OK my theory of haunted houses revisited

[Cainkane1]

I've already posted something about this large house in Conyers Ga. It's large at three stories if you count the large basement. I searched every room of the building twice.

In my former post about large enclosed places I said I believe the ghosts stem from the fact that such places were rare during our development as human beings and that when these places were discovered they were inevitably inhabited either by other humans or very dangerous animals. During the stone age, you didn't casually walk into a cave alone.

OK exploring in the dark would be worse as that's when many of man's predators hunted us down and ate us. I didn't explore at night because the electricity is off and you would be unable to see the upper stories.

OK looking around I got an eerie feeling akin to fear although I was able to complete the exploration. The feeling was strongest when I was approaching a room or opening a door.

It's genetic. I knew darn well no ghosts were there because they don't exist but something used to be in caves and other large openings.

 

[Drewbot]

Also known as your theory on why humans have a fear response?

 

[Axxman300]

I've actually been jumped in a abandoned building. Fear is just your rational brain telling you that sneaking into an empty building is probably a bad idea.

 

[8enotto]

I used to live near a small roadhouse in Wisconsin. Weary travellers could rent a room for the night, grab breakfast and continue on. It was still standing with an intact roof, the interior floors were s bit shaky but holding. Even the staff stairs were intact running to the back of the kitchen.

And it was the most unscary place to tour I had ever seen. Light on all floors and nothing but a coal bin and the ancient iron furnace in the basement. The outhouse still stood and there was no interior plumbing. All that long history of more than 50 years of strangers coming and going on a long country road. no local lore at all and no ghosts.
The last occupant left there in the late 1940's was all anyone ever told me. I guessed no electric and no plumbing didn't make it desirable.

A decade later it was collapsed into its own basement and overfilled to prevent someone falling through a rotten floor.

Did the lack of local lore and scary stories from kids keep it from being haunted? Probably. My brother heard from someone on the town board it could never be sold as it would never pass modern. code. They decided to raze it .

 

[Loss Leader]

It's genetic. I knew darn well no ghosts were there because they don't exist but something used to be in caves and other large openings.

I don't think this is a complete theory of ghost sightings or haunted phenomena, but it's certainly a piece. Fear is the first (and frequently best) reaction to the unknown.

 

[Checkmite]

I think there's something there, with your theory; but I also think it's simplistic and certainly not exclusive. People have also seen "hauntings" spring up in houses they have lived in for some time and so are presumably comfortable with; and I would hazard a guess that the most commonly-reported "haunting phenomena" tends to be on the trickstery/annoying side rather than malignant or menancing.

I have heard it suggested that the shapes of rooms in combination with electrical arrangements or faults may produce some "low frequency sound" or other that is alleged to provoke fear or even hallucinations in people; but I tend to reject this, as it too much resembles the "infrasound" bunkum that's used to claim that wind turbines make people sick. We can produce any kind of sound in any kind of simulated physical environment, so testing this sound-provoked fear-reaction in humans would be trivial, but to my knowledge no such test has been done (or any tests which have been done haven't produced results worth noting).

 

[Abooga]

I´ve never believed in ghosts (and still don´t) but one night when I was half asleep at night in some friends´ house I had a very strange, intense feeling that someone was watching me. Very strange because I don´t remember ever having that feeling before. I woke up fully and there was nobody else in the room. Next morning I told my friends and they said, of course! the house was haunted (they hadn´t told me before) and they had felt strange things, doors closed on their own, they saw strange ripples through the corner of their eyes etc. I know ghosts don´t exist, but it´s still quite a spooky coincidence that the only time I felt such thing it was in a supposedly haunted house... But then, coincidences exist, like the only time I´ve ever been breathalised, it was the only time ever that I had driven after drinking some alcohol...

 

[Drewbot]

I've actually been jumped in a abandoned building. Fear is just your rational brain telling you that sneaking into an empty building is probably a bad idea.

I think the OP's post is trying to say the Fear response was developed from the times of prehistory.

We have an automatic fear response to dark caves. Whether this fear of dark caves stems from potential dangerous animals or dangerous humans hiding inside, it's probably actually both.

A dark cabin in the woods triggers than same prehistoric fear response.
Hunting in Alaska makes someone have the same response. There is no fear like knowing you are being stalked by a wolf or a bear.

Commercial haunted houses cater to that excitement, not everyone is able to feel that fear response, adrenaline rush, that accompanies potentially dangerous situations.

A curious question is why is there an instinctive fear of snakes? Even in children who haven't read the bible, or seen a snake show on tv, there is a fear of snakes. I doubt that snakes were killing more people than other humans, or large quadrupedal predators.

 

[Armitage72]

I've actually been jumped in a abandoned building. Fear is just your rational brain telling you that sneaking into an empty building is probably a bad idea.

I used to do asbestos and lead paint inspections in abandoned buildings that the city had seized and was going to renovate. My boss and I entered one, there was various drug paraphernalia sitting on an old table in the kitchen, and we heard footsteps racing up the stairs to the attic. We decided that we didn't need to inspect up there.

 

[Axxman300]

I think the OP's post is trying to say the Fear response was developed from the times of prehistory.

We have an automatic fear response to dark caves. Whether this fear of dark caves stems from potential dangerous animals or dangerous humans hiding inside, it's probably actually both.

A dark cabin in the woods triggers than same prehistoric fear response.
Hunting in Alaska makes someone have the same response. There is no fear like knowing you are being stalked by a wolf or a bear.

Commercial haunted houses cater to that excitement, not everyone is able to feel that fear response, adrenaline rush, that accompanies potentially dangerous situations.

I don't think it's prehistoric. I think it's instinct that predates our walking upright. Dark unfamiliar places are scary because we can't see in the dark. In a cave the fear is bears, bats, and spiders. In an abandoned, decrepit old building the general fear stems from our imaginations filling the empty space with people and activities, and then popular culture takes over.

 

[Cris]

yes, but it's not just that.

 

[Axxman300]

yes, but it's not just that.

Sure it is.

There are people who have an irrational fear of snakes and thus never go hiking until the winter.

If you don't believe in ghosts an abandoned house or building is not a temple of fear, just architecture. If you don't believe in ghosts an abandoned building doesn't become scary until you find discarded needles and or street gang graffiti.

Fear is subjective, fear is something you bring to the situation. Fear is either proactive or reactive. A skeptic isn't afraid in an abandoned building until he or she is given a reason to be afraid.

How many empty houses are shown by real estate agents every day in multiple countries where nobody runs away screaming?

My reading shows that while haunted houses go all the way back to the invention of the house the concept of what constitutes a haunted (looking) house is mostly a 20th century concept that has become more focused from the 1950's onward through mass media depictions in comic books, movies, and TV shows. The Romantic era gave us the Gothic ghost story which the Victorians refined. The reasons why people fear ghosts has changed over time as well. The Victorians feared they were going insane (psychiatry was evolving into pop-culture conversation), but today people are afraid the ghosts are going to suck away their souls.

Meanwhile the phenomenon hasn't changed but our understanding of how the mind works has.