Since her days as a substitute teacher at Old Rochester Regional High School, Barb Gaspar has garnered a reputation as “the Ghost Lady.”

Gaspar, who used to keep students in line with the promise of a ghost story at the end of class said, “I grew up in a haunted house, so I am a total believer.”

Gaspar said she saw her first ghost, a recently deceased family member, at age five. Since then she says she has often encountered supernatural beings.

“I’ve had an open mind, so they find me. I don’t go looking for them,” she said. “I truly feel like they’re there for a reason, and I don’t have any right to step in their way.”

“I know that sounds pretty strange,” admitted Gaspar, but that doesn’t stop her from talking about ghosts.

On the night of Saturday, July 14, Gaspar shared some of her ghost stories at Hammond Cemetery, an event hosted by the Mattapoisett Library.

Gathering her audience into a circle at the center of the cemetery, Gaspar started off by saying that she wasn’t trying to win any converts.

“I don’t do this to convince anybody or change anyone’s decision about the hereafter,” she said.

“I do it because I find it interesting.”

Researching ghosts for years, Gaspar said, “They’re not anything to be afraid of.”

She said 99.8 percent of ghosts are good, including the ghost of her best friend who came to Gaspar to tell her that she had passed away.

Gaspar said many ghosts she’s encountered were invisible.

For example, on a cemetery tour in Plymouth (the only ghost tour on which she ever felt a ghost’s presence), Gaspar felt cold fingers run down her spine.

Gaspar said she used to sew with her now deceased aunt and sometimes when she sews, her aunt’s music box plays on its own.

“She just wants to sew with us,” said Gaspar.

Gaspar said before the gathering that she had told any ghosts in the cemetery that they didn’t need to be threatened and invited them to join the group.

As the sky darkened and bats began flying overhead, the group didn’t have any supernatural sightings.

But perhaps the skeptics outweighed the believers.

“They don’t tend to make themselves known to people who think they’re just a joke,” said Gaspar.