Stairs & Our Attitudes Toward Them

James Whitehead said:
You could say that stairs, like roads and corridors are places of transition. :eek:
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I hate to worry you JW but I was thinking along exactly the same lines. ...

Staircases are a threshold between one space and another. Similarly doorways, corridors and passageways are a kind of transitional no-mans-land whose only real purpose is to connect separate spaces.
 
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... I also have strange sensations around stairs. I really don't like them. Especially at night, if I've turned off all the lights downstairs and am on my way up, I run like a scared kid. Well, having seen something behind me on the stairs, it's not my imagination!

At my mum's house, there's a presence at the top of the stairs. I've never liked it, and never mentioned it to anyone, until my mum said she'd felt it too. My brother won't go up stairs on his own (even though he's 12), and we always go up with him because he obviously can sense the presence there as well and we don't want to admit to him that we know it's there too! the presence fluctuates where sometimes it's not noticeable, other times it is, and sometimes it's frankly malevolent.
 
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Stairs...interesting.

I must admit to having a...thing about stairs. I have to switch on the light to negotiate them, I feal I'm being watched as I climb (not all the time, just sometimes) and I sometimes 'catch something in the corner of my eye' when climbing stairs.

The sensation that I'm not alone is so strong on stairs that I often find myself turning expecting to see someone there.
 
TVQ:
Exactly! That's just how I feel!

I have a thing about steep stairs, but then I have a thing about heights in general. My dad told me that when I was just learning to walk, I watched him fall all the way down the stairs with a tray of tea, which made a big mess and lots of noise. So I wouldn't be surprised if maybe that has an effect on my fear of steep stairs.

Here's a thought, though... stairs are relatively recent inventions, in Western houses anyway. I do believe that it was more common to find ladders in Tudor houses. Which may explain our trepidation?

Hmmm....
 
Dansette said:
Here's a thought, though... stairs are relatively recent inventions, in Western houses anyway. I do believe that it was more common to find ladders in Tudor houses. Which may explain our trepidation?

Hmmm....
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is your sugestion that ladders are less inclined to be places where energy is focused? I doyubt it. If they where places of transition then (if the theory put forward earlier is corect) they would still be focus points.
 
I would also tend to agree with the idea that stairs are a portal, so to speak, between worlds, as are landings are corridors. Perhaps we sometimes half-glimpse a different world (and they us), rather than a past version of our own world.

I can't recall any incidence of a ghost appearing on a ladder, despite their obvious inherent dangers. Perhaps because ladders are temporary things?

Jane.
 
mejane said:
I would also tend to agree with the idea that stairs are a portal, so to be speak, between worlds, as are landings are corridors. Perhaps we sometimes half-glimpse a different world (and they us), rather than a past version of our own world.
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just a thought but...stairs arn't such a new invension. Castles and Keeps from the middle Ages had stairs, Maralow towers have internal staircases.

Therefore perhaps Dansette's idea that it's their newness that causes problems is wrong?
 
Quite possibly!

I was thinking more about houses, though, that if they were made of wood, had ladders instead of stairs.

Aren't ghosts often sighted on stairs in castles?
 
The stairs theory is interesting, but is it really possible for mere mortals to create passages into other dimensions with such ease? I mean, it's a bit bland. Like having a teapot that becomes a portal at weekends.
 
Wouldn't a more likely explanation be the optical effects of walking up or down stairs?

Sections of the visual field are blocked and then open up as the individual travels up or down.

As the traveller moves, the angle of light from windows or light fittings alter the angle of shadows, thus leading to signs of "movement" out of the corner of an eye. This would be particularly valid during twilight where the subtle effect of shadows would be less obvious but not un-noticable.

Assuming the theory about stairs/ghost sightings is correct - does the same effect apply for those travelling up or down Stana-stair-lifts? I think not - Thora Hird spent many hours going up and down those things - and as far as I am aware never reported a single sighting;)
 
Yes, I was thinking that as I was going down the stairs a few minutes ago. Also, going up stairs takes more physical exertion than walking along a corridor, and it puts your body in unusual positions.
 
Psychologically stairs can be considered lonely, even contemplative places. You are always alone on the stairs (unless you have a large mansion) and are usually on a journey with a set task in mind (I.e. go upstairs to get something from room, go downstairs to dinner) and so are in thoughtful, distracted state.

For more physical effects, it is usual to take a large breath before ascending the stairs - you are preparing the body for work - maybe the additional oxygen affects your senses in some way. Coming down the stairs, you generally look down to where you are descending to, probably causing a slight/minute sense of vertigo as your mind realises imminent danger, before your sense able to take over with the logic of 'one step at a time'. Again this may affect the state of your mind upon the stairs, leading to anything from flitting shadows to full on hallucinations. Maybe.

:blah:
 
A few years ago, I underwent the Lasix procedure on my eyes, and I was surprised by how different it was simply navigating stairs! After having glasses since the age of seven, I had become accustomed to my specs bouncing up and down my nose as I ran up or down. I wasn't even aware that my specs WERE bouncing, until I took a dive down the stairs of my second floor flat thanks to my new sense of depth perception. Sometimes, as I climb UP stairs, I get a feeling of vertigo that I never had before as well.

Another thing about stairs that can be mistaken for being uncanny, is the effect of someone walking up the stairs just behind you. I lived in a house where this was pretty severe, it always sounded like a maniac was creeping just two steps behind you, and it turned out to be caused by the way the runner was nailed to the stairs, ie; as you would step on one stair, it would sort of compress itself down, making a squeek, and when you would step two steps above it, the tension of the carpet would pull the step below you back up, causing it to squeek again. Foolish, yes, but it managed to make the hair on the back of my neck stand up on more than one occasion!

Trace Mann
 
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Stairs are creepy.

When I was a kid I had to cross the top of the stairs to reach the bathroom and would occasionally pee the bed because the stairs frightened me so much! :eek:

Years later I learned that my deeply-psychic mother was also afraid of the stairs. She told me that every time she reached a certain stair (11 out of 14) going either way she'd feel someone grab grab her and try to throw her down! This happened day in, day out for the nearly 20 years she lived there. The stair in question was right below the attic hatch. Made me wonder if there was a connection, though we never heard of a reason- like a suicide hanging, for example.

My stairs here bend in the middle and my dogs' bed is on the bend. I like to see one of the dogs there at night- makes me feel very safe. I'd worry otherwise.

My brother moved to a house where a young lad was often seen crossing the top of the stairs from one room to another. He'd often 'appear' just as someone was going up or down the stairs. Not scary- just puzzling.
 
This thread is really interesting. I thought I was the only one that was still childishly scared of stairs!:D

I like flats. I can't handle feeling scared in my own home and whenever I've lived in a house I've been scared of the stairs. I've got a kid and should be responsible but I feel like a five year old when I've ever had to get up in the night to go to the loo and it takes you past the top of the stairs. I'd rather pee in the bed!!!!! (I didn't of course, I just made sure I didn't drink much in the evening)

I've always put in down to the fact that whichever end of the stairs you are at the other end looks darker, the walls enclosing the stairs make it look tunnel-like and presumably we all learned a long long time ago that tunnels which go somewhere dark (therefore inside, like a cave) are not very good for survival rates amongst humans.We retain many such instinctive fears like fear of snakes and disgust of health-threatening things and are struck by danger colours - red/yellow etc. Caves house large cats, bears, snakes, spiders, all manner of beasties! Enter with caution!

If you get open-plan stairwells or public stairwells (which are as bright at both ends and less enclosed) you do not get this sense of fear. It's a thought, anyway.
 
Chant said:
I've always put in down to the fact that whichever end of the stairs you are at the other end looks darker, the walls enclosing the stairs make it look tunnel-like and presumably we all learned a long long time ago that tunnels which go somewhere dark (therefore inside, like a cave) are not very good for survival rates amongst humans.We retain many such instinctive fears
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Excellent point, never thought of that. Add that to the slight visual disturbance caused by using steps, and the possible minor disorientation, then it's no wonder stairs are such a focal point of strangeness.
 
Leave in place; Do not delete.
This post's content was apparently deleted by the poster, who hasn't been on the forum in a long time.

The MIA post apparently referred to having a fear of stairs / stairways.

Reason for deletion unknown.
- EnolaGaia, April 2020

NOTE: We have a separate thread for the connection between ghosts / ghost sightings and stairs:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/ghosts-stairs.9149/
 
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I was more reluctant to see what was at the top of the stairs, especially when I was younger. It was always nothing out of the ordinary, though.
 
What is it that you are expecting to find at the top of the stairs?
 
At least it is one place where you can be safe from Daleks.
 
Mythopoeika said:
What is it that you are expecting to find at the top of the stairs?
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I'm not sure. It was that whole fear of the unknown thing.
 
Xanatico said:
At least it is one place where you can be safe from Daleks.
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Not any more! Just like Piranha II: now they can fly!
 
Hi, i'm a long time lurker as nothing very interesting ever happens to me. However, i was terrified of the stairs in the house i grew up in. I don't know which was worse, going up or down.

Going up was bad, especially at night. There was the run of stairs, then the landing. Directly ahead were two more stairs going up to another landing and then a left turn into my sister's room. To the left it was two steps up to the hallway and my bedroom just past the bathroom on the right of the hall.

I hated that left turn to go to the bathroom. I don't know exactly what I was afraid of. Perhaps i should say I don't know who I was afraid of. It was better if I just looked at my feet, I guess because I could hurry by whoever was there. Night was definietly the worst though. Then my mother put a rocking chair on the landing outside my sister's room and I could not look at it! I just knew there would be somebody sitting in it!

When I was little I would be pushed down the stairs frequently. Telling my parents that I was pushed (when there was no one behind me) did no good. I would tumble down the stairs and then get a spanking for "running" or not looking where I was going. I was pushed because I can still remember feeling two hands on my back just before I went tumbling. I don;t think I helped myself any when I would hurry down the stairs to avoid being pushed. Probably fell a couple of times trying to beat the "pusher" down the stairs.
 
I have to say not only am I not scared of stairs I like them. I have spent many happy hours playing on them (only last weekend in fact ;) ).

On the theory front they are oddly liminal spaces usually serving little purpose other than connecting two places.
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
I have to say not only am I not scared of stairs I like them. I have spent many happy hours playing on them (only last weekend in fact ;) ).
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Same here, including the playing.

I still remember my Mother's Mother's house and its seemingly-endless staircases and how much I loved them.

And sliding on my butt down the carpeted staircase in my Dad's parents' house.

In fact, stairs are the one thing I'm certain I'm not afraid of!
 
Interestingly, the book I'm currently reading has two characters who as children (quite separately) had disturbing experiences on stairs.

But in both cases the child was on the staircase and witnessed something horrific while looking through the bannisters, like a killing, or adults having rough sex.

I suppose it's even possible that if such things happened in real life, the memories could get suppressed, to be replaced by a general dread of stairs.

(But if your stairs had no bannisters, we can probably rule that explanation out!)
 
But then there are closets.....

Damned upright coffins nailed into corners. <g>
 
When very young we had a weird, badly wired up, landing light.

There was a switch at the bottom of the stairs and one at the top, which was positioned on a wall just around a small corner.

Sometimes when using a switch to turn the light 'on', it wouldn't work - and you'd have to go up or down the stairs and use the other switch to activate it.

One night, whilst going to bed, the lower switch refused to work, so I ran up the stairs and around the corner - only to bump into my Dad in the pitch dark.

I got the shock of my life.

I now know how people feel when they say that they "jumped out of their skin".

Anyway. I now have a fear of stairs (at night). And switches (I sometimes have nightmares were I’m in the dark, constantly trying to switch a light on. One of these involves a VERY dim neon strip light that just keeps blinking and buzzing and never quite illuminates the surroundings).
 
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