My team kicked off an investigation for a client last night where one of the claims was hearing 1920s orchestra swing music late one night. The gentleman and lady of the house were reading in bed when they heard the odd music seemingly coming from the hall outside their door. The gentleman went to investigate and as soon as his foot touched the floor it stopped. Five minutes after he got back in bed the odd soft music was heard again, and again it immediately stopped when his foot hit the floor.
We get often enough, with clients reporting unexplainable wafting riffs of music. When I first started as a ghost hunter I was well practiced in doing my tag-along prevention routine after investigations, but somehow I didn’t even think about it when I went on my first daytime home interview. Even after the initial visit to this particular house I was suspicious that something paranormal was going on there. For one thing, the homeowners had mentioned that music was often heard when none was being played. When listening to the recordings of our conversations that evening, some unusual music faded in and out, although none was playing at the time.
The first thing I noticed back at my own home was a few issues with my computer popping up – just little annoying things, but enough to make me suspicious. Then a few nights later I was with my family in the living room when we all heard some very odd music play briefly but loudly from an adjacent room. It wasn’t anything that any of us had heard before, and not a sound made by any electronic device we owned.
Luckily my family is very accepting of my paranormal work and the occasional “side effects”, shall we call them. No one freaked out and the only comment I got was a wise crack along the lines of “Bringing home stray dogs and stray cats is one thing, but you need to draw the line at bringing home stray ghosts”.
What makes me wonder about these musical interludes is this: ghostly music must, by definition, fall into the category of “residual” energy. It certainly isn’t the spirit of some lost soul. Why, then, do we most often seem to get music in actively, intelligently, haunted homes? Is the residual energy somehow attached to an earthbound spirit?
In the home I first mentioned where the old swing music was heard, the home had been occupied in the late 1990s by two elderly couples whose fate is unknown. Perhaps one or more of these souls remains, and the old swing music was a favorite from their romantic youth. Or perhaps the music is just the residual footprint of a song they played over and over. Hopefully well get a few clues from the investigation.
Let me finish by sharing two musical EVP I captured a few years ago. The first was recorded during our Preliminary visit to the mid-1800’s home, while siting around the dining room table with the clients. You can hear us all talking and if you listen closely you can hear something that sounds like old Rag Time music drifting in under our conversation, although no music was playing at the time.
The second second EVP was recorded in the same location a few minutes later. This time waltz music drifts in and out. I’ve posted them both on my web site for anyone that would like to listen for themselves.
http://ithinkmyhouseishaunted.com/evps.html
If anyone has their own stories to share I’d love to hear them!
Living Haunted 