While anecdotal hauntings are common, and while hauntings take place in a variety of locations, truly haunted houses are rarer than you might think. In most cases, alleged hauntings can have simple explanations such as a leaky pipe, furry intruders, or even pranksters. However, there are certain paranormal signs that your home is experiencing a genuine haunting. One or two signs of a haunting or ghost activity many not mean much. But, a number of signs, when taken together, may indicate that something ghostly may be going on. Below are a number of signs that most paranormal investigators would agree may indicate a haunting is taking place.
Cold Spots (And Hot Spots)
Cold spots are paranormal phenomena with records dating back to the earliest ghost stories. Modern technology has finally made it possible to confirm the presence of cold spots in your home, making them one of the most reliable and concrete ways to determine paranormal activity in a given location.
Before ghost hunters had thermographic cameras and infrared thermometers to determine the exact temperature of a specific area in the home, they were severely limited by eyewitness testimony. In the initial phases of a haunting, people will often notice that a particular area of the home feels unusually cold or chilly. Cold spots can range in size from an area as small as a foot to the span of an entire room. There are also the more rare, but just as significate, hot spots.
To qualify as a cold spot, there should be a measurable temperature difference of at least 3 degrees in the ‘spot’. Some paranormal investigators want to see ten degrees lower or higher than the average temperature of the rest of the house. The cold or hot spot should also last for a significant period of time.
Cold (or hot) spots are not always in a permanent location. These temperature anomolies often will move about the house or location that is haunted. However, there may be a room or rooms where the cold spots or hot spots appear more often. Professional ghost hunters will try and rule out all potential natural causes of the temperature change, such as home cooling appliances, a cracked window, and personal perception. True cold spots or hot spots can easily be felt by different people at the same time.
Animal Fear and Aggression
Paranormal experts throughout the centuries have believed that animals are much more in tune with the spirit world than humans are. Dogs seem especially sensitive to paranormal activity, and many will exhibit aggression toward a ghost or poltergeist within the home.
Dogs that are picking up on a paranormal presence in your home will often bark at what seems like empty space or stare into the air for long periods of time, as if watching someone. When these things occur, watch the dog for signs of canine aggression and agitation, including ears pinned flat against the head, chattering teeth, chuffing noises, bristling fur, and a hunched over posture. Agitated cats will pin their ears flat against their head as well, lash their tails back and forth, walk in a semi-circle as if avoiding something that isn’t visible, and hiss.
Cats and dogs aren’t the only common household pets that can pick up on ghostly activity in your home. There are many anecdotal reports of family birds that squawk, flutter their wings, and even mimic ghostly phrases and sounds that they couldn’t possibly have heard anywhere else.
Strange Smells or Odors
One of the more rare haunting signs is inexplicate smells or oders. For example, you enter the livingroom and smell roses, yet there are not flowers anywhere in the house. Or, you enter a bedroom and smell something like rotten meat or a sulfuric odor (and there is nothing in the room that can be found to generate such a stink).
If one catches strange odors now and then, that is not so unusual. But if you find that the SAME strange odor keeps returning and you have done all you can to track down the source of the smell and come up with nothing, then you may have a real sign of a haunting.
A very strong, foul odor can be a particularly troubling sign in a haunting or paranormal activity (that rotten meat or raw sewage smell) as this can be a sign of not-so-friendly spirit or paranormal activity. It has been speculated that some ghosts communicate their presents not by appearing as an apparition, but through particular scents.
The Feeling of Being Watched
Yes, your mind can play tricks on you and anyone can ‘freak themselves out’ with an over active imagination. However, some speculate that the feeling of being watched can be traced back to the earliest humans as a survival instinct. It also a well documented instinct by soilders in war zones and often that feeling was correct.
Sometimes, when that feeling of being watched occurs, it can be helpful to directly confront the situation. Try and figure out from where you are being watched. One story is told of a woman who got tired of the feeling and began shouting, "Hey, I really don’t feel like dealing with you right now. Go away!" and found her ghostly visitor most often would disappear and give the woman her privacy.
Strange Lighting or Electrical Activity
Finding lights turned on you were positive you turned off, or turned off when you are postive you left those lights on, is a common reported phenomina with hauntings. This included radios, phones, computers, kitchen appliances and so forth. One might say this falls in the realm of ‘ghostly pranks’.
There are reports of the extremely rare electrical events that are witnessed. When a person actually sees lights being turned on and off, or other electrical devices seeming to operate on their own, then it can be hard to explain these events as something other than a haunting.
Strange electrical activity can take other forms. Flickering lights; computer screen disruptions; TVs changing channels for no reason; electric toys humming as if only partly turned on; these are also commonly reported events in hauntings or ghost activity.
Cabinets, Drawers and Other Furniture Being Moved
Another common haunting sign is finding kitchen cabinets that keep opening or closing on their own. For example, finding a particular kitchen cabinet open every morning, or having kitchen cabinets open when you go into another room and come back and all the cabinets are closed.
This similar paranormal event extents to drawers and doors. Example, you find drawers in the kitchen or particular bedroom open every morning. The same with doors that you keep having to close or rooms where you keep doors closed (to save on heating or cooling) and yet you keep finding them opened again.
Strange Sounds, Ghostly lights or Shadows
By far the most typical sign of a haunting are strange sounds. Strange sounds are also most commonly found to have a natural explaination. Sound that thought to be a ghost scratching the walls are found to be tree branches rubbing against the house; or strange nightly footsteps are found to be that of a racoon who gets in the attic to avoid the rain; or the nightly banging ghost is the furness expanding as it heats up for a cold night.
However, there are ghostly noises that have been well documented (once all natural causes have been explored). Growls, whispering voices, someone crying can be some pretty strong signs of a haunting. These sounds can be strong evidence of a haunting if two or more people hear them and the witnesses describe the sounds in the same terms. If strange sounds are ‘haunting’ you, it can pay to have some guests over at the times you hear these possible signs of a haunting.
Similar to ‘ghostly’ sounds are ghostly lights. Example, you keep seeing a dim light passing through the hallway nightly or weekly. And along with strange lights are strange shadows. These are shadows one sees in the home that are not associated with any of the objects in the home. Sometimes these shadows with seem to move around the house. This is one of the more difficult haunting signs to verify and can take trained paranormal investigators with special camera equipment to prove (or disprove).
Poltergeist Type of Activities
One of the most common and unnerving forms of haunting is poltergeist activity in the home. In the beginning, this activity may take the form of barely noticeable events, such as having misplaced items turn up in unlikely places or finding random things out of place. While both ghosts and poltergeists often have the ability to interact with physical items within the home, poltergeist activity is often much more intense and tends to escalate over a period of time.
A telltale sign of a poltergeist in your home is stacking. Family photos are one of the most commonly stacked items, and families living in a haunted house will occasionally come home only to find all the family photos stacked in a pile in the middle of the floor, or another obvious location in the home. Sometimes all the photos in the house will simply be turned upside down, but left hanging on the wall.
Apparitions and Ghost Sights: The Ultimate Haunting Sign
For clairvoyants, mediums and other ‘gifted’ psychics dealing with spirits is a normal experience. For the rest of us, seeing an apparition or ghost is paranormal. Experiencing a ghost or authentic haunting is something that, for many people, can be life changing. It can be like believing that the earth is flat and suddenly discovering the earth is round. What was once ‘unreal’ is now ‘real’.
This is why seeing an apparition or ghost is likely the ultimate sign of a haunting. Experienced paranormal investigators often can tell from how people act if it is likely they ‘saw’ a ghost or apparition … it also can tell the investigators that a house or location has a higher probability of being haunted.
Many of the best paranormal investigations will include an experienced, professional clairvoyant or psychic. These unique individuals can often provide insights and information that can point an investigating team in the right direction. The ‘hits’ that a good clairvoyant can provide often go beyond statistical, random chance. Unfortunately, strictly scientific thinkers tend to discount paranormal investigations with psychics since neither ‘psychics’ nor ‘ghosts’ are real … and the presence of a psychic is thought to ‘taint’ the investigation.
Few understand hauntings, spirits and ghosts as well as Psychic Coffee. Curious about ghosts, hauntings or contacting spirits? Give Psychic Coffee a call today at 1-800-340-8374
So, if you happen to ‘see’ a spirit or ghost in your home, you can be pretty sure you do have a ligetiment haunting going on. If you have several of the signs of a haunting listed above you may find contacting your local paranormal group well worth the effort. Maybe some people will want to discount your experiences, but for those who have dealt with spirits, ghosts and other paranormal activities, you are making an intelligent, rational choice to have your home or business investigated.
Working with a professional clairvoyant or psychic with experience in dealing with ghosts, spirits and haunting can also be beneficial. One good place to find ghost help is www.1800ghosthelp.com … and you can also a call and arrange a one-on-one converstaion with a talented clairvoyant or psychic at 1-800-340-8374 (Toll Free USA and Canada). Our 24 hour support team can help direct you to the best available psychic or medium at no cost.
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