Hi flashman. We have several places in our city which have proven to have paranormal activity. One place in particular is an old home that was moved to a park in our city as a heritage site, and people from all over the world have reported the same inexplicable events. I've been in the house myself, and it's definitely not a place I want to go to again. **shivers**

As to the question of what factors might be involved in these places, I think it depends on the person or people who actually lived in the place. If their attachment to the place was really strong, for example, they may choose to remain instead of going Home. In situations where a death was sudden, violent, or both, it's not uncommon for the spirit to become trapped in the place of death until someone can help them go Home.

Is it just over-worked imagination that makes us feel and/or see ghosts and spirits? Well, I think that can and does happen, sometimes, especially when there are large groups of people involved. But on the whole, I think it's genuine; I've had my own experiences, and there are hundreds of thousands of documented cases where people like scientists, pilots, doctors, and other such people have had experiences with paranormal events. I guess if they've experienced them, there must be something to it, right? :)

Thanks, Holly! Of course, I agree.

A sighting, to me at least, does not necessarily imply a haunting - I tend to look at them as two separate things.

Some do associate hauntings with, for lack of a better term, "ghosts." But I believe a haunting goes much further - hence the "evilness" associated with a place that may even play and feed on the living.

In the experience I posted in "Actually Seeing Ghosts," the particular house had some rather sinister aspects. Dead birds, for one - outside AND inside - not to mention live ones that appeared to have been "caught" in a mysterious fashion. Loud bangs in the night, bizarre accidents, and other mysterious occurrences in addition to sightings.

So i guess I'm left wondering, can a house take on a spirit of its own - or would the experts rule it all down to one helluva ornery ghostie?

Fascinating stuff, for sure!

I agree, flashman. A sighting doesn't necessarily mean a haunting. Associating hauntings with ghosts or spirits is, indeed, a normal thing to do; what else would one be able to attribute these events to, if there aren't any other possible explanations?

Negative energies do have some pretty nasty effects, that's for sure. For me, it doesn't matter whether I'm in a house or out on a hike in the mountains; there are times when I just become overwhelmed with feelings of being unwelcome that I just have to get away. When I've been outside and this happens, reinforcement often comes through stumbling on dark, dead patches. It's positively creepy, flashman... I get out of there just as fast as I can...

I don't know if a house can take on a spirit of its own. Personally speaking, I don't think it can, simply because it's made up of inanimate matter. But I do believe that ornery ghosts can make things difficult for the "fleshies" (meaning: us) who visit or try to live in the place.

Here's my story from another post in this group:

http://www.tbd.com/group/53/discussion/185752/show

Has anyone ever been to one of those "crazy houses," Where an anomaly in the earth's magnetic field causes some very strange effects? I have been to a couple in my life (one in Ore. I have been to more than once). I feel very agitated when I am in one. There is an extreme sense of "wrongness".

There is a famous haunted plantation about 50 miles from where I live. I have toured it in the daytime ("wrongness" there too). It operates as a Bed & Breakfast, but I have never spent the night...Not sure I could <<nervous smile>> and I know I haven't got the nerve to do it alone (my family and friends have refused to go with me ;-).

I have heard explanations involving ley lines for some of these phenomena but as i really don't know much about ley lines I havn't got an opinion about that.

A friend of mine used to work here:

http://www.chconline.org/

It's a relatively new building located in Palo Alto, right off Sand Hill road, and right smack in the middle of pre 1900's Ohlone Indian Territory. When the building was in the planning stages, Ohlone elders repeatedly warned management that they were building on "sacred ground", and that spirits would be *extremely angry* if they went ahead with construction. Furthermore, the elders warned that "terrible things would happen to people that worked there and their families".

Management didn't heed the elders warnings....and rolled ahead with construction. One of the higher-ups in this outfit told me that they'd found human graves during excavation. One of them was buried with adornments and artifacts that clearly marked him a shaman, or a "Man of Power".

At any rate, something seemed to be making good on these warnings not long after the building was complete. Employees and their families started experiencing a freakishly heavy occurrence of unexplained illnesses including deadly tumors and terminal cancer that affected children, parents, and spouses. People also reported hearing "busy sounding noises" when they were in the building by themselves. Things go so bad that management hired a shaman to come in and drive the things out, but the shaman experienced two car breakdowns and one accident during thee attempts to get near the site. After three attempts, he told management that "whatever you're dealing is more than I can handle". They went back to the Oholne Elders, who pretty much told them that this mess was of their own making....and was irreversible.

I did some research on the area, and found that Stanford University has an *extensive* policy regarding what to do and whom to contact if human remains are found during construction. A spectrum of Options runs from consultation with tribal elders regarding movement of the remains to complete abandonment of the project. It left me with the impression that they'd run into this kind of thing before.

My friend has long since left this organization, but she's been in touch with people that say this stuff is *still going on*.

I spent several years in the real South Park. It's a geographical area composing most of Park County, Colorado. It includes only two incorporated towns, Fairplay and Alma.

Both of Fairplay's historic hotels, The Fairplay Hotel and the Hand Hotel have reputations for being haunted. I have to believe just from knowing so many otherwise sensible people who claim to out of personal experience.

I knew one couple who had been managers of the Hand for awhile. They maintained that various nights, when the hotel was completely vacant, they'd go through and close all the doors and go back through later and find them all open.

One level-headed biker friend of a recent town board member stayed their during an annual bike rally "Ladies Run of Colorado". This big tough scary guy insisted that someone, in a room with closed doors, sat down on the bed next to him and said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know this bunk was taken." He would never stay in tht hotel again.

As the local reporter there for most of seven years, I found the Fairplay Hotel more interesting. The staff there took it for granted when pots and pans started flying around the kitchen. This usually happened when staff elsewhere in the building were arguing about something.

One waitress, working alone on a slow day, decided she might as well go smoke a doobie. In a spot with no draft her lighter kept blowing out, after a dozen or so times trying to light it, she gave up, and got back to the dining room just in time for a whole bus to show up. After the rush, she had no problem lighting her well earned self-reinforcement.

All staff know that this apparent spirit who seems concerned about what'a good for business is named Julia. There is a full story behind her, and I have one more story that is the most interesting of all, the closest to my own experience I ever got (other than seeing the dishwasher come running out of the kitchen when pots and pans were flying. Since this is already long, I'll put that in another post.