Bahrain’s ghosts have been around since – well – since words were first scratched into clay. Back in 1890, writer J.T. Bent described Bahrain’s inner desert as a “vast sea of sepulchral mounds.”
One of the world’s largest, Bronze Age, cemeteries, the Sumerians called ancient Bahrain, Dilmun, the place where no man or woman cried or felt sickness. The legend was the neighboring countries sent their dead to Bahrain to live out their eternity in Paradise.
Today, the 170,000 burial mounds are believed to be the final resting place for five centuries of island inhabitants and not the neighboring countries’ relatives. Whether or not the dead were locals, the island still carries their ghostly memories.
Funny enough, these ghosts leave their mark on the island’s transient, expatriate population.
Writer and cultural commentator, Deonna Kelli Sayed, was one resident whose years living on the island impacted her life in ways she may not have anticipated. Although we never had a conversation about the island’s ghosts during our writing classes, it was while living in Bahrain that Deonna became fascinated with ghost hunters.
After she and her family moved back to the USA, she literally began following the Syfy Channel’s paranormal investigators and documenting her experiences.
Her adventures and interest in culture led to her first book, Paranormal Obsession where she investigated America’s interest in the paranormal since 9/11.
But her second book, So You Want to Hunt Ghosts: A Down to Earth Guide, is the one you might want to consider if you are interested in investigating for yourself whether or not ghosts are real. The book “explains how to conduct historical research on your case, how to properly document your discoveries, and how popular media and ghost hunting TV shows have impacted the modern paranormal community.”
Deonna Kelli Sayed is a fascinating Global Citizen. She talks about her first paranormal experience in New York, her multi-cultural family and living in Bahrain in this January 2013 interview on That’s Some AmericanMuslim Life.
Tales of Dragons, Rabbits and Roosters 
Feb 24, 2013 @ 14:08:28
Even though I’m not a believer in ghosts I feel that some humans with strong personalities can leave an aura behind. Having said that I did have certain local rituals carried out on our land before we built on it …. just in case! I have had a couple of strange experiences involving my husbands grandmother after she passed away which spooked me however they weren’t unpleasant. I just prefer to believe ghosts don’t exist!
Feb 24, 2013 @ 14:32:07
I think staying positive and focusing on higher energies is the way to go. If you are not ready for it, it is a spooky.
And after posting this blog, I may end up taking it down, if it stirs up too many energies. Even now, I feel a change in the air pressure. It’s the kind of thing where if you open a door, you don’t know what you invite in.
Having said that, I have been told, and have experienced, that by simply praying for those energies to be released helps and maintaining a positive energy around your house.
Feb 25, 2013 @ 21:54:28
Interesting, Eva. Savannah, too, is a city built over massive graves – it is known as “the city of bones.” Houses in the city don’t have basements because builders don’t excavate sites. Many of the old buildings are purported to be haunted, and ghost tours are very popular!
Feb 26, 2013 @ 11:34:55
Basements are spooky with or without ghosts. I think that’s why I prefer California.
Georgia is full of ghosts. The late Jo Carter took a group of us to Georgia for ghost hunting.