Haunted houses, from Marie Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors to Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, have long thrilled and scared audiences alike. But why is the allure of haunted houses such as Marie Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors or Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion so strong? What draws people in?
At its core, a haunted house requires both space and a death. Preferably this should occur unexpectedly or unfairly.
1. The Place
Haunted houses have long been an annual Halloween tradition and now represent a multibillion-dollar industry. According to Hauntworld, over 4,000 paid haunted houses operate within the U.S.
Many of the sounds associated with haunted houses can actually be caused by natural sources, like wind, moving shadow figures, doors opening and closing and electronics. Even smells often associated with hauntings may actually come from things such as dead vermin or decayed food products.
Virginia Woolf’s oneiric tale “A Haunted House” offers a rare insight into haunted fiction as an artistic form. Her tale both embraces and subverts archetypal ghostly motifs while subverting readers’ expectations with indeterminate pronouns, point of view shifts, enigmatic searches, fragmented prose, and fragmentary sentences – rendering the short story an arena for haunted impermanence like ghostly figures that haunt it are disembodied from reality.
2. The Death
No matter their reality, hauntings have had an undeniable influence on many homes. While some may find them terrifying – as shown by those living in the 1994 film The Changeling – others seem to thrive within this unnerving atmosphere.
Ghost stories typically revolve around an external force wreaking havoc within the boundaries of a home, leading to discord and chaos within. The protagonist, or members of her family, then attempt to identify who or what may be responsible.
Even when hauntings are tragic rather than evil, they serve a useful function: They help preserve our past spatially, providing restless spirits a place to rest while evildoers can be held accountable. This serves as a powerful argument in favor of properly interring our dead as well as supporting a more holistic view of home ownership and its role in our lives.
3. The Spirit
As a professional home buyer who regularly sees properties, I understand why so many people believe their own homes might be haunted. Unfortunately, however, most experiences people claim they’ve had can usually be explained away by other means such as hearing noises naturally present in a building, misinterpreting waking dreams or suggestibility.
Ghosts tend not to be malicious spirits; rather, they often attempt to make their presence known due to tragic or horrific events that took place within their house.
Newkirk divides hauntings into three broad categories: intelligent, residual and intentional. Intelligent hauntings often interact in more of an engaging fashion and may manifest as voices; residual hauntings do not acknowledge human presence and tend to repeat similar incidents over and over again – this can be particularly distressful if there has been tragedy near one’s residence.
4. The Energy
Some states have laws mandating that sellers disclose any history of haunting or supernatural activity on their property; however, that may not always be necessary. Buyers interested in haunted homes would still likely purchase yours and 6% of people said they’d pay more than market value for one with such an eerie past (according to Clever).
Strange sounds, cold spots and feelings of being watched are common paranormal experiences; but these signs could also be explained by more mundane means – footsteps that don’t match your shoes, for instance, or noise caused by a breaker box tripping.
Clear your space of any negative energy by sage-ing or lighting white candles, but also bear in mind that not all ghosts are bad according to Sterling Moon, a psychic medium and tarot reader.
