Sometimes people in a newer home are slow to recognize their haunting. They may have built the place themselves or know for a fact that there was no death or trauma in the home’s short history. So could it possibly be haunted? Yes, definitely!
Admittedly it’s less likely to have a spirit sharing a newer home than it is in an older home, but it certainly can – and does – happen. One of my favorite clients has a home my team has investigated several times, and cleansed several more. It’s one of the most active – and fascinating – haunted homes I’ve investigated. For the whole story read my book, I Think My House is Haunted!, Chapter 10 – Friend? If Not…Goodbye! The chapter title showed up on her computer one day, and was a fitting commentary on their current situation.
Ellen lives with her husband in a fairly new home, one her husband actually built. I believe the spirits there came from the land around it, New Jersey Pine Barrens (of Jersey Devil fame) to be specific. In fact, at least one of the spirits seems to stay on the land and just come visit. Others are now more permanent.
So why did they choose that particular home? There are others on the cul-de-sac. Actually, several of the other homes have had unexplainable experiences as well. And this particular home was relatively quiet until the gentleman who built it married Ellen and she moved it. Ellen is mildly sensitive and may have been a bit of a beacon. And the child spirit there has, from our evidence, adopted her as a mother figure. So the welcome mat went out when Ellen moved in and a few local spirits took advantage.
It’s not always the land that brings spirits to a newer home. They can certainly follow you home from almost anywhere. I’ve found that these “tag-alongs” rarely stay long, though – a few days to a few weeks at most, usually. More likely they were attached to an object you acquired. That not all that uncommon, actually. Or, sadly, they may have been invited in through a seance or a Ouija Board session. If you think it’s just a cute little game and it’s over because you put the board back in the box, think again.
Children’s spirits can also show up almost anywhere. They apparently have less attachment to worldly possessions and often wonder the area looking for other kids to play with. When those children grow up, they simply move on to find another playmate. Kind of sad, isn’t it?
My own home is haunted, we believe, buy a few spirits who lived on the property when it was a farm. I don’t think they’re always here. They have been sensed in the woods behind our home several times, so I believe they come and go. When I had a recent reading with psychic Chris Flemming (of Psychic Kids and Famously Haunted fame) he started out by asking if I had ghosts. He went on to describe them, one in particular (an older man), and said he didn’t have to be there. No, I don’t think he does – he goes back onto the land sometimes, he just chooses to hang around here for some reason. Then Chris asked if I lived on a farm. No, but the spirit did when he lived here.
When I married my husband he had a small ranch home that had been built on the property in the 1940s when the farm land had been sub-divided. A child-sized shadow figure was occasionally seen wandering a particular hall. So when we built a large addition, including a second floor, I wondered if the spirit would show up there as well. If it showed up on the first floor of new addition, that was one thing – maybe it was actually just wandering around it’s old farm land and the home just happened to be built where it was wandering.
But if it showed up in the new upstairs… that would be different. Proof, in my eyes, that it was intelligent (as opposed to residual) and that it was part of our home and our family, not just attached to the previous building.
It didn’t take long before we started having some significant experiences in the new upstairs. The first was when my one son awoke in the middle of the night to see a young boy sitting in the middle of his floor playing with a toy. He put his head under the covers and waited 10 minutes, and when he looked again the boy was gone. And after that, just once in a while, even odder things have happened up there.
So yes, ghosts can and do haunt newer homes. They are just part of our world, a part we aren’t always aware of, but they are always there…
Living Haunted 