When I talk about haunting as healing, I don’t mean that ghosts can’t be frightening. They can be, and they often are. But beyond the shiver and the shock, I’m interested in what else ghost stories can offer us. What happens when we look at them not just as tales of fear, but as ways of feeling, remembering, and connecting?

Ghost stories have always been about more than terror. They are about presence – about what stays behind, what refuses to be forgotten. In so many of these stories, haunting isn’t only a disruption; it is a form of communication. A message. A reminder. It is a way for the living and the dead to reach one another, even across impossible boundaries.

So many of these stories are conversations. The dead speak, and the living respond. Through that exchange (however uneasy or frightening), something vital about love, pain and longing is shared and explored. Sometimes it is less about vengeance or restlessness, and more about the simple need to be seen, heard, or understood.

That is what draws me to ghost stories, and why I keep returning to them. To me, haunting isn’t always something to fear. Sometimes, it is a way to heal – to accept what has gone, to learn from what remains, and to find comfort in the idea that nothing meaningful ever truly leaves us.

Here on Everything Haunted, we will explore ghosts in all their forms – on screen, in stories, in history, and in the places we live. We will even talk to people about their own experiences. Some of these stories will be terrifying, others may be tender or strange. But stick with me here and together we will reimagine what these tales can offer us. We will reimagine what is gained when the dead speak to us, and we listen to them.