Haunted Houses or Haunted People? ‘Haunting’ no longer seems to be restricted to remote castles, graveyards or extremely old buildings. More and more people nowadays are coming forward with reports of paranormal activity in their homes. Do they really have haunted homes or is there another explanation? Could it be that the spirit activity is focused around a particular person rather than the building? Is the energy interactive or merely residual? Are there any natural explanations for the activity? Firstly, it is important to try to rule out all natural explanations. If you have heard noises in your home, you need to be sure that you can rule out the heating system cooling down, water pipes, wooden floorboards settling etc. If you have felt cold spots, can you be certain that this isn’t being caused by a draughty window or door? Common sense is your most basic but important tool when assessing paranormal activity. If you feel that you can rule out the natural explanations, then you should look at the type of activity that is happening and try to look for patterns. Is the activity happening on a regular basis, perhaps at only a specific time each day? If so, this could be due to some residual energy in your home. Is it happening in response to an event, e.g. when a certain person enters your home or each time you decorate? Perhaps a previous owner of your home is unhappy with the changes you are making! Have there been instances of the activity occurring outside of the home, e.g. at work, school etc? This would indicate that the activity is focused around the person rather than the place. Does the energy appear to be interactive and if so, to what degree, e.g. are objects being moved, are electrical items being switched on or off? You could be dealing with poltergeist activity as opposed to a haunting. Another point to consider is that you or someone in your home may be psychically ‘open’ without realising it. Many people believe that everyone has the ability to be psychic to some degree. This could be a possible explanation especially if you have experienced activity in different locations or over a long period of time. All of these questions will help you to determine if a pattern exists and give you a better understanding of what you are dealing with. Like everything in life, the more information we have about a situation, the easier it is to deal with. As with any paranormal activity, objective evidence is far more convincing than subjective experience. One person seeing a book fly across the room of its own accord is a great subjective experience but camcorder footage of the book rising, moving across the room and falling is far more objective. This is why it is so important to try to capture as much objective evidence as possible. Without evidence, all we are left with is ghost stories! email: lisa@ghostfinders.co.uk |