Comments for Old Family Haunted House: Page 1

I agree with geetha50. You have gone through A LOT and maybe talking to a counselor wouldn't be a bad idea. There is no shame in it. We all have "demons " in our lives we need to confront sooner or later. When someone goes through abuse the chances of repeating the cycle is much higher. My prayers go out for you and your family.

SaraBeth,
You have been through and seen a lot of negativity in your life. And, although other members of the family have let it eat at them, you have found a way to rise above that negativity. I understand how keeping them at arms length helps you retain your sanity and makes the past stay in the past. I may be stepping over the line here, as I am in no way trained or educated in phsycology at all, but I believe you have a completely healthy and normal attitude about what you've experienced.
Keeping your family at arms length is, in my opinion, a wise decision. You've found your way, you have a healthy perspective, and you don't seem to feel the need to hide from the past. You are a survivor.
Thank you for sharing this experience, dark and gloomy as it is, as we can all learn and take away something positive from it.
As far as the house burning to the ground? You would still have the land to deal with, along with some pretty pissed off entities. No, cleansing the house and land is going to take some work. That's going to take time and dedication. There's also the grip your grandmother still has on it, ill or not, that grip will remain after she passes on.
I do feel something should be done about it though.

Jav

Thank you SaraBeth for answering my questions. I understand where you are coming from. As social worker, I dealt cases like that everyday and it could get really depressing after a while. I'm glad that you are on a better path. Just know that there are people who are willing to help you.

To answer your questions:

1) No, we never called the police because it wasn't until I was watching a show and I saw the exact same thing happen that I even remembered it. I asked my sister if she remembered "bath time" as a child to make sure I wasn't insane and she did. As we spoke in front of my mother (about 5 years ago) we realized what had happened. My mother just got sick and asked why we hadn't told. I feel that there was so much confusion staying at Grandma's period, that we didn't question Grandma's thorough bathing practices. And Mom never thought of telling as she felt it was somehow her fault, like many victims.
2) We spoke with the bishop of the church we were attending at the time and him and a few deacons came to bless the house but he felt that they were not allowed to and that we should just leave. He felt that something wanted to harm us and he said it was very old and too strong to leave without Grandma sending it away.
3) As I stated prior, Amanda and I had supressed the memories until something reminded us so Dad didn't know about that. Both him and Mom knew of her temper but they felt that she was too old and frail at that point to do anything bad. She wasn't and when they figured that out we had cut ties. I don't think Papa was physically abused. More like, he had no power or gumption when it came to her. Mom remembers only two times in her whole life that he stood up to her and my Aunt only one. It's just... He loved her very much but like a child loves a negligent and mean parent. Does that make sense?
4) Papa passed away this March in a nursing home after succumbing to dementia and Grandma is now suffering from Alzeheimer's and staying with one of my Aunts. The house sits empty because all the children and grandchildren refuse to do anything with it or live in it. I have heard more than one family member say they hope it is dozed down or burns up. Kind of makes me wonder if they too had experiences.

Thanks for all the thoughts and advice. I have considered going to see a 'shrink' about the different things I have went through but I just learned from a young age to try and forget the past and look for the best. Despite all that has happened to me, I am very optimistic. Infact, the only real optimist/realist in my family. One reason that I have limited our relationship because they have so much negative surrounding them. I found it was hurting me, listening to them being soooo very negative about every area in life. So, I wondered if talking about it would somehow make things worse. I feel I am happy most of the time but when I think about the past my chest gets tight and the memories almost physically hurt. I just feel lucky to have gleamed useful tools like reading people and their true intent and not becoming cynical. 😳

Oh, and I had meant to say that I have *only had one experience that wasn't related to people

Wow, that is very disturbing. I'm sorry for what you and your family had to go though at the hands of your grandmother. I have several questions and some suggestions for you.

Questions:

(1) Did you ever call the police on your grandmother? What she did to you and your sister is unacceptable. Actually, your mother should have done a long time ago when things got bad with her; it probably would have prevented what happened to you and your sister.

(2) Like the other posters, I think it was the negative energy put out by your grandmother was the cause for all the problems in the house. But I was wondering if you, your siblings, or your mother tried to bless the house in anyway?

(3) You mentioned in your posts that your father had a blind eye for manipulative people and that your grandmother treated your grandfather really badly. So, you telling me that your father didn't know that your father see your grandfather being treated badly by your grandmother (I know that majority of the time men hurt women but there have been cases where women have hurt men both emotionally and physically) or that your father didn't know that his mother in law was hurting his children? A friend of mine actually reported his mother in law to the police because she spanked his kid in the butt with her cane and it left a mark. The cause for the spanking with the cane was that the kid accidentally dropped his cup of milk.

(4) I take it that you and your family finally moved away but is your grandparents still there?

Suggestions:

(1) Being in and around such an evil place, they are bound to be some negative elements attached to you and your family. I would do a blessing on you and your family according to your faith.

(2) The social worker in me thinks that there are some personal issues you and your sister could settle and the best way to do that is to talk to a shrink. It helps a lot of people and it would be just good to talk to somebody about it.

(3) If you are able to ever go back to that house, I suggest to have someone bless and totally cleanse the house. This will let out all the trapped souls and get rid of all the negative spirits.

I hope everything works out for you.

This reminds me a lot of my old house too. You always got a bad feeling from it, and my family has seen a lot of things and encountered them. My mom woke up to a long animal like scratch on her sheets and it was underneath her too, and her TV fell on her back, there was also a shape shifting demon too that took the form of my dad once, I said something to my mom in the car I don't even remember saying, I said I miss you (my moms name) and Nina... It was weird I don't remember it even in our new house things have been happening, its like its following us.

Oh! I forgot to mention that my mother was talking to me the other day and she felt that the house was a portal for demons. (everything is a demon or angel to her) But she mentioned seeing this black figure in her head as well that resided in the attic. She feels it was a demon summoned by my grandmother to do her bidding but I think that the "keeper" in my dream and the one in the house may just be a representation of my grandmother herself? I really have no idea but I am curious.

I have had other experiences in my life but they always seemed to be connected to an individual who seemed to give me the heebedeejeebies. I have wondered why I seem to keep running into "ghosts" but when I sit down and think about it honestly, I have only had one experience that was connected to someone who gave me negative feelings. Maybe I am sensitive to people's personalities and that represents itself to me? Somehow I find this less disturbing than living a "haunted" life.

Thank you all for your thoughts and support.
To Granny: Forgive me for my wording. Yes, they had become a cult. She never had a following of more than 30 at any time.
To Moongrim: There was never a dumb waiter in that house. It really is an old country house and was just pieced together over the years. No hidden passages or anything.
To everyone else, I too feel that the evil in the house was a representation of the individuals living there. More human evil was committed there than anything an unseen force could do. I don't talk about it but none of you know my family anyway so I will go ahead and mention that my mother was molested in that house by her brother, my aunts and uncle were beat mercilessly by my grandmother, and my sister and I were molested there by my grandmother. And as far as the older gentleman, I was very worried about my grandpa. It took me a long time to see that he was a victim by choice and allowed his family to be victimized as well. But as a child I just wanted to whisk him away from Grandma because I knew that he was on her list as well and he was so unhappy at times. That makes sense with the dream changing as well because Papa was SO happy we were coming to take care of him because we hadn't really spent time with them in 3 or 4 years because of Grandma.

If my theory is true, maybe those spirits are trapped in that house because of your grandmother.

Your grandmother sounds wicked and scary. I'm sorry that you saw your name on your grandmother's "list" when you were 12! Its also freaky that she immediately knew that her picture was moved. I think your dreams could have been about the spirit realm in your house. Your grandmother could have brought those things into your house to serve her own selfish needs or to do her bidding, and you tapped into the spirit realm of your house in your dreams. I'm saying this because from what you wrote she sounds like a person who wanted complete controll over people and said God would strink anyone dead who didn't please her. Thank you for sharing.

That is sad Sarabeth, that he would put those ideals before the welfare of his family, and obviously bullied your mom into letting him. I don't wonder if that added to the negative energy that existed in the house. I would think that the dream represented the oppression you felt there under the freakishly present eye of your grandmother. The man asking for your help is an unusual element. Can you think of any older males that you might have felt was being cruelly manipulated by your grandmother?

I am not sure if you had any ghosts in the traditional sense or if your grandmother intentionally left part of herself in that house to scare and manipulate (I think your dream suggests that was the case) or if there was something else going on. I will be anxious to hear the thoughts of others.

As to the 'elevator' I am reminded that in many multistoried houses of old, they were often built with what is called: a Dumb Waiter.

Http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/51979 #3.

It'd be interesting to find out if an old disused (stuck) dumbwaiter is still somewhere in that house.

SaraBeth: I don't know, but is the mention of your grandmother and her group becoming "more and more occult" mean they were "becoming a cult"?...Dabbling in the "occult" is a lot different than being in a religious "cult"...

BTW It is very disturbing to find this list as a 12 year old, see your name on it, and have your grandmother explain it to you. 😕

Nysa, yes, sadly my father did. It is rather difficult to explain but he had decided to adopt a mennonite lifestyle and he felt that included him being full leader of the home and us taking care of past generations regardless of their behaviour. My father has blind spots when it comes to manipulative people. Very large blind spots. He knew full well that grandma had a bad person list. This list was filled with people that she prayed that "god" would convert to her group or remove them from this life. And yet he chose to go anyway. I know my story is far-fetched and doesn't make sense, I was kind of hoping I might get some insight from people on here. It is difficult mentioning it without explaining the family dynamics and I was just raised to where you didn't say anything negative about family.

My first thought is, your parents thought it was a good idea for your family to live on the property with your grandmother who was at the very least disturbingly manipulative, showed signs of being delusional & was possibly far more dangerous?