And What You Should Do About It

What WAS that?

Are doors open that you swear you closed? Lights on that you turned off? Sounds coming from places no sound should be coming from? Keep a journal and write down when and where you hear, see or smell something strange. Create some mnemonic routines for turning off lights, closing doors, shutting windows, etc. (If there are three light switches you need to turn off — turn them off and then confirm them in your head with a little ditty like “one, two, three — no lights do I see.”)

Who goes there?

Experts will tell you the first thing you should do if you think your house might be haunted is to research the history of the house, the land and the neighborhood. There may not only be other reports of strange occurrences — but an explanation. Go online, ask at your local library and if you have a neighbor who’s been around for a while, bring over a coffee cake and see what you can learn.

Remember Occam’s Razor

“The simplest answer is usually the best answer” — while not a wholly accurate summation of the 19^th century “law of parsimony,” it is nonetheless generally true. When you hear banging in the walls of your home in the middle of the night, it is possible that the ghosts of home-owners past are making merry, it is more likely that your pipes are complaining of the cold, the heat or their age.

In other words, check out more ordinary (or “rational”) explanations with experts like plumbers, home builders and roofers for unexplained phenomena in your home before calling on the Ghost Busters to cleanse your home. 

For more on Occam’s Razor, check out this Wikipedia page. 

For more on how to tell if your home is haunted and what you can do about it, check out these pages:

• What to Do If Your House is Haunted (Anderson Cooper Live)
• Signs Your House Is Haunted And What To Do About It (Crazy Horses Ghost)
• Is Your House Haunted, or Are Your Senses Being Taunted? (Fox News)