A Question on ghostly " banging "

[turnonthebrightlights]

Hey,
This if my first post so i hope you can help.

I have long been a skeptic regarding the paranormal and ghostly happenings.

My friend told me she lived in a " haunted " house most of her younger years and they finally had to move because of this. She said she saw the usual like shadows moving, air changes and feelings of being touched which we all know can have other explanations that the paranormal. But one thing i cant explain to her is this, she said they used to hear very loud banging, not like a creaking of stairs. If she was in her bedroom she would hear banging on the door or once in the living room they heard banging on the front window and then the ban window straight after. Another time when they where infact leaving the house on moving out day her mother was in a room and suddenly heard very loud banging very close to hernd just ran out the room. many more banigng incidents happen?

Id like to give her a rational explanation for this if you can help !

[vbloke]

Hot water pipes heating up or cooling down can be the cause of mysterious banging.

Considering that these are memories of occurrences from years ago, it is possible that she's remembering the bangs as coming from the windows rather than from the pipes or radiators under the windows.

[turnonthebrightlights]

i thought this, but her mother can remember the same. And people that visited the house?
But we all know the brain and imagination is a very powerful thing.
I mean this was extreme banging i think.

[FarSideOfTheMoon]

They maybe moved for other reasons - but this is remembered as the reason because it adds a bit of excitement?

[turnonthebrightlights]

Well no they did move for this reason.
There where not excited about this in the slightest, anyway what im tryito look for is explanation on the banging.

[Mojo]

A Question on ghostly " banging "

An incubus, perhaps?

[turnonthebrightlights]

Very funny.

I am looking for serious reasoning, if this is not a place for such things then i wont bother again.

[Dr B]

Interesting.

I have encountered it before at places near the coast (under-water tidal flooding of mine shafts creating air pockets which seek to escape) - it had a pattern to it (once a month etc) but had one or two peaks a year (in line with the highest tides). Have a think about patterns and cycles.

Subsidence, and poor building materials / workmanship can also produce effects - other things like draughts and bornoulli (spelling?????) effects can also produce this type of thing.

[turnonthebrightlights]

Thats an interesting view.
It goes to show there are so many things we do no tthink of that can be an explanation. And we are so quick to say its ghosts and such.

I mean imagine if we never had the concept of ghosts, im sure we would be able to explain things easier.

[Mongrel]

A garden gate that doesn't latch\bolt properly but is held closed with a hook?

Used to have something like that in an old place I used to live, when the wind got up it was able to swing about 3-4" and cause quite a racket.

What you have to remember though is that without actually going to the house, hearing the noise ourselves and 'investigating' all we can do is offer suggestions as to what it could be.

[Dr B]

Indeed

It is often the case that many do 'jump-to-conclusion' on these matters. What is even more interesting is that cognitive biases like the JTC have been shown to be reliably associated with thought disorder in pathology and paranormal belief - though you wont find this on any ghost-hunting website where mediums and dream catchers are the norm....

[Matt]

There are plenty of other reasons for banging other than ghosts.

Angels, aliens, signs from the gods and telekinesis are other unconventional explanations. I mention these to highlight that people often jump to an irrational explanation but if you're to include one irrational explantion as a possibility, why not include them all and admit that you just don't know what caused the banging rather than fixing on just one arbitary cause.

Hot water pipes, the house settling, noisy neighbours, (inlcuding vermin) and pranks are other more accepted possibilities. Note that a sound that seems to come from the windows may have been tranmitted there from another source.

[Mulder]

But one thing i cant explain to her is this, she said they used to hear very loud banging, ... Id like to give her a rational explanation for this if you can help !

You can't give a definitive answer. There are many possibile natural explanations but the place would need to be investigated properly. What you can say is that, though unexpected noises are probably the commonest phenomena in hauntings, they are also often the easiest to explain.

Indeed, a common scenario is that people notice odd noises, become convinced the building is haunted and start to misinterpret other natural phenomena as paranormal.

[SimonC]

Hi Turnonthebrightlights,

it's interesting, in your first post, that you specifically mention banging on the windows of the house. Do you know whether the occupants of the property had replaced the windows, or whether this had been done previous to their occupancy of the property? The reson I mention this is that there was a structural issue with the installation of upvc windows in older properties, specifically in bay-fronted houses. Some upvc frames were not fantastically strong in vertical-compression, and often not as good as the wooden-framed windows that were being replaced. This would cause the floorboards to sag somewhat ( especially in the areas around the bays at the front of the house ), as the plastic frames 'squashed'. Usually this also caused severe cracks to appear in the rendering at the front of the house.

Many properties in my area had this done, and subsequently had to have reinforcing work done around the joists and floorboards. This problem, if present, would cause a lot of creaking and ( perhaps ) banging, particularly around the windows.

Equally, I think this would apply to any adjoining properties with a similar problem.

Do you know how old the house was? Was it detatched, semi, or terraced? It would also be necessary to know the state of any adjacent properties to form any kind of firm conclusion - without that I think we best we can do is offer suggestions and possibilties.

Eta - do you know if your friend's family had a structural survey/investigation of the house done, while they lived there, to try and locate the source of the problem?

[Mulder]

Good points Simon. I think it reinforces the idea that these things should be investigated at the time. Turnonthebrightlights: Did your friend never look for an explanation herself at the time?