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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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?
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…
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.
Here’s the official site 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.
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.
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?
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.
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)
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.
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…
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.
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!
)
). Any psychic power is now worth $1,000,000, so I’d like to know why this person doesn’t want it…