In culture after culture, people believe that the soul lives on after death, that rituals can change the physical world and divine the truth, and that illness and misfortune are caused and alleviated by spirits, ghosts, saints ... and gods.

STEVEN PINKER, How the Mind Works


Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Location - Indian Head Rental House


Can a home have a 'feeling'? Can past tragic events forever leave their mark on the building in which they happened?

Prairie Specters was asked by a reader to come out and visit their home. The home-owner was in the process of moving out but wanted to share some of the past events with us.

"Once I moved in I immediately felt like there was a dark cloud over the house, there was a cold uneasiness about the house and I quickly began to hate being there. After months of always feeling like I was being watched, more loud bangs and strange noises from the basement I started to question my sanity. I was so frightened to go in the basement ..."

A man was rumored to have hung himself in the basement. A second death incurred in the home as well. Interested in finding out more we packed up our gear and headed out to Indian Head to visit the home.

Part I

The house, we were told, is over 100 years old and like most older homes is quite small. The upstairs having a common area, kitchen, and two small bedrooms and a bathroom that appear to have been added on to the original home. Right away I can tell this home has a uneasy feeling to it. After a brief tour the owner describes the experiences they have been having, most of which seem to involve the basement. Shadows would be seen moving in the kitchen around the area leading down to the stairs.

"I would take my laundry to a laundromat because my washer and dryer were in the basement, I didn't even like going to the bathroom at night because I had to walk past the basement stairs to get to it. "

Loud bangs were a common phenomena in the home. Most coming from the area directly under the stairs.

"While I was painting the walls going down into the basement a very loud bang came from underneath the stairs, so loud I could feel the vibration in my feet. The original owner of the house had hung himself in the basement 20 years ago..."

The reluctant , but brave :), owner led us into the small basement to have a look around. Again the same uneasy feeling was present here as well. We took photos and I placed a digital recorder near the space under the stairs. Light bulbs have a tendency to explode down here, our guide explained, the evidence crunched beneath our shoes. They had an electrician out to try to find the cause but he came up empty handed.

The small basement has weird feeling to it. You can feel it as a sort of vibration in your feet. I thought it may be the train tracks the run nearby, but after checking for a train I ruled that out.

It was while we were down there the second time a loud bang was heard upstairs. I was standing directly under the living room where it seemed to originate and could feel the vibration from the wooden floor above. We quickly moved upstairs and found nothing had fallen or anything to explain the bang we had heard. I got the impression that something did not like us being in the basement.

With nothing initially showing up on the photos or digital recorder we decided to leave but with a plan to come back soon after we had done some more research and with some more equipment for a longer visit.

[ photos to follow ]

Part II

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am a new resident of Indian Head, I am interested to know which house this is . . .