My wife, step-son and I moved into our new home in Clackamas, Oregon back in 2010. Typical, family excitement -- lot of painting and removing carpet.
Neighbors were kind and all seemed great. Honestly, it was hard to think anything could go wrong.
Soo, here's where it starts getting weird. One day my wife was on the side deck, sweeping -- she told me her back was facing the steps. She heard me creep up the steps and slowly walk up behind, trying to give her a scare. She thought it would be funny to turn around fast and scare me -- but, nobody was there.
She brushed it off. As we were in bed that night, she shared with me her experience. Later, that night, I woke up to the touch of someone's finger on the back of my hand.
In the morning, all was normal. I went to work, my step-son went to school and my wife was all alone in the house. She drank her morning coffee and watched her son walk to the bus stop, out of our window.
She told me that evening, somebody whispered in her ear, "Mom." She said, nobody was around.
That night, I wasn't feeling well and went to bed early. I did have a slight fever, but nothing bad. I opened my eyes after resting them for just a few seconds. Just outside the open bedroom door, I see my distorted step-son glide past the door, down the hallway. It freaked me out and I called for my wife. She told me only her and I were in the house. Apparently, our son was still outside, playing basketball with his friends.
That night we prayed. Nothing else happened after that.
Some quick questions that come to mind for me
1. Has your Step son ever shared or had that you know of any previous paranormal encounters to you moving there? You don't have to be specific if you like but his age may give some more insight. At time of any such occurrence and now.
2. Have you or your wife previously had any kind of paranormal encounters before this? (Together or individually)
3. Did you move a great distance or same general area? (Son didn't have to change friends, schools and so forth)
4. What is your general belief... I guess gut feeling about the nature of these occurrences?
5. Being you have been there about 5 years have you felt comfortable enough to ask any of the neighbors about the previous residents or any odd issues they might now about?
6. What was the overall timescale and frequency of the events you mention from the time you moved into the house until now?
I would think though that everything you described tends to point either towards a young prankster spirit or your son keying in to you guys on a subconscious psychic level unbeknownst even to himself. Mostly since the events you shared seem to be playing off him onto you guys.
A lot of children adolescent to young adults can go through highly active psychic times. Any number of things could be a factor and certainly the stresses of a move shouldn't be ruled out.
I'm no authority on this. But it's something that comes to mind as a possibility. That and if there is any latent residual energies in that house... And your son does have any empathic ability he may be a trigger to increasing the activity for the same reason.
I don't know for certain what the cause of these manifestations could be... And the thought of your step son actually engaged in a highly active game like basketball with his friends tends to make me want to rule it out as stemming from your son specifically.
A big clue to this maybe would be if he has had any encounters of an unexplained nature himself since you've been at the house. I would think that since you and your wife have shared a few experiences already it may be your son already has had a few himself he might not be sure about sharing with you both yet. I for one wouldn't want to go alarming him with asking if he's seen any ghosts since moving there... But I guess too it depends on how old he is and how you think he would handle a situation like that.
I do believe if there is an escalation of any more weird or unexplained events of a similar mundane and harmless nature then you should seriously consider it as being discussion worthy at the least.
If the encounters do become more frequent and take on a more serious cast then you should consider taking more direct measures yourself in protecting your household. There are several here much more skilled then I on giving detailed procedures on the steps you could take. But this also is a great place to ask for certain.
I grew up in a household that tried to put up with weird unexplained occurrences we all knew were paranormal in nature and sometimes we had all witnessed together yet my parents tried to play like nothing out of the ordinary had happened instead of trying to discover the root or explore a solution.
Granted things of a paranormal nature don't lend themselves to being figured out in a normal rational sense. LOL
But where I'm going with this is I had a very traumatized and damaged childhood emotionally and psychically which led to a whole slew of problems which were very evident in the rest of my life... Stemming from issues I thought I was never supposed to talk about to anybody... Because my parents would hush me up real quick if I did try to talk to them about it. So obviously it was wrong. I didn't want to be bad or crazy or anything so I just lived with it. And some of the things that happened would cause me to question my sanity. I dealt with some very serious psychic attacks. Seriously. I wouldn't wish that on anyone's child.
In the society we live in this seems to be the rule as well. The stigma attached to seeing unexplainable things is still very real. It's difficult to find just where is the right direction to go.
Fortunately this is a pretty decent place to at least openly discuss such things.
I was hoping by posting this to you that maybe you could explore a few other ideas and shed just a little more insight to us on the situation. I mean... You left us with nothing else has ever happened since you prayed about it... And that may have been just what was needed and I'm glad to hear it.
All that said... There is the chance it was just related to the stresses of the move on your whole family. There can be some psychic energy wrapped up in all the events surrounding such things for everyone.
As with most things of this nature time can give the best indication.
Thank you for sharing with us
-Peace and light