Hi everyone! Hee is one of my experiences that made me go ummm.... I've posted this on a couple of different message board already so if you see this before sorry. I just feel that it hasn't been resolved to my liking and I'm still searching for answers. Well here goes...Maybe someone could help me out by explaining it or maybe not. Here goes.... I was home alone one night, I was still a teenager at the time, if that has anything to do with it. I had just turned off the lights in my room, I wasn't tired but I knew that at any moment someone would be home and I just didn't feel like conversation. So I was lying in bed just thinking about nothing in general when I heard someone walk up the front porch and try our front door. We have a wooden porch and heavy wooden door that makes discentive sounds. I thought that it was my brother, at the he didn't have a key to the house so we would keep the door unlocked for him. Well I forgot to unlock the door earlier, so I ran down the stairs to open the back door for him. Well I was very quick about this and I was half way up the stairs when I heard our back door open then close. Then I heard the door between the back porch and the kitchen open then nothing. Just silence. We have linunoeum flooring in the kitchen and you can hear when someone is just walking in their bare feet on it. So I know that whatever came through the back door just stopped there. I just stayed upstairs in my bed for a hour just listening for any movement at all down stairs and nothing. Then I heard the back door open again, then the kitchen door, and then my bother walking around downstairs. I know it was him because he had a set pattern when he would come home. He would first turn the tv on then get something to eat. And I heard all of this then.

I don't know if this has anything to do with what I experienced, but the house used to be my grandfather's. He died in the bathroom just off the kitchen. I've heard other things in the house that I passed off as the house settling but I can't put this experience into that catagory. Does anyone have any ideas?

Well it could have been your Grandfather's way of reminding you to leave the back door unlocked.They watch over us all the time.It might have been your Grandfather checking to see if he locked the door.I hoped that helped. Bonnie

I agree with Bonnie, it could very well be your grandfather just checking on things!

Hi Blackadder,

Um, I'm not quite sure what the actual term would be in this case, but it sounds like a 'residual haunting' - where the energies of someone (living or dead, in my estimation) is imprinted into the environment so strongly that it replays like a movie (over and over, in some cases).

Since you surmised at first that it was your brother, and then not long after he actually did arrive, I'm thinking it could have been a 'residual' energy of sorts - of his. You said he had a set pattern when he came home - basically what I am saying is, you heard him come home before he actually got there. Make sense?

I just wanted to add that I've heard of similar cases to this. For instance, a wife will hear her husband's truck pull into the driveway, hear the truck door slam, hear him walking up to the house, etc. - but he never comes in. She wonders why he hasn't come in yet, so she checks outside and there is no truck in the drive! He isn't there, yet she heard him 'come home'. Then later, he does come home and go through the same sequence as always.

Why does this happen? It's been suggested that a person's thoughts or will is so strong in doing something (in both cases here, coming home), that the sounds of it taking place happen while they're away.

Kell

[ September 28, 2002, 08:19 PM: Message edited by: KellKell ]

Thanks guys!! Those are some great ideas!KellKell I never thought about my experience in that way but now that you mention it that's what probably happened. But I always like to think that my grandfather is watching over me. I really believe that my ancestors are look out for me.

Kell, what a concept, residual "hauntings" of creatures of habit! Since I live with one, I find that way more frightning than and actual spirit!!

The "Residual Haunting" theory is very plausable - I've even heard that they can be caused by your own mind. It's an event that you so strongly expect, that the sights and sounds can actually be seen and heard by others and that it is more likely to happen in your teen years when your mind and body are in such a rapid state of development.

I agree Kell. This definitely sounds like a case of a residual haunting. When a person follows a specific pattern over a period of time, energy from those activities can be left behind in that location. Even though the brother in this story is still alive, his frequent pattern appeared to be replaying itself.

In my study of the paranormal, residual hauntings have always intrigued me. The concept of a residual haunting shows how strong human emotion and activity can be. The choices we make each day have a subtle impact on our environment, even after we have gone.