Shitting a brick over my lovely abode being haunted....

[KeepOnPloddingOn]

Argh!

I hate spooky. I hate ghosts. I am a big, feart scaredy- cat!

So it has come to my attention that my humble abode is indeed haunted
Several have said they have heard / experienced strange noises / seen things.

Help! AIBU to want to move dh, dd and I out?

Newsecret - First of all, I'm assuming your clocks don't all stop at quarter to nine or similar, where the minute hand has to cross the hour hand (they stick due to warping; ¼ to 9 is the most common sticking point.) Secondly, that your clocks don't all stop at a time when a nearby factory/workshop/depot starts work, they're drilling the road outside, or similar.

Malfunctions in delicate equipment, a spooked feeling, things moving across surfaces and strange things glimpsed from the corner of your eye can be caused by low-frequency vibrations (infrasound) - if all or most of the phenomena are happening together, it's actually the most likely source. Can be fixed. Have a look at this lovely chap's work :) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vic_Tandy

Something called an infrasound standing wave can not only cause spooky effects, but also make people physically ill with nausea, headaches, etc - they're being developed as weapons. The most likely source of a domestic standing wave is a generator, boiler, cooling system or similar equipment that would make a deep "brrr" sound if you were closer to it - could be several buildings away, as infrasound waves are very long. The standing wave is set up by the sound bouncing off something else, which might also not be in your home, but you can interrupt it (stopping the haunted effects) with help from a geek with infrasound detection equipment.

Now I've haunted bored you all with a low, rhythmic explanation of LFVs, I'll catch up on the thread!

Cleorapta I know, this stuff is not nice, is it?

I am pretty used to night terrors, they don't really bother me so much. I can see if you were superstitious or a believer in something else they could be very disturbing.

OP, I wouldn't worry, the things you have suggested all do have rational explanations, houses do creak and tap and make noises and it is normal to see human forms out of things which aren't. If it were more full on than that I might be more scared, but honestly this stuff is just pretty standard and I'm sure most people have experienced it.

By the way- just because the electrician has checked the electrics doesn't mean there isn't a problem, it took us several electricians and two years to sort out our shorting problem, just as well we weren't thinking it was something paranormal as it was dramatic and went on for years!

That's all very well GarlicMayonnaise but how would that explain a small child stood next to someone's bed, putting the shits up them? A rumbling boiler?

I also think there are rational explanations. Have often thought my dressing gown was a person. Have had one or two "experiences" but when I think about it there are so many other likely reasons.

Haha, I was just about to reply to 5inthebed's post, neil!

How big was this child? I mean, could it have been a cat or even a rat? I'm not suggesting you can't tell a human child from a domestic animal but both cats & rats are prone to tugging at the sheets where someone is sleeping, and parasomnia can easily make one thing look like another - as you had young children at the time, your brain was most likely to interpret the sheet-tugger as a child.

I have a cat but no children, so would be more likely to interpret a child as a cat

Neiljames ever heard of brown noise?

When I sleep I'm the rumbling boiler

GarlicMayonnaise - A CAT????? WEARING PYJAMAS????

CrohnicallyHungry - Unfortunately, yes.

www.sleepeducation.com/sleep-disorders/parasomnias/symptoms

You certainly can see all manner of things if you have sleep paralysis as they occur with hallucinations. They seem very real for the very brief period they are occurring, certainly real enough to think a child is by your bed. The thing is, once you are fully awake, they are not there- it's only at 3am, in the half-awake, half-sleep state (where you may feel awake) that it seems real.

I'm just glad reading this that I don't have 'Head Exploding Syndrome'!

I used to get night terrors, too, napoleon. I learned about parasomnia to save my own sanity! (With partial success, heh.)

Does anyone else ever get that where they think there is a spider in the bed and jump up? I did it the other night and my husband thought I was mad.

It's a miracle any of us get any sleep, what with the imaginary spiders, screaming, hallucinations, tapping of water pipes, electrical resonance and so on.

Op, I hope you are a tiny bit reassured. I also think your family are making it worse- things fall over, break, you think a dressing gown is a person, but they are all jumping to the supernatural conclusion and now so are you. Once you have decided that, everything fits in it.

Emms- not sure if you are actually seeing a spider or just feeling movement and interpreting it as a spider.

In general, seeing things which aren't there are called hypopompic and hypnogogic hallucinations I can't remember which is which, one is on waking, one is on falling asleep. They are associated with sleep paralysis and/or night terrors (where people scream and thrash about).

Apparently spiders are quite commonly seen in hallucinations at night. This is not surprising as they are scary.

Even worse, once I had the sensation of being bitten by a spider, I pulled back the covers, and there was a huge black spider! I actually think that's worse than having a hallucination. I was bitten as well.

Sorry, I am probably not helping!

I was almost asleep and thought I saw a spider, so jumped out of bed and dh asked if I was ok, I just said yes seeing spiders again wasn't sure if real or not and got in and went to sleep, sometimes I will be asleep and think there is one dangling over my head. Its soemething that happens quite a lot, I've only had one spider on me when I got out the shower and was on the towel, gives me the creeps thinking about it.

Emms that does sound like a typical thing I was describing.

Hallucinations around sleep time aren't always very elaborate, it just means you see things that can't really be there, it can be ordinary things like spiders or small objects as well as people like figures. Or it can be a sense of foreboding or fear, I would think that a spider like image would make you jump. Or it could just be you are dreaming of one and then wake and jump up.

When some researchers did a study on it they found that at least 30-35% of the population has had one hallucinogenic episode like this at night and about 1-10% have lots of these episodes. This made me feel better- it's normalish:)

'Hypnopompic' spiders are the most common sleep-to-waking hallucination. Afaik, nobody knows why. Interesting thing is, on further looking at them they're more like balls of scribble than actual spiders (brain leaps to the most everyday conclusion - we're more likely to see a real spider than a real flying ball of scribble!) Some people's 'spiders' last more than a few seconds, and they've found they can alter their appearance to make pretty coloured scribble balls, whirling balls of words or numbers, etc :)

It's a bummer when the spider really is a spider. It's usually worth checking, either by batting at it (real one runs away) or considering whether it's a hypnopompic scribble

Thanks everyone.

garlic you really reassured me, I foun your explanation rather fascinating. I hve never heard of this before. Thanks for sharing.

I am still a bit spooked, though far less now.

Miraculous to hear about explanations of clocks all stopping at once too- this happened to my mother on the anniversary of her dead mothers birthday !?

Can anyone explain running tap in middle of night?

Yes, I can, if you turn off a tap you may not do so very firmly- my children do this all the time. Then if/when the water pressure changes in the night, the tap starts running again. I have had it happen to me. Or even simpler explanation is that someone got up in the night, used the loo and just forgot to turn it off- the children also do this!

This is all way more plausible than a ghost bothering to turn your taps on- why would they even bother doing that?

napoleon thanks for your explanation. I understand the not turning the taps off fully , but when this happened I had no kids and I would wake everynight to them being on full blast. I house shared so maybe someone didnt completely turn it off before bed, but even so could pressure really turn a tap from off to full blast every night? I asked my flat mate and she insisted she always turned it off properly and had never seen it come on itself in all the time se had lived there (longer than me)

So ghosts are dead people who want contact with us and are able to interact with objects? How about they write a bleedin' letter and leave it out? Maybe they suffer brain damage as they cross over and forget how to communicate effectively. 'I wish I could tell Jill that xyz. I know what I'll do, I'll turn a tap on/run down the hall/hide her keys'

What did ghosts do before we had taps and pipes and floorboards to meddle with? How about thousands of years ago when we still lived in trees? Shake a branch? Snap a twig?

headinhands - meet them half way for christ's sake!! Leave a pen and notepad out for them.

Even worse, once I had the sensation of being bitten by a spider, I pulled back the covers, and there was a huge black spider!
Unquestionably the scariest thing on this thread.
I have nightmares (the conventional kind) about spiders, and after waking from one, once, I half-asleep though my dog - laying on the bed next to me - was a giant spider. Nearly went through the wall trying to get away from it/him.

OP, even if it was a ghost in your house, which is unlikely because it's usually not, it's perfectly possible to get along with them most of the time.
I eventually got tired of glasses being broken in my apartment so asked it to stop - and it stopped. Although nonbreakable things still sometimes slide (not fall) off shelves. It's a bit like living with an invisible toddler.

ninja when I lived at the place where taps ran I did lock self in bathroom and sit and calmly tell the ghostie I was very scared and to knock it off. It stopped after that. I did feel a right tool at the time mind you!

Looks like I best get talking again... My god dh really will think I have lost it mind you...

Well, I've read all five pages and while I accept the points about electricity, etc, I'm still as open minded as I was

I still maintain there's just so much we can't know ...