MY enclosed area theory and belief in ghosts

[Gilbert Syndrome]

As we speak I'm living alone in a house that for forty-seven years was occupied by three people. No ghost sightings but the bumps in the night and sometimes in the days are a bit more disconcerting.

I wouldn't worry about it, old houses tend to make lots of noises. Once you've been there for a while, you'll find that you're going to get used to the noises and will probably even come to expect them.

If, however, one dark, cold night, all of the familiar noises seem to cease at once, and the house is enveloped in total silence, to the point that it's almost too silent, so silent you can reach out and touch it... then it's time to be disconcerted.

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

I’m aware of experiments where small groups of people were taken to old homes under various pretexts.... If the group were told by the “guide” that the place had a reputation for being haunted, at least some of the participants would report some sort of “incident”.....Noises, footsteps, whatever.

If a similar group was not so informed.... No incidents.

We have a building on campus, the old Chancellor’s residence, that’s been reputedly haunted for many years. Now and again, the burglar alarm would go off for no apparent reason (hardly unusual). So we’re checking the place one night and the reason for the alarms becomes apparent.... A bat has taken up residence in the place.
We had officers who refused to go into the place.

This was done on a rigged set, IRRC, on a show I've now forgotten the name of.

One group of people were brought in and given a hokey story, and they went along with it and saw all manner of things that weren't there, and another group were given the same treatment without the story and obviously reported nothing.

We, as people, are tuned into our surroundings, even though this has been dulled over the years from our modern environment and our much-loved technology. If you wander into a big old empty building at dusk, your senses aren't going crazy because there may be a mysterious and creepy lady in white flitting through the dusty halls; they're going crazy because you're naturally worrying about potential dangers and the fact that this is essentially an unknown and unfamiliar place to be in.

Yes, creepy old buildings are creepy at night, but that's because it's obviously going to be creepy, considering all the many years of myth, legend and nonsense we've all come to know and love, rattling about in our noggins like the chains of a ghost. The real dangers of such empty, abandoned, potentially hazardous places, are what we're actually wary of.

Similarly, when you're out strolling through the woods and you get a funny feeling coming over you that you're being watched, that's more than likely your brain's natural way of telling you to be careful, I mean, you're in the woods, y'know, lol. We're hardwired, like pigeons, to crap ourselves and run, or stand and do battle, fight or flight. Adrenaline. That's all it is. It's how we survive and live to tell another daft tale about spooky ghosts.

 

[wasapi]

The house I lived in for 40 years, was built in 1890. The couple I bought it from had a party there one night, and the wife was murdered, beaten to death by her husband and 3 other male guests. When they realized she was dead, the put her in the car and tossed her body out.

It was big news in such a small town, a small remote country town, population of 1100. Visitors always spoke of the murder, and claimed to feel her tormented last moments. One friend refused to stay the night.

44 years I lived there. Not once did I feel or suspect any paranormal activity, in spite of others insisting. Never.


Perhaps I am not very sensitive.

 

[Dr. Keith]

As we speak I'm living alone in a house that for forty-seven years was occupied by three people. No ghost sightings but the bumps in the night and sometimes in the days are a bit more disconcerting.

My house was built in the 80s, I have very little idea who has lived in it previously and it makes all sorts of noises. None of them are disconcerting.

 

[Loss Leader]

Searching every nook and cranny of this building I have come to believe certain people see ghosts there because they feel someone should be there occupying all the empty spaces.

I think, as mid-level scavengers, we've evolved a pretty strong inclination to believe that something is stalking us. As social animals we also tend to interpret pretty much any unknown in anthropic terms. The outcome is a belief in ghosts.

Judging by how often dogs bark at absolutely nothing, I expect that they're falsely sensing ghosts all the damn time.

 

[8enotto]

I used to live in wood frame houses. Day to night temp changes to humidity changes making the structure move and creak. I admit in a couple of them the noises could be unnerving.
But we knew what it was, so really no ghost stories from us.

Now I live in a cement house. Nothing moves. A window may rattle in a storm but no wood structure noise at all.
Living here brought past ideas to a new light and now it seems silly. I even planned the lighting to avoid tricks of the shadows and peripheral vision to be avoided. Evenly lit rooms are comfortable rooms.

Because my young son could not go to the kitchen alone at night for a drink. He has matured some and now can with confidence. Nothing scares him now even going through an unlit room. His mother isn't as brave after dark.

Those no-see-um things that lurk in the crevices are only as dangerous as we make them.

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

The house I lived in for 40 years, was built in 1890. The couple I bought it from had a party there one night, and the wife was murdered, beaten to death by her husband and 3 other male guests. When they realized she was dead, the put her in the car and tossed her body out.

It was big news in such a small town, a small remote country town, population of 1100. Visitors always spoke of the murder, and claimed to feel her tormented last moments. One friend refused to stay the night.

44 years I lived there. Not once did I feel or suspect any paranormal activity, in spite of others insisting. Never.


Perhaps I am not very sensitive.

Something a lot of us tend to overlook when we think about sites where a terrible murder or death have taken place, is that most of the globe we reside on has seen some form of brutal murder, or mundane death, at some point during history.

The ground we walk on day after day must be riddled with grim stories, yet we don't tend to see headless phantoms just strolling down the high street, wandering past the chip shop.

 

[dann]

The couple I bought it from had a party there one night, and the wife was murdered, beaten to death by her husband and 3 other male guests.

I don't understand this part of your story: The wife of the couple you bought it from was murdered but still able to sell the house to you?!

 

[Cainkane1]

If this were the case then I'd see ghosts all the time, considering I work and have worked in numerous places after hours and on my own, including hospitals and various old hospital wings under-construction, yet have seen absolutely sod-all.

Most people who see ghosts are either intentionally looking for them, and thus see them around every corner (same with UFO hunters, Bigfoot hunters and everything in between) or are simply mistaken, drunk, or under some type of mental strain.

The amount of supposedly haunted buildings I've been in at night, on my own, and have never seen so much as a bloody orb. Heard lots of things, same as I have in my own house at night when it's settling down, nothing supernatural, just average noises that ghost hunters would assume came from some spirit, because that's what ghost hunters do.

Outdoorsmen see prints in the mud; it's an animal. Bigfooters see prints; it's a Bigfoot. UFO hunters see an alien craft, normal sods see a weather balloon. And so it goes. On and on.

This "spooky feeling" is essentially a load of nonsense, and is just a person's natural unease in an empty yet otherwise harmless building, and is brought about via ghost stories and Horror movies, and a real-life awareness of general weirdos and murderers being out there.

People think about ghosts way too much, no wonder they're seeing them in every other nook and cranny of old, abandoned buildings.

Well, you aren't susceptible to seeing things that aren't there. I personally would be very reluctant to enter a supposed unoccupied building in a bad part of town.

 

[Axxman300]

Well, you aren't susceptible to seeing things that aren't there. I personally would be very reluctant to enter a supposed unoccupied building in a bad part of town.

Today, if I'm in an abandoned building, if I hear something moving I'm not thinking it's a ghost, I'm thinking it's a junkie. In fact if I see just one syringe on the floor I'm turning around and getting out of there. Most Urban Explorers I know don't believe in ghosts, and some have even stopped believing in them because of this peculiar hobby. Abandoned buildings become an adventure where fear is conquered. The byproduct is the taming of the subconscious, the only ghosts in these places are the ones you bring with you as your imagination tries to recreate how you think life was like back when the place you're exploring was functional.

Junkies, on the other hand, seem to be everywhere these days.

 

[wasapi]

I don't understand this part of your story: The wife of the couple you bought it from was murdered but still able to sell the house to you?!

Sorry, I just now saw your question.

Apparently, his family actually had bought the house for him. It was on the market for a long time. I bought the house and property from them, for $10,000 dollars.

When I sold it, years later, it sold for $260,000. What surprised me was the agent said the murder still had to be disclosed.

 

[Minoosh]

When I sold it, years later, it sold for $260,000. What surprised me was the agent said the murder still had to be disclosed.

Based on what rationale?

 

[wasapi]

Based on what rationale?

I wish I could better recall, but it seems there was something about the number of years following the murder, but I am not positive. Sorry.

 

[Axxman300]

Based on what rationale?

In California, Alaska, and South Dakota you are required by law to disclose any death that has occurred in a house being sold:

https://www.realtor.com/advice/sell/do-you-have-to-disclose-a-death-in-a-house/

https://www.redfin.com/resources/death-in-house-disclosure

Sometimes these laws are superstition-related, but in the can of murder/suicide houses there can be a gawker factor with cars slowing as people look at the house, or get out to take pictures. This is one of the reasons they tore down the Sharon Tate murder house at 10050 Cielo Drive.

 

[Trebuchet]

Good thing they didn't have that in Washington when we sold my parents' house. We did have to disclose the urea-formaldehyde foam insulation, which cost us a sale.

 

[8enotto]

A paranormal type show seeks out the places deaths happened. A surprising number of them have been abandoned after the events.

Mexico is a bit superstitious and the building is left to decay after locals steal the doors and furniture. Nobody seems to want even the land under the house, should it be leveled.

 

[wasapi]

In California, Alaska, and South Dakota you are required by law to disclose any death that has occurred in a house being sold:

https://www.realtor.com/advice/sell/do-you-have-to-disclose-a-death-in-a-house/

https://www.redfin.com/resources/death-in-house-disclosure

Sometimes these laws are superstition-related, but in the can of murder/suicide houses there can be a gawker factor with cars slowing as people look at the house, or get out to take pictures. This is one of the reasons they tore down the Sharon Tate murder house at 10050 Cielo Drive.

Thank you. I could not recall if it was for a future-number of years, a set period of time. In California it appears that it exists to this day.

 

[bruto]

At some point recently I heard an interesting suggestion that some spaces are thought haunted because of undetected carbon monoxide.

 

[Axxman300]

At some point recently I heard an interesting suggestion that some spaces are thought haunted because of undetected carbon monoxide.

Absolutely.

Here's Carry Poppy talking about her experience in a haunted house:

https://www.ted.com/talks/carrie_poppy_a_scientific_approach_to_the_paranormal?language=en

Spoiler alert: It was carbon monoxide poisoning.

For all of the worthless gadgets ghost hunters carry around today, CO2 detectors are not usually one of them, even though it's the only sensing device proven to work, and cuts to the root of most hauntings.

 

[bruto]

Absolutely.

Here's Carry Poppy talking about her experience in a haunted house:

https://www.ted.com/talks/carrie_poppy_a_scientific_approach_to_the_paranormal?language=en

Spoiler alert: It was carbon monoxide poisoning.

For all of the worthless gadgets ghost hunters carry around today, CO2 detectors are not usually one of them, even though it's the only sensing device proven to work, and cuts to the root of most hauntings.

Thanks for the link. I download a bunch of podcast stuff and listen when I exercise, but tend to forget what I've heard and where.