Seven Signs Your House Could Be Haunted - The following signs suggest your home may have visitors from beyond the grave.
Mysterious Sights and Sounds: Clearly we have a fascination with haunted houses in this country, but manty professional ghost hunters say they are not all that frightening. Activity in a home, or location may simply be the unseen residents trying to send us a message. In fact, it is a proven fact that most hauntings aren't evil - only misunderstood and unexplained phenomena ocurring at the site. Many of the classic signs that people run into are mysterious noises that seem to come from places they can't locate, a lot of bumping and scratching on walls, seeing full-bodied apparitions, and things moving from place to place when you've not touched them. Of course, anyone who has seen a horror movie or a ghost show probably already knows this. What you might not know, however, is that what you call "a haunting" may not be the real deal. Some ghost hunters been called to houses where the causes of these phenomena have actually been carbon monoxide poisoning which caused people to hallucinate. Mold too, can cause the same reaction. For houses with legitimate ghosts, there are more telling signs that your house is haunted. Some of the most haunted places in America have been investigated and fully explained from the stand point of history in the many ghost and history tours now offered to the public by Appalachian GhostWalks.
Ectoplasm: It is a fact that "Ectoplasm" is a substance that still mystifies even the most seasoned paranormal experts. Historically, it has been reported to show up during seances through a spiritual medium. Some investigators have reportedly experienced the phenomenon in real haunted houses. One house investigated several years ago, where the family claimed that things were moving on their own, a strange, viscous fluid showed up during the investigation. Reportedly, it dripped down onto the investigator's arm, out of nowhere. The family claimed that this would happen all the time. It was a very strange kind of off-white, almost like a raw egg kind of fluid." Ectoplasm is not often seen or experienced at your run-of-the-mill haunted house, but paranormal experts see it as a sign of certainty that there is a paranormal presence at work.
Inexplicable Movement: Objects don't move on their own-unless you live in an old drafty house where strong winds make doors open and close. Otherwise, there has to be some kind of force applied to get it to move. That's why when you see things flying around your house without visible cause, you can be pretty sure that there is something-or someone-other than you in your house. Everything from books thrown through the air by an invisible force, and a grown man with a $2,500 camera in his hand drop the camera to the ground because something was strangling him, to soaring objects are another staple of horror flicks, but inexplicable movement can be even more sinister than that. Even more intense experiences than flying books some investigators have been witness to people literally bursting into flames, like what happened at the famous movie star's house, Mary Astor, in the early days of Hollywood. Then, all sorts of people lived there to include the Rolling Stones, the Mamas & Papas, etc. But, the last person there was Marilyn Manson and the house was too scary for him, so he moved out." In the Black Dahlia house in Los Angeles, one investigator was violently thrown against a wall. If anything small or big like this happens in your home, you can be sure you've got a haunted house.
Feelings of Being Watched: Though "feeling watched" isn't a quantifiable factor, people who live in genuine haunted houses do report it a lot. Many believe in a kind of sixth sense. Basically, you might be in a house with a really bad vibe. Cold chills move throughout the room and even just the feeling of being watched. Sometimes whispers, or being awoken in the middle of the night because of the feeling that somebody's standing there. Whether there is a normal explanation for this sensation or a paranormal one is hard to know for sure, but it's definitely a contributing factor for nearly any house that is afflicted by spirits. Science has the real reason why ghosts may be haunting you.
Personality Changes: Hauntings have more to do with the "People of the Past". Personality Changes are more likely closer to demonic activity. Ghost hunters say that more often than not, demonic possession and even a demonic presence is not behind whatever it is you're experiencing. There are rare cases where it is believed that a "normal" ghost can possess you too. The tip-off is if someone you know is acting extremely strange all of a sudden. There are cases of possession or influence by a spirit all the time. If you start to notice someone has taken on a pretty distinct personality change, that can be a sign of that.
Previous Homeowners: If you suspect you might have a haunted house on your hands, you should probably dig into the history of your property. On one particular investigation in a condominium, it was found that the resident, a woman, just could not breathe in her bedroom. She didn't have breathing issues but in her bedroom she just couldn't breathe. It was found out that her room had caught on fire and the previous resident had died. If you're experiencing things you can't explain, doing research might help clear it up for you. The hope is that once you know what happened or what you're dealing with, you can then ease the haunting. However, some places just can't be cleared of their histories. On another investigation, one house had everything going for it to include Indian burial ground to being a drug house for years. Initial investigations had shown that as many as seven people had already died, one in every room.
Physical and Emotional Distortion: Much like a horcrux in the Harry Potter series, a haunting can have a terrible effect on your mood and even your physical state. It can leave you feeling angry or weak. While investigating the famously haunted Hinsdale House in New York, a place where it's a very extreme haunting, there's something about that place when you walk into it, it gets very, very confusing. Some of the things that we started to see in this place and hear in this place-including drumming and strange lights-was very disorienting. It was noticed that moods would change while in the building and investigators would have to keep leaving it regularly.
Three Types of Hauntings: Some researchers sort hauntings into three categories including Intelligent, Residual, and Intentional. There's the classic haunting which is an intelligent haunting. The spirit seems to interact very intelligently with people. And then the other common one people run into a lot is a residual haunting. An example of a residual haunting would be like the one experienced at the condo in the "Previous Homeowners" section of this page, which burned down and seemingly still felt like it was filled with smoke. With that, it just kind of plays over and over and over. It doesn't ever really acknowledge that people live in the house. It just is. It just happens. Sometimes it's because a traumatizing event happened on a particular date. There's no intelligence there, so there's really nothing you can do about it. Lastly, an intentional haunting is actually more about living, breathing humans than ghosts. It really comes from people who have put so much energy and intention into the belief that their house or object is haunted that they've ended up actually manifesting a haunting. Think of kids who follow urban legends and routinely go visit the place of the supposed haunting. They feed the story so much that they actually open the place up to paranormal activity.
What to Do if Your House is Haunted: Most ghost hunters agree that the best way to deal with a haunting is to make a firm statement. Talk to the presence in your home and let it know what your intentions are. Generally, most people who come to find out that their house is haunted can live peacefully with whatever spirits are there. If it's something that really, genuinely bothers you, say something as simple as "You need to leave", but do it in a very polite manner. Putting that extra energy into your statement makes it more effective. Finally, if you try to use sage, just be cautious and use it the right way. Sage is great, but according to some investigators, it's a little overrated because it's harsh. It's so cleansing it almost creates a vacuum. It's like dusting your whole house and then leaving your doors and windows open in a sandstorm. Some psychics believe that if you're going to do sage and clear your house, then come in with something holy or something magical so you fill it back up with your own intent. So next time you think something in your space is off, keep in mind these telltale signs that your house is haunted. Learn how to become a real-life ghost hunter by enrolling today in Appalachian GhostWalks' "Ghostology 101" Ghost Hunting Training Classes and Ghost Hunter Getaway Packages.
