Staging Afterlife Project: The Presence of the Past in a Contemporary Hotel Setting

Most paranormal investigations have been conducted in places with a violent past and lingering trauma. In these investigations, there is usually no strong or historical connection to past social realities. This is because there are no investigative practices directly associated with the layers of past sociotemporal order of site occupations that serve as a context-specific baseline for analysis. The Staging Afterlife Project is an alternative investigative methodology at a different type of haunted location (a contemporary, luxurious hotel/spa complex), with an alternative form of presence (a 'revenant guest') who returns because of their positive experiences they have had at the hotel, ones not associated with violence or trauma. The contemporary hotel guest's experience of this 'return', as a cultural haunting, represents unique encounters of historical experience.