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Situation and question


Doubtfulbutcurious

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Doubtfulbutcurious these types of stories always concern me. I don't for a minute believe in ghosts, but I do believe that people see and experience what appear to be hauntings The reason I'm concerned is that there have been numerous instances where families thought their homes were haunted, only to later discover that they were hallucinating due to a carbon monoxide leak. Such leaks are notorious for causing ghostly sights and other delusions.

This is a transcript from a program aired several years ago on This American Life. Click here if you would prefer the audio version. It's a woman's account of a supposed haunting that she and her family experienced in 1921. It turned out the hallucinations were caused by a carbon monoxide leak from their furnace.

From the transcript:

“Some nights, after I’ve been in bed for a while, I’ve felt as if the bed clothes were jerked off me. And I’ve also felt as if I’d been struck on the shoulder. One night I woke up and saw, sitting on the foot of my bed, a man and a woman. The woman was young, dark and slight and wore a large picture hat. I was paralyzed and could not move.”

“Sometimes as I walk along the hall, I feel as if someone was following me, going to touch me. You can not understand it if you’ve not experienced it. But it’s real. As I was dressing for breakfast one morning, B, who is four years old, came to my room and asked me why I’d called him. I told him I’d not called him, that I’d not been in his room. With big and startled eyes he said, ‘Who was it, then, that called me? Who made that pounding noise?’

Sounds like a haunting, doesn't it. But it was something far more deadlier. So please have a professional take a look to ensure that carbon monoxide poisoning isn't at the root of the problem. Also have someone look for mold, as that, too, can cause hallucinations.

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Hallucinations can't account for everything, but I take your point. Ghost or no ghost we don't want to join them through carbon monoxide poisoning. 

Xenofish, I find the idea of some other worldly explanation extremely interesting. But as it disturbs my family I'd like it to stop. But at the same time i'd like to experience it myself. Does that make sense.

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4 hours ago, Doubtfulbutcurious said:

Ops had asked "Does anyone in the home have a history of these types of phenomenon before moving into your grandparents' home?  "

Yes, my gf who lived with me before my wife had some ghost stories to tell about other places she lived and especially her childhood home.

My wife had a ghost in a previous residence.

And my wife's grandparents house had had an exorcism performed on it. I don't know many details about that.

Sounds like maybe your wife is predisposed to suggestion. Your gf also.

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It certainly doesn't come through in any other facet of her life, so I don't think that's it. 

 

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I'm just saying that maybe her past experiences have made her more sensitive to the possibilities. You said she believed she had a ghost in a previous resident and that her grandparent's house was exorcised. You also said your former gf had a ghost in her childhood home and also in other places where she lived. She had experiences in your home too. 

I can understand why you would want to have an experience. That would validate what she is saying to you as she can't prove it is happening. Physical evidence yes, but not witnessed by anyone but her.

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Would like to hear some details about her childhood experiences and why her grandparent's house was subjected to an exorcism. 

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Yes, but for both of them things actually happened. Things witnessed by others. I was the staunchest of non believers, I was surprised how much I didn't believe when she told me. But so many things have happened that my debunked cap is wearing thin. I haven't provided a complete list here, just some of the standouts and episodes that are semi common. Plus there are a few other things that if they were in a movie might make for some spooky foreshadowing but I chalk up to old house old furniture. I'm still not a believer, but something's I haven't figured out how to explain yet. 

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Every family I've met (inc. mine) has ghost/weird coincidence/premonition/etc stories, but that doesn't mean ghosts and predilection etc exists.  It just means we like telling stories, and with time, the stories not only become real to the teller, they almost always involve alleged witnesses, and other 'absolute' yet anecdotal 'proofs'.  My family has a real corker of a story too, but once I investigated it, evidence which should have existed or been kept, just wasn't there - in one case much to the chagrin of the person who swore they had kept the evidence secure... and then had to rethink whether their memories were actual..  I pursued it no further as it was just going to hurt people's feelings to have the story challenged.

Thing is, we live in a new age of intense surveillance, lots of camera phones, 24 hr video security systems... and yet not one decent non-faked event has been captured (yeah I know, some will argue that..).

Thing is, as you acknowledge earlier, stories are just .. stories.  Yes, even if you say there were witnesses.  These are stories that really don't hurt anybody, and don't *have* to be true, so people don't feel any guilt if they lie a little initially or even just exaggerate.  And then with re-telling, our brains simply decide the tales are true, as they get better and better with each re-tell.  Why wouldn't they?

But nowadays, with all them camera sensors around, the bar has to be set high.  Good storytelling and assurances sadly counts for nothing.  Would you get this through a court for legal actions to be taken?  Of course not.  Does that mean it never happened?

No....

But it may as well never have happened...

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As I mentioned earlier we can haunt ourselves. Mentally creating experience that we hold to be true. 

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8 hours ago, Doubtfulbutcurious said:

Hallucinations can't account for everything, but I take your point. Ghost or no ghost we don't want to join them through carbon monoxide poisoning. 

No they can't, but they account for most of it. The other incidents most likely have a practical explanation as well. Cupboards can open on their own for a variety of reasons, the marker could have been thrown at your son by one of the other kids, and the scattered items and lamp thrown to the floor could all easily have had a human cause. And given the existing predisposition to believe in the paranormal, I can understand why the simplest, most natural occurrence would be attributed to it

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If you think it's a big enough deal I'd just get one or two cameras, you don't need the whole house just a few rooms. They are pretty cheap now

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The cameras are a good idea. In the case of the marker, the others kids could not have thrown it and so thus far I do not have an alternate explanation for that one. And yes, it's an old house, cabinets could probably open for a variety of old house reasons. I don't disagree with looking for normal explanations for all of these events. In fact, it's what I do everyone they crop up. In coming on here I wasn't looking for the doubters, lol. I have plenty of doubts. I was more interested in a diagnosis from the believers. As in what are we dealing with? 

And thank you to all of you for participating in this discussion. I have been appreciating your input.

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