Poltergeist – Our First House Was Already Inhabited

Little did we know when we finally found a great house within our budget that we would not be living there alone – we would be sharing it with a Poltergeist.

After months of searching our realtor finally led us to a small town where we found the house we were to buy.  It was a large two-story house with a Gambrel roof sitting on a large lot.  It had a full basement, a lovely staircase and a wood- burning stove.  Our realtor actually tried to talk us out of buying that house, but we were determined to make it our own.  We couldn’t believe our luck!

Not all luck is good!  Read on for our encounters with the Poltergeist.

The transaction and our moving in went smoothly. We’d only been there a few days when we were awakened in the middle of the night by the television blaring. We jumped up and ran downstairs. The light was on in the living room and the television was on with the volume quite high. We looked at each other as if to say, this is weird, then we turned off the light and the television and went to bed. We discussed it the next morning trying to figure out what had caused it finally chalking it up to just some strange fluke.  The thought of a Poltergeist never entered our minds.

The “strange fluke”, the television blaring and light coming on, continued at the rate of at least twice a week. We soon felt as if we were in a “B” movie. No one living would be upstairs, but a ball would come rolling down the steps. I’d go upstairs and the Ouija Board would be lying on the landing. One day I was sitting on the couch and suddenly my dog, Heidi, came running down the stairs full speed, jumped into my lap shaking like a leaf on a tree. After I calmed her I went to the foot of the stairs and yelled at our Poltergeist “Leave my dog alone.” I don’t remember Heidi ever being terrorized after that, but she would go to the foot of the stairs and look upward for a few minutes, tilting her head to one side then the other. That gave me the “willies”.

We had a family tradition of camping out in the living room to watch television and spend the night. We’d drag a mattress out for the grown-ups while our daughter would make her bed on the couch. One such night after the house was dark and we’d all been asleep for a while I suddenly awakened. I was facing the stairway from the banister side. There I saw gliding down the stairs a gauzy apparition. It wasn’t well defined, but I sensed it was female. Oddly enough I wasn’t frightened. Instead I was mesmerized. In this context the entity would not be considered a Poltergeist since it was not creating a disturbance. For some reason I didn’t tell anyone right away what I had experienced. That came about with an incident my daughter and I shared.

As was our usual habit, my daughter and I were in the bathroom together gabbing while we put on makeup and fixed our hair. The countertop was L-shaped. Overhead in the corner was a light fixture with two swag chains leading out to globes over each side of the “L”. We had grown used to the one globe going off for a bit then coming back on. It might do that numerous times while we were in there. This time was no different. The one globe turned off. My daughter nonchalantly said, “there he goes again.” I shook my head because she referred to the Poltergeist as male and said, “no, it’s not a man, it’s a woman.” The light turned back on and we never had that problem again. Apparently she just wanted to be validated. I then shared the story of my vision with my daughter. She had no doubt I had seen a spirit.

Our particular Poltergeist was not life threatening, but it could be quite scary!

One evening after her father had left to go bowling, my daughter and I sat in the living room with only one light on while we waited for the bus to come pick her up for a school ball game. No sooner had my daughter rode away on the bus and I returned to the couch than the light went out. The house was dark; I was alone and terrified! That menacing Poltergeist knew our fears and capitalized on them. It took me no time at all to run through the house and turn on every light.

Yes, we had seen the movie “Poltergeist”. For the most part, our experience wasn’t nearly as dramatic, but as I said, this Poltergeist knew our fears and my daughter’s fears were directly linked to the movie. Therefore, our naughty Poltergeist utilized some of the “special effects” from that movie to terrorize her. She didn’t share this with me until much later or it might have been the catalyst for us to make a move. She lay in her bed each night filled with fear that this might be another night the Poltergeist would shake her headboard or make her mattress vibrate. She never came running to me. She endured it.

My daughter was in middle school, so I felt comfortable leaving her alone until her Dad or I returned home from work. Unfortunately, with her home alone the Poltergeist had the perfect opportunity to frighten her further. She would be sitting upstairs in her bedroom when she would hear a low rumbling, mocking laughter. She’d sit frozen not knowing what to do. Sometimes she would hear at mumbling voice, but couldn’t make out any clear words or phrases. How I hate she felt compelled to keep these things to herself.

We have cousins with special abilities to “see” and “feel” things. I didn’t find this out until recently. Once I knew of their “gifts” I began to share our Poltergeist stories with them. Having visited our house on many occasions they laughed and nodded their heads. One said, “That house was very busy.” The other said, “I knew, but I didn’t say anything, because I figured you’d think I was crazy.” They then told me their daughter had told them after spending the night with us she had seen things flying around in my daughter’s room. “Poltergeist” the movie, once again, our Poltergeist’s favorite way to play in our daughter’s room.

I have no idea of the turning point, but we were at long last accepted by the Poltergeist. All the tricks stopped, except annually on Halloween something unexplained, but silly, happened. It was if the Poltergeist was sharing a joke with us – like it was saying, “Isn’t this what you humans expect on Halloween?” It was never ill intentioned. It was all in good fun.

How in the world did we last until it became all in good fun?? I don’t know. I was always one of those people who yelled at the movies, “Are you crazy? Get the heck out of there!” We were all at first puzzled, then concerned, then frightened. Still we stayed. Why did we choose to live with a Poltergeist? I can’t explain it any more than I can explain anything else that happened in that house.

Wonder if the current residents have any stories? When I go back to my home state I sometimes drive passed the home of the Poltergeist, but I don’t feel any vibes of any kind. Maybe it moved on, too. Better yet, maybe it is at rest.