Allegany Investigations of the Paranormal
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16 Signs That Your House is Haunted
What to watch for – and what to do about it
These may be indications that your house is haunted. True hauntings are rare occurrences, and it may be difficult to determine whether or not any strange phenomena you are experiencing in your home might be due to a haunting. For one thing, no one really knows what a "real" haunting is - what causes it or why it starts. There are many theories, of course, which we have discussed in this space in the article "Ghosts: What Are They?" But if you think your house may really be haunted, what can you do about it?
The Signs of a Haunting
The first step is to determine, as best you can, whether or not you truly have a legitimate case of a haunting.
Here's a partial list of phenomena that might indicate that your house is haunted:
- Unexplained noises - footsteps; knocks, banging, rapping; scratching sounds; sounds of something being dropped. Sometimes these noises can be subtle and other times they can be quite loud.
- Doors, cabinets and cupboards opening and closing - most often, these phenomena are not seen directly. The experiencer either hears the distinct sounds of the doors opening and closing (homeowners get to know quite well the distinctive sounds their houses make) or the experiencer will return to a room to find a door open or closed when they are certain that it was left in the opposite position. Sometimes furniture, like kitchen chairs, are perceived to have been moved. Very rarely will the experiencer actually witness the phenomenon taking place.
- Lights turning off and on - likewise, these events are seldom seen actually occurring, but the lights are switched on or off when the experiencer knows they were not left that way. This can also happen with TVs, radios and other electrically powered items.
- Items disappearing and reappearing - this phenomenon, which we have dubbed "the DOPler Effect" (DOP = Disappearing Object Phenomenon), has been examined in the article "The DOPler Effect." Others have called this "the borrowers" phenomenon, and it's the familiar experience of not being able to find a regularly used item - say, your set of car keys - which you believe you placed in a spot you routinely place them. But they're gone and you look high and low for them with no success. Some time later, the keys are found - in exactly the place you normally put them. It's as if the object was borrowed by someone or something for a short time, then returned. Sometimes they are not returned for days or even weeks, but when they are, it's in an obvious place that could not have been missed by even a casual search.
- Unexplained shadows - the sighting of fleeting shapes and shadows, usually seen out of the corner of the eye. This phenomenon has also been discussed in some detail in "Shadow People." Many times, the shadows have vaguely human forms, while other times they are less distinguishable or smaller.
- Strange animal behavior - a dog, cat or other pet behaves strangely. Dogs may bark at something unseen, cower without apparent reason or refuse to enter a room they normally do. Cats may seem to be "watching" something cross a room. Animals have sharper senses than humans, and many researchers think their psychic abilities might be more finely tuned also. (See "Animals and Ghosts" )
- Feelings of being watched - this is not an uncommon feeling and can be attributed to many things, but it could have a paranormal source if the feeling consistently occurs in a particular part of the house at a particular time.
Those are some of the most common experiences of those who think their houses are haunted. Yet even stranger things can happen...
Should you be afraid of ghosts?From Stephen Wagner, Do you fear the spirit world? Is that fear justified?THE GHOST PHENOMENON has become so closely associated with the instinct of fear that it's almost a given that, if asked, most people would admit that of course they would be frightened if they encountered an apparition. Even many seasoned ghost investigators have been known to run like scared rabbits when they see or even hear something unexpected. Why? Have ghosts really earned the reputation of being harmful to humans? If you were walking unarmed in a dense tropical jungle that you know is inhabited by tigers and large snakes, you'd undoubtedly be petrified. The threat to your life and well-being is quite real and your fears justified. Tigers and snakes can and do kill. Now place yourself alone at night in a house that has the reputation for being haunted. Most people would probably experience the same fear. <SCRIPT> zSB(3,3)</SCRIPT> Yet, according to most authorities on the subject, the fear is not justified. Ghosts, by and large, are harmless. The true behavior of ghosts, as evidenced by many thousands of investigations and case studies conducted by paranormal experts, overwhelmingly contradicts the common idea that they are to be feared. Maligned ghosts Veteran ghost investigator Hans Holzer, in his book Ghosts: True Encounters with the World Beyond (Black Dog & Leventhal, 1997), emphasizes “...the need to forget a popular notion: that they are always dangerous, fearful, and hurt people. Nothing could be further from the truth.... Ghosts have never harmed anyone except through fear found within the witness, of his own doing and because of his own ignorance as to what ghosts represent.” Loyd Auerbach, another respected ghost hunter of many years, agrees: “In many cultures and religions around the world, ghosts are thought to harbor ill will towards the living. This is unfortunate, since the evidence from thousands of cases...suggests that people don't change their personalities or motivation after death... nor do they turn evil.” (Ghost Hunting: How To Investigate the Paranormal, Ronin Publishing, 2004.) Roots of fear So why do we fear them? There are probably two main reasons. Fear of ghosts – also known as spectrophobia or phasmophobia – most obviously stems from our fear of the unknown. This is a deep-seated fear that is hard-wired into our genetic makeup. The primitive parts of our brain that respond to instinct – a holdover from our cave-dwelling ancestors – flushes our bodies with adrenaline when we encounter a threat, preparing us to fight or flee. And when that threat is something unknown that might leap out of the darkness, we'd just as soon flee. There's another component to this fear when that something in the dark is perceived as a ghost. After all, a ghost is the manifestation of a person who is dead. So now we are confronted not only with what we think is a threat to our lives, but a representative of death itself. Not only is it an entity that we don't understand, it is also a resident of the place many of us fear the most – the mysterious land of the dead. |
Q. What is the difference among a ghost, a poltergeist and a haunting?
- Ghosts are spirits of people that have been caught between this plane of existence and the next. They are intelligent beings, often capable of interacting with the living.
- Hauntings are recordings of an event on an event on an environment. They do not interect with the living.
- Poltergeists are neither ghosts nor hauntings, but are caused by the unconscious mind of a living person, usually under some kind of stress.
Shadowy Visitor
by Lisa
This is one of several unexplained paranormal phenomena that has happened to me. This one in particular happened in March a few years ago. I live in the Western New York area outside of Buffalo with my husband and three children.
I awoke one night and believed I saw one of my children standing at the foot of my bed. I asked him, "Who's up?" I thought it was one of my children because it was a small human shape, but it seemed to glow a little bit greenish all around its form. Usually when my kids come to my room in the middle of the night, they come to my side and wake me up. I sort of blinked because whoever it was didn't answer me, so I began to sit up... and simultaneously the small figure disappeared and the bedroom door to my middle son's room slammed shut. There was no way in that split second anyone could have made it down the hallway and slammed that door.
We live in an older house built in 1918 and the doors are quite heavy. The windows were shut, there was no air moving that could have made that door slam either and my son always sleeps with his door wide open. He would not have shut it. I got up to check on everyone, especially to see if any of the kids were awake. When I went to my son's room, the door was indeed shut and he was sound asleep, as were his siblings in their rooms.
I don't know who that was visiting me in my room that night and I don't know how that door slammed shut that night. I believe it was my shadowy little friend. I don't know who it could have been, spirit wise, what it was or what it really wanted from me. But I really didn't like that it seemed to have gone into my son's room as he was sleeping too.
Little Ghost Friend
by Sharlot M.
From the time I was born to the time I was three, I lived in a house in Richardson, Texas. It was a big two-story house on a cu-de-sac with a somewhat large backyard. My dad has told me that I was friends with a little girl ghost. He says that he saw her many times; often he would walk in my bedroom and find me playing with her. He also claims that there was a spot in our backyard where no grass would grow and where the dogs refused to go.
I also had a babysitter who witnessed my little friend. We were sitting on the couch one day when she saw a little girl walk across the hallway. She asked who the girl was and I said, "That's my friend." My dad recalls that the little girl looked about five, had blonde hair, and always wore a white frou-frou dress. We don't know why she was there or what her story was, all we knew was that she was my friend.
Struck by the Ouija
by Jackie
About 10 years ago, my skeptic mind was put to the test and my life changed. It was around 1977 when my colleague (Jen) and I went to Southampton, England for an art exhibition that was being held. Bear in mind, neither of us had been to this part of England before. On the first evening we went down to the hotel bar quite late for some cigarettes and were pleasantly surprised to see the two staff drinking after finishing their shifts. Jen asked if we could have a drink and then we joined in their conversation. They were saying the hotel was haunted, so she suggested they hold a séance. One of the barmen sat up straight. "All right then, we could set up a Ouija game. There's a Scrabble set behind the bar, we could use the letters," he suggested looking around at his colleague. His friend just half grinned but agreed.
The barman, who I shall call Mark (but cannot remember his name), set out the letters in a circle shape, then he positioned the words YES and NO either side of an upturned wine glass. The four of us then placed a finger on it and began our game. I looked around nervously at the others as Mark asked the usual "Is anybody there?" Before long, I began to experience a strange looming sensation, and I felt something was about to happen... I don't know how, I just knew.
Then the glass began to circle the inside ring of letters. Suddenly, my heart began to hammer against my chest as I met Jen's eyes glaring back at mine. I looked back at the glass. "Who are you?" I asked. The glass moved with ease to its chosen letters: HERMIN SMYTHE was spelled. Geoff accused Mark of moving it, which made him cross and he get up from the table. I asked whatever was in the glass to prove it was really working, and it immediately spelt out a word: GOSS. Geoff took a sharp breath. "That's my surname," he said and stood up. Suddenly, he gave us a wild look and pointed. "Look!" he yelled. "It's spelling out my name again!" A paralyzing coldness poured through me. I had never felt this frightened in all my life, and because I didn't know what I was scared of, only made it worse.
Suddenly, I asked, "Is there a God?" The glass almost glided as it kept going in a figure eight shape. Then it began to crash into the letters sending them to the floor. This is when we parted company.
A few weeks later, something occurred that I can only put down to messing with the Ouija. I felt restless on this particular evening and stayed up quite late into the early hours of the morning. Eventually I decided to take myself off to bed, where my husband was already sleeping. On entering the bedroom, I bent over the bed to climb in when suddenly something struck me hard in the back. The wind immediately burst from my lungs and my body hit the bed like a lead weight. I sensed instantly the strike was not from a human and I lay wheezing and unable to scream. I just waited. I then began raising myself up -- it hit again. Much harder this time.
I had no time to think. I only sensed evil. Slowly I turned my head to face whatever it was. What would I see? My mind whirled. Too late -- it lunged again, deeper now, inside me. I began to think I was about to be possessed or even die. "Please, God, help me!' I cried out. Immediately I felt what can only be described as a pulling sensation and then I collapsed onto the bed -- safe... it had gone. An overwhelming presence of good remained in the room for around a minute and I knew without any doubt, my prayer had saved me. Fear left me and as I lay. The answer to my question (at the séance, a few months earlier), "Is there a God?" had been answered. I've never stopped believing since. Please leave Ouija boards ALONE.
