Dan Akroyd's experiences leading to Ghostbusters

[Ninshub]

Busting Ghosts for Fun and Profit

by Don Shay

transcribed by Mark Brown

But for Dan Aykroyd -- originator of the concept -- Ghostbusters was not entirely a laughing matter. A card-carrying member of the American Society for Psychical Research, Aykroyd had for years been interested in psychic disturbances and paranormal activity. His fascination, in fact, was firmly rooted -- dating back to childhood recollections of growing up in an old farmhouse in Canada, where family seances and unexplained phenomena were all but common occurrences.

"That farmhouse has been in the family for five generations," Aykroyd recalled, "and I've come to believe that any place that has that much history is bound to have some degree of spiritual activity -- so many people came through there and lived there and died there. My only personal experience was when a friend and I were sitting in the house one evening watching television and we heard knocking coming from upstairs. We went to the stairs and looked up and saw these ectoplasmic tubes of light -- shimmering patterns of iridescent green light that passed in front of us. We were both so scared, we ran out of the house. But there were lots of family stories. My grandparents, apparently, were into holding seances, and my father would tell of being invited to participate as a medium and being put into trances. During one such seance, a trumpet reportedly flew around the room, talking and singing, until someone outside the circle walked in and it fell to the ground. My mother claims to have witnessed an apparition when she was nursing me. A couple appeared to her at the end of her bed in the old family farmhouse, and it shook her so much she was afraid to talk about it. But a couple of weeks later she finally mentioned it. Some other member of the family dug out an old family album and there, in one of the pictures, was the couple -- they turned out to be ancestors. On another occasion, my grandmother on the other side of the family -- who was a real practical, no-nonsense business woman -- came to visit, and had the covers lifted off of her while she was sleeping. She was then thrown out of bed and bitten on the legs, ankles and arms by some kind of turbulent force -- she even developed a rash."

With this type of family mythology imbedded in his psyche, it was perhaps inevitable that Dan Aykroyd should, at some point in his creative life, turn to the spiritual world for comedic inspiration. There were, however, other influences. "Ghostbusters, I think, has its basic roots in American humor and American film. Abbott and Costello, the Bowery Boys, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope -- everyone did a ghost picture. I thought it would be great to write one for this decade, updating the form by using the concepts of science and technology and by employing the kinds of special effects skills available today. In parapsychology, a lot of researchers and thinkers have developed a link between quantum theory and paranormal activity -- there are even several books on the subject -- but parapsychologists have long been plagued by the fact that only one person in ten ever reports a paranormal experience. I thought: 'What if you advertised on TV or in the Yellow Pages and said: "Hey, we believe you, we understand you."' I thought it would help. That was the birth of the commercial enterprise of ghostbusting."