I’ve always wondered why anyone would want to visit a haunted house. Why do we want to be afraid!? I can only answer that question for myself, of course. There’s a specific feeling of overcoming fear that I love to overcome. I can be proud of each moment in life I’ve overcome a fear and gained a bit more knowledge.
Because I’ve been receiving several calls regarding homes with spooky occurrences; I decided today would be a great day to share my perspective on “hauntings”, and what we can do about them.
Hauntings have fascinated humans for centuries. We love ghost stories told at campfires, scary movies, and folklore. Why do they occur? The question touches on psychology, our culture, and even physical phenomena that explain why people experience hauntings. Here are a few:
- Expectation: We as humans are wired to recognize patterns, even when no pattern exists. If we expect to encounter ghosts or paranormal activity, our minds can create experiences to match the expectation.
- Pareidolia: The mind perceives a familiar pattern such as a face or voice in an unrelated stimulus.
- Anxiety: High stress levels bring on more hypervigilance. These states of mind can more easily misinterpret common visual and audible clues. Our brains are wired in a way that needs to find explanations for stress-induced experiences which can result in a perception of a haunting.
- Sleep paralysis: The body is asleep, but the mind is wide awake. This can be terrifying for those who do not know what is happening. Strange visual occurrences and physical experiences between asleep and awake can be terrifying.
- Media: Oh, the power of suggestion to play on the mind. The media can prime an individual to experience a similar occurrence. A self-fulfilling prophecy that tells someone what they are supposed to hear and see.
- Social Reinforcement: When a group of people believes hauntings are common, we tend to follow suit. When one person in a group reports a paranormal experience, others will be inclined to believe the same even if they hadn’t initially perceived it.
- Electromagnetic Fields: It has been suggested that these fields can affect brain functions. And that spirit can affect this field. I’ve personally seen this in use with a field detector spirits can indeed affect these fields using an EMF detector at specific locations.
- Contamination: Exposure to carbon monoxide, mold, poor ventilation lead, asbestos, and other environmental toxins may cause hallucinations and physical symptoms that can be perceived as paranormal. They can also open up the faculties to perceive the paranormal. A great example of this would be the Oracle of Delphi. Greeks considered Delphi to be the center of the world, and over a limited number of days The Pythia of Oracle of Delphi was consulted on all matters of state and personal affairs. The Pythia would inhale the gases that escaped from the ground. A chemical analysis of the spring water and travertine deposits found that at the Oracle of Delphi gases including methane, ethane, and ethylene created fumes. These toxins do not mean that the Pythia was not accurate. It enabled her to go into a trance state and predict various historical events including Argonaut’s expedition and the Trojan War.
So, with all that, does that mean that hauntings are just a figment of imagination and are just in our heads? Well, everything you experience is in your head, isn’t it? When it isn’t though, it’s extremely obvious.
Examples of this are right in your face and completely undeniable in any way. One occurrence that comes to mind is setting up my computer at a friend’s farm which is very well known for its activity. There have been books written and documentaries made of this farm. As soon as I turned my computer on, I heard loud and clear in a man’s voice, “Do I scare you?” After picking my jaw up from the table I answered, “Well, He—yeah you do, you’re a disembodied voice!” There was no denying what happened and several witnesses to the occurrence.
So, what are the unscientific reasons for hauntings?
Unresolved issues from their life, the family may need to know what happened to the person or how they passed. A loved one may wish to stay connected to loved ones, to offer them comfort or protection, offering them help navigating through the challenges of life.
A violent death or an improper burial may make a person unable to move on because of their belief systems.
Psychic imprints cause residual hauntings. These are not the actions of a sentient spirit but rather just energy that has imprinted intense emotions in a physical space. Sensitive individuals can feel these energies, just like when you walk into a room after an argument and can feel it, only amplified from long-ago events.
Energy permeates objects and can even cause phenomena with very sensitive individuals.
I truly don’t believe in spirits being entrapped in one specific place without their ability to be able to leave that space. God is loving and would not allow such a thing. However, I do believe that a spirit can choose out of fear or for their benefit decide to stay in a specific space and may need some help in convincing that it is okay to move on. It makes me giggle when someone brings me into their home and states, “The ghost is in this room and sitting on this chair.” If this is the case, the ghost is a very sleepy cat and just leave it alone. Ghosts, spirits, etc…. are not bound to one tiny spot. God gave us free will!
Truly, the reasons for hauntings are as varied as the billions of people, and yes animals, that have lived on this planet. Every haunting has a reason whether it is just a figment of the imagination or an actual Spirit needing assistance, all are worthy of our respect and investigation to seek the truth of each one.
Any questions or do you have a story of a haunting you’d like to share? Please feel free to comment below! Thanks for exploring this topic with me.
All my love!
Katie
