HOW CAN I KNOW IF MY HOUSE IS HAUNTED? Is That a Ghost or My Imagination? What Do I Do About It?

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome Weirdos on Darren Marler and this is Weird Darkness.
Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre,
unsolved and unexplained coming up in this episode. Do you

(00:30):
think you hear whispers at night? Listen closer. That cold
spot in your room might be a ghost. If your
pet is always whining and staring at a corner, maybe
it's time to move out. We'll look at a few
signs so you can determine whether or not your house
is truly haunted. Now, bult your doors, lock your windows,

(00:56):
turn off your lights, and come with me into the
Weird Darkness. You hear heavy footsteps in the upstairs hallway

(01:23):
when you know no one is up there, doors slam unaccountably,
Commonly used items disappear and reappear without cause. The kitchen
light turns on by itself. There's the unmistakable scent of
a strange perfume in the air, a persistent rapping echoes

(01:45):
in the walls. Are these phenomena explainable by natural events?
Or could your house be haunted? True hauntings are rare occurrences,
and it can be difficult to determine whether or not
any strange activities in your hump are due to a haunting.

(02:06):
For one thing, theories on what ghosts are and what
a real haunting is, what causes it, or why it
starts very wildly. But if you are looking for reassurance
or confirmation of your fears, the typical signs I'm about
to share may help you determine whether or not you
have a legitimate case of a haunting. Not all hauntings

(02:31):
are alike, and they may exhibit a variety of phenomena.
Some hauntings feature a single phenomenon, such as a particular
door slamming shut that occurs repeatedly, while others consist of
many different phenomena, ranging from odd noises to full blown apparitions.
Here's a partial list of phenomena that might indicate that

(02:54):
your house is haunted. Unexplained noises, steps, knocks, banging, rapping,
scratching sounds, sounds of something being dropped. Sometimes these noises
can be subtle, other times they can be quite loud. Doors, cabinets,

(03:15):
send cupboards opening and closing. Most often, these phenomena are
not seen directly. Residents of the house may hear doors
opening and closing. Homeowners know quite well the distinctive sounds
their houses make, or may return to a room to
find a door open or closed when they are certain
that it was left in the opposite position. Sometimes furniture

(03:39):
like kitchen chairs may seem to have been moved. Very
rarely will residents of a haunted house actually witness the
phenomenon as it takes place. Lights turning off and on. Likewise,
these events are seldom experienced as they occur. Rather, the
lights are switched on or on when the house's resident

(04:01):
knows they were not left that way. This can also
happen with TVs, radios, and other electrically powered items items
disappearing and reappearing. This is known as the disappearing object phenomenon,
DOP DUP, the Doppler effect, or the borrower's phenomenon, and

(04:24):
it's the familiar experience of not being able to find
a regularly used item, say your set of car keys,
which you believe you placed in the spot you routinely
place them, but they're gone and you look high and
low for them with no success. Some time later, the
keys are found in exactly the place you normally put them.

(04:45):
It says if the object was borrowed by someone or
something for a short time, then returned. Sometimes they are
not returned for days or even weeks, but when they are,
it's in an obvious place that should not have been
missed by even a casual search. Unexplained shadows the sighting

(05:07):
of fleeting shapes and shadows usually seen out of the
corner of the eye. Many times the shadows have vaguely
human forms, while other times they are less distinguishable or smaller.
For those human forms, they're often labeled as shadow people,
especially if they appear to act with an intelligence, as

(05:29):
if the shadowy figure knows you are there and acts accordingly.
Will look a little closer at shadow people later in
this episode. Strange animal behavior. A dog, cat, or other
pet behaves strangely. Dogs may bark at something unseen, cower

(05:50):
without apparent reason, or refuse to enter a room they
normally do. Cats may seem to be watching something cross
a room. Animals have sharper senses than humans, and many
researchers think their psychic abilities might be more finely tuned.
Also will cover this more in death later as well.

(06:13):
Feelings of being watched. This is not an uncommon feeling
and can be attributed to many things, but it could
have a paranormal source if the feeling consistently occurs in
a particular part of the house at a particular time.
Those are some of the most common experiences of those

(06:33):
who think their houses are haunted, Yet even stranger things
can happen. The following phenomena are more rare, but could
be stronger evidence of a haunting mild psychokinetic phenomena. Hearing
a door opener close is one thing, actually seeing it
happen is quite another. Similarly, actually seeing a light go

(06:59):
on or off by its self is greater proof that
something unexplained is happening. Do you see the TV or
radio turn on? Perhaps you're present when a child's powered
toy begins to operate on its own. Doors and windows
are locked or unlocked. Some people report that when they're

(07:19):
in bed, they can feel and or hear something sitting
on the bed. Feelings of being touched. Feeling an unexplained
touch is truly unsettling. Some people may feel something brush
past them, a light brush of their hair, or a
hand on their shoulder. Some feel a gentle poke, push

(07:42):
or nudge. Cries and whispers on occasion, muffled voices, whispering
and crying can be heard. Sometimes it's music from some
unknown source. People hear their names being said. This gains
more credibility if more than one person hears or sees

(08:04):
the same thing at the same time. Cold or hot spots.
Cold spots are classic haunting symptoms. Any instance of a
noticeable variance in temperature without a discernible cause could be
evidence unexplained smells. The distinct fragrance of a perfume or

(08:28):
cologne that you do not have in your house can
indicate a supernatural presence. This phenomenon may come and go
without any apparent cause, and may accompany other phenomena, such
as shadows, voices, or psychokinetic phenomena. The odour may be
pleasant or foul. Rarer still are more extreme phenomena, some

(08:52):
of which have been called poltergeist phenomena and can be
quite strong evidence of a true haunting. Moving or levitation
objects severe psychokinetic phenomena dinner plates sliding across the table,
pictures flying off walls, doors slamming shut with great force,
furniture sliding across the floor, physical assault, scratches, slaps, and

(09:18):
hard shoves. This kind of personal assault is extremely rare
but obviously highly disturbing. Other physical evidence unexplained writing on
paper or walls, handprints and footprints, apparitions, physical manifestation of

(09:38):
a spirit or entity. These phenomena are also very rare
and can take many forms. Human shaped mists or forming
mists of some indistinguishable shape, transparent human forms that disappear quickly,
and most rarely, human forms that look as real and
solid as any living person, but then disappear into a

(10:01):
room or even while being viewed. Up next, we'll look
more closely at the poultergeist phenomenon, as well as some
real life cases of people and families being attacked by poultergeists. Hopefully,
as we try to determine if your home is haunted,

(10:24):
you aren't experiencing anything of what these families are dealing with.
That's up next, when weird darkness returns. Poultergeist is a

(10:55):
German word meaning noisy spirit. It describes many effects such
as knocks on walls, objects thrown about by unseen hands,
furniture moved, and other occurrences. These manifestations were long thought
to be the mischievous pranks of spirits, or more frightening,

(11:16):
the malevolent work of demons. Current research indicates, however, that
poultergeist activity may have nothing to do with ghosts or spirits.
Since the activity seems to center around an individual, it
is believed that it is caused by the subconscious mind
of that individual. It is an effect psychokinetic activity, moving

(11:40):
objects solely by the power of the mind. The individual
is often under emotional, psychological, or physical stress, even going
through puberty. Poltergeist effects can include wrappings on walls and floors,
the physical movement of objects, effects on lights and other
electrical appliances. There can even be the manifestation of physical

(12:04):
phenomena such as water dripping inexplicably from ceilings where no
pipes are hidden, and small fires breaking out. Thanks largely
to the work of parapsychologist William G. Roll in the
nineteen fifties and sixties, they are now commonly understood to
be psychokinetic manifestations produced by living persons. Role called it

(12:27):
recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis or RSPK, and found that the paranormal
activity could almost always be traced to a person clinically
labeled an agent. This agent, although a victim of the
puzzling and sometimes frightening activity is unaware that he or
she is actually the cause of it by some mechanism

(12:50):
that is still not understood. The activity arises out of
the unconscious or subconscious of the individual in response to
emotional stress or trauma. So little is really known about
the human brain and mind, but somehow the psychological stresses
suffered by this agent produces effects in the surrounding physical world.

(13:13):
Pounding on the walls of a house, a book flying
off a shelf, glowing orbs zipping across a room, heavy
furniture sliding across the floor, perhaps even audible voices. In
some rare cases, the manifestations can turn violent, producing scratches
on the skin, shoves and slaps. So powerful is the

(13:36):
unconscious mind under stress. One possible and famous historical case
is that of the Bell Witch from the early nineteenth century.
This was a case of severe poltergeist phenomena that centered
around young Betsy Bell. The activity, then attributed to a witch,
threw things around the Bell home, moved furniture, and pinched

(13:59):
and slapped the chin children. According to why witnesses, Betsy
Bell appears to have been the agent in this instance,
Poultergeist agents are very often adolescents, but not always. It
seems true that some adolescents under the combined stresses of
growing up and the hormonal changes occurring during puberty, can

(14:20):
produce poltergeist activity, but adults under stress can be agents
as well, especially perhaps if they have unresolved stresses from childhood.
It is unknown how common poltergeist activity is. Certainly remarkable
cases in which household objects are tossed about are relatively rare,

(14:42):
but those are the cases that get attention and are
documented simply because they are remarkable, especially if the activity
persists over many days, weeks, or months. There may be
many more cases, however, that occur just once or on
rare occasions to people. There is ample documentation that poltergeist

(15:03):
activity does take place in various levels of severity and
for various lengths of time. Many cases have been documented
by such researchers as Hans Holzer, Brad Steiger and others.
Their books are available in libraries and bookstores. There are
numerous cases of poltergeist's being investigated, but four in particular

(15:25):
are worth noting. In this episode, The Thornton Heath Poltergeist
in the nineteen seventies in Thornton Heath, England, a family
was tormented by poltergeist phenomena that started one August night
when they were woken in the middle of the night
by a blaring bedside radio that had somehow turned itself
on tuned to a foreign language station. This was the

(15:48):
beginning of a string of events that lasted nearly four years.
A lampshade repeatedly was knocked to the floor by unaided hands.
During the Christmas season of nineteen seventy two, an ornament
was hurled across the room, smashing into the husband's forehead
as he flopped into an armchair. Reports Haunted Croydon. The

(16:10):
Christmas tree began to shake violently come the new year,
and there were footsteps in the bedroom when there was
no one there, and one night the couple's son awoke
to find a man in old fashioned dress staring threateningly
at him. The family's fear grew when as they entertained
friends one night, there was a loud knocking at the
front door. The living room door was then flung open

(16:33):
and all the houses lights came on. Having the house blessed,
failed to rid the house at the phenomena, Objects flew
through the air, loud noises were heard, and the family
would sometimes hear a noise which suggested some large piece
of furniture had crashed to the floor. When they went
to investigate, nothing would be disturbed. A medium who was

(16:57):
consulted told the family that the house was haunted by
a farmer of the name Chatterton, who considered the family
trespassers on his property. An investigation bore out the fact
that Chatterton had indeed lived in the house in the
mid eighteenth century. Chatterton's wife now joined in causing mayhem,
and often the tenant's wife would be followed up the

(17:17):
stairs at night by an elderly, gray haired woman wearing
a punafore and with her hair tied back into bun.
If looked at, she would disappear back into the shadows.
The family even reported seeing the farmer appear on their
television screens wearing a black jacket with wide pointed lapels,
high necked shirt, and black cravat. After the family moved

(17:41):
out of the house, the poultergeist activity ceased, and none
have been reported by subsequent residents. The Enfield poltergeist case,
another English ghost, This one in Enfield in North London,
made headlines in nineteen seventy seven. The strange activity seemed

(18:01):
to center around the daughter of Peggy Harper, a divorcee
in her mid forties. Again, it started on an August night,
late at night. An urban ghost story relates Janet, aged eleven,
and her brother Pete, aged ten, complained that their beds
were jolting up and down and going all funny. As
soon as Missus Harper got to the room, the movements

(18:23):
had stopped. As far as she was concerned, her kids
were making it all up, but things got progressively more
bizarre from there. Shuffling, noises and knocks on the wall
were followed by a heavy chest of drawers sliding by
itself across the floor. Missus Harper promptly got her children
out of the house and sought the assistance of a neighbor.

(18:45):
The neighbors searched the house and garden but found no one.
Soon they also heard the knocks on the walls, which
continued at spaced out intervals. At eleven pm, they called
the police, who heard the knox. One officer even saw
a chair inexplicably move across the floor and later signed
a written statement to confirm the events. Several people were

(19:08):
witnessed to the events that occurred in the following days. Lego,
bricks and marbles were thrown around the house and were
often hot to the touch. In September of that year,
Maurice Gross of the Society for Psychical Research came to investigate.
Gross claims that he experienced the strange happenings. First, a
marble was thrown at him from an unseen hand. He

(19:30):
saw doors open and closed by themselves, and claimed to
feel a sudden breeze that seemed to move up from
his feet to his head. Gross was later joined in
the investigation by writer Guy lyon Playfair, and together they
studied the case for two years. The knocking on walls
and floors became an almost nightly occurrence. Furniture slid across

(19:53):
the floor and was thrown down the stairs. Drawers were
wrenched out of dressing tables, toys and other object would
fly across the room. Bedclothes would be pulled off. Water
was found in mysterious puddles on the floor. There were
outbreaks of fire, followed by their inexplicable extinguishing. The case

(20:13):
became decidedly unnerving. When the spirits revealed themselves through Janet
speaking in a deep, gravelly voice, the spirit announced that
his name was Bill and had died in the house,
a fact that has been verified. The voices and the
phenomenon have been recorded on tape and film, and Playfair
has written a book about the case called This House

(20:36):
Is Haunted, which I will link to in the show notes.
Despite the documentation, however, much controversy surrounds the case. Skeptics
claim that the case is nothing more than the work
of a very clever and mischievous girl, Janet. The poltergeist
activity always stopped when she was watched closely, and when
she was taken to a hospital for several days to

(20:58):
be tested for physical or mental abnormality, the phenomena ceased
in the house. Some researchers believed that Janet taught herself
to speak in the strange male voice, and that photos
of her levitating in her bedroom merely caught her jumping
off her bed. Was this poltergeist case just the result
of an attention seeking eleven year old. Then there's the

(21:22):
Danny poltergeist case. In nineteen ninety eight, Jane Fishman, a
reporter for the Savannah Morning News began a series of
articles about a possibly haunted antique bed in the home
of Al Cobb of Savannah, Georgia. Cobb bought the vintage
late eighteen hundred's bed at an auction as a Christmas
present for his fourteen year old son, Jason, a purchase

(21:45):
he later regretted. Three nights later, Fishman reported, Jason told
his parents he felt as if someone had planted elbows
on his pillow and was watching him and breathing cold
air down the back of his neck. He felt sick.
The next night, he noticed the photo of his deceased
grandparents on his wicker nightstand flipped down, so he writed it.

(22:08):
The next day, the photo was facing down again. Later
that morning, after leaving his room for breakfast, he returned
and found in the middle of his bed two beanie babies,
the zebra and the tiger, next to a conk shell,
a dinosaur made of shells, and a plaster two can
bird that got his parents and his twin brother Lee's attention.

(22:32):
Trying to make sense of the irrational, Al called out,
do we have a casper here? Tell me your name
and how old you are. Then He left some lined
composition paper and crayons, and with his family walked out
of the room. In fifteen minutes, they returned and found
written vertically in large block childlike letters, Danny seven. With

(22:58):
his family out of the house, al Cobb decided to
continue trying to communicate with the spirit of Danny with
the same kind of notes. Danny indicated that his mother
had died in that bed in eighteen ninety nine and
that he wanted to stay with the bed. He also
made it clear that he didn't want anyone else sleeping
in it. The same day, they found a note reading

(23:21):
no one sleep in bed. Jason, who had moved out
of the room, decided to stretch out and pretend to
take a nap. That says al was a mistake. I
doubled back in the room to pick up my clothes,
remembers Jason, when this terra cotta head that had been
hanging on the wall came flying through the room, just

(23:42):
missing me before it smashed on the closet door. No
one really knows, Fishman writes in her second installment, who
or what is leaving the copious notes, moving the furniture,
opening the kitchen drawers, setting the dining room table, flipping
over the chairs, lighting the candles, arranging the posters to
spell out a person's name, Jill, then hanging the finished

(24:06):
product on a bedroom wall. Jason also spoke of other spirits,
Uncle Sam, who had come to reclaim his daughter, he
said was buried under the house, Greasy, a young girl
whose sculpture sits in Bonaventure Cemetery. And Jill, the young
woman who left a number of handwritten messages, among them

(24:26):
one inviting the Cobs to a party in their living room.
Parapsychologist Andrew Nichols, head of the Florida Society for Parapsychological Research,
investigated the case. What happened at the Cobs, he told Fishman,
more specifically to Jason, would have happened without Danny or
the bed. It was the electromagnetic energy of the wall

(24:49):
that Jason started sleeping next to when they moved the
bed there that charged a psychic ability that the boy
already had. And one of the most terrifying cases of
all time, the Amherst Poltergeist. Some ghost stories live on
because of the sheer terror they brought into the lives

(25:09):
of those who experienced them firsthand. For the most part,
ghosts and apparitions are harmless to those who witness them,
flickering briefly into view to perform some timeless task or
to relay a message to a loved one, and then
fading back into the unknown. Poltergeist activity, however, is another matter,
entirely seeming to center around an individual. A poltergeist produces

(25:33):
physical phenomena that have been known to cause serious harm
and otherwise scare the daylight out of its victims. Esther
Cox of Amherst, Nova Scotia was such a victim in
a case that became one of the most frightening poltergeist
accounts in Canadian history. The strange events were witnessed and
documented by many people, and have even become the subject

(25:56):
of a book. The year was eighteen seventy eight and
the place was Princess Street in Amherst, a town in
north central Nova Scotia where the province borders New Brunswick.
Esther Cox, nineteen years old, lived in a small rented
house with her married sister Olive Teed, her husband Daniel Teede,

(26:17):
and their two young children. The crowded little cottage was
also home to Ester's siblings, Jenny, and William, as well
as Daniel's brother John, suddenly into the tedium of this
ordinary home horror struck, but not from some paranormal force,
rather from an all too human monster. Esther was nearly

(26:39):
raped by an acquaintance named Bob McNeil, a shoemaker with
a disdainful reputation of which Esther had been unaware. Although
she escaped the attack with minor injuries, the violence against
her seemed somehow to open a door to further attacks,
this time from an unseen entity or entities, and the

(27:00):
Amherst Poltergeist mystery began. Although the house was crowded with
the Teeds and their extended family, it wasn't unusual for
households to take in borders to help pay the rent.
Walter Hubble, a sometime actor, was a border at the
Teed residence when the first stirrings of supernatural phenomena took place,

(27:21):
and he recorded them in his book The Great Amherst Mystery,
which I have linked to in the show notes. One night,
screams of fright brought all of the adults of the
house rushing to the room where sisters Esther and Jenny
shared a bed. The girls had seen the formation of
something moving under their covers as they were about to
go to sleep for the night. Esther thought it was

(27:42):
a mouse. A search turned up nothing. The girls returned
to bed and the house quieted for the night. The
following night, more screams disturbed the family. Esther and Jenny
excitedly claimed that they'd heard strange noises coming from a
box of fabric scraps that was kept under the bed.

(28:03):
When they brought the box out to the center of
the room, it leaped into the air of its own
accord and landed on its side. No sooner had the
girls nervously righted the box when it jumped into the
air again, eliciting screams from the young women. Up to
this point, the events could have been attributed to the
active imaginations of the two girls, especially given Esther's recent

(28:25):
harrowing experience at the hands of Bob McNeil, But the
third night would provide evidence to all in the Teed
house that something far out of the ordinary was happening
with Esther Cox. That night, Esther excused herself to bed early,
complaining that she felt feverish. At about ten pm, soon after,

(28:45):
Jenny joined her in the bed. Esther jumped up from
the bed to the center of the room, tearing at
her nightclothes and screaming, my God, what is happening to me?
I'm dying. Jenny lit a lamp and looked at her sister,
horrified to see that her skin was bright red and
seemed to be swelling unnaturally. Olive rushed into the room

(29:06):
and assisted Jenny in getting their sister back in bed,
as she now seemed to be choking and struggling to breathe.
The other adults watched in disbelief as Esther's entire body,
which was remarkably hot to the touch, swelled and reddened.
Esther's eyes bulged and she cried in pain, fearing she

(29:27):
was literally going to burst through her stretched skin. Then
from beneath Esther's bed came a deafening bang, like a
clap of thunder, that shook the room. Three more loud
reports exploded from under the bed, after which Esther's swelling
subsided and she fell into a deep, deep sleep. Four

(29:50):
nights later, these terrifying events repeated themselves. Esther's unexplained swelling
and torture ended only by the thunderous noise from under
the bed. At a loss to cope with this unearthly ordeal,
Daniel asked a local doctor, doctor Crete, to examine Esther,
and he was witnessed to some of the most frightening

(30:12):
events of all. Attending at Esther's bedside, he watched in
astonishment as her pillow moved beneath her head, untouched by
any hands. He heard the loud bangs from beneath the bed,
but could find no cause for them. He saw her
bedclothes thrown across the room by unseen hands. Then the
doctor heard a scratching noise like a metal tool scraping

(30:35):
into plaster. Doctor Crete looked to the wall above Esther's
bed and saw letters nearly a foot high, etching themselves
into the wall. When it was done, it had spelled
out Esther Cox, you are mine to kill. A jagged
clump of plaster then tore off the wall, flew across

(30:55):
the room and landed at the doctor's feet. After two hours,
the house fell quiet. Doctor Crete, out of courage, compassion,
or curiosity, returned the next day and bore witness to
more unexplained manifestations. Potatoes hurled themselves across rooms, the deafening

(31:17):
noises now seemed to be coming from the roof of
the house. Yet when the doctor investigated, there was no
apparent cause of these events. Years later, he would write
to a colleague, Honestly, skeptical persons were on all occasions,
soon convinced that there was no fraud or deception in
the case. For I to publish the case in the

(31:37):
medical journals, as you suggest, I doubt if I would
be believed by physicians generally. I am certain I could
not have believed such apparent miracles had I not witnessed them.
The doctor could, of course, do nothing to help Esther
or settle the disturbances at the teed home. The haunting continued,
and in fact became more destructive and threatening. Unexplained fires

(32:02):
erupted around the house. Knives and forks were thrown by
some entity, sticking violently into woodwork. Lit matches materialized out
of thin air and dropped onto beds. Furniture moved about
by itself, flipping over or slamming into walls. Loud slaps
were heard, followed by the appearance of red finger marks

(32:24):
on Esther's face. Sewing pins appeared from nowhere and were
jabbed into Esther's face, a pocket knife was ripped from
the hand of a neighborhood boy and stabbed into Esther's back. Poor, tormented,
Esther tried several times to escape the devilish entity, but
it followed wherever she went. One Sunday, as to attended

(32:47):
a Baptist church service and sat in one of the
rear pews. Once the service had begun, knockings and wrappings
echoed throughout the church, seeming to come from the front
of the church, grew louder and louder, drowning out the
minister's sermon. Knowing she was the cause, Esther left the
building and the noises stopped. She even tried to spare

(33:12):
her family from the malevolent haunting. At first, she moved
to a neighbor's house, but the poltergeist followed and she
was forced to return home. The teed's landlord, fearing the
destructive nature of the phenomena, wanted to evict the family, again,
taking responsibility for the events, Esther moved herself out, instead,

(33:32):
finding work at a nearby farm. When the farm's barn
burned to the ground, however, the farmer had Esther arrested
for arson, for which she was convicted to a four
month sentence. Fortunately, Esther served only one month in jail
and was released. The short sentence may have at first
seemed like a low point to the much troubled Esther,

(33:56):
but it did have its upside. After she was freed
from jail, the poltergeist activity seemed to just fade away.
There were minor instances for a short time, and then
the haunting stopped completely. Esther later married twice and died
in nineteen twelve at the age of fifty three. Walter

(34:17):
Hubbell published his book The Great Amherst Mystery after her death,
and it included an affidavit signed by sixteen witnesses of
the horrific events at Amherst. When We're darkness returns. You
were reading, sitting comfortably on your sofa in the dim light,
when some movement across the room caught your attention. It

(34:41):
seemed dark and shadowy, but there was nothing there. You
returned to your reading, and a moment later there it
was again. He looked up quickly this time and saw
the fleeting but distinctly human shape of the shadow pass
quickly over the far wall and disappear. What was that?
Often when people report their homes being haunted. They'll talk

(35:04):
of shadow beings, dark entities, and human form. They'll glimpse
out of the corner of their eye, and then the
entity will be gone or jump out of sight. Coming up,
we'll look at the phenomenon and possible explanations for shadow
people that and more when weird darkness returns. What was

(35:45):
it that you just saw in your peripheral vision? Was
it a natural shadow, your heightened imagination, or a ghost?
Maybe it was something that seems to be a spreading phenomenon,
apparitions that are coming to be known as shadow people
or shadow beings. Perhaps this is an old phenomenon with

(36:08):
a new name that's now being discussed more openly, in
part thanks to the Internet. Or maybe it's a phenomenon that,
for some reason is manifesting with greater frequency and intensity now.
Those who are experiencing and studying the shadow people phenomenon
say that these entities almost always used to be seen

(36:28):
out of the corner of the eye and very briefly,
but more and more people are beginning to see them
straight on and for longer periods of time. Some experiencers
testify that they have even seen eyes usually read on
these shadow beings. The mysterious sightings have become a hot
topic of conversation in paranormal chat rooms, message boards, and websites,

(36:53):
and it's given widespread attention on paranormal talk radio. Several
theories have been offered as to what shadow people are
and where they come from. The explanation we get from
skeptics and mainstream science and who are usually people who
have never experienced the shadow people phenomenon, is that it
is nothing more than the active human imagination. It's our

(37:16):
mind playing tricks on us, our eyes seeing things in
a fraction of a second that isn't really there, Illusions,
real shadows caused by passing auto headlights, or some similar explanation,
And without a doubt, these explanations probably can account for some,
if not many or most experiences. The human eye and

(37:39):
mind are easily fooled, but can they account for all cases?
Perhaps they are ghosts. To call these entities ghosts demands
first definition of what we mean by ghosts, but by
almost any definition, shadow people are somewhat different than ghost domina.

(38:01):
Whereas ghost apparitions are almost always a misty, white vapor
like or have a decidedly human form and appearance, very
often with discernible clothing. Shadow beings are much darker and
more shadow like in general. Although the shadow people often
do have a human outline or shape, because they are dark,

(38:22):
the details of their appearance is lacking. This is in
contrast to many ghost sightings, in which the witness can
describe the ghost's phasial features, style of clothing, and other details.
The one detail most often noted in some shadow being
sightings are their glowing red eyes about demons or other

(38:43):
dark entities. The dark countenance and malevolent feelings that are
often reported in association with these creatures have led some
researchers to speculate that they may be demonic in nature.
If they are demons, we have to wonder what their
purpose or intent is in letting themselves be seen in
this manner. Is it merely to frighten? One theory suggests

(39:08):
that shadow people are the shadows or essences of people
who are having out of body experiences. According to Jerry Gross,
an author, lecturer, and teacher of astral travel, we all
travel out of the body when we are asleep. Perhaps
his theory says we are seeing the ephemeral astral bodies

(39:28):
of these twilight travelers, What about time travelers? Another theory
is that people from the future could have found the
means to travel to the past our time. However, they
are able to accomplish this incredible feat, perhaps in that
state they appear to us merely as passing shadows as

(39:48):
they observe the events of our timeline. Even mainstream science
is fairly convinced that there are dimensions other than the
three that we inhabit. And if these other dimensions exist,
who or what, if anything inhabits those dimensions. Some theorists
say that these dimensions exist parallel and very close to

(40:10):
our own, although invisible to us. And if there are
inhabitants in these other dimensions, is it possible that they
have found a way to intrude on our dimension and
become at least partially visible. If so, they could very
well appear as shadows. It has long been held by

(40:31):
psychics and other sensitives that beings on other planes of
existence are of different vibrations. Science is beginning to look
at reality on a quantum level in the same way
that particles of the smallest size exist as vibrations. Perhaps
some theorize the vibrations of our existence are beginning to

(40:52):
mesh with those of another dimension, which accounts for the
increase in such phenomena as ghosts, shadow people, and even
possibly aliens. The alien and abduction phenomena are so bizarre
that it's no surprise that extraterrestrials are also suspects of
shadow people. Abductees have reported in many cases that the

(41:14):
alien grays seem to be able to pass through walls
and closed windows, and to appear and disappear abruptly, among
other other worldly talents. Perhaps too, they can go about
their alien agenda disguised in the shadows. There's a good
deal of overlapping among the above ideas. Of course, aliens
and ghosts could be interdimensional beings, or aliens could be

(41:38):
time travelers, and some believe demons are responsible for all
these disturbing phenomena. Maybe we'll never know. There's no way
to prove or disprove any theories about a phenomenon that
is so mysterious that happens so quickly and without warning.
Science finds it virtually impossible to catalog or or study

(42:00):
such phenomena in any methodical way. All we can do
at present is to document personal experiences and try to
piece together what the shadow people phenomenon might be. Perhaps
it's an old mystery becoming more recognizable. Perhaps it represents
a doorway to and from different planes of existence. Or

(42:22):
perhaps they simply are just shadows. We've all seen it happen.
A dog or a cat suddenly stops mid run and

(42:45):
stares down a hallway as if something's there, but we
don't see or hear anything. Are they seeing a ghost?
It's something we all wonder, even if we don't suspect
our house to be truly haunted. But maybe our house
is haunted. We just don't know it is, But our
pets do do. Animals have unique connections to the paranormal.

(43:07):
Even people who believe in an afterlife and the possibility
of ghosts are often skeptical when it comes to the
idea of animal spirits. Animals don't have souls or spirits,
they say, so, therefore they cannot have a life in
the next world. But cats, dogs, birds, and other animals
are made up of the same energy that we humans are,

(43:28):
and it might just be possible that this energy can
survive death, just as it can for people. We won't
know for sure until we cross over to the other
side ourselves. Anyone who is close to their pets, though,
will testify to the psychic connection that they share. Psychic
energy and spiritual energy may all be a part of
the same phenomenon, and so animals might have as much

(43:52):
of a connection to the unseen world as we do,
if not more so. Animals not only may appear as
ghostly forms, but they may also be more sensitive to
the proximity of spirits, alerting us to what we cannot
see for ourselves. Dogs can be just as sensitive as
cats when it comes to sensing the unseen. People have

(44:13):
reported their dogs growling at unseen beings, acting protectively toward
their owners, or cowering from spirits. Animals, with their intense
hearing and senses of smell, may indeed be able to
sense other beings that humans cannot. The ghosts of animals
may be as common as the ghosts of humans. There

(44:34):
are many reports from people who have sensed, felt, smelled, heard,
and even seen the spirits of a recently departed pet.
Besides animals sensing ghosts, it is possible to come into
contact with the ghost of a dearly loved pet. Many
owners have reported feeling their deceased pet's presence in their homes.

(44:56):
For example, in times of crisis, individuals of sense that
they felt a comforting warmth similar to the feeling of
a pet curling up in your lap. Others reported hearing
a jingle of their pets collars long after the dog
or cat passed away. In fact, there have been incidents
of deceased pets making their presence known even to strangers.

(45:18):
Guests at hotels with a reputation for hauntings have experienced
phantom barks, meowing noises, and even feeling as if an
animal brushed by them. While animals are sadly cursed with
shorter life spans than humans, they may have other senses
that help compensate them. With their exceptional sight and hearing,

(45:40):
they may be able to sense spirits that humans cannot see.
Even after death. Our beloved pets might still linger, giving
comfort and protection long after they die. So the next
time your pet acts strangely, staring at an unseen object
in a corner or fowling at nothing, consider that he

(46:03):
might be able to see something that you cannot. So
what can you do if you determine the home you're

(46:25):
living in is truly haunted. Getting a spirit to leave
a home or property can be far more challenging than
identifying one. After all, they were there before you were.
Chris Medina suggests the first defense is asking them to leave,
but many ghosts just aren't cooperative. They can become very

(46:47):
territorial if demanding they leave doesn't work. That's where I
and or any respectable experienced medium comes in, he says.
We will go in to assess the home and entity
to determine what needs to be done. From a simple
sage or incense cleansing to a full blown ceremonial cleansing,
it can be a process. The cleansing clearing can last

(47:09):
anywhere from a few minutes to days. It all depends
on how much of an attachment the presence has to
the home and the people living in it. Kytie Pushi,
who is a psychic healer and executive coach, shares the
key to getting spirits to leave is to come from
a place of strength. I make sure I feel grounded
and strong in myself standing in one area or walking

(47:32):
around the house, I point a finger around the physical space.
I am declaring to clear, she says. I say my
name and my right to claim the space as pure
in my own I ask the physical infrastructure of the
house to hold only loving spirits. Heather Hannan has made
a business out of being a real life ghostbuster. She

(47:53):
calls herself an autumn Kara. Onam is the Gaelic word
for soul, and kara is the word for friend in
Celtic tradition, and Aumkara is a spiritual guide. Based in Toronto,
Hannan and her business partner, Catherine Varga, work on approximately
seventy five homes per year. We clear homes for real

(48:13):
estate agents, people who lease homes to renters, people selling homes,
or who have just purchased a new home and want
its energy buffed and polished for when they move in.
We also have clients that just don't feel comfortable in
their homes because they or their children are seeing or
hearing things moving around. The women clear the space using
a vibrational sound healing technique they developed called sound Reikie.

(48:38):
We discovered that with this technique we can move energy
for healing and clearing homes and properties with much faster
and more effective results. They said they're also able to
practice this technique from a distance. We have the ability
to see any ghosts or spirits on a property and
clear these energies anywhere we have the address, and of

(48:58):
course you can always ask a low church pastor or
priest to come and bless your home and anoint the
entry ways with oil, or do so yourself. Sometimes, despite
the best efforts, a ghost will simply refuse to leave.
If vacating the property isn't an option, the only choice
left is to peacefully coexist with the spirit. Chris Badina

(49:21):
suggests setting boundaries, which is good advice when dealing with
any kind of roommate or guest, paranormal or not. Make
sure you stay on your side and they stay on theirs,
he says. He also notes that not all spirits are
here to haunt. Some just want to keep doing what
they were doing before taking care of people. Medina explains,

(49:42):
I had a woman who would sleep in my kid's
room while they were sleeping. I would see her in
passing as I would walk to get water in the
middle of the night. A couple of times I caught
her off guard and woke her up. She was going
to leave, and I told her I didn't mind her
being there. I understood She was watching the kids and
protecting them, and that I was happy to have one
night the spirit saved Medina's son from very real danger.

(50:05):
He said. I was asleep and woke up to her
tapping my foot in bed to wake me up. She
told me to go check on my son. I immediately
ran into his room and saw that the sheet was
wrapped around his neck and he was almost falling off
the bed. I was trying not to panic and felt
the woman try to comfort me. I unwrapped the sheet
and positioned him back into bed. I thanked her and

(50:28):
told her to make herself fit home. Thanks for listening.
If you liked the podcast and you haven't already subscribed,
be sure to do so now so you don't miss
future episodes, and also please tell someone else about the podcast.

(50:51):
Recommend Weird Darkness to anybody who loves the paranormal, horror
stories or true crime like you do. All stories in
Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise,
and you can find source links or links to the
authors in the show notes. Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music.
And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll

(51:12):
leave you with a little light James one, verse five.
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God,
who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it
will be given to him. And a final thought, life
isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. George

(51:36):
Bernard Shaw. I'm Darren Marler. Thanks for joining me in
the weird darkness

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HOW CAN I KNOW IF MY HOUSE IS HAUNTED? Is That a Ghost or My Imagination? What Do I Do About It?

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