Ghost School - 10 Ways to Haunt a Train Station

Note: this hub is a response to Jennifer Arnette's (Availiasvision) challenge titled "Take Me Somewhere", in which we were encouraged to use her photo "Train Station" (above) to create a story.

My "story" consists of a day's lesson for little ghosties at the All Ghost Academy. You are a student, and are expected to have fun! Ready to play?

Good Morning, Students! Welcome to the All Ghost Academy!

I am Professor Boo. Today's lesson is designed to help you with the basics of ghosting, or as the living like to call it, "haunting". Many of you are new ghosts, so let me be among the first to congratulate you on getting past your living body! You are here because you did not quite make it all the way to your resting place, but that does not matter, we will have a good time, and if you are an effective ghost, you will move along soon enough.

We are going to explore a train station today, my little ghosties. There is a right and a wrong way to do everything, but you'll soon find in ghosting that even the wrong ways can be , shall we say "entertaining"?

You will note each tip has what I call a "creepiness factor enhancer". Those are to pique your curiosity but not to be practiced today. They require a sponsor ghoster at level 2 or above, for which you must be chosen.

My 10 best "ghosting" tips for train stations follow.

The living cannot see you, even in a mirror. I know you have probably heard otherwise but that only applies to other apparitions. You are a ghost, and ghosts cannot be seen, except by another ghost. So do not be afraid to lurk around mirrors. The lovely mirrors which are hung around a nicely decorated station can be enticing, and indeed if watching the living is your sort of thing, be my guest. You will have better ghosting luck, however, if you lurk around mirrors in bathrooms. The living will spend longer staring at themselves in a bathroom mirror, therefore, you can spend longer staring at them. People are more often alone in the bathroom also, which always allows for more effective ghosting.

Tips for mirrors:

1. Stare at those who stare at themselves
2. Blow unruly hair back to annoy - the living hate that!
3. Using your smelly gas is only allowed here, might as well have fun with it!
4. Practice swirling with every flush, then go back to the mirror and check yourself. (this has nothing to do with ghosting, but it is a heckova lot of fun!)
5. Creepiness factor enhancer: making sink gurgle.

Using the ticket agent as a model, you will stand directly between the agent and the ticket purchasers. Mimic each movement so that you are touching the tickets and the hand of the agent, then passing to the hand of the passenger. This should give them a little bit of a flutter for just a second as they take their ticket. It's a bit repetitive and can get dull if you do not have success at first, but remember, you can see their energy, so you will know when you are effective. When you see that little wiggly red line around the living, you know you have ghosted with the ticket agent.

Tips for Ticket Agents

1. Distracted people are the most fun. Don't bother too much with the lonely or sad.
2. See if you can get them to drop their ticket. That's double bonus ghosting galore!
3. For people with a bad attitude: help the agent out by highlighting something obvious. Are they insisting their train is late? blow the schedule in front of his face with the correct and on-time time, for example. Getting the living to channel their anger inward is quite the ghosting talent!
4. Creepiness factor enhancer: Coinciding stamping of ticket with slow light blink

The Ride-Along is a bit tricky. It cannot be done alone, so we may try this together if we have time after class. As you know, we ghosts are made only of energy, and we must conserve as much as possible for moving from one place to another. Therefore, "riding" a trian in the traditional sense is a bit impractical for ghosts, since it tends to just run right through us.

We have to physically keep up with the train, and this takes all of our energy, leaving little left to do our ghosting. The way around it is to share the load and ride along in groups, taking turns as the puller. The puller has to pull everyone, but since we are not heavy, we just basically fall right behind the puller. However, the puller cannot do any ghosting while pulling, so we take turns as the puller. The only drawback is we are all connected, so we have less space to use as appendages from which to ghost with.

Once the logistics are worked out, ride along ghosting is really quite fun! There are so many things we can get away with on a ride along! Here are a few of my favorites!

1. Hang out windows (did you see a shadow?)
2. topple trays in dining car. Fun fun fun!
3. Eavesdrop. Then create a loud echo at just the wrong time! ohh it's so embarrassing for them! We love it!
4. Bang doors.
5. Creepiness factor enhancer: Stop train for no reason

There is no more electrifying place for a ghost to play than around any light source. Yes, we love candles and firelight, but we can have a great deal of fun making any light flicker, twinkle, or otherwise act in a strange and ghosting way. Hang around a lovely fixture such as this chandelier and twinkle twinkle twinkle. It will be children who feel you most, and those who live here on a more permanent basis. Your audience is most impressed, however and you are in your most shining glory.

Tips for Light Fixtures

1. Bangle the desh.
2. take a friend and do a flicker dance
3. bright light bright light
4. shadows falling fast
5. Creepiness factor enhancer: midnight lights quick dim

This one is probably the easiest and in many ways can be very effective! For you beginners, you might want to try this first. Stay under the chairs, but mess with everything on the floor. Tickle the backs of feet. Steal flip flops that fall casually off. Move a purse, just a little bit, then move it back. You can exaggerate the living's movements by creaking chairs when they move. They think it's them. But it still gives them the creepies, hence, an effective ghosting.

Fun Under the Chair tricks

1. Spill out embarrassing things from a lady's purse
2. Make a baby laugh when no one is looking.
3. Roll a penny across the floor. Bonus if it hits someone's foot.
4. Pull off someone's scarf
5. Creepiness factor enhancer: Grab all coats on one row and pile up.

Super effective and not too difficult, ghosting in breezeways at a train station is well, "a breeze". Here is what you do. Let a train fully pass through and create the big and expected breeze, then when all is calm, create a sort of second wind.... to surprise our living victims. They will chalk it off to just a leftover breeze from the train, or a random tandom, but it is just creepy enough to make them wonder. Alternatively, you can do this during the train's run through the breezeway, which makes it harder to be creepy, but the more chaotic the wind, the better your chances. Long hair always works best.

Creepiness factor enhancer: do it when there is no train present.

If you are lazy and just want to do your ghost time the easy way, might I suggest the "lost luggage" method of ghosting? It can be quite effective but it requires, as many lazy ways do, quite a bit of waiting. If you have the patience, you can get your ghosting quota knocked out with very little effort. Here is how.

Locate the lost luggage room and choose one. Get inside the bag and mix stuff around in strange ways, to be sure the eventual owner knows it has been rifled through. Be sure to look for things that might embarass, such as dirty underwear, for example, and plant them right on top so they "know" somebody saw them. Another fun thing to do is open toothpase (or shampoo) and squirt all over something important, like a photograph. That creates a permanent ghosting, and will get you moved up instantly!

Creepiness factor enhancer: leave said dirty underwear hanging out a little bit.

If you remember the movie "Gremlins" you might understand the point of this tip. I do not mean to be violent, but they were annoying little monsters, and for this tip, a bit of annoyance is most definitely required. It helps if you have been around your conductor before, because knowing his habits is key. You literally ride along on the conductors hat, and interact with every passenger in a somewhat mimicking gesture, similar to the ticket agent above, except since the conductors job is to be pleasant, your job is to be as annoying as possible, making the passengers a little confused and off their game. It is quite a trick to master, but very effective, Often, your poor conductor has not clue, but a few of our older and more experienced ones have caught on, and learned to maneuver their hat around quite frequently to get us out of their "hair". It works, temporarily. Sometimes these old geezers just aren't worth the trouble.

Creepiness factor enhancer: Move conductor's hat up and down his head for him. (bonus points for a full all the way off the head up and down)

This tip guarantees ghosting effectiveness. Firstly, because you are certain to have contact with the living, and secondly, because the opportunity is always most fresh with the just waking up.

To pull off this maneuver, you must enter a stopped train and immediately find the sleeper car. Run through the rooms to bungle the heads of those who have been jolted awake by the stopping train, You will score point after point this way.

The other bonus is as they return to their car, or even new passengers coming aboard, they MUST pass through you because the hallway is so narrow. double extra bonus ghosting just for letting them pass through you.

"are you alright honey? you look like you've just seen a ghost".

Oh that cracks me up every time I hear it! It will bring you up a level every time. No application required! It's automatic! How bout that little ghosties?

Because of the simple nature of the Stopped Train method, there is not creepiness factor enhancer available.

Oh this one is so much fun! Park yourself on top of any vending machine that has cookies or any type of "guilty pleasure" food. Watch your living closely and whomever chooses your cookies gets your special treatment. Follow the cookie eater back to wherever and as they try so carefully to eat without anyone noticing, stare at their every movement, especially those from hand to mouth, as if you are completely mesmerized. Imagine you are an alien being and you know nothing of sustenance in the form of these "cookies".. The energy you put out during this exercise is triply effective, because the living is already feeling a little guilty anyway. Fun trick and I must admit a bit over used.

Creepiness factor enhancer: Make the cookies fall on the floor.