To think certain places can have a bad energy?

[NineteenThirtyOne]

Lived in our current house for 10 months. Pretty much from day one it felt like it had a dark energy, to the point where visitors would comment on how it felt. It feels dull and the atmosphere is oppressive. It's honestly very depressing to live here but we can't afford to move house just yet.

Not to mention that so many bad things have happened since we moved here

AIBU to think that some places just feel strange? Has anyone else been somewhere and experienced this?

Yes I believe this. The (very old) home I grew up in had a bad feeling in one part. I didn't say anything for fear of being dismissed and not taken seriously. Years and years later - it turns out my siblings felt exactly the same way. Also a visitor from those times who we mentioned it to recently, couldn't believe what we were saying - she felt bad there too. When we moved I couldn't believe how different it felt.

I don't believe in ghosts and find the thought ludicrous, but I'm on the fence on believing houses can carry an energy.

I've never been in a house that felt like it had a bad energy, but my current home is very old listed building that had an initial happy purpose. And I always think it has a happy energy. That it's a happy house.

However logic tells me that that may be because I'm happy in it. And if I was not, I would not feel that. So maybe it's about how we feel, and not thr house.

There's no 'objective' measure, though -- otherwise surely former concentration camps would be unvisitable because they would 'contain' unimaginable pain and suffering?

And in fact it seem almost impossible for people to experience places where they know there has been appalling suffering without at some level expecting a lingering imprint -- hence the myth that no birds sing around Auschwitz etc.

There are certainly places that make me feel miserable and oppressed, but I think that's genuinely a combination of associations and concrete things about the space/lighting/design/airflow/layout/aspect that you're often not consciously aware of.

I am convinced the house I currently live in is cursed, would love to move but sadly not an option.

Yes I do.
Near us there’s a shopping centre that has just reopened - including an underground car park. I’ve never liked even driving past the enter Anne but yesterday I parked downstairs for the first time and it had such a sense of menace - I’m not normally bothered by underground places and it’s very busy, freshly repainted and was nearly full but the atmosphere was very oppressive!
My husband thinks I’m crazy

I had a similar thing when visiting Westminster Abbey in London. I reached the part where famous people were buried and felt rooted to the spot. By the time I was able to move I was really sweating although it wasn't a hot day. I have no idea why or how that happened but have never been back to test if it was a one off. I'm an atheist and not at all woo so found it really puzzling.

The pp's talking about the M62 is interesting as I had a friend who felt the exact same way about it. I think the M62 is a psychological effect though due to the horrors we all know took place on there.

I do believe that spaces can take in energy though. I've been in a couple of places that have terrified me for no reason but I've been shut in a dungeon, at night, and felt no fear whatsoever.

We rented a house in a seaside town for a week’s holiday a few years ago. I didn’t feel comfortable from the moment we stepped inside, although it had been done-up to a high spec. I felt on-edge. The feeling got worse when I went upstairs and the room my DH and I slept in felt extremely oppressive. There was a dark Victorian bureau along one wall, and (I know this sounds completely mad!) I got some very bad vibes from it. I am not woo and have not experienced anything like that before. The weird thing was, one of my DCs refused to enter my bedroom because of “the scary furniture”. He had no idea I was also freaked out.

I had to sleep with the curtains and windows open and the bathroom light on (which I never do as I hate light interrupting my sleep). I slept very badly and when I did nod off, I had bad nightmares about the house and dreamt that horrible things had happened there.

On day four of the holiday, the bathroom sink and bath drains became blocked so we called the owners and they sent a plumber round. We got chatting and he told us the house was in a terrible state when the owners acquired it and that it was unrecognisable from how he used to know it. I got the impression he knew a bit more of the history but didn’t tell us.

I counted down the days until we could go home and was so relieved when we’d packed the car and could drive away.

@zen1 it wasn't in Aldeburgh was it?

No, Nautiloid it was on the North West coast. Have you had a similar experience in Aldeburgh?

I firmly believe that some properties are 'bad karma' so when buying a house I always check Rightmove Sold House Prices to see how frequently the house has changed hands in the past. On occasion it is quite surprising.

Yes, it's happened to me. I visited a house in the Isle of Wight and on entering it, I immediately felt a very oppressive feeling. Years later, I returned there and had the same feeling then remembered that I had felt like that before.

@zen1 yes, very similar, though the rest of the house to me was lovely and it was just that one bedroom. No one slept in it, but I used the shower in the en suite and I could hardly stand being in there.
The bathroom without the shower was in the upstairs hallway between the bedrooms. I was pregnant so needed the toilet lots at night, at first I couldn't even look at the door to that room when I went, and by the end I'd progressed to waking DH up while I went.

There was a 'woo' thread recently about houses and their vibes and a poster came on and told their story about going to look around a house which was either on the market or happened to now belong to a friend of a friend. I can't remember which.

The poster had had a very unhappy childhood in that very house years earlier, being abused by her father. This was unknown to the owner. Back as a child she had comforted herself by singing and writing on the walls of her bedroom. (Or something similar). (sorry i can't recall these exact details so well)

Anyway - talk turned to how long the current owner of the house had been there and the owner told the poster she was keen to move as it had a bad atmosphere upstairs and she'd hear quiet crying, a young girl singing and scratching on the walls of one of the bedrooms.

She was describing the noises of this person's childhood and putting it down to being a ghost! The OP told the owner about the fact it was in fact her she was hearing, but in the past, as a child, and the reason why she was unhappy back then. She also assured her she got away from her abuser while still quite young, and was perfectly happy now.

.... weird!

@zen1 have you ever googled it to find out the history of what happened there (if anything)? Though I suppose you may not want to know.

I lived in a block of flats like that. Anybody who moved in as a couple would split up within a year.

No woo, though. They were isolated from shops or facilities, it taking an hour there and back to get milk on a Sunday, and they were just so small, cramped and badly designed that not only did you have exactly nowhere where you were not within earshot of anybody else every moment, including in the toilet, your sleep was disturbed by the noises from everybody else crammed in with their partners trying to get along - you could hear the neighbours fart, never mind cook, clean or run a bath.

It was dark, claustrophobic, cold, damp and impossible to make cozy (for example, Boxing Day 1998, I had the heating on full blast, but it was still minus 4 in the bedroom) .

Anybody stuck in that situation would find it stressful and it would throw any relationship issues into stark relief.

So most 'bad' places, in my opinion, are just badly designed.

@Laiste That's given me goosebumps

The thing is, events in your life are not connected to a particular building. They are part of the continuum of your life irrespective of where you are living. Focusing on just a building and believing everything will be magically fixed by moving is illogical. I mean, seriously, do you really believe you are so weak and passive and powerless that your entire present and future are out of your hands and influenced by energy in a house/flat? Cast that off! Just stop doing that to yourself.

In the past 10 years we've had some seriously bad, tragic things go on. I started to be convinced it was this flat, where a previous tenant hanged himself in the stairwell. Then I started getting pissed off. Get fucking real! What happened was random and some of it was a direct result of shit choices we made. So we stopped making them. I started taking control of my life and even though I am facing a serious health problem now, it is the result of my age and how poorly I treated my body in the past. Nothing more.

And things have started changing for the better.

Stop living your life for a future that no one is guaranteed (oh, it will all be better once I move out of here) and start affirming to yourself that you are the one who is responsible for your present and future (of course, barring accidents and the like which are just that) and stop letting other crap control you.

Yes I lived in a flat like that. The whole area felt dark desolate and depressing. I still get a really despondent area when we go through it. We moved due to financial reasons to a smaller place in a really dodgy area yet immediately I felt relieved and at home there. Very odd.

@Laiste

Interesting that a few PPs have said about the M62.. spooky.

Surely this is just the opposite of going into a house and getting ‘good vibes’. I knew the minute I moved into the house I’m living in now that I wanted to live here. I only realised later it was because it had many similar features to the house where I’d spent a happy childhood - bay windows, old fireplaces, etc. Going into a house with dark corners, cold rooms, or bad smells evoke horror movie associations or other things you’ve experienced previously, and could make you feel more uncomfortable. Ultimately, all houses are just bricks and mortar. If you’re getting a bad vibe, check the drains and the window fittings, and make sure that your not over ley lines (that’s a joke, btw).

My parents used to move house every 5 years or so (DM loved moving), and one house was always on the market when she wanted to move, we always had to view it, but DP never put in an offer. No idea why, the house always seemed ok to me. It was on the market in between, seemed to go up for sale every 2 to 3 years apparently.
Mt DGP lived in a village with a divorce house. Over 10 years all the home owners got divorced (and had to sell), or went bankrupt (and had to sell), or the house was repossessed (and went on the market). Very odd.

Yep, Scammonden near Huddersfield (my hometown) is the bridge. The M62 also goes right up over the moors and always makes people think of the Moors Murders. It's not a nice part of the world. I can't imagine living in the house between the carriageways.

I used to live in Oldham and I hated driving past Saddleworth moor. Day or night it felt horrendous