Advice please: I think our house is haunted

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

Hi guys,

I hope I don't come across as a nutjob but I give you my word that everything I am writing is 100% truth. Things have been happening for a few months but last night kind of got to me.

Went to bed around 12pm and went straight to sleep. Woke up at 3.17am to the bed shaking, at first I thought my wife was shaking me. Then after I realised she was asleep I figured we just had another small aftershock. I started to doze back off to sleep when a big bang from down the end of the corridor caused me to become wide awake. I sat up this time, thinking one of the kids had got up and dropped something. A couple of minutes later and another loud bang, again there was no sound from the kids and strangely it didn't wake anybody up. I thought about getting up but I was actually a little freaked out TBH

The final straw was a minute or two later when I heard two loud, unmistakable 'knocks' coming from either the end of our corridor or our spare room at the end. It sounded exactly like someone was knocking on the door. I was pretty much frozen in bed by this stage, that was the last sound I heard and eventually I must have drifted back off to sleep.

Thinking I might take my phone up with me tonight so if it happens again I can try and record it. Any ideas or suggestions? Will see what happens tonight MF.

[Glasvegan]

You said you were getting building work done... any dramatic changes happening in the weather at the moment that could be causing the walls to contract/expand making things creak?

Also not to sound like a nutjob but... my dad used to work clearing haunted houses (he was a Reiki Master/general therapist, we had a health centre), if you think there are strange energies around you can always find someone to come in and take a look. There are very indisputable experiences people have had, although no one believes it till it happens to them. It shouldn't be haunted/have strange energies unless it's an old house though, or built on an old site?

[blabbate]

Well, look. I can't make you not believe in ghosts. However, bear in mind that we've equipped much of the global population with ubiquitous video and audio recording equipment, yet have generated, as a planet, zero evidence of supernatural activity that withstands scientific scrutiny. So I guess I'm saying not to worry too much about ghosts. Look for mundane explanations first.

[stcalico]

I always think I hear someone in my house whenever my DH leaves town. I have to check all the closets and bathtubs etc just to reassure myself, otherwise I would never fall asleep. lol.

When I was little I would sometimes hear marbles rolling around on the linoleum floor of my bedroom closet.. I didn't own marbles. And sometimes there would be a cat purring in my bed.. I didn't own a cat. Much as I liked cats I opted to go sleep on the couch cuz that was just freaky. I know how you feel...

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

Thanks for the replies, it definately gets you thinking!

Ever since we bought the house there's been these two orbs/balls of energy/whatever you want to call them. They appeared on the first photos we took inside the new house when we started repainting...



They usually appear in photos with the children, normally one for each child

[blabbate]

"Orbs" are just photographic backscatter. They're light reflecting off of particles, usually dust, in the air. You'll see them most often when you have a bright light source close to or closely aligned with the lens.

[vegan_rossco]

Hey jim! Weird problem you've got there ahha, well as you know I'm from the Isle of Wight which is considered to be the most haunted place in the world (If you believe in ghosts of course), personally I strongly believed in ghosts and was convinced of their existence up until my late teens, due to going to every iledgedly haunted place on the island with torches and filming equipment with friends and never seeing anything at all. Anyway what I'm saying is, is that you shouldn't underestimate the power of imagination. The more you believe and dwell on it the more likely things are going to happen, ooo and also my best friend moved into a new place and for a little while had weird experiences, especially in the middle of the night. Its probably a natural response to be more aware of a new and different environment, I'm sure everything will work out bro! Keep us posted

[Kon]

What you describe sound like some of the known effects a person can witness while falling asleep. You can do a search about it, but if you fall asleep while maintaining some level of consciousness, you're spatial awareness can feel different and you can start feeling vibrations (which makes you believe your bed is shaking/waving), also you can hear all sorts of noises from loud bangs to whispers, etc.. I've experiences these things before. There are even ways to produce them through mental exercises while falling asleep.. look up astral projection. I wouldn't focus too much on the spiritual aspect since I feel a lot of that is interpretations people create.

[blabbate]

What you describe sound like some of the known effects a person can witness while falling asleep. You can do a search about it, but if you fall asleep while maintaining some level of consciousness, you're spatial awareness can feel different and you can start feeling vibrations (which makes you believe your bed is shaking/waving), also you can hear all sorts of noises from loud bangs to whispers, etc.. I've experiences these things before. There are even ways to produce them through mental exercises while falling asleep.. look up astral projection. I wouldn't focus too much on the spiritual aspect since I feel a lot of that is interpretations people create.

+1

Our brains are unbelievably good at tricking us into feeling, seeing, and hearing things that aren't there. Heck, people used to think that sleep paralysis was a demon sitting on their chest, which, in a more superstitious time, isn't a terribly insane leap to make.

[vegan_rossco]

Weird things tend to happen to me if I try and sleep on my back, for example I'll suddenly jolt awake as if I've fallen, I can see how some people might mistake this as paranormal when really its just an example of your brain being an asshole

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

Cheers guys, the falling asleep stuff makes sense. Will keep you posted though! Thanks MF.

[asparagus]

... I can see how some people might mistake this as paranormal when really its just an example of your brain being an asshole

Awesome!

I've got a new sig line...

[vegan_rossco]

Hahahah glad you liked that asparagus :p

[rickb]

I don't think you're a nut job unless I am too. I have been "frozen" in bed before when it was just me and the dobie who alarmed me by staring at something behind my back when I was laying there. I could see him because of the glow of the digital clock. What is strange, he usually gets up to go see what something is. He jerked his head up and was staring directly over me (behind me) which was in the direction of our master bathroom/dressing room suite. It doesn't open up from the outside. The look he had was perked up ears and head raised tall. Had to be there, but I did not want to look behind me.

Another time we left the kids home with a friend of theirs and we went to eat a quick bite with the friend's parents. Got a call saying someone else was in the house. They locked themselves in our bedroom with one of my guns and stayed on the phone with me on the way home. We got there, searched the house and found nothing. The friend visiting swore up and down when they were in our living room, he saw a man standing in the breakfast nook. Not sure about that one.

I'm kinda a believer in ghosts, but a little on the fence. I have heard one more story that was really weird.

My wife is a home health nurse and so is her friend. Strangely enough, it's the mother of the kid that said he saw someone. She was visiting an old widow in an old wood frame house about 6 miles out of town. I've seen the house. Anyways, she said while she is asking the patient question in the living room, the door that goes to the kitchen slams shut. She asked the patient if someone is home and the patient non-chalantly said "no that's just the ghost that lives here. She said she went and opened the door back up and paid attention to see if windows were open somewhere causing it. she saw none. She said it happened again just mere feet away from her. She was telling us about it and her eyes got big and she said I decided then...just leave the door shut. LOL!

I dunno really, but keep us posted. Hopefully if it is...it is friendly. Ha! I have had some sudden wakes from sleep that I think I dreamed disturbances though. But if you were awake on some of it...not telling!

[DebbieBaldauf]

Hi! Forklift, I can definitely relate to what you're saying, and I'd be totally freaked out too! (I'm very much like stcalico ... I can't stand to be alone in the house at night ... my only consolation is my dog ... I figure if something was really wrong, she'd tell me .... like rick's dobie) When I was younger, I would swear I would hear someone whispering in my ear as I would walk down the hallway on our second floor. I would turn around, and no one was there. Weird.

I also had an experience that I feel was my late father reassuring me before I got married. I was upset that he was not able to be at our wedding to give me away, and I had been thinking about that all day. As I lay in bed that night, I felt someone touch my arm. No one was in the room. Now, usually, I'd get totally freaked by this but I wasn't scared at all. Now, I am also a very logical, and totally understand that our brains can be jerks, and play tricks on us .... and that could very well be what happened that night, but I like to believe it was my dad telling me that it was alright, and that he would still be there with us.

Anyway ... just my two cents. Let us know what happens!