I'm curious on thoughts/feelings/speculations on this particular subject before I delve into this topic overly much.

Basically, do you believe? Have you ever had experiences with this?

I believe in the paranormal. I also believe in physics and magic too, but not in the ways you may think.

First off, remember that we live in a universe where everything is energy and matter (even us) is just solidified energy. Let's start with the paranormal. Where does the body's energy go after death? I believe that "heaven" refers to an unbounded state of existence, where this energy can interact on an ethereal level with the energy and matter around it.

As for magic, if our body has developed a way to control how energy moves through itself, surely it can also find a way to move the energy around itself. This mental manipulation of energy resembles magic, but I believe that magic is simply science that we don't yet understand. I believe that the human mind has the capacity for certain ethereal abilities...ethereal projection, telekinesis, telepathy, pyrokinesis, aura vision, and other forms of "magical" ability, abilities that are socialized out of us in our youth.

I believe in nothing.

The reasoning for this post is because of an issue that has been cropping up, and I'm beginning to suspect that my house has become 'active' once again.

The reason I say again is because 10 years ago, we used to have activity. We heard foot steps upstairs while we were in the basement, windows would open by themselves (going up and down ones, and it would be the lower pane that would go up), used to have an old style fireplace with a glass folding front, that would open and close at random, and my mother and I even heard a dog yelp and a voice curse out, but no one was out side. And my dog at the time was sleeping inside the house, right at the door.

The latest antics have been more of an agitating force. Not quite unfriendly, but more along the lines of doing things that irritate me to the point of being angry.

I noticed it when I was playing a game back in.. July? September? I don't remember specifically, but it was nice and warm. Suddenly I was slammed with the sensation I just walked outside in 0 degree weather, then my TV shut off. I was confused at first, so I just turned the TV back on and went back to my game. About 20 minutes later, it happened again; extreme cold and then the TV shut down. At this point, I suspected what was going on, but I wanted it to happen again, so I turned the TV back on, set the remote down and told whatever it was to turn off the TV again. After about 30 minutes, I finally said 'Guess you're out of energy and can't do it.'

TV shut off right after that. So I sighed and asked the spirit to just let me play my game and it could go tease the dog or something. It left me alone and I was able to play without interruption for a couple of hours after that. The TV never acted up again from that point on until I bought a new one on black friday.

Lately though, a light is being turned on, during the day. I've spent time analyzing the problem, and it just makes no sense.

The switch is too far away for the cat to be able to rub against it.
To turn it on, you have to flip the switch up.
The dog doesn't jump that high, because the door handle is lower and off to the side from where the switch is.
Mom leaves in the morning well after the sun is up, so she has no need of the light.
Mom's boyfriend also leaves when the sun is coming up, so again, no need for that light. Plus we have an auto light that comes on the instant you walk in front of it.

I've been discussing this with my father and we've both come to the conclusion that there is a spirit of some form that is doing this to antagonize me. The light being on makes me angry because it is a waste of power and I have to pay half the light bill. :/


And as I'm writing this, my radio system for the shop just shut off. It's never done that before on its own..

/me goes back to work

I think you're just being paranoid. The light turning on and the radio turning off could have been caused by faulty wiring. You could set up a video camera to see exactly when and why the light is being turned on. I don't really know how to explain the previous two incidents, though. :/

The light switch is being physically flipped.

As to the radio, don't know about it. The wiring is new, built the shop in 2000. The radio is a little older, but I had to push the actual button to bring it back on.

I'm not THAT paranoid to not think about such things first before bringing it up

This on a tech forum? I am disappoint.

I don't know if I'd go so far as to say I'm disappointed, as I try to keep an open mind about things. As a scientists and engineer, I don't personally believe in paranormal things, and I believe that careful investigation would show each of tifreak's incidents to have a logical non-paranormal cause. ACagliano, are you sure you believe in physics rather than psychics? I mean, I hope you believe in physics, because it seems to work pretty well to me, but I think you meant psychics.

I'll give you the radio. It's old and prone to failing at any point.

The TV though.. If it were a failure of some kind within the TV, it should have continued to do so after the incidents occurred. However, it never did it again. I gave thought to power fluctuations, but the TV and Xbox are on the same power strip, and it's far more quick to shut off due to power fluctuations than the TV was.


I'd be interested on your thoughts on the voices and footsteps that we had heard, though. If you have any speculations on the matter

I've heard a moth make a low, rhythmic, pattering noise on the hardwood.

Secondarily: Tinnitus. Happens if you wear headphones for long stretches of time.

Edit: I forget you and another both heard the same. Are you sure you didn't both embellish it to make it seem spookier than it really was?

We've got a thread on the existence of god. I hardly see a distinction.

Yes, Kerm. I do believe in psychics, but I do also believe in physics.
As for you, tifreak, the camera idea is good. You should also take stills, and look at the negatives, as well as infrared and UV readouts of your house and look for anything out of place.

Also, monitor the radio waves, wireless signal, and any other audio you can pull from the house.

I don't disbelieve in any of it; there's not enough proof to do so not to say I'm not skeptical of most related things, but some of the real life documented Poltergeist possessions and similar occurrences/phenomenons I'm not completely sure about, so I keep and open mind personally.

This wasn't the pattering noise, this was boots on wood. It only took 3 steps across our living room, and it is much much bigger than that to get across. Plus 5 people were in the basement at the same time, with no one upstairs.

The voice - my mother and I were the only ones home, with the windows open. We both heard it at the exact same time and looked at eachother and said at the same time what it was. It was a dog yelp, then a scruff sounding male voice that said 'Son of a b****!' like it was -right- outside the kitchen window. We ran outside, as the door to the outside is at the kitchen, and there was no one else there.

Nihilism is an oxymoron.

It's also very Zen.

Heh, the way I see it there is no truth behind the paranormal. Especially ghosts and psychics, there just is no evidence for them aside from isolated stories from a dozon or so people. Plus, as Kerm said there are generally explinations that go with any "weird" that that happens that can be considered paranormal

Well, be sure not to mistake "no evidence for" for "positive evidence against"; that's a common fallacy that is used throughout pseudoscience, politics, religious battles, and such things. However, I believe that proven logical explanations can serve as "there is evidence against paranormal blah blah...".