How To Tell If You Have a Haunting

People all around the world think it would be really "cool" to have a haunting. You get the common, "I'm not scared," or "I would tell it to back off." Yes, these are all things that you CAN do, but it's not always effective. There are different types of hauntings, and there are things that you should be concerned with with some of them.

On the outside, it might seem as if that innocent inhabitant is no big deal. You go about your day, your lives, and your "friendly ghost," helps you along the way, right? Maybe - if it's your wonderful grandmother looking over you, but chances are she's having a good time in Heaven with her lost loves. 

This one I found on Ghosthauntings.org via Pinterest - if we could all have our dogs with us all the time!

I'm not making light, but seriously, not very many of us are lucky enough to be haunted by our beloved family members. Most of the time, it's someone that lived in your home or on your land a long, long time ago. Sometimes, depending on where you live, you'll find the unfortunate soldier looking for a lost family member, but most of the time - it's anger that puts them - and keep them there.

Or, at least that's what I've discovered. In my crazy experience, what you think is good and nice turns out to be a straight up good energy suck. It will sap the very happiness from your soul - and that's what it's there to do.

That's why it's so important to identify if you do have a haunting, and if you do, know what you should do about it.

Is it a Haunting?

There are a few ways to know if you've got a haunting, but you have to be a bit diligent at proving many of the happenings wrong. Remember, at night, light can play strangely and shadows typically grow long with outside interference such as cars driving by. Also, keep in mind that your home makes noises all on its own. If you can rule out plumbing noises and the sound of the heat, settling boards, the wind and the like, you will be able to feel much more confident in your findings.

These are some of the signs that you might have a haunting:

• Things move around. Seriously, but a lot of the time, you'll never see it happen. For instance, one of your shoes might go missing, only to be replaced when you're frantically searching for it. The same might happen with keys, brushes and - for us - it even happened with an ipod. True story - I'll tell you sometime.
• You might hear voices. Often, it will sound muffled, so you can't quite understand the words. Or, on the same lines, singing. Another true story, which I hope you'll want to come back for - is the talking and singing that we used to hear.
• You may notice smells. This one is tricky, especially if you wear perfume, smoke, or burn candles. Sometimes the smell is bad (in a demonic haunting), and sometimes, you'll get a whiff of perfume or smoke when nobody is smoking or spraying perfume.
• You might notice movement from the corner of your eye. Once or twice, okay, you can chalk it up to the way the light shifts when the television is on, but all the time, and you might be dealing with something else entirely. Shadows are frightening, but common in hauntings, so keep an eye out for them.
• Interaction. If, if you have a haunting where the spirits interact with you through talking, touching or other types of "playing," you are likely into something dangerous and you need to seek help.
• Unexplained happenings. Back to the things moving really, but unexplainable moving. For instance, toys that start making noise on their own in ways that you cannot recreate, or objects that you can hear land, but don't see move.
• Noises. Like I said, noises are subjective, but if you hear little feet running across a room upstairs when you have checked and know that nobody is up there and there are no critters, you might have a haunting.

  

  Found this one on Pinterest, too. It's kind of cool and creepy.

What you should do

This is really important, and I wish that I had thought to do these things way earlier. As I've said, we've lived in our home for almost six years and all during that time, we were plagued by something. If I had not been so blinded, I would have handled the situation much sooner.

1. Take note of things that happen. Be descriptive. Note the time, the weather, the situation and anything else you can think of and then write down what happened. Keep a journal for it - if you have a true haunting, you're going to need it.
2. Do not, under any circumstances, try to engage your spirits. Seriously, don't. No Ouija boards, no seances. If you're going to call investigators in, then call them. Don't put yourself at risk by playing with the entities - it could be really dangerous.
3. Get some history on your property if you can. My neighbor and I traced the ownership of our property back to the 1700's right after the revolutionary war, before Tennessee was even Tennessee. It took days, and there were gaps, but we could not pin down a precise owner or tragedy. But we tried and it gave us a better understanding of how people lived.
4. Avoid negativity. This is hard; your home is your haven, your safety. How can you be at home if you cannot express negative feelings? When you have a haunting, if it is negative it is likely going to be doing two things: feeding off your negative energy, and working to destroy you through that negativity. Do not give into it. 
5. Seek help. Don't just blow this off. Even if you think it's a good ghost, you should contact paranormal investigators to see if they can help you to identify the entities and if they are good or not.

One interesting thing I read was that intelligent hauntings are very rare, and demonic hauntings are even more rare. So, if you have something that interacts with you, it's likely that it doesn't have good intentions.