Tales of the supernatural, ghost stories and all things that go bump in the night have been shared throughout humanity. Many today are still fascinated with the supernatural. The Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) even offers a course on supernatural folklore, which assistant professor Kari Sawden helps teach. “We’ll go through some of the big topics… things like ghosts and magic and witches and vampires and zombies,” Sawden told CTV Your Morning Atlantic’s Crystal Garrett. Sawden and her class look through folkloric stories, trying to understand them and how they originated. “Our goal isn’t to try and prove or disprove that someone saw a ghost, our goal is to understand what that means to that person, what does that ghost story tell us about how they understand themselves and the world,” she says. A modern folklore example around Halloween-time are stories of razor blades in candy. “These kinds of legends that we share, that even if they’re not factually true, they still allow us to talk about fears that we have,” explains the professor. “There may not be razor blades in candy, but food can be contaminated, things can be found in food, harm can come to our children.” This, Sawden says, is one of the reasons people are attracted to folklore. “It gives us space to work through issues and talk about our fears,” she says. And when it comes to tales of magic, ghouls and matters beyond the grave, there are many reasons people are intrigued. “One is it’s just fun. These are really, really fun stories,” Sawden says. “A lot of people are drawn to magic and ghosts and all of those kinds of things. “I think this is one of the things that make the supernatural so powerful, is it’s very adaptive to whatever we are looking for,” she adds. She also says the supernatural can play a significant role in a lot of people’s lives, too, whether they’re a believer or have seen a ghost themselves. “It might be a one-off where they have a visitation of a loved one who’s died, it’s very meaningful to them,” Sawden says. “We also have people who interact with the supernatural. They see ghosts all the time, this is just a part of how they live in the world.” As for the professor, she says she’s had a few supernatural encounters herself. She says the most significant would be a resident ghost at a place she lived in St. John’s. “He pretty much stuck to his floor but you’d hear footsteps on occasion,” she says. “He would very kindly on a cold morning turn your heat on, for example. “There was nothing really dramatic… we just kind of got used to hearing this other entity moving around.”
