It all seems a bit unreal for you. The moving truck left a few minutes ago and your long-awaited move to a new house is now official. In fact, it’s much more than just an ordinary house. Rather, it’s the dream home you’ve always wanted to live in – enormous and spacious, with a big yard encircling the entire structure, with a rich history and a touch of magical charm that will steal a genuine “Wow!” from anyone who’s passing by the property. You catch yourself feeling exhilarated by the thought of spending your days and nights in such a special house and lucky to have found exactly the home you have been searching for. And you can’t help but instantly sense a strong connection, a bonding almost, with the impressive building as if you always belonged there.
But just like in horror movies, dreams have a nasty habit of turning into nightmares when you’re not paying close attention.
Exhausted by the crazy busy moving day, you decide to go to bed early. While falling asleep, you think about all the packed boxes that wait patiently for you and how unpacking and arranging your stuff will keep your hand full in the next few days or even weeks. And yet, you still manage to smile drowsily recalling what a great success your move has been thanks to the outstanding professional relocation services you have hired.
And then it happens!
You May Have Moved Into A Haunted House
You wake up in the middle of the night to the metallic sound of chained feet dragging along the floor of your bedroom. You feel disorientated at first, needing a few minutes to get your bearings. But the moment you realize where you are, you become aware of the disturbingly unmistakable sound moving downstairs towards the living room, the shackles banging loudly with each step down. Despite the fear rising inside you, you get out of bed quickly and turn on the lights, hoping that you’re still asleep and this is just a post-move nightmare. For your relief, the illumination turns everything back to normal for a few seconds.
Instinctively, you take a quick look at the big mirror on the wall and catch a glimpse of a shadowy figure of an elderly woman who is sitting in a rocking chair in the corner of the room and knitting a big red sweater. A couple of split seconds later, the lights flicker and go out.
And then you hear a terrifying blood-curdling scream.
Your own scream.
And you know.
Your dream house is haunted.
Is Your New House Really Haunted?
After months and months of frantic scouting for the perfect property, extensive relocation preparations and endless struggle to keep the entire moving adventure within your approved budget, moving into a haunted house is extremely misfortunate and fairly heartbreaking at the same time. Ghost sightings are not only spooky and plain scary but they are also hard to be reasoned with in a logical way. Apparitions do not follow the strict laws of physics we are all bound to, and rarely do they respect the universal humane code which states that scaring someone to death is just an immoral and selfish act.
So, after drinking up a cup of peppermint tea for calming down your nerves, your first mission is to check whether your new house is haunted for real. Because, you know, sometimes the simplest explanation can unveil the mystery around a seemingly inexplicable phenomenon.
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Creepy music playing: even apparitions are entitled to have a bad taste in music. Teach them a lesson by playing your favorite music even louder. Shadowy figures: once the sun hides behind the horizon, your shadow can finally float around freely without following each and every move you make;
- Unidentified footsteps: might be a cute, totally harmless hedgehog if your dream house is close to a forest;
- Lights turning on and off: ghosts are not great fans of disco music, so contact a certified electrician if you cannot find any visible problems with the fuse box;
- Water faucets turning on and off: your house may be inhabited by a nomadic desert ghost who is dumbfounded by how easy it is to fill a glass of water from a fountain built in the wall;
- Creaking floorboards: Mickey Mouse and his friends may have entered the competition for the Best Mouse Moonwalk Trophy;
- Doors opening and closing: it’s what doors are meant to do, don’t you think?
- Objects are moved around: the previous house owner’s son must have been one of Yoda’s apprentices and is still trying to perfect his Force manipulation skills;
- Phone constantly ringing: well, pick it up and see who’s been trying to reach you so desperately – could be your mom reminding you to take your vitamins regularly;
- Ghosts in mirrors: say Hi to the hi-tech future: state-of-the-art mirrors with built-in holographic plasma displays with parental control turned off;
- Midnight giggles in the attic: female voices? Seems like your attic has become a convenient refueling station for charismatic night riders on flying broomsticks;
- A face-to-face encounter: meeting a member of the undead face to face can be tough. Remember to keep your wits about you, be polite and ask the ghost how you can be of service. And then, the moment your pleasurable chat is over, be sure to give your shrink a call.
What To Do If Your House Is Haunted For Real
Despite your total disbelief, utter amazement and morbid fear, your house may indeed prove to be inhabited by humans in other physical and spiritual forms. This piece of news will probably come as a shock at first, but don’t get easily discouraged. There are a number of possible solutions for your specter problem that you should definitely try before reaching the bitter conclusion that the heightened paranormal activity of the haunted house you have moved into does not satisfy the minimum requirements for leading a normal scream-free life.
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You can help the ghost complete its unfulfilled task on Earth by listening to what it has to say. Find your courage: remember that evil spirits feed on fear. Do your best to look unafraid and either ignore the ghost until it loses interest in you and leaves you alone, or isolate it in a rarely used section of the property and let it reassess its inconsiderate actions towards the new house owner, or in other words – you;
- Get a dog: most dogs are capable of detecting ghosts and can scare them away for good. Consider a large-sized breed like a German Shepherd who will probably do a great job banishing low level spirits with malicious intent;
- Show understanding: stop and think for a second how you would feel if you yourself were a ghost. It wouldn’t be particularly pleasant, would it? Confront your apparition and see if it’s been trying to communicate with you. Remember the groundbreaking movie The Sixth Sense? Ghosts are poor souls who have not moved forward due to an essential unfulfilled task which keeps them lingering here on Earth until they find a way to complete it.
- Burn dried sage leaves: a well-known method of cleansing houses of unwanted spirits but don’t get your hopes up too high;
- Get help: unless you somehow possess the secret phone number of the genuine Ghostbusters, hiring the services of a reliable exorcist who will supposedly get rid of your undesired presence either by prayers or magic might be worth a shot;
- Offer ghost tours: if the ghost won’t leave despite all your efforts to reason with it, why not use the unwanted guest to pocket some cash instead? Organize attractive (and lucrative!) ghost tours throughout your new house for the locals, invest in a proactive advertising campaign and start selling specter tickets like hotcakes. Don’t forget to offer discounts for people with weaker hearts.
- Relocate: if none of the above methods works, just move to another dream house.
How To Avoid Moving Into A Haunted House
Yes, instead of trying desperately to find a way out of a spirited situation, it’s better to avoid it altogether. Here are 3 safety steps which you can take to minimize the risk of moving into a haunted house.
1. A Google search might reveal some relevant information about your future property. Maybe the house you’re planning on moving into was a crime scene some years back? Run away from properties which are known to have witnessed murders, suicides, freak accidents or any other traumatic events during their history.
2. If your Internet search fails to produce any satisfactory results, then you may check the disclosures of the seller or renter. Some states require that owners fill out a standard form with details about the property’s condition. And while you won’t find any mentions about paranormal activity, something in the description might trigger glaring alarms in the back of your head and serve as a deal-breaker. Contact your real estate agent in order to get hold of that disclosure (if applicable).
3. A good way to learn about unusual happenings inside the house you’re about to move into is to play detective and snoop around the neighborhood. Ask the neighbors what they think and know about the property but be cautious when forming your questions. Generally, start with a question like, “Do you think that house would be a good place to live and raise a family?”.
If you don’t believe in apparitions and spirits, and consider ghost stories to be silly, childish and only suitable for the entertainment industry, then you obviously haven’t had the misfortune to move into a haunted house. But good luck can turn bad even before you can say “I see dead people!”, so if you ever get visited by a ghost in a new home, remember what you have learned so far.
Yes, the fear of living in a haunted house can result in traumatic nightmares but the life-changing tips above will help you send the intruder on its pre-destined path. After all, you are the living entity in your house while a ghost has been long gone, and gone from your life it should be.
Have you ever had any highly unusual encounters after moving into a haunted house?
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