My parents house

I'm just back from spending a few days at my parents, though I have to say my husband and I rent a holiday apartment when we go to visit and only spend the days at my parents. One evening we were all sitting together and somehow ended up talking about strange things that are going on in the house so here's what I was told by my Mum and my brother.

- My Mum is often alone in the house and has occasionally heard loud footsteps from the attic. My brother heard the same thing once when he was by himself but dismissed it, he was very surprised when it turned out he and my Mum had experienced the same thing, though never at the same time.

- The attic has been converted into a flat for my brother and his wife and my Mum has often heard chairs moving upstairs when she knew she was definitely the only person in the house.

- My brother and his wife found the imprint of a hand on their sofa. It was too small for my brothers hand and too big for his wife's.

- The house used to be a slaughterhouse that my parents converted. My little brother used to say he couldn't sleep because 'the pigs were screaming all night'. I believe this was an imprint of the fear of the animals that were killed there.

- My Mum has recently started to see little white shadows/figures running past outside the windows. She asked me what this could be but I'm at a loss, any ideas anyone?

I'm in two minds about this house. My parents moved in there after I'd left home so I've never lived there but whenever I did stay overnight I felt very uneasy. My Mum says she thinks whoever is around them there means no harm but I'm not so sure, as my family has had a LOT of bad luck since they moved in there. There's definitely something that gives me the creeps.

Just thought I'd share, any comments would be appreciated.

Inghinn

My mother regularly sees little white shadows at the hospital where she works - it was built on top of an old mine.

None of this sounds hostile to me, more like the ghosts want your parents to know that they're there and perhaps recognize them.

Wouldn't worry too much about the little white shadows, since they are more often associated with deep stress and fatigue than with hauntings. I have some experience myself on the matter.
You must know that there lots of persons who, after moving into a new house, seem to experience a remarkable run of bad luck and end up blaming the new house for their troubles. There must be some basis for this phenomenon, since it appears to be so common, but I am no psychological researcher, hence I'll move on.
Finally let's tackle the issue of the "haunting" itself. Does your brother still hear strange noises at night? If so it would be a good idea to provide him with a small, portable sound recorder (they are quite inexpensive nowadays) to take recordings of all disturbances, taking care to note the time of the night when it happened.
It would also be a good idea to keep a diary chronicling all the suspect episodes, with date, hour, duration etc.
Finally: how old is the plumbing in the building and is it made of lead or plastic? I live in a house with 30 years old lead plumbing and you won't believe the noises it can make...

People often first report a haunting when they move into a new house. Of course, they may simply be more sensitive to such things than the previous occupants or it could be the New House Effect http://www.assap.org/newsite/htmlfiles/New%20house.html

Interesting points raised here, thanks everyone.

The plumbing is copper as far as I know. My parents live in Germany and copper plumbing is the done thing there now. The house was built in 1910 and was used as a slaughterhouse until the early 1990s. My parents then converted the ground floor and moved in 2000, my brother moved into the converted attic in 2003. They still report strange goings on regularly so I don't think it's the new house effect. I agree that people often associate bad luck with new houses or flats though, I've seen this happening quite a lot.

Another thing is that the house is situated right next to the village church. I know that churches were often built on the sites of Pagan places of worship. If this was the case then possibly there would be quite a strong energy field in this particular area? The village is very small and around 900 years old, it was burned down several times until the 1600s and after one bout of the plague there were only 8 people left if I remember it correctly from some chronicle I read many years ago. All this would have happened in the immediate vicinity of the church, so my parents plot has probably seen quite a bit distress over the centuries, which may have an impact.

Inghinn

It's a bit premature considering the building history and setting. Before you look for psychic causes for the phenomena, you should first eliminate natural ones.

Your story is certainly interesting Inghinn - never thought about getting a Medium in just to see if there are any spirit's there - or if it is just old noises of an old building - it would clear things up one way or another - hope you had a nice time out there any how