I'm still so terrified from last night. You shouldn't be. It's silly to be frightened......

Eleanor Lance: I'm still so terrified from last night. Dr. John Markway: You shouldn't be. It's silly to be frightened... Eleanor Lance: Silly? You haven't been through it! This horrible, unknown thing! Dr. John Markway: 'Unknown.' That's the key word - 'unknown.' When we become involved in a supernatural event, we're scared out of our wits just because it's unknown. The night cry of a child. A face on the wall. Knockings, bangings... What's there to be afraid of? You weren't threatened. It was harmless, like a joke that doesn't come out. Eleanor Lance: But the child... Dr. John Markway: There was no child, remember? Just a voice. Eleanor Lance: A voice... Dr. John Markway: Look, Eleanor, put it this way. When people believed the Earth was flat, the idea of a round world scared them silly. Then they found out how the round world works. It's the same with the world of the supernatural. Until we know how it works, we'll continue to carry around this unnecessary burden of fear. Eleanor Lance: Supposing it is in my imagination. The knocking, the voices. Everything! Every cursed bit of the haunting. Suppose the haunting is all in my mind. Dr. John Markway: Well, you can't say that, because there are three other people here. We all resist the idea that what ran through the garden that first night was a ghost, what banged on the door was a ghost, what held your hand was a ghost. But there is certainly something going on in Hill House. We're getting closer, very close to finding out what it is.

...until she died. No, it wasn't romantic. Well, now that you're free at last, you shouldn't be wasting your time in Hill House. - It's a mistake. -But it isn't, don't you see? The only thing that kept me going... ...was that someday I knew something would happen. Something truly extraordinary, like Hill House. Hmm. It's extraordinary. What will you do when you get back? Do you have a job? No, no job, nothing. I don't know what I'm going to do. You wouldn't send me back, would you? Well, that depends on what happens. We may all have to go back. But I won't give up easily. How did you get so interested in the supernatural? I didn't want to become what my father called a practical man. I come from one of those respectable English families... ...that dragged all the Victorian virtues into the 20th century. In a Gladstone bag, of course. Everything had to be practical and conventional. So naturally, my first reaction... ...was to choose something useless and unconventional, like ghosts. But you're an anthropologist now. Mm. When I refused to read law at Oxford as my father had... ...there was a terrific row. I took off for America, without my Gladstone bag... ...and worked my way through college. I decided on anthropology because it seemed to me... ...to be a short step from the study of dead souls... ...to the study of dead men and dead civilizations. I'm not very practical, either. Hmm. But it didn't occur to me till I was hooked... ...that my combined knowledge of anthropology and psychic phenomena... ...had led me on to something very practical. You see, if ghosts, which are pure spirit, come from man... ...then perhaps it's possible someday to have individuals... ...whose spiritual caliber far surpasses anything humanity has yet known. Human nature could certainly stand some improvements. However, my idea remains pure theory... ...until somebody proves definitely the supernatural exists. Anyway, that's enough about me. Now tell me about last night. Thank you. Well, I've been trying to remember. I can remember knowing I was frightened... ...but I can't remember actually being frightened or how I felt. I think it's because it was so unreal. Still could be subterranean waters, you know. I hope not. That wouldn't be nearly so exciting. Not good, this feeling of excitement. It's the first sign you've fallen under the spell of the house. Maybe it isn't just the house. Then what else? Let's blame it on sunspots. Well, it wasn't sunspots last night. If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway. Mm-hm. No ghost in all the long history of ghosts ever hurt anyone physically. You see? We weren't in any actual danger at all. -Isn't that right, John? -No, not entirely. Fear alone can do the damage to the victim. Prehistoric man, for instance, could die of fright during an eclips33e. - Poor sap. -You mean poor Homo sapiens. Modern man can react with the same unreasoning terror... ...to a supernatural event... ...especially if he doesn't believe that the supernatural exists. I've always been more afraid of being left alone or left out... ...than of things that go bump in the night. What are you afraid of, Theo? Of knowing what I really want. - Good morning, fellow Earthlings. - Luke, what are you afraid of? What I just saw in the hall. -Is there something? -You mean you haven't seen it? Well, the show's just getting good. Come on. Right here. -It's writing? -Writing.