[linnealand]

Why do so many people who live in less than new homes, which are over 50 or even just over 100 years old, think that their houses are going to be haunted?

I live in a home that is over 700 years old. It even has huge frescoes that are 400 years old with the faces of a former owner and their children as angels. It's not haunted.

We bought a house near the beach and have been restoring it over the years. The original parts of this house are between 400 and 500 years old, but as we have also found part of an ancient Roman column buried deep in the garden, we assume that people have been living on this plot of land for at least two thousand years. It's not haunted.

I rented a farm house in the countryside that was between 200 and 300 years old. I used to stay there on the weekends alone with my boyfriend. It's all alone and on a hill. There were also stalls in it. It wasn't haunted.

I used to live in a building that was 600 years old. There was also a very hotel at the top of it. It wasn't haunted.

Many people and animals have died in every single one of those places over the years. I'm sure these places have seen the same turmoil and troubles as anywhere else.

In fact, almost everyone I know here lives in a building that is several hundred years old. No one complains of ghosts or spirits or "shadow people" or orbs or strange noises or of being haunted. No one.

In my lifetime, I have read a few books, seen television shows and watched the same movies as everyone else regarding claims of paranormal phenomena. I don't think I'm a complete ignoramus on the subject. I suppose the one part I can consider accepting is that some people are more sensitive to certain energies than others. I'm a sensitive person. I'm sensitive to the energy that is around me. These places are not haunted.

So what's the deal? What's with the haunting claims in just about every rickety, old house or hotel out there? What are these believers talking about?

I don't mean to offend anyone by this question, but I just don't get it.

[Clough]

Hi, linnealand!

You've posted a good question! It's intriguing as to why people jump to conclusions as to thinking that a place has to be haunted just because they've experienced a few things that they can't seem to rationally and logically explain as to why what they've experienced has happened.

I think that part of the reason people do think that a place is haunted is because of the hope that they have that something of the paranormal might be going on. People do like to tell stories, you know! Tales of the unknown and/or ghost stories can be a good topic of conversation with friends or even strangers!

I also think that people like to try to "connect" with things about dead relatives and others who are deceased as a form of comfort for themselves to try to insure that they have some control over knowing for sure that there is a realm beyond this life.

For me, I don't like to admit that things of the paranormal might exist. However, because of things that I've experienced in my own life that I know have been real, I can't deny that the possibility of paranormal things occurring for myself as well as others could and can be real.

Hopefully, others will come along to address your post! I think that what you've tried to address is exceptionally fine here!

Thanks!

[pineappledeluxe]

Linealand, are you a materialist? Do you deny the existence of everything beyond our natural world? Just curious if that is what your question is based on.

[linnealand]

linealand, are you a materialist? Do you deny the existance of everything beyond our natural world? Just curious if that is what your question is based on.

That's a good question to ask, pineapple.

I'm not a materialist. I do believe in God. I don't believe that the world stops after the things we can read with our senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste or smell. I realize that it's easy to fool our senses. Optical illusion games or looking at a straw in a glass of water are good examples of that. The straw will look bent, even though it's not.

At the very least, I think that the whole universe is a combination of energy, consciousness and matter. That said, I can only imagine that the follow up question is if I can believe in things I can't see, why couldn't ghosts or other supernatural things exist? My answer would have to be that I, myself, can't prove that they don't.

My question, though, is a little different. I grew up in the states, and I know how many older houses on the east coast have a reputation for supernatural occurrences because they're old, usually up to a couple of hundred years old at the most. Just about any old place will carry a ghost story or two with it. Some have much more than that.

When I moved to Europe, where the buildings are all much, much older, and I didn't experience or hear of anyone I know having to deal with the supernatural.

The very, very old city I live in has been built on top of the ruins of an ancient Roman city. Think of it as a city built in two stories, like a building. Not too long ago, the city put a glass floor in part of one of the most famous squares so that it was possible to see the ruins below. It's a whole level down in many places. In fact, in my own courtyard, there's a passageway to go underground to the older level. These things are everywhere.

I can't begin to tell you how many executions, hangings, people being drawn and quartered, injustices, extraordinarily violent deaths, plagues, wars, etc. have taken place all over this city. By the standard assumptions that a home where someone died (or didn't) would mean that the place is probably haunted, this place should be packed to the brim with supernatural occurrences all the time. I've lived here for almost seven years. Why haven't I experienced anything supernatural or way out of the ordinary, and why haven't my friends, who have spent their whole lives here?

I honestly do think I'm sensitive. I know I can feel various kinds and levels of energy around me, especially in different places. Actually, I think many people can sense different energies and vibes around them. But there's a limit to those feelings; that's where it stops. It doesn't reach a level of a literal interpretation, illustritive explanations, or of individual stories. If ghosts and spirits, etc. are so real, then believers and skeptics alike should experience something, right?

Why would so many less than new homes and hotels back home carry a reputation for being seriously haunted when this place, and the dozens and dozens of other cities that are just as old or filled with long and violent histories, should be the ones packed to the brim with supernatural occurrences night and day?

[asking]

I think ghosts are like UFOs in that when people hear or see something they can't explain, they default to an explanation that is satisfying to them. Default explanations are partly cultural--you explain things you don't understand the way your parents or grandparents do.

In Europe, as you point out, there are so many old houses, that, until the last century, almost every house would have to be haunted. It would have been unsatisfying for everyone to say their house was haunted. In the new world, there are proportionally far fewer old houses and so living in a house that is old and haunted seems unusual and special.

[pattijo55]

I am truly amazed that your house has absolutely no spirits in it. If I lived there and had the time I would try to find someone else that used to live there and simply ask them if they had any kind of paranormal experiences there. I bet there would be a lot of them to say yes. I believe that just because you have not had anything unexplained happen doesn't mean there never have been. Maybe spirits stay away from you or the building for some unknown reason. Or maybe they are so happy with you that they coexsist with you in harmony. Heck who knows... just don't ask me for one of mine to live with you. I like mine right here with me :) Patti

[linnealand]

Patti, I am really glad that you pulled this question up. You get psychic points in my book because after months of knowing that it was off collecting dust in the archives, I had planned to pull it back up myself. I really, really want to hear what other people think about this question. I know how much I've thought about it, and I really don't have an answer.

As far as other people go, I have been friends with several other people in three of the buildings, and no one has ever mentioned anything. These aren't the kind of people who would simply be too stubborn or insensitive to consider the presence of a spirit that was trying to make itself known. Also, I spent a handful of months working as the assistant manager in the very old hotel I wrote about, and I was often working there alone in the morning or until after midnight. There were only 14 guest rooms, meaning that it was intimate, and it was full of original furniture and paintings. If any guests ever had a spiritual encounter, they never mentioned it to me.

I know for sure that people have died in the building where I live now, and I'm positive that all of the other buildings have had their share of deaths as well. People used to pass away in their beds at home. It wasn't like it is now, where many people are already in the hospital when they die. This particular building used to be the large private palazzo of a very wealthy family. There are large flights of stone stairs leading through the building, and there are different family insignia on the walls. There are about six different apartments. The part that I live in used to be the library. There are eight life sized angels painted on my ceiling, including one woman, three young boys and four stone boys, plus there are two smaller teen girls.

I know a very old woman died in the building during my time here. Another resident commit suicide around that time. While her death did not take place in the building, she spent about ten years here, and because she had also been a friend, I was the one given the responsibility of looking for a note and eventually emptying her apartment. If there were a place that should have spirits, this would be it. Then again, each of the other buildings I mentioned would definitely have the same sort of history.

Truly, in all of my years in each of these buildings, I've never had something weird or unexplainable happen. I do believe that at the very least, energy gets left behind wherever anyone have been. If there are spirits here, I do hope the reason they haven't made themselves known is because they're happy and at peace.

I would be very appreciative of anyone who would like to share their thoughts on this subject.

[N0help4u]

All I can say is that it is most probably wishful thinking or stereotyping.
I believe there are haunted houses and different places that are haunted but
I only take the word of the particular ones I hear about being haunted and do not assume any house is haunted unless I hear a story about it being haunted.

Also a new house can be haunted if it is built on land that is haunted.
I have heard several stories of brand new homes just built in multi million dollar sub divisions and the families had to move out because of being haunted. Also I have heard of people tearing down old haunted houses and building a new home and the ghosts are still there because they are not bound to the material building itself.