To think my newbuild is haunted?

[forsythekt]

Outing so have namechanged.

I live on a smallish council estate which 5 years ago was extended with a development of 15 new council houses. I moved 2 months ago as I houseswapped with an old couple and their adult son who needed a first floor flat. I was delighted to swap as it was 3 bedrooms so both my DC (DD 3 and DS 15 months) had their own bedroom and it was on the nicer end of council estates. The reason the past owners are relevant is because I want to clarify that nobody has died in the house.

About 1 month after moving in, we began experiencing a few weird things that have been escalating. It started with little things, like hearing noises downstairs when everyone was in bed and DD's toys randomly going off in the night. After changing DS one night (after opening a new bumper box of nappies) the box fell off the changing table and nappies were all over the floor. It was the early hours and I couln't be bothered pick them up so put DS back in his cot deciding to clear it up in the morning. The next morning I went back in and the nappies were all in the corner of the room. DP thought I was being silly as it's a tiny box room so there was nowhere for them to have moved to, but I remember them in front of the changing table which is in the centre of the room.

It was then quiet for awhile until things picked up again 2 weeks ago. Our dog has been very frightened and is starting into space and barking at the walls. DD keeps coming into our bedroom in the night saying someone is whispering her name. Our usually calm good as gold DS keeps waking up in the night in hysterics and we've had to move his cot into our room. DP's older daughter (14 from a previous relationship) came to stay for the first time last week and shared with my DD. The next morning she said she'd felt a strange presence in the room, but we hadn't told her of our experience. DP was still always skeptical until what happened last night.

Me and DP are in bed cuddling poorly DS and DD was asleep in her room and we heard our dog bark and then a loud bang. Come downstairs to find the cast iron table has moved half way across the living room! And the floor is fluffy carpet so impossible for our lab to have moved it. And a few hours later a door slammed. DP admits that has made him question things. I was utterly bewildered, especially with it being a newbuild so contacted the previous tenants (with it being homeswap we still talk occasionally) to ask if they had experienced anything to which they were insistent they hadn't.

I've been doing my research on the area. It's used to be a quaint
countryside village but a lot of the old cottages, pubs and the post office etc were demolished after the war to build a city overspill estate to get people out of the inner city slums. A few other nearby estates have the same origins. The village still has a few old feautures such as a church and even some old stocks (where people used to have their hands locked in while others threw things at them for punishments) near a playing field! I think our house must be built on top of what used to be a cottage or perhaps people were buried here? Though why didn't they bother the previous tenants?

Eek! Someone tell me I'm going mad.

This post was edited by MNHQ

Why do people come on to these threads to heap scorn,You dont have to come on,you can scroll past.

There are steps you can take , ToManyPaws gave good advice.
Don't let negative feelings ie fear get a hold, this creates an energy that's attractive to certain entities,
Remember , you are stronger than whatever is doing this , you are the life force .
Take control .
Tell it it's not welcome that it needs to stop .

You might well be ‘going mad’ but you’ve got a way to go before you’re as mad as some other posters!

Ghosts? Poltergeists? ☠️👻👻 🙄

Why do people come on to these threads to heap scorn,You dont have to come on,you can scroll past.

Because it’s a chat website,, people are allowed to have opinions that don’t agree with yours. They’re allowed to say ‘what a crock of shite’ if they’d ehat they think.

I find the thought of someone living in my loft much more frightening than a ghost. Just me?

Fascinating thread, I love stuff like this. And yes I'f be much more scared of an actual human in my loft.. listening out for you, slinking downstairs to raid your fridge.. creepy as fuck.

I read the title as ‘think my newborn is haunted’

In fairness, @Beebeezed, given that they wail like unhappy souls for no reason, projective-vomit at will, and frequently appear possessed by evil demons, your reading is much more sensible than many of the other posters' demented ideas about going around the house clapping, calling in exorcists, or talking to imaginary entities about how they should leave you alone.

Woo posters seem to think a crack team of exorcist priests are just waiting for your call about slamming doors and nervous dogs and having possible seen something out of the corner of your eye when half-asleep, and will leap into action like the Ghostbusters, only armed with a Bible and holy water. Probably played by Andrew Scott.

My childhood home gave me the creeps. I always remember feeling like I was being watched, and not liking being home alone. I wouldn’t sleep with my door open either. My sister (a lot older) would wake to a boy stood in her (my) room. One time my other older sister was sent out by my mum to a young boy stood on the green next to the house to ask what he was staring at. He told her he used to live there and described my mums room (fireplace etc). Sister came back in and as she turned around he had gone. Thing is they had lived there 20 years by that point. My dad went to try and find out about the house but couldn’t find anything.

Those that dont believe in ghosts/ghoolies/ Casper etc do you believe In the ring/needle test to predict sex of babies or what children someone has had?
Or other superstitions like walking under ladders, black cats, 3 drains etc?

No, it's all utter nonsense.

And much of it(including the belief in ghosts) harmful nonsense.

I believe in spirits and would feel the same if I were in your position.

However, I would not try to remove the spirit myself by burning sage etc., this might turn into a dangerous situation for you. I think you might need to approach a professional, such as a medium/ psychic.

Are you religious OP? I have had a Roman Catholic upbringing and the priest of the parish in my old area is an official exorcist, appointed by the Vatican (appearently he performs several exorcisms a week). If I had a problem like yours, I would have approached him and asked him to visit my home to ‘clean’ it. I might get some funny responses on writing this advice, but I know how you feel because years ago I also experienced a ghost in my old home and it was very creepy. I have felt someone trying to push me off the attic stairs as I was going down on more then a few occasions. My dog behaved in a similar way as yours does. Animals can see and feel more things then we can.

Good luck OP

I don't believe in ghosts etc., but I am intrigued - what is the explanation? What I find odd is that people explain it by dismissing it or scoffing at those who report these things. There has to be a more logical explanation.

Its like having a faith, I find that fascinating too - I think everything is fairly random there is no higher power as such, but then I work for a Christian organisation and the intense beliefs some colleagues hold are both touching and compelling.

I'm still looking to science to provide an explanation, although possibly not in my lifetime. In the meantime, I believe these things are happening to the OP, its just the reason for it that I cannot fathom.

Don't get a medium in - likely to make things worse if anything.

We lived in a modern house (only a young family had lived there before us) and experienced lots of low level stuff: toys moving, things going missing, strange feelings. My son (then a very littlie) saw things but wasn't scared. He told a vicar we met on holiday all about it and the vicar said it sounded like the spirit of a small child or even a miscarriage. I was already in the habit of giving ultimatums (when I get back my keys MUST be there and they would be findable).
It wasn't scary as such but talking calmly definitely helps.

We now live in a much older house. Young DS chose the bedroom furthest away from us and he's been fine. One night a battery toy started up in the bathroom and I had words then nothing since.

We have a room and a doorway that feel creepy but I've slept in both those rooms and it's been fine.

I would say don't mess with what you don't know. Be honest and speak aloud, it doesn't sound malevolent. Don't let anyone else mess with it, it could be yours, not the house's. Don't be scared. Leave the light on now and then. Be cheerful. Embrace life. xxx

I always find it funny when people are so adamant ghosts don't exist. It's not very scientific to be so closed-minded

It's quite scientific to dismiss something for which there is not one single scrap of verifiable evidence, ever, in the history of all humanity. Nothing.

These ghostly happenings never occur when CCTV is around. Billions of CCTV cameras all over the planet, in homes, offices, shops, garages, factories...all running overnight, and not a single second of footage of moving nappies or flying chairs or anything else.

It's all utter bollocks.

I did not really believe in ghosts or spirits until I met DH.

He mentioned very early on he was followed by spirits, he moved a lot as a child and claimed they clung to him. His brother is the same.

They moved into a new build into the mid nineties and he said the same of you, there was something in the house that wasn’t supposed to be there. Things moved, doors opened when they had been shit, they always smelt smoke at the top of the stairs when no one smoked and the windows had been shut etc.

We moved into our first home that was a Victorian terrace and I used to say there was something in the hallway - nothing scary but something. I could feel it in the doorway when I was in the bath. Probably not surprising due to the age of the house.

We’ve moved several times since and I have a very familiar feeling in the back room of our old house and now in the utility room of this house and other houses in between. I often think it’s the same ‘thing’.

People who don’t experience things have no way of understanding and are often very skeptical and condescending.

About five years ago, I woke up alone in the middle of the night - pre DS and DH was working nights - to see a figure dancing in the corner of the room, I think it was a nun, and it turned to look at me, walked two steps towards me and then disappeared. I really struggle to talk about it in real life because it still terrifies me so much. I sat up with every light in the house on until DH came home.

About a week later I awoke again and felt something staring at me. I was too scared to open my eyes and just felt this awful energy like i was going to get hurt.

I thought I was going mad after my mum talked me out of anything ghostly, I went to the GP who basically laughed at me and said it was likely to be temporary sleep paralysis due to stress at the time. If it was then sleep paralysis is the worst thing in the world but the moving and the banging used to happen when we were wide awake.

We moved very quickly because things kept happening in that house and I was too frightened to stay, we left and nothing ever happened again.

Trust your gut on this I’m aware I sound extremely hysterical and a bit batshit but I 1000% believe in spirits, sometimes fucking awful ones.

It is most likely a very rational explanation but I would follow the advice re the sage, asking someone to perform a blessing.

Those that dont believe in ghosts/ghoolies/ Casper etc do you believe In the ring/needle test to predict sex of babies or what children someone has had? Or other superstitions like walking under ladders, black cats, 3 drains etc?

Of course not. You'd have to have the IQ of a chair to believe any of that.

I don't believe in ghosts etc., but I am intrigued - what is the explanation? What I find odd is that people explain it by dismissing it or scoffing at those who report these things. There has to be a more logical explanation.

There is, but it's far less glamorous than the OP's house being haunted by malevolent ghoulies. My explanation would go something like this:

The OP is rattled and superstitious, and is seeing patterns in completely unconnected events, like noises in a new house and a dog and small children who are also adjusting to a new house. Babies who have previously slept like logs have an unhelpful habit of suddenly turning sleepless for no reason. Three year olds are imaginative and can't distinguish between imagination and reality, and once they get worried about bad dreams are often hard to get back to staying in their bed all night. Fourteen year olds are also imaginative and this was her first night in her father's new house, and was also sharing with an unnerved three year old, hence was being suggestible. Toys often go off by themselves -- I nearly had a heart attack once when one of those farmyard wooden jigsaws starting mooing downstairs in the early hours.

The OP, who is tired because she has a baby and a three year old, forgot she had picked the nappies up herself because she was half asleep doing a night-time nappy change.

The moving table is harder to explain, but given that the OP has acknowledged that the locks have not been changed and the previous owners are still in the area, surely an intruder is a more likely explanation than a ghost?

TL;DR -- you're not going mad, OP. There are rational explanations for all these individual events which you have made into a pattern of events. But do change the locks. That is a better use of your time than worrying about old Indian burial grounds, plague graves or calling out exorcists.

"its like having a faith, I find that fascinating too - I think everything is fairly random there is no higher power as such, but then I work for a Christian organisation and the intense beliefs some colleagues hold are both touching and compelling".

I feel this way, too. I am of no religious or spiritual faith myself, but find different religions, cultural customs and superstitions intensely intriguing and interesting. The complexities of why a person may hold certain beliefs, or be more likely to experience what they believe to be supernatural occurences are myriad and, although, I've never personally witnessed or experienced anything I couldn't rationally account for in this realm, I wouldn't automatically dismiss every account as the work of an overactive, stressed or otherwise imagination.

My brother told me a fascinating story years ago about a university where staff, students and visitors would regularly report feelings of unease and/or nausea in a particular part of a corridor. Some people would actually vomit if they stood still there. It being an academic setting, answers were sought perhaps more scientifically than they may have been elsewhere.

Sure enough, after some fairly in-depth investigation, the 'phenomena' was traced to an air conditioning unit located in a room opening off of this corridor which gave off a particular resonance that caused the floor to vibrate and induce nausea in some susceptible people. That's always really stuck with me!

IncrediblySadToo i may well disagree with views that you hold but difference is i respect people's right to believe in what they want as long as it doesn't cause harm .Yeap we all have different views and rightly so but to call people who believe in spirits mad is incredibly rude .For what it's worth i am pretty sane thanks .

hearthside. I totally believe in your right to believe what you want, but I’m also allowed to think it’s batshit. 🤷🏻‍♀️

@dustarr73

I’m not sure it’s scorn. Maybe it is a ghost, I don’t think they exist, but I accept I don’t know everything.

What are the other possibilities:

1. there’s someone living in the loft
2. Somebody is trying to gaslight the OP into thinking they are going mad
3. OP is vulnerable and or has mental health issues.

Everyone who thinks ghosts don’t exist and leaving OP to the 3am mumsnet crowd to convince her there is a nasty spirit in her house is probably just as dangerous as everyone piling in saying “Casper isn’t real OP”

What I find odd is that people explain it by dismissing it or scoffing at those who report these things. There has to be a more logical explanation.

Phare you've quoted me, then gone on to scoff at the OP and dismiss her report. Your explanations are no more logical than someone saying there must be ghosties and ghoulies in the house, based entirely as they are on the OP being an unreliable witness - "rattled and superstitious" - !

@BurningTheToast - that's lovely!

There's plenty of evidence that the OP is 'rattled and superstitious' in her first post @Dishing. She's rattled enough about the pattern of activities she perceives as taking place in her house to post on the internet about them and risk being laughed at.

Much of her 'evidence' that something strange is taking place comes from the behaviour of a dog, a fifteen-month-old baby and a three year old, as well as her own memories of what she did or didn't do while changing a nappy in the early hours of the morning. None of those are the testimony of a reliable witness.

'Superstitious' may be the wrong word, but the extent to which the OP explains about the previous owners and how no deaths have taken place in the house, and her worry about whether the house is built on top of a burial ground suggests at least someone who is fairly credulous and believes in the tropes of horror films where burial grounds and deaths 'explain' hauntings. A more rational person would worry about a burglar when the dog barked and a piece of furniture had been moved in the middle of the night.

I'm not sneering at the OP here, or suggesting she is deliberately misleading anyone as she sounds panicked (and I admire anyone who can wrangle two small children and a housemove without going mad), but no, children, dogs and sleepy adults in the middle of the night are not 'reliable witnesses', and by now, the whole family seems to have decided there is no rational explanation for the events, when someone thinking more clearly (or without two small children and a recent house move) would see that there's no need for any supernatural explanation here.

@Cheeseypuff

"@BurningTheToast - that's lovely!"

Thanks. It's strange what people believe it - DH is a physicist, PhD and all, and he's very sceptical about ghosts etc, but even he's willing to concede that there are things that we can't yet explain.

@forsythekt - I really would have a chat with your local vicar. If ghosts are a figment of the imagination then it can't hurt, and if there is something there then a visit from whoever deals with that in the diocese might be able to put your mind at rest.

Good luck and hope all is calm for you soon.