Five Fascinating Facts About Haunted Houses, Paranormal Phenomena and Ghosts

When it comes to the paranormal, the truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction. Ghost stories and eerie encounters have always enthralled us, so here are five intriguing facts about haunted houses, ghosts, and the world of the supernatural.

Drawn ghost of the girl in the wood
Photo by depositphotos.com

1. The Scientific Explanation Behind Haunted Houses
A large number of purported haunted houses, when investigated, have been found to possess high levels of carbon monoxide or other poisonous substances. This can result in the inhabitants experiencing hallucinations, leading them to believe in the presence of otherworldly entities. This theory, often referred to as the carbon monoxide theory, also clarifies why such hauntings are more commonly reported in older houses. The older appliances, due to their age and resulting defects, are more prone to emitting harmful gases.

2. The Doorless Village Trusting in the Supernatural
In an intriguing display of faith in the supernatural, the Indian village of Shani Shingnapur lacks any doors or locks. The villagers believe in divine protection and the integrity of their community to deter criminal activities, relying on an age-old tradition of supernatural safeguarding.

3. The Legally Haunted House in New York
In a rather unusual legal condition, there’s a house in New York that is officially recognized as haunted. Consequently, the seller is legally obligated to disclose the house’s supernatural status to potential buyers, making it perhaps the most transparent ghostly real estate deal you’ll ever come across.

4. Increasing Belief in Ghosts and UFOs
According to a 2019 study, the belief in ghosts and UFOs among Americans has seen a considerable rise since 2007. What’s more fascinating is the gender difference in these beliefs. Men, interestingly, were found to be more inclined towards the existence of UFOs, while women demonstrated a stronger belief in ghosts and witchcraft.

5. The Theatre Ghost Tradition
A popular belief rooted in the world of theater asserts that every theater houses a ghost. For instance, the Palace Theatre in London maintains a unique tradition to honor this belief. Two seats in their balcony are perpetually reserved, serving as exclusive seating for their resident apparitions.

From the cold facts of science to the warm traditions of theater, the world of the haunted and the paranormal is full of surprising stories and facts. Hopefully, these five fascinating facts have given you a fresh glimpse into this mysterious world.

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Haunted House Workers Discuss the Best Reactions They’ve Seen From Customers

I’ve never worked in a haunted house, but some of my friends did at the really big ones in Kansas City and they always had hilarious and ridiculous stories to tell us about how the paying customers responded to being terrified by them and other workers.

Sometimes, my friends even got punched in the face for their hard work. How’s that for being thanked for a good scare…?

We’re about to read some stories about great reactions from haunted house patrons.

Let’s get freaky with folks on AskReddit!

1. That was close.

“I got one of those really big buff men to let out the highest pitched scream I’ve ever heard.

He almost punched me but stopped himself.”

2. Here we go.

“I have several stories. Done it for years.

I was once knocked out. Worked in a house with a “scare room” where you peak behind blacked out curtains. You’re not supposed to lean farther than the window sill but sometimes you’re just in the moment. A guy turned a corner and was looking at the black light work on the wall and didn’t notice me right beside him.

I leaned as close as I could to him and just whispered to him. He collapsed to the ground and reached for anything he could grab. Grabbed the back of my head and I slammed my head into the sill.

Next thing I know I’m on the ground of the scare room. A co-worker steps over me and hands me a bottle of ibuprofen lol.

I was once Nosferatu and scared a guy so bad he tried to clear the corner of rocks and props instead of run around it. He fell and tumbled down the other side breaking three fingers.

Another time I was part of a blacklight clown maze. The walls were fence. We kept jumping back and forth on the fences and this woman became so exhausted from screaming she passed out.

We had to shut it down for a while until paramedics could arrive and get her out. She was terrified of clowns so we couldn’t be around her when she was waking up. We had to get our management out there for her while we waited outside.”

3. This sounds like a fun place.

“I was part of a hillbilly haunted house, my role is to hide near the entrance and jump out with a bloody spade to scare the visitors as they enter the house. I will then call out for my ‘little brother’ whom i call ‘baby’.

The line goes: “Hey babeh! We got more play things!”

One time, a customer was unscathed by my scare and was laughing and mocking me, and when i called out for my ‘baby’, he was like “oh no, wow, a baby”

Little did they know, ‘baby’ is a huge guy covered in blood and intestines wearing butcher apron with a pig mask and armed with an axe.

The moment the guy mocked me for calling for baby, baby immediately rushed out from a secret door next to him with a creepy child-like laughter. The guy got so scared he stumbled backwards and crashed into our prop haystacks.”

4. It’s Freddy!

“Former worker, i worked at probably half dozen over the years. I’ve had a few people pass out and a few yell “I just peed my pants!” etc which is always funny/satisfying but my favorite one is easily this.

I was working in a boiler room scene and dressed as Freddy Krueger. The set up was a large boiler that made you look to your left while I came out behind them on the right side. The door was straight ahead in the direction people were already walking, so they usually walked/ran towards it.

Someone designed the hallway to take a 90 degree left turn as soon as you went through the door, so many people ran into the wall, lol. Cue four or five large high school footballers (all in their jerseys) in a single file line looking pretty scared. I jumped out behind the last guy.

They all screamed at the top of their lungs, booked it towards the door single file pushing each other, and the first guy went right through the plywood wall. The rest of them piled onto each other at the hole in the wall.

I guess all that mass coupled with speed and football strength pushing all at once was too much. I started laughing and so did they. They got up, apologized, and continued down the correct hallway.”

5. The long-short scare.

“I worked as a Scarer in NZ.

I really liked the place and it was fun to work at. They also made sure that we were always safe and people got kicked out if they didn’t follow the rules. My best reaction was a from a big guy who dropped backwards on the floor and screamed his lungs out after I did a “long-short” scare.

“Long-short” is a scare were you shine a light on yourself from far way and then sneak up to the person and flash yourself again. On of my favourite ones.”

6. Zombie ship.

“Worked a zombie ship in Tampa.

I have a thin hallway that leads outside. I normally jump from a room that is tucked away but I can kinda do whatever I want.

I decided I wanted to have some fun so I decided to stand in the middle of the hallway with my fake leg in my hand and just start rocking back and forth. I’m a zombie so I’m supposed to be groaning in agony but I was completely silent and letting the ambiance do my job.

My mark rounded the corner and he saw me just rocking there. He turned around and just said “NOPE!” and ran the other direction.

I took this time to slide back into my room and the mark came back and his friends were like “What’s your problem? There is nothing here!”

“He was here! There was somebody here!” my target exclaimed.

My original mark led the group so I decided to attack the middle. They all slammed into each other and fell down laughing.

It’s things like this that make me keep working haunted houses. I’m skipping this year because of the whole covid thing, but maybe next…

I got ton of stories. Good times all around.”

7. Movie magic.

“I volunteered at one in Vancouver that was run by a guy who used to be in the movie business. He had the most amazing stuff and I suspect a lot of it was former movie props or costumes.

The best thing was this giant like 10-12ft tall ring wraith that he’d prop up in the front yard, and it was so big that people assumed it was a stationary prop, like part of the setting but the arms could be moved by levers from someone hiding under the robes.

The MO was to stay very still, wait for people to meander through the graveyard and then suddenly swoop at them. That FREAKED people out.

My best scare was with the ring wraith – a big buff guy, at least 6”3, clearly a bodybuilder, who yelped and then immediately grabbed his girlfriend/date (who was this tiny asian woman and weighed all of 100 lbs probably) and used her as a human shield. Not just like pulled her in front of him, but actually picked her up a bit while doing it

The house was really great, free to enter, donations all went to charity but being a scarer is a thankless business. I don’t know how many times I’ve been punched by kids and teenage boys because their reaction to fear is aggression.

Oftentimes it was a delayed reaction too, like you’d scare them, they’d yelp or jump back and then like 3 seconds later because they embarrassed themselves in front of their little buddies, they’d run back or run up and give you a quick punch and run away.”

8. My eyes!

“A friend of mine got pepper sprayed twice.

That was fun for him.”

9. My legs are giving out.

“I worked for one for a few seasons, the best reaction I saw (but unfortunately I wasn’t the one to cause) was a lady who’s legs kept giving out from fear, she kept getting up quickly though and the rest of the people in her party thought she kept dropping her keys, but she was dropping her whole self, the keys were in her pocket the whole time.

Other than that I just had a lot of edgy kids screaming random things when they got startled. Nothing like popping out at a teenage boy and and they just outright scream “YOUR MOM GAY” on reflex.”

10. The Clown Room.

“Worked at one haunted house, years ago, for precisely two days. I’ll never work another because there is no way that I can ever top this scare, ever.

Night one, I was assigned to “The Clown Room,” where we had life-sized statues of some clowns from the movie ‘Killer Klowns From Outer Space.’ I had a mask, clown suit, and chubby three-fingered gloves so I blended right in, looking just like one of the statues. I went through the night scaring folks and having a great time.

On night two, a former co-worker whom I had not seen in years showed up with her boyfriend. She squealed and squirmed with displeasure as they entered, saying ‘No no no, I hate clowns I hate CLOWNS!’

As they moved passed me, I remained standing still and blending in with the statues but made eye contact with her and followed her with my eyes. She freaked out and said ‘That one’s WATCHING me!’

Her boyfriend said ‘Honey it’s just a statue.’ She had passed me at this point, but her boyfriend walked up to me to inspect and make sure I was just a statue. I winked at him and slowly brought my finger to my lips in a ‘SSHHH!’ gesture then pointed up ahead toward his girlfriend.

He grinned and nodded, staying back while I snuck up behind my former coworker. I put a comforting arm around her, hoping she would think I was her boyfriend…She did. At least until she reached up to hold my hand and felt my ridiculously oversized fingers.

Everything went in slow motion and I could feel her terror kicking in as she realized I was definitely not her boyfriend. I leaned down to look her in the eyes and grumbled “Hi, Molly!” She screamed “HOLY SH*T IT KNOWS MY NAAAMMMEE!!!!” and ran off into the next room. I told the show-runner that I would not be coming back the next night as I had just completed my mission of permanent psychological damage.

Best. Halloween. Ever.”

11. This sounds like a blast.

“I was a haunted house actor for about 6 years and it was some of the best times of my life. My “scare” was a faulty elevator, really a box on a pulley that mimicked a falling elevator, so I heard many more scares than I saw in person.

Few things are as satisfying as hearing a big burly guy shriek like a nine-year-old girl once the special effects kick in.

At the end of the attraction a man (really the nicest guy in the world, but he looks like a crazed redneck) chased people out with a chainsaw. I remember one guy didn’t stop running until he was across the parking lot and in the bed of a pickup truck.

It was so much fun. I really miss working there.”

12. Made her cry.

“This was a student event, so not an actual ‘job’ – I was just helping run it.

But basically I had this great costume that had a black veil over the front of a hood, which meant no-one could see my face and so I stood very still in slightly awkward positions, lulling people into thinking I was a statue.

I’d bide my time, too – a few of the students would nervously prod me and I’d ‘wobble’ like a statue but do nothing else. Then every so often, usually with someone coming in after a prodding one, I’d leap at them and go “RAWRHGHG!!!”

The best response (which I still feel guilty about) was this Chinese girl who literally fell onto her *ss in shock and started bawling her eyes out, such was the fright I gave her.”

13. Horror business.

“I had this really big muscular guy scream once who punched the wind out of me and run away crying.

I found out by the chainsaw clown at the end of the maze that the dude had wet himself before he had reached that section. They escorted the guy out through an employee section so the guy could quietly
get to the parking lot.”

14. Run for it!

“A friend of mine went to a haunted house and the crazy chainsaw guy at the very end recognized her (they were coworkers at another job).

But she didn’t recognize him in costume so when he was just supposed to chase people out of the building he chased her all the way down the street.

It was extra funny because she started to slow down outside the building and then looked back and realized he wasn’t stopping before running the rest of the way down the street.”

How about you?

What’s the funniest or weirdest thing that ever happened to you in a haunted house?

Tell us in the comments!

The post Haunted House Workers Discuss the Best Reactions They’ve Seen From Customers appeared first on UberFacts.

People Who Have Lived in Haunted Houses Talk About Their Experiences

Just to be clear, we’re not talking about the haunted houses you pay to go into during October to be scared, friends.

We’re talking about legit haunted houses where people thought they were being tormented to ghosts, spirits, demons, and anything else that goes bump in the night.

Do you believe in ghosts? Well, maybe you will after reading these posts.

Here’s what folks on AskReddit had to say about their creepy encounters.

1. Away at college.

“I lived in at an old house in Birmingham (UK) when I was at Uni.

I can’t say for certain it was haunted but we got it dirt cheap as no-one wanted to stay there and it was definitely…odd.

I’m fairly certain I saw the old man, I was up late at my desk finishing an essay and got a weird buzzing in my ear. I turned round to see an old mans face grinning at me.

I fell of my chair and through myself across the room falling and subsequently breaking my bedside lamp. I honestly could not stop shaking and stayed up all night chainsmoking.

My housemate, witnessed her bathroom door flying opening and lights flickering.

We all started getting really low and arguing (normal i guess) but we dreaded the house, some of stayed over at others so we could sleep better. Started becoming reclusive.

My other housemate was downstairs (bedroom) she used to wake up to knocks all the time. You could hear it from upstairs, she moved out first.

I’m sure there are other things that I’ve blocked out and I’m sure all these can be rationally explained but we were all very happy when we left. It was sold after we went.”

2. Unexplained.

“Growing up my father saw a home as an investment, so we would typically buy and live in fixer uppers until renovations were done, then sell for a profit after the capital gain tax was no longer in effect.

So, I’ve lived in 10 different residences, nothing newer than 1968. My first house is now 110 years old, was a former bookie joint with a colorful history and I lived there alone for several years and never experienced anything weird there or anywhere else, except for the house I lived in from 8-16 years old.

It was a huge ranch house built in the 1950s, with half of the cellar being a one bedroom apartment with a private entrance and a bar and library. A pretty cool setup. I typically had friends over for sleepovers and we would use the vacant apartment to stay out of my parents hair, most would only stay once, maybe twice because they felt weirded out in the apartment and I would always go to their place after that.

It always felt like someone was right behind you or just out of eyesight watching you. I always avoided being anywhere downstairs unless all the lights were on or someone else was in the room with me. It was just this heavy, uneasy feeling that I have never experienced elsewhere 25 years since.

Other weird experiences there was the night the doorbell rang in the middle of the night and all the pictures fell off the walls in the hallway, and another time everyone in the house awoke at once when we all heard someone running down the same hallway.

We kept in touch with the neighbors next door, and the house has had several different owners since the late 1990s. But they said a few of them asked about the history of the house because of unexplained phenomenon.

My parents current home abuts the property of the place and they have yet to ask the couple the bought it about it. I hope to hear that they feel the same way.”

3. Unsettling.

“When I was 13, I couldn’t sleep one night so I went into my mom’s room to sleep on this loveseat she had. On the ceiling directly above the loveseat was a wooden door to the attic.

I had been lying there for about 10 minutes when I got this really eerie feeling. I looked up to the attic door and I sh*t you not, it was being lifted up from the inside. I repeat, LIFTED UP BY SOMETHING ON THE INSIDE OF THE ATTIC.

Immediately, my 13-year old self shut her eyes. When I opened them, everything was back to normal. I’ve always chalked it up to sleep deprivation, but I don’t really know.

There’s a bunch of other stuff that happened, too. When my sister was one, she would stare at the top of the stairwell and laugh at absolutely nothing. She did this almost 4 times a day. My little ankle biting dog would stand at the edge of my bed, stare at my doorway, and growl for minutes at a time.

One of the showers would turn on at random times during the day. Keep in mind this was an old shower, you had to use a pretty good amount of force to get it to turn on. I would hear footsteps and doors opening and closing when I was alone at home.

Easily the most unsettling experience, though, happened when I was 17. I was just about to fall asleep when I heard a loud voice right in my ear say “HEY!”

Needless to say, I didn’t sleep that night.”

4. Didn’t feel right…

“Growing up I lived in a small house that was built in the 1920’s as a cabin. I NEVER felt right in that house.

I always felt like something was watching me growing up. Something bad. I only felt safer when I was outside. The last time I was alone in that house I was in my 20’s, living away from home but had came back for the day to take care of my parents dogs while they were out of town.

It was night, I only had one light on in the living room where I was and I was petting the two dogs. I was just sitting on the couch, no tv on or anything, just silence. All of a sudden, the dogs turned, looked at each other like they were silently communicating.

One dog walked over and sat in front of my old bedroom door, the other dog stepped in front on me and sat. Everything started crashing around in that room. Its like they were trying to protect me and I took them and ran out. Years later I was told by a medium that my step dad had a demon inside of him.

It would make sense considering his horrible behavior growing up and the other freaky things that happened in the house. Something was there.”

5. This old house.

“My house is around 140 years old.

A couple years ago I was sitting in my room at midnight, reading. I heard footsteps in the hall which I thought were my mom’e. My door was closed and my lights were off (I was reading on my phone) and suddenly the door opened and the lights turned on, but nobody was there and I noticed that my mother was still downstairs because I could hear her talking.

Then I heard my keyboard start having keys pressed but couldn’t see anything. I checked on my monitor a few minutes later and nothing had changed.

That’s the only paranormal experience I’ve had.”

6. Peacefully coexisting.

“I live in a house from 1926, when we dug our pool in the backyard we found the almost fully decomposed head (yes just the head…) of a horse.

That’s not the haunted part just the “this place has more history to it than meets the eye” moment. When my grandma died when I was 14 I decided to try and contact her, for whatever reason. Searched up a yes and no thingy online using a candle.

Didn’t think much of it, whatever I asked didn’t really get answered. Just as I decided to call it quits, the candle spun around and died out, shortly after that a gust of icy wind swept through my living room (has made sure all doors and windows were shut, no ac no source of outside air).

I thought that was weird, opened all the doors to let some warm summer air in. Went back to clean the candle away. Just as I reached for it I thought to myself “what if that was grandma”. Same instant, the landline rings exactly three times. I walk up to get it but the line goes dead after the third ringing.

Usually the phone blinks when someone called and you missed it. But then and there, Nothing. Looked into the missed calls history only to find the last call being four hours ago. I put the phone down with shivers running down my spine, turn around to see all three of my cats sprint out through the door.

They sat outside looking back in the house as if they had been scared by something, wide eyes bushy fur and wouldn’t be moved back inside, clawing at me if I tried to take them inside (until this day they are the sweetest things, wouldn’t bite or scratch or hiss at me). Took me hours later to get them back.

I’m pretty sure my house is haunted by some spirit, but I’m not scared of it anymore. It’s not malevolent and especially when I’m alone at home for multiple days I just kind of converse with it.

For example, was going to bed one night and the bathroom lights flickered ever so slightly. I said “if there’s a spirit here, I will count down from 3 and then you’ll flicker the light”. Sure enough, when I got to 0 and pointed at one light, jt flickered.

Thought it was pretty cool, but it wouldn’t stop. I told it to stop the bullsh*t and it did. Now we just peacefully coexist.”

7. Lightning strike.

“I had one really weird experience, there’s a massive sliding glass door that plainly shows the lake nearby and the balcony where I was sleeping and I couldn’t sleep that night because the thunder was really loud, so I started staring out on the balcony.

And I could’ve sworn there was a figure standing out there on the balcony, then lightning struck somewhere nearby and there was enough light for me to go “Holy sh*t there is something out there!”

And I turn the other way, nothing else really creepy has happened to me though, other people living in that house are another story entirely.”

8. It happened one night.

“I remember one night specifically.

I was in second grade and my room was small and also we’re the entrance to the attic was (never was able to open it no matter how hard we tried.) It was about 1:30ish and I some up so I can go to the bathroom. My bed was next to the wall on one side but next to my bed on the other side was the door which was a sliding door and had a gap on the bottom to see light.

I swing my feet over to get sit up but instead of the floor, I hit the wall. Not thinking much of it and believing I was on the opposite end of the bed I kick to the other side and again my feet hit a wall. At this point, I was starting to panic but not enough to where I still had since to try both ends of the bed and again. Walls.

Once I realize this I look at my hand and try to adjust my sight but nothing it is picked black to the point where I can’t even see my hands. I start kicking at the walls and screaming and crying. Even with as much noise as I was making no one came to get me as no one heard me. I was like this for what felt like hours until.

Finally. I see the light under my door and am able to escape. I get out and go to the bathroom with tears still running down my face. In later years I told my mom about it and she said that she never heard me make any noise at all. I’m 20 almost 21 now and I still remember to this day.

And just as a fact no, I’m still not and have never been claustrophobic.”

9. That’s spooky.

“My old childhood house was haunted.

It was built over an old wheat field and according to the neighbors, some local children would walk into the field and never come out.

I never saw anything, but according to my mom, she would see random children running through the house at night.”

10. The man made of shadows.

“My first house I bought at 23, there was a man made of shadows who lived in the corners of the rooms.

He never faced the room – he faced the wall. I started have intense sleep paralysis several times a night when I moved there – I never had that before that house, and never had it after I left either. I lived there 6 years and basically finally just fled. I only went back for the last of my stuff because my mom made me.

While I lived there, the neighbors acted all weird. The lady across the street thought I was the caretaker for some old woman. I lived alone. I told her so. She called me a liar because they could all see the old woman sitting in the big front window watching them and such, glaring. She was supposedly a grouchy old woman who never waved back, and always glared and looked angry.

That neighbor spread some BS small town gossip about me being mentally handicapped. Another neighbor told everyone that I didn’t actually buy the house, my dad did, and I lived there – again – with the old woman because I wasn’t capable of living alone. Like I lied about the woman to cover my mental handicap?

IDEK. I never, ever, ever saw this supposed old woman. I never thought there was anything in that house with me but the shadow man, and he was in different rooms than the one the neighbors said the lady sat in.

When I finally fled that house, I moved to Cleveland. I got a really nice apartment on the lake. It was golden. I made friends with the lady in the apartment next door. She asked me one day who stays at my apartment when I’m at work. I was like no one, wut? I live alone.

No one but me has keys. It’s an old building and me and the lady share a bathroom vent so she said no, there is someone walking around my apartment during the day when I’m at work. It’s clear as day – she can see my room lights through that shared vent, and there’s no soundproofing in a building that old. She swore for a year that there was someone walking around my apartment when I was at work. I figured she was just hearing things.

I moved again to a townhouse down the street. This was on a corner of the street, and across the street was another townhouse. Neighbors and I would wave back and forth from our porches or dining room windows. It was really close, we were all really friendly. One day, the lady in that other townhouse asked me how my mother is doing.

I was like WTF, fine? (She lives an hour away, and only visited my apartment once for like 30 minutes. We don’t get together much.) Then my neighbor proceeds to tell me about how when “we” first moved in (I live ALONE, ya’ll), they all thought we were b*tches because my “mom” was so unfriendly.

Sat in the dining room window all day glaring, wouldn’t wave back at them when they walked outside or past her on the sidewalk – like right under the window, mind – they could tap the window as they walked by, like right by her nose where she sat, they were that close.

I tried to explain that I live alone. Neighbor didn’t believe me. So I dragged her into my place and demanded to know where this second person was sleeping. Where her things were. Where SHE was. Etc.

Neighbor never came into my home again after that, but she and her husband would mention offhand now and then that the old lady “mom” was still in my place, they saw her that morning, etc.

I bought my next house two years later and moved about a mile away. I’d been there a week when my new neighbor knocked on my door (it was snowing) and asked if I knew the old lady in the driveway between our houses. I was like wut?

He said that there was an old lady in the driveway between our houses a few minutes ago, and it was snowing, and they thought she must live with me, like my senile mom or something. They were about to call the cops, but wanted to check first in case she just wandered outside. I told them to call the cops, because I live alone.

That was the last time anyone ever saw her. My actual mom visited a few days later, I told her the story, and she went around my house shouting at the “old lady” to leave me alone.

Like, it was weird – my mom is not that kind of person, doesn’t believe in that kind of things, etc., but people have been telling me for years and multiple houses that the old woman lives with me. After my mom shouted all over the house, she seemed to be gone. It’s been 4 years since anyone saw her, and I’ve moved again.

My current house is 202 years old, and quiet.”

11. The haunting.

“The house that I lived in last year was haunted.

I no longer live there and I am a lot more into cleansing and protection now, so I no longer experience any of this, which honestly makes it even weirder.

I lived in a 5 bedroom house with 4 other people, my boyfriend, his cousin, my best friend and her boyfriend. We started realizing immediately that the house was a bit off in terms of energy, but we always put it up to the fact that this many people living together can do that to an environment.

Me and my best friend were the first ones to start experiencing things. Cupboards would be wide open in the mornings, drawers too. A kite on our wall would blow around randomly. We’d see shadows in the corner of our eye constantly. We’ve heard huge bangs on the walls and something even strummed a string on my boyfriends guitar in the middle of the night.

My boyfriend and I were also very active sleep talkers at the time. I would record us every night on a sleep recording app so we could listen again later. We would always act super disoriented and confused, like we were learning how to speak words again. It was really weird and I still have all the recordings.

My best friend and I put two and two together that there were 2 main spirits in the house. Both male, they tend to stay in different areas of the house. The more malicious one was upstairs while the more playful one was in the kitchen.

But we do think that we heard the two spirits conversing a few nights before moving out. It was just my best friend and I and we were home alone. We heard two male voices approach the door and chat with each other. My dog was barking up a storm and freaking out. We waited about 5 minutes until we opened the door to see who it was, thinking it was my boyfriend and a friend of his.

There was nobody outside our door, not even our motion sensor light was on. We had heard the voices right before opening the door. My boyfriend was a 20 minute drive away, and it was 2 in the morning. Edit: I wanna add that ever since we moved, I’ve been sleeping with selenite and tourmaline by our bedside.

We rarely , if ever, sleep talk now. Not sure what to do with that information…”

Now we want to hear from you.

Have you ever lived in a haunted house? Or maybe been in one?

Tell us about your experiences in the comments! Thanks!

The post People Who Have Lived in Haunted Houses Talk About Their Experiences appeared first on UberFacts.

Surprising Behind-the-Scenes Facts About Haunted Houses

As a teenager, going to haunted houses was about the only thing I enjoyed about Halloween.

This, even though they were in a terrible part of town where people actually got shot at least once, so my dad insisted he drive my friends and me in his minivan.

There’s just something so fun about being terrified, and if you happen to go with your crush? That’s a built in reason to grab their hand, my friends.

What goes on behind the scenes, though? I’m dying to find out, and Margee Kerr – a sociology professor at the University of Pittsburgh who moonlights as a consultant for ScareHouse (a local haunted house) – is ready to share!

8. You’re not imagining the smell.

There are entire companies out there helping design the smells inside of a haunted house – something, you know, that smells sort of like a rotting corpse but won’t actually make you vomit.

Kerr says Scare House uses several different scents, but one of them is boar urine. She says it’s “awful, but in a way that isn’t completely repulsive.”

Okay.

There’s a fine balance, she says, and it’s important to get it right.

“Something like bad breath is just going to make people disengage and move away. But there’s other smells that are weird and gross, yet that don’t take you out of the experience.”

Other haunted houses shy away from using strong scents, since they’re not something you can easily adapt if it’s not working for a particular group or evening.

7. Trends matter.

Image Credit: Pexels

Kerr and others like her have been polling haunted house visitors regularly for years, to make sure that the scariest thing they can imagine in any given year is featured during their scares.

Zombies, ghosts, demons, witches, serial killers…everything is on the table, they just want to keep up with the times.

Kerr says that zombies are still high on people’s lists, and so are popular movie serial killers like Jason and Freddy, but that sideshow, clown-type freaks have also enjoyed a rise with the remake of It and the popularity American Horror Story.

6. Employees are trained to adapt.

Employees keep an eye on groups as they go through the house, and if they’re not scared or jumping enough, they’ll abandon the plot or progression and go straight for physiological jump-scares.

The opposite is also true, and “if someone is too scared we train our actors to back off …We want them to have nightmares for a week, not the rest of their lives!”

D. Brandon LeJeune, who manages the House of Torment in Austin, TX, says the goal is “to scare first and foremost, but when that doesn’t work out, we fall back to entertaining.”

He also agrees that guests are told to “inform a monster” if they are too scared to go on, and they will be escorted out – something that happens “on a very regular basis,” he admits.

Aside from these instances, though, staff largely stick to the script.

5. Cheap tricks can be super effective.

Oldies but goodies, like black-out rooms and strobe lights, are as effective as any high-dollar scares as far as getting the reactions haunted houses want.

Kerr also says that subtle movements, like walls that move slightly when you lean against them, and floors that are a bit too creaky or too rigid, all work to just throw people off their expectations.

Those, combined with good, old-fashioned startles, remain the fundamentals of every successful haunted house.

4. And sometimes simple is better.

Kerr says ScareHouse tried a scene in 2009 where there was a battle between good and evil, but the idea was too complex – it wouldn’t allow people to access their primal fear.

“That was a lesson in how simple is better – narrative thread good, narrative cobwebs bad…a little bit of narrative goes a long way.”

3. You should never let your guard down.

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UPDATE: All ScareHouse tickets must now be purchased in advance. No tickets will be sold at the door. We have decreased the number of tickets sold each night to help with wait time and social distancing on the property. Tickets WILL sell out. Purchase online and early to reserve your date from scarehouse.com With capacity so limited many dates and timeslots will sell out. So if you’d like to visit on a certain date or time, no joke, get ‘em before they’re gone. There are many people out there who can sadly attest to being turned away because tickets were Sold Out on our opening weekend. Due to necessary Covid regulations set by local health officials our haunt feels a bit different and a bit shorter this year due to social distancing of our creatures, the temporary elimination of all touchpoints & tight spaces, and mandatory reduced occupancy for both guests and cast. But because of this limited capacity, haunt fans will enjoy shorter wait times and be able to enter the haunts with no one other than those in their personal bubble – it's just you and your friends alone in Pittsburgh's favorite haunted house. Just don’t forget your mask!

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If you’re feeling like you have a moment to breathe, it’s probably because something is about to scare the bejeesus out of you, says Elizabeth Harper, an LA-based lighting designer.

“If you subvert the patter, the audience has a moment of relief where they feel like they’ve escaped unscathed – and that’s your opportunity to really scare them.”

One employee describes how they manage this within one of their scenes:

“In the morgue, visitors see a rib cage slowly lifting up.

While they’re turned and looking at that, it allows the actors to slowly creep out of their scare pockets and slide right to the middle of the group.”

And that, my friends, is when the real scare happens.

2. They produce a natural high.

Some people have linked those feel-good feelings with being scared, others enjoy the feeling of accomplishment at conquering something that scares them, and other people just love horror, but either way, there’s a good chance you’ll get a mood boost from your night at the haunted houses.

Kerr says,

“The adrenaline, the dopamine, the endorphins that course through your body – the scary material is just a trigger for that kind of response with some people.”

Yeah, you know you like it!

1. They may be a way to connect with more primal humans.

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ScareHouse returns this fall.

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Modern humans evolved in places where threats were constant, but today, we’re not usually facing life-or-death situations (thank goodness!).

We’re happy about that, of course, but Kerr says those facts can make it hard to imagine exactly what it felt like to be a primitive human.

“For many Americans, their emotional expressions on a day-to-day basis are very narrow.

We’re not having many highs or lows. We’re living a more restricted emotional life.

I think that’s why we go out to scary movies and haunted houses – we evolve to have this massive range of emotional experiences, and we still want them.”

So, go and feed your primitive, dark side, is what she’s saying – it’s only human, after all!

The post Surprising Behind-the-Scenes Facts About Haunted Houses appeared first on UberFacts.

More Than 90,000 People Sign Petition to Shut down Haunted House, Claiming It’s Really a Torture Chamber

This place does sound a bit…intense.

McKamey Manor is an extreme haunted house with two locations, one in Tennessee and one in Alabama, and, as of today, over 94,000 people have signed a petition trying to get the haunted house closed down. Why?

Petitioners are claiming that the houses are actually tortures chambers in disguise. Critics argue that visitors are forced to eat things, are forced underwater, and are even waterboarded.

Mckamey Manor?? MCKAMEY MANOR has been featured on Travels Channel's Making monster and…

Posted by Mckamey Manor on Saturday, July 11, 2015

The change.org petition to shut down McKamey Manor reads, in part:

“Advertised as “an extreme haunt” when in fact it is NOT a haunted house. It’s a torture chamber under disguise. Reportedly, they do screenings to find the weakest, most easily manipulated people to do the ‘haunt.’ It’s reported that if Russ [the owner] doesnt think you’re easily manipulated, you arent allowed to go.”

The person who put up the petition also said, “It’s literally just a kidnapping & torture house. Some people have had to seek professional psychiatric help and medical care for extensive injuries. I propose that all locations where this is happening be shut down immediately.”

Posted by Mckamey Manor on Friday, July 10, 2015

Russ McKamey, the owner of the haunted houses, defended his businesses, saying, “I’m a very straight-laced conservative guy, but here I run this crazy haunted house that people think is this torture factory, fetish factory. All of these things that it’s not.”

People who want to experience this extreme haunted house need to be 21 years of age and have a doctor’s note that says they are mentally and physically capable of handling the situations they will be exposed to in the facilities.

Russ McKamey claims that his haunted houses are so terrifying that no one has ever been able to complete them. Terrifying…or hazardous.

What do you think – would you be willing to take a stab at McKamey Manor?

Stay tuned for developments on this story.

The post More Than 90,000 People Sign Petition to Shut down Haunted House, Claiming It’s Really a Torture Chamber appeared first on UberFacts.