Hauntings - What Causes The Feeling Of Dread?

[Iggle Piggle]

I have personal experience of this feeling of dread and being a fully rational person cannot explain what it is or what causes it.
My particular experience was in an old house. Mooching the lower rooms I was fine but I went to climb the stairs and on precisely the 3rd step I got the feeling. The feeling was so strong that I couldn't force myself past it and left the building.
Weird !

[jomifl]

Perhaps if you hadn't heard about the supernatural you would have been OK?

[Iggle Piggle]

no way. I'm not easily 'spooked' by anything and this was a very strong feeling !

[ludwig]

^ unless a ghost jumps out of course.

[Octavius]

GAD, its all in the brain and can be treated with therapy or drugs.

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Anxiety/Pages/Introduction.aspx

[sandyRoe]

If somebody was told they were going to a notoriously haunted house they might feel apprehension. If they were told they were going to a great party, and that happened to be held in a house that was haunted but they didn't know, they'd feel nothing but anticipation. I'd say the dread is all in the mind.

[Iggle Piggle]

not quite there, I didn't know the house was actually haunted until a few weeks after my visit and some research.
Also I sent in a friend who was an ex-army corporal and he got the same sense on the 4th step!! No winding up at all as I didn't tell him about my experience until after he had come out. :-)

[Octavius]

So did he tell you about his 4th step before you told him about your 3rd step ? Maybe you both subconsciously noticed some dodgey treads and a wonkey balustrade.

[Iggle Piggle]

The chap came out and said he couldn't get a look around upstairs because he got a cold feeling of dread on the 4th step, I then told him about my visit. After I dodged his punch, we did the research into the property.
The feeling is horrible, like something really nasty is about to happen, it's more than a physical movement or a chill, it's deeper than that, really foreboding and something I wasn't prepared to 'push on through'

[Zeuhl]

I think most people have experienced 'atmospheres' good and bad in places

this seems like an extreme example

we are susceptible to unseen forces such as electro magnetic fields

[jim360]

It depends on the house, but such feelings of dread are probably a hangover from the time when humans were nearer to the bottom of the food chains. Therefore any noises, or just not being able to see round corners, can lead to fear of the unknown. Perfectly natural and rational. Exactly what is causing this fear will depend on the house in question, but it's more likely to be a response to the unknown than anything else.

[doctordb]

'being a fully rational person'
'I didn't know the house was haunted until a few weeks after my visit'

The second sentence is at odds with the first.

[jomifl]

Probably a subconcious fear of the unknown, fear of invading someone else's territory and too many daft movies.

[jim360]

Incidentally, no-one -- no-one -- is fully rational. For myself, I have a terror of spiral staircases, and of heights, based on some idea that the hundreds-of-years-old building will collapse under my weight. I keep telling myself that it's nonsense but that never works. We all have our moments of irrationality. This is no different.

[Iggle Piggle]

A little background information, the house was derelict and had been empty for over 30 years, the stairs were structurally safe and our research showed up a fatality around 30 years ago ... upstairs.
Food for thought.

[pixie373]

I expect there have been fatalities in most houses at some point. Maybe the house looked a bit creepy, as in the sort they use in films and set you both off.

[Octavius]

"the house was derelict and had been empty for over 30 years, the stairs were structurally safe and our research showed up a fatality around 30 years ago"

All in the mind. Have you ever visited a graveyard? At night? The catacombs in Rome, the underground burial chambers in Egypt? Once you realise that there is no earthly attachment to death or ethereal other than in the mind, then you can progress and enjoy life. You could even take up urban exploration.

[murraymints]

The catacombs in Rome are 'orrible....!

[Octavius]

They are a bit damp, dark and dingey, and have the smell of death.....but not haunted...