How do you know if your house is haunted? You have all heard bumps in the night at one time or another, but are these just the normal sounds of your house or could it be paranormal? We all know that it's difficult to prove paranormal activity. You can see a few of the ways this is done by watching investigators on TV study the scene with EMF detectors and other equipment. Could there be an easy way to have an idea of whether or not you have a ghost in your house without getting investigators involved and possibly embarrassing yourself?
There are so many factors that can contribute to shadows, lights, noises and displaced objects that you must do your research, especially if the idea of ghosts scares you. As boring as it sounds, the best way to narrow down the possibilities is to try to find a reasonable explanation for what you consider to be paranormal activity. You don't want to freak yourself out for no reason. This is what we've been attempting to do at my house.
My husband, my daughter and I have all heard the sound of a kitchen chair moving like someone is about to sit down. We've heard the sound of what seemed like a fork being placed down on a plate. I've seen a fast moving light cross my dining room at the corner of my eye with no valid explanation. If you read my articles, you will know that my TV in the bedroom has shut off by itself every night since we moved in and I noticed over time that it is right after we fall asleep. I unplugged my alarm clock in the same room and plugged the fan into that outlet over this past weekend (a separate outlet from the TV). The fan shut off by itself sometime after we fell asleep and even I need to turn that knob with a decent amount of pressure to get it to shut off. My dining room light flickers on occasion but our house is fairly old, so I never thought of that as paranormal. It does, however, seem like every time I watch a horror movie or ghostly TV show, my dining room light flickers more dramatically and repeatedly. What do you think?
You're most likely wondering if the house has a history typical of those that are haunted. I suppose you could say that it does but not in the traumatic sense that you hear about in your typical ghost story. Our house has a fairly peaceful history though we've had a few deaths there. It was once my grandparent's house and they both passed away there within about two years of each other. They passed on as peacefully as one could hope, surrounded by family that cared deeply for them.
If we do have a spirit in our home and I had to guess who it was, I would have to say that it's my grandfather. He loved children more than anything in this world and he and my grandmother spoiled their four grandchildren including me. My grandfather was still alive when I had my daughter and passed when she was about 1 ½ years old. He loved her dearly and spoiled her just as much as the rest of us. Being around her helped him deal with the loss of my grandmother. Papa was very particular about keeping the house as clean and tidy as possible. You would never see a dirty dish in their sink or a speck of dust on a piece of furniture. He never left anything electrical running if it was not being used and always shut the windows when he and my grandmother went out in preparation for a possible rain shower.
My lifestyle is much busier than my grandparents' used to be and although I keep a very clean house, I do not have a dishwasher so you may see a dish or two in my sink after a late dinner. We are not huge fans of sleeping in the pitch black without any background noise, so we will often leave the TV on, set on the quietest volume level. If my grandfather were here, both of these things would have driven him batty, so perhaps that is what's happening now. I can imagine him wanting me to save money and shutting the TV off to cut down on electrical costs. The fan would require even more energy than the small TV I have in my room. He may want to wash my dishes (I think he actually enjoyed that) and this might be the explanation for the reoccurring sound of a dish or two settling in the sink. The dining room chandelier flickering has me a little baffled because this actually seems like an attention getter and Papa was not the type to pull pranks.
I have the ghost side of the explanation down to a science. The difficult part is figuring out whether or not there are practical explanations to these occurrences. The question is, do I really want a rational explanation? The answer is sometimes yes and sometimes no. Assuming that we do have a spirit and it is my grandfather, this is a comforting feeling and makes the house feel even more like home. The times when I am watching a scary show or movie and the chandelier starts flickering like mad is not a comforting situation at all. I don't think my grandfather would want me to be scared, so I would like a rational explanation for this. I did some research on the types of "paranormal" occurrences that happen at my house.
The light flickering could be an electrical issue and I read that there could be a serious problem with the electrical wiring if all the lights were flickering which was a little concerning. Another explanation would be that the appliances that are connected to the same fuse are taking up too much electricity when they are running at the same time. My living room and dining room are connected and share the same fuse. We will usually watch TV without the dining room light on. I do turn it on if it's late to help me stay awake for a late show on TV or if I want a little extra light when watching a scary show or movie! I have the old-school Sony HD TV that weighs about 500 lbs. and requires plenty of electricity. Perhaps the light flickers after the TV has been on long enough to take up too much electricity. There is also the possibility that the dimmer on the light switch may be on its way out.
I learned that ghosts are not particularly fond of unwashed dishes! I've heard sounds before like someone was shuffling through unwashed dishes when the sink was almost full, but the fork sound that I mentioned happened at night when everything was washed and put away in the cabinets. It sounded like it came from the kitchen table and the table was clear. This one was hard to explain. I found that the TV or fan shutting off on its own every night as well as seeing a passing light at the corner of my eye are common situations that occur when a residual haunting is present. A residual haunting is basically a replay of past events rather than having an actual spirit in the house. Knowing my grandfather, he might have had a scheduled time when he turned off all of the electrical appliances every night. The idea of a "residual haunting" seems so formal and detached. I prefer to think that my grandfather is still watching over us from time to time. Maybe this is far-fetched but this is my way of keeping him alive in my heart. Who knows? It might be true.
