19 Stories From People Who've Lived In Real-Life Haunted Houses That I Really Shouldn't Have Read In The Dark

As a kid who was obsessed with the Christina Ricci movie Casper , I yearned to live in a haunted house, and I've always been fascinated by stories from people who say they've encountered ghostly presences. Recently, u/jhumph88 shared their haunted house story with people on Reddit, and in the comments, others chimed in with spooky tales of their own. Here's what people had to say:

1. "This is a weird post, but I’m fairly sure my house is haunted, and I want to see about others having similar experiences.This house was built in 1954, and I moved in about two and a half years ago. I live alone with my dog. Things started happening within a few weeks of moving in. Lights turning on and off, doors closing on their own, etc. One night, I was sitting at the kitchen island eating dinner, and a hand grabbed my torso. I also randomly smell cigarette smoke or a strong perfume from time to time. My guest bedroom is carpeted, and you can easily see if someone has walked across the carpet, but often, the blinds will be randomly open (after I have closed them) with no visible footprints on the carpet."

2. "My sister used to live in a 1,000-year-old house in England. I honestly thought she was losing her mind when she kept telling me about the 'ghost' that would purloin her items, move things around, etc. One day, I was visiting, and she said, 'It's here.' I and her two teenage daughters went to the foot of the stairs, and on the landing was a ball of 'fractal-looking' light, about the size of a soccer ball."

"It slowly glided down the stairs past us. My dog had all her hackles up and was clearly tracking it, and I felt something like a light brush of wind as it went past us into the living room and disappeared.

I grabbed some pens and paper and asked everyone to stop speaking and write down what they had witnessed. We all saw the same thing.

I never doubted my sis again. Still have no idea what it was though, and I have never experienced anything like that again."

— u/aiku

3. "I believe you. But no one else believes me when I tell this. My house, 1953, has two ghosts. My stepdaughter and her stepmom claim to be able to sense them. They both said it’s an old lady and an old man, don’t worry, they’re friendly. They said the the old lady used to be a gardener and she likes the plants you have. One day, this neighbor was walking by who hadn’t been by our house in some time and told my wife, 'Oh my gosh, I haven’t been by in forever. I remember the old lady who used to live here. She always had flowers out front here and a bunch of plants inside the dining room.' As she looks in our window and says, 'Just like you guys do!'"

"They mess with us, mostly me, often. I set my cooler down to wash it and turned around to turn on the hose. When I looked back, I saw that my dog's toy was in the cooler. They’ve turned the lights on and off. The craziest one was when I threw away some moldy cheese in the morning and went to work. When i got home the cheese was back in the fridge. I asked my wife if she took it out, and she said, 'Why the fuck would I take moldy cheese out of the trash and put it back in the fridge?'

Also, supposedly, since dogs can see them. One time, my two dogs and my stepdaughter's dog were all looking up at the ceiling, moving their heads back and forth in sync as if they were following something that was moving."

— u/kdiesiel311

4. "My family has something that bothers us at night. It waits until you are at the threshold of sleep, or already asleep, and then it vibrates the bed. This has happened to 5+ people in multiple houses and hotels across multiple states. People who have not been directly vibrated have felt the vibration by placing their hand on the bed of the person who was just woken up."

5. "I lived next to a Civil War battlefield. We had a lot of weird experiences in and outside of the house: random music, whispering, footsteps, hearing things fall upstairs, but nothing was out of place when you checked, feeling of someone sitting next to you, and so forth. I haven’t had anything weird happen since I relocated."

— u/omgletmenamemyself

6. "Didn’t happen to me, but years ago, my sister was house-sitting, and I guess the house just gave her an odd feeling. Dogs would react to nothing, unexplained sounds, etc. She ended up asking our dad to stay with her the next night, and he said the place just felt weird. My sister mentioned it to the homeowner when they got back, and that’s when she told her the house was haunted. Left that little detail when asking her to house-sit, huh?"

— u/kissing_cats

7. "My gramma was a force of nature, and I loved her. When my gramma died, the relatives locked up the house, and it remained untouched for ten years (hey, we're Italian, and we don't let go easily) except for regular bi-weekly cleanings. I eventually bought the house and started clearing things out because everything was exactly how it was the day she died. The first night we were in the house, it was hot as hades, but my kids (teenagers) tried on Gramma's fancy robe, jewelry, and wiglets. They rooted through dressers and trunks. It was all fun and games until it wasn't."

8. "I grew up in a haunted house. It's funny reading through these threads and seeing the mental gymnastics people will do to explain things. I was fortunate...or maybe unfortunate in seeing irrefutable proof of my activity. The previous owners of the home had a 2-year-old child die in the house. Well, I would have to clean little handprints off of my mirror weekly."

"I was the youngest and my hands were much larger than the prints. It wasn't a one-off phenomenon either. Maybe a neighbor's toddler was sleepwalking at night, sneaking into our house, dragging a step stool into my room, touching my mirror, putting the stoop back, and locking up on his way out.

Anyway, there was a lot more than that going on, but that's one that couldn't be explained by wind, or house settling, tricks of the eye, carbon monoxide, etc. My advice to you is to just ignore it. The more attention you pay to it, the more frequently the wind will blow your blinds open and slam your doors closed."

— u/motorwerkx

9. "My grandparents' house is haunted. I have never had anything nefarious happen. It’s not just one person experiencing things there regularly; many of us have seen or heard things alone or in a group over the years. I’m 35 now, and I've been experiencing it all my life. She’s kind of a comfort to me at this point. I’m supposed to inherit that house; it’ll be interesting to live with her again, lol."

— u/lmcc0921

10. "I never believed in ghosts before, but the same things happened when I moved into my current house. Lights would turn off and on randomly (even while I was in the room), I'd smell random whiffs of cigarette smoke (nobody smokes in my house, and nobody was smoking outside). My dog would bark at things during the night. Then, in 2019, I was having some landscaping work done. A guy was working in the front yard, and there's an oval-shaped decorative window at the front of the house that leads to the attic. I went out to ask him if he had any questions or wanted anything to drink, and he said, 'Yeah, who's the old lady who watches me work from the window?' And he pointed to the oval attic window."

11. "Stuff happens all the time where I live now and in my childhood home. I live alone and choose not to entertain it. I've jumped out of bed because someone was walking up my stairs. Potted plants have been thrown while I’m away. Vacuum cleaners have been put behind the front door while I’m away. There was a month where every night I was woken by a sound as soon as I was drifting off to sleep, multiple times a night. Dog barking at corners. I don’t like to speak about it because of the energy it brings, but I can relate."

"My mother also passed recently, so I assume it’s her and say hello. It does not happen at random times. It happens at times when I would expect my mother to be disappointed. My house has become dirty. I need to vacuum. Laundry is everywhere. That’s when something happens. I’ll clean my house, and it stops. I don’t know. I’ve never spoken of it to anyone."

— u/emotionaloil9260

12. "The last home I owned for ten years was very haunted. My daughter and I felt it was an old man. I saged, had the home blessed, and told him to leave. He stayed and we just accepted him as part of the family. On occasion, we did have occurrences when we were afraid, but overall, he was an annoying poltergeist."

— u/social-justice33

13. "I never lived in a haunted house, but I did have strange things happening after my mom passed away. She said she would let me know she was okay after she died, and I truly believe it was her. Only happened for two weeks, then stopped. My girlfriend experienced it as well, so I know it was real. We had objects moved at night to different places. I woke up to a noise to see an arm floating through the door. It knocked over a card on a jewelry chest and the handles were shaking afterward like something bumped it."

14. "My old house was haunted. Taps being turned on while fully off and tight. Bottles being moved across the counter top in front of us. Things violently thrown while we could see them."

— u/thin-annual4373

15. "My house has something here. Both my spouse and I have heard or seen things. Even our cats act like they hear things. But the presence doesn't feel threatening. I told her (it feels like a woman) she can stay as long as she doesn't bother us, and she hasn't."

— u/limabeanns

16. "I've lived in a haunted house my whole childhood and suspect mine is haunted now. Growing up, my bed would shake. I'd hear a pipe organ at night (there were none around us at all. Not a chance. Neighbors were miles apart). I heard audible voices, an angry man usually, now and then. The feeling of being watched in certain rooms. Doors would slam, and things would fall off shelves. We largely ignored it. My parents denied it happened. I ignored it or talked to whatever it was. If I was alone in my room and felt watched, I'd tell it to leave me alone, please. The only thing that felt threatening was the bed shaking."

17. "I moved into my house twenty years ago, and it came with a poltergeist. Lights and TV get turned on in the middle of the night; clocks get set forward and backward, etc. Annoying as hell but never harmful."

— u/cosi-grl

18. "I grew up in an old house and never had any experiences there. Things would creak the way an old house does. Was used to it. Years later, as an adult, I moved into an old house. Things started falling over seemingly on their own. I thought I was being careless with how I was setting things down. I started taking special care in how I set things down. When they kept falling, often in the middle of the night, I knew something was going on. I set a paint can down once, thinking how bad it would be if it fell over, so I made sure it wouldn't...seconds after turning around, I heard it hit the floor. Electronics would go off in the middle of the night. I'd hear a voice calling my name or saying hi. I was touched a couple of times."

"I'd have weird dreams when I otherwise rarely remember dreaming. I decided to do the thing they do in paranormal investigation shows, where someone talks to 'the ghost' and sets ground rules about what is and isn't allowed. I felt so stupid doing it, but as soon as I did, everything stopped. It restarted briefly after a weekend renovation project but stopped without me doing anything. I can't explain it."

— u/powerfulcheesecake48

19. And finally, "We talk to our ghost. He is the previous owner of our house, and he passed away a few months after we bought the house. He usually only makes his presence known when someone has complained about something in the house. Once, I was hanging new curtains, and I measured the window but not the wooden valance above it. I was saying how stupid it was to make the valance so much wider than the window. That night I woke up to see an old man standing just the corner of my bedroom. I yelled to my husband to wake up, and he saw the man, too, and dove at him. No one was there! Now, we are sure to talk positively about the house and appreciate his hard work."

Have you ever had an encounter with a ghost? Tell me all about it in the comments!