My house and SO are possessed

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My SO bought a house last month. We just moved into it this weekend. It’s a precious house with a 1940’s Betty Crocker kitchen that makes me all kinds of happy inside. [Everytime my SO walks into the kitchen he says: “The pie’s not done YET?”]

But I think it’s possessed. And more importantly, I think my SO is either possessed now due to ownership - or this “moving in together” thing is making him hallucinate. I had about an hour’s sleep last night because I was fretting about ghosts and haunts and restless spirits.

First the house part - the garage door decided to lock itself one day a few weeks ago. We hadn’t moved in, but we were here most every day painting and whatnot. SO had to take the people door off the side of the garage to walk in and open the door from the inside. It’s on an electric opener, therefore we don’t actually touch the door at all to open and close it. So we were a bit dumbfounded at that. That hasnt happened again, but now the door will take to opening itself of its own free will. Honestly. SO went home for lunch on Tuesday and asked if I had been by. I said no. He said: “Huh, the garage door was up.” He was the last one to leave and swears he shut it. I chalked that up to just first- of-the-morning forgetfulness. But THIS morning, it was up again. And I was the one who shut it last night. I am certain I shut it because I was standing outside as it shut, whatching SO’s parents pull away. I turned off the light above garage, and could still see the light on the garage closer, which only comes one when it’s opening or closing. I KNOW it closed. And when I walked out to the car this morning, it was up ???

Now for the SO part - Tuesday night I woke suddenly, to find SO standing up on his side of the bed, looking at me. He was sweating, so I asked if he was ok. He said Yes, go to sleep. The next morning I asked him what was up and he said he didnt remember, but I could tell he did. I pressed once more and he said he didnt want to talk about it, so I dropped it.

Last night, we go to bed around midnight. It takes me a while to fall asleep, especially in a new place and when there’s so much to do throughout the house. SO is snoring as soon as his head hits the pillow. Well a little after 1 am, I was just getting into some real sleep and SO starts flailing about. I bolt up and look over. He flips over onto all fours on the bed, yells “HOLY GOD WHAT THE !@^& IS THAT???” In my just-scared-awake state, I see a black flattened shape flop on the bed in front of him. He slaps at the bed near the shape, then gets up and runs out into the hall. [in my sleep-deprived giddyness today I am laughing hysterically picturing this again] I am up and right behind him, only I flip on the bedroom light while standing out in the hall. I look and see nothing. I ask him what it was. Now, my SO is going on 25. He still has a baby face, even though he’s 6’2" and nearly 280 lbs. He holds his hands up in a circle like a 4 year old and says, half awake and squinting in the light “It was like a big spider” Me, going on 31 and not having a strong phobia of spiders, flip the comforter over, wave the sheets about, look under the bed, behind the bed - and see nothing. I said “Are you sure it was a spider? I thought it was a bat or something, it looked big” (I hate bats. I fear them tremendously. A spider you can squish, a bat you can’t) His eyes get all big and he says “You saw something too??” “I could swear I did.” Well, at that point, it was obvious I really hadn’t or else the bat would be flying around the room, right? We have no curtains up yet for it to hide in. SO just rubs his eyes and says “I want to go home” He falls back on the bed and immediately starts snoring. Bastard. Adrenaline has my heart pumping like I’m running a marathon. I turn the light out, get back in bed tentatively, and lay for hours trying to figure out this little episode.

Maybe we’re both just exhausted from moving (we didnt hire movers). I know I’m doubly exhasuted now.

Maybe I was just seeing a trick of the light, wherein he may have actually had an honest-to-goodness hallucination. And if he did, is he having second thoughts about the house? And me living in it with him?

Maybe the house wants us out, is trying to scare us. Maybe the owner’s dead husband who kept the place in tip top shape for 45 years is not happy with all the computers and new-fangled updates we’ve done to his masterpiece.

Anyone have Buffy’s or Angel’s number?

I need a nap.

2

I wonder if one of your neighbors doesn’t have a garage door opener set to a similar frequency. Maybe you two should buy a six pack and drive around clicking it to see who’s else opened.

3

Clearly, you need to add a toy remote controlled blimp to your household.

4

Yeah! But you should keep it under a wispy, white slip-cover. And tie a little kazoo or something near the propellers, so it doesn’t accidentally sneak up behind them. Instead it’ll make an eerie – erm, helpful droning!

5

Indeed, Max :smiley:

and** lieu**, we’ve got lots of Great Lakes brew in the fridge, I think a car ride is in order…

6

Was the bedroom door shut? Cause that really does sound like it could be a bat, and you’d be AMAZED where they can get.

7

Well, they do say possession is nine tenths of the law :wink: .

Seriously it sounds more like you and your SO are just tired, and stressed from the move, on edge about sleeping in a new house with all new creepy nighttime noises and are both freaking yourselves out. If one or both of you are nervous/on edge from getting jumpy about some unexplained noise then you will feed off that state of anxiety and start jumping at shadows/spiders/remotes on the same frequency. It is easy to scare yourself in unfamiliar surroundings, your SO probably had a nightmare and felt a bit daft for waking you, so tried to pass it off as nothing, then a couple of nights later a spider crawls over him in the night, he wakes up, scares you and while half asleep you imagine it to be something larger than it is. I once woke up convinced that there was someone standing over the foot of my bed when i was on holiday, turned out to be my dressing gown on the back of the door, but it gave me a helluva fright. Just try not to dwell on it, or even think about it too much, get the garage door looked at and you are likely to get settled in fine.

Damn, on rereading that it seems really harsh and dismissive, sorry, it wasn’t meant to, just that it IS really easy to scare yourself when under stress, and moving house is supposedly one of the most stressful things you can do.

Of course, should either of you find that your heads are rotating through 360 degrees and you have acquired the new and interesting party piece of acting as a long range pea soup dispenser, then something unusual might be happening. :eek:

8

No, but aruvqan can put you in touch with Ed & Lorraine Warren.

9

I think lieu is probably right about the garage door being on a similar frequencyas a neighbor or something. Ours goes up (but not back down, for some reason) all the time. Since we’ve got a nice, big, gated driveway and don’t use the garage for car storage, we unplugged ours to keep it down. I heard somewhere that airplanes flying over can cause them to open up also. (Sorry, I don’t remember where I heard it) We live directly under the flight path of the John Wayne Airport so it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s true.

10

We had the same problem with new neighbors with a new garage door opener.

The reason it goes up and not back down is that your neighbor drives up near your house and hits the button. Your and his door go up. Then he gets out of his car inside his garage and hits the button on the wall, not effecting (affecting?) your door.

As for the big scary spiderbat… I think you’re crazy. :smiley:

11

One more suggestion on the garage door…

All garage door openers that I know of will reopen if the door catches on something before the door fully closes. Unless you have watched the door completely close (not just see the light go on) and stay closed for about 2 seconds, it could be the door thinks there is something in the way and reopening.

For the next week or so I’d make sure the door is really fully closed before leaving.

You can also check your remote. Most modern remotes have some switches that you can set your own code. This is to prevent the situation of the neighbors having the same remote and opening your door. Try changing the code, but be sure to do it on both the opener and the remote.

12

I would suggest changeing the codes on the garage door opener. Very simple, and should only take a few minutes.
Of course, if it still opens, you might want to befriend the local church…

13

I have had actual dreams where I have seen things like that, (shapes, figures, animals and sometimes people) and have woken up in the middle of the night screaming or running out of the bed. I am terrified of snakes and the majority of the time this is what I see. I believe (but am not sure) this is called night terrors. When I am under stress, or am over tired is when this usually happens, and I always wake up screaming for Crunchy to get them out of the bed. It usually takes him about 5 minutes to get me calm enough to go back to sleep, but when I finally do, it was like I never woke up. He usually has to tell me about it the next day, sometimes I remember on my own.

In the begining he was so sweet and would comfort me. The last time this happened, I pretty much just froze in the bed, too afraid to move, and begged him to promise me there were no snakes in the bed. After about 3 minutes of me asking “Are you sure? Do you promise?” he hates when I do that while I’m awake so imagine waking him with the very thing he hates I got this response…“Dammitt yes!! Now go back to sleep!!” :eek:

14

I of course wasn’t suggesting you get snockered during your patrol to investigate the possibility of co-residing frequencies. More it was that if indeed you do manage to open someone’s garage door, much to their surprise as they’re standing in the back yard next to a grill and armed with a large fork, a cold brew may help ease tensions in the absence of wampum or a stoked peace pipe.

Few robbers offer you a beer before pursuing their vocation. There’s a Welcome Wagon joke in there somewhere.

15

Try some relaxing reading before bedtime.

I suggest books by Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, or HP Lovecraft.

16

The prior posts have been good & practical. I just want to add that when you buy a house, you become insane for a while.

My form of it involved “people who have houses naturally (ie without financial consequences) also have a ____”, the blank being a piano, a new garage door, etc. Fortunately I got over it before ruin was complete, or before it destroyed our relationship.

It was our first house, so maybe that’s an excuse.

And our garage and cellar got opened, their lights left on, etc. It turned out the seller kept slipping back. Then we changed the locks, which we should have done as a matter of course.

17

I had a bat get in my house in the middle of the night. I couldn’t bring it down myself, so I called 911, which despatched Animal Control. But by the time they arrived, the bat had disappeared - gone however it had gotten in. There was no question of my dreaming this; I’ve had numerous close encounters with bats, and while I don’t enjoy them swooping around in a panic, I don’t especially fear them (they eat bugs - a GOOD thing in my book!).

I also had a TV which constantly showed the influence of some neighbor’s remote. I’m lucky, in that I’m the apparently only person in my immediate neighborhood with a remote garage door opener, but I HAVE found my garage door to be “magically” opened on the occasional rainy morning.

On the whole, I think natural explanations cover your situation quite adequately. As others have pointed out, moving is one of the most stressful things you can possibly go through. You’ve got enough on your plate without looking for supernatural phenomena to add to the mix.

But we’re waiting for that pie…

18

I know what this is.

There is—no, wait for it—a bat in your neighborhood whose sonar operates on the same frequency as your garage door opener. This bat is breaking into your garage at night so the garage door opener light comes on, which will attract moths, and when they arrive he stuffs himself stupid and heads for bed. However, he gets logy and confused, and heads upstairs instead to your bedroom.

The remedy here is to play some music loudly to drive away the bat. I recommend blues: Albert King’s famous “Board Under a Bat Sine.”