Sally Morgan, a physical therapist, discovered she and her two pet corgis weren’t alone soon after moving into her quaint late-19th-century house in Northampton, Massachusetts.
The two-bedroom fixer-upper had looked almost too wonderful to be true at that price. She quickly found out why she’d received a good deal.
I began to sense a presence in the house within a week. The canines would pause and gaze at [invisible] objects in the chilly places, according to Morgan, 59. “You would assume you spotted a lady in a long dress in the twilight shadows. Was it, though, her? Were the curtains the cause? Were the shadows the cause?
Morgan concluded that she need expert assistance. She went to a Texas-based feng shui master and “energy catalyst” who specialised in “shifting the energy” in homes, even haunted ones.
Walking from room to room with incense burning and waving feathers to drive out negative energy and leave a path of rice and spices to absorb what remained, the spectral expert murmured. She moved across the cellar, rattling a chain of goat hooves.After that, she went back upstairs to speak with her client.
She informed her, “There’s someone living with you.”
There’s a tiny business of real-life ghostbusters to aid homeowners like Morgan who fear that evil spirits are hiding in their cellars, behind their beds, or in their walk-in closets.
It includes volunteer paranormal research groups, which have sprung up all across the nation in recent years, mostly as a result of the success of reality TV programmes like TLC’s “Paranormal Lockdown” and Syfy’s “Ghost Hunters.” A plethora of self-described psychics, mediums, witches, shamans, and spiritual healers can also be found, in addition to church-approved religious figures like Catholic exorcists.
It is a very ancient profession, of course. “There are ghost stories in every culture on the planet,” says Scott Cashman, a professor of cultural anthropology at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois, who also serves as the program’s coordinator for paranormal research. Therefore, “saying ghosts and spirits don’t exist” is a little conceited.
The Society for Psychical Research was the first scientific organisation established to investigate psychic and paranormal issues. It was founded in 1882 in London by two philosophers, a physicist, and a psychologist. Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of “Sherlock Holmes,” were among its members.
Proton packs and Ecto Containment Units are not used in the current wave of ghostbusters as they were in the film. Some make use of electromagnetic metres and tape recorders. Others use prayers or incantations to assist wandering spirits in passing across. Some choose to simply do some traditional Ouija board burnings.
How to get rid of pesky spirits
All of this can seem like a weekend vacation to Loony Town to those who are sceptical. But a 2013 Harris Poll of 2,250 individuals found that 42% of Americans think there are ghosts.
Furthermore, a recent realtor.com® poll found that around 33% of people would purchase a haunted house. 42 percent of respondents were adamantly against the proposal.
What should people do, therefore, if they genuinely think a ghost is haunting their house in the vein of Beetlejuice?
Cashman advises against trying to figure things out and spending a lot of money. Spirit-banishing services might cost as little as $100 or as much as hundreds of dollars. He claims that “there are many sincere people out there who investigate these things.”3
Alright, let’s go right into the unsettling details. The householder should forego burning the sage if the ghost appears to be harmful. Although this well-liked cure could drive the spooks away for a few days, Amy Blackthorn, a self-described witch in Newark, DE, who charges for house cleansing, claims they’ll come back more angrier.
Rather, Blackthorn and her other witches send forth wraiths using inventive means. In one instance, they set fire to a 12-year-old girl’s Ouija board because they thought it was the cause of the ghosts that had entered her family’s house in mid-19th-century Pennsylvania. They used a burning concoction of Epsom salts and rubbing alcohol to further cleanse the house.
People could also desire to seek heavenly (and free!) support from their faith. For the past twelve years, the Rev. Gary Thomas of the Catholic diocese in San Jose, California, has been blessing the houses of his dead parishioners and driving out ghosts. He begins by reciting the prayer of Pope Leo XIII. Next, he covers the whole outside of the house, including the garage and yard, with a mixture of holy water and salt.
The 2011 film “The Rite,” starring Anthony Hopkins, was inspired by Thomas’ actual experiences studying to be an exorcist in Rome.
He will send in troops if the lost soul is very obstinate: For thirty days, a priest will conduct Gregorian Masses, which are meant to aid in the person’s soul’s ascent to heaven.
What if it’s more Casper than ‘Poltergeist’?
These represent the most dire situations. Homeowners can coexist happily with ghosts most of the time.
According to Mary Marshall, the founder of The Paranormal MD, a volunteer paranormal investigative group in the Chicago region, “it’s frightening… because it’s out of the norm.” “But it’s not really threatening, most of the time.”
When buying a haunted house, owners should investigate the area to see if anyone has died there and, if so, under what circumstances. According to Marshall, individuals have the option to ask the ghosts directly to cease their activities if they would rather live a life devoid of supernatural presence. Tell the spirits that you wish them well but that it is time for them to go on. Since most of these ghosts were kind individuals in their lives, it’s possible that their spirits will be just as kind.
Alternatively, they may choose a full-fledged détente between the ghost and the human.
The expert Sally Morgan had recruited informed her that an old woman and her little black dog did, in fact, haunt her home. Morgan was informed that the spirit “was delighted that I was living in the house.” “The elderly woman enjoyed hosting tea parties at midnight and cherished my grandmother’s china.
She claims, “I didn’t sense any animosity from the ghost.” Thus, she made the decision not to try to get rid of her. However, she instructed her surprise tenant not to follow her to her new home when she moved out a few years ago.
‘I ain’t afraid of no ghosts’
A house may have certain concrete advantages, such as cost, even though it is rumoured to be haunted.
Following a divorce, 64-year-old retired real estate agent Bonnie Hammer of Southbury, Connecticut, was looking to downsize with her two kids. So it seemed like a blessing when she discovered a reasonably priced, two-acre, pre-Revolutionary War farmhouse in upstate New York.
But on her first night of sleeping in the new bedroom, she didn’t have any problem after that.
The loud noises lasted for almost ten minutes, during which time she described them as “sounding like every single window in the house was being smashed.” “I believed I had arrived in the heart of gangland. I believed that we were all gone.
Hammer gingerly climbed out of bed to inspect when it eventually stopped, and found nothing had been broken. Her children, meanwhile, were soundly sleeping in their own beds.
Her second night in the house was no better. She heard footsteps in the hallway while she was still lying in bed. Her kid had inquired the previous morning as to why mom had been hovering close to the ceiling in his room.
She was largely left alone by the spirit after that night. She made the decision to stay since nobody had been harmed.
Two ladies who had grown up in the house appeared on her front porch a few months later.
One of them questioned, “Have you met the ghost yet?”
They informed her that their father had conducted a séance in the past to learn as much as possible about the ghostly presence in their house.They discovered that her name was Abigail Pardy, that she had been in the house since the early 1800s, and that she had spent her whole life waiting for her granddaughter—who had been sent away because of an unmarried pregnancy—to return.
Hammer thinks that when Pardy first came in and started remodelling, she was upset. But when Pardy saw the gains, she calmed down.
Hammer relocated and rented out the house a few years later. When she took pictures of the empty rooms, she had the opportunity to bid Pardy farewell.
There was a twirly cloud in the foyer. It is difficult to explain. She remarks, “It appears like someone is made of smoke.”
Ghostbusters, or Mmythbusters
Of course, there might be a completely reasonable explanation for all of the strange things that are happening in your house.
The unexpected sounds may just be the sound of settling pipes or random noises coming from a house. Draughty windows or inadequate insulation are common causes of cold patches. Furthermore, ghosts may vanish once a homeowner cleans the smudges from their spectacles.
Alternatively, mental illness may be the cause of the voices and sightings.
According to Brandon Alvis, the head of the Los Angeles-based American Paranormal Research Association, “99.9% of the time, homeowners who are experiencing paranormal activity are actually experiencing things that could be explained through logical means.” Every year, the organisation gets hundreds of calls asking it to look at cases. “People who frequently mix medications or deal with personal issues can cause a great deal of stress and anxiety in their lives.”
Most reportedly haunted homes, according to Victor Fuhrman, a volunteer co-director of the Paranormal Investigation of NYC and vice president of sales for an industrial supply firm by day, are caused by faulty electrical wiring or other practical issues.
The group once looked into a residence in Queens, New York, where a guy was becoming sick and seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. It transpires that he had covered a central air conditioning duct in his house with tape. Due to the duct’s restricted airflow, mould and fungus had grown, and he had been breathing it in. After the AC duct was cleaned, his health issues went away.
“During the last ten to fifteen years, there has been an explosion in paranormal entertainment,” claims Fuhrman. That gave many people the impression that ghosts are present everywhere.
He continues, “There are spirits around.” “But maybe not the root of the issues in your house.”
