An Introduction to the Attic
Have you ever lived in a haunted house, or visited one?
Other than picking up a few weird vibes in several rooms of my grandfather’s 400 year old cottage, I hadn’t really had anything to do with the sort, until I moved into a very cute little mud-brick cottage on a 5 acre escarpment overlooking a lush green valley… around 10 years ago now.
I fell in love with the place the minute I saw it. I knew from the moment I reached the secluded house at the top of that steep and winding driveway that I had to have it. This was despite the fact that the place really was rough and ready, only one step away from ‘glamping’ to be honest. The house barely had running hot and cold water, only one proper bedroom (proper because it had a door), a tiny bathroom and was situated in a complete and utter danger zone for bush fires and snakes, both which are plentiful in that part of the world. I didn’t care. This cottage was mud-brick, something I had always wanted; it was private, it featured large expanses of glass to take in the views, a claw foot bathtub and it was somewhere truly fabulous for the children to play and explore (snake awareness being drummed into them from a very early age). The place oozed charm and privacy, and the rent was cheap. It was my kind of house.
Moving day was therefore a happy day indeed for me; I was back with my family, I had the house of my dreams and a new job that I loved. I also had extra house-guests that I hadn’t bargained on which caused a bit of a problem, not really for me, but for my poor kids. The place was active.
I could write an entire novel about that place, but to cut a long story short, I really believe the house was situated on some sort of energy line (there was quartz rock everywhere) that acted like a magnet for spirits, but it was so much more than that. Over the course of the four years we lived there, I had one of only a few real out of body experiences there; my son who was only 7 years old at the time, experienced what I can only describe as some sort of dimension shift – there’s room for a blog about that little episode in the not too distant future – my daughter saw my doppelganger which totally freaked her out, UFO sightings were a regular occurrence and interestingly enough, there was one spot on the property that every male visitor picked as being weird. Every, single, one. Whether it was my ex-husband, brother-in-law, friends, friends of friends, colleagues…any male who visited was challenged by me to find the spot, and all of them without fail went straight to that same spot. One of my closest friends was visiting after having just returned from overseas, and when I told him about the phenomena without saying where; he walked around the house and came back to me looking totally spooked, saying ‘who’s buried there?!!’ Of course he had picked the right spot. I actually found it to be a lovely spot, it made me feel really peaceful, so there you go!
Ghosts, hauntings…are they real? Well to me, they are. What’s the difference between hauntings and residual energy. Are they one and the same? Not necessarily, I think. Paranormal Manor contributor Kelti Goudie has written a great blog on this. Take a peek inside Paranormal Manor’s attic and have a closer look at the housemates we can’t see!
Carrie x
