Below are the experiences of Little Seer. There are three sections, an initial email to me, my emailed reply and a follow-up email from Little Seer. All in all it is pretty long. If you like you can download the seven page MS Word file and read it off-line. If you'd later like to make comments, email me.
I have a problem in the house that I live in. It is a good possibility that I could be here for the rest of my life. I don’t really want to cause a problem with some whispering spirits that dwell here, but they scare the heck out of people who visit. I think the best position that I can take is to leave well enough alone. Then of course I hate it when people visit and suddenly have to leave with in 15 minutes of entering the house.
Maybe a wee bit of info about the house may be helpful. The house I live in was at one time a farm house, reported to be the only one in the area about 70 years ago. Next door to the farm house was the hand house, the house that the hired hands lived in. The original owner decided to sell the land and probably made a good deal of money from it. She decided to move into the hand house until the day she died when that land (2 lots) also went on the market. She had sold her home long before her death to two French men.
From what I understand they were very seldom ever known to be sober. If you could see some of the renovations in this house you would know in an instant that this was true.
I have been going through the house fixing their repairs, but properly so they don’t have to be done again. You have no idea how much work this is for a little woman of my size. I’m about 5’2” and weigh about 99 lbs. Nothing in this house is easy to fix.
You go to do 1 simple repair and you find 10 other things that need to be fixed in order for it all to come out right. Even caulking the tub was an adventure. The bathroom wall fell apart and I found the wiring had a problem at sometime that set the insulation on fire. Until that is fixed I won’t be putting the wall back in.
I noticed the floor was lifting too. I checked under it and found the floor was rotten. The toilet was then in the kitchen as the rest of the floor went to the garbage. Let’s just say the flange in the floor, then the honey seal could not work because of how they cut the sub-floor around it. Goodness knows how many years it had been leaking and rotting the floor and wiring.
Luckily we have another bathroom downstairs so we could live with this problem till it was repaired. I have put down new flooring in the kitchen and bath. I have taken the walls apart in the main bedroom and kitchen, mudded and fixed them, painted etc and all the time our whispering ghosts at the back door got louder and louder.
I hear whispering at the back door quite often. I have no idea what is being said as it is just whispering and very annoying. If they get too loud when I am doing the dishes or hear them when I am in the kitchen, I shut the door between the landing that goes to the back door and the stairs that go to the granny suite in the basement.
My friend Diane stays over pretty much every weekend. She usually lets the dogs out the back door at least once during her stay over. I noticed that every time she came back in with the dogs she would talk loudly to the dogs, get them in the main part of the house and then shut the door to the stairs and lock it. I noticed this on many occasions but didn’t say anything to her. I told my husband (A.) what she was doing and told him I was going to ask her if she could hear them too (by the way, he hears them).
As it happened next time she was over I let the dogs out. I was washing some dishes after we ate and Diane let the dogs back in. I was standing at the sink which is just right of the doorway, she came back in with the dogs talking loudly. She locked the back door and then the door between the kitchen and landing. I said to her at this point: “Why are you locking the door, are they being too loud for you?”
She stood stock still and asked:” How is it you know what I hear?” as if I was reading her mind.
I explained that A. and I had been hearing voices there for years and that they are whispering. She was relieved, she thought she was a little crazy because she could hear whispering and so she had been trying to pretend she couldn’t hear anything. That was her reason for talking so loudly to the dogs when she brought them into the house.
I explained: “A. puts a fan on at night to cover the sound, I go with that.” We both laughed. I think Diane mostly laughed in relief.
Even though we know the history of the house we really don’t know who would be staying on to do the whispering. There is definitely more than one person whispering because they over lap each other in their effort to speak.
At one time I could also feel a person who I thought was a man near the bathroom door in the hallway all the time. Not a bother until you have to go to the bathroom in the night. I asked Diane if she felt that presence and she said she did. I lit a candle that night and we both asked him to go toward the light.
I told him that he had died and that friends and relatives were waiting for him that loved him to go and meet them. Diane got upset that the people out at the stairs were not happy about this. I was hoping that they would also go and opened the back door and repeated what I had said but they are still here! I wish I knew who they were.
Now I have accepted that they are here, but I do wish they would go home, so to speak. There is another life that they are supposed to pass on to. Why won’t they? I don’t feel worried or upset by them, I actually feel upset for them (they could have a new life but haven’t accepted it).
I think that they like the fact that
I am fixing the house for real. But I do not like them upsetting our guests.
So I have a question: what can I do? I asked them to go on, they didn’t. I have
been thinking of asking through a ouija board what they want or how we could
help them to move on. But from everything I have read on this site it looks like
it could cause more problems than I already have.
Any suggestions?
Little Seer
Hi Little Seer,
Sorry about the delay in replying, I have been away on holidays for few weeks!
First let me say that your email was exceptionally well written - so much of what I receive is difficult to decipher, it was a pleasure to read something with properly constructed paragraphs! (Note that any errors in Little Seer's writing have probably been introduced by me during the editing process. I've also broken her nice paragraphs up into smaller chunks which are hopefully more easily read on the screen. Any loss in readability is therefore also my fault. - sk.)
Your situation is quite interesting because of the apparent universality of the experience – you imply that whoever visits is likely to hear the whispering or feel presences. That is quite unusual because there generally seems to be something associated with a person which makes them more or less likely to experience something like this, a level of susceptibility if you like.
Something else that is not clear but which I assume from reading the email, the content of the whispering is unintelligible - to you at least - is that correct? Does it sound like another language or is it just meaningless? You say the previous inhabitants where French, does the whispering sound at all French?
The reason that I ask this is that you say it sounds like two voices overlapping. When people overlap while speaking they are usually excited, eager to tell you something. Do you get this impression from the whispering? If the whispering started when you commenced your repairs, there may well be some connection.
Have you tried taping the voices? This would be valuable from two points of view. Firstly, if the sound is meaningless, it may well have a mundane source. It could just be air currents through gaps in the house or surrounding vegetation that sound disturbingly like voices. If you can reliably tape the sounds, you might be able to identify such a mundane source.
On the other hand, if it does sound like French, and you don’t personally understand it, you might be able to tape it and ask someone to listen to it, perhaps they may be able to decipher a message for you. Many schools still have a French teacher around, otherwise there might be a language school somewhere close.
Of course, you might go to the effort of taping and come up with nothing. That would certainly be weird enough in itself, if you can hear the sounds as you record but they don’t appear on the tape.
I would suggest trying to record the voices before you do anything like hold a séance/ouija session. If you can’t find out what the voices are saying (or find a mundane explanation), then you could try it – but you are right about the possibility of more problems.
Remember I said that your story is unusual in that the experience of a haunting can be felt by so many. You have to ask yourself, why is that the case? Perhaps it is just the spirits themselves which are strong, or it could be the location of the house in which case you don’t want to replace two or so benign spirits with any less benign visitors you might accidentally invite. I remain skeptical at all times but, as I always advise people, I suggest you err on the side of caution.
Would you like me to post your story to see if any readers have more suggestions for you?
sk
I asked A. when he first noticed the whisperers in the house, he said they came with the house. He started to hear them not long after he moved in, which now would be about 23 years ago. That is why he always turns on an electric fan at night when he goes to bed for background noise so the whisperers don’t keep him awake. I thought it was an odd thing to do, all year round but he said he needs the noise to sleep.
The whispering itself is unintelligible. That’s why it gets so annoying, some times they are louder then other times but still not loud or clear enough to comprehend.
Since the French people were alive when they sold the house to A. (actually to
A.’s Mom, he bought it from her later), and the whisperers were already here, I
would have to say they must not have anything to do with the whispering. (Unless
of course they had killed people and stuck them in the dead space in the wall
beside the fridge. - Just kidding.)
I recently talked to a lady named Kathy who lives down the street. She told me
her father built the house she lives in and that she was born in the house. She
is in her fifties. Kathy remembers the woman that lived here but not the
husband. As I said before they were farmers.
The husband died first and the wife sold off parts of the land probably to take care of living expenses. This would be when Kathy’s father bought some of the land and built their house. Then the farmer’s wife sold her house and moved into the hand house. So I this house must be much older than seventy as I first stated.
This now leads me to the conclusion that it must be the farmer and his wife that are still here. Who knows, perhaps the farmer stayed in this house in spirit after he died and his wife moved into the hand house because she didn’t like it. Maybe after she died they got back together and that is what the whispering is about. By the way, you are right it does sound as if they are excited.
In my first letter, I mentioned that there is a granny suite down stairs. A.’s Mom lived in it when I first met A. 6 years ago. His Mom spent summers at her trailer which was located near the bank of a river. She had many friends there and could hardly wait to go every summer. She really loved the place.
She passed away at the trailer and I still think of her as still being there camping and loving every minute of it. I don’t know if A.’s Mom heard the whispers, A. said they never talked about it.
After the apartment was cleaned out, A.’s brother and sister-in-law moved into the apartment for the next four years. I don’t know if they could hear the whisperers but I can tell you they never turned off the light over the back door or the light in the basement area before their apartment door. While they lived here I always kept the kitchen door locked because they use to walk in and take food and other things when we were out.
I was not aware of the whisperers during that time. I only became aware of them since his family moved out (last September) and I started to leave the kitchen door open. I started doing renovations in that area of the house around October and that was when I first heard them. After a couple of weeks of constantly hearing them I asked A. about it and that was when he told me he had always been aware of them. Now I understand the fan.
Actually the very first thing I heard after A.’s family was gone was someone coming in the back door and going downstairs. There is a new deadbolt (changed in September) on the backdoor and I keep it locked. At first I thought how the heck had A.’s brother or sister-in-law let themselves in the back door!
When I checked no-one was there. I put it out of my mind later because sometimes all you can do is shrug. I was reminded of this incident just this week when it happened again. I was in the kitchen getting some pop out of the fridge and heard the back door open. At first I thought of A.’s family but then thought about what had happened before.
I really paid attention then and didn’t move a muscle or breath. It sounded as if someone came in, left the door open and walked (foot steps) down the stairs. Also it sounded as if they grabbed on to the hand rail and the hardware that holds the railing in place made a click sound. I checked downstairs again from one end of the apartment to the other and no-one was there although I didn’t feel as though I was alone.
The weirdest thing about the noises was that when A.’s family was living there they removed the hand rail to get their bed down stairs and never put it back. This time I went quickly back up the stairs and locked the kitchen door. I didn’t shrug. I wondered how many times I might of heard this when the brother and sister-in-law were living here and just thought it was one of them coming in.
I did think of wind getting in odd places and making funny sounds. We used to get mice in the fall when it turned cold. This was my first experience using mouse traps. Uck! I did learn peanut butter works excellent for bait. The mice just die for the chance to get at it. Uck again!
Anyway I went all around the house inside and out in the spring of 2002. Any gaps were filled with steel wool and expandable foam. We haven’t had any mice since then so I think I must have sealed the house up tight. That would also get rid of the possibility of wind causing the sounds.
I’m really not sure if it is because I am renovating but it seems to me they
have become more active since then.
One thing that did happen frequently was that I kept finding pennies on the
floor. Now I’m sure now and then a stray penny could have escaped from A.’s
pocket and end up on the floor but I was finding them all the time and in
different rooms. After vacuuming through the house I wash the floors once a
week. I can’t tell you how many times after cleaning the floors I would find a
penny laying about. It wasn’t there before so where did it come from? Sometimes
it was one penny, sometimes more. I had a collection of about 55 pennies
gathered at one time.
I lost count of how many because I started just putting them in our change can. The last time I picked one of these stray pennies up I said out loud: “If you’re going to have me bending over to pick money up off the floor could you at least make it worth my while and leave Loonies (1 dollar) or Toonies (2 dollars).”
The pennies have stopped. Once in a while I have found a Loony or Toony however it doesn’t happen often and can probably be explained as one of those escapees from A.’s pocket. When I find them I say “Thank you!” out loud just in case.
As you said some people are more susceptible. I guess this is true of me. The first time I saw a ghost I was six years old. Our entire family was home when this happened, my Mom, Dad two sisters and my brother. My brother and I were alone in our little sister’s bedroom. We had to get something for my older sister. My brother took off out of the room and then I saw the ghost and took off after him. I yelled and screamed about what I was seeing so much that my Father got very frustrated with me and gave me a spanking. I don’t remember the spanking that well, only the ghost.
Years later my brother told me he saw it before I did and that was why he took off. He said he was afraid Dad would give him a spanking so he kept quiet. I really believe the possibly that the ability to see spirits is handed along through generations in families. I have seen other spirits since I was a child but to be quite honest I wish I wouldn’t. It usually scares the heck out of me and I really don’t appreciate it a bit.
I remember my Mom telling me that her Mother told her: “If you ever see a ghost, ask it what it wants. If it doesn’t answer you, tell it to get lost.” Mom told me this when I was older and it struck me as odd. I really didn’t ask her much about it but wondered if her Mom saw spirits too. Both of my sisters have had some odd experiences, my brother however hasn’t seen anything since.
I think I may have confused you about one item. Not everyone hears the whispering. I don’t tell people that visit anything about the whisperers, but I do pay attention to their reactions. Then if I think that they are acting nervous or skittish each time they visit I will ask them as I did with Diane.
A. can hear them right into the bedroom which is a few rooms away from the kitchen. Diane was in the stairwell when she started to hear them. Dy said she could hear them in the living room when she slept over on the couch. She mentioned she was happy that Security (one of our dogs) would sleep beside the couch when she was over because she felt like he was guarding her.
I don’t really notice the whisperers except when I am in the kitchen and the door to the stairs is open. That could be because I’m somewhat reluctant. Greg came over to have a couple of beers with A. one time. He wasn’t in the house five minutes and he changed his mind about having a beer, asked for a glass of water and left.
A. and I found his behaviour very strange and we both wondered if the whisperers were responsible. If Greg comes back to visit and reacts the same way again then I will ask him about it. Christine gets spooked sometimes when she is here but I told her about what was going on so I don’t count her reaction.
I think some of the kids in our area are nervous of our house. Last Halloween I was handing out candy. A. took over for awhile and I went across the street to Nicole and Tom’s house. Nicole was sitting on her front porch handing out candy. I sat with her for about an hour. I noticed a lot of the kids wouldn’t go up to our house.
I mentioned it to Nicole and she said she had noticed. I started yelling across the street to kids that the people in the green house (ours) were handing out chocolate bars and they had lots left. Some of the kids did go up to the door then but most of them just kept on walking.
I have a tape recorder that is sound sensitive. I will try your suggestion and see if anything records. I need to go get batteries first. I feel kind of silly that I didn’t think of trying that. Then again if I get actual recorded voices on the tape from the whisperers it will probably scare the heck out of A. and me.
I really should get going now. I have to go downstairs to do laundry. I’m very quick at getting this chore done and over with so I don’t need to be down there for long at all!
You can post my letters if you would like to. I’m really not interested in people emailing me. I appreciate what you said about my writing. I enjoy typing up what has happened to me and can assure you what I have written is true.
skeptika's comment:
If you would like to comment, email me and I will add the gist of your comment to the end here.