Lifestyle

15 People Share Their Real-Life Haunted House Stories

LifestylePublished Apr 13, 2018
By Maressa Brown
little girl in bed ghostiStock.com/Choreograph

From the logistics to the actual labor of packing and unpacking, moving can be a truly stressful experience. Then, getting settled into a home (not to mention neighborhood and/or town) is another issue, especially when a family has kids. But coming in touch with another dimension in a home that appears to be haunted? Well, that's on a whole different level. And no, haunted houses do not only exist in horror movies.

Whether a house has simply been occupied by its long-gone initial resident or seems to be located in an area that's particularly energized to attract supernatural activity, ghosts and real estate seem to go hand-in-hand. And even in the case of ghosts who don't seem to want to create much trouble, there's nothing that can send a chill up the spine speedier than thinking about living, sleeping, and raising kids alongside restless spirits.

From encounters with benevolent spirits to run-ins with poltergeists that seem to love to wreak havoc all around a home, and even experiences that lead to capturing telling orbs on film, the following women share 15 stories of living in haunted houses. Even the most skeptical may become believers upon reading these eerie, real-life tales of coming in contact with the other side while doing nothing more than spending time right at home.

These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
1/15
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The Backyard Spirits
Jennifer Ress Brulé

The Backyard Spirits

"We moved to North Caroline into our current house, which is not even that old. It's like a 30-year-old house. There's nothing especially historic, and there were no Civil War or Revolutionary battles fought here, but there was a lot of supernatural activity when we moved here. I asked the Carolina Paranormal Society to come out, and they set up cameras and sound equipment. My kids and my husband were gone. At about midnight we went out in the backyard, and there was a lady with a Geiger counter, and she was moving it around the yard. The Geiger meter would go up, and she'd say, 'Take a picture right there.' We were taking pictures on our phones. And she was pointing at blackness, but this is one of the photos that came from that night. It was all very positive. The [experts] said, 'That's a really positive spirit. It has a lot of white.' I feel like maybe it's a protector. The cool thing about them is that they come out to disprove [the presence of ghosts]. They could not disprove it. They caught a lot of auditory activity and orbs in photos." -- Jennifer, Davidson, North Carolina

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Ghost Kids
iStock.com/johnnorth

Ghost Kids

"We moved into our 1950s, red-brick, two-story home this past November just after Thanksgiving. The odd sounds started right away, but we shook them off as 'old house noises.' Maybe we had an especially noisy radiator or perhaps it was the wind. Not wanting to believe our home could be haunted, we continued to make up excuse after excuse to explain away the strange sounds. Even when we were certain we heard our kids talking and getting out of bed, only to go upstairs to find them peacefully asleep, we reasoned the footsteps away. 'Maybe an animal is walking across the roof,' we thought. 

"One night we returned home to see our babysitter sitting wide-eyed on our leather sofa. She immediately blurted out, 'I think your house is haunted!' That was when we finally started to wonder if our house was actually haunted. The sitter swore she heard children talking and walking around. She went upstairs several times to tell our kids to go to bed. Like us, she found them asleep each time. The sounds have continued, but we've mostly gotten used to them now. We no longer run upstairs every time we hear footsteps or the flick of a light switch. I suppose we've accepted our phantom roommates as permanent residents of our home. Or maybe they've accepted us?" -- Peg, Grand Rapids, Michigan

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Whaley House
iStock.com/Sherry Smith

Whaley House

"This house always makes the top 10 list of most haunted places. I visited the house in 1993. It was a quiet day, so June Reading, the lady who ran the house, and I were the only ones in the house at that time. It had been turned into a house museum, and June and her husband Jim were instrumental in saving the house. As I walked by the master bedroom upstairs I heard a voice say: 'Please tell her that I do not like the mannequins in the house. It scares people.' She also said that she did not like her black dress being hung on the mannequin. Being a medium, I am very used to delivering messages from spirit people. I approached June Reading and said: 'Please don't think I am crazy but this is what I heard.' She laughed and said, 'Honey, I don't think you're crazy, because you, me, and Anna Whaley herself are the only ones that know that is her black dress.' 

"June immediately removed the mannequins from the house to honor Anna Whaley's request. What I did not know until later was that most of the property in the house were period pieces that had been donated and very little property of the Whaleys' were in the house. My question was why would Anna Whaley need this very expensive dress in what was the wild west of San Diego? A little historical research gave me the answer: Anna Whaley was listed in the newspaper of the day attending the grand opening of the Hotel Del Coronado and her dress is described perfectly as the same dress that was hanging on the mannequin." -- Bonnie, San Diego, California

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The Guardian
iStock.com/Kativ

The Guardian

"My family believes that each house has a Guardian. The Guardian does not protect the people living in the house, but rather protects the spirit of the house. If people don't take care of the house, don't love it and don't keep it clean, the Guardian gets mad and plays tricks on the inhabitants .... When I moved into a new house, I made an intention to meet the Guardian of my home during my sleep. I did not expect to see a nightmare. In the dream, I saw a very scary-looking woman -- typically the Guardian is a man --with an angry face and extremely long nails. She said we were not welcomed in the house and threatened to get rid of us. I woke up with my heart pounding. During the day, I talked to the neighbors and found out that the previous owner died in the home from cancer. His misery had created things we would have to deal with in order to live there happily. There was a lot of work to be done to turn the Guardian to my side. Luckily, I knew exactly what to do.

"I started by cleaning the entire house; I paid attention to every inch of space including walls, ceilings, carpet, doors, and windows. As I cleaned the walls, I stroked them with love. I spread sea salt around the house and left it for the next 24 hours to absorb the negative energy, then I swept it all away singing joyful songs. I opened all the windows and went around the house clapping my hands, moving the negative energy out of the windows and inviting positive energy in through the doors.

"After the house was clean in body and spirit, it was time to fill it with beautiful music, songs, laughter, lovely things, and an abundance of fresh food. I even left some food for the Guardian as a sign of good will. After some time passed, I saw the Guardian in my dream again. This time it appeared as a kind old woman, her face soft with wrinkles and her eyes sparkling with mischief. She said that she and the Fairies of the garden had a chat and that they'd like us to plant berries and flowers. She also mentioned that she liked bread with honey and berry jam. I did what she and the Fairies requested, and the fresh berries in the garden abounded and a little honey and jam on good slice of bread was left out from time to time. Everyone who lives in the house is healthy and happy, and the most amazing lucky events happen to everyone who visits. Feel free to think that it is a coincidence, but also feel free to repeat my cleansing ritual and see if it changes things in your house." -- Milana, Salt Lake City, Utah

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Scaredy Cats
iStock.com/PeopleImages

Scaredy Cats

"I lived in a house with four girls and four animals in college. One night, I happened to have the house to myself, which was fabulous, because I had a paper to write. So, I'm in my bed with my laptop, and I hear a scratch at the door. It's the dog Mikko, and he's shaking and whining. As soon as I open the door, the two cats, Ralph and Beaner, streak in behind him and jump on my bed. I squeeze in between all of them and I resume my studying. Suddenly, Ralph's hair stands on end, and Mikko starts to whine. Beaner's claws are digging into my legs as soon as I hear footsteps upstairs in the hallway. It's a pretty short hallway, probably about 20 feet, but the footsteps keep walking, and walking, and walking past the outer wall of the house into the next door neighbor's house. Mikko starts growling when the footsteps turn around and I hear them SPRINTING back in our direction and then a door SLAMS shut. By this point my heart is racing and Mikko is barking up a storm so I grab a baseball bat and walk upstairs. Nobody was home but me and the animals." -- pooveyfarms, Reddit

6/15
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The Christmas Greeting
iStock.com/duckycards

The Christmas Greeting

"One of my friends who died in the Twin Towers came back to me through my youngest daughter in our home. It was September 11, like three years ago, and I was cooking in the kitchen. My little girl was in the kitchen with me, and, out of the blue, she says his first middle and last name. And I've never talked about him to her. She said his name again and explained, 'He's here in the kitchen with you right now. He loves to be kitchen with you when you cook.' I was like, 'Holy moly!' The thing about him was that if he hadn't been in finance, he would have been a cook. To test my little girl, I said, 'What does he look like?' She said, 'He's really tall with dark hair and some blond in it,' which described him, and I don't have a picture of him in the house [that she would have seen]. 

"For a week after, I was looking for a sign from him everywhere, and there was nothing. Then, a week later, I'm walking through the playroom of our house, and I have four kids, so it's a disaster. And standing in the middle of a Lego set was a Christmas card from my friend that he had sent 15 years ago, before September 11. It was standing up perfectly placed. And we moved houses six times since then. I have not seen that card since it was that Christmas." -- Jennifer, Davidson, North Carolina

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The Rude Spirit
iStock.com/VladimirFLoyd

The Rude Spirit

"Currently living in a haunted house. Been here a little over two years, kind of used to it by now. However some very interesting things have happened here. The most notable experience happened about a month after we moved in. Strange things were happening -- sounds of footsteps, laundry ending up in bizarre places, feeling someone watching you, my roommate felt little feet standing on her hip while she was laying in bed one night -- so we decided, half jokingly, that we would record an EVP session. Well ... When we played the tape back, you can very clearly hear someone telling me to 'shut up' after I asked if anyone was there. Didn't hear anything at the time, only heard it on the tape. Other things have happened, as well. It's blown in my ear when I was in the bathroom getting ready one day, ran a finger up my boyfriend's back when he was walking around without a shirt on. Honestly, nothing has been too terrifying, just mild annoyances. I always said I would NEVER live in a house if I knew it was haunted, yet here I am. It's bearable." -- Anonymous, Reddit

8/15
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Not Just Pregnancy Brain
iStock.com/ImageSource

Not Just Pregnancy Brain

"It all started when I was about seven months pregnant with my daughter. I was asleep in bed with my husband. Suddenly, I woke up and looked out the doorway to our room. I saw a toddler -- who I thought was our 2-year-old son -- walk in front of the doorway dragging a blanket behind him and then walk away into the laundry room. I instantly got chills and the hair on my neck was standing on end. But I figured it was just our little guy sleepwalking like his dad used to do as a child. I woke up my husband and asked him to go get our son and take him back to his bed. He looked puzzled but got up and went into the laundry room. 'Jadon isn't in here, sweetheart,' he said. I was baffled. I had been watching the laundry room entrance the whole time. I hadn't seen him leave. My husband went to our son's room across the house, and there he was, sound asleep under the blankets in his bed. Eerie. 

"But wait ... There's more. I dismissed this occurrence as 'pregnancy brain' and went on with my life. Several months later, after our daughter was born, I was in the shower while the kids were down for a nap. I was rinsing out my hair when I head footsteps. Little running footsteps. I opened my eyes, heard a giggle, and saw a little boy, not in the clothes my son was wearing, in a red shirt and jean shorts running across my bathroom into the closet. Strangely, I was not freaked out. This has happened several times over the last five years since the first time. I'm never really freaked out by him, and he has aged some. He now seems to be 4. He always runs by when I'm in the shower like he's chasing something. 

"The most recent encounter I've had was one morning when my husband and I were asleep. My two oldest kids came in to wake us up. All I could make out was their silhouette. I told them both to go potty, and then I would turn on a show for them in our room. I told my older son to let his little sister use our bathroom and for him to use his down the hall. He just stood there so I repeated myself and he turned and went down the hall. My daughter went into our bathroom. I sat up waiting for them to return. My son came back and sat on the floor waiting. After a minute, he said, 'Hey Mom, can you turn on a show?' I said, 'Well, let's wait for your sister.' He turned around and said, 'She's still asleep, Mom.' I said, 'No she isn't, I saw her go in my bathroom.' I got out of bed to check on her .... I got to the bathroom, and it was empty. I quickly went to her room and there she was. Asleep. I had been watching the whole time since my son had come in with who I thought was my daughter. Since then, I hear little footsteps all the time upstairs, if we're all downstairs, or in the hallway when I'm around the corner and my kids are napping." -- OlliePumpkinTree, Reddit

9/15
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Monopoly Message
iStock.com/txking

Monopoly Message

"My favorite story is when my father passed away, and his spirit came to visit. I was complaining about the car that I had inherited from him, a gray GM/Saturn sedan that was on a massive recall list. I had tried everything to find a part to have the car fixed to no avail. A letter came in the mail from GM and I was on the phone reading it to my mother. I was exasperated because it offered no real solutions, and the car remained an unsolved issue. I set the letter down and was telling my mother, 'Can you believe this?' as I turned to retrieve some items from my pantry. Behind me, I heard this thunk and turned around. On the kitchen counter next to the letter was a little car -- the car token from the Monopoly game. I remember gasping, and my mother asking what was wrong. I told her, and she asked, 'Are you sure you are alone in the house?' 

'I live alone with my pack of pugs, the kitchen has no shelves, and all of my doors were locked and had been since I had gotten home 30 minutes prior. I was quite alone. I ended the phone call and went out into my attached garage, also locked from the outside with the door down. I moved several boxes to find my Monopoly game, sadly languishing in the garage. The humidity had sealed the box shut -- I had to peel it open. However, I looked through the game, the pieces, the houses -- everything. The Monopoly car was gone -- sitting on my counter. Honestly, I think that my father was telling me to stop complaining about his car." -- Brandy, St. Petersburg, Florida

10/15
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Disappearing Tennis Ball
iStock.com/mustafagull

Disappearing Tennis Ball

"We lived in an old colonial house that has been converted into tiny little apartments. But the basement was still original all mason stone and tiny little rooms. I always got a bad vibe going down there, but since the laundry room was right next door, and there was a door between them, I didn't have to go there often. One day, my husband and I were doing laundry, and he was bouncing a tennis ball while I was changing over the loads. He dropped the ball, and we watch it roll away from us against gravity as the door between the scary old basement area in the laundry room swung open, and the ball disappeared into the dark beyond ... It was like something was inviting us to come into that space. We grabbed the laundry, ran to our apartment, and started looking for a new place immediately." -- Megan, Danbury, Connecticut

11/15
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Constant Nightmares
iStock.com/Olga_Gavrilova

Constant Nightmares

"My sister was a toddler, and I was in [between] kindergarten [and] grade 2. You'd hear loud knocking on the garage door, but no one would be there. Sometimes foot prints in the snow by the door that led to nowhere. Typical feeling of dread in the dark basement/laundry room. My stepbrother saw 'white people,' like made out of TV static, in the basement. You'd hear walking down the hall into a room but no one was there. I had constant nightmares, but I can't remember what about. My mom saw a white figure standing at the end of the bed one night. Another night, my dad got up in the middle of the night to pee and a briefcase flew across the room and hit him." -- kimmehh, Reddit

12/15
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The Haunted Castle
iStock.com/sandyriverman

The Haunted Castle

"I grew up in an ancient castle and a slightly less ancient -- but still old, several hundred years -- manor house, and they were both thought to be haunted. Personally, I don't believe in ghosts, but a lot of stuff happened that I can't find an explanation for, so I suppose something did go on there. You'd get cold spots in some rooms. Sometimes, it would sound like there were voices whispering your name, inanimate objects would move on their own, there was a particular room in the castle that the dog absolutely hated and would go ballistic in, sometimes we'd go out and come back at night and a light would be on in a wing of the castle that we didn't use, and when my dad went to check, the light would be out. We had what used to be a dungeon and going down there everyone feels a sense of dread, even if they don't know what it used to be. We used to spend our evenings in what was called the drawing room, and sometimes as it got late, you would see movement out of the corner of your eye, but if you looked, there wouldn't be anything there. Footsteps in the dark, someone breathing down your neck, etc. It was an interesting childhood, but on the plus side, horror movies don't scare me at all now." -- LDN_Escort, Reddit

13/15
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Friendly Spirits
Maressa Brown

Friendly Spirits

"My 90-year-old house is inhabited by spirits. I've been here 13 years already. The whole time I've been here, I've heard footsteps going upstairs while nobody else is home. My toilet flushes by itself at night. Pictures have fallen off the wall, and the nail is still there. And lights go on by themselves. I tend to believe that it is my dearly departed loved ones communicating with me in a playful way." -- Sheryl, Fair Lawn, New Jersey

14/15
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The Mansion Dorm
iStock.com/benkrut

The Mansion Dorm

"I went to Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, and the school bought the old Bloomington mayor’s mansion and turned it into a dorm. There were maybe eight rooms total. And everyone who went down the back stairs felt ... weird. One day, the RA reveals the basement is campus storage for a bunch of furniture. So, if we'd like some to fancy up our dorms, she'll help us out. We go down there and it feels like the Upside Down. I'm shocked the walls aren't bleeding. There are six of us. No one wants to be there. We take nothing. Months later, I'm asleep, I'm the only one in my room, I awaken alarmed; there's a blurry white form directly above me. The size of a plastic bag. Looks at me -- even though it had no eyes, I know -- and vanishes. Everyone agrees that place is haunted." -- Joelle, Chicago, Illinois

15/15
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Granny Cook
iStock.com/FotoVoyager

Granny Cook

"We lived in England for a while, in a home that had been built in 1742. There are so many stories there, but when we first moved in, the lights would go on, the dishwasher would start or stop, things would fly off the shelf -- like shoot off the shelf. I have four kids and when they were all at school, I stood in the middle of the living room, and I said [to the spirit], 'Stop doing this, we're a nice family. We'll coexist.' And everything stopped. Then, a couple of weeks later, in the middle of the night, I got up to go to the bathroom, and there's this huge mirror, and I see this woman, an old lady, standing behind me. She's wearing a white nightgown and cap... 

"Right after we moved in, our neighbor came over, and she was the village historian, and she said, 'Have you met your ghost yet? Her name is Granny Cook, and she owned this property -- she's benevolent, and she loves children, but it is definitely haunted.' So, I see the person I assume is Granny Cook and I turn around ... I didn't tell anyone, especially not my kids, 'cause I didn't want to scare them. The next week my eldest daughter, she might have been in sixth grade, she came running downstairs. I was in the kitchen, and she was like, 'Mommy, I just saw Granny Cook.' She saw her in the mirror. We were in that house for two years. As we were moving out, things kicked up again. All sorts of activity in the house. At one point, I remember sitting at my computer, and I just felt hands, one on either shoulder, pushing me down. It was like, 'Stay, please don't go.' But I didn't like that at all. I jumped up and was like, 'No touchy! That's not OK.'" -- Jennifer, Davidson, North Carolina

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