Unexplainable Happenings?

[Mark A]

I would consider myself an agnostic. It's cowardly I will admit to sit on the metaphorical fence, but it's hard to shake that little seed of doubt sown by horrendously dogmatic religious schooling... Therefore I'd try not think about the Big Questions very often, such as what comes after death. Nothingness? Or does Saint Peter decide our final destination? The good are issued halos and harps whilst the naughty are sent down the reject chute to be jabbed in the @rse by trident-wielding demons for all eternity.


Anyway, what's prompted my rambling are two recent odd occurrences whilst renovating our house.

Firstly, whist working late one night maybe a month ago we heard four distinct footsteps coming from above.

Bang...Bang...Bang...Bang

I immediately grabbed the nearest thing to hand to defend myself (which happened to be a shovel) and searched round the house. My initial thought was that squatters had broken in through the rear (hence the weapon) but absolutely no one else was in the property at the time.

Afterwards we tried to replicate the noise and we're certain it came from the corridor connecting the back and front parts of the house as that is the only area upstairs where there still any boards down. They're just laid on top of the joists and us walking on them makes precisely the same echoey sound.


The second incident occurred only last week.

We had rigged up a tarpaulin in such a way that it would collect any drips from the leaking roof and channel them into a big yellow flexi tub positioned below on an upturned plastic box. Maybe five litres had collected there over time but I hadn't emptied the tub as the weight helped to keep it stable.

We came in one morning to find it on its side a couple of feet away from where it had been stood for the past seven weeks and all the water had tipped out. Again, we tried to replicate it and I am positive there is no way it could have fallen without some help.


I'm not jumping to conclusions, but I'm also struggling to rationalise what's happened so far.

Mark

 

[monkeybiter]

Cat/large rodent living in the house or with access to the interior. Or mischievous kids, it's the sort of naughtiness I used to get up to many years ago.
Or maybe Mrs. A is working on getting you committed.

 

[sunnybob]

I grew up London in a 100 year old terraced house that survived the next road being flattened by bombs in the war.

All during the 50's we had a "ghost" we called uncle Charlie. Whilst sitting downstairs watching the telly it was common to hear someone walking across the room above us.

And that room was a fully furnished bedroom. With half the flooring missing there will be huge expansion contraction sounds.

Not for nothing are old houses said to be haunted.

 

[dzj]

A home surveillance camera might help.

 

[doctor Bob]

Don't be daft, it's not a ghost or a poltergeist..................... it's aliens.

Make sure you have a tin foil hat on from now onwards or they'll fry your brain.

 

[NazNomad]

I'm sorry, I have a tendency to sleepwalk and occasionally the restraints aren't tightened enough by the night staff.

It won't happen again ... possibly.

 

[Jacob]

I had one when I was working in a derelict chapel some years ago. It was a dark and windy winter afternoon......

There was a funny rattling noise at one of the windows, as though being tapped with a bunch of twigs. I thought it was branches or bit of ivy blowing in the wind.
But then it happened again at the next window.
And then the next, and another one, all around the building, one after another!
Really weird - I started thinking of bony fingers trying to get in; something horrible wandering around outside.

THEN I SAW IT :shock: :shock:


It was a flock of blue-**** flying from window to window, tapping the glass to dislodge flies, caterpillars etc. The windows were very decrepit with cobwebs and insect life in every nook and cranny. They don't do it now the windows are all done, but they did pick at new putty occasionally.
If I hadn't seen them I would still be wondering!

 

[Mark A]

No animals or kids have got in to the house, and I'm pretty sure it's not aliens as the farmer behind us hasn't reported any mutilated livestock.

As for expansion noises; I've been working on the house almost every day since the middle of November and the few creaks I've heard in that time sound nothing like footsteps. I'm 100% sure the they originated from the corridor above.

 

[bugbear]

I would point out the large gulf between "currently unexplained" and "unexplainable".

BugBear

 

[Steve Maskery]

It's Ernie's ghostly gold tops, a-rattling in their crate. They won't forget Old Ernie...

And that, my friends, will now be an earworm for the rest of the day...

 

[DiscoStu]

We have a cat, he's an average size cat, but there are times when I'm in the house with just him and I hear him coming down the stairs and I'm convinced one of the kids is in. It doesn't take a lot to make a noise or for an animal to knock over a tub.

If there really was ghosts that interacted with objects (Stairs / Tubs etc.) then I really do think that we'd see an awful lot more evidence. If you think about the dead population and compared to the living we'd be constantly bumping into them.

Hope you're sleeping well at night!

 

[sunnybob]

I reckon youre just starting a haunted house tale to increase the property price )G).

 

[Mark A]

I reckon youre just starting a haunted house tale to increase the property price )G).

Ssshhh!

The house is completely unoccupied so the clumsy animal explanation is out.

I've just arrived there now so will keep an eye open for strange phenomena.

 

[Racers]

Thank god I am an atheist

Pete

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Thank god I am an atheist

Pete

=D>

 

[blackrodd]

When we moved in here in 1991, the down stairs toilet didn't work, I fixed the cistern and a new ball valve after which Sometimes when Er indoors or myself used the toilet we would sometimes smell aromatic pipe tobacco like Erinmore.
But nobody used a pipe in the house or anyone we knew, and only us two experienced this.
About a year later our neighbour said that the old chap that lived here before smoked a pipe using an aromatic tobacco.
This all stopped when downstairs was renovated a few years later.
And other times we could hear activity above, footsteps on a loose floor board, when no one was up stairs at all.
Always on a sunny summers day, both children, cat and dog with us, etc.
This also disappeared after the upstairs was gutted and replastered, painted etc.
Everyone says what a wonderful atmosphere in the house when they walk in here, maybe that, and the experiences above are related in some way, It doesn't bother me as although I've bought the house, i'm only a caretaker here and when my time is up, It'll be someone else's turn!
Rodders

 

[IHc1vtr+]

I don't believe in god, but i believe there is something after death. Some year's ago i accompanied my late mother to a clairvoyant reluctantly. After dear old mum had seen her, she convinced me to go next. I entered the room thinking what a load of £$%"$. After i came out the room, nothing had changed......Then i found out the woman she had been calling Anna (who i didn't know) ended up being my dad's Aunty Nance's real name and some other personal thing's matched. Then one year later the first thing came true, i was in a bad accident in a van (she called it a very large shock). Then some year's later, she got it right that i would marry a dark haired woman with 2 children. Who know's ????????

 

[Bm101]

I'm not religious, spiritual, existential... I don't believe in 'God' personally but mainly because I don't believe if there was a 'creator' or some such thing it would be understood in fractals and shapes and edges of light that our tiny brains couldn't possibly comprehend. Fair play to those who do, I mean no offense.
Me. I'm firmly of the seen is believed school. That's not to say I don't understand that there is a lot we haven't seen yet. Is it a god gene? A purely physical and chemical response? Who knows. There was a bit of news recently about some chimpanzees, revering a tree. Placing stones inside certain hollow trees. Treating these trees with what seemed to some human interpretation at least like reverence.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/20 ... -religion/
Make of that what what you will. Seems more like conjecture than anything to me.

I will share one odd story though that freaked me out quite a lot.

I work in London most days cleaning windows. I used to get the train home from Victoria. Most days, I'd have a pint or two in a pub called the Iron Duke. Sit outside in the summer, read the paper, watch all the nutcases, hobos, tourists. You got used to dismissing people who wanted something from you very quickly is what I'm saying.

One day this Indian fella walks past me. Only a young lad. He tries to give me his card. 'Nahhhh, you're alright mate.' He walks on a bit, then he stops. I look up from my paper. He turns back and hesitates. Now I'm thinking 'F*** me here we go'. He comes back to my table and smiles at me and it's an open honest smile. He says summat along the lines of 'I don't want anything from you but are a good man'.
'Riiiiggght...'
Then he says, 'I just want you to know that at the start of August, a few days in, something will happen to you, I don't know what but it will change your life. You are worried about it and you should not. Your fears will not be realised, life will change for the better.'

He actually said more than that but I'm not willing to write what he said.
I didn't say a word. I nodded, he nodded. We smiled and he went on his way. Freaked me out though.

About 3 months later my son was born on the 8th of August. Life changed. I'd been terrified and then I wasn't. Life did change and as he said, and it was better.

Now explain that.

 

[Water-Mark]

I never used to be a believer in goats but after a visit to a farm i saw loads of them.

They're really not as scary as some make out

 

[dickm]

We have (not very well laid) oak strip floors over insulation throughout our house, and the expansion/contraction noises are just like footsteps. In fact, the (very small) cat who owns us seems to be able to trigger the movement so it's nice and regular as she walks alomg. She and SWMBO moved in here while I was sorting out the old house packing, and SWMBO nearly left because of the footsteps.
They also start when the CH switches on in the morning - does help to wake us.