I agree that most footstep sounds can be explained, but I have experienced some that just seemed beyond explanation.

For example, our house in PA. I often heard heavy boot steps on the concrete floor of our basement. Of course, when I'd go look, there was nothing there. If there had been an outside entrance to our basement, I would have believed that it was an intruder, but since there was no way into the basement other than from inside our house I was baffled.

My husband told me it was the pipes. Of course, he was always thousands of miles away at the time, so it was easy for him to say. One morning, though, we were lying in bed and BAM! BAM! BAM! there were the footsteps. My husband leaps out of bed, yelling "call the police: there's someone in the basement!". You can imagine my satisfaction when I reminded him, oh no, honey, "It's just the pipes. /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />We never could find a logical explanation, nor a rhyme or reason for the foot steps.

My husband is an engineer, so believe me, if it was a possibility, it was explored. /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

/laugh.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> Touche'

For example, our house in PA. I often heard heavy boot steps on the concrete floor of our basement. Of course, when I'd go look, there was nothing there. If there had been an outside entrance to our basement, I would have believed that it was an intruder, but since there was no way into the basement other than from inside our house I was baffled.

My husband told me it was the pipes. Of course, he was always thousands of miles away at the time, so it was easy for him to say. One morning, though, we were lying in bed and BAM! BAM! BAM! there were the footsteps. My husband leaps out of bed, yelling "call the police: there's someone in the basement!". You can imagine my satisfaction when I reminded him, oh no, honey, "It's just the pipes. /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':P' />

We never could find a logical explanation, nor a rhyme or reason for the foot steps.

My husband is an engineer, so believe me, if it was a possibility, it was explored. /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':P' />

I have no idea how the kind of haunting that we call "residual" operates (as far as I can tell, no one understand how any kind of haunting occurs) but it seems clear that there is such a thing. Hauntings that are unresponsive and apparently unintelligent are very different from the haunting we call "intelligent" hauntings.

So what gives?...

I actually don't disbelieve in a repetitious "haunting", I've just always wondered if it's actually a "residual haunting" as many people in the field define it. For years I accepted this definition(limestone(or something similar) + water + immense energy output= event recorded in the earth aka residual haunting). I'm just not so certain if that's the actual cause of it- or if that's even what's going on. I don't doubt some of these reoccurring phenomena, I doubt the explanation.

Personally, my own theory is that a single spirit is projecting this image on a cyclical basis. Just as one celebrates or remembers certain events on certain days of the year, the spirit projects the memory or how they want the memory to be perceived in the same manner. So this event was not "recorded" into the earth.

But that's just my own unsubstantiated theory /wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':P' />

I don't feel this article was saying that this type of haunting doesn't exist, I just think they were saying it doesn't, and probably can't happen in the way a residual haunting is described and has been accepted as "fact" in the paranormal world.

Also- for Jj: I agree- I think a lot of times people mistake common household sounds for "footsteps" ect. that happen every night- or every night only at a certain time of year ect.

I was recently thinking about residual hauntings and found this article- http://www.sgha.net/articles/r.....haunt.html

While I've been in a bit of an allergy-induced brain fog lately, what I took from the article was that the concept of residual haunting goes against all physics. The article basically looks into energy absorption. Each level of the electromagnetic spectrum has it's own different interaction with matter. For instance, low frequency radio waves pass right through our body as if our bodies were transparent. The other example they give is lower UV rays which only penetrate through the immediate layers of your skin. Every wave spectrum treats different matter differently.

From there the article kind of lost me(despite my usual interest in physics talk). Ultimately, they come to the conclusion that energy can NOT imprint and be replayed by the earth or the surroundings. It's "physically" impossible for matter to absorb any energy that might have been given off during a heightened event, and even more impossible for said energy to then in turn penetrate our skulls to create the "haunting" that is perceived by our eyes and minds.

I didn't, however, read of any other explanation in this article lol.

It was rather interesting to me, though, since I've questioned the widely accepted theory of residual haunting, myself.

So- any thoughts, ideas, theories of your own?

Well in the few investigations that were "repeat" of what was thought to be "paranormal" sounds (foot steps) - one of our team members is a Home Inspector.

In ALL the cases we found that these were "natural" related ... either - ants, termites, mice, rats, dry-rot and foundational questions or "left overs" where these were the problems and not taken care of - after the 'damage' to various degrees were done.

How did we know ..?

We had permission to remove a section of molding drilled a small camera hole and piped a flex-cam (fiber optic) through the floor. Amazing what you find between floors or under the floor. Some people were actually "grossssssed out" by what they saw was between their floors.

Some also became aware they would need to do some repairs by what they saw .... some also had disclosure legal issues to persue ... because they were not told about 'this' or 'that' problem with the house .. which in the State of Washington you HAVE to tell and disclose when selling a home.

So what gives?

The footsteps that always travel in the same pattern across a floor or up a stairway, the haunting that happens every year at the same time . . . a lot of us have experienced them for ourselves. So what are they?

A friend in England owned a house that was used as a watchtower by the British Air Force during WW II because it had a tower attached to the house. She invited her brother and I to spend the night with her on the night that the sellers told her to expect paranormal activity. We sat up all night chatting, joking about the no-show spirits. About 4 am, we were getting ready to go to bed when suddenly we heard steps come down the tower stairs and the back door opening, almost simultaneously. I heard a man's voice and another male voice responded to him.

Suddenly I realized that it was human intruders and jumped up to check it out. Nothing and no one was there.

What was most interesting about the experience is that my friend and her brother both heard the footsteps and the door open, but neither heard the men's voices. I distinctly heard them. I couldn't understand what they said, but my guess was it was the kind of exchange that happens at a change of shift, something like "Any activity?" "No, all quiet".

Or something like that.

But the activity did happen on the day that the sellers had warned her to expect it. They said it happened every year while they lived there. If that's not a residual haunting, what is it?

While I've been in a bit of an allergy-induced brain fog lately, what I took from the article was that the concept of residual haunting goes against all physics. The article basically looks into energy absorption. Each level of the electromagnetic spectrum has it's own different interaction with matter. For instance, low frequency radio waves pass right through our body as if our bodies were transparent. The other example they give is lower UV rays which only penetrate through the immediate layers of your skin. Every wave spectrum treats different matter differently.

From there the article kind of lost me(despite my usual interest in physics talk). Ultimately, they come to the conclusion that energy can NOT imprint and be replayed by the earth or the surroundings. It's "physically" impossible for matter to absorb any energy that might have been given off during a heightened event, and even more impossible for said energy to then in turn penetrate our skulls to create the "haunting" that is perceived by our eyes and minds.

I didn't, however, read of any other explanation in this article lol.

It was rather interesting to me, though, since I've questioned the widely accepted theory of residual haunting, myself.

So- any thoughts, ideas, theories of your own?