Residual Hauntings Explained – Ghosts in an Old Farmhouse
One of my subscribers, Brian, is dealing with a ghost in a farmhouse that he and his wife recently bought. Brian writes:
I've been seeing a male ghost (dressed in old fashioned clothes) coming down the stairs repeatedly. He is in a hurry and does not seem to notice me or my wife. We just purchased an older farmhouse (built in 1932) and although the ghost seems harmless, I'm wondering if I should do something to make him leave. Is he harmless? Could we try to make him leave?
It appears that Brian and his wife are witnessing a residual haunting. A residual haunting is the most common type of haunting, and can be described as a playback of a past event (sometimes at a designated time). The apparitions are not intelligent spirits, but rather "recordings" of a past event. Residual hauntings are simply expressions of stored energy. These types of hauntings are not always visual – instead they can be "replayed" as sounds or noises that have no explanation. Usually the sounds and images are related to traumatic events which took place at the location. These traumatic events created a "psychic impression" or "psychic disturbance" on the atmosphere of a particular place. This may explain why so many battlefields and prisons are famous for their residual hauntings.
In other residual ghost hauntings, the images have been created by actions/events that were repeated over and over again. This may explain why there are so many haunted staircases–the huge number of times that people travel up and down staircases, and the amount of energy expended in doing so creates a psychic impression and energy fingerprint.
In a residual haunting, ghosts will not notice the living people around them, and they will usually repeat the same actions over and over again. This is consistent with the scenario that Brian describes. Residual hauntings are harmless and sometimes stop naturally on their own. Once the stored energy dissipates, the playback (and hence the ghost) is no longer there. The ghost that Brian describes seems to be harmless residual energy. Brian does NOT need to worry about trying to make the ghost leave. In fact, if it is a residual haunting, Brian would be unable to communicate with the ghost, since the ghost is merely stored energy, and not an intelligent entity.
Situations where you can communicate with ghosts are referred to as "intelligent hauntings." These ghosts will unlock doors and open windows, run the faucets and can interact with you directly because they are an "intelligent" presence—the personality of a person who was once alive but who has stayed behind, rather than passing over.
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Intelligent Ghost Hauntings & Weird Electrical Activity @ 6:18 am
[...] What is an Intelligent Haunting? An intelligent haunting is the rarest type of haunting. (Residual hauntings are far more common.) In this type of haunting, you are dealing with an "intelligent" [...]
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In regards to Brian and his Wifes situation. I totaly agree with the response. I have witnessed many residual hauntings. Including Civil war battle fields. The spiritual participants have no idea you are there and they do not respond to attempts at communications. The intelligent participants are the spirits you need to be careful of because they can often appear as being reluctant to converse but often are poltergiests or demons attempting to take over your soul. I stay away from the bad spirits and have never had a violent response from residual spirits. I am not a professional hunter but do conduct searches as a hobby. I also feel that Brian and his wife have nothing to worry about. Just my opininion.
All Take care.
Hi Tracker. Thanks for the comment. As far as intelligent hauntings go…most intelligent spirits are completely harmless. Yes, there are a tiny percentage of "negative" spirits, but they are rarely encountered.
trying to get rid of the manafestation might get rid of the ghost but if he or it is some how conected to the area heal stay until he is sure that it is safe to leave or he might not even know that he is dead and want to stay
i also agree with tracker… residual hauntings can be seen but they are harmless and barely responsive to us.
Intelligent energy is also spirits that have crossed over but come back sometimes to be with loved ones. They can go back and forth.
Interesting, There isn’t any way that I know of to get rid of a residual type of occurrence. It is nothing more that stored energy, usually stores in porous material such as limestone, or brick and is released when the atmospheric conditions are just right. Unfortunately nobody knows what those conditions are. There have been cases where people have witnessed a residual occurrence of people who are still alive, so it is not always an imprint of a dead person. I would be very interested in knowing the weather conditions and time of day these occurrences took place. We have been studying the residual type of occurrence, if you could send me this information it would be helpful.
If Brian and his wife are not afraid of the residual entity, then there is no reason to worry. It is a harmless occurance and all you can do is send all your positive energy and thoughts to it, so it can move on. If anything, it can be an interesting conversation piece around the dinner table when your friends come over. Make light of the situation and you'll see that there's nothing to fear. I've tried that even with "mischievious " ghosts and it has worked.
Residual is not intellegent so there is nothing to be worried about. I agree with Omar—it can make an interesting conversation piece around the dinner table, lol! Put a lot of love and happiness in your house by having parties and friends over. Make your own residual happenings in the house and maybe the old ones will go away.
It would be pretty interesting to find out, or at least attempt to, find out who he was and what his story was!
I agree…this sounds like a residual haunting. Where as this type of haunting is kind of like a movie that keeps replaying in a cycle..I feel that, while un-nerving, it is harmless.
my husband just passed away in our home 2 mos ago and I believe I have an intelligent ghost in my home by my husband. I'll be lying in bed at nights crying and then my bed will start shaking for no reason. I catch glimpses of shadows in my hallway towards the bedroom, and my dog attends to be playing as they played or stare into the hallway for no reason. Would you see this as an intelligent haunting by my husband?
I also have purchased an older farm house about 10 yrs ago. Though not as often as when I first moved in, I still hear sounds. I can hear a radio playing in another room. The door to my bedroom would open @ night. I've had objects moved around. My dog would turn his head as if following a person around my bedroom. One night while sitting at the dinner table with a friend and telling him about these occurances, a deer antler flew off of a hutch(I have a collection of them) and landed at his feet. Later, while talking with neighbors I found out that the man who lived here died in the house. Would this be a residual haunting?
A residual haunting happens at the same time every day, month, week, year,and i do not believe it would open doors, as a residual is like a tape player playing over and over again. do you keep a log of when and what time this happens? please tell me more and keep the log of activity. have you done any remodeling to the house? do you feel threatened? thanks so much for sharing here. Randall
When I was nine years old my family moved into a house that was fifty-four years old. Perhaps it was made of older materials. My bedroom was located at the top of the staircase, just inches away from it. I awoke the very next morning after we moved in, hearing footsteps constantly ascending the staircase. It never went down and never proceeded to enter the hallway. It just kept going up. It would stop at the top of the stairs and then start again from the bottom. It did this over and over again. I ran and got my sister out of her room, told her what I was hearing and she came into my room and heard it aswell (refuting a hallucination theory). We learned that the woman who lived there before us died of an illness. Also, we had other strange things occur in that house, so I am thinking that there may have been more of a residual ghost there. I remember the faucet in the kitchen turning on by itself, a lamp in the living room turned on when no one was there, and one of my sisters saw a ghostly apparition of a little witch in the living room (however my sister was taking drugs at the time). I think the stove turned on by itself too.
Thanks for sharing. The water thing might have been pressure build up , it being an older house. But who knows, and the footsteps sounds residual. Pretty cool. The lamp dont know, lol. Always good to hear of these things. Thanks again.
I have been investigating for 8 years with groups. Orion and PI-NE I founded in 2004. I have worked on a few cases just like this. No matter what we say or do, they don't leave and don't want to! We are NOT Ghostbusters. (lol)
But here in Vermont, we get so many of them. We also get Native American spirits and can understand us but we can't understand them! Anyone know of a good site to use with their Language? didn't find any "Native for dummies" j/k :)
I enjoy watching Ghost Hunters and have two questions:
1. Could there possibly be a huge disconnect in communicating with departed intelligent spirits because we don't "talk" the same way they are accustomed to? I mean our modern vernacular might seem completely foreign to them? Young investigators who are so "forward" might frighten or confuse the spirits?
2. If I have the tv turned up loud while I'm watching the show, and they are loudly calling for the entity to show itself or make a noise, could that draw an entity in MY vicinity into action?
Heavenly Creature, I agree that sometimes being loud or sarcastic may possibly make a spirit shy away, but in some cases may even give the spirit more reason to "show itself".
To your second question. No, I have no reason to believe that any commands to "show yourself" on a tv show will cause something to do so.
I have a question. We seem to have an intelligent haunting. Every time we do construction on our house or I clean or move the furniture around upstairs we hear loud banging on the floor while we are downstairs. Knocking on the walls in the middle of the night. Last night it knocked something off the top of the refrigerator which knocked the corkboard off the wall and the recycling onto the floor. It seems to get more frequent and evident when we do things to the house. Our house was built in 1900. I have had the tv turn on by itself. Heard a little kid talking in the middle of the night and the volume on the tv turn up on it's own. Help me to understand. It's getting scary.
Nikole, sometimes moving furniture or construction can disturb a spirit or even confuse them. As old as your home is, it is quite possible this is the case. However, moving things and construction can also disturb the rodent world. I'm not saying that's all it is but ive had a little mouse knock things off the top of the fridge and go bump in the walls at night! Check for droppings in and around cabinets, stove and fridge and have an electrician check for faulty wiring because the house is turn of the century. I did these things in my own home and it helped a lot but I still have several entity's. I explained to them that it is my home and if they don't bother me I wont bother them but the second they become a problem I WiLL tell them leave. So far so good!!