Haunted Houses: Exploring the Truth Behind the Lore

Haunted houses and locations have fascinated people for centuries. There are thousands of reports each year of paranormal activity in the United States alone, with tens of thousands of purported haunted houses, hotels, and landmarks worldwide. But what makes a house, or any location truly haunted? Is the paranormal activity in these locations caused by ghosts, or the spirits of those who have departed, or is it something that can be explained much more rationally?

Below we will explore all the details about hauntings; what they are, what makes a location haunted, and most importantly, whether hauntings are genuinely real or something more imaginary or explainable.

What Makes a House or Location Haunted

Technically, a haunting occurs when a spirit or entity is attached to or displaying active phenomena in a physical location or structure. Hauntings are often characterized by sounds, disembodied voices, apparitions, electrical disturbances, objects disappearing or moving on their own, unexplained temperature changes/cold spots, footsteps without origin, and more. Many of these strange disturbances may seem unexplainable or difficult to analyze. However, a crucial element that makes a haunted house truly “haunted” is the existence of an aware, cognizant entity.  

Some haunted houses have what we call “residual hauntings” which also go by a term called “energy imprints”, which are like thumbprints in time and space. Residual hauntings, or energy imprints, are residual energy that exists in physical locations from those who have lived in those areas before or spent a great deal of time there. Energy imprints can also exist in areas where important or extremely emotional events have occurred, whether wonderful or terrible. It’s the immense energy spent in the emotion that causes the imprint to remain, long after the people who have been there are gone. More information on these can be found later in this article.

In order to classify a house or location as haunted, there needs to be proof or consistent experience with rational explanations having been ruled out. Energy and entities exist all around us, so technically we could, at any time, say that there are “spirits present”. However, to accurately classify a house as haunted, there needs to be multiple experiences of the phenomenon as well as proof, if possible. Self proclaimed ghost hunters regularly include gathering proof as part of their process. One way that people often go about proving the existence of entities in haunted locations is through EVPs, Photography, and Videography.

Tools of the Ghost Hunting Trade

 EVPs, or Electronic Voice Phenomena, are sounds that are found on electronic recordings, such as those through digital voice recorders or video tapes, that are interpreted to be spirit contact, or sounds made by spirits/entities. There have been incredible EVPs captured by people around the globe, many of which have been shown on TV and online, which believers claim prove the existence of spirits and hauntings.

Many paranormal investigators will use items like thermal imaging cameras (to detect random changes in temperature), full spectrum and infrared cameras (to capture more than what is visible to standard cameras and the naked eye), night vision cameras (in an attempt to capture activity or apparitions in the dark), and EMF meters (to detect changes in the electromagnetic fields in their surroundings). A combination of these items increases the chances of proving the existence of the haunting.

Famous Haunted Locations

Amityville Horror House

One of the most famous, but least haunted homes in the United States is the ‘Amityville Horror House”, located in Amityville, NY. This location is an excellent example of how a home with a terrible history can be easily used to create a very believable hoax. The Amityville Horror House is not only one of the most well-known “haunted houses” in the United States, but one of the most commercialized as well.

In 1974, one of the members of the family that owned the Amityville house, Ron DeFeo, Jr murdered his parents and four siblings in an awful incident that rattled the community. One year later, the Lutz family purchased the home for $80,000, but left after only 28 days, which they described as having been filled with terrifying paranormal events.

They described many of the experiences as horrifying, including awful smells, doors slamming by themselves, and extreme difficulty in retaining ANY heat in the home. They claimed their beds had levitated, that strange ooze was seeping from various places in the home, and that more violent and even possession related incidents occurred. It was later discovered, however, that the story behind the haunting that lead to their departure had been created by the Lutz’s and their defense attorney, William Weber.

The discovery of the Amityville Horror House being a hoax has not stopped it from continuing to be a popular tourist spot for thousands of haunted house enthusiasts each year. The house has gone through several owners but has remained consistently occupied since the Lutz family left the home. No further owners have experienced or reported any paranormal or malicious activity.

The Winchester Mystery Mansion

The Winchester home is another massively famous haunted house, with an incredible story to back it up. It is one of only two homes in CA sanctioned by the US Commerce Department as being haunted (the other of which is Whaley House in San Diego.)

The Winchester Mystery House, as it’s currently named, sits on an impressive plot of land in San Jose, California. It was originally the residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of the firearms mogul William Winchester, the founder of Winchester rifles. Sarah Winchester was not only the owner, but she was the driving force behind the renovations that turned the small 8-room farmhouse into a sprawling 24,000 square foot mansion, complete with over 160 rooms and extremely unusual architecture, much of which was designed by Sarah Winchester herself.

Many believe that Sarah Winchester, who had great difficulty in dealing with the deaths of her husband and daughter, consulted with a psychic who told her she was being punished by the souls of those who had died by Winchester rifles. The psychic supposedly told Sarah to move out west, buy a house, and build nonstop in an attempt to evade the spirits. Some believe that Sarah Winchester thought that if she stopped building the house, she would die. Given the house’s maze-like qualities, many believe that she purposefully built the house in order to evade the spirits and confuse them. She was said to have slept in a different bedroom every night (the house features over 40 bedrooms.)

While it’s not possible to know the full truth behind the stories of why the house was built, it is still a top haunted location in the United States due to consistent reporting of paranormal activity, both from guests and employees of the estate. In fact, the estate even offers a daily tour titled “Walk with Spirits”, which explores the paranormal as explained through the Spiritualism movement.

The Conjuring House

The Conjuring House, formerly known as the Old Arnold Estate in Burrillville, RI is one of the most well-known haunted houses in America thanks to the popular 2013 paranormal film The Conjuring.

One of the things that makes The Conjuring House stand out amongst other haunted locations is that it was personally investigated by world-renowned psychics Ed and Lorraine Warren, who confirmed the home to be haunted. There has been considerable evidence of paranormal events occurring at the home over the years, most of which has been identified as malicious due to the intense and negative events. Even recent owners have admitted to experiencing paranormal activity, and the home has now been opened to the public and offers tours, events, investigations, and more.

The White House

Perhaps one of the most well-known structures in the United States, The White House, has a lengthy history when it comes to being haunted. The White House Association even has a page dedicated to claims of ghostly activity and paranormal events from former White House staff and even Presidents, their families, and guests of the white house.

Some of the famous people who have claimed to have personal experienced hauntings at the White House include Abraham Lincoln, Harry S. Truman, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Winston Churchill, and Ronald Reagan. Abraham Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, had even participated in Seances in the Red Room of the White House due to extreme grief after the passing of her son, Willie. There are countless stories of administrative staff and guests of the White House having thrilling experiences and seeing full apparitions.

 

My First Haunted Experience – Manresa Castle

I spent years in my late teens and 20’s as a casual paranormal investigator. It was a passion and something that I never charged for, and it all began due to an experience I had had at my first truly haunted location, Manresa Castle.

While the home that I grew up in had all sorts of paranormal activity, none of it was really of any significant consequence until my later teen years. However, for my 12th birthday, I asked my parents to take me to stay overnight at the Manresa Castle, a hotel situated in Port Townsend, WA. It was said to have been one of the most haunted locations in the state, and my family physician had actually recommended it to us given my obsession with hauntings and ghosts.

Manresa Castle remains one of my most important memories when it comes to hauntings and helped me learn about myself as an empath and medium. I experienced extreme unexplained abdominal and chest pain when on the property that was alleviated immediately upon leaving the property (I do not feel that this was malicious energy, but possibly an energy imprint I was experiencing.) I heard unexplained sounds that could not have occurred in the room we were in as the room’s walls were thick concrete, as well as communicated directly with an entity through tapping and scratching on the wall with patterns (I would start a pattern, and the entity would repeat whatever pattern I made, whether it was tapping, scratching, or both).

I experienced very bizarre and intense dreams the night I stayed there and left the hotel feeling a sense of both wonder and slight fear. My family, also noticing the odd events, investigated to try to find any explanations for any of the occurrences, and were left with no answers. My mother even gained a newfound interest in the paranormal and began her own journey into metaphysics as a result of the experience.

I have returned to Manresa Castle numerous times and have had varying experiences each time. Sometimes the activity has been minimal, sometimes more observable. However, it remains a core memory regarding my own personal development as a psychic empath.

A Skeptical View

It’s absolutely necessary to rule out any scientific or natural causes before jumping to conclusions when it comes to paranormal or unexplained activity in any location. This is true whether you’re a skeptic OR a believer. Many people are of the opinion that all paranormal activity can be explained through investigation, and that there is no evidence to support the notion that hauntings are caused by spirits or have paranormal origins.

Many skeptics maintain the view that hauntings can be logically explained through reasoning and deduction. One of the first things that skeptics tend to question is whether the paranormal activity has any natural causes, or if environmental factors may be to blame. When it comes to strange noises or temperature changes, generally most skeptics will accept that these noises are likely attributed to natural occurrences, such as a house settling/wood creaking, or potentially animal disturbances, such as squirrels or racoons. While pests can contribute to a myriad of problems that are often similar to the disturbances caused during a paranormal event, they can relatively easily be ruled out through investigation, as can most explainable causes such as infrastructure issues or the like.

Electrical disturbances are often a major complaint when it comes to paranormal activity. Lights flickering, loss of power, or inconsistent power surges are all very unnerving, but luckily are easy to diagnose when it comes to whether they are paranormal, or more of a problem with the electrical circuitry in the house. A skilled electrician can easily check to see what could potentially cause disturbances, and skeptics often maintain that any electrical problems are likely caused by faulty wiring, or problems within the electrical circuit of the location.

Unfortunately, hoaxes and frauds have been prevalent throughout history, and are still a problem to this day in the metaphysical community. Paranormal activity is not only extremely interesting, it’s something that can also provide people with substantial profit if marketed the right way. Many haunted houses have been said to have been hoaxes or lies, made up in order to bring financial gain to the owner. As well, experiencing a haunting can be seen as “bragging rights” to many, so often these experiences can be downplayed by skeptics, or dismissed due to feelings of ignorance or gullibility which they attribute to those who have had those experiences.

Similarly to hoaxes, many skeptics believe that it’s through the power of suggestion that so many people have experiences with ghosts or hauntings. It’s often believed that these experiences are brought on by anxiety, stress, paranoia, hyper-vigilance, trauma, or pure belief in the unknown and the paranormal. For example, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that someone who is scared to be alone may be more reactive and more aware of unknown sounds than someone who is naturally comfortable in that same atmosphere. Thus, the person who is scared may make more out of the experience than is truly happening, due to being in a heightened and nervous state. The anxious person may not understand the cause of natural sounds, and attribute them to paranormal entities or ghosts.

A Spiritual/Believer’s Perspective

When investigating leads to no firm conclusions, other explanations are needed for paranormal activity. The wonderful thing about investigation is that the act of investigating does not discredit the haunting, nor the people who have experienced paranormal activity, but helps to substantiate their claims and can prove that their experiences are not of natural or known origins. This is extremely powerful to believers, as this indicates that other explanations must be explored.

Ghosts, disembodied spirits, and non-physical entities are often at the root of any haunted house story. Many people attempt to unearth or understand the haunting by looking into its history to discover the haunting’s origins, such as tales of death or trauma in the location. While this can lead to interesting facts, hauntings are not always caused by cognizant entities.

Energy Imprints

Many locations that are purportedly haunted showcase the same image, or being, showing up repeatedly – or an action or sound repeating itself so that others witness the same activity. This can be an apparition (such as visibly seeing a ghost or spirit visibly but without it having any physical form), it can be sounds or music, smells, or other sensory experiences. Most times, these types of hauntings are actually caused by a phenomenon believers call “energy imprints”, or residual hauntings, and not by cognizant entities or spirits.

The difference is that energy imprints are more like a fingerprint in time and space. They are residual energy left from people who have been in that location before, but are not, in and of themselves, a cognizant entity. The energy could be left due to deep attachments and feelings that someone held in that location at one time, the energy imprint could be due to mass trauma or a significant event that was incredibly distressing, or it could be due to any significant expression or intense emotion that was showed in that physical location.

Energy imprints/residual hauntings can last years, decades, or even longer depending on what took place, the amount of people affected when the event happened, and the intensity of the event. Some people feel that energy imprints are more of portals into the past, where we can get a glimpse into a different time through the encounter.

Spirits and Ghosts

Sometimes, however, there is more to the activity than just an imprint, or a repeated occurrence. When a ghost or spirit interacts with the living in a more direct way, such as through communicating, touching, moving objects, or other forms of interaction, those experiences are attributed to more genuine hauntings. What sets these experiences apart from energy imprints is the existence of an aware, cognizant being.

When hauntings occur, spirits generally are interacting with or affecting the people residing or visiting the location. This is regardless of whether that person has any developed psychic abilities, such as mediumship, or not. Mediums are individuals with psychic abilities who can communicate with those who have crossed over and can often help to confirm hauntings or the existence of spirit activity in a home.

Spirits in haunted locations will often communicate with mediums, but will often interact just as much with average people who have not developed those skills. Mediums may pick up on a great deal more of information than a standard person though, as they are picking up on energy and information that’s more sensitive than what many people are accustomed to and thus can often make more meaningful sense out of the encounter.

Why Do Spirits Stay in the Same Spot?

Spirits may stick around in a certain location for numerous reasons. Many have “unfinished business” – things that they were not able to complete before they passed away and are meaningful to the deceased. They may stick around in order to influence others to complete whatever they left behind or attempt to do so themselves (though that generally is not possible.) Many spirits may stay in order to say goodbye to loved ones, which is often the case when a haunting occurs in the home of someone who is grieving, or at a meaningful location to the deceased.

Some spirits, however, may not move on due to fears they have about crossing over, thus staying in a non-physical form on this plane. This is often due to fear of judgement in the afterlife or confusion. Sometimes the spirit may not even know that they are deceased, or they may not want to believe it. Some spirits fear crossing over because they don’t know what will happen and feel that their existence will end. Many of these situations can be resolved either through time (and acceptance), or through the help of a psychic medium.

Other Entities 

Other entities can haunt or inhabit locations as well. There are VARIOUS different energy beings other than human spirits that exist on multiple different planes and in different dimensions. Lower vibrational energy beings, such as demons or so-called “poltergeists”, can present significant and numerous problems when they inhabit a location. They can cause the physical manipulation of objects (throwing, breaking, and moving/hiding things), they can affect the energy and mood of the individuals who are at that location, they can cause significant emotional and mental distress, and can even cause physical harm to the people who occupy the space. Typically, anything that causes significant distress, illness, or harm to those inhabiting the space is attributed to these types of hauntings.

My 3 Year Kent, Washington Haunted Experience

Between the years 2010 and 2020, I lived in a large seven-bedroom home in Kent, WA with my long-term partner/fiancé at the time, Rich (Rich unfortunately passed away in July of 2020). It was a beautiful home on an acre of land, the back of which bordered a small local cemetery.

There had been no significant history or any substantial paranormal activity to my knowledge when I moved in, nor during the first few years that I resided there. However, around mid-2014, I began developing my mediumship much faster and making more substantial progress, whereas I had had struggled somewhat with that ability prior to that time. Similarly, I had not fully developed boundaries, nor was I as cautious as I now am, so I went into many of my endeavors unguarded and slightly naïve.

The summer of 2014, we began noticing that our electricity was going out in the middle of the night. We discovered this due to being late to work several days in a row (our alarm clock did not wake us up, and we worked in the same office), waking up in the morning only to discover that sometime during the night all the clocks in the house were reset. It was frustrating, but my partner called an electrician, who assessed the property and our home and discovered no abnormalities or problems with the circuits or electricity. The electrician gave us no explanation but updated our electrical box just in case.

Unfortunately, that did not resolve the problem, and given that it wasn’t consistent, we both began using our phones as our main wake-up method. It was unusual, but nothing more than an anomaly we continued to try to investigate and resolve. By October, the problem had increased. What was originally just a problem with the power to the house, became a problem where our vehicles would have their batteries drained in the morning.

Initially, we noticed that the car’s lights would be turned on in the morning, depleting the battery. We figured this was due to oversight on our part and made a consistent effort (even double checking before bed) to make sure that neither of us was leaving on the headlights. Unfortunately, we still woke up almost daily to a dead battery.

At first, it was just the vehicle in our garage, and we were able to use my car which was parked outside. But after a few weeks, it began happening with both of our vehicles. The car doors were locked, but the batteries drained and needing to be recharged. During this time, we even installed home security systems in an attempt to see if someone was physically entering our yard or garage and causing any of these events, which did not yield any results. We also took our vehicles to mechanics and discovered no electrical or mechanical issues.

In my youth and naivete, I decided that October, being a fun time of mysticism and Halloween, would be a fantastic time to partake in a séance, attempting to communicate and contact the spirits or entities that had invaded my home. After all, the activity was intriguing, but not scary and not something that I felt, at the time, was malicious.

I figured that whatever or whomever it was may be reaching out for help, and I wanted to assist or at least make contact and understand it better. I had developed my mediumship so much in a short period of time that my ego had grown to an unhealthy level, and I vainly led a séance that seemed, initially, unsuccessful. It was performed on Halloween night, with 3 close friends and my partner’s son in attendance. Due to the jovial nature of the night, none of us thought anything would really transpire, nor did we expect anything that followed.

That event spiraled our household into a whirlwind experience that lasted almost 3 years, until 2017. The cars continued to be drained, leading to my partner and I nearly losing our jobs. We had purchased a battery charger for our cars after having replaced the existing batteries in our cars, and decided to be proactive one night, and put the battery charger on the fully-charged car battery in the garage (which was locked, attached to the house), and plugging it into the house outlet to charge overnight, even with a full charge. Thinking we had outsmarted anything that could happen – that method actually worked for about 5 or 6 working days.

On the following day, we came into the garage to find that the car charger was no longer plugged in, and the metal prongs on the end of the plug had been severed from the base. It was cleanly cut, as though someone had something either extremely sharp or something able to detach them perfectly at the base without bending the prongs at all. The prongs were all lying next to the outlet we had plugged it into the night prior. We couldn’t return it, nor did we attempt this again, it was too unnerving.

Tensions within our household got worse over time. There was consistent blame between us for the odd occurrences that continued to happen. The haunting impacted both of us significantly and disrupted our lives to an extent that made us almost enemies of each other, even though neither of us were to blame. I began getting extremely ill, and in 2016 lost my job due to excessive illness. I had gone to doctors repeatedly without any explanation of the cause of my illness, though I went through quite a few uncomfortable tests. The persistent weakness, fatigue, vomiting, bruising and hair loss seemed as though I was slowly dying, though I was only 27 years old at the time.

That same year, the occurrences became daily. It didn’t matter if we had company or not, it would happen, and most of our friends stayed away from our home and refused to visit. At any point during the day, we would hear a very loud crashing noise, and find that all of our cupboards, doors, and drawers in the house were forced open. Surprisingly, the windows weren’t affected, nor were our front or back doors (the openings to our house), but every door within the home would be open instantaneously, as though exposed to a massive explosion of energy. It was fascinating, terrifying, and bewildering all at the same time, and while I felt extremely validated in some ways, I felt terrified and over my head in others (which I very much was).

I began working from home, and started feeling more and more as though my home was a prison. It was a beautiful place that I had always felt safe and warm in, a place I hated leaving most of the time. However, it had turned into something that felt as though I COULDN’T leave. I felt trapped most of the time. I DID notice that my physical symptoms and overall energy seemed to improve whenever we went out of the home, whether it was shopping, to the doctor’s office, or out to dinner. But immediately upon returning home, I started to feel ill again.

We checked for mold. We checked for problems on the property or allergies. We tried to explore every option to find out what was causing my symptoms but found nothing to go on. I began experiencing a great deal of severe depression, along with anxiety. I began sleepwalking and would wake up in different rooms, or sometimes outside in the back yard. It was frequent, about twice to three times a week during the height of the activity. I’m still not truly sure if it was due to the activity or the stress from it.

During one frightful experience that drove us to finding help, I was working from home and heard the loud “crash” that usually indicated that all of our drawers or doors were suddenly opened. However, this time it seemed emphasized, almost like there was more to it – it was louder, it was harsher, and I felt terrified.

I jumped up and ran into our kitchen, stepping on broken glass and cutting my foot. I discovered that all the glassware in our kitchen cabinets had been destroyed. Every single piece, even those which had been above our shelving, had been thrown into a sea of glass that covered almost every inch of our kitchen tile. I sat on the floor, picking glass out of my foot, astonished, crying, and truly remorseful, as I was beginning to understand that this was becoming more and more violent, and we couldn’t continue to ignore it much longer and just hope it would go away.

By this time, I had already tried cleansings of various kinds. I had tried saging my property (at one point I was doing it daily), I placed psychic boundaries and protections, I put crystals in various places throughout my home, I used salt and brick dust in the entryways of my home, I called in the Archangels and Archangel Michael for help and protection, and I prayed – something that I often don’t do due to my own beliefs and faith. However, I truly didn’t know what to do at this point.

We started with some local psychics that I had known and worked with previously, whom I considered friends. I contacted my friend, and she and her partner came out to cleanse our home and perform a few rituals. The night moved quickly and everything felt surprisingly peaceful, like a breath of fresh air. Things were better for about a week before resuming to the daily chaos.

We reached out to local psychic shops, and paid thousands of dollars on both psychics and paranormal investigators to come and assess the property and to find a solution. Despite our repeated search, things would often get better for a brief period of time, but resume to the same situation, over and over. Sometimes it would resume stronger – or we would experience MORE activity, leading us to believe we were just making the problem worse no matter what method we tried. We tried experts and mediums, but nothing actually made the activity stop.

Rich, my partner, was baptized Catholic, and we decided to reach out to the Catholic church for help. We were eventually able to get in touch directly with our local priest and talked with him. He ended up even making a house call to our home, but left quickly, and only mentioned that he didn’t think he could help us. He also didn’t seem too knowledgeable on the subject and questioned our motives and our situation, not fully believing everything we told him (which I honestly understood, it was a difficult situation to comprehend.) While he extended the use of the church at ANY time we needed as well as regular access to holy water, it did little to calm our anxiety.

It reached a point that I was desperate for help. I began going down a list of spiritual advisors, priests, and ministers, and started calling every single one around the area, trying to find someone that would be willing to help me, and listen to me. I ended up calling the office of the Archdiocese of Seattle, something that I felt terrified to do, but felt I really would try anything, so why not them as well?

It surprised me, not being Catholic or even Christian myself, but they were very much helpful and understanding and sympathetic. The woman I spoke to was reassuring and kind, and helped get my information to people who were willing to help. After speaking with my partner as well, they arranged to have a group of people come out to cleanse our home. We really felt that this would be the solution and were honored to have the Catholic church be so supportive even though our local priest was a little less than believing in our situation.

We had 3 people come to our home. They sent a Deacon from Seattle, a “Holy woman” who worked with the church (not a nun, that’s specifically how they introduced her to me, I have no explanation further), and a Priest who had performed exorcisms from the Philippines, who happened to be visiting Seattle and was available to help us.

They went through our home, and across the property, opening every doorway to our home inside and out, and blessing every entry way and doorway, even closets. The priest was very well versed with how to go about this, and seemed to not be shocked in any way by our explanations of what had occurred and what we were going through. He was sympathetic, but agreed with me that, in my immaturity, I had accidentally invited or made worse something negative or potentially evil in my house, and it needed to be removed.

After they left, the activity not only decreased, it was nonexistent for about 2 months. We truly thought it was the end of it. When I came home one day from the store to discover all of our cupboards and drawers open again, I sat in the middle of the living room and cried out of desperation.

I started to realize that consistency was key when approaching this entity – it seemed to respond to authority, and it seemed to respond to a combination of prayer, holy water, sage, and intention work. While I initially felt defeated, I realized that if it had been quiet, or gone for 2 months, it very well could be done again and for longer.

I began immediately repeating the same actions that the priest had done when he came to our home, and repeated similar prayers, bringing my own personal beliefs to guide me. I began leaving the home for a minimum of 2 hours every day, because I realized that whatever was in the home was also feeding off MY energy, and I needed to remove myself both for my own mental, emotional, and physical health, but also to stop feeding whatever was invading my house.

We removed everything that was toxic and brought us bad or negative memories from the home. I began a daily ritual of focusing on gratitude and “feeling good”. I made it a firm intention to enjoy and feel safety and positivity every day. When I would start to feel depression and the grip it had on me, and the energy slipping from me, I would force myself to walk to the end of the block, and then back home, if nothing else.

Instead of viewing the house situation as something I couldn’t handle, I realized it was something that I could, but it would require constant and consistent work to remove. I started owning my space, reclaiming my energy and my home as mine, and acting without fear in how I moved through my home. I stopped being afraid of being surprised by something, and I stopped giving my attention to anything distressing that occurred, I just handled it, grounded myself, and attempted to move forward. Most importantly, I stopped giving any of my attention to the haunting. I stopped devoting myself to trying to record incidents of it, I stopped trying to uncover why it was happening or who it was, I stopped the interest in all of it and focused all of my mental strength elsewhere intentionally.

While we still had occurrences that continued into 2017, by summer of that year, we had achieved our goal, and had zero paranormal experiences plaguing the property. The destruction the entity did, on both our family and our life and home was pretty immense, and honestly difficult to repair. Property- the glassware, the dishes, the drawers that broke, the door and cabinet hinges, that was all material and relatively easy to replace. The harm it did to our emotional and mental health, and our relationship, was much more difficult to repair. In the end though, we were able to keep the home haunting-free until Rich’s passing, and the home’s selling in 2020.

In the enigmatic realm of haunted houses, many people, from believers to skeptics, find themselves drawn together by the allure of the unknown. Whether you’re a fervent believer or a staunch skeptic, one thing remains certain: Haunted houses continue to captivate the human imagination year after year and serve as a testament to our enduring fascination with the unexplained. We will discover more clues and find more answers as we continue to explore these mysterious locations, but as to whether a location is haunted or not is up to YOU to experience, and truly decide.