Spooooky Happening

It's better than a toilet ghost.

My sister had a similar problem in the 1980s. (The TV kept turning itself on.) They lived next to one of those electrical substations and it turned out to be a wire acting as an antenna.

She and her husband had just moved into a new house when they heard--no joke--a child's voice sobbing. It sounded like it was coming from the attic. Obviously this was weird and a little off-putting, but her husband went up there with a flashlight and saw this old battery powered B&W tv. They couldn't figure out how to turn it off, so they just threw a moving blanket over it to muffle the sound. Then a couple of days later their TV downstairs started doing the same thing.

They asked around and found out that the previous owners had griped about the same sort of thing before they moved away. My sister wanted to get with them and compare notes (and see if they were ever going to come get their crappy furniture and clothes and stuff), but the lady's mom said she figured they'd left town to avoid some bills and she'd have them call if they ever got in touch. She was pretty mad.

Anyway, after a couple weeks of the waah-waah-waah channel in the attic and the family room they woke up and all the electrical outlets in the house were bleeding. Not a lot, not like from a chainsaw wound or anything, but it was messing up the paint. They tried to call in an electrician, but they live in a small town and there were only two listed in the yellow pages. One of them kept hanging up on them. The other was real nice. It turned out he'd worked on it before with the former owners, but he wouldn't take the job, even when they offered him a ton of money. Something about how he was 'going to give wire pulling a miss,' or maybe it was wires pulling him into the abyss. I forget. So the electrician was a non starter.

My sister's husband isn't an electrician, but he's a pretty good do-it-yourselfer for a professor. He took a whack at fixing it himself. He picked up a bunch of books from the library and one of those volt meter things from Ace hardware. He ended up having to rip out a couple of walls, but it turned out that one of the former owners had tried to add in a new outlet and made a real mess of things. The wiring violated the building codes or the laws of physics or something. I forget. He eventually decided it was N-dimensional resonance feedback from the water heater opening up a spirit breaker (or maybe it was a circuit eater? Something like that.)

My brother in law diddled around with this for weeks. God love him, he actually made the symptoms worse. The guy next door had a small dairy farm. Apparently cows are real sensitive to electrical fields, because one night they busted into the neighbor's house and ate one of his kids. Also, IIRC, a tractor and a couple of the national guard guys the governor sent out after the cows ate the sheriff. I was always surprised that didn't get more news coverage. It was a big deal around here. Also the mailman melted.

Anyway, my sister just wanted to say eff it and move out, but her husband promised her he could fix it. He's one of those obsessive types. (Super bright guy, though). She more or less just rolled her eyes and put in earplugs when she wated to sleep. He did get it figured out, though. All they had to do was adjust one of the wires to where it didn't resonate in the same way. I assume that fixed it, because she never brought it up again.

She and I kind of lost touch not long after that. She always wanted to be an actress so one day the two of them moved out to Hollywood. "Follow your dreams," and all that. It was a smart move, because she did end up getting a role on some show. She never calls anymore now that she's famous (well, semi-famous. The show's only on in the middle of the night). I catch it every now and then. You know that one where the people just stand around screaming and pretending to be in terrible pain? My sister's in that. One of the stars, I think. Personally, I find it kind of boring. It's same thing week after week after week, but the effects are pretty good and somebody must like it because it's been on for years. If you're a fan, my sister was the one in the extreme closeup in that episode last season where the woman pretended to pound on the inside of the TV and beg for help while that giant goat snake thing jumped around in the background eating people.

I straight up had the whole "sudden, mysterious chill" thing happen to me twice yesterday afternoon. And yes, I made sure it wasn't the A/C or an open window. It was quite peculiar. Of course, until the specter shows himself whilst rattling chains and asking if I, a man of the worldly mind, believe in him or not, I shall insist it was my own imagination.

Jcomp said:

I straight up had the whole "sudden, mysterious chill" thing happen to me twice yesterday afternoon. And yes, I made sure it wasn't the A/C or an open window. It was quite peculiar. Of course, until the specter shows himself whilst rattling chains and asking if I, a man of the worldly mind, believe in him or not, I shall insist it was my own imagination.

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is that code for 'douche chills?'

were you reading any posts from quickwit or rob?

It is possible for a change in water pressure to force a faucet handle to turn and go on - but only if it's a knob faucet with a stem - in other words, not a lever that goes up and down with a brass ball. And this usually happens in older buildings with old plumbing and/or older faucets.

Just a possible explanation - but it's creepy that this has happened to you in multiple places.

and yes, I work in a plumbing place... And no, it's not what I dreamed about when I was a little girl.

no - that's a sure fire ghost.

I'm a total sceptic about this sort of stuff, and there's often a defensive response to scepticism along the lines of: 'well, how do you explain *this* then, huh? I suppose you think I'm a loony, right, mr science guy?'

But, part of being sceptical is being happy to say 'I don't know'. And also being prepared to be proven wrong. But there's no more evidence for it being ghosts than anything else.

brainstorm77 said:

As for proving my experience... no I don't feel I need to. It was what it was, I went through it. It was enough to make me sell the house and move on. As for Backslash and her experience, I find it interesting to read. But before passing judgement I would have to experience it for myself either way.

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I'm not passing comment on what you did or didn't go through. I'm simply saying that a)I don't know what it was, and b)There's no reason to leap directly to ghosts as the explanation.

Apparently cows are real sensitive to electrical fields, because one night they busted into the neighbor's house and ate one of his kids. Also, IIRC, a tractor and a couple of the national guard guys the governor sent out after the cows ate the sheriff. I was always surprised that didn't get more news coverage. It was a big deal around here. Also the mailman melted.

I hate when that happens.

Great post. *s*

Guys, I think Barbara was just laughing at shwakins' outlandish tale of cows eating people.

I didn't get any mocking from that (Barbara's quoting or shawkins post.)

Adam, Barbara was quoting part of what Shawkins had shared in the fourth post of this thread. Most of us realize what Shawkins wrote was intended as tongue-in-cheek.

ETA: Cross-posted with Perks, who also sees the light.

Ah, bollocks.

I checked the page, but didn't spot it somehow. The lack of a quote box threw me off I guess.

My apologies, Barabara. I'm so used to these threads being mocked that I jumped the gun.

Silver King said:

ETA: Cross-posted with Perks, who also sees the light.

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Blinded by it regularly, of course.

Are we allowed to mock you for misunderstanding?

Silver King said:

ETA: Cross-posted with Perks, who also sees the light.

Click to expand...

Perks said:

Blinded by it regularly, of course.

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Do not walk towards it!!

The creepiest "spooky" occurrence I've heard of came from a friend who once related a lengthy, rather unsettling account of a supposed "hex" placed on his mother and all the unbelievably horrible shit that happened to her until it was "lifted." I lean toward skepticism even in the things I've experienced directly (God knows I have more than enough reason to believe I'm just slightly out of my mind), but his story left me pretty shook up. Certain details and touches made me think that if he was just making it all up he'd be much better serviced putting it on paper and turning it into a "based on a true story" novel than more-or-less unwillingly telling it to friends.

When it comes to Santeria, brujeria, hoodou, etc., I tend to tread lightly.

My mother has one of the best creepy tales of all time. She and a writer friend (mom's a painter) went on a week's artistic retreat at this remote cabin in West Virginia, newly purchased by the writer-friend's family. No electricity, no telephone, a bucket/pulley well for water, that sort of thing.

They were menaced nightly by a chanting 'witch' or something and the back porch was destroyed by some very strong, growly, roaring thing, egged-on by said witch while they were in the house. The endgame is just terrifically scary and ultimately resolves on the sixth night with the sound of a small dog keening in agony, abruptly cut short. Turns out, the writer's little poodle died at home, in her doggy bed, the night before they were picked up.

I've heard the story (it takes half an afternoon to tell) from both my mother and her friend separately and they match up in all the important details. It's a difficult story to believe, but there's always the question of why would they make it up?

Either way, I should write it or let Sam Raimi make it a movie.