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CJ's nightowl thread got me thinking. Has anyone ever lived in a home they thought of as haunted?

At one time I lived in an old house in the middle of the downtown of a city. It was the only house standing on our block, every other house had been burned down or torn down. Some of the nearby blocks were still well populated, others were similarly abandoned. I remembered the street back when it had buildings- all three family homes each one with a dozen stories to tell. It was an exciting neighborhood where one sometimes gave thought to walking down the street before doing it. But now I was the only person living there. The surrounding area was a mix of recent immigrants struggling to leave and really strange people. There was one guy who only went out at night. Maybe he too was a vampire. He wouldn't say much about it but I remember being in the room he lived in and him telling me about this when I suggested we go somewhere. There were other odd people, some of them well known in that city.

The house was over a hundred years old. The previous owner had children who did many things that it would have been better if they had not done them. I will say no more. Sometimes when I told people where I lived they would look horrified and say "You live in that house!" I often felt that I could still feel the prescence of the people who had lived there before. They were still alive so they weren't truly haunting it but the house reeked of the past.

It was still a wierd place to walk around at night. There were a lot of feral cats. You would see them sitting in the vacant lots at night, just watching. Other times they sat on the sidewalk and when they did sometimes it was better to cross the street as they did not always take kindly to your prescence. That was weird too, I had never seen cats act that way before.

I guess the main point is that although I lived alone there for a while and then with other people, I always felt the previous inhabitants still had a prescence there. Partly because of the things that happened there that were only indirectly refered to. Partly because they painted odd things on the walls. Partly because I was forever running across miscelanneous possesions of theirs in the attic and basement. I still have them- a metal toolbox probably made in metal shop in the 8th grade, some miscelaneous furniture, an old, old milk bottle and various things. I often think of the people who lived there when they were children growing up in that house, on the way to what they became. Also some of the other people who lived there- I found a bunch of 2nd grade readers that I remembered from some 20 years ago when I read them.

One night my roomate brought a lady home from the bar and half way up the stairs I heard her say "oh my God I used to live here" She had some interesting things to say.

The house is gone now. The whole street is gone. But I often think of it.

Absaroka

Nice story, Absaroka. You've had an interesting life! The feral cats are especially intriguing for me.

I grew up in a big old 1812 colonial brick house that was haunted, and everyone in my family of eight people experienced some aspect of it. We made jokes about it, but there were times when we felt very uncomfortable about it, too.

We usually didn't see anything, but there was a lot of noise--footsteps in distant parts of the house, boxes being dropped, and someone going up and down the front stairs. On a few occasions, we'd come into a room and find objects strewn around. I once heard a rocking chair in my room start to move by itself, and it went on rocking until I turned over in bed to look at it. Then it stopped.

If you've ever lived with a poltergeist/ghost, you know that there is something real about it, something that makes noise and can influence objects. Whether it's deceased spirits or some other explanation doesn't matter to you--you'd rather it just went away. That said, it also fascinated us at the same time.

The two families who lived there after us also experienced the same things.
The ones who bought the house from my parents were not told about it; if the state disclosure laws didn't specifically require it, I can imagine my parents would be reluctant to bring up such a controversial (and unprovable) issue. The buyers later tried to sue them when the phenomenon started happening again, but nothing came of that. The second buyer was a neighbor of ours who knew about the house going into the sale.

What we noticed about the noises is that they would go in cycles; there would be months where there was no noise at all in the house, and you noticed the difference; it was really quiet. Then the stuff would start up again.

Skeptics had all kinds of explanations for it, but like I said, if you've lived with it, you know it's not a) mice b) an old house settling c) people playing tricks. That could explain some of it, but not the sheer volume of things my family experienced in 40-some years of living there.

That's an interesting story Anita. I know that when we bought and sold our home that the disclosure form said that it was not "psychologically impacted" The lawyer said that was legalese for haunted. Interesting how this has made it's way into contracts.

The house I lived in wasn't haunted by ghosts. The "haunting" was by people who were still alive but had somehow left their mark on everything. The place I live in now is the same way. The previous Owners died here (probably where they would have chosen to die so that's a good thing) and lived here for 40 years. I still visualize them living here sometimes and both my children have commented on it. But none of the things you describe.

Absaroka

Not wishing to coop the thread, but there are theories within the Quantum Mechanics/Physics that deal with "connecting threads." That is an unseen connection between what was and what is. That these threads run through all living organisms on this "third rock from the sun," and that it is speculated that these threads can extend to "those who have gone before."

Am I a believer? Well, what can I say, Virginia, my mother, long since deceased, has "touched" me several times and has given me her approval as "her daughter." Haunted? not in this case. Since I have chosen to carry on my mother's name, "Virginia" and her mother's name "Irene," I have "sensed" their approval and they have given me strength to overcome some rather difficult situations. I can only say, they don't haunt this girl, they support her and I am all the better for them.

As an aside, I have never heard of a "ghost" doing physical harm to anyone, scaring them to death, possibly, but physical contact does not seem to be within the realm of concern.

Love,

Virginia

Hi Ladies
My house was haunted by an evil spirit for 24 years but luckily she moved out and got her own place. Sweet!

Love
Jeannie

No such things as Haunted Houses, here's the proof that I have.

When I lived in the Bronx I lived walking distance from Poe's Cottage,, when I lived in the east village in NYC I lived walking distance from where Poe lived in the west village, now I live maybe, roughly a few blocks from where Poe lived in Baltimore and his grave is just a little bit further from me,, still walking distance. I have been to all of Poe's homes at every hour of the night and any weather conditions, I still visit his gravesite regularly,, but never have i seen anything strange. If there were ever to be any place in the world that should be haunted,, it would be where poe lived and died,, but no,,, nothing. So, according to my scientific research and many cold nights waiting for Poe's ghost, I come to the conclusion that there are no haunted anythings.

Maybe my theory isn't very scientific after all. I didn't take into account that maybe Poe was sleeping when I visited him,, maybe he was drunk.

Is my house haunted? I really can't say for certain. I do remember, as a teenager, having a slumber party with one of my friends. We were sitting on the floor, indian style, having a conversation about boys or clothes, or the like. There was a knock at my bedroom door and we both heard it, because we both stopped and looked toward the door.

I asked "Who is it?" and when that didn't get a reply, I opened the door. There was noone in the hallway. Now, it wasn't beyond my father to play some sort of prank on us, so I went down the hallway to my parents room thinking my father was going to jump out any moment and say boo. Not only did he not say boo, but he was in bed with my mother, snoring.

There was not a single person awake in the house that night, except for my friend and I, and yet we both heard someone knock on my door.

Virginia, I was touched by your post about your mother and grandmother's approval. The only time I have ever felt my mother's presence was in the time just before I "came out" to everyone. I was trying to dam up the womanly feelings, and having a hard time of it. I suddenly got comforted by a strong feeling that was connected to my mother, somehow. I cried and thanked her--it really helped that day.
Was it "her?" I don't know; it definitely felt like being around her, and I hadn't been thinking of her at all that day. Nothing scientific here at all, but it's been part of my experience.

Absaroka wrote:

The house I lived in wasn't haunted by ghosts. The "haunting" was by people who were still alive but had somehow left their mark on everything

That's one of my jobs as a floor sander, Absaroka. We go in there and help clean up the atmosphere of a house. Sanding a floor to bare wood breaks up all the old patterns in the house, whatever they might be. When I'm done, it's a clean slate.

It's a fairly old house in West Virginia, on a crumbling brick foundation. If you crawled underneath you'd think something else was holding it up.

And there is, some jack posts and a few railroad ties liberated from alongside the tracks. At least the floors don't bounce now.

My folks moved in back in 1974, I think it was. Mom would mention hearing footsteps on the stairs at night, occasionally. Dad, of course, had to get up and go down to see if all the doors were locked. Typical tales, I figured. Heck, I lived there a little while after getting out of the Army. My wife and two kids even a little longer. None of us ever heard a thing.

Then they moved and my youngest brother moved in with his family, and his wife started hearing the steps.

Over this past Thanksgiving holidays, I heard my mom and my daughter discussing the "house" and the ghosts within.

I missed the start of the conversation.

My mom relayed a few episodes of ghostly experiences that have occurred there.

One was that the oldest daughter (brother's step-daughter) saw a little girl go into the upstairs bathroom, but when she realized it wasn't her little sister, became scared and ran downstairs, saying she'd never go in there again.

Another was my brother's son, three at the time, was found talking to Walter. Only nobody else could see Walter. One would normally chalk it up to an imaginary friend, but when asked where he came from, he pointed to a long ago sealed door, saying he came through there. They all considered it another ghostly appearance.

What wasn't typical was the night they found their 3 year old daughter in the kitchen staring at the downstairs half bath. It was situated off the kitchen and under the staircase going to the second floor.

When asked what was wrong, she said she just saw a woman go into the bathroom. Of course, it was empty. And no-one had ever mentioned to her that there were ghosts in the house, not at that age.

This lead to my daughter admitted seeing a ghost the last time she was at my Mom's house, where she currently lives. She said she awoke one morning to see an older lady in the rocker beside the bed. The lady said, "She'll be alright."

I figure this was my Grandma (Mom's mom), since Grandma came to me at work one day and said the same thing, then laughed and disappeared.

See, my Mom had gone into the hospital, and while there, began suffering from heart failure the very instant Grandma appeared to me. I didn't even know Mom had been checked into the hospital at the time. Luckily the doctor was doing his rounds at that time and was with my Mom when it occurred. My youngest brother called an hour later to tell me what was going on.

My daughter's vision came while my Mom was still in the hospital, and doing poorly.

My Mom says that every once in a while a shadow will pass over her. In the house she now lives in. The first couple of times she called out my next to the youngest brother's name, since he lives with her, but he wasn't home. She believes it may be my Dad.

I reckon that makes two haunted houses.

I have a sister in law who works with dying patients. She says that there have been far too many times that people have reported speaking with loved ones who predeceased them before they die for her to discount these things, although she is not entirely sure what is going on. Things like what happened to you Donna don't seem to be that unusual.

Absaroka

My mother was in the hospital after a fairly serious heart attack, but she seemed to recover, and was scheduled to come home. A few nights before that, she was probably sedated when she suddenly said to some visitors, "Oh, there's some gray ladies here. There, and there..." and there was no one else in the room but the 'real' visitors.

The night before she was to come home, she had another attack in the middle of the night, and they didn't discover her in time--she was gone.

This story made the rounds of the family; my mother had had probably 8 (or more) aunts, so there were many older ladies who had been in her life. Go forward ten years, and my Dad is recovering from a successful operation. He's also sedated, and he remarks to one of my sisters, "Who are all the people in here?" My sister was upset at this, remembering the sequence of events with my mother. But nothing came of this sighting, and we were glad of that!

That was very interesting Anita,, first off, sorry about your mom, that was so sad.

But I have had similar things happen to me as you described. I just don’t relate these events to a haunted house or haunted anything, it’s more psychotic than ghostly to me.

Sometimes when I am dreaming and there are people in my dream, at times when I wake up from these dreams the people that were in my dreams are now appeared in my room. The background scenery of the dream is gone and my room appears because I am now awake but the people from the dream are now in my room. They don’t do anything much, they just stand there for maybe 2-3 minutes then they fade away. The first time this happened to me when I was young, I got spooked and ran as far as I could go. But as these events occurred more frequently, I got used to seeing these people, they didn’t scare me as much. But the most that I got from these people was one old lady smiles at me, the rest of the times they just stand there.

I didn’t take this as a haunted house thing, I took it as more like my brain was playing tricks on me, I do have wild times when I sleep, I sleepwalk quite a lot too, I find myself in other parts of my home wondering how I got there,,,but then again, I don’t really know why these people are able to jump from my dreams and into my room. And I don’t know who these people are, I don’t recognize anyone, most are older people

When I first moved to Charlotte, I had a couple of weird experiences in my first apartment. We lived on the third story of a large house that had been broken down into smaller units. The house was old, almost a hundred years at the time, but more about that later.

Then, as now, I was working the night shift, and one evening I as I was getting ready for work, I had a "vision" for lack of a better word. I was in the bedroom getting dressed. As I buttoned up my shirt, I looked into the mirror over the dresser. My image blurred, and I found my reflection to be that of a woman in 1920s period dress. There was a man standing behind me, and he reached around and fondled my breast through my dress. I swear, I could feel it like it was really happening to me. I looked around behind me, and naturally there was no one there. I turned back to the mirror, and there was my own reflection.

I did a little research at the library in Uptown, and came to find out that the house on 36th Street was a brothel between the wars. Now the downstairs houses the Magic Mushroom pizza restaurant, and the upstairs is some artist's studio.