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Ghosts & Stairs

This is a very interesting thread, folks.

A wild theory that I thought up while reading this is based around the fact that ghosts seem to be trapped in a vertical plane very often - that is why some hover above the ground, or have their feet sunk into floors that have been raised etc. Could it be that the ghosts died or were trapped upstairs, and are now stood at the top wondering how the hell they're going to get down?

Also, if ghosts are the manifestations dead people's minds, then could it not be possible that their version of the world is based around the Freudian trappings of the mind? Rather than dreams having symbolism to "real" people, the "real" world has symbolic meaning to ghosts. Freudian or even Barthesian readings of ghosts' behaviour may not be as daft as it seems.

Finally on this subject, I remember when I was a very young kid being scared of the landing for a good few years, after having a dream about seeing a ghost at the top of the stairs. I ocassionally still get the fear now when going downstairs in the dark, and sometimes even bolt down the last few steps. Weird, eh, how we've all got similar stories about this?
 
Re: MUNDANE STAIR STORY

ZPumpkinEscobar said:
I liked how the writer of "House of Leaves" used the stair motif with chilling effect. I'm noticing that a lot of people are starting to use that image in videos and literature, I even saw a "reference snippet" to it in the back of an issue of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," in the travelogue section about West Virginia.

Trace Mann
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The Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine novel 'The House of Stairs' is quite creepy - even the title makes me shiver!

Evilsprout: After seeing 'Sleepy Hollow' I had a nightmare that the Headless Horseman was on the landing and leapt on me. Bloody scary. And also very silly (especially admitting it in public!!!).:blush:
 
and lest we forget!

We shouldn't forget that Gef, the talking mongoose from the Isle of Man, purportedly "lived" above the stairwell of the Irvings home.

[To pre-empt any off-threadism, we have a Gef thread here! - rynner]
 
The house I lived in til I was 10 was freaky. The bungalow I then moved into and lived in til I was 22 was also freaky. Not quite sure which one was the most unpleasant - possibly the house by a whisker.

Just to show that you don't need stairs to be scary! :)

Mind you, I vividly remember to this day a nightmare I had in the house, where something lurked in the airing cupboard on the landing, and was threatening to come out, while I stood at the top of the stairs holding onto the rail and legs pedalling, cartoon-fashion, going nowhere. It sounds silly, but it was a scary dream. Honest.
 
Until I saw this thread I never knew that stairs were commonly haunted, and it did make me think about my previous feelings I've had when climbing my own staircase.

The only nauseous feeling I ever get is near the top by my room and leads to the part of the house which is a 200 year old converted farmhouse is that I feel as if I'm going to get thrown off the top two stairs right down the steep stairway - does anyone else get this feeling, or is this a mild case of vertigo?

I do feel a presence in my house, but whether this is down to me being paranoid I do not know.
 
Insomnia - Whoaaaa! That is scarey! Usually vertigo is worse coming down because you get that terrible 'rushing' of the steps and feel that you're going to pitch forward but yes, sometimes if you're feeling really bad you feel like you want to crawl upstairs on hands as well as feet! Hang on tight that's all I can say! Is it only THIS set of stairs or are you like it on others?

Helen - now now don't be coy, girl. Spill. Lots of spooky examples from both houses please!;)
 
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned them before. Don't want to bore people, you know ;)

I'll pm you with them.
 
Forgive me if this has been posted already, but I saw the first post and immediate it occurred to me that when we are on the stairs, we are mentally either at the top or bottom (our destination) but rarely is our focus on where we are at that moment. We've mentally dropped out of time as it were, and it seems more likely that we'd see something from elsewhere or elsewhen under those circumstances.
 
101 said:
. Or perhaps the bedroom, where we feel most alone and isolated as kids, sees more ghost action than the garden, where kids are often in company.
Click to expand...

Nothing personal 101, but you never shared a bedroom with your siblings, it's clear! In my family the garden was where I went to be alone, cause my two brothers always seemed to be in the room we shared when I wanted to lie about and read or such. Alone and isolated...HA.
 
AquaMan said:
Nothing personal 101, but you never shared a bedroom with your siblings, it's clear! In my family the garden was where I went to be alone, cause my two brothers always seemed to be in the room we shared when I wanted to lie about and read or such. Alone and isolated...HA.
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Very astute and interesting observation, but wrong. As a young child I did share a room with my brother. Sorry, just mentioned that out of pedantry, rather than trying to piss on your chips. No offence meant.
I also note that the garden was where you went when you wanted to be alone, a different feeling than the one I was referring to. In my opinion (and feel free to offer different ones, folks...), the sensation of loneliness when one is unhappy and someone else in the same room is asleep is one of the suckyest kind of feelings going.
 
Oh, and furthermore, I'll wager that, if my original theory has any value, you've never seen a ghost in either a bedroom or a garden. If you have, then that'd be a nice bit of anecdotal'evidence' against it.
 
AquaMan said:
we are mentally either at the top or bottom (our destination) but rarely is our focus on where we are at that moment. We've mentally dropped out of time as it were
Click to expand...

Excellent observation!

Unfortunately, I found myself doing this very thing while driving
this morning... I was so lost in what I had to do today, that
I couldn't remember turning onto the freeway! I do remember
what I was thinking about, and clearly my "autopilot" was
functioning... but I was "not-present" during that quarter of a mile, this morning.

Scarey...

TVgeek
 
Stair poltergeist

One of the few ghostly things I have seen (so far) happened in connection with the stairs in my house. About 10 years ago I was sitting in my room doing my Geography homework. I had my bedroom door open so I could see out onto the landing. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something black about the size of a tennis ball come from the bottom of the stairs and hit the landing light (not a table lamp, the ceiling light) very hard making a loud 'dong' sound and swinging violently from side to side. If it had hit any harder the glass/porcelain lightshade would have shattered. I saw the object deflect off the lightshade and go towards the ground. I immediately got up and went downstairs to see who had thrown something so carelessly up the stairs but the only person downstairs was my dad who was comfortable on the sofa with some beer and he didn't know what I was on about. Puzzled, I went upstairs again to look for the object and after searching hard I couldn't find anything that could have been it. The light was still swinging and swung for about 5 minutes after being hit so hard. My brother was in his room at the time and although he didn't see it happening he obviously saw the light swinging. We have a cat but I am certain the cat couldn't have thrown such a large object so far, high and hard.
 
Am bored at work so thought I’d try and add something here. Sorry if I’ve repeated anything anyone else has said.

The feeling of being pulled or pushed down stairs could have any amount of reasons. I’d think that many cases would be caused by warped wood in the stairs. I’ve heard several stories of people walking along a passage and spontaneously feeling like they’ve been pushed but can’t see anything physical to explain his. Later they find out that there was a slight incline or not perfectly flat in the flooring. If this happened on the stairs, would the angle of the stairs magnify the feeling of being pushed/pulled? It wouldn’t help (as others have said) that stairs are normally claustrophobic than most other rooms in a house.

The fact that stairs are more dangerous than a landing… how many times have you charged down stair, lost your grip and balance and surely would have gone for a Burton if not for grabbing the banister just in time. All this must add a very slight hint of nervousness around stairs. Nervousness added with human imagination causes these shadows or feelings of being watched.

(As others have said in here) Could there be some form of group unconsciousness acting here as well. The stairs are indeed in-between two planes. It’s neither here nor there. When looking up the stairs your vision is blinkered vertically and horizontally and as such this leaves whatever is at the top as unknown i.e. the dark cave… the darkness of the unknown… the forth dimension or afterlife. Maybe it’s a tendency of the mind to open up to odd experience.

To end on an anecdote: My father was having a bit of trouble with a ghost (or two) at a friend’s house in South London. After being scared sh*tless by walking past a phantom girl(she couldn’t be accounted for in the house) next to the stairs. The corridor was small and had two steps down to a slightly lower level. When my dad showed the others in the house where he saw the girl the cupboard door, under the stairs, swung open to block him off from the others in the house. Not sure how this can be explained without ghosts, spirits or anything paranormal being involved.

Or possibly Kermit’s cousin had some insight when he sang Half Way Down the Stairs. Possibly he was getting at something else:)

Sorry for my ramblings. It’s Friday and it’s ni-on impossible to get my brain working properly.

MX
 
May i just add on a personal note how shocked and stunned I am that so many Forteans add posts while you are supposed to be WORKING?

You better not be civil servants or I shall have words to say!:D
 
as someone who is waiting for a police check to be finished being carried out so he can work for the civil service may i just say the only reason i'm joining is so i can be paid to spend all day posting on this board :D
 
Civil Servants? Perish the thought! We Civil Servants aren't allowed Internet access, not unless we fill in the relevant forms in triplicate rhesus negative ink and log all times of access so we can prove we are doing it in our own time and not Work's.

(PS. I'm only joking about the rhesus negative)
 
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