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Original poster

A bit freaked, what do other MNers think?

98 replies

Callmemadam · 18/09/2006 22:23

I am not going to change my name for this, as anyone who recognises it will probably know I come from the sound and sensible corner . I would like to know what you make of this, though. We live in an old Victorian/medieval house in the SE, have been here for 2 years. There have been times when we have heard music, smelt smells (usually boiling meat for some reason) and heard what sounds like a child's voice upstairs calling. EVERY time we dismiss it/rationalise it away. Now 2 things have happened which have started me wondering if there is something else after all. We have never ever said anything to the children about this stuff, yet a fortnight ago dd1 (11) came running downstairs in tears at 11pm saying she couldn't go back to sleep because she had been listening to heavy breathing in her bedroom. She had even got out of bed to check little sisters room because she thought little sister was snoring. When she got back into bed someone spoke in her ear. She was adamant it was a voice but couldn't say what it said, it was just a noise to her. Anyway, we rationalised that away (overtired, just dropping off etc) and then the other night a friend came to stay with me with her 3 month old dd. We were alone in the house, downstairs watching tv, and baby was upstairs in the travel cot in the centre of the spare room. About 9.45pm there was a HUGE white noise static on the listner and we both jumped and Isabelle said'what the hell was that'. She picked the listener up and we could hear footsteps, as clear as a bell, crossing the wooden bedroom floor. She went haring upstairs thinking it was my little one going to look at the baby but dd2 was fast asleep in her room. Definately footsteps, and Isabelle knows nothing at all about the house. Have to admit I'm now wondering about it.....

OP posts:
TheQueenOfEyeSpy · 18/09/2006 22:25

Bloody hell. I can't read this so late at night [scared emoticon]

Beauregard · 18/09/2006 22:27

And it's taken you this long to suspect there may be more to this than logic can explain,personally i could not live in a house like that.

tortoisesdonotwearshoes · 18/09/2006 22:29

Ooooh ive gone all shivery! Wish i hadn't read it!!

WideWebWitch · 18/09/2006 22:32

I'm a sceptic. I think your monitor picked something up from another house and your dd had a nightmare. Really. Old house, others nearby? would account for the smells etc too.

Gingeme · 18/09/2006 22:35

OK IM no expert but I have family that live in a hauntes house. You need to get it checked out because if your 11 year old dd is menustrating this could very well be a poltergiest! They are very attracted to teenage girls because of the energy they let of at that time of month. My Nans ghost used to slam doors and open cupboard doors etc when my sister used to visit my Nan. She was 17 at the time. She used to feel it pushing her up the stairs too. Im not realy sure who you need to talk to. Try your local chuch first. My Nan got used to it and it never realy bothered her. But she did move in the end simlpy because she needed a smaller place to live.

edam · 18/09/2006 22:42

How can your house be both medieval and Victorian? Confused... does it have a medieval wing and a later Victorian addition?

southeastastra · 18/09/2006 22:43

blimey don't scare her gingeme!

Jimjams2 · 18/09/2006 22:48

My grandmother supposedly lived in a haunted house (not a scary haunted house a sweet old lady apparently). 2 people saw her independently. It's passed into family folklore.

As a child I used to hear a lot of noises between waking and sleeping (usually a witches cackle!) so I wouldn't go too much by the heavy breating. Sometimes ds3's monitor sounds a bit footstepppy, but you were there.

I don't think its impossible but I'm skeptical Keep us posted though.....

chubbleigh · 18/09/2006 22:48

The thing is this sort of thing feeds off of its self. Now you have got a little bit jumpy you attribute every unexplained noise to something 'unexplained'. There may well be something odd about the way noise carries in your house and lots of old houses creak and grown if you care to listen out for it, and children have bad dreams all the time. If you start to look for connections between all of these things you will surely find them purely for the fact you are looking. I think maybe you should give yourself a good talking to before your kids pick up on what you are thinking and freak themselves out. This kind of thing is out of the movies - calm yourself down.

Gingeme · 18/09/2006 22:52

Sorry dont mean to scare anyone realy but with a child in the house Id get it checked out. They are usualy the first people to pick up on this kind of thing. Animals too.

southeastastra · 18/09/2006 22:54

set up a ghostcam and make a mint!

Gingeme · 18/09/2006 22:55

Or get Most Haunted in. What a load of tripe that programme is......

southeastastra · 18/09/2006 22:55

yep agreed there gin!

BadHair · 18/09/2006 22:59

I'm also from sane, sensible corner, and so are my parents, but they used to live in a house that they swear blind was still inhabited by it's ex-owner. Without going into all the details, they described similar incidents as you, and kept explaining small incidents away, until they ran out of explanations and had to admit that they were sharing their house with an unwanted, and rather annoying, guest.
A friend of a friend claimed to be a medium and conducted a ouija board session, which is not something I would ever recommend. Answers were given to questions that only my mum and dad, and obviously their eavesdropping ghost, knew, and they managed to find out why the spirit was unhappy. They had a Requiem Mass said for her (ghost was a Catholic woman buried in a Protestant churchyard, with a few other niggling worries to boot), and off she toddled never to be seen or heard again.
Sorry to go on, and don't know how helpful this is, but I guess there may be more things 'twix heaven and earth etc. ..

southeastastra · 18/09/2006 23:02

try him! ouija boards are v bad

handlemecarefully · 18/09/2006 23:04

Good point Edam

Gingeme · 18/09/2006 23:05

OOh very true ssoutheastra. Only to be used by an expert at all costs.

bubble99 · 18/09/2006 23:09

Did it have building additions onto the house?

My PIL's house has a very old (pre-Georgian, not sure when though) ground floor and a Georgian upper storey.

Original poster
Callmemadam · 18/09/2006 23:18

www, we have no proper neighbours near us and live down a 1/4 mile long drive and the listner made no other sound all weekend. Edam, the house was a Tudor farmhouse but in 1840 the then owner glammed it up by adding 2 Victorian wings. Chubsleigh, fair point but I AM a sceptic, and neither dh or I would look for connections anywhere: if anything I would dismiss this all as a load of tripe. Its a bit different when it happens to you, though. For example, the same bedroom had my mum in it when she was unwell a few months again, and she got very cross because the area by a sash window filled with a strong smell of baking and it made her feel unwell. There was no one in the kitchen at the time, no cooking had been done that day, you could walk into the smell and walk out of it ( an area about 8' across) and there was no smell anywhere else, including outside the window, which I opened. The smell lasted for about 20 minutes and was very distinct. As I say, not noticiable outside and neighbour too far away. Also bedroom is a long long way from the kitchen and RL cooking smells have never reached it before or since as far as I am aware. I have given myself the talking to you suggest: I have a very real interest in explaining it away properly.

OP posts:
southeastastra · 18/09/2006 23:24

can you write it down and keep records of when these things occur?

Pann · 19/09/2006 00:23

Sounds like the manifestations of a poltergeist. I do have/had one of these. I am otherwise utterly sane and centred(though others disagree...), but I have too much direct experience of mine to not know of it's prescence.

They do congregate in places where there is a high degree of emotional energy (that is what fuels them). I have had doors slam in the room I and others are in, they steal things, seen cushions fly across a room (only once)..can drop temps. very quickly.

Yes they are scary at first, and obv. for little ones, but now I am fairly easy about it all - not had a manifest for about 2 years - that was two massive crashing noises outside bedroom door - was totally awake forthe second one, one hour after the first one woke me.

Not sure about the smells thing at all - have heard of it before but never experienced it (apart from my training shoes....

They don't do harm, apart from the unnerving side ofthem.

Try googling poltergeist and see what it brings up.

Don't worry about them. That would serve to keep them hanging around. Good luck.

Socci · 19/09/2006 01:06

Message withdrawn

lucy5 · 19/09/2006 07:36

This happened to a friend of mine when they were renovating their cottage, apparently it disturbed the energies/spirits. They got a medium and the energy was reassureed or left the house, not sure of the technical term.

SSSandy · 19/09/2006 08:17

Hi Callmemadam,

A friend of mine lives in a house that is most definitely haunted. Big heavy things get moved, she sees people who then disappear, writing appears on the walls in Latin and Welsh. No one could have entered the house to do it. She just takes it in her stride and doesn't feel threatened or worried about it.

I can see it makes you uneasy, in particular with the dc in the house. So even if you aren't religious, personally I would try to get a priest or minister in to drive out any spirits, bless the house. They do this on request. Of course you can do it yourself. I wouldn't attempt to enter into contact with them and find out what is upsetting them or keeping them there etc. I think that's a dodgy path to go down.

ghosty · 19/09/2006 08:40

Don't worry about it Callmemadam ... 'tis only me - wooooooooooooooo

Seriously, sometimes baby listeners pick up other frequencies like police cars and other houses. My sister heard adults talking and cooing to a baby through hers when her dd was fast asleep in her room .... turned out to be people across the road and they had their frequencies crossed (that is why baby monitors have A and B frequency switches) ....
But then again ... if your house is in the middle of nowhere what are the chances of picking up another frequency?