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Ghost check: Is your home hosting unwanted guests?
Lights flickering, footsteps echoing, strange noises you can’t explain – what should you do if you suspect your house is haunted?
While buyers and sellers are usually aware of factors like main roads, schools, flight paths, or nearby railways, what happens when the concern is invisible – only becoming apparent once you move in and feel that you’re not alone?
In Australia, a recent analysis revealed that 296 haunted locations were recorded across the country; however, parapsychologist Robb Tilley noted that there are many more, which remain undisclosed.
“Most hauntings happen in private homes; you rarely hear about them. Owners tend to stay quiet because admitting a haunting can scare off buyers and hurt the property’s value,” Tilley told SPI.
“Once a place has got a reputation for being haunted even after it's been cleared, if it looks gothic or if it looks spooky in people's minds, it's still 'haunted' and it becomes really hard to change people’s perspective.”
As part of his work with the Australian Institute of Parapsychological Research (AIPR), a Sydney-based not-for-profit that studies psychic phenomena from a scientific perspective, Tiley had cleared many houses of their "spiritual residents".
With nearly four decades of experience and 500 successful clearings, he noted that Australia’s population of ghosts tends to increase in larger cities.
Tilley noted that on average, he receives two or three homeowner calls each month for assistance in getting rid of their unwanted paranormal roommates.
“The clearing usually takes a couple of hours, though properties with more spirits can take longer.”
Tilley said that haunting has been standard in residential places, as previous owners have difficulty letting go of their property even after death.
“Most of the time, the previous owners are still there; they're confused and angry. So they start doing anything to get attention because they need help.”
“Typically, the women sense something is wrong, but the men try to dismiss it as imagination – until one of them has a direct ghostly experience, at which point the family acknowledges it and calls in a professional to clear the house.”
Across the country, numerous properties have been described as haunted, with the most famous one being the Monte Cristo Homestead in Junee, NSW.
The late-Victorian, double-storey manor was built in 1885 by pioneer Christopher William Crawley, and the family lived there until 1948, before it became a museum.
Over the years, the property recorded tragedies, including a child burnt in the stables, a maid allegedly thrown from a balcony, and the owner dying from “blood poisoning” caused by an infected collar.
Visitors of the Monte Cristo reported sightings of apparitions in period clothing, unexplained cold spots, sounds of footsteps, objects moving on their own, and a feeling of being watched.
To determine whether a property is haunted, Tilley advised owners to be on the lookout for classic signs of a haunting, such as televisions switching on at night, phantom ringing, lights flickering, doors slamming, banging on walls, and other unexplained noises or movements.
“Recently, I had a case in Bankstown of a young couple with a baby who experienced screams, flashing lights, and doors slamming in their newly rented home.”
He discovered the spirit of the former owner, a woman who had died and remained unaware of her death, was angrily reacting to strangers living in what she believed was still her house.
According to Tilley, while most hauntings involve friendly spirits, often family members or former residents, poltergeists can appear, too.
“With bad spooks, most hauntings are opportunistic; they often wander around the suburbs, looking for someone scared and then enter their homes.”
He said that poltergeists can often be found in and around pubs, hotels, and former medical institutions.
“There was one case that I did about 20 years ago now in Newcastle, where the house had been in the same family for a very long time, the mother and daughter were psychic, and they knew who the dead family members were there.”
“But there was a pub next door, and a lot of men who died lived in the pub, drank there and slept upstairs. They died at the pub and came next door to frighten the two women there."
“In this case, we had to be careful to keep the family members but get rid of the troublemakers."
While Tilley said that ghosts have been among us, only 20 per cent of the population will see them, as psychic ability and sensitivity to energy are necessary to be aware of their presence.
“If you're not psychic, you could live in a haunted house and not be aware of it; nothing will seem wrong with the place.”
A couple of years ago, Tilley had a case in the Blue Mountains where an elderly, psychic, and mentally frail woman experienced a haunting in her home, prompting the family to swap her with a young, non-psychic couple who noticed nothing unusual.
“So even though a place might be haunted, you can still sell it and people can live there,” Tilley concluded.
