To think that some rooms/places are legitimately "woo"?

[GunpowderGelatine]

I don't tend to believe in ghosts and ghouls or the like, I've never experienced anything paranormal. But AIBU to think that certain rooms/places have a real weird "woo" feel about them?

I work in a school and have nipped in for a chat with the head today about a school event I'm hosting, and his office ALWAYS gives me the heebie jeebies. I get quite a surreal, dizzy feeling going in, a tremendous sense of deja vu and feel like I'm in a dream. Random dreams from the past always pop into my head too, and it's hard to ignore when having a serious chat I don't want to look like I'm in a dream world! But it's only his office, and it's a really overwhelming feeling, almost like I have visions, but I don't know what of.

The school I work in used to be a Catholic all-boys boarding school (and is now a bog standard Catholic independent) and the headmasters office used to be the priests' quarters. A lot of priests died in the school and are buried in the school grounds. It sounds really weird but whenever I come out I feel like I've stepped out of a dream. Has anyone else ever experienced this anywhere?

There was a room at Tatton Park that really creeped me out. It was one of the bedrooms, and I just couldn't wait to get away from it. So YANBU.

Yes. I think its probably our subconscious picking up on little oddities though rather than anything 'woo' but who knows.
A couple of years ago I stayed in a holiday cottage on a farm. It had a seperate building that housed a swimming pool. I love swimming and am usually the first to get in and not come out for hours but there was the oddest atmosphere in this building. It felt like everytime you turned your back there was somebody watching you from behind. It still creeps me out thinking about it.
Me, dh and ds went swimming but ds wanted to leave so dh took him back to the cottage and I stayed as I wanted some time to myself. They left and the pool was empty and I just couldnt stay, it just felt wrong. Ive never changed so quickly in my life! When I got back dh knew I hadnt stayed because of the atmosphere there. It just felt wrong.
It was almost certainly something perfectly normal like the temperature was a bit off or the lighting was too dim but it was just felt creepy.

Years ago Dh and I were viewing a house. It was absolutely perfect for us-great layout, no work needed etc. Then we went into the cellar; we looked around for a few minutes then politely left. Talking about it in the car on the way home we realised that both of us had felt exactly the same way about the cellar. It was oppressive and made both of our skins crawl. No idea why-it was tanked and well lit. Just horrible though. I’ve had a couple of nightmares about it since. Really bizarre!

Yes! Went to view a really old charming house. Every room was lovely, until we got to the attic bedrooms. Every hair on my body stood on end and it just felt evil. I literally ran out of the room, OH thought I was nuts! Wouldn’t step foot in that room again for the rest of the viewing. Horrible place.

maisy I used to have nightmares about the cellar in our old house, that there was a way of people getting in through it! awful!

in real life though it was actually fine and there was definitely no door but I ALWAYS had bad dreams about people getting in.

DH, DM and I viewed an old house once, when we got out we breathed a huge sigh of relief. We all thought it felt evil and oppressive in there and none of us are usually spooked or woo.

Hasn’t it been proved that a large component of “woo” feeling is due to low frequency noise which we are aware of subconsciously.

I think the idea is that often old or spooky buildings have wind whistling through chimneys etc causing this effect.

I know that it is possible to reproduce the fear/woo reaction almost immediately in a lab by switching on noise at the right frequency.

The night I stayed at Pype Hayes Hall was genuinely terrifying

The downstairs of my parents is half underground as built into a hill. The main rooms are upstairs - it's a bungalow design where the architect added three rooms underneath. The plot was an allotment for a local care home. When we moved in I was 4 and that night I had a nightmare about an old man in a rocking chair in the corner of my playroom. A few years ago my mum admitted she used to feel like someone was standing behind her every time she went in there. I still run up the stairs without looking behind me.

I've had the opposite experience. We once holidayed in a remote old farmhouse in Wales, and it was just the happiest place. I don't mean that we were all happy all of the time, but that the house had this amazing, welcoming atmosphere. There was nothing special in its decoration, furnishing or heating. It was inexplicable. This was a big stay, with various in-laws and other family joining us at various times - yet never an argument! Unheard of!

The owner popped in mid-stay, and mentioned that he believes that the house has a happy ghost that loves having people around

Similar to other stories, went to view a house which seemed like a beauty, but a bit of a project. I was so excited looking around the house - and felt so positive about it, I was gushing with compliments - until I came to one of the bedrooms. I can’t really explain it, but I was suddenly overcome with a feeling of dread. I tried to regulate my breathing, but it felt like I was on the brink of a panic attack. So, so strange; dh clocked my change in mood and we made our excuses and left...

We still drive past the house, and the new owners seem to be doing a terrific job of doing it up. To this day, I cannot explain what came over me and am curious as to what created that shift. It still puts a shiver down my spine!

The dressing rooms of the theatre at my uni felt horrible. It was probably just because they were cold and uncovered brick but it was a strange feeling - it felt hostile somehow. Always used to think I could see faces staring at me from the back when it was empty, and in the rafters.

Honestly, I think it's down to unnoticed or barely noticed physical factors like aspect, lighting, low-level noise, smell, temperature, and slightly 'unusual' places like cellars or attics -- also, judging by the 'woo' stories on here about people seeing things in distant workplace storerooms etc, some people's nervousness about being alone far away from all the other people in a building.

Rubaiyat, I think you're thinking of the paper discussed here on infrasound?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrasound#Suggested_relationship_to_ghost_sightings

a bedsit i lived in back in the 70s was the front room of a large edwardian house, the shared bathroom on the ground floor was at the back of the opposite front bedsit, and then there was a third bedsit at the back, to get to the bathroom you went down a corridor past the back bedsit, next the door was an unused walk in larder and during the day it was fine, but at night there was no way i was going down there i went to the upstairs one instead, cant explain it always felt like someone was in there watching you go past and wasnt a nice person

Places that 'should' be busy can be incredibly creepy when quiet and empty. Like a theatre because you suddenly hear the building noises that you don't when it's full. The function room at work is the same especially after a busy function and the energy seems to take a while to dissipate - but that just may be because I've seen it all in full swing then I'm seeing it empty and bare as I strip it down and clean up.
Everyone hates that room, but I think it's more down to the fact it's in the middle of the building with no windows at all that subconsciously freaks people out, and gives different accoustics to creaky doors/floors. There's also large mirrors and creaky floor boards, which can trick you into thinking you see or hear something that's actually you!

We've just stayed in an Air BnB in the Lakes. It was a large house separated into two and we were in what would have been the servants quarters and there was something I didn't like about the staircase and in particular the corridor on the first floor. I think it was the lack of windows and natural light but I hated having to go to the toilet as the nearest one when you were downstairs was at the end of that corridor. I will admit to a bit of running to get back downstairs quickly and peaking round the toilet door to ensure the coast was clear

@Parthenope yes, that sounds like the theory i’d read about, although i had no idea the originators thought it might cause visual halucinations as well. That’s fascinating.

I have to add that despite my rational non-woo beliefs, i went to visit Blisland church years ago in Cornwall and had to turn around and walk out after a few minutes because the place put my hackles up so much. It just felt menacing and threatening somehow. Never been back so i can’t say if it was a one off - i should try sometime.

I had to clean out a house once it was in the middle of the woods like a stone house sort of thing. Outside there was scaffolding up and there was still some people in finishing painting etc. There was a long corridor with a bathroom on the end so you could see every room from the bathroom. I couldn't go in by myself i felt sick there were these mini passages with steps leading down to a bedroom with what i thought was a mini cupboard but you had to crawl through into another room like a hidden room it was just awful. I had to go get my friend who was cleaning in another part of the house to stay with me because i felt like there was someone in the room staring at me. Never felt so unnerved i don't know what had gone on there but it felt evil.

wecametodance was that place in Northumberland? As I had that exact same experience!!

Shitty overhead lighting can have that effect, too - flickering fluorescent tubes should have been banned years ago when they first were tied to causing migraines.

standing stones at Callenish are seriously eerie and sinister, with a real sense of foreboding that I havent felt at any other standing stones.

My grandparents bought a house when they were newly married, and without talking to each other about it, always made excuses not to eat in the dining room, but to eat in the kitchen or go out for dinner with friends rather than entertain at home. When they came to sell the house, it transpired that the agent they used knew that there had been a murder in the dining room of the house.....!