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There are lots of “ghost stories” out there, but we’re, like, 100 percent sure they’re just that: stories. But out of pure curiousity, we figured we’d get the point of view of some real life paranormal reserarchers: John E.L. Tenney, cohost of Destination America’s new series “Ghost Stalkers,” and Joanne Emmons, author of I Think My House Is Haunted!
Tenney and Emmons get calls from people who experience strange sightings or sounds, then work systematically to rule out all non-paranormal explanation. Ninety-eight percent of the time, the calls can be explained by forces in the everyday physical world, Tenney says. His phone rings off the hook every fall and spring because that’s when changing temperatures cause all kinds of creaks, groans, and pops in people’s homes. Or a flickering light proves to be a case of bad wiring, for example.
But the other 2 percent of the time, there’s something he can’t explain–and perhaps paranormal–going on.
Want to find out if your house could be in that 2 percent? Every haunting is different, Tenney says, and there’s no way to know for sure if your strange encounters are truly paranormal. Nevertheless, here are some commonly reported signs and, paranormal party poopers that we are, some of-this-world explanations:
Doors and dressers seem to open themselves.
You swear you closed them all before leaving for work, so why is one wide open when you return? Doors, cabinets, and drawers with minds of their own are classic hallmarks of a haunting, Emmons says. It may seem like nothing at first–maybe you got distracted and left the drawer open, or maybe your wife was looking for something–but if the cabinets were securely closed and your wife has been gone all day, it could be a sign of paranormal activity, she says. Emmons once walked into her kitchen to find every cabinet door and drawer open. Freaky.
Alternate explanation: You’re absentminded, you walk in your sleep, your babysitter is nosy. Maybe your cabinetry was the work of criminally-unsupervised apprentices.
You hear knocks and scratches on the walls.
All noises sound more sinister when you’re lying awake at night–and ghosts seem to know that. Emmons says raps, knockings, and scratches are some of the most common ways spirits communicate with us.
Alternate explanation: Rodents. Raccoons. Bats. Branches. Pipes. Air ducts. Windows expanding and contracting with changing temperatures. Want us to keep going? Maybe you just need to sleep better.
It’s suddenly very, very cold.
Paranormal entities can cause bizarre environmental shifts, like cold or hot spots, Tenney says. “Cold spots appear in a very specific region, and you know it’s not a draft because there’s no air movement,” he says. “You’ll be walking through a house and all of a sudden the temperature drops dramatically in a particular spot, and when you go back, it’s gone.” One theory: Spirits draw energy out of the environment, leaving the area frigid, Emmons says.
Alternate explanation: Are you sure it’s not a draft?
Electronics are constantly doing weird things.
The lights go out but the switch hasn’t moved. The TV flicks on and off. Brand-new batteries drain in 20 minutes. Apparently this stuff is relatively ordinary in the paranormal field. Spirits need energy, Tenney says as a possible explanantion, so they pull it from the wherever they can, which might end up being your gadgets.
Alternate explanation: Your neighbor’s remote is inadvertently controlling your TV. Or you need an electrician, not an exorcist.
Someone’s calling your name, but no one’s there.
Disembodied voices are a surprisingly common report, Emmons says. People claim to hear whispers of nearby conversations, or someone calling their name, while home alone.
Alternate explanation: Your name is Stella, and your neighbor loves Marlon Brando movies. Or you’re watching too much Ghost Hunters and your imagination is running wild. See “You hear voices on a recording” (below).
Strange stuff happens at the same time every day.
Paranormal entities are often creatures of habit, Tenney says. You might hear someone walking down the stairs every Thursday, for example, when no one else is home. “I’ve been in a lot of locations where the haunting happens at the same time every day,” Tenney says. “If you keep notes about your encounters with strangeness, you might notice a pattern.”
Alternate explanation: Normal things happen in patterns, too. Your upstairs neighbor flushes the toilet at the same time every night. The sun hits the same window around the same time each day, warming it up and causing popping noises. Etcetera.
You hear voices on a recording.
Here’s a fun way to terrify yourself: Do a test for electronic voice phenomenon, or EVP as the ghost busters call it. While humans speak by creating vibrations in the air, Tenney says spirits supposedly speak in electromagnetic waves that can only be picked up by a recorder. Turn on your smartphone’s voice recorder, ask a question, and continue to record for 10 or more seconds. Suggestions: “Are there any ghosts here?” “In the afterlife, can you masturbate?” Play back the recording and listen for any human-like voices.
Alternate explanation: You’re interpreting random noise as words.
You see mysterious shadows.
Your encounter with the paranormal might be a sighting of an inexplicable shadow. The dark spot could be wispy or clearly the outline of a person, Emmons says. Usually, it’s the deepest black imaginable, she says–so black you can still see it in a dark room. Emmons suspects these shadows are ghosts, but no one knows for sure, she says.
Alternate explanation: Are you sure you aren’t seeing things?
There’s a stranger in your kitchen.
Ghosts aren’t amorphous, floating white blobs, Tenney says. Sometimes they appear as full-on, solid humans. “Some people will see a man or a woman in their kitchen,” he says. “And then they just vanish.”
Tenney says he once had a substantial conversation in a restaurant with a ghost. He didn’t realize it until later, when he saw her again in the home he was investigating. She turned out to be the homeowner’s dead wife, and had appeared in the restaurant to help Tenney solve the haunting.
Reports of such apparitions are rare, even among ghost hunters. Tenney has seen about a dozen, but others never encounter one, Emmons says.
Alternate explanation: Burglar. Practical joke of friends who know you’re paranormal-curious.
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