Okay, folks, this is a subject that’s really open for debate – ley lines (pronounced ‘lay’).

First off, we’ll go through the definition and then our take on the subject. This section will borrow from “The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits” by Rosemary Ellen Guilley and the ebook by Fiona Broome, “Ley Lines for Ghost Hunters.”

Ley lines are alignments of earth energy that cross the planet and are believed to be of spiritual and magic energy. They also tend to have a strong correlation with haunted sites, although this isn’t necessarily the case. You can have a haunted area without a connection to a ley line.

Alfred Watkins first discovered ley lines by mapping the locations of haunted, holy and really old sites and noticing they all tended to be on straight lines (more or less). Ley lines tend to connect at powerful hubs located at seven strong magnetic points on the earth’s surface.

Above: Haunted locations in southern England run along a powerful ley line.

Other cultures have a form of ley lines ingrained as well. In Feng Shui, “arrows” follow a similar concept for bed placement. The bed should not point in a direct pathway to a door or you’ll become ill. In medieval Europe, you were only allowed to take a corpse on a straight line or the spirit would get lost. Native inhabitants of North America also believed paths had to be in straight lines from one point to another.

How should you map out your ley lines for your ghostly adventures? According to Fiona Broome, you can plot the reportedly haunted locations on a map, then draw a line through them. They should cluster along the line. None of the points should be too far off the line, say less than 1/2 a mile. Remember, not all hauntings are connected to a ley line. An outlier or two is common. Using this method, you should be able to predict where the next hauntings should be located.

Ghostly Activities will map out the locations of the Chicagoland area to see if there’s a pattern to it. There could be a local area that clusters haunted locations that are separate from the powerful, global-level ley lines. We’re a bit skeptical about them, so the best thing to do is investigate the phenomena.