Over time Lewis became interested in burials. Among his favorite burial rituals is one that involves placing a cemetery bell atop a casket with a rope going into the casket. If the dead “awoke,” they could ring the bell.
“Back then there were so many stories of people being buried alive,” Lewis said in reference to articles he’s read about that topic published in 1800s and early 1900s.
In those times, some people believed ghosts cannot cross iron, prompting the installation of iron gates at many cemeteries.
Most people believe the gates were put there to keep people out, Lewis said.
“In actuality they were put up to keep the spirits in,” he said.
Others believe spirits can’t cross running water, so many families leaving cemeteries took multiple routes home, making sure they didn’t cross any body of water, Lewis said. Some people went so far as painting their houses different colors to confuse spirits and keep them from haunting families.
Lewis, 40, of Minneapolis, who will speak for the first time about burial beliefs and traditions at the Colfax Public Library Thursday, believes most people are fascinated with death because it can’t be avoided.
“We can’t escape it,” Lewis said. “It is something all of us are going to go through. It is something we don’t know much about. I think it is the great unknown. I hope in the future we will have a better idea about it.”
These days, death is more removed from people than it was in the past, Lewis said. Years ago funerals often occurred at people’s homes, he said.
“Death isn’t as close to us,” Lewis said. “It’s outsourced. People don’t die at home. They die at care units or hospitals. Bodies are taken to funeral parlors and then to the cemetery.”
Lisa Ludwig, Colfax Public Library director, said Lewis is a popular speaker at the library, where he has made presentations in the past.
“It is just the content he talks about,” Ludwig said. “That is what people want. He does a really good program”
Lewis first became hooked on looking for the unexplained in the 1970s when he interviewed people who reported spotting UFOs in Elmwood.
While studying psychology at UW-Stout, where he earned a master’s degree, Lewis heard about unexplained events and did his thesis on why people believe in the paranormal.
Lewis follows one superstition himself: He throws salt over his left shoulder before eating, a practice intended to ward off evil spirits.
“I like that people did that kind of ritual 100 years ago,” he said. “When you are in my field, it doesn’t hurt to take precautions. The worst thing that can happen is some salt gets wasted.”
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