The United States of America has one of the world's most extensively documented traditions of reported hauntings, and is also home to several of the most significant institutions in the history of Parapsychology, including Duke University's original Parapsychology Laboratory and its successor, the Rhine Research Center.
The Amityville Horror
On 13 November 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot and killed six members of his own family at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York. A year later, George and Kathy Lutz moved into the house with their children, and left after just 28 days, citing extreme paranormal activity. The case, investigated at the time by Ed and Lorraine Warren, became the basis for numerous books and films and remains one of the most widely cited haunted house cases in American history.
The Winchester Mystery House
Built by Sarah Winchester, widow of the Winchester rifle magnate William Wirt Winchester, this sprawling Victorian mansion in San Jose, California, was under continuous construction for roughly 38 years. According to popular legend, Winchester was advised by a medium that she must keep building the house to appease the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles, resulting in a labyrinthine structure featuring staircases leading nowhere and doors opening onto blank walls. The house is now a museum and is widely considered one of the most haunted locations in the United States.
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem remains closely associated with the 1692–93 Salem witch trials, and continues to draw significant public and paranormal interest, including at sites such as Proctor's Ledge, identified as the execution site of those convicted during the trials.
Notable organisations and institutions
The United States has been home to several major institutions in the history of parapsychology, including J. B. Rhine's original Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University and its successor, the Rhine Research Center, both in Durham, North Carolina; the American Society for Psychical Research, founded in 1885; the Boston Society for Psychic Research, active from 1925; the PEAR laboratory at Princeton University; and the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, site of the original ganzfeld research in the 1970s.