To ask you all to tell me this is not a ghost...?

[JonesyAndTheSalad]

We moved into our current rental 3 months ago. It's a 1920s detached house with a very large garden...we're in Oz it's a bungalow)

It has what I'd call a strong atmosphere....not one I'm uncomfortable with but two of DDs mates who don't know one another have declared it "spooky".

It IS a big on the spooky side but that's because most of it is original...fireplaces, doors and kitchen...and it's a bit ramshackle...but I like it and so do the DC and DH.

Anyway...in our first week here, DH took the dog out at about ten pm. Kids both asleep. I was sitting in one of the sitting rooms...this one is next to the kitchen.

The kitchen leads into a bit of a lean to...a rough sort of "add on"...and there's a sliding door from this add on, going into the garden.

I was reading and DH had been gone about ten minutes when I distinctly heard the sliding door open...it has a very definite sound to it...and then I heard a man's sigh. Like a tired, man's sigh.

I was so convinced that something had happened to cause DH to cut the dog's hour long walk short that I tutted and called "What's the matter now?"

DH is a notorious faffer and he's the kind to come back ten minutes into his walk because he forgot his spare poo bag.

Silence.

"DH?"

Nothing.

I get up feeling scared incase it's an intruder and find the sliding door locked and shut.

It happened a second time about a week later and then, another week went by and DH heard it.

It happened again last night. Nobody there.

It's often when DH is out but sometimes when he's here but I'm not.

There's no neighbours on either side of us and a BIG garden. We're flanked by a field on one side and a bit of wasteland on the other, then a ten min walk takes you to shops which are shut at night.

Its a ghost isn't it? What else could it be?

Did anybody read Eva Ibbotson's Ghost stories at school? I loved the Great Ghost Rescue (the Starbucks comment reminded me of this).

I lived with a ghost once was fine.... the definate atmosphere is a dead givaway.

I had confirmation when a stranger asked me whete i lived. Their first respeþonse was "x lived there... it's haunted... she saw a man walk tbrough a wall! " this is agter 9 months of ne suspecting.
As far as i was concerned it was far easier than living with flatmates

Sorry for slight derailment.

How is that 'confirmation'?

Well it was the first response to finding out my address. So not scientific confirmation but strange considering i felt a presence and so did my friends.

Far less scary than my living previous flatmates though !

Typos... agggrrr!

The no hoodie ghosts: not true. There have been reports of people seeing ghosts in modern clothing.

The caveman ghost query: ghosts seem to have a peak time. Around 125 years. You don't really get very very old ghosts. Their haunting seems to just peter out eventually. No one knows why this is. Does their energy degrade over time? Does an intelligent entity get bored and move on? Does a soul die a second death? Who knows. but then it's extremely difficult to study the phenomenon without opening yourself up to ridicule and without being able to call up or create examinable, repeatable data in a lab under rigorous lab conditions. Ghosts are like hiccups. They don't appear on cue.

Unfortunately most ghost hunting is not done very scientifically. And there is a LOT of out and out fraud or simply being a bit quick to jump to conclusions. But there is also evidence out there. Just not many scientists are willing to say: this proves a haunting. All that is concluded is: we can't explain this.

Right, and how do they get their hoodies and Nike trainers to pass to the other side?

Especially if they weren't buried in them?

Ghosts wear the clothes they would've worn in everyday life.

Can't believe you don't know that 🙄.

For security couldn't you make sure that the door is locked whenever you're alone in the house? My doors are always locked as I'm paranoid about intruders just walking in.

Ah... but a ghost would just walk through the locked door.

Have you tried recording the sound?

Many people don't believe in ghosts. I get that and nothing I can say here will change that belief and that is fine. It tends to be personal experience that changes people's minds.

But it's frustrating when you get locked thinking which always happens on woo the ads. Thinking like: Ok well there is no such thing as ghosts so we can discount that as a possibility. So it must be .. And then go on to list things some of which become highly unlikely. Its as foolish a way to approach things as its opposite: weird funny noise? Its probably ghost. And then every tap and creak is attributed to some spirit entity.

Some people are too quick to see woo and others are too closed to admit the possibility. Neither is very scientific and is instead led by their personal belief.

It's not a ghost. Brian Cox says so.

Of course it's not a ghost, they don't exist.

There is no such thing as ghosts. We just live in societies where some people think it might be possible because of centuries of unsubstantiated stories so it's offered as a possibility.

If the OP said she thought her child was possesed by a witch or she'd been cursed by a neighbour who is a witch everyone would say 'no, that's not happening' but in some cultures that's accepted as an explanation.

It's all bollocks. And nobody that believes in ghosts is ever able to explain why if there is an entity/spirit/force so powerful that it is able to defeat death, it just fucks about opening doors, switching lights on, moving ornaments or sighing instead of just turning up saying 'hey, I hold all the secrets of defeating death...look what I can do!'

There are no such things as ghosts.

There are winds of varying strengths. Winds make noises of all kinds, whistling through shutters, sighing through branches... There are sliding bolts loose enough to slide enough on their own on a wind-blown door, to bolt it. There are wandering, bouncing, pattering, scuffling, skittering animals of various sizes, outside and in. There are automatic locks not needing any human help, they have a trade union, the little bastards have locked me out often enough. There are often combinations of aforementioned winds, doors, bolts, shutters, branches, and wandering, bouncing, pattering, scuffling, skittering animals of various sizes, with lightning and thunder thrown in for extra value. Think of it as a bogof on weather effects. Sadly, there are, but only very rarely, wandering humans who might, but usually don’t, pose any threat to fellow humans but scare you anyway. There might possibly also be humans pissing in the wind.

But absolutely there are no such things as ghosts.

There! Do you feel better now? No, I thought not. These things take a hold of your mind and won’t let go no matter how sensible you are and how ridiculous it is. Two powerful torches each, one a head torch, the other a flashlight are what you need, plus good locks and bright outside lighting. That will bring bring those gorgeous great Atlas moths crashing up against the lights and the fly screens, but definitely no ghosts. More coffee, and especially good company, also keeps non-existent ghosts away.

Op as you described your house all I could think of was that it must be crawling in spiders. Give me ghosts any day!

Ghosts don't exist but hallucinations do. Check the property for malfunctioning machinery such as ceiling fans and pumps.

Or you could have rats or someone concealing themself in the walls and eating your food. Your nightmare choice

Ghosts or apparitions or spirits or whatever you want to call them definitely do exist.

However, I don't believe they need to be threatening. Just ignore.

I'd love to see the evidence that ghosts 'definitely do exist'. I'm assuming there must be some to express that opinion so definitively.

It is not a ghost because they do not exist

Is there any stock in the field?

I've been scared to weeing point on occasion by the sheep in the field next to me coughing (they sound EXACTLY like old men), even though I understand sheep.

Animals - almost certainly, and sound carrying in a way you aren't used to yet in a new place.

And I am as woo as you get.