Ghosts, fears turn up in poll
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071026/NEWS07/710260348/1009
 
Ghosts, fears turn up in poll
BY ALAN FRAM and TREVOR TOMPSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- It was bad enough when the television and lights
inexplicably flicked on at night, Misty Conrad said. But when her
daughter began talking to an unseen girl named Nicole, and neighbors
said children had been killed in the house, it was time to move.

Put Conrad, a homemaker from Hampton, Va., firmly in the camp of the 34%
of people who said they believe in ghosts, according to a poll by the
Associated Press and Ipsos. That's the same proportion who said they
believe in UFOs, unidentified flying objects -- exceeding the 19% who
accept the existence of spells or witchcraft.

Conrad, 40, lived in Syracuse, Ind., when her family was scared from
their rented house. "It kind of creeped you out," she recalled this
week. "I needed to get us out."
About 23% said they actually have seen a ghost or believe they have been
in one's presence. Three in 10 have awakened sensing a strange presence
in the room.

Fourteen percent said they have seen a UFO.
Fears and superstitions
One in five said they are at least somewhat superstitious.

The most admitted-to superstition, by 17%, was finding a four-leaf
clover. Thirteen percent dread walking under a ladder or the groom
seeing his bride before their wedding, while a smaller number named
black cats, breaking mirrors, opening umbrellas indoors, Friday the 13th
or the number 13.

The poll, conducted Oct. 16-18, involved telephone interviews with 1,013
adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
  
Find this article at:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071026/NEWS07/710260348/1009