My Impressions of the Ghosts

I can't say that I felt much of a ghostly presence durring my time as a ghost host in San Diego. When I first started, I did get creeped out by the idea of being in haunted houses, but as time went on, I became more comfortable. I saw a lot of people convinced of ghostly phenomena that was easily explained by other things. And I was never really impressed by any of the psychics who were on the tours.

I liked to think that Jesse Shepherd was standing behind me while I gave the tour of the Villa Montezuma, or that one of the Whaley's might have enjoyed my company but I can't give you any juicy stories about myself. One of the hosts I trained actually had an experience at one of the houses before joining the tour. He was outside the Villa Montezuma when an old gardner approached him. He said the man looked black-and-white; without any color. And when he and his friend went to find the gardner again, there was no one there.

Sometimes I'd feel like something was pushing down on my shoulders when I was outside the Whaley house. It didn't feel like hands, more like my shoulders felt heavier. I can't say it wasn't all in my head. And that's what makes ghost claims so hard to believe. If somone claims to feel something ghostly, how do you know it's real and not just in their head? The best ghost stories in my opinion bring up some coroboratory evidence.

I've read about children who talk to the ghosts of people who used to live in their houses. These kids will come up with all this information about what the neighborhood was like and who lived there, and the older neighbor, newspapers, etc. support this information. I don't think ghosts are the only explanation, but at least there's some verifiable evidence in this case.

Now the orbs and the cloudy ghosts caught on film are interesting. They rarley look a whole lot like anything in particular, so when they do look like a person, it's likley to be just coincidence. And orbs always looked like dust on the camera lens or something. I've seen video of orbs moving around, but they just don't seem very ghostly to me.

I think the voices caught on tape are interesting. I've heard some good ones on the radio. I don't know if they are ghosts. I'd like to think that they are. Sometimes they sound clear and understandable, but then I think about how many aren't and how the people who present them usually have to tell you what they think is being said before you can recognize it.

My favorite sightings come from people who don't know the history of a place, have no reason to suspect it's haunted, and may not have believed in ghosts before their sighting. Old Town San Diego has had it's share of these sightings. The security guards have seen ghosts walk through walls at the El Fandango or women walking around the Casa Estudillo late at night. And visitors have seen a man in the house that now acts as the visitor center walking around the second floor with the docents. One man who came to pick up a docent at the house asked, "Who was that man?" but ofcouse the docent had no idea whom he was talking about.At the theater in Old Town, the spotlight has turned on and moved around when no one was up it the booth.

Should you take the tour?

If you were to ask me if you should take the Ghosts and Gravestones tour of San Diego, I'd say yes. I'd tell you to take my tour if I still did that tour, or to take the tour of someone else I trained if they still worked there, but that isn't the case. The stories and the locations are good enough to make up for the lack of my personal magnificence.

As ghost hosts, we all have our little ways of doing things that we think works better than anything else and we all tend to think that we give the best tour. It was a very difficult tour to be objective about. I really tried to be respectful and somber in my presentation of the real people and tragedies while staying humourous enough to keep it fun. I had some great tours and some not so great ones and I miss it every now and then.

I haven't taken the tour myself in a long time. I still remember the stories and the feel of each of the places we went to and I feel like I know San Diego in a way few ever will. I don't remember the dates and minutiae well anymore, and I'd have a hard time giving the tour in the polished way I used to, but I'm sure it'll all come back if I ever decide to give it a go again.

My Favorite Tour Ever

My favorite tour ever would have to be the one I did late in my career as lead actor. I had a bunch of college aged people on the tour and everyone was in a really good mood. Somehow we started talking about pirates and we all started doing pirate voices. I started laughing at one of my own jokes, and we all had a great time.Instead of the "duhn... duhn... duhn!" that I'd do with the really fun groups, we started saying, "Yaaaarrrrrgg!" or some other pirate type noise.

Sometime after the tour I was emailed by one of them and invited to join them for a party to celebrate international talk like a pirate day. If you were one of the people on that tour, thank you. I never went to the party, but I was flattered.

What Would the Ghosts Think?

It always bothered me a little that we exploited peoples tragedies for the sake of the tour. I tried to be respectful towards the actual people who are said to haunt San Diego, while poking fun at celebrities and the like. I don't think the ghosts are bothered much by the tour unless they think we are saying things about them that are not true.

One psychic contacted be about our presentation in the Villa Montezuma, saying that Jesse Sheperd was upset that we said he was not a successful author. I asked the curator of the house about it and then updated the script of the tour to be more correct. Hopefully, if Jesse's ghost was upset, it was appeased by this.

I think the ghosts of the Whaley house were probably happy when Mr. W left as was I. The house seemed so much more fun and relaxed after that.

I like to think that the ghosts felt like they knew me and enjoyed having me visit. I certainly enjoyed working with the docents in the houses (except for Mr. W). We brought people places that they normally would never have known about, and told them the kind of stories that tourists do not usually hear. I hope that the ghosts and the guests appreciated the uniqueness of the tour.

I once went to a tourism convention here in San Diego dressed in my ghost host costume. There was another woman in costume dressed up as Kate Sessions, the horticulturalist who planted trees in Balboa park. She talked about how beautiful San Diego is and how great the weather is. Now the audience was made up of people in the tourism industry. They hear how beautiful and great every city is all the time. When I spoke, I talked about the other side of the city. The dark side that comes out at night. This was stuff they never heard in their profession. Tragedy, murder, and revenge were almost taboo subjects in the tourism industry. They loved hearing about it! I was the most popular speaker.

While the tourism people were walking around the booths later looking at things, I'd sneak up behind them and say something silly like, "Oh the San Diego Zoo!... Its... Haunted!" It was a nice gig. The whole thing took place on an antique river boat on Mission Bay.