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Original poster

Haunted house scaring the shit out of me

458 replies

Goawayghosts · 31/07/2022 22:23

Deliberately OTT title and I’m not into the paranormal but I’m getting freaked out in my house.

We’ve lived here 10 years. The house is only 20 years old. Built on marsh land.

A year or so after we moved in weird shit started happening. Stuff moving around, noises, dog going nuts in certain rooms, doors opening by themselves etc. DH got freaked out by it and started getting angry at me everytime I mentioned it. He outright refused to discuss it but admitted he had seen and heard the same stuff as me.

Then it all stopped. Nothing happened for years. All good.

Then, a couple of weeks ago I was messing on my phone and behind me I saw a shadow go past in the hallway out of the corner of my eye and heard it brush along the wall. The dog (different dog) flew over me barking and growling, all heckles raised. Back door was locked, there was no way anyone could have got in without me (or the dog) hearing the front door. I sent the dog around the whole house - nothing at all. I put it to the back of my mind but ever since the noises have started up again - footsteps on the first floor, doors opening and closing, muffled voices

DH has heard it too and is laughing it off saying the ghost is back but he too is randomly sending the dog into rooms and upstairs before him and telling me not to be stupid when I mention it. It’s seriously starting to freak me out.

It happened again 10 minutes ago … the sound of the floorboards creaking upstairs in the pattern of footsteps - DH looked up and muted the TV - then the sound of something being moved. I said “You’re not telling me you didn’t hear that?” And he said “I’m not getting into this shit again” and turned the TV up.

it’s a detached house, we don’t have neighbours. WTF is it??

OP posts:
RockinHorseShit · 01/08/2022 09:17

You know me so well @Miffee 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

ThinkingaboutLangClegosaurus · 01/08/2022 09:23

leisurelystroll · 31/07/2022 23:41

I can't believe there are people saying you should get a priest in. These people are nutjobs.

There's no such thing as ghosts. They don't exist and the laws of the universe mean they cannot exist. Put that out of your mind completely and start looking at the evidence.

If you're sure it's just you and your partner living there then the moving things around has to be you, your partner, your dog, or someone who visits your house.

The noises you hear will be pipework, the house settling, expansion or contraction through the day because of temperature differences, or an actual person walking upstairs.

Voices: are these definitely originating from inside the house? Are you hearing them inside because the sound is travelling in from an outside vent or something? Is an upstairs TV on or Alexa announcing something?

Remember: Ghosts don't exist and ghosts cannot exist.

Trouble is, we have no proof that ghosts don’t exist. We can prove things do exist, but it’s a lot harder to prove that anything doesn’t. It’s just a belief, either way. The evidence of PO’s eyes and ears is suggesting that they do. Simply making the statement “Ghosts don’t exist”, with no evidence to back it, isn’t scientific.

DotBall · 01/08/2022 09:23

I’m not a woo-denier (had one very woo experience) but I think, given the location, that it’s settling, especially as you said it stopped and restarted.

If the house is 20 years old it will still be getting its feet organised, even if its on a concrete raft (the whole foundations move and the house ‘tips’ rather than old style foundations where if one corner dips you get cracks opening up).

We’ve had a real variations of very hot, very cold, very dry and very wet over the last 20 years. It’s bound to affect clay soil.

MsJinks · 01/08/2022 09:30

I’m sure the podcast The Battersea Poltergeist looked into explanations related to marshland, amongst others, or it could have been a similar type podcast (clearly I listen to too many) - I’m not sure if there was mention of gases as well as marshy ground potentially causing issues.
on the other hand I don’t rule out ‘spiritual’ activity and have found telling ‘them’ to stop it now can help - not saying it’s specifically spirits or something else as I don’t know that, but whatever it is if it works it’s worth a try.
I do think houses have atmospheres/good or bad energy for some people for an unknown reason, but maybe if you can’t settle someone else could, though not sure if moving is a step too far just yet.
Some men just don’t acknowledge anything not manly nor to being unnerved or frightened of something. An ex insisted he liked spiders and had often moved tarantula sized ones - I was either silly wanting them moved, or I should girl up and do it myself - he never got close enough to move any whatsoever and found other places to be if there was a large one around - very disappointing when I thought I had a spider catcher on tap 🤦🏻‍♀️

GonnaGetGoingReturns · 01/08/2022 09:30

VanillaIce1 · 31/07/2022 23:43

I never believed in woo stuff until my mum had a basement flat in Tooting bec . It was awful if someone lit a cigarette it would burn back somehow and cause you to drop it. Anything left on the draining board would start banging and fly off.
If you had the tv on the volume would go down and the radio would come on full blast it was horrendous and really scary. My dad doesn't believe in ghosts but even he wouldn't visit.
My mum woke up one night and saw a reflection of an old man in the mirror, she moved out a day later.
What done it for my dad was he gone into bed one night and he thought mum had got in as something lifted the cover, mattress sunk down and a cold breeze came in.

He won't talk about it at all now, he doesn't like nothing that can't be explained. Since found out they used to burn suspected witches on the common up there really sad.

But they hung not burnt witches in the olden days in England?

PriamFarrl · 01/08/2022 09:30

Vincitveritas · 01/08/2022 09:15

Spiritualist churches are not very much not churches in the old fashioned sense. Woo is big business, you only have to look at the current thread on Witches, currently on number 17, to see how popular this sort of thing has become.

The spiritualist church was started by the Fox sisters. They started the whole concept of seances etc.
In later life they admitted it was all made up. They had the ability to click their toes and this made the tapping. This was around the time of the Boer and First World Wars. So many people had lost loved ones that they desperately wanted to believe.
The church got completely out of had and the sisters lost control of it. By the time they confessed to the fakery no one wanted to believe them.

leisurelystroll · 01/08/2022 09:31

RockinHorseShit · 01/08/2022 09:11

There is no such thing as ghosts. It doesn't happen. It isn't real

That's fine dear, you carry on in your ignorance. I actually envy you that as I'd much rather not believe in this shit too, but life experience has taught me otherwise.

That's quite some gall to call the person who doesn't believe in ghosts ignorant. Your life experience somehow trumps all science does it? Honestly, as a previous poster said, I find this thread slightly depressing. How do so many otherwise seemingly normal people think ghosts are real?

It's not ignorance we're living in. It's just reality. Ghosts cannot exist. Everytime a supposed haunting has been properly investigated a rational explanation has been found. No evidence has ever been captured despite how supposedly widespread ghosts are. Somehow those who don't believe in ghosts manage to go their whole lives without seeing one.

Beautiful3 · 01/08/2022 09:32

I think it's spirits. I'd ask them please move into the white light, whilst burning sage. You have to sage every inch of each room, including wardrobes. Keep the windows shut for an hour afterwards.

Iamthewombat · 01/08/2022 09:32

Trouble is, we have no proof that ghosts don’t exist. We can prove things do exist, but it’s a lot harder to prove that anything doesn’t. It’s just a belief, either way. The evidence of PO’s eyes and ears is suggesting that they do. Simply making the statement “Ghosts don’t exist”, with no evidence to back it, isn’t scientific.

Your statement is itself unscientific. You cannot prove that something DOESN’T exist. It’s impossible to do. As any scientist could tell you.

That is why, when somebody claims that a thing exists, the burden of proof is on them. It’s for the people saying that ghosts exist to provide evidence to support their statement. Proper evidence, that can be scientifically verified, not a clip of Derek Acorah pretending to be possessed by a Victorian kitchen maid on U.K. Most Haunted. Nobody has ever managed that. Why do you think that is?

Vincitveritas · 01/08/2022 09:35

@PriamFarrl Thank you, I didn't know that.

rc22 · 01/08/2022 09:35

I'm sure I've heard something marsh land causing phenomenon that can appear paranormal when they're not. I agree with PPs get a surveyor to check the house out first.

Elphame · 01/08/2022 09:37

Witches were hung.

Every time I read this I hear the voice of my old English teacher, Miss Smith, saying firmly

"Pictures are hung Elphame. People are hanged"

RockinHorseShit · 01/08/2022 09:37

@leisurelystroll & exactly what science would that be 🙄

& it is ignorant to so rudely shoot down others life experience as being impossible or delusional, just because it differs from your own

There was a time when science believed the world to flat... science often evolves & moves on.

DevilsVineBlues · 01/08/2022 09:40

Quia · 01/08/2022 08:39

The house is on marshland, it's exceptionally dry weather, it's moving a bit. There is no such thing as haunting.

This would be my guess, also.

It's been a dry year so far, on top of a pretty dry autumn and winter last year. The marsh clay lands under you are dry and shrinking...

IncompleteSenten · 01/08/2022 09:40

rc22 · 01/08/2022 09:35

I'm sure I've heard something marsh land causing phenomenon that can appear paranormal when they're not. I agree with PPs get a surveyor to check the house out first.

Is that swamp gas hallucinations?

Onlyhereforthebatshitneighbours · 01/08/2022 09:40

I really dislike when people accuse others of stupidity for a belief- whether that's a belief in something or a belief that something doesn't exist.

I despair that people can be so contemptuous of others.

GonnaGetGoingReturns · 01/08/2022 09:41

Parents have got a holiday home in middle of nowhere in SW France, in a hamlet. If you're by yourself there or just two of you you can get freaked out, if you have no radio, tv etc. The local cats (farm and otherwise) have a lovely habit of running around and peering into any windows with open curtains/shutters which freaked the F out of us when it first happened! Shock

I've/parents have viewed/been into houses in countryside in England and France a few times (and flats). A few were normal and a few were downright freaky. I can't say if there was any haunting going on. Lots of old villages with graveyards, churches and old houses always give off haunted/woo vibes.

Beautiful3 · 01/08/2022 09:44

RockinHorseShit · Today 09:11

"There is no such thing as ghosts. It doesn't happen. It isn't real"

Just because you've never experienced something, doesn't make it untrue. I grew up in a haunted house, mainly one room was affected. My family including an atheist, and a Jehovahs Witness (whose religion does not believe in spirit world), have all seen/heard/felt the spirits. They definitely exist. My mother chose to ignore it, my father would run and hide and avoid a certain room. We weren't allowed to talk about it, inside the house. I moved out 20 years ago and lived in other places. Thankfully I have never come across anything like it again. My father still lives there alone, I would never spend the night there again. In fact when my mother died, I refused to stay over.

rc22 · 01/08/2022 09:45

IncompleteSenten · 01/08/2022 09:40

Is that swamp gas hallucinations?

Show quote history

Yes. Although, it's hard to imagine this happening if all the land has been built on and it wouldn't explain stuff happening indoors.

lovescats3 · 01/08/2022 09:46

Moving foundations doesn't explain visions

HyperionWarbonnet · 01/08/2022 09:46

Vincitveritas · 01/08/2022 08:38

@HyperionWarbonnet I'm very glad you didn't feel threatened and I do love a thatched cottage!

Don't like to use the word Christan as it's such a broad term now and can cover anything from Catholics and Quakers to Mormons and Jehova's Witnesses (all very different and conflicting belief systems). However, from my perspective ghosts are not actually the spirits of dead people but deceiving spirits (fallen angels) masquerading as dead people. I realise that sounds bonkers, but if it makes someone think twice about getting involved with 'woo' stuff then great.

When I moved there, it was pretty much unchanged from when it was built in the 1700's apart from the woodchip wall paper! Now it's been remodelled and extended and (shock horror) the local council have allowed water reed on the roof instead of longstraw which is haunting in it's own right!

Sometime I may knock and see if they will let me in. It's been forty years since I moved out though (rent £40 a month).

I would love to know if they have had the same experience as me. I always felt restored when I walked in there. I have never felt that in any other dwelling - the opposite many many times.

tiger2691 · 01/08/2022 09:48

I accept the house settling, build on Marshland, causing movement and creaking etc, but that shouldn't drive a dog potty?

Miffee · 01/08/2022 09:48

Beautiful3 · 01/08/2022 09:44

RockinHorseShit · Today 09:11

"There is no such thing as ghosts. It doesn't happen. It isn't real"

Just because you've never experienced something, doesn't make it untrue. I grew up in a haunted house, mainly one room was affected. My family including an atheist, and a Jehovahs Witness (whose religion does not believe in spirit world), have all seen/heard/felt the spirits. They definitely exist. My mother chose to ignore it, my father would run and hide and avoid a certain room. We weren't allowed to talk about it, inside the house. I moved out 20 years ago and lived in other places. Thankfully I have never come across anything like it again. My father still lives there alone, I would never spend the night there again. In fact when my mother died, I refused to stay over.

I never said I didn't believe it because I haven't experienced it. Indeed I stated the reasons I didn't believe it.

Yet you are the second person to tell me
"Just because you haven't experienced it doesn't make it untrue".

That's called a strawman. You are assigning a ridiculous position to me as its easier for you to dismiss than what I am actually saying.

lovescats3 · 01/08/2022 09:49

None of my family believed in ghosts either until we moved into a haunted house

Vincitveritas · 01/08/2022 09:49

@leisurelystroll Please read the thread 'To want to believe in life after death'. I don't want to repeat it all again. Not here to convince anyone, each to their own, but black and white thinking can be quite restrictive.