Thursday, April 9, 2015

H is for Haunted House

Love That Selfie!!!
Have you ever been in a haunted house? How does a house become haunted? I’m convinced it comes down to a matter of authority. A presence has a legal right to remain there. Sometimes it’s possible to take authority and kick that presence out. Other times, it simply doesn’t work that way and the presence remains. 

I mentioned in my post F is for Footsteps there was a house my wife worked at as private duty home health care for an elderly woman. I would visit often and we would hear and sense footsteps. True story. We tried to take authority and kick it out but could not. Whatever it was maintained a legal right to be there. All we could do is keep it at bay. It could only approach the door of the room we were in but could not come any further. 

Who You Gonna Call?
There was a second client wifey had a couple years ago with a similar situation, although this presence was mean and violent and did not like men. So my wife, her client, and our daughters were okay. Me, well, that’s another story. I literally got wholloped by this thing. We would bring our small dog as the client loved the little guy, and he would bark madly moments before this thing would attack me. The dog, also a male, was not welcomed in this house. Whatever was going on, this presence yielded far more authority than the previous house. 

So there it is. What allows a house to be haunted? A certain level of authority. Most likely, there was a previous event that occurred, perhaps occultic in nature, that allows the presence to set up shop and remain there. 

Question: Ever been in a haunted house? Do you think a presence can physically attack people? Can animals like a dog can detect a presence in a haunted house? 

Honorable Mention: Horoscope, Hydromancy, Hypnosis 

Tomorrow: I is for Illuminism

52 comments:

  1. I've never been in a haunted house.......nor really want to,
    Excellent topic for letter "H". but al the same spooky.
    Yvonne.

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  2. I used to babysit in the house next door to my mum's. The kids (aged 1 & 2) used to sit facing a particular corner and have long conversations with 'something'. I never saw it - their mum told me - and I never felt/saw anything for myself.

    Annalisa, writing A-Z vignettes, at Wake Up, Eat, Write, Sleep

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    1. Annalisa, its said children are often more in tune with the supernatural than adults because they have not been taught the physical world is all that there is.

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  3. I've never been attacked by a ghost, but they can definitely affect their environment. In the house we lived in when I was a pre-teen my parents witnessed the kitchen door open and close, then the hall door open and close as if someone just walked through the room.
    Tasha
    Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)

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  4. I really like how you've included 'honorable mentions' in each of your posts. For some letters, it's hard to come up with even one theme; for others it's nearly impossible to pick from the number of ideas that come to mind. As for the topic of hauntings, I try not to think about ghosts! The scientist in me rebels at the thought of their existence, and the rest of me is just throughly creeped out. I always get a tiny bit frightened when my cat starts staring off into the distance like there's something there.

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    1. Kaija, it is creepy how animals seem to interact with something we can detect.

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  5. When I was younger I used to have nightmares about other people who lived in my grandparents, and I would only have these dreams while at their home. I found pictures in a little crawlspace at their home once which had a dead body laying on a gurney. The gurney was right in front of their bedroom door.
    My kids insist our previous home haunted. My daughter, who is a teenager now, was fervent about the hauntings. I sensed something but nothing really ever happened.
    After my brother passed, I was standing in the kitchen and had a overwhelming feeling he was right behind me. It was like an out of body experience.

    Yes, I do believe kids and animals have a knack for sensing those types of things. Their minds are usually the most observant.

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    1. Dani, I agree very much with your comment about kids and animals.

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  6. Animals are so sensitive to things we can't see. Scary you were attacked in that house. What did it feel like?

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  7. I am never sure if I was in a haunted house, but felt an eerie presence in a few places over my lifetime.

    Jeremy [Retro]
    AtoZ Challenge Co-Host [2015]

    There's no earthly way of knowing.
    Which direction we are going!

    HOLLYWOOD NUTS!
    Come Visit: You know you want to know if me or Hollywood... is Nuts?

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  8. My dog Millie is super sensitive to everything. I'm pretty sure she sees spirits. IF I were attacked or even touched by a ghost I would die on the spot. I mean how do you fight an invisible ghost?

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  9. I really think animals can be tuned in. Our Yorkie went ballistic and tried to wake and warn us of a presence. Good doggie!

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  10. I've never been in a real haunted house, but there had been some odd things that happened in my childhood home that my mom and I think was because of ghosts. ;) Once, my cat detected a presence...it was in my apartment, many years ago. I always had this odd feeling about my bedroom. I hated being in there. It felt dark. At night, with the lights off, I could see a dark mass in one corner of my bedroom, near the foot of my bed. It was darker than anything else in the room. One night, when I was reading in bed, my cat was staring at that corner. When I stopped to watch her, I saw her head slowly turn as if she was following something. Whatever it was traveled from that corner to the corner right over my head. It freaked me out!

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    1. Chrys, I look at it this way. If the cat or dog aren't creeped out then I'm not going to worry about it. However, if the animal starts actiing weird, then I'd better take notice.

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  11. Super scary. Although, I think most spirits are harmless. They're still wandering, perhaps not quite at peace with their demise or had unfinished business. I have heard noises and felt a presence.
    Play off the Page

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  12. Fortunately, my ghost only lives upstairs and not frequently. In fact, she's due for a visit because so far she hasn't been here all year. Sorry the ghost you encountered didn't like men.

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  13. The Gostbusters scene you got the picture from scared the even living daylights out of me when I was a kid. But I have never experienced a haunting myself, which is a little strange since as an archaeologist I spent a fair amount of time disturbing graves...

    @TarkabarkaHolgy from
    Multicolored Diary - Epics from A to Z
    MopDog - 26 Ways to Die in Medieval Hungary

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    1. This same story has played out in just about every culture since mankind has walked the Earth. There is a definite pattern here.

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  14. I think if there were spirits wandering among us, animals might sense them. Having a pet is comforting in many ways.

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  15. I have definitely experienced visitations, some more powerful than others.

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  16. In real estate, stigmatized property is property that had a death or suicide or is believed to be haunted. This has to be revealed to potential buyers. I've seen signs on housed for sale declaring them to be ghost free.

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  17. Holy crow Stephen how frightened you must have been to get attacked like that! I have been in places where I sensed such evil that I walked in the door and then turned around and walked straight back out, pulling an Eddie Murphy saying, "Too bad we can't stay!!"

    Everyone who knows me knows that I am a giant chicken and don't like watching scary movies or anything like that. My friends all tease me about it, but they can tease and poke fun of me all they want, I don't care. I am purposely cautious about what I watch as well as super careful about who or what I invite into my home. You can never be too careful, if you ask me. And I agree 100%, I definitely think our pets can sense the supernatural! They are like a built in early warning/detection system.

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  18. Yes, I've been in a haunted house, but not as haunted as your last experience! I wrote a story about it here http://www.lisabuiecollard.com/2014/10/was-he-or-wasnt-he-october-ghost-story.html

    I always wonder why, when we seem to know so much, that we know basically nothing about ghosts/hauntings or things outside our realm of senses... Lisa, co-host AtoZ 2015, @ http://www.lisabuiecollard.com

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    1. Lisa, I remember this post and left a comment that day.

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  19. Hi Stephen .. I'd hate to have experienced those feelings .. really spooky. Thinking about animals being aware .. if we did have beings around us, the animals would be scared all the time .. and they're not. I'm sure I've lived in houses where people have died - it happens all the time .. yet don't worry about it - til I'm spooked! Cheers Hilary

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  20. i have definitely been to some haunted houses in my stories and most of the times ghosts turned out to be decent presences

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  21. I've never been in a true haunted house, but I believe in ghosts and I believe in haunted houses. For example, my daughter told me that one of her friends, along with her family, had to move out of a house because it was haunted. Specifically, there was one guest room in the house that contain a shelf with dolls on it. EVERY TIME a person would stay in that guest room, they would experience strange situations with the dolls. For example, one person who slept in the room woke up to find the dolls holding hands. Another person who slept in the room woke up to see the dolls falling off the shelf one by one. The straw that broke the camels back was not an incident with the dolls, but it was another incident in the house. The father who lived in the house was standing in the kitchen. There was a deflated balloon lying on the floor. All of the sudden, the balloon inflated, rose, and came toward him. After that, they sold the house. In addition, the people who bought the house from them moved out of the house a year later. So yeah, the house is haunted.

    Precious Monsters

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    1. Jolie, that's incredible. Dolls on shelves are creepy enough I think. I think of that Twilight Zone episode talkie Tina.

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  22. Lots of great stories here. Thanks everyone for stopping by and sharing your experiences.

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  23. Animals are so in tune with things we aren't, so I just watch them, they'll tell me if a ghost is ready to whoop my butt haha thankfully never met a ghost yet.

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  24. I'm glad our ghost never attacked me. Just made a lot of noise. It did feel sinister though.

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  25. http://jlennidornerblog.what-are-they.com/2014/05/25/sunday-seven-ghosts-of-the-historic-king-george-inn-of-the-lehigh-valley/

    J here, stopping by from the #atozchallenge 2015!
    Great post.
    That link is to my blog post about one of the most famous haunted places near me. Not a house, exactly, though people did once room there long enough to consider themselves residents!

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    1. J, thanks for the link. I checked it out and left a comment.

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  26. I've been in a few reportedly haunted houses, but I'm skeptical about the paranormal. I have mixed feelings about ghosts, but I love ghost stories and visiting places where interesting or tragic things occurred.

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  27. Well I was, apparently, working in a haunted funeral home. Only place I knowingly visited that was haunted

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  28. I've never been in a haunted house. Or at least, not knowingly, but I tend to be a little clueless about that sort of thing. I do think that animals, i.e. dogs, would sense a "presence" far sooner than I would.

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  29. Interesting experiences you had Stephen! I think that perhaps they might be able to whollop someone or attack them. Here's my story from when I was growing up, true story. My mom was widowed when she was 38 years old, raising 3 young kids on her own, all under 10 when we were living in this house that she and my dad had bought. It was basement, main floor, bedrooms, attic. One night she heard my brother who was still in the crib (she kept him in the crib longer than he should have been but she didn't want him roaming at night), anyway, he was crying up a storm so to speak so she went to check on him. As she opened the door to his bedroom, she saw this shadowy force of a man picking up my brother and trying to remove him from the crib. It stopped when my mom opened the door. Over time, we would hear footsteps up in the attic. Some nights I would wake up in the middle of the night because I thought someone was touching my shoulder. No one would be there but then my other shoulder would be touched. Back and forth like that for a bit. One night I saw a shadow of a man leaving the my 2nd story bedroom window. None of us kids liked going to the bathroom (upstairs) alone at night; would entice our other siblings to come up with us. I didn't like sleeping alone, would try to get to sleep in my sister's room. My mom eventually ended up sleeping in the same room as my brother because he refused to sleep in that room alone. We eventually moved to California; someone else bought the house, knew my mom's family, never commented on anything weird going on in the house. After a bit we stopped talking about it. My mom said she had the house blessed before they moved into it. I don't know what was going on, but I know something was going on there.

    betty

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  30. My kids insist the house up the road from where we visit in NC is haunted; so they take a walk up to see it at night each time we go. I'm not convinced though. Happy haunting. Maria

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  31. Well, mercy, I am going to burn incense and tell whatever floating around that this Momma is the authority and if they are going to live here they are going to have to stay quiet in the attic and not disturb me when I am working. :)

    Pam

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  32. I wonder about some of these medieval castles. I've heard of hauntings that go back hundreds and hundreds of years. Then there are the curses placed on possible tomb raiders that go back thousands of years. If true, this is some pretty powerful stuff.

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  33. This post I wrote for the 2013 A to Z Challenge sums up what I believe about ghosts, hauntings and such:
    http://lifefaithincaneyhead.blogspot.com/2013/04/visions-dreams.html

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  34. I like the idea of ghosts and hauntings and want them to exist. I've had a few strange experiences, but none very dramatic.

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  35. We went to a haunted house in rural Australia when I was a child. It was an interesting experience.

    Sean at His and Her Hobbies

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  36. I just did a post on my atoz challenge yesterday on "Haunted Hannibal." I try to avoid living in haunted houses, but it's creepy fun to explore them and other "haunted' happenings:)

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  37. I just did a post on my atoz challenge yesterday on "Haunted Hannibal." I try to avoid living in haunted houses, but it's creepy fun to explore them and other "haunted' happenings:)

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  38. I do think animals can detect spirits like this. There were so many strange things that went on in my sister's old house that we were convinced it was haunted by some presence. Even more so when her dog started snarling and raising her fur at the walls on occasion. It was bizarre and creepy!

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  39. I would think there would be an appeal to have a haunted hotel or bed and breakfast. there is a certain segment of the population that would be drawn to this theme.

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  40. Our daughter saw a ghost, she was 2 and half or so. We were in our 300 yr old cottage kitchen diner having tea when she appeared to be following something with her eyes cross the room, but I couldn't see anything. She turned to me and said 'who was that man going in the lounge?' She described him as grey with a flat hat on. A few weeks later she showed us a man in a cap in the street and said it was like that. He had walked through the window in a line across the room to the lounge, and when we investigated the history of the house we realised that he had followed the garden path up to what would have been the back door. So we know ghosts exist" She was clever and articulate but she was far too young to make it up, and e'd never talked of ghosts to her.

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  41. PS, my blog is at http://www.lizbrownleepoet.com, Google will take you to my defunct Blogger blog!

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  42. I mentioned Emily's Bridge in Vermont in a comment on your Ghost post where I believe I have photos that show a face in the bridge. I enjoyed this post on how the ghost in the house didn't like men. Apparently Emily doesn't like men either and there are stories of men going into the bridge and emerging after being attacked by Emily with scratches on them. There are also reports of scratches on cars. I am absolutely fascinated by ghosts. I have never been in a haunted house but we want to spend a night at the Lizzie Borden B&B in Massachusetts sometime.

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  43. Interesting! I do think animals can sense things. I've never been in a haunted house.

    Yvonne

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  44. Jumping back to H like you suggested on my blog seeing as we both mentioned haunted houses. I have lived in a haunted house, the spirit was not very nice, quite the opposite in fact, and kept up his harassment right up till the morning we moved out of there! I can sense spirits and occasionally see them, my Jeff used to bah-humbug my feelings and senses when we first got together - after 25 years he's now accepted that I can sense/see (and weirdly smell) visitors :) x

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