America: If you thought Americans were gullible to believe the case their leaders made for war in Iraq, a new poll suggests that the world's most powerful nation is even more credulous than you might imagine, writes Denis Staunton.
One in three Americans believes in ghosts, and almost one in four has seen or been in the presence of a ghost, according to the Ipsos/Associated Press poll, released just in time for Halloween.
Nearly half the population believes in extra-sensory perception, 34 per cent believe in UFOs and almost one in five believes in spells or witchcraft.
According to the poll, there are now more Americans who believe in ghosts than who approve of the job George Bush is doing as president. The number that believes in UFOs is about the same as those who think it was a good idea to invade Iraq.
Just 14 per cent of Americans have personally seen a UFO and 5 per cent have "seen a monster in the closet of your bedroom". That may not sound like much, but it adds up to more than 1.5 million monsters lurking in US bedrooms, making the American closet a scary place.
Despite the ghosts and monsters all around them, 80 per cent of Americans say they are not very superstitious and 57 per cent claim not to be superstitious at all.
Among those who admit to some superstition, few are phased by the number 13 or even Friday the 13th, and only about one in 10 fret if they break a mirror or open an umbrella indoors.
However, walking under a ladder is a more serious matter, as is allowing the groom to see the bride before the wedding.
The most widely held superstition of all is the belief that finding a four-leaf clover will bring you luck, a view shared by 17 per cent.
Some American liberals like to sneer at the simple faith of their conservative compatriots, but the latest poll shows that liberals are almost twice as likely as conservatives to have seen a ghost.
Ghosts also appear more often to Catholics and those who seldom go to church, than to devout, churchgoing Protestants.
Many evangelical Christians are deeply hostile to the cult of the paranormal, condemning the Harry Potter books for glorifying magic and questioning the majority view of Halloween as harmless fun for the kids.
GodTube.com, a faith-based version of YouTube, has a series of videos outlining the evils of Halloween, including one that appears to be presented by a reformed witch.
In one video, Pastor Randy Stiver says that Halloween is all about promoting sex, death and greed.
Whatever about sex and death, greed is certainly having a heyday in the run-up to Halloween as US retailers market ever more ghoulish costumes and props for the holiday.
The Vomit Barrel, available for $2,750 from FrightCatalog.com, features a ghoul standing over a barrel.
"A barrel of laughs and leftovers!" the catalogue chirps.
"This disgusting but funny device throws up on cue by switch. Great quantities of green vomit spew as the familiar Friday night sounds of heaving ensue!"
The same company offers a latex corpse with a hollow chest cavity to hold your Halloween buffet, and mass retailer Target is selling a 15-piece cemetery kit, a hanging grim reaper and an oversize maggot.
The Cleveland Plain Dealerthis week reported on the wedding of Tina Milhoane (22) and Robert Seifer III (24) at the Seven Floors of Hell haunted house in Ohio.
The minister, dressed as the Grim Reaper, read The Lord's Prayer from a scroll clutched in bony-gloved hand and the groom made his entrance in a hearse, emerging from a coffin borne by six pallbearers.
"It's weird watching your son get out of a coffin," said his father, Robert Seifer II. "Usually when you see someone in a coffin, they're going the other way - in, not out."
Among the guests, many of whom were dressed as zombies and witches, was Katie O'Malley.
"It was morbid," she said. "Beautiful."