Comments on: Unhaunting a house

By: Leon

Leon — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:04:03 +0000

Phil, you might find this worthwhile: Canadian One of the CBC did a show in 1997 called “Haunted House, Haunted Mind”. It was all about someone who lived for a while in an apparently haunted house, but did some heavy research into what might have caused the things he saw there. It explains a lot of the sources of supposed hauntings as natural phenomena.

By: SMB

SMB — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 13:05:17 +0000

Why is the sun so round? Ghosts.

Also, you know that face in the Licinia crater on Vesta? You got it…

By: kat wagner

kat wagner — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 22:54:14 +0000

A couple years ago we took a backcountry motorcycle ride through the mountains to a back-from-the-dead mining town: Silver City. Some of the houses have solar arrays on them and the owners bring in water. For backup, they use propane. The owners of the old hotel are refurbishing it room by room. We got to stay in the brand new room; the other rooms had peeling wallpaper – totally freaked out my husband.

Dinner and breakfast were family affairs in a big dining room, cafeteria style. So, at breakfast, I asked a lady how her night was in a room down the hall from us. She told me she was leaving RIGHT NOW after being up all night, watching the gauzy lady which appeared at the foot of her bed. I asked questions. She said the lady was dressed in a white old-timey dress. Hmmm. I had no comebacks for that.

By: Lou

Lou — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 19:02:58 +0000

@10 I agree with you about wanting a “Skeptic Hauntings” kinda show. In my case, I’d want it to be a case where real skeptics go to a supposedly haunted location and do a proper debunking.

@13 Oh yeah, I hear you there. I gotta give the ones that do some debunking credit for actually debunking some of the stuff, but I also agree that it’s ridiculous that they automatically jump to “OMG! Ghosts!” when they can’t figure something out. I’d prefer a show where legitimate skeptical investigators go into a location, use proper scientific techniques to investigate it, and if they find something that they can’t explain, just leave it as “unexplained” instead of automatically assuming the paranormal.

Of course, there should be some magicians along side the scientists on these investigations, to serve roles similar to that of Houdini when he was debunking mediums back in the day.

By: Lorena

Lorena — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:40:39 +0000

I was looking for an explanation for some weird stuff going on at home but this is not applicable to houses in my country for example where we dont have wooden floors or stairs or even walls not made of bricks or central heating systems.

By: Michael S

Michael S — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:06:30 +0000

Cracked.com has a few good articles like this. Most of their articles are dumb or even abusive in their interpretation of “A study shows…” logic, but there are also some good ones in there.

The managemylife article follows the same style as most of those from Cracked. It’d be called “5 Ways You Haunt Your Own House” or something similar.

By: TechyDad

TechyDad — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:17:50 +0000

Once while at a campfire hearing ghost stories, I took some photos of the flames. Sure enough, when I showed them to my friend the next day, there was an image of a face in the fire. GHOSTS! … Or just a random pareidolia that happened to occur in one photo out of the thirty or so that I took of that fire. Either one.

(For the record: None of us believed it was ghosts, though it was fun to joke about it being from that.)

By: Techs

Techs — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 07:45:32 +0000

A few years ago an American ghost hunting show went to England to check out its many reputed haunted places. Many TV technicians and other TV workers volunteered to work for free as they thought these guys were for real. They eventually caught them making things up and quit.

By: David H.

David H. — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 06:43:36 +0000

Hah. The timing of this is perfect, since minutes before I came across a funny Mitch Hedberg quote:

“One time I stayed at a haunted motel. When I checked into my room, there was a sheet on the floor, and I thought it was a ghost that had passed out, so I kicked it. “

By: Zoey

Zoey — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 02:28:43 +0000

It looks like they didn’t touch on inexplicable, localized feelings of fear, dread, despair, and/or being watched. Those can actually be caused by poorly shielded wiring! If you live in an older building and there’s one area that consistently creeps you out, you may want to contact an electrician.