My friend's house is "haunted"--how do I prove otherwise?

[Ebonsword]

A couple of months ago, I had some friends over to my house to watch some movies. I’m not sure how the subject came up, but we got to talking about the paranormal. My friend Brian (who lives alone) told us that he frequently hears weird noises in his house and he hinted that something was not quite right about the place. The conversation soon turned to other topics, so I didn’t get to hear the details. I’ve always been interested in the occult (although, not necessarily a believer in it), and the thought that a friend of mine owned a “real” haunted house intrigued me to no end. Still, I kind of got the impression that Brian would really prefer to try and forget about the issue instead of talking about it, so I didn’t bring the matter up again (even though I longed to).

A few weeks ago, I went over to Brian’s house to watch some movies. There were four other guys over there, two (Dave and Glen) I had known for a long time, the other two were Brian’s friends from work whom I had never met before. While we were watching a movie down in the basement, there came two very distinct raps from somewhere upstairs. To me, it sounded like someone knocking on a wooden door, but the sound didn’t seem to originate from either of the house’s exterior doors.

“Was someone else supposed to come over?” I asked Brian.

“No,” Brian replied, and the tone of his voice was exasperated and a little bit fearful. “Man, it sure is fun when that happens at, like, three in the morning and wakes me up.”

So, this, apparently, was the work of the infamous “ghost”. Looking back on things, I kind of wish that I had suggested that we all go search the house, but Brian seemed to just want to forget about it, and the other guys just seemed to want to finish the movie. So, we went back to the movie and no further incidents occurred that night.

Last night, Brian had a big “pre-New Year’s Eve” party at his house which I attended. There were probably thirty to forty people there. Throughout the night, I talked to various people I knew about the house, asking if they’d heard anything about it’s weird goings on. The stuff I heard put many a creep up my spine! Seriously, I had to sleep with the lights on last night because I was so unsettled.

Here’s what I learned:

(1) The house was built, I believe, in the 1950s. I’m not sure if they were the original owners, or not, but the house was owned for many years by the grandparents of a girl (Laura) that Brian and I went to college with. The grandmother and grandfather lived in the house until the grandfather died of a heart attack. After the grandmother moved out, Laura moved in. She eventually sold the house to Brian when she moved to California a few years ago.

(2) There is supposedly a picture of the house taken recently which shows what looks like face peering from the attic window when nobody was known to be up there. I have not seen this picture personally, but several people I spoke to had.

(3) Brian and another friend of ours once heard weird “jibberish” coming out of Brian’s soundsystem. I, unfortunately, heard this story second hand, but the implication was that there was something very unsettling about what they heard.

(4)The rapping noises seem to increase whenever Brian makes a home improvement, like repainting the walls or replacing a light fixture.

(5) I spoke to two friends of mine who let Brian dogsit their pet while they were out of town. The dog became fixated on a spot in the first floor hallway, staring at it and growling constantly. This was, apparently, the same spot where they found the body of Laura’s grandfather.

(6) A friend of Brian’s who considers herself “sensitive” to psychic phenomena was walking through the house and paused in the exact same spot. She said that it smelled “wrong”. Brian then told her the house’s history. I talked to her and she claimed to not have heard anything about the grandfather’s death prior to that. She seemed perfectly sincere in our conversation.


Brian tends to laugh it off whenever I bring up the subject of his house, but I think he’s got some genuine anxiety about living there. What can I do to prove to him (and myself, for that matter) that nothing supernatural is going on?

[Mercutio]

What part of the country are you in?

To "prove to him", and to you, might be tough, unless there is some particular smoking gun that explains each phenomenon. (A student of mine had a haunted house, until a friend of his identified the screaming and digging noises as made by a fisher cat.) With this house's symptoms, it sounds like several different things. If he were serious about finding out, I would suggest a good house inspector (or a good plumber, electrician, carpenter, and exterminator). As for the dog, do you know if the house was professionally cleaned after the grandfather's death? (and of course, we have no idea whether that area "smelled funny" even prior to that.) It could be something as simple as a urine stain from a previous dog.

[SezMe]

Welcome, Ebonsword.

I think you have the burden of proof backwards. If you or Brian thinks the house is haunted, you have to provide the evidence. And things like:

- “jibberish” coming out of Brian’s soundsystem

- This was, apparently, the same spot where they found the body of Laura’s grandfather (my emphasis)

- A friend of Brian’s who considers herself “sensitive” to psychic phenomena ...

are far, far removed from evidence.

If you really want to pursue this, pick one or two "events" that happen repeatedly (if something happens only once, it is an anecdote, not evidence) that creep you and Brian out the most and we can probably suggest some ways to investigate them.

[Madalch]

Welcome, Ebonsword.

I think you have the burden of proof backwards. If you or Brian thinks the house is haunted, you have to provide the evidence.

I disagree. Brian thinks that something's wrong with the house. He's not trying to convince us of this (why would we care? We're not the ones who have to sleep there).

If Ebonsword wants to help his friend sleep at night, he has to convince Brian that there's a non-supernatural explanation. So the burden of proof is on the rationalists.

[Ebonsword]

SezMe--I understand that "extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof", but I’m not trying to prove the existence of anything paranormal. I just want to know why my friend’s house makes weird noises and scares dogs. :)

Anyway, I think that the rappings are the most persistent phenomena--is there something specific I should be looking for to explain them?

[cj.23]

Shame you're not in the UK, or I'd offer to investigate - it's what I do.

While we were watching a movie down in the basement, there came two very distinct raps from somewhere upstairs. To me, it sounded like someone knocking on a wooden door, but the sound didn’t seem to originate from either of the house’s exterior doors.

Possibly heat expansion or contraction of woooden building? Building settle. Spending time thetre might familairise you with the noises. Was any central heating on?




(2) There is supposedly a picture of the house taken recently which shows what looks like face peering from the attic window when nobody was known to be up there. I have not seen this picture personally, but several people I spoke to had.


Entirely likely, but without examining photo hard to judge if that is actually anything odd.


(3) Brian and another friend of ours once heard weird “jibberish” coming out of Brian’s soundsystem. I, unfortunately, heard this story second hand, but the implication was that there was something very unsettling about what they heard.


In the UK I have heard this many, many times, with my stereo turned off. We tend to pick up taxi cabs radio calls somehow. My guess is something similar has happened here. I don't know enough about US frequencies to guage the possibility, but it souds very likely to me.


(4)The rapping noises seem to increase whenever Brian makes a home improvement, like repainting the walls or replacing a light fixture.


Well that is classic 'ghostly phenomena', or expectation, or upset rats. :)


(5) I spoke to two friends of mine who let Brian dogsit their pet while they were out of town. The dog became fixated on a spot in the first floor hallway, staring at it and growling constantly. This was, apparently, the same spot where they found the body of Laura’s grandfather.


Apparently? of the spot where a fox had urinated, or some other unplesantness had happened? I suppose if a body had laid there the poor dog might have noted an unplesant odour.


(6) A friend of Brian’s who considers herself “sensitive” to psychic phenomena was walking through the house and paused in the exact same spot. She said that it smelled “wrong”. Brian then told her the house’s history. I talked to her and she claimed to not have heard anything about the grandfather’s death prior to that. She seemed perfectly sincere in our conversation.


I actuialy think some psychics, of the sensitive not the talking to dead guys type may have a highly developed sense of smell, and read unconscious (to the rest of us) cues. This seems to bear me out here.


Brian tends to laugh it off whenever I bring up the subject of his house, but I think he’s got some genuine anxiety about living there. What can I do to prove to him (and myself, for that matter) that nothing supernatural is going on?

Well conduct a proper investigation? I can send you an electronic file of one of my books if you want?

I believe in "ghosts", but so far I think it might just be expectation after your friend spooked himself, and unrelated phenomena. I'll be interested to hear how it turns out though.

cj x

[Kiwiwriter]

One of my daughter's quotes is from two years ago, about her friend Vera's place, up the block:

"Daddy, ghosts are real. They live at Vera's house. But they won't come here, because you'll tell them about history, and they'll run away."

Smart girl, that! :D

[SezMe]

Anyway, I think that the rappings are the most persistent phenomena--is there something specific I should be looking for to explain them?
As cj.23 said, one thing to look for is thermal induced noises. Differential heating could be an explanation. Or, as noted, simply settling of the house. Also, wind - or even slight breezes - may be a source of some sounds. Rats, mice and other domestic fauna may be involved.

Another source may be your expectation of strange noises. It could be that a sound you might hear at your house would not even register in your conscienceness because it is so normal while it would be instantly on your radar at Brian's house since you are looking for strangeness. Have you tried ruling any of these out as a source.

[Hauteden]

In the UK I have heard this many, many times, with my stereo turned off. We tend to pick up taxi cabs radio calls somehow. My guess is something similar has happened here. I don't know enough about US frequencies to guage the possibility, but it souds very likely to me.

cj x

Same thing happens in the US. A friend and I had his stereo off and it would "talk" or sometimes play music. I went so far to disconnect the speakers entirely and you could still clearly hear the Truckers on their CB radio. My friend lived just off a major road I would imagine if you were further away the radio signals would lose strength and it would sound more garbled.

I also had a friend whose house was "haunted." Every now and then there would be a knocking. And the "spirit" would get more angry during certain periods of time. They knew the cause of the "haunting" form the get-go . . . water.

Hauteden

[ChristineR]

All of those things have possible mundane explanations. A technique I have used effectively before is to ask:

"Which do you think is more likely? That your house has something in it that is thermally expanding, or that Laura's grandfather, for unknown reasons, using some sort of power unknown to science, violating all the known laws of physics, is rapping at you? Rapping in a way that makes no sense and has no pattern, and accomplishes nothing?

Why not postulate a woodpecker trapped between your walls? That would be very unlikely, sure, but even that seems more likely than a ghost. I can think of several unlikely but wholly possible scenarios for how that bird got trapped in your wall."

[Ebonsword]

Thanks for the responses, everyone!

Hauteden--I didn't know that a hi-fi system could pick up CB traffic, or other such radio interference, even when off! Does anyone have links explaining how this works? My friend lives only about a 1/4 mile from a very busy street. Of couse, I do, too, and I have never experienced anything like that. Still, Brian use a tube amp while I use solid state--I wonder if that might have something to do with it? Also, how did water cause the noises at your friend's house?

SezMe--I have an older house myself (1950's), as do my parents. Both our houses certainly make various settling noises, but they tend to be of the "creaking" variety, with maybe the occasional "pop". The sounds at Brian's (granted, I only heard them once) sounded quite different--like I said, I first thought that someone was knocking on a door. So, I think that's why they unnerved me so much. Still, that doesn't rule out the possibility that they're some kind of expansion/settling noise.

cj.23--I'd love to read your book, if you care to send it along.

ChristineR--I think that Brian wouldn't be so upset if it was just the rapping. However, take the rapping, add the history of the house to it, plus a spooky photo, plus a "psychic" friend telling him that there's something "wrong" with his house, plus a dog that acts strangely--I can, frankly, see why the guy is a little spooked (er, no pun intended). I'm sure that he rationally knows that being haunted by his friend's grandfather is highly unlikely, but that's probably small comfort when some odd noise wakes him up in the middle of the night.

Honestly, I kind of think that he should just get a pet. Everytime I hear a weird noise in my house, or get the feeling that I'm being watched, I just look at my cat. She's usually two feet away from me and either sleeping peacefully or calmly licking herself. I find it hard to describe how vastly comforting that is to me. Still, if he got a pet and it acted all freaky in the house, maybe that wouldn't be such a help...

[SezMe]

You've mentioned the psychic again. Do you think there is such a thing as a psychic? Does Brian?

[CLD]

All kinds of debunkable stuff here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY8xplLawrg

[The Atheist]

To be able to carry out the proper test for ghosts, hauntings and poltergeists, you really need one of these:

http://forums.randi.org/imagehosting/10377451f74d05e792.gif (http://forums.randi.org/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=1714)

[skeptigirl]

My stereo picks up CB noises. It happened frequently for a period of time then stopped.

My baby monitor (baby's 17 now) picked up half the neighbor's portable phone on a regular basis. I could hear them plain as day but never the person they were talking to. And my son can play his 'ARCHOS' whatever it is' from the window using the neighbor's wireless internet connection.

My hardwood floor made very loud cracking noises every now and then for several years after I moved in. Really loud 'cracks'. The noises stopped after the Nisqually quake. That was weird! I do live on a hill but there are no particular cracks in the house or signs the hill or house moved at all. There are several regularly repeating noises which occur almost daily. The noises are related to the temperature and the boiler heating pipes. Those are in the floor but the noises can be in the ceiling as well.

Why people think house noises would be unusual is beyond me. Who has a silent house? A silent house would be odd, not the other way around.

[kitakaze]

You've mentioned the psychic again. Do you think there is such a thing as a psychic? Does Brian?I think you're sniffing for blood.

This guy's come here to ask some help for his buddy from people who may be knowledgable about such things as perceived hauntings not philosophical debate. Personally I thought of ninja karaoke racoons.

Seriously though, while it sounds a bit like the opening of your fairly standard horror movie why not just identify which phenomenom which you seem to be able to provoke and then do so to aid in finding the culprit. Like 'yaaay, let's decorate!'

[cj.23]

Sorry about the awful spelling in my last post, I wrote it in the early hours of the morning and did not correct for typos. Yes, I'll send the book, either later or in the morning. I hope you an find a solution. :)

cj x

[Hauteden]

Thanks for the responses, everyone!

Hauteden--I didn't know that a hi-fi system could pick up CB traffic, or other such radio interference, even when off! Does anyone have links explaining how this works? My friend lives only about a 1/4 mile from a very busy street. Of couse, I do, too, and I have never experienced anything like that. Still, Brian use a tube amp while I use solid state--I wonder if that might have something to do with it?

It wasn't the "hi-fi system" that was picking up the transmissions, it was the speakers. Remember I said the speakers were disconnected and we still heard the CB radio transmissions. Seems relatively simple to me. Something broadcasts in this case a CB radio. The wire of the speaker acts as an antenna and picks up the signal. The speakers vocalize the transmission. A simple filter could be used to filter out the transmission but my bet is his setup didn't have one.

Also, how did water cause the noises at your friend's house?


The periods of time that the "spirit" would get more angry would be when there was more activity in the house. Oddly they never seemed to notice activity when they were away. ;) The "spirit" would even sometimes get angry when they slept. Before I tell you the cause, I'm curious, based off what I have revealed so far what do you think the cause might be?

Hauteden

[Trig]

It is probably rats or mice! Well it would be if you lived here! This house has a mice problem, and i hear them in the walls somedays (Only God knows how the builders left so many holes all over the place).

My housemate used to hear noises in his walls and that would scare him a little, really didn't help that I'd follow with screaming and "THEY'RE IN THE WALLS!".

Tell Brian not to read into it too much, and if he doesn't, try not to encourage it. The worst thing you can do is make him feel even more uncomfortable in his own home. If there are no rational explanations, invent some. Regardless of the real cause, if it doesn't hurt him or scare him, he'll quickly adjust to the situation.

However, if it is a ghost, and especially one with malicious intent, that will become apparent as Brian becomes more comfortable in his home, the ghost will have to do more to frustrate him.

[Strife]

I used to think my house was haunted too, I have sympathy for the friend.. And a haunted house makes such a good story that it tend to be heavily exaggerated.

I see that some people here know a lot about these things. Anyone has an idea of what caused this experience that made me think me house was haunted when I was younger?

I woke up in the middle of the night hearing a strange sound coming from the window. The window was vibrating and that caused the sound. I got really freaked out and woke up my mom. She was kind of tired and freaked out too and tried to open and close the window to make it stop. It didn't. After a few minutes more it just went away. I was convinced at the time it was because I put a pentagram at the window and scared the ghost away, but it's not important for the story in any way ;)

[Mojo]

I think you have the burden of proof backwards. If you or Brian thinks the house is haunted, you have to provide the evidence. I disagree. Brian thinks that something's wrong with the house. He's not trying to convince us of this (why would we care? We're not the ones who have to sleep there).

If Ebonsword wants to help his friend sleep at night, he has to convince Brian that there's a non-supernatural explanation. So the burden of proof is on the rationalists.The problem is that it is not possible to prove that the house is not haunted. Even if Ebonsword can come up with a "smoking gun" for some or all of the phenomena, Brian could still say "but it may have been the results of a genuine haunting on other occasions". Much as the supporters of certain "psychics" maintain that although the "psychic" in question has been caught cheating, they have genuine powers that they just happened not to have been using when they got caught.

[PenguinWarrior]

The problem is that it is not possible to prove that the house is not haunted. Even if Ebonsword can come up with a "smoking gun" for some or all of the phenomena, Brian could still say "but it may have been the results of a genuine haunting on other occasions". Much as the supporters of certain "psychics" maintain that although the "psychic" in question has been caught cheating, they have genuine powers that they just happened not to have been using when they got caught.

Whilst technically true from a scientific point of view, it is no good from a "trying to convince my friend that there are no ghosts in his house" point of view. Whilst he could be the type of person who is convinced about the reality of ghosts no matter what you do, he could equally be the sort who, when shown what is causing the problem, will slap his head and go "Ha! How stupid of me to think it was spirits when it was merely the house settling/water flowing through the pipes/that salesman I locked in the attic and forgot about, who has been surviving by hunting down and eating spiders". And thus you are missing a potential chance to demonstrate to someone that weird seeming things can be perfectly normal, which may lead him down the road to skepticism. Sitting there and going "Pffft and Pshaw! I demand proper evidence!" is not going to advance the skeptical movement much. Though it can be a laugh, I admit :) .

Plus, solving mysteries is FUN.

[Merko]

(5) I spoke to two friends of mine who let Brian dogsit their pet while they were out of town. The dog became fixated on a spot in the first floor hallway, staring at it and growling constantly. This was, apparently, the same spot where they found the body of Laura’s grandfather.


I'm no dog expert, but when people die, the urine is released. Even if you clean the place well, some may remain, perhaps in the floor (depending on floor type), by the wall, or by the edge of the stairs. It seems possible to me that dogs may have some interest in human urine as well as dog urine.


(6) A friend of Brian’s who considers herself “sensitive” to psychic phenomena was walking through the house and paused in the exact same spot. She said that it smelled “wrong”. Brian then told her the house’s history. I talked to her and she claimed to not have heard anything about the grandfather’s death prior to that. She seemed perfectly sincere in our conversation.

Most likely Brian was following her around. If he expected 'something' on this spot, she would be very likely to pick this up from him. It does not have to be fraudulent on her part. She tries to 'feel' something, and when she does, she doesn't attribute this to Brian's behaviour, even though that may well be what causes it.


Why not postulate a woodpecker trapped between your walls? That would be very unlikely, sure, but even that seems more likely than a ghost.

I was kept awake one night by very strange sounds in my parents' summer house. Not being very prone to believe in ghosts, I thought that it did very much sound like a woodpecker inside the walls. Unlikely as that may seem, it was true. The bird had made a hole at one end of the house, which we found the next morning, and had then worked its way through some of the insulation. It was no doubt looking for food (not really sure what kind, but probably insects).

[Beady]

If I were you, I'd stop figuring out how to prove anything and instead start worrying about how to exploit the situation. You're not going to convince anyone of anything, so you might as well profit from it.

[Ebonsword]

I hung out with Brian last night for the first time in awhile. Of couse, the subject of the house came up.

I referred him to this website--hopefully he will post his experiences here.

Please be nice to him! :-)