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

Boo

No one can say with certainty that ghosts don't exist

No-one can say for sure that a giant chocolate teapot isn't orbiting the moon, but I think we can all agree that there is not.

If someone witnesses something so strange that it cannot be explained, it doesn't mean they have 'half a brain', or that they are 'furthering the cause of stupid'

If someone thinks that because they personally can't explain something then it can't be explained except by woo, then yes, they are most certainly furthering the Stupid.

Another one who hears voices shouting or a bang sometimes as I'm falling asleep. Makes the heart skip a bit but I know it's all in the mind although I have been known to check the house the odd time just to be on the safe side.

With all that going on are you sure you're not living in a converted Travelodge...
Get a ghostly grip...

Our house is haunted. Almost every morning, and particularly at weekends, I can hear the noise of people... errhmm... enjoying themselves. Our neighbours clearly do not to suffer from these ghostly manifestations, as they always look very happy when I meet them in the morning.

Ok, stupid to me is someone who sends texts while driving, or drinks five glasses of wine then gets behind the wheel. That sort of thing.

Stupid to me is also someone who casually dismisses other people's experiences, because they claim to be so intelligent that they know for certain that these things can't have happened.

People believe in God without physical site of him/her so why is believing in ghosts any different?

We also have a poltergeist. Quite often when I come down in the morning, things have been moved around the kitchen and things are missing from the fridge. I have asked ds, who often stays awake longer than me, but he doesn't seem to have noticed anything untoward.

Yawn. Your mind is so open your smarts have fallen out.

We also used to have ghostly lions living in the house when the children were little. Dd saw them quite often.

Oh and once after I had been watching Brideshead Revisited I saw a ghostly manifestation of Jeremy Irons (he was hot in those days). Though I'm not quite sure how that worked, because he's still alive, isn't he?

Do I win the prize for the most haunted house?

If not, I will have to throw in the squeaking ghosts in the wardrobe (the ones who left the droppings) and the silent ones who left trails of ectoplasm all over the hall carpet.

Stupid to me is someone believing in something for which there is NO evidence and for which there has never been any evidence, ever. Like EVER.

Anecdotes don't count as evidence. Nor do "funny feelings" or "instinct".

Any telling of an experience that begins "...I was just falling asleep" or ...."I was woken by...." can be pretty much discounted. Sleep paralysis IS proven as a thing. They can REPLICATE IT in laboratories. Yet people still insist that their experience was woo.

That's pretty stupid.

I do think most 'woo' can be discounted. I am well aware that sleep paralysis is a proven thing, and that the majority of 'paranormal' experiences can be explained away.
That doesn't stop me believing that things sometimes happen that have no rational explanation, although I do think science plays a part in it.

If that makes me come across as stupid, then so be it. I'll cope.

They always have a rational explanation. What gets me is arrogance of people who think that because they can't think of it there must not be one. What a high opinion of yourself you must have!

So you think that someone who admits they can't make sense of everything that happens in this world must be arrogant and have a high opinion of themselves.

That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

No, what is arrogant is to think "I cannot think of a rational explanation. Therefore it must be the paranormal at work" rather than "I cannot think of a rational explanation. However it is roughly 1,000,000,000,000,000 times more likely that there is a rational explanation than a paranormal one. Therefore I can safely assume that there is a rational explanation that I haven't thought of".

It makes no sense because thats not what I said. You've missed a bit out. Try again.

I am very well aware of my shortcomings in the intelligence department. Please don't label me as arrogant. I absolutely do not assume that because I can't think of a rational explanation then there mustn't be one.

All right, try "rationally" explaining the following:

Lights switched on and off, including a lamp with a dimmer knob turned from off to full "by themselves".

Taps turning on after being wrenched off as hard as possible by myself, and no change in water pressure

Clock radios and CD players turning on " by themselves"

Voices suddenly coming from speakers, when no appliance connected to them is switched on

A blu- ray player rapidly switching itself on and off, disc tray sliding in and out in rapid succession, and continuing to do so even when unplugged (no battery or residual charge inside)

Cushions - one side patterned, the other plain, being turned around 180 degrees, twice in an empty, locked room, once when I was in the room and my back was turned,

A small plastic box leaving a shelf and travelling four feet across a room in which I was standing

Small objects dropping down in front of me, out of the air above my head

A letterbox flapping for several seconds on a day with no breeze whatsoever, and nobody outside ( the dog hears everybody who comes to the door and barks even when nobody else has heard them)

I could go on, but I'll cap it with one last recollection:

I was once getting ready at travel from City A , where I live, to City B, when I couldn't find my phone in my small rucksack. Searched everywhere but gave up after a few minutes and got a spare ready to charge. Shortly afterwards my phone reappeared again in my rucksack.

I knew who had taken it - the person in spirit responsible for all the above goings on. I knew it was just a joke and didn't mind really.

Anyway, I travelled to City B the following day. While there I spoke to this person, just speaking out loud into the air across the river while standing at the riverfront. This person has proven to me in the past that they can hear every word I say to them, so I no longer feel daft doing this.

I said, among other things, "Look, 'nameofperson', I know it was you that hid my phone yesterday. I could do without that when I'm getting ready to come here. Bloody pack it in. Don't do it again". All this said in mock annoyance.

Back home to City A. Hang coat up in hallway and go to take phone out of pocket - not in either pocket, and not in rucksack either. I thought, "not again!" I spoke again to this person, this time saying, " Right, 'nameofperson', this isn't funny anymore. I want my bloody phone back - now!"

I then went into the kitchen for a couple of minutes. Returned to the hallway, and sure enough, my phone was back in my coat pocket. And no, no other living person had been in that hallway at any time during all this.

And before anyone says, "I don't believe you", I. don't. care. I will happily and confidently assert, swearing on all my three daughter's lives, till the day I leave this life myself, that all of the above have happened to me, exactly as I have described above.

I await any " rational" explanations patiently.

• daughters' lives, not daughter's. #punctuationpedant

Would just like to add when i heard the mans voice in my ear i was actually awake, just lying in bed with the lights off (was playing around on my phone but switched it off then i heard the voice)

Liz70 i think because people cant understand how/why it happens they just say its not true or we are all stupid maybe its sleep paralysis maybe its paranormal i dont know (but im not stupid)

I know you're not stupid, Amy.

My name was whispered in my left ear once, one morning, at around 11 am, while I sat on the sofa, wide awake. It's a two syllable name that can't be misheard for anything else.

Don't let anyone tell you that you're mad, deluded, or anything else. You're not.

Is that really the best you can come up with, Finely? Yawn.

Is there a chance you are a sexually repressed governess in the 1890s?

I see. "I don't understand it. I can't explain it. So I'll just resort to denial, or making pathetic jokes!"

Gosh, would I ever have expected such a response! #eyeroll

Please don't imagine that you're being even remotely original. I've heard it all before. It really is water off a duck's back.

So, anyone with anything useful or serious to offer (not aimed at Amy, obviously)?