[This article is about season 1 of American Horror Story.]
TV can be educational when it tries to be. Live humans have a fascination with ghosts, and the recently ended TV series helped answer some frequently asked questions about ghosts. This post will attempt to set forth these rules as learned from the TV show American Horror Story.
For background, American Horror Story was about a house in Los Angeles which was built in the 1920s but quickly became haunted when murders were committed by the first occupants. Each homeowner to follow met some horrible end, and all of the dead now haunt the house.
That brings us to the present day for this multi-ghost residence. A gentle family from Boston found the house for sale online and couldn't pass up the bargain. Some bargain. The series ended with the last of the surviving family members meeting a violent end. That's the show in a nut shell. But it's worth a look, if for no other reason, than to see Jessica Lange play the most entertainingly unlikeable mother to grace the screen since Mommy Dearest.
Now, Rules for Ghosts:
1. Some ghosts can leave the house in which they died, but others end up in an endless loop when they try to leave -- they walk out one door but it's really just another entrance to the same house so they come right back in. Some can leave the house as a passenger in an automobile, however before they reach their destination, they will become invisible when the driver's attention is diverted, and they will be mysteriously transported back to the house.
2. Ghosts can be visible or invisible to humans at their option.
3. When they are visible, most ghosts appear as they did at death. Some, but not all, still display the wound that killed them.
4. Ghosts don't age. Most of them remain the same age they were at death whether they were infants, children, teenagers or adults.
5. A cleaning lady ghost is capable of appearing in two separate bodies, one old and homely, the other young and sexy, although not at the same time.
6. Ghosts can't be injured or killed, however if they incur a visible wound they might display that wound for a short while. For example, a ghost can be disemboweled or shot in the forehead but he or she will recover in short order, and the wound will disappear.
7. Ghosts can injure or kill live humans. However, a live human killed in the house by either a ghost or a live human will become another ghost in that house.
8. Ghosts and live humans can copulate.
9. Female ghosts can't get pregnant. However, male ghosts can impregnate live females, but a baby born of a human who was impregnated by a male ghost will be evil and might even be the Antichrist.
10. When a live person or another ghost says to a ghost, "go away," the ghost must go away.
Unknowns: The life span of a ghost and what happens if the house they inhabit is demolished.
If you live in a haunted house maybe these rules will be of use, especially number 10. Disclaimer: We cannot be held responsible if your ghost varies from these rules.
Ghosts do not have a "lifespan"; they may, however, have a finite "deathspan," or transitory "limbospan."
Posted by: Joe Hathaway | January 01, 2012 at 09:47 AM
Or perhaps an "after-lifespan."
Posted by: Geo | January 01, 2012 at 02:52 PM
I have read alot of books on the subject of ghsots and ghost hunting and I think this may just be the best of them all. At first I wasn't sure when the author got in to the brain stuff but it really makes you think, and it was very interesting. I like how he goes over so many different paranormal subjects, and he makes you think about all the possible reasons for activity. He's not trying to make you believe one way or the other,(which I find a refreshing change) but rather gives you all the options to consider so you'll take more time to review things. I think this book is a must for beginners. It's well written in simple language so you don't get lost in all the technical talk. Experienced investigators can benefit from this book too. There are good books on the subject out there but if you're looking for one you can refer to time and time again this is the one.
Posted by: Tristan | May 18, 2012 at 11:05 AM
Why has the cleaning lady aged when she died in her twenties?
Posted by: Jess | December 15, 2014 at 08:57 AM
Good point, Jess. You've found a flaw.
Posted by: Geo | December 16, 2014 at 10:12 AM
If a body is retired from where it used to be, like Moira's almost was, will the ghost be freed?
Posted by: Rain | February 11, 2015 at 09:33 PM
a baby born of a human who was impregnated by a male ghost
will be evil and might even be the Antichrist.
If you say so. A rule or an encouraging word.
Posted by: Captain ProMe | June 07, 2015 at 12:57 PM
Moira (the maid) appears as an old woman to women and a young woman to men. This is because men only see what they desire -- however if a man declines seeing her as a sexual object, they will see how she truly looks. Women see her as old because women's intuition allows them to see things as they truly are. I hope this helps.
Posted by: America | March 26, 2017 at 08:27 PM
DUde are we forgetting that dead Hayden in ep9 went to a bar with Ben therefore left the house still as a ghost
Posted by: Annalise | October 18, 2017 at 02:18 PM
That was a flashback, Annalise.
Posted by: Noah | November 12, 2017 at 12:52 AM
So Tate died when the police shot him for the murder of the students, that was in the house when he lived there, right? So how can he travel all the way to the beach with violet when I thought ghosts could only travel a certain distance then disappear?
Posted by: Alex | December 30, 2017 at 05:36 AM
Alex, that was on Halloween. The one night of the year when the spirit's of the dead are free to walk among the living. I theme repeated in the series. Also,it would seem that the ghosts do whatever they do based on whatever they are most passionate about in their life before they died. Love, sex, fixated on a lost baby,
Etc.
Posted by: Joe | March 24, 2018 at 11:28 AM