To think our house is haunted?

[Amy214]

Quite long sorry

My mum has lived here for 36 years (my dad moved in at a later date. Mum was just divorced with 2 children) and only 2 people have previously lived here (it was a new ish house back then) when my siblings were younger they experienced some weird things (in my room mostly) my sister said she would see dark shadows standing at the bottom of her bed, she also said she seen a woman who looked like my mum with a jacket on and had her handbag. My brother also experienced someone punching underneath his bed (was full of toys and other rubbish so no one could fit underneath) my mum also checked under the bed and no one was there. He also felt someone breathing on his face. I am now in the same room and i have also felt/heard some weird things. My niece used to stay overnight and she would wake up in the middle of the night and just stare at the door and laugh (room was dimly lit) she is 3 now and has spoke about a man and woman being in the house (casual conversations with thin air) now dd is here weirder things have happened, dd used to sleep in my room and one day when i went to pick her up from a nap she looked right past me and laughed at something, i stepped away and she was still staring at the same thing. She also giggles as if they have said/done something naughty. When im in the room myself i always feel something tugging at my arm or scratching my foot. i have also seen dark shadows at the end of my bed, also at night i always hear a newborn baby cry (we are the only ones in the block with a toddler, neighbours are older) i also hear what sounds like children running up and down the stairs. 3 nights ago i was lying in bed and i heard a mans voice clear as day in my ear, it was very deep and i couldnt understand a word. I got such a fright i leapt out of bed and switched the light and no one was there, no one was outside and my dad was sleeping. Since dd has moved into her own room she has settled and no longer wakes up in the night. How do i check who the previous occupants were? And if there was a death? The house was built in 1975. Or are we just crazy

To say you absolutely know ghosts are real is unreasonable. To say you absolutely know ghosts aren't real is unreasonable. Believing in the existence of ghosts is the evidence of an open mind only if it is accompanied by a belief of the other possibility.

I'm with expat - I love a good woo thread myself. Ultra boring when nobody posts because they risk being told they're mentally ill though

There were some freaky ones, Under.

Some of them were proper good. There was even a ghost/woo troll on one who was rumbled by a savvy MNer.

anyone who believes beyond doubt that they have experienced the paranormal - if you can prove it, James Randi has a cheque for US$1,000,000 waiting for you.

it's been there for the claiming for donkey's years. knock yourselves out.

exWife Apparently the onus is on us that don't believe to prove it! A million dollars yet some of the more ridiculous of us won't take it up but proclaim to have experienced it themselves.
Can I sign up? I can make a box move through my living room by a string pulled by my niece. I can film it so as to show how woo it is. Can I have the prize please? I really could do with the money!

I don't get why those who haven't seen anything they can't explain are so fucking rude to those who say they have.

What do they care? What harm does it do? Why not just shrug and say "ok, whatever" I don't get the accusations of insanity, stupidity and delusion.

I'm none of those things.

I know what I saw, up until then I didn't give any of it much thought at all and probably erred on the side of thinking ghosts didn't exist.

Can I prove it? No. Can anyone prove I didn't. Moreover, what do I get from saying I saw something? Nothing.

Basically, who cares? My experience in life is different to yours. Doesn't mean I'm wrong.

Exactly Hissy. Most people who witness something so strange that they can't explain haven't gone looking for it to happen.

In my case I must have spent hours trying to rationalise what happened, I still do to this day. I haven't come up with an answer yet though.

Weird stuff does happen. I personally don't think it's the ghosts of dead people coming back to haunt us though. I think the answer lies in science, something we don't understand yet but hopefully will one day.

I agree with what expat said.

There really are some fucking rude twats here. Clearly posting to be goady given the title is quite clear what it's about and they are free to skip on past.

That struck me too actually for some who are so so SO clever and all that, if the title mentions "haunting" that's usually a big enough hint, even to the Stupid and mentally blighted, that the topic of ghosts might form a part of the subject matter. Hardly have to be a rocket scientist to work that out.

I also noted the question of why ghosts wouldn't appear in a chamber full of MPs and members of the press...

I know I wouldn't want to be in a roomful of arrogant and insufferable wankers, so who would blame anyone alive or dead for feeling the same?

I would love a rational explanation for my experiences - the only one I have is "I imagined it". I have no mental health issues.

But why I would suddenly imagine seeing a child out of the corner of my eye, whilst re-decorating, is a bit strange. I thought it was 4yr old DS2, so I said 'don't come in here darling, you'll get paint on you' - he called back "I'm not, I'm in here mummy" 'Here' being the playroom.

It really, really spooked me. Because I saw a child walking into the room. I wasn't thinking 'ghosts' I was thinking 'don't get paint on you, ds'.

Hissy I agree with you in so far as the insufferable wankers post. Yes my pp was unnecessarily twatish. For that I do apologise and will leave you as you were to carry on. Tis my first woo thread and up until a pp commented, I think expat, I had no idea that these threads were a MN regular type of thing a bit like the mythical chicken. I took it at face value.

I mentioned the cushions turning around, so I'll elaborate on that now.

Four years ago we had a summerhouse built in the back garden. In it there are two sofas, each with two scatter cushions - with a pattern embroidered on the front; the back plain - placed against the backs.

The time which I'm about to refer to was a few days - four or five - in a freezing cold winter. I need to make the point now that at no point in this time did anybody else other enter the summerhouse than myself. That I have to make absolutely clear - I only left the house to go into the summerhouse during those few days. If anybody else had gone in there, I'd have known about it. They didn't.

So, one evening I took myself down to the (heated, obviously) summerhouse. I'd decided to stop tiptoeing about the matter and talk to this person - whom I'll call "Richard" - directly, aloud.This was when I said that I knew that it was him doing all the "funny stuff" in the house, and that he didn't have to keep doing it.

Before I locked up and left the summerhouse, I did what I always to this day do - make sure that the four scatter cushions were placed neatly against the sofa backs, pattern side out. I am utterly anal about this and never neglect to do so.

A couple of days later, I returned to the sh with some clean dishes. I noticed that one of the cushions was the wrong way round - the plain, back side now facing outwards. I didn't think much of it immediately, but just corrected it. Left the sh, all four cushions facing the right way.

I went back a day or so after that to restock the biscuit barrel. This time I immediately noticed that one of the cushions on the other sofa was now turned plain side outwards. It was then that I thought, hang on, I definitely didn't leave that cushion like that - and nor did I leave the cushion on the other sofa the wrong way round either. Again, I'll reiterate that other than when I was in there, the sh was locked and empty at all times over these few days.

It struck me that this was Richard's way of letting me know that he'd heard me talking to him in the sh, acknowledging me in a way that I couldn't fail to notice, and sure enough I did notice it. I realised then the importance of my making it clear that I was aware of this, so shortly after I spoke to Richard again, saying, I see you turned the cushions around those two times.

Six months passed; I didn't speak to Richard in this time, and everyday life just went on. Then a close family member of Richard's died suddenly. Obviously I was very shocked, and as soon as I got the opportunity to do so, a couple of days later, I again went down to the sh and spoke to Richard, saying how sorry I was. Yes, I know it seems weird to express sorrow at a death to somebody who has already passed on, but I needed to show that I cared.

Two days after that I again went down to the sh one evening. All cushions correctly facing outwards as ensured by my fussy arse self - I couldn't relax until I'd made sure of that. I sat down for a few minutes, then got up to push the seat pad on the other sofa, which had slipped forward, back into place (I did say I was particular). I turned back around - and the scatter cushion on my sofa - which had been pattern side out a few seconds ago - was now turned around, plain side outwards. Just as happened six months earlier when I first talked to Richard in the sh.

I realised that again Richard had done this to make sure that I knew that he heard me expressing my condolences a few days earlier. This in particular touched me deeply.

Ever since then, the pattern has been thus. Months can go by without my talking or making any particular attempt at contact with Richard, and then I do, and a day or two later, there will take place something that I know to be R. letting me know that he heard me, be that a light or appliance turning on or off, or a tap coming on etc. At no other time does anything else happen. That is how I know the significance of it. Everything that has happened to the present day just reiterates this.

People ask a lot of questions that I can't necessarily answer because I don't have all the answers. I've already emphasised that I can't prove what I'm relating here and nor do I feel any need or wish to. I'm not in the dock, I'm just giving my account of what has happened to me and my understanding of it, and if anybody doesn't believe me then they're free to stop wasting their time reading it.

Stumbled onto this thread and thought I'd add a couple of woo experience that I've not shared before because I haven't really given it much thought TBH. But I've had for example:

Picking up the tv remote to switch telly on and just as I'm pointing, it switches on all by itself. And no, I absolutely definitely didn't press the button by accident. My finger was nowhere near it.

Another time, I was on my way to a birthday party and put a card in my handbag. Got to the party and looked in my bag to give the card and couldn't find it. Thought I'd forgotten to put it in my bag and made a mental note to send it by post instead. Got home, couldn't find card and thought, oh dear it must have fallen out somehow on the journey as my bad didn't have a zip. Bought another card the following day. Put it in my bag. Get to the postbox and reach inside my bag. Imagine my confusion when I find 2 cards there.

I'm sure there is a rational explaination but it was bloody weird!

Underthegreenwood

I'll go ahead

My DM is a huge sceptic but she once watched a local tv programme where investigators went out to a house where the family had had ghostly experiences.
When objects started moving around the room the family were advised to sing 'the Lord is my shepherd' they were only in by a few sentences when a pair of rubber gloves leapt up from the kitchen sink and started conducting them ...

I'm laughing even typing this - totally true and totally fabulous

Have that one on me

just so we're on the same page, liz70 - you go to your shed to talk to an invisible man called for example Richard, who communicates his feelings to you through the position of scatter cushions?

Sorry, ladybird, but what's that got to do with me?

Underthegreenwoodtree

You said it was ultra boring when no one dares post in case they get told they have MH issues

I was thinking exactly the same I love a woo thread

I'm not sure that really merits a reply, but if you'd read my post properly, you'd know that I mentioned nothing about Richard communicating any sort of feelings to me. I made it quite clear that the movement of those cushions, three times, after I'd spoken to Richard (yes, it's a pseudonym; I thought that had also been made clear) indicated to me in a way that I could perceive, that he had heard me those two times. But I thought I'd made that obvious the first time. Not to obvious enough for some people.

It doesn't bloody matter whether it be scatter cushions, or whatever. It's simply the fact that some happening that I know would be deemed "impossible" - and take it from me, the last ten years have taught me that word is meaningless; I've seen enough to know that - has actually happened.

And when I've said to Richard, I know it was you that did (insert " impossible happening here"), he's done the same thing again, to confirm it.

All of which I've said before. I seem to be condemned to repeat myself over and over again.

I'm willing to answer genuine, curious questions about my posts, to the best of my abilities, but my patience is running out with the snarks, who are only here to rip the piss, so fuck knows why they are here.

Oh, and a structure with heating, two sofas, television, tea and coffee making equipment, pictures, mirror and ornaments is hardly what most people would term a "shed", but I'm sure you didn't mean to be so rude, did you, dear?

sorry. I meant to say summerhouse. you talk to spirits in your lavishly appointed summerhouse.

Ah, ok Ladybird, thank you. I've posted since then, about a spooky experience I had - and I thought you were offering that story up as an explanation

Well, it's in AIBU, and asks whether OP is U to think her house is haunted! Is this the only kind of AIBU where nobody's allowed to say 'YABU'??

Of course you can say Yabu, but calling posters mental, stupid and god knows what else isn't AIBU, is it?