I'm saying this from a place of genuine care: if you are seeing ghosts or shadows or having nightmares... and sageing, eggshells, Crystal's, and psychics arent cutting it..
Please.. please... check for things like gas leaks, water damage, vermin. I'm not saying your house isnt haunted, I'm just saying that carbon monoxide poisoning looks a LOT like being haunted.
I know that, you know that, but when it looks like supernatural things you look to supernatural solutions and you might not be thinking clearly.
I'm having a conversation with a pagan mom right now who thinks that dark forces are after her, so she's tried all the things that she knows... which apparently is not checking the hvac system for leaks.
Shes mad at me because I suggested getting an inspection because shes lived in the house for 14 years and she's always seen things like this and it's just gotten worse since she took over the house. Shes seeing entities, things are moving on their own, doors open and close on their own, people are being touched and scratched. 'Mold and gas dont do that!'
Drafty house. Uneven floors. Pressure changes.
Toxic mold syndrome can mimic depression and anxiety, cause listlessness. Guess what extreme anxiety can do. It can mess with your head. It can mess with your memory.
If you have scratches on you and you dont know where they came from, see a doctor. See a doctor. I dont know why you wont see a doctor. They can tell you if it comes from an animal. They can tell you if you're suffering from a mold allergy. They can tell you if you're experiencing side effects of gas exposure.
I wholeheartedly believe in ghosts. Absolutley not debating that ghosts and spirits and whatever you think you're seeing. I am posting this in a pagan facebook group. I 100% believe in ghosts.
I also believe in carbon monoxide.
Please check for gas leaks in your home. Please check for mold. Please check for critters. Like girl I believe you but please check these things.
She... got mad and deleted the post.
This is why we need to stress, and I mean really stress, that mundane explanations are just as important as superstitious ones, and why I genuinely worry about our echo chambers.
Yes, I know we all want to believe that the feelings of dread may be coming from an evil presence in the room, but also certain hvac systems hum at a frequency that causes confusion and anxiety.
Yes it seems reasonable that your doors open and close on their own because granmas ghost is still hanging around. But please consider that the foundation of your house might be shifting.
Yes, you might feel a sense that something bad is going to happen, but that can also be generalized anxiety or obsessive compulsive disorder.
And being in a circle that refuses to accept that mundane explanations for supernatural problems feeds and triggers delusions. The pagan/witchcraft community is extremely neuro diverse, and these delusions can trigger spirals and put people in very... very bad places.
Please accept mundane explanations.
You are not 'crazy' for seeing ghosts and your house is not dirty for needing an inspection.
If you get an inspection and it comes back clean, you can feel smug about being right. If you dont get an inspection and you're wrong you and your children could get sick and die.
Y'all I'm tired.
This is relevant to something else I saw online today from Greg from How to Drink:
With a lot of things in the brain, we don't have another person's perspectives to know what's usually experienced- this is why I know a lot of us have had the, "Wait, that's an ADHD symptom?" moment. It's never bad to check out your experiences with a doctor.
as a person with fucked up funny visual/neurological stuff like visual snow and palinopsia (I probably need to get it checked out) yeah this stuff is not normal. Kid me thought my vision was so good that I could see individual molecules but naaaah it’s astigmatism and difficult to diagnose/mostly inconsequential funny stuff with my brain
Additionally: physical conditions can also cause emotional responses. One of the most common but least talked about symptoms of severe illnesses (including anaphylaxis and conditions affecting your heart and blood) is a sense of impending doom.
That's something I see people describe feeling in a lot of spaces, both religious spaces and ones dedicated to neurodivergency, and it can absolutely be a sign that you're experiencing allergic reactions or that you have a serious condition that your body is desperately trying to warn you about.
Science and supernatural forces are not incompatible with each other. Believing in supernatural forces does not mean you should reject science.
There is a very famous Reddit post that illustrates this perfectly, although the supernatural was never suspected:
A reply:
This post is basically in the Reddit hall of fame now. Always check for mundane explanations. Always.
(knew somebody who insisted their house was haunted and refused to do anything “normal” about the clearly dangerous moldy spot in their bathroom. I finally suggested- “How do you know that isn’t just the way an evil ghost is messing with you? How do you know it isn’t literally causing the mold to grow, as a way to cause you harm in the living world?” so they finally called somebody, who took care of the evil ghost mold, and their breathing improved. even if you 100% believe in something spiritual or supernatural, sometimes you need to deal with the problem in a mundane way that genuinely works)
Once in a discussion of sleep paralysis, one of the participants talked about a demon she'd seen which jumped up on her bed, and had glowing eyes, and sniffed her crotch, and walked around her on the bed, and when it touched her there were tiny pinpricks associated with its feet.
She also acknowledged that she owns a cat and sleeps nude.
She did not see why this seemed relevant to her discussion of a clearly supernatural experience.
