10 Deeply Disturbing Disneyland Urban Legends
6. The Real Reason You Can't Dump Ashes
One of the most enduring stories attached to Disneyland is that park employees continuously have to foil attempts by guests to spread the ashes of their loved ones at the Happiest Place On Earth, which probably has more to do with mess than anything supernaturally sinister.
But rumour has it that the real reason Disney don't like the ashes spreading is that they now have a problem with ghosts, and it's all thanks to people not disposing of their dead properly. The most shared story on the subject suggests that a mother approached the park saying that her son had been killed, and that his dying wish was to have his ashes spread in the Haunted Mansion so he become one of the ghosts.
Having been told she wasn't allowed, the woman ignored the decision and dumped her son's ashes anyway, but now the kid has changed his mind, and spends all of his time hanging around near the exit in tears because he doesn't want to be a ghost there anymore. Probably unhappy with pay and conditions. And it's not just guests who have claimed sightings: staff have reported a child running around the Mansion, and hearing laughter (clearly the boy has his good days), or being casually assaulted by a tormenting ghost with a creepy cold chill.
Is There Any Truth In It? It is clear that guests genuinely do spread ashes, which explains the persistence of the stories, but it seems something of a contradiction to generally accepted spiritual thinking, since the soul isn't attached to the dead's ashes.