Debunking

Our idea of what constitutes as paranormal has been warped by the idea that any unexpected occurrence has to be otherworldly or somehow significant. For instance, when you are home alone and you hear a strange bang from the room down the hall, the natural response is to be startled or frightened. In 90% of cases, the noise is caused by nothing more than a draft, the pipes banging, or the family pet acting a fool. The problem is that when most people feel that initial fright, they skip the part where they look for a logical source of the disturbance, and start browsing the internet for the best sage blessing. So, i feel that the best and most logical place to start a blog that aims to calm the paranormal hive mind, would be to walk you all through the fun and magical art of debunking.

Lets say we have a two story house built in the mid 1920s. A family purchases it with little information. A few days after moving in, the family starts to notice strange things. First, every night when they are laying down to sleep, they hear a strange scratching sound coming from the room above them, and occasionally they hear strange growling. Then, they noticed that whenever they were in the basement or attic, they could never shake the feeling of being watched. The feeling that someone was standing directly behind them, almost looming over them, was constant. They noted that upon exiting both areas, the feeling quickly faded, but never disappeared completely. After several weeks, they notice a rotting smell that only seemed to reside in their bedroom, the same place where they hear the scratching. Now, they feel that they are being watched throughout the entire house, and worse yet, they have noticed doors opening by themselves, and lights flickering on and off. Their house is NOT haunted, and here is why.

First, lets look at their first claim, the reports of scratching and occasional growls they hear in above their bedroom at night. The scratches the family were hearing were just from a family of rats living between the floorboards, and the growls were from a particularly disgruntled raccoon residing in the attic. The rotten smell was caused by an old rat that died and started to rot. As terrifying as it can be to hear these noises in the middle of the night, chances are they are just rats or raccoons. Rats are nocturnal creatures, so they tend to stay pretty quiet during the day, while burrowing around and searching for food at night. When investigating, keep an eye out for animal droppings around the property, as they can debunk multiple claims.

Second, lets look at the family's claim of feeling as though they are being watched, or that someone else was in the room with them. They noted the feelings being particularly potent in both the basement and the attic, but after a few weeks they reported feeling it throughout the entire house. The cause? High EMF due to knob and tube wiring. Knob and tube wiring was used between the 1880s and the 1940s, and gives off an incredibly amount of EMF, or Electromagnetic field, which, in high doses, can have some unusual affects on people. Most people experience dizziness, nausea, the feeling of being watched, and the feeling that there is someone else in the room. The best way to test if high EMF is the source of your symptoms, you use a Gauss meter, or EMF detector. It is important that you get a baseline reading of the building before looking for fluctuations. This is done by walking through the house and recording the average of your EMF readings. Knob and tube wiring is also a major fire hazard. Its best to bring in a professional to get it replaced. Doing so will ease the symptoms.

Next, they noticed that doors throughout the house would open on their own, however they never noticed them closing. Due to the age of the house, most of the wooden door frames had expanded, warped, and cracked. After a while, the door frame and the door no longer line up properly, allowing them to pop open with little effort. Things to look for when debunking doors opening are things such as; A cross breeze caused by multiple windows being open or another door closing and causing a suction, Hinges not lining up allowing the door to pop open due to vibrations such as foot steps or a door slamming, or the wood constricting in the winter time, cause the door to open freely.

Finally, we have the flickering lights. This is one of the easiest claims to disprove. It can be caused by rodents chewing on wires, loose bulbs, power surges, and knob and tube wiring can heat up and melt the wires, causing flickering lights and power outages.

Everything that the family experienced was able to be explained by the age of the house and the critters residing within it. Keep this in mind the next time you hear a thump in your home and your heart starts to race. Take a deep breath and go take a look, you are more likely to find a stripped wire or a burst pipe than you are to find a ghost!