Is Your House Haunted? Mine Is...

[DoperChic]

My sister's father (we have different dads) passed away a few years back due to a heroin overdose. Prior to his death, he was a very viscious (sp?) man as the drugs had taken over. Before he starting using, he was a very kind, generous, and loving father to my sister. His death was very sudden and unexpected. I think he has come back to tell my sister that he is sorry for how he treated her.

How do I know this? Well for starters, my sister and her friend saw "him" soon after his death in my sister's bedroom. My sister and her friend were in the livingroom when all of a sudden our pet birds started freaking out. The smoke detector then went off. My sister and her friend then went down the hall to turn off the smoke detector, as nothing was burning. She saw him laying in her bed. They then ran to a neighbor's house, as they were alone at the time. When I came home, the smell of men's cologne - his cologne, specifically - was in every room of the house. I live only with my mom and sister, so there would have been no way for men's cologne to have gotten in the house.

I brushed it off as my sister trying to get attention. Then other things started happening...

I was sleeping in the livingroom one night, on the floor. I woke up to find the TV moved out from the wall at a very odd but large angle. I am a super light sleeper and someone moving the Tv would have made a lot of noise (the stand is very old and creaky.

On more than one occasion, I have lost something and gone looking for it all over the house. Then I would turn around for maybe a minute or two to do something. Upon turning back around, there it is, right in the middle of the floor. No one knew that I was looking for the object, so no one else could have placed it there.

My sister has had hair clips thrown at her, too, although I can't vouch for that as I wasn't there.


Anyone else have similarly creepy stories to share? True stories only please.

[bernse]

The general question here is......?????

BTW - I don't think you will find too many dopers actually believe in ghosts. I am not say none will, but I don't think very many do....... Call it a hunch :)

[gwar]

Hey, I am of a sound mind, used to work for the U.S. Government (had to pass their rigorous psychological analysis and passed with flying colors). I have a million stories of weird things that happen and could probably scare the living crap out of you. I also have a few explanations. I could even offer some suggestions.

[jmonster]

Originally posted by gwar
Hey, I am of a sound mind, used to work for the U.S. Government (had to pass their rigorous psychological analysis and passed with flying colors). I have a million stories of weird things that happen and could probably scare the living crap out of you. I also have a few explanations. I could even offer some suggestions.

Oooh...

a) How rigorous?
b) I'd like to hear these stories, explanations and suggestions.

[brook]

i live in an old part of edinburgh scotland.the house was build in 1765.history has it that it was an old jail house
then a toll booth,then a refuge for plague carriers (to isolate them from the healthy).a lot of pain and suffering
has occured here,my mum wont come past the front door because she senses things. we cant keep any pets dogs or cats wont enter the building,goldfish guinae pigs and the like die within days.my family who stay in the house dont feel anything except when we go into the cellar of the house. who knows eh?

[Lance Turbo]

I heard that story before, but the way I heard it, the guy had the hook on his foot.

Seriously though, if your house is haunted, prove it. I think James Randi will write you a check for $1000000 for proof of the supernatural. Until you prove it, feel free to swap ghost stories all you want. Just don't do it in General Questions please.

[Chronos]

I think we all know where this thread is going.

[Venkman]

Here's one that happened to me that I've never been able to explain.

When I was in high school I worked at a small local grocery store. One night after the store had closed and we'd finished mopping the floors and such, the three of us still in the store (me, the assistant manager, and another stock boy) gathered by a video game at the front of the store intending to play a few games before leaving for the night.

Unfortunately the game wasn't working - it looked like the vertical hold was screwed up. The assistant manager had the keys to open it up, so he and I were crouched down in back of the machine staring at the guts of the thing looking for some know we could twist or something. The other stock boy was standing at the front of the machine so he could watch the screen and tell us if anything we did had an effect on the display.

Now there are only the three of us in the store, and there had only been the three of us for probably an hour as we did the nightly cleanup tasks. All the doors to the store were locked as well, and had been for some time.

So as I'm kneeling in back of the video game, out of the corner of my eye I see someone walk across the front of the store toward the door! I immediately stood up, and the assistant manager did as well. No one was there, and I decided I must have hallucinated the whole thing and resolved to just keep my mouth shut. I turned at looked at the assistant manager, and he was pale white with eyes the size of dinner plates. He turned to me and said "Did you just see somebody walk across the front of the store?".

It freaked us both out. There wasn't anybody else in the store - the doors had been locked for about an hour, and we'd been through the whole store cleaning. And even if someone had managed to hide in the store during that time, there was no way for them to get out - all the doors were still locked.

So I don't know. If it had only been me I'd have written it off as a brain fart or a trick of the light, or something. In fact if I'd even said something to the assistant manager first I'd not put much stock in the whole thing, because maybe I'd planted the idea in his head. But he saw it - and he didn't just see something, he saw a man walking across the front of the store, just like I did. It still gives me the creeps a little bit even today.

[Cat Whisperer]

I was talking with my family a couple of days ago, and I mentioned that I thought a lot of people who work in hospitals would have ghost stories. Are there any hospital workers out there who have haunted hospital stories?
(BTW, Star, I've heard people talk about seeing a dead parent or relative just as they died, too. Creepy.)

[DoperChic]

I was expecting some skeptics, but geez. You don't have to be all mean about it. :(

There are so many things in life that just can't be explained. The fact is that no one knows what happens to a person after they die. No one has died and then come back to life (except for Jesus for the religious types).

Now that that's been said...

Keep the stories coming guys. I love hearing them.

[HeyHomie]

Star Light Star Bright, if you do have an entity from The Other Side inhabiting your home, either you're in it pretty deep or it's something that you're going to learn to live with (you'll have to); depending on what kind of entity you've got. The fact that your sister has had hair clips thrown at her gives me pause, but more on that in a sec. First, some preliminary investigation is in order.

You'll need to determine whether your entity is malevolent or simply making its presence known. The three signs of a malevolent entity are:

desecration of religious symbols
inexplicable, penetrating cold
indescribably foul smells


Any two of those things in combination and you've got some serious shit happening. Have you had any crosses turn up upside-down lately? A painting of Jesus (or the Virgin Mary or Buddha or whatever) defaced? A sudden 20-degree drop in temperature when you enter a room? If so, I can make some recommendations, but let's hope we don't have to go there.

The fact that stuff has turned up missing, things have been moved about, and your sister has had hair clips thrown at her suggests a poltergeist. Poltergeists generally center around a person rather than a place (e.g., a house). That this entity seems drawn to your sister is a classic poltergeist sign. It doesn't seem like her father is back to tell her he's sorry; if he's really back it sounds like he just wants to cause her more trouble. Is your sister still an adolescent? I've read a lot of literature suggesting that poltergeists are drawn to adolescent girls. Weird, I know. Either way, poltergeists can be buggers to get rid of. I wouldn't walk around the house telling it to buzz off; that would just egg it on and make matters worse. I suggest your sister address "it" and tell him that if he's really sorry, she accepts his apology and that it's time for him to move on. Hopefully that will do the trick. If it doesn't, it may be time to call in the professionals. Give me an "e" and I'll give some e-mail addresses.

And to answer to OP; no, my house isn't haunted and I've never seen a ghost. Well, there was the one time I saw the Hornet Spook Light ouside of Joplin, MO, but it certainly wasn't (and isn't) yer classic "ghost."

[Eliahna]

Originally posted by bernse
BTW - I don't think you will find too many dopers actually believe in ghosts. I am not say none will, but I don't think very many do....... Call it a hunch :)

Why do you say that, Bernse?

I happen to believe that there are things that we call ghosts. I lived in a very weird house once, where very weird things happened. I'm not sure if I posted this to another thread a few weeks back, but I actually stood in my loungeroom and watched the window LIFT itself one day (moving out day!), and was happy to see that there wasn't a person on the other end, because ghosts seemed less scary than people by that point. We'd had the police up to the house so many times because when we were alone in the house, there would be strange noises - people walking around, the window opening, the works. One night I heard a party outside that didn't exist. It stopped just minutes before the police arrived. Now, I've never seen a ghost, and don't know if that's what was causing the events in that house, but I do know that something there was going on, and that it wasn't people. I know that all the dogs we ever had at that house would snarl at nothing out of the blue - heckles and all! I know that at least the next two tenants had experiences with odd things in the house, and I know that the neighbors on one side were freaked out by what they saw and heard. I know that one night we were so afraid that we left in a hurry, and the telephone (with a long cord) was left sitting next to the window, and when we returned it was sitting on the heater like normal. That was scary. But for the most part, we thought people were breaking in and terrorising us. The last tenants were really rough people, and were forced out by the landlord (who told us all about them), and we thought it was them. We got a summons for one of them and opened it, and it was for killing a dog. We had one of them show up one day asking if he could come in and see if he'd left anything behind when he moved out (we assured him the house was empty when we moved in, and put him on his way). It was natural to assume at first that those people were behind what was going on, but seeing that window clinched the fact that it wasn't people.

[egkelly]

A few years ago, NPR carried the story of a young Yuppie couple, who purchased an old house (ca 1700) in Nyack, NY. They bought the house, then heard stories that the house was haunted 9supposedly by the ghost of a Revolutionary war General). Anyway, they were concerned about their ability to resell the house (given the stories about the haunting). Anyway, they sued the sellears, and the judge ruled that the sellars had to take the house back. My question: does such a judicial ruling require that there ACTUALLY MUST BE PROOF that the house was haunted?
Second: in many stories of hauntted houses, the (ghosts) are said to be oblivious of the people-so why do they hang around for so many centuries?

[Tommy the Cat]

I can't give definative proof one way or the other. Although, I did have a series of events happen that I can't explain. It all took place at my apartment in college.

I shared the apartment with two friends I had known forever. We had gone to a friend's place to watch the AL vs. Miami Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day, 1992 (I think that's the year). We came back and in the middle of our living room had been placed a table, a folding chair set up on top of the table, watches placed around the back supports for the chair, and a copy of King Lear with a pair of scissors through it on the chair. We just wrote this off to the previous residents (whom we knew) keeping a key, coming in, and doing this to screw with us. We asked them and they denied it, but I still have my doubts.

We had the landlord change the locks and didn't think too much about it. Then, a month or so later, my alarm clock didn't go off and I woke up late for class. I picked it up (it was a cube shaped clock radio) and it was filled with water. It was like someone had dunked it in a bucket, but the surrounding night stand wasn't wet at all. It sat right next to my bed and I asked my roommates if they knew of anything (I can't think of any reason anyone would do this) and they said they didn't. I got a new alarm and didn't worry too much about it.

Another month or so goes by. I come back from class and find our phone sitting on the coffee table with a note saying "What the hell happened here? - Dave" Dave was one of my roommates. Turns out that our phone had suffered the same fate that my radio had come to. The phone was still pretty wet and Dave said that when he woke up and went to use it (about 10am) it was filled with water. Now, our phone sat between the bedrooms, on the floor, far from the kitchen or bathroom. Chris (my other roommate), Dave, and I all said we had nothing to do with it. As with the radio, what reason would we have? To this day we have no idea what happened.

The first incident we can probably chalk up to a prank, but I'm not positive. The last two, I have no explaination at all. Makes for a hell of a story at parties and such.

[CrankyAsAnOldMan]

Well, there is a light in my house that keep coming on after we've turned it off. I used to think I was turning it on in my sleep (sleepwalking) when I went to check on the baby. But lately it has been happening before we go to bed when neither my husband and I have been up to the room since exiting it.

However, rather than think there is something supernatural going on, I think there is something wrong with the spring on the switch. I think it snaps itself back on sometimes.

Every once in a while I start to wonder.... but I gotta go with the spring theory. It would unnerve me to think some spirit was stalking around in Cranky Jr.s bedroom.

[Eliahna]

egkelly
The question of whether or not the house was haunted amounts to nothing. The problem was the stories about the house being haunted affected the ability to resell. People couldn't know for sure that the house was haunted, but hearing that it was might be enough to turn them off buying it. They would actually have to live in the house to know if it was haunted or not, and if they wouldn't buy the house in the first place, how would they know the truth of the matter?

[DoperChic]

Rastahomie, I still believe that it is my sister's father that is there and not a poltergeist or some other malevolent spirit. Reason being that she actually saw him.
He has never done anything harmful, just silly little things to let us know he's there. He's moved things when we turn around. He's found things too, like I said in my OP.

I also have an aunt that was very close to me. She passed from illness in 1991. Soon after her death, I was talking to a friend online about her and got quite upset. All of a sudden, a wooden rose fell out of a vase we had on the top of our china closet behind me. The vase was rather tall and only about 2 inches of the rose stuck out over the top of it. There was no way for that rose to have just fallen out. It had to have been picked up and taken out of it.

There was also another young man who lived int he apartment prior to my family who died there. They say it was a heart attack, but rumor has it that it was a drug overdose.

So I've got the possibility of three spirits in my apartment. I live in a dorm at college now. It may sound kinda weird, but I actually miss the strange happenings...

[Sengkelat]

"...poltergeists are drawn to adolescent girls."

Hey, aren't we all? Oh, urm, perhaps I've said too much.

"Poltergeists generally center around a person rather than a place..."

I think there's definitely something to this statement, but for non-supernatural reasons.

Check out this article on the true story "The Exorcist" was based on. It's part entertaining, part enlightening as to poltergeist phenomena.

http://www.csicop.org/si/2001-01/i-files.html

As for my spooky story, I was home alone one night, and it was pretty late, perhaps one or two AM. My family was out of town. I was in my bedroom, and I heard someone or something in the house. I grabbed a machete (we all have one at our bedside, don't we?) and crept out of my room. I went from door to door down the hall, scanning each room, methodically sweeping the house to make sure nothing could get behind me. I left all the lights on as I went, of course. When I came to the end of the hall, I had a choice, either go to the right and check the living room, or left and check the family room and kitchen. I went left and checked the rooms, looking over my shoulder all the while, trying to make sure nothing was sneaking past me from the living room. I didn't find anything, and tried to tell myself I was just being paranoid...and then saw at the end of the hall that someone had turned the light in my bedroom off. It was _really_ hard to convince myself that I was being paranoid then. I crept back to my room...and discovered that the lightbulb had burned out. Yeesh.

Another time, I had a jacket on a coatrack, and it had a snap-close hood that I put a soccerball in, with the black spots looking like big, staring eyes. Even knowing it was there, every time I saw it in the half dark it scared the living bejeezus out of me. I have no idea why I do these things to myself. But it goes to show that something only barely human-like can be misinterpreted for an actual presence.

[egkelly]

My wife's late father owned a farm in rural N.E. Brazil. On the land was an old house, that had not been lived in for many years. Anyway, the family moved in to the house (they had 13 children!). Shortly thereafter, the children began to be woken up by knocking and tapping noises against the windows and walls. This continued, and finally the family was concerned enough to consult the local priest. She was not clear about what if anything the priest attempted to do, but after a year, the family had had enough-they moved out to another house. After this, no one would live in the house, and it was abandoned to fall into ruin.

[Ethilrist]

Sometimes when I get up in the middle of the night, I find lights on all over the house. Stuff will have been pulled off the shelves, things are scattered all over the place, there'll be food spilled on the floor and all over the counters...


wait... that's the teenagers. Never mind.

[RonA]

I think I mentioned this in one of the VVC threads, but here goes.....

When I was a kid, I was asleep in my bed. All the doors and windows were locked and my parents were the only other people in the house. I was awakened when someone sat on my bed. I felt the bed move as the person sat down, and I could feel someone sitting there. I rolled over and looked, expecting to see one of my parents. Instead, I saw a man I had never seen before. As I lay there too afraid to move or scream, he turned to me with an evil grin. All I could do was pull the covers over my head. When I had built up enough courage to look again, he was gone, but I could see glowing eyes looking at me from the darkness.

This was the only experience I have had, and I realize that one incident does not a haunted house make, but it still creeps me out 20+ years later.

[Stuffy]

:::whimpering and whispers:::

I see dead people. They're everywhere. If you concentrate really hard and don't look at them they won't bother you. But if you look at them. They'll shuffle up to you, with their undescribable foul odors and make request of you. (normally for a dollar or some change)

My wife, the darn skeptic, says they're just crackheads.

[glee]

Just wanted to agree with bernse.
I like some physical evidence before I believe in anything.
Thousands of years of ghost stories, haunted houses etc - yet not one piece of evidence.

As Lance Turbo says, the James Randi foundation will pay a million dollars for any evidence of psychic powers.
No dowser, medium, telepath etc has ever produced any results better than chance in scientific tests. (Don't they want the money? :) )

If your house is haunted, and you can prove it, I will guarantee you at least a million (from a TV company), plus lasting fame.....

[DoperChic]

For those of you who either don't believe or who think that there aren't many Dopers who believe, check out this thread:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=30758

The beginning isn't much, but the ghost reports start around page 3 and get really intense around page 6. The entire thread so far is 11 pages.

[DoperChic]

...Just discovered that the VVC thread has 2 sequels.

Part 2
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=42075

and Part 3

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=67195


All boards provide for excellent reading late at night. Just be prepared to sleep with the lights on for a while. :eek:

[Johanna]

Once my daughter saw an all-white humanoid form standing in the basement, as tall as the ceiling. It wasn't moving, but she freaked when she saw it and when she looked again it wasn't there. Our house was built only about 15 years ago. No nefarious history that it know of. It might have been not a ghost but a jinni.

rastahomie, once me & my buds in St. Louis were looking in the book Weird America and read about the Hornet Spook Light. So straightaway we thought it would be a hoot to drive out there and have a look at it. We went there and sat up most of the night.

Didn't see a frickin' thing.

[Zebra]

Originally posted by egkelly
A few years ago, NPR carried the story of a young Yuppie couple, who purchased an old house (ca 1700) in Nyack, NY. They bought the house, then heard stories that the house was haunted 9supposedly by the ghost of a Revolutionary war General). Anyway, they were concerned about their ability to resell the house (given the stories about the haunting). Anyway, they sued the sellears, and the judge ruled that the sellars had to take the house back. My question: does such a judicial ruling require that there ACTUALLY MUST BE PROOF that the house was haunted?
Second: in many stories of hauntted houses, the (ghosts) are said to be oblivious of the people-so why do they hang around for so many centuries?

I know in the state of Oklahoma by law a seller must disclose if a house if believed to be haunted. It does not matter is the if the seller believes or not if the sell knows about it they must disclose it.

Star etc
It would be interesting to keep a log of all 'activity' and see if there is a pattern. Plus write down who was in the house at the time to see if your prankster is someone who has not past on to the other side.

[glee]

Originally posted by Zebra
I know in the state of Oklahoma by law a seller must disclose if a house is believed to be haunted. It does not matter if the seller believes it or not - if the seller knows about it they must disclose it.

Zebra,

Have you got a cite for this?
I can understand the law intervening if a house has e.g. dry rot or subsidence AND you can prove the seller knew about it.
But 'haunting'?!
First, as I said, there's never been any physical evidence of ghosts. Why would the courts get involved with an imaginary concept?
Secondly, how would you prove the seller 'knew' it was haunted?

Can I blackmail someone by threatening to tell everyone their house is haunted?

[donnie rotten]

I'm originally from Nova Scotia, Canada's capital of spooky stories, and as such, I can't resist the opportunity to share one of my family's best spooky stories...

The night my maternal grandmother died, there was all manner of strangeness. Just as an example, we were living in Germany at the time (I'm a base brat, which explains why I've never lived in a haunted house) while my grandmother was in hospital in Nova Scotia. My mother was doing the dishes, my sisters were drying, I was being a five-year-old pain in the ass when all of the sudden, my mom drops a dish and says, "It's over." Then continues on as if nothing happened. About a minute later the base chaplain is at the door explaining that he's just received a phone call from my grandfather...

Wait, it gets spookier. My uncle was staying home with his newborn son, and so he wasn't at the hospital. The baby started to cry, and when he got to the room, there's my grandmother, standing over the crib. The baby's quieted down, and my uncle asks, "Mom when did you get home? I didn't hear you come in." But she just laid a finger across her lips and sat in the rocking chair in the room. My uncle, satisfied that my grandmother would watch over the baby, goes back to kitchen for a cup of tea, and that's when my grandfather comes in and tells my uncle that my grandmother had passed away. "What are you talking about? she's in the room with the baby!" Of course, she wasn't...

:insert Twilight Zone music here:

[Cat Whisperer]

This reminds me that when I was trying to sell my condo, the first buyers fell through because they said they had done some research and felt that there was too much supernatural activity around my complex (they were very superstitious people, apparently). They had already made an offer that was signed by everyone involved, but they were still able to back out. I was surprised to hear the place was haunted; I'd had no trouble there (other than lots of night frights). Actually, now that I think about it, my night frights have pretty much stopped since I moved out of the condo. Hmmm.

[Dijon Warlock]

glee:

Here's the official site (http://members.home.net/subwaymark/ghost.htm) for the Nyack house. The decision was based on the concept that the house's reputation, whether deserved or not, could have an effect on the property's resale value; so it's "hauntedness" was looked upon as no different than something like dry rot. It made no decision regarding the reality of the haunting, only of its reputation, which had been widely publicised. Ghost hunters and psychic researchers could make living there enough of a pain even without ghosts.

[Zebra]

Sorry I don't have a cite but I distinctly remember when I lived in Oklahoma the law making the local news. I can't remember if the law was being passed at the time (late 80's?) or if it was a news story about a 'funny old law' that someone discovered on the books.

[Gravity]

Some background:
I would often visit my paternal grandfather when I was young. I would spend the night or the weekend when my parents wanted a quick getaway. It was very easy for them because he lived only seven miles away. He was a bit of an odd man, but I have no doubt that he loved me fiercely. I really liked spending time with my Grampie, and I was very upset when he died. My sister Jessi was six, I was eleven, and we hadn't seen him for about three years.
Shortly after that, my dad started getting phone calls that when he answered, there was only dead air on the line. He swore that he could smell Grampie's pipe smoke just before the calls happened. I was only there for one of the calls - the last one.
My dad had just moved into a new apartment. The phone was plugged in to the wall, but the Phone Company wasn't going to turn it on for three or four more days. Back then, around here anyway, if the phone wasn't hooked up, when you picked up the handset you couldn't even get a dial tone. Nothing at all. We were all sitting around, eating supper and the phone rang. Dad just stared at it. None of us knew that it wasn't hooked up yet, so we weren't scared of it. I asked "do you want me to get it?" and he shook his head no. Just then I got the faintest whiff of Grampie's pipesmoke. Dad picked up the phone and just listened, not saying anything. He went white as a sheet and then he said "Look, dad, don't call me again, you're scaring the kids!" and slammed down the receiver. He looked over at me and said, "He kept saying my name." He never called again.

Flash to present:
Seventeen years later. My younger sister Jessi has a three year old son named Lucas. My dad lives in Florida, now. Last Tuesday, Lucas was at the kitchen table, cutting up paper (his favorite pastime.) He looks over at Jessi and says, "When I was a grown man I loved you, mama." Jess kept making supper, but perked up an ear, because my family has many interesting reincarnation tidbits from young children. "Did you, hon? What was your name?" He thinks for a minute, like he's deciding what to say, and he finally says "Grampie." Jess just looked at him, shocked. No one has ever mentioned Grampie to him, there was no reason to. None of us have even spoken of him in ten years, at least. We don't have any pictures of him, and my dad couldn't have said anything because the only time he met Lucas was when Lucas was about three months old. Figuring it was still a coincidence, Jess asks, "Did you loved aunt KK when you were a grown man, too?" Lucas nodded without hesitation. "Yes, I loved her so much, mama! But she was a very little girl back then."
Jess got the creeps and changed the subject, but I wonder if reincarnation is possible after all. Maybe Grampie still had things to say. Or maybe now he's said them. Who's to tell?

[glee]

Dijon Warlock,

Thanks for the reference. As you say
'The court's decision also took into account the very tangible impact of the house's "hauntedness" upon its property value. Because of Ackley's avid publicizing, ghost hunters from across the country would be seeking it out for years to come, and even creeping around in the yard on package tours. Not exactly conditions for maximum resale appreciation.'

Zebra,

I now agree with you: it's happened in US law - the 'reputation' of a house can affect its sale.

But there's still no evidence of hauntings!

[486]

I've heard what sounds like somone walking around on the
upper floor when when I was in the basement... I'd go
upstairs and noone was around (and no sound). This happend
on more than one occasion, no other family members were home
at the time nor could have anyone been there and left
without running accross the room to the door.
I've also heard strange sounds come from the basement, and
on the times I even bothered to go look there was nobody
down there.
This seemed to happen more so during the day than at night!
I also sometimes get this 'cold feeling' that goes through
me

The house was bought new and was built in the 80's. as far
as I know nothing happened in or around the house before
or while it was being built.
At least one other neighbor has had 'strange' things happen

----------------------------------------------------
There are a few bulidings around my area that I would not
go into because people have been killed there (not related
and only happened in the past few years)

-486

[berdollos]

I didn't believe in haunted houses until I ran into a few about ten years ago.

It is hard to convince a skeptic. But I like the phrase, "Nothing is real until it's local"

When you experience something directly, it can make a believer out of you.

[Zebra]

I was recently watching the Discovery channel (or TLC I get them mixed up) and they had show about some ghost hunters that was pretty interesting.

There was a group of three or four of them and they would go to 'haunted' places. They brought tons of hi-tech stuff like very sesitive motion dectectors, thermal imaging systems and audio and video and lots of cameras. And they brought a psychick. So they set up their equipemt in various rooms including rooms in the place that had no reports of activity and tried to do some expierements. What was interesting is that the psychick would report feeling something while the rest of the equipment also registered 'something'. An empty room has the motion detector go off and the temp drops 20 dergrees and the cameras record some 'orbs'. All at the same time.

Dosent' prove hauntings but it did seem like a serious stab at trying to get some hard data.

[glee]

Zebra,

you send interesting posts. :)

I've seen a few British TV programs, but they never found anything.

If a room temperature drops 20 degrees (instantly? - you didn't say), then I want an explanation!
I know of no current science that can explain that, so I'm open for a new theory. Admittedly, I prefer simple explanations, so I don't know I'd include 'people coming back from the dead' (especially since they didn't manifest), but I sure want more investigation.

P.S. I like the temperature monitoring, but not the 'psychick'. (Presumably she's female ;) ). Any psychic power is now worth $1,000,000, so I'd like to know why this person doesn't want it....

[domina]

Another interesting CSICOP link:

http://www.csicop.org/sb/2000-06/poltergeist.html

This house was apparently haunted by a poltergeist, but the team found credible explanations for everything. I always think of it when I hear a convincing ghost story.

[Creaky]

Wow, this is a cool thread, and that is a great question. It's been fascinating to read so far.

I personally don't believe in ghosts, but I love a good ghost story.

The house where I lived for ten years in Richmond, Virginia certainly should have been haunted.

Quick synopsis:

This house was a great place in a nice neighborhood (West End, for you Richmondites). My father got the house REAL cheap. As we got to know our neighbors on either side, this is what we learned. The house had been owned before us by a rather nasty bully of a man who neglected his wife and was a big game hunter (not that the two are always related, of course!). Naturally, there were a lot of guns in that house.

One day, the wife put one of the husband's guns in her mouth and shot herself. Bleah. Apparently she did it in the Master Bedroom. Everybody in the neighborhood knew the story, of course, but it's not soemthing any self-respecting realtor is gonna tell a family interested in the house in question.

I never saw any manifestations, but at that point in my youth I was almost exhilarated to learn that we were living in a Death House! I was always on the lookout for any and all ectoplasmic explosions, so to speak. Man, creepy!

But no ghosts. Oh, well.

[Zebra]

I'm personally interested in this sort of phenomena but I think it is very difficult to study. They are kind of like tornadoes, which are also tough to bring into a lab and you have to be in the right place at the right time to study them up close. I do believe in tornadoes though.

[Sparteye]

Well, here's a story I never expected to relate on this board. I must premise it by noting that I do not believe in ghosts, nor do I disbelieve in ghosts. I do believe, however, that there are things happening which we do not understand. I have no idea what the explanations are; could be incorporeal beings, could be telekinesis, could be aspects of electromagnetism, could be group hallucination; whatever.

In the late 1960s, my mother and stepfather purchased an old (built in the late 1800s?) house in a small town near a state forest, to use as a base for winter sports. The house was empty most of the time, since we just went up there on certain weekends, and so they did not hook up a telephone. Instead, they arranged with a local deputy sheriff with whom they had become acquainted to be contacted through his office if an emergency arose. The deputy also kept an eye on the house when we were not there. However, they bought the house fully furnished, and there was a telephone on a desk in the living room.

A short time after they bought the house, my mother and her mother and father went up to the house for a week to fix it up. They repainted and wallpapered all the rooms on the second floor, and performed a number of maintenance tasks. One day, my mom and grandfather went to the hardware store, and when they got back, my grandmother told my mom that someone had been trying to get ahold of her. Mom asked if the deputy had been by, and a confusing discussion ensued until my grandmother specified that the telephone kept ringing but nobody was there when she answered it. "Mom," said my mom, "that phone doesn't work. Look, the cord doesn't even go to the wall." The telephone cord had been cut about two feet away from the phone, and just dangled along the back of the desk.

Well, the phantom phone calls were just the beginning. When they were upstairs my folks started hearing the sound of the kitchen chairs being dragged across the floor; when they were downstairs, they could hear footsteps above. Things got moved. My grandparents' dog would go into a tizz at something on the stairway.

In the upstairs bathroom was an old, wooden medicine cabinet on the wall over the sink, and above the sink was a light sconce. The medicine cabinet door swung up to open, and was closed with a hook latch. Anyway, while preparing the room for new wallpaper, my mom had a terrible time getting the cabinet and sconce off. She struggled and swore, but finally got them down. After wallpapering, she then had an equally terrible time getting them reinstalled. After finally putting the fixture and cabinet back in place, she latched the cabinet door and said something like, "There, you S.O.B." and left the room. She took a couple of steps out the door and heard a loud bang and the explosion of glass. She went back in the bathroom and the medicine cabinet door had come unlatched, and was still swinging slightly. It had apparently swung up to strike and shatter the light bulb in the fixture above.

So, my folks asked the deputy about the occurrences, and he told them that he had been repeatedly called out to the house by the neighbors when we were not there because they kept seeing lights on upstairs and the shadow of someone walking about. But, even though he had a key and inspected, he never found anyone.

My bedroom was at the top of the stairs, and my bed was against the wall which was shared with my parents' bedroom. One morning, I was lazing about when a knocking started on the wall beside me. I thought it was my stepfather, trying to get me up. I tried to ignore it, but it persisted. Finally, I did the da-da-da-da-da of the first phrase of "shave and a haircut" and he answered, da-da, "two bits." I said, "all right," and got up. I went out to the hall and down the stairs. As I descended the stairs, I saw the silhouette of a person going out the front door and to the left. I also heard the door shut. However, the person did not pass by the adjacent window. It was early, and we almost never used the front door, so I went to the door and looked out. Nobody there, in any direction. And the deadbolt on the door was locked tight. I went to the kitchen, and to my surprise, the entire family was sitting at the kitchen table. "Who was just here?" I asked. Nobody, I was told. "But somebody just went out the front door. Who?" Nobody, they all said. "But you heard the door shut just now, didn't you?" Well, yes, now that you mention it, everybody did hear the door. But it's locked, too...? So then I asked my stepdad, "Was that you upstairs knocking on the wall?" NO -nobody has been upstairs. We are all here

After we'd had the house for a while, the oddities stopped. But then, my folks decided to sell, and things started up again. New to the itinerary was a fine dust which coated every pot and pan in the kitchen every day. We looked everywhere for a crack in the wall, a furnace problem and everything else we could think of, but ended up just having to wash everything every morning until the house sold.

As I understand it, the house was sold for use as a half-way house for a mental facility. I've always wondered whether the weirdnesses continued and if they had an effect on the patients.

[glee]

Originally posted by Zebra
I'm personally interested in this sort of phenomena but I think it is very difficult to study. They are kind of like tornadoes, which are also tough to bring into a lab and you have to be in the right place at the right time to study them up close. I do believe in tornadoes though.

Zebra, this was not one of your better posts. :eek:

Science can detect tornadoes. We have film, wind measurements, damage caused by their passing and even a scientific theory of what causes them.
You can go out and see one for yourself (isn't there a bit of the US called Tornado Alley?).

Nobody has EVER produced ANY physical evidence of any ghost, nor of any ghostly actions.

I agree it's incredibly difficult to study the inside of tornadoes, but they do exist (unlike ghosts).

[glee]

Originally posted by Zebra
I'm personally interested in this sort of phenomena but I think it is very difficult to study. They are kind of like tornadoes, which are also tough to bring into a lab and you have to be in the right place at the right time to study them up close. I do believe in tornadoes though.

Zebra, this was not one of your better posts. :eek:

Science can detect tornadoes. We have film, wind measurements, damage caused by their passing and even a scientific theory of what causes them.
You can go out and see one for yourself (isn't there a bit of the US called Tornado Alley?).

Nobody has EVER produced ANY physical evidence of any ghost, nor of any ghostly actions.

I agree it's incredibly difficult to study the inside of tornadoes, but they do exist (unlike ghosts).

[glee]

Now there's a funny thing - I definitely posted only once.

But Occam's Razor tells me it's more likely that the system (or me) made a mistake, rather than a ghost decided to prove it's existence by double posting me...

[Zebra]

Originally posted by glee

Zebra, this was not one of your better posts. :eek:

Science can detect tornadoes. We have film, wind measurements, damage caused by their passing and even a scientific theory of what causes them.
You can go out and see one for yourself (isn't there a bit of the US called Tornado Alley?).

Nobody has EVER produced ANY physical evidence of any ghost, nor of any ghostly actions.

I agree it's incredibly difficult to study the inside of tornadoes, but they do exist (unlike ghosts).

Well, read the account above where a fixture was broken or of furniture being moved. The ability to detect tornadoes is a recent scientific ability. The ability to actually predict tornadoes is very recent. Plus we only have this ability because teams and teams of well funded scientist went after the problem. I don't think we need the goverment to plant down several million but some study in places like Sparteyes place would be nice.

BTW the study I watched on TV didn't tell me several things I wanted to know. Specifically about the temperature change. Like what were the temperatures? What was the temp outside? Did it go back? The drop occured in a earthen basement of an old fort late at night. So if the room warmed up during the day a unseen ventilation could easily explain the change if it changed to the outside temp.

But like I said they didn't tell us the numbers.

[glee]

Originally posted by Zebra
The ability to detect tornadoes is a recent scientific ability. The ability to actually predict tornadoes is very recent. Plus we only have this ability because teams and teams of well funded scientist went after the problem. I don't think we need the goverment to plant down several million but some study in places like Sparteyes place would be nice.

Hang on! We've had physical evidence of storms for centuries. Tornadoes are just a specific version.
I've seen programs of a couple of guys. One drives, one has the video camera. They provide evidence of tornadoes, without any funding.

OK, tornado forecasting is indeed a specialist art with satellite pictures and all sorts of expensive equipment. But the existence of tornadoes is easy to document.

By contrast all the 'evidence' for ghosts is anecdotal. People wake up and see a face at the window... they think they hear noises in an empty house...
The problem here (get the tact ready!) is that people are not terribly good as eye-witnesses. Look at descriptions of criminals given to the police.
Let's have some physical evidence.

Originally posted by Zebra
BTW the study I watched on TV didn't tell me several things I wanted to know. Specifically about the temperature change. Like what were the temperatures? What was the temp outside? Did it go back? The drop occurred in a earthen basement of an old fort late at night. So if the room warmed up during the day a unseen ventilation could easily explain the change if it changed to the outside temp.
But like I said they didn't tell us the numbers.


Well no, they usually don't. Remember the network probably won't pay for a programme that investigates something and finds no supporting evidence. But a programme that leaves people wondering - why, you can make a sequel!

[Timban]

I rarely post, but I follow the message board all the
time.. I just have to add in what used to happen in my
bedroom, back in the house I lived in for seven years.

When we moved into this house, I chose my bedroom because
in one bedroom, I just didn't feel right. I was
uncomfortable, a bit fidgety, but didn't know why. A few
years later, I had too much stuff for the one room, and
moved into the larger bedroom.

I had lots of trouble sleeping half-way decently in that
room. I would hear basslines and muted voices behind the
wall (The wall between my room and the disused garage),
I would see flickerings of shadows out of the corner of my
eye, while at the computer. Every now and then, I would get
the feeling that I was /very/ unwelcome in that room, and
even ran out of the room screaming and in a panic.

The window over the head of my bed faced out into an empty
backyard. Every now and then, at something like five in the
morning, the whole window would shake in the frame. It was
always sudden, like someone had slammed head-on into the
window. If I looked back, the frame was shaking.

Finally had my fears confirmed when I had a friend over for
the night. We were watching a movie, when he looked over to
my computer and bolted out of the room. I looked over and saw a black circle on the wall, at about head-level, and
I bolted behind him.

My dad would hear banging in my closet at two in the
morning. He would come to check on me, and I would be
lying in bed. I had very frequent dreams of hundreds of
people, standing outside my window, staring in on me. I had dreams about a glowing red light in the field behind our
house. It happened every night, from the time I moved in
to that room, to the day I moved out of the house.

The least strange thing that ever happened was while I had
the house to myself for two weeks. Every night, when I
would come home from work, the TV in my room was on and
cranked up loud, but I guess that can be attributed to a
cheap TV, too.