This is why so many ghosts seem to be on a loop. The “Lady in White” who walks the same hallway every night at 2:00 AM isn’t trying to make contact. She isn’t even “aware” of you. She is a recording. She is a memory of a life so vibrant or a tragedy so profound that the building simply couldn’t let it go.
Many of the hauntings we talk about on Spell Caster Ghost Tours are just that, “recordings.” Moments where the veil between “then” and “now” gets thin enough for the memory to leak through.
Why the “Memory” Definition Changes Everything
Viewing ghosts as memories changes the way we interact with history. If a ghost is a demon, the goal is to cast it out. But if a ghost is a memory, the goal is to listen and explore. When we tell ghost stories, we are performing an act of historical preservation.
Some of the ghost tropes you hear about on ghost tours:
- The Man in Debt: A man who feels a failure and took his own life, but the lingering smell of gunpowder permeates the air at the same time every day.
- The Loyal Servant: A woman who spent fifty years in one kitchen and whose footsteps still echo there.
- The Young Widow: The shock of a life cut short due to war, and the cries of the young woman suffering the loss of her husband are still heard when the wind blows in a historical cemetery.
By defining ghosts as memories, we move away from fear and toward empathy. You aren’t walking through a “haunted house”; you are walking through someone’s life.
The Psychology of the Supernatural
As humans, we are wired for pattern recognition. Our brains are designed to find meaning in the chaos. This is why we see faces in the clouds or “figures” in the periphery of a dark room.
But there is a deeper psychological reason why the “memory” theory resonates so strongly. We are acutely aware of our own mortality, but are clueless as to what comes next. And the idea of finality is terrifying.
The belief in ghosts is really the hope that we aren’t destined to be deleted. We want to believe that if we love someone hard enough, or build something grand enough, or even suffer deeply enough, we will leave a mark – a legacy. We want to be remembered. If ghosts are memories, then, in some ways, we have the ability to be immortal.
Will You Add to the Memory?
So, do I believe in demons? No. I believe that if you’re an a-hole in life, then you’re probably leaving some pretty ugly memories behind.
But do I believe in ghosts? Absolutely. I believe that energy cannot be destroyed, only transformed. I believe that a great love can fill a room with light, and a great sorrow can stain a room with unexplainable heaviness.
I also believe that when you walk through the streets of Historic Georgetown, TX, at night, you are walking through a crowd of memories – the memories of everyone who has ever been here before you.
When the Square quiets down, the bars close, and the cars leave, listen closely. You’ll hear the echoes of voices that have lost their sound but remember their intent.
What to Expect on a Spell Caster Ghost Tour
Because we view the paranormal through the lens of memory and history, our tours are a bit different. Yes, we will tell you the spine-tingling stories that make you check over your shoulder. But we also provide:
- Historical Context: We dive deep into the archives to find the real people behind the “ghosts.”
- Atmospheric Storytelling: We don’t need cheap jump-scares. The truth of what happened in these buildings is haunting enough on its own.
- A Respectful Approach: We treat the “spirits” we discuss as the former neighbors, ancestors, and citizens they were.
We hope you’ll join us in Georgetown and Round Rock for a unique evening of haunted memories!