Empty Building Felt Full Of People

[Wombat68]

Over the summer I visited my old home town It's got a a lot of really old buildings. I decided to visit the old flea pit which has been restored to its 1911 glory. There was only me and a woman in the ticket office in the building. I sat down in the middle row of seats facing the screen admiring the restoration then suddenly I felt like I was surrounded my people, I couldn't see anyone but I could hear very quiet chatting and some laughter it sounded like it was coming from far away. I didn't want to turn my head in case I saw someone beside me which was strange because I'm seen things before and haven't been scared. Then just as suddenly as it had started the building was silent and felt empty. I checked with the woman to see if she had been talking to anyone she said she hadn't

 

[Stormkhan]

I sympathise with that feeling.
I once worked as a night cleaner in a massive ice rink & arena. At about midnight, even when we had technicians 'breaking down' lighting and sound, when they'd gone and staff were clearing away the flooring to return it to an ice-hockey pitch, you could still 'feel' the many people who'd been there.
This was with a 'known' crowd that had gone before. But I can understand 'feeling' the crowd.

 

[Tempest63]

Over the summer I visited my old home town It's got a a lot of really old buildings. I decided to visit the old flea pit which has been restored to its 1911 glory. There was only me and a woman in the ticket office in the building. I sat down in the middle row of seats facing the screen admiring the restoration then suddenly I felt like I was surrounded my people, I couldn't see anyone but I could hear very quiet chatting and some laughter it sounded like it was coming from far away. I didn't want to turn my head in case I saw someone beside me which was strange because I'm seen things before and haven't been scared. Then just as suddenly as it had started the building was silent and felt empty. I checked with the woman to see if she had been talking to anyone she said she hadn't

This is resonating with me but I cannot put my finger on why.
I have worked many a night shift and have worked in many old buildings undergoing renovation and I know I have felt uneasy at times, yet I can’t pin point this particular feeling to a specific project.
Probably early onset dementia.

 

[Swifty]

Over the summer I visited my old home town It's got a a lot of really old buildings. I decided to visit the old flea pit which has been restored to its 1911 glory. There was only me and a woman in the ticket office in the building. I sat down in the middle row of seats facing the screen admiring the restoration then suddenly I felt like I was surrounded my people, I couldn't see anyone but I could hear very quiet chatting and some laughter it sounded like it was coming from far away. I didn't want to turn my head in case I saw someone beside me which was strange because I'm seen things before and haven't been scared. Then just as suddenly as it had started the building was silent and felt empty. I checked with the woman to see if she had been talking to anyone she said she hadn't

I've only ever felt the same thing once. I was locking up The Red Lion Hotel in my home town one night so 'doing the rounds'. I was the night porter and the only person present that night on the ground floor. I'd done this round lots of times before so I wasn't spooked by it but when I walked through the restaurant that one night, I had the overwhelming feeling that 'people' were sat at the tables even though I couldn't see anyone.

A 16 year old employed as a cleaner told me she'd had the same experience before in that room. She's got a 16 year old daughter of her own now and years later recruited me as cameraman for her paranormal investigation team.

 

[Robbrent]

I am convinced that some buildings do soak up memories (yes the stone tape theory) as part of my profession I have been in lots of empty buildings, most offices are quite blank, Factories tend to have it but quite mild, but recreation and leisure buildings, such as hotels, guest houses, pubs and bars etc have by the bucket load, it's almost as if you can deal it seeping out of the walls, for me it's not a thing you can put your finger on, no sounds or visions just a feeling of joyous happy memories

 

[Sollywos]

Some friends of mine moved to an old house in a Victorian terrace in Caversham which was a bit larger than it's neighbours. Every evening it started to feel like the front room was filling up with unseen people. I can't remember if they every reported actually hearing voices but they certainly never felt frightened, it was more a feeling of being in easy company they actually quite liked it. They made enquiries and found out that at one time it had been the local pub!

 

[Stillill]

Over the summer I visited my old home town It's got a a lot of really old buildings. I decided to visit the old flea pit which has been restored to its 1911 glory. There was only me and a woman in the ticket office in the building. I sat down in the middle row of seats facing the screen admiring the restoration then suddenly I felt like I was surrounded my people, I couldn't see anyone but I could hear very quiet chatting and some laughter it sounded like it was coming from far away. I didn't want to turn my head in case I saw someone beside me which was strange because I'm seen things before and haven't been scared. Then just as suddenly as it had started the building was silent and felt empty. I checked with the woman to see if she had been talking to anyone she said she hadn't

I’ve had that feeling once. I was involved in a school play when I was about 14. The school was split into the old Art Deco style building and the other part built in the 1970’s.
I was asked to go and fetch something from upstairs in the old building. I went in there and immediately felt scared. I could almost hear the children talking and yelling and everything else they do. It frightened the life out of me and I crept upstairs expecting to see children up there. I got what I went for and ran out of there.
I think sometimes when we are used to a noisy environment and it suddenly isn’t noisy it can play tricks on our minds.

 

[Steev(still)]

Back in the early 90s, I worked in a small provincial cinema. It was very old, had one screen, and a capacity of about 300. It was often my job to lock up once the last performance had ended and everyone had gone.

I remember one night, after a full house (possibly T2) I finished cleaning the ticket office and went up to the auditorium to check the exits, and as I got to the top of the stairs just before the double doors, I *swear* I heard the sound of a full audience chatting and making noise- as they often did before we put the ads on. I opened the doors, and of course there was no one in there. But it unnerved me enough to make me speed up my final checks and get the hell out.

 

[Vardoger]

Back in the early 90s, I worked in a small provincial cinema. It was very old, had one screen, and a capacity of about 300. It was often my job to lock up once the last performance had ended and everyone had gone.

I remember one night, after a full house (possibly T2) I finished cleaning the ticket office and went up to the auditorium to check the exits, and as I got to the top of the stairs just before the double doors, I *swear* I heard the sound of a full audience chatting and making noise- as they often did before we put the ads on. I opened the doors, and of course there was no one in there. But it unnerved me enough to make me speed up my final checks and get the hell out.

Stone Tape Theory. Perhaps it's really Building Tape Theory.

 

[Sollywos]

I think sometimes when we are used to a noisy environment and it suddenly isn’t noisy it can play tricks on our minds.

Talking of schools I was going to make a similar comment about another set of friends of mine who moved into an old primary school. You see they reported that in one of the three classrooms at certain times of the day they could feel tension building up. The father was a bit of a sceptic but even he was aware of it. Then it would dissipate but the feeling in the school play ground felt very happy.

Of course this would tie in with how young kids feel at school getting tired and looking forward to playtime/hometime. They felt they were picking up on residual energies but it could have been remembering how they had felt as the visual cues were after all still in place even after they had done things to the building. As it happens they were home schooling their own children (and doing an excellent job of it I might add) so I guess they had built in negativity towards a restricted classroom environment.

On the other hand their assessment could have been spot on as speaking to some of the old folk in the village who had attended the school, there was one tyrant of a teacher who according to them was the form teacher in the 'negative' classroom.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Really intrigued to read this opening post as I have previously posted on here how I experienced this twice at Dartington Hall, South Devon and in the presence of other witnesses. Both occasions were in the late-90s whilst winding down in the bar in the early hours after a long, busy day. The adjacent restaurant (old kitchen) and Great Hall had all been checked and locked as soon as the last customers had left. We were chatting in the bar with a 'staff drink' and no music playing or other distractions. On both occasions the sound of an audience of people clapping and not cheering but rather appreciative, approving chatter emanated from the Great Hall as if carried on the wind, that is is starting quietly, getting louder and then drifting away again.

We were attuned to applause from the Great Hall as there were regular concerts and plays staged in there and hearing this meant the interval rush was upon us. In fact, there had been performances in there for over half a century at that time, since the renovation of the Great Hall. None of us were in any doubt what we had heard, in fact one barman had scoffed at the first report of this applause from the locked and empty Hall and I will never forget the look on his face when he was there to witness it the second time...! Peter Underwood had written about music being hared from a locked room in the house attached tot eh Great Hall and there was a 'grey lady' sighting:

https://www.dartington.org/kay-starr/

 

[charliebrown]

I don’t know if this counts, but there is an American Civil War Battlefield near our town where 25, 000 soldiers died.

When you walk the battlefield, I think there is a strange energy that goes through your body.

A railroad track runs through the battlefield which CSX still uses today separated the north and south forces.

So many people died on each side of the tracks.

 

[blithesprout]

I once participated in a hospital closure. Staff moved all the patients over to the new hospital by ambulance. After the last patient left, I walked through the halls from the emergency entrance around toward the front of the building to leave, and I swear the halls were inhabited. I didn't see anything, but I absolutely felt that there were people standing there watching us leave. I had never gotten that sense before. It was actually pretty sad to think we were leaving them there in this empty, lifeless place.

 

[Swifty]

Back when I was doing community care work, I used to visit an elderly lady called Anita.

Anita took me into her empty living room and cheerfully pointed out her group of friends. Part of her heath issues were a decline in mental health so I said something like "Hi!, it's nice to meet you all!" so as to not confuse or frighten Anita then followed Anita through to her kitchen to carry on my job. I've sometimes wondered if it was ghosts, just her decline in mental health so a hallucination she was having or a mixture of both.

 

[charliebrown]

blithesprout,

Your story reminds me of a small town not too far away.

A few years ago they left their old hospital and built a new 56 bed hospital.

The caretaker of the old building claims stuff was just left sitting like coffee cups, trash cans, old paper work.

But the caretaker says the rooms and halls are haunted with voices talking to him, but so far he has not seen any ghosts.

 

[IbisNibs]

I've sometimes wondered if it was ghosts, just her decline in mental health so a hallucination she was having or a mixture of both.

It might have been her meds. The mother of someone I know started getting her meds mixed up partly because she was developing dementia. She started complaining about people in her room uninvited, dead and living, strangers, loved ones and family friends. They frightened her. Once her meds were monitored by someone else, she apparently stopped seeing the instrusive visitors. I'm glad Anita's visitors, wherever they came from, were friendly.

 

[Stormkhan]

I don’t know if this counts, but there is an American Civil War Battlefield near our town where 25, 000 soldiers died.

When you walk the battlefield, I think there is a strange energy that goes through your body.

A railroad track runs through the battlefield which CSX still uses today separated the north and south forces.

So many people died on each side of the tracks.

On the Northern Line of the London Underground, there's a stretch (between Hampstead and Golders Green IIRC) that dips deeper, causing many people's ears to 'pop'.
This 'detour' is to go under a plague pit that would've been a nightmare to clear when the line was built.

 

[Ogdred Weary]

On the Northern Line of the London Underground, there's a stretch (between Hampstead and Golders Green IIRC) that dips deeper, causing many people's ears to 'pop'.
This 'detour' is to go under a plague pit that would've been a nightmare to clear when the line was built.

Just googled this to no avail there appear to be plague pits everywhere in London, they're almost as common as "haunted pubs" London's population in the 14thc was reckoned in the tens of thousands, even if half of them died it would only be low tens of thousands of dead. Admittedly many places like the one you just described would have been well outside the city and would have had their own plague pits.

 

[Stpauli9]

I am convinced that some buildings do soak up memories (yes the stone tape theory) as part of my profession I have been in lots of empty buildings, most offices are quite blank, Factories tend to have it but quite mild, but recreation and leisure buildings, such as hotels, guest houses, pubs and bars etc have by the bucket load, it's almost as if you can deal it seeping out of the walls, for me it's not a thing you can put your finger on, no sounds or visions just a feeling of joyous happy memories

Whilst I can agree, we have no evidence for the stone tape theory, and it was literally created for a TV serial...it is literal fiction.

 

[Swifty]

Whilst I can agree, we have no evidence for the stone tape theory, and it was literally created for a TV serial...it is literal fiction.

The first time I remember hearing of stone tape theory was on a TV show that had someone put an ancient pot that had been made on a potter's wheel onto a device like a record turntable. I can remember the pot was left standing up as it revolved, I can't remember what they used to act as as a stylus but I think it was a laser and they were able to play back voices from the pot. I can't remember the name of the show but it went on to show an older gentleman in a very old stone house that had a river flowing underneath it, he was explaining something called the stone tape theory and suggesting that the stone with the added water flowing underneath the building was what was enabling 'playbacks' or the place being haunted. Is this the same show you're taking about?.

 

[Mythopoeika]

The first time I remember hearing of stone tape theory was on a TV show that had someone put an ancient pot that had been made on a potter's wheel onto a device like a record turntable. I can remember the pot was left standing up as it revolved, I can't remember what they used to act as as a stylus but I think it was a laser and they were able to play back voices from the pot. I can't remember the name of the show but it went on to show an older gentleman in a very old stone house that had a river flowing underneath it, he was explaining something called the stone tape theory and suggesting that the stone with the added water flowing underneath the building was what was enabling 'playbacks' or the place being haunted. Is this the same show you're taking about?.

Mythbusters tried to make pottery that recorded sounds. Don't think they had much success.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Whilst I can agree, we have no evidence for the stone tape theory, and it was literally created for a TV serial...it is literal fiction.

Danny Robins devotes a chapter to this in his new 'Into The Uncanny" book and makes this very point. He talks with a physicist who explains why stone tape theory should not be possible on an atomic level. That said, if we go back a century to 1923 many of the beliefs such scientists held have since been overturned so perhaps we don't know it all in 2023.

 

[kesavaross]

I remember years ago some scientists claiming they had captured some voices speaking at the time an old oil painting was painted. The theory was as the brush stroke was made a person or people speaking would leave micro sound waves in the wet paint. Whether or not the claim was factually true, dunno.

 

[Frideswide]

an older gentleman in a very old stone house that had a river flowing underneath it,

Could that have been TC Lethbridge?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._C._Lethbridge

or maybe this - Colin Wilson being interviewed by the band The Sons of TC-Lethbridge?


https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2022/09/the-story-of-a-giant-by-the-sons-of-tc-lethbridge.html

Image from the above site. It's a good read, even if it's not what you are thinking of @Swifty !

 

[Swifty]

Could that have been TC Lethbridge?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._C._Lethbridge

or maybe this - Colin Wilson being interviewed by the band The Sons of TC-Lethbridge?


https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2022/09/the-story-of-a-giant-by-the-sons-of-tc-lethbridge.html

Image from the above site. It's a good read, even if it's not what you are thinking of @Swifty !

View attachment 70303

Something makes me feel the footage I'm talking about was more contemporary Arthur C Clarke TV era so probably not Mr Lethbridge but thank you. I don't recall to be honest but I remember it all looking very early 80's instead.

 

[Swifty]

I remember years ago some scientists claiming they had captured some voices speaking at the time an old oil painting was painted. The theory was as the brush stroke was made a person or people speaking would leave micro sound waves in the wet paint. Whether or not the claim was factually true, dunno.

I'd love to learn more about this particular claim if you're able to find out more about it please kesavaross. As we've been able to invent wax to recording disks to magnetic cassette tapes to compact discs and beyond, we can still listen to dead people like Elvis or whoever so it makes sense to me that sounds at least can be recorded and played back from people alive at the time so why not images under the correct circumstances.

 

[kesavaross]

I'd love to learn more about this particular claim if you're able to find out more about it please kesavaross. As we've been able to invent wax to recording disks to magnetic cassette tapes to compact discs and beyond, we can still listen to dead people like Elvis or whoever so it makes sense to me that sounds at least can be recorded and played back from people alive at the time so why not images under the correct circumstances.

During years gone by when I had all my teeth and losing them was in the long distance future, I used to have delivered many monthly magazines, the FT amongst them. It was an article in one of those magazines that I read about it. This was long, long before the internet. All the magazines I read were all then well respected unlike now. Most of them are long gone anyway.

I've done a search using crap biased google as well as using other browsers like Bravo, etc, but unfortunately, no luck. Sorry.

 

[Stpauli9]

I remember years ago some scientists claiming they had captured some voices speaking at the time an old oil painting was painted. The theory was as the brush stroke was made a person or people speaking would leave micro sound waves in the wet paint. Whether or not the claim was factually true, dunno.

They're saying 'This guy's awful!'

 

[hunck]

I remember years ago some scientists claiming they had captured some voices speaking at the time an old oil painting was painted. The theory was as the brush stroke was made a person or people speaking would leave micro sound waves in the wet paint. Whether or not the claim was factually true, dunno.

Sounds like nonsense to be honest. How do you get to hear the voices - hold the painting up to your ear? And how is the sound transmitted? You need some sort of movement somewhere to produce a sound. Where is the movement in an oil painting?

 

[kesavaross]

Sounds like nonsense to be honest. How do you get to hear the voices - hold the painting up to your ear? And how is the sound transmitted? You need some sort of movement somewhere to produce a sound. Where is the movement in an oil painting?

It was an article in a reputable magazine. I don't know how the scientist recovered the sound.