Supernatural Diversity

My love for ghosts — or as my dad would say, my obsessions with ghosts — began when I was around twelve or thirteen years old. Dad was a plumber and often brought me on house calls with him as his assistant. I always suspected that he wanted me to take over his plumbing business when he retired, but plumbing was never for me.

I couldn't imagine a more boring profession than plumbing. Once you learned how to fix a leaky faucet or replace corroded pipes, it was always the exact same work. I craved novelty and imagination, and above all, meeting new people — people who were different from me.

One day, my boredom transformed into fascination when I met a ghost for the first time while on the job!

Growing up, my home was never inhabited by ghosts, so I never had the chance to be in close contact with one. I knew other kids who grew up used to the subtle sounds or the ephemeral glimpses of ghosts in their attics or basements. I was always jealous of their encounters with something beyond this world, regardless of how brief and elusive.

My first encounter with a ghost was on a dim and drizzly April morning. Dad and I were called to fix a hot water heater in someone's basement. The light bulbs in the basement were nearly burned out, barely casting a faint yellow glow on the old boxes and pipes down there. There wasn't nearly enough light to work by. Dad cursed to himself and marched upstairs to retrieve his flashlight from our truck. He told me to wait and then disappeared up the basement steps, leaving me alone in the gloom.

As I was standing there alone, bored as usual, a fleck of silver light caught my attention behind the hot water heater. I peered around the edge of the heater and noticed the faint glossy outline of a long silk skirt and wavy chestnut hair. They appeared to stream behind a figure made up of thin air. Most kids are scared of ghosts at their first encounter, but I was intrigued. Who was she? What was her story?

She dissolved into the shadows as quickly as she had appeared as my Dad bounded back down the stairs nearly blinding me with his flashlight. I was eager to tell him what I saw but he dismissed me, saying he had no time for ghosts.

Ever since then I became obsessed with ghosts, seeking them out in the dark nooks and crannies of people's homes whenever possible. Ghosts are fickle and it is rarely possible to find one by chance. But every couple of months I would catch a glimpse of one again and wonder who they were and what their life was like?

When December rolled around, I decided to ask my parents for a ghost detector device for Christmas. The stores were filled with the newest model that could not only detect the presence of ghosts but translate basic phrases. I couldn't imagine the thrill of getting to talk to a ghost myself!

"So, have you thought about what you might like for Christmas this year?" My mom asked one night over dinner.

I had waited for this question, but still, I was silent for a while, getting up the nerve. Finally, I replied, "I think I want a ghost detector device."

My dad instantly bellowed, "I will not have you playing with one of those devices! Ghosts are not real and messing with those toys is nonsense."

I knew that Dad didn't mean what he said. He believed in ghosts like almost everyone else these days. He was a reasonable man who trusted science and knew there was more than enough research to prove the existence of the supernatural plane. But, like many skeptics, he thought the supernatural should be left well enough alone.

"But Dad, why not?" I whined, even though I already knew his reasoning.

Mom chimed in, "Look Honey, its just not something we want you getting involved with. I know the experts say ghosts are safe and exist in a completely harmless alternate plane of existence to ours, but it makes me nervous. Maybe when you're older."

I was devastated by their rejection. I had wanted a ghost detector for months and I was determined to get it.

In the New Year, I talked to my friend, Charlie, and found out his parents gave him a detector for Christmas! They wanted him to become a scientist and thought the most cutting-edge tech would encourage him down that path. Charlie had no interest in ghosts or science and happily gave it to me.

For the next couple of months, I would sneak the detector with me to all of Dad's plumbing jobs. It was about the size of a textbook so it was easy to slip into my backpack and tell Dad that I had brought some schoolwork along. Whenever he became engrossed in the job and too busy to watch me, I would wander off and pull out the detector.

I met dozens of ghosts and even had conversations with them! The words programmed into the detector were limited, but I could ask basic questions and introduce myself. I met one ghost who was an elderly woman and had thirty-three grandchildren! I met another ghost who was a plumber like Dad. My favorite encounter was with a ghost my own age who was fascinated with humans. She loved studying the human world (except she called it the supernatural world) and learning about our culture. To her, I was the ghost in an alternate plane of existence and she was the regular kid!

I began to enjoy talking to ghosts more than humans. Even though I found them to be very relatable, they had an entirely different culture. For example, women worked outside the house more often than men, who stayed home and cared for children. They also listened to weird music that didn't seem to have a constant beat. Sometimes their clothes were odd and their sense of humor made no sense! But talking to them was like getting to travel across the world and learn about a way of life completely different from my own. In a way, their differences made them feel comfortingly similar to me. It's hard to explain.

My parents never found out that I owned a ghost detector device, but it still didn't come as a surprise to them when I decided to major in Supernatural Sciences in college. By that time, almost six years had passed since my first encounter with a ghost and they had come to accept that ghosts were clearly my passion.

It did come as a surprise when I announced two years into college that I was dropping out. The Supernatural Sciences were not what I was expecting. My professors talked about ghosts in an entirely clinical manner. It was all about procedures, calculations, and technology to manipulate the supernatural. There wasn't one class offered about ghost culture or effective communication techniques.

Even though I quit college, it was pretty easy to be hired as a ghoster. Most ghosters don't have a specialized degree and just do it for the money, but I was doing it to communicate with ghosts. The job of a ghoster is to manage the supernatural in someone's home. Although there are very few skeptics of the science left, ghosts tend to make the average person uncomfortable, just like they make my parents uncomfortable. As a ghoster, I can perform a number of tasks to make the supernatural less noticeable in a home.

The first is better lighting. It is nearly impossible to see a ghost in bright light. I'm often called to a job because someone keeps getting unnerved as they catch glimpses of a ghost in shadowy corners. Ghosts actually have the opposite sleep schedule as humans, so they are rarely active at night. So, most sightings can be managed by lighting dim corners and crevices during the day. It's pretty simple work. Even though basically anyone could do the work themselves, they hire a ghoster to avoid thinking about the supernatural as much as possible.

The second technique I use is talking to ghosts in hopes that they will be more accommodating to their human neighbors. Most ghosts are never heard and rarely seen without advanced equipment like my detection device. On rare occasions, ghosts can be noisy and boisterous causing their voices to break through the barrier between our world and theirs. On these occasions, they still aren't very loud. In fact, they are faintly audible, but it can really set homeowners on edge. Most often the ghost requires a firm talking to so that they respect the humans' wishes and keep their noise level down. I'm basically an apartment landlord who mediates disputes!

If ghost sightings or sounds are truly unbearable to a homeowner, I have a couple of other tricks up my sleeve. The last straw is to resort to dampening devices. The supernatural tech industry has recently developed some truly powerful equipment to dampen the connection between our world and the supernatural world. If I place one of these devices in the center of a house, it acts as a barrier that prevents ghosts from being seen or heard. Of course, ghosts still exist but they cannot be detected, not even with my detection device.

I only use these devices as a last resort. The first reason is that they are expensive and most families want their ghost issues to be settled by cheaper methods if possible. The second reason is that I hate the idea of them! I think there is so much to learn from ghosts and interaction with the supernatural world that I would hate for these devices to be used on a mass scale to cut off our connection. I read an article once that a device is in development that could dampen the connection between our world and theirs across the entire Earth! Luckily it seems like a distant technological feat, but I don't like the idea that anyone is even trying.

After two years of working as a ghoster, I saved enough money to buy a home of my own. Sure enough, there was a family of ghosts inhabiting it. The parents were elderly and had regular bouts of health scares. Their daughter Lucy, even though she was still in college, lived at home to take care of them.

The first time I made contact with Lucy I gave her a real scare! She had never talked to a human before, or from her perspective, she had never talked to a ghost before. The previous owners of my house surely didn't have a detection device like me and clearly had never made contact.

After her initial fright, we became fast friends. She was studying anthropology in college to learn about different cultures and peoples in her world. She loved languages, meeting new people, and exploring new places. As she described her studies, it seemed to be a lot like what I had wanted out of my Supernatural Sciences program. We had the same passions and interests. Talking to her made me feel completely normal. I was no longer the weird, nerdy kid who was obsessed with ghosts but someone with compassion and imagination to learn about the diversity of humanity.

We stayed best friends, talking every day, for eight more years. At one point, Dad nervously asked me if it was a romantic relationship. At first I was completely thrown off by the question. Then I thought about how both she and I were single and I guess, it didn't seem so crazy for Dad to ask. I quickly put him at ease by explaining we were just friends. Relationships across planes were far from accepted in my world but I didn't care about that. Even so, Lucy was the best companion I could hope for and neither of us had considered a romantic component to our relationship.

After work today, Lucy and I chatted like always, as I played a round of solitaire at my kitchen table. My detection device was at my side as usual so that I could see and hear her and she could see and hear me. The translation setting was clicked off though. Years ago I learned ghosts' language and she had learned mine. We most often talked in a bizarre hybrid of the two languages that would definitely have been unintelligible to anyone else.

"I'm exhausted after today," Lucy sighed as she finished up telling me about her particularly frustrating day.

"Well, it sounds like you had a long day. It's probably time for bed." I had a long day myself. I visited four different homes, talking to some unruly ghosts.

I was just about to say goodnight and click off the device when I heard a strange noise.

gre, gre, gre....gre, gre, gre...

The sound began as muffled gurgling noises.

"Lucy, are you okay?" I asked, "What's that sound?" I thought it must be coming from her end. My device had never malfunctioned before.

"That's not coming from me. It's not on your end?"

Suddenly the muffled gurgles transformed into full words. Someone was speaking! But, it wasn't a language I had ever heard before.

"Do you know what that language is?" I asked Lucy, sure she would recognize it from her extensive linguistic studies.

Her voice began to shake as she responded, "No, I've never heard that language before. Not only that, but I'm pretty sure that's not any language from my world or yours."

As soon as she said that, the translation switch on my device flipped on automatically.

"Hello, it is nice to finally speak with you." The voice announced clearly through the speakers of my device.

"How have you interrupted these communications? Where are you?" I demanded to know. I was completely flustered by this interruption. There should be no way for someone who isn't in this room — either on my plane or Lucy's — to be able to intercept our signal.

"I live on a different plane of existence than both you and Lucy." The voice explained calmly. "Your planes are metaphorically closer to each other than mine is. So you were able to catch glimpses or hear snippets of each other's worlds. Your technology enabled you to open lines of communication between your two planes. But there are many more planes than just two."

"You're saying that you're also a ghost but from a different world than either of us?" Lucy stammered.

"That is exactly right! Of course, like you, I do not see myself as a ghost. My world has been developing much more advanced technology than yours to be able to communicate with planes far away from my own, again metaphorically speaking since we all exist in the same space and time. My team and I had discovered your plane of existence about a year ago and it has taken us this long to find the right frequency to connect with your detection device."

"How many planes are you aware of?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was always taught that there was the real, human world and the supernatural world. It was a binary of sorts. The idea of multiple worlds changed everything!

"We have made contact with thirty-two but are aware of at least seventy-four more." He triumphed. "Of course, there is no limit to how many there might be in total. Our technology still has a long way to go."

"What are other worlds like?" I relished the thought of learning about all the different people and ideas that existed in the exact same space and time as me but in a different plane of existence.

The voice began to answer, "They are as diverse as you could possibly imagine. My world is filled with..."

Suddenly, the voice cut out like a weak connection on a cell phone call. I turned to Lucy for help, "Do you know what happened to the connection?" But, no response came from her either. I looked down at my detector device to see that it read No Signal and then, switched off.

I frantically tried everything I could imagine to get the device to turn back on. Eventually, I resorted to smashing every button on the darn thing. Why couldn't I connect to Lucy and who was that strange ghost? It was the worst possible time to lose signal!

As I began to calm myself down and steady my breathing, I rationalized that my device was fairly old and must have gotten worn out. My mind was still swirling from the deluge of information that I just received, but I was certain I could go to the store, pick up a new device, and reconnect to get some answers.

It was then that I heard a faint voice coming from the bedroom. It must be Lucy projecting a signal through somehow! I darted up the stairs but stopped short. I realized that I had forgotten to turn the TV off earlier and the voice was merely coming from the evening news. I picked up the remote to turn it off when Breaking News flashed across the screen:

"We have breaking news out of Washington that the Pentagon has developed a state-of-the art dampening device with the capacity to span the entire globe. The Pentagon has unexpectedly turned on this device, severing the connection between our plane and the supernatural plane.  A Pentagon press release explains that the decision to turn on the device was in an effort to safeguard national security against the threat posed by the supernatural plane. The technological capacity to dampen the connection between worlds was previously thought to be years away. Commentators from both parties have hailed this achievement as a major step towards securing freedom from supernatural influence."