5 Signs Your Home May Be Haunted

There are dead giveaways that your home may be haunted, but never fear:  paranormal investigators have tips for homeowners who are having supernatural experiences.

By Josh Sherman | 7 minute read

Canadian homeowners have reported a variety of strange happenings over the years, although paranormal investigators discover logical (and natural) explanations in at least some instances.

For many Canadians, haunted houses aren’t just spooky attractions to visit around Halloween or bone-chilling settings from scary movies. Nearly two-in-five Canadians believe haunted houses are real, according to a 2023 survey by pollsters Research Co.

But what should you do if you believe your home is the one that’s haunted?

Wahi spoke to Canadian paranormal investigators to identify the most common signs of a potentially haunted house and asked what homeowners can do if they think their house is haunted. 

Tell-tale signs your home may be haunted

Most — but not all — of the signs that people commonly report of a haunting are in some way related to one or more of our five senses, suggests Morgan Knudsen, the Edmonton-based co-founder of Entityseeker Paranormal Research & Investigations and co-host of the podcast Supernatural Circumstances. “We rely on our physical senses to translate our environment,” she tells Wahi. 

Here are five of the main signs that your home may be haunted:

1. You’re seeing things that you can’t explain. One of the most common signs your home may be haunted has to do with the sense of sight. “It could be a physical manifestation, like objects are moving without people actually moving them,” says Grant Evans, co-director of the Ontario Paranormal Society, a volunteer group in Brant, Ont., that investigates paranormal reports from homeowners and institutions.

2. You hear strange sounds. Things that go bump in the night — that is, unexplainable sounds — are another common sign reported by people who believe their home is haunted. “There’s audible phenomena, like hearing voices or bangs that they (the homeowner) can’t explain,” Evans tells Wahi.

3. You notice smells you can’t quite place. Evans suggests people can sometimes sniff out paranormal activity — literally. “Sometimes we get weird smells, like perfume or tobacco, as an example, that doesn’t coincide with anyone in the home,” he says.

4. You’re experiencing physical sensations. Our sense of touch also plays into suspected hauntings. “Many times people have reported over the years the actual sensation of being touched, physically touched, whether it be a hand on a shoulder or a poke or sometimes as drastic as a scratch or a bite,” says Knudsen.

5. Your sixth sense is triggered. Often, haunting begins with a gut feeling. “A lot of the times what people report really is the feeling that something’s just not right,” says Knudsen, referring to the sensation known as the sixth sense. “That’s a huge part of it.”

What should you do if you think your home is haunted?

There’s no “blanket solution” for someone who believes their home is haunted, says Knudsen: “It really comes down to the individual.” Some find solace in ceremonial solutions involving sage or sweetgrass, while others may meditate. The Ontario Paranormal Society caters its process to the homeowner’s personal and religious convictions. “It’s all tailored to the client and their beliefs,” says Evans.

The very nature of the paranormal — “the idea of paranormal essentially means abnormal: it’s out of the norm,” Knudsen points out — also poses challenges. “There’s no such thing as a ghost meter,” she says. However, when dealing with the suspected supernatural, there are several practical steps that homeowners can take. Here are five ways to respond if you think your house is haunted:

1. Keep calm. Knudsen suggests that a haunting is typically nothing to be afraid of. “About 90-plus-per-cent of these cases that people report are really actually quite positive,” Knudsen, who says she believes in an afterlife, continues. “It’s encounters with a loved one that’s passed away or something like that; it’s really just the television that makes this stuff sound absolutely terrifying,” she adds, explaining that she views what many people call ghosts as just another form of consciousness.

Not only that, but if you’re panicking you may overlook logical explanations for what’s happening in your home.  “A lot of people they’ll get themselves so hyped up that something’s wrong that every single thing in their house — even the explainable stuff — becomes odd, and strange, and scary.”

2. Unplug everything. Sometimes technology haunts us — and not just when old photos or social media posts surface on the internet. During one investigation, Evans discovered that the voices a homeowner swore they could hear were in fact coming from their WiFi security camera. It turned out the device was picking up on a neighbour’s signal. On another investigation, a mysterious perfume was traced to a hidden air freshener.

Evans recommends unplugging everything in your home to see if any of your gadgets are responsible for apparently unexplained phenomena (much of the society’s investigative technique involves ruling out natural causes through trial and error). “One thing that people tend to forget are their fish tanks,” Evans adds. “Elaborate fish tanks, some of them tend to be loud.”

3. Be aware of your environment. Lots of environmental factors can easily be mistaken for paranormal activity, says Knudsen, so it’s important to be aware of your environment. For example, if you live near a noisy place, such as a construction site, the constant buzz of activity could possibly impact your vision, potentially leading to so-called ghost sightings. That’s because of infrasounds.

Infrasounds are sound waves with frequencies under 20 Hertz. Some research suggests that exposure to these low-frequency sounds — which are inaudible to the average human ear — can affect your vision. “You can actually start to see weird things out of the corner of your eye, really weird stuff like that,” says Knudsen.

On investigations, Evans brings an EMF (electromagnetic field) meter, which measures electromagnetic fields. “A sudden, unexplained spike in EMF readings is often considered evidence of a potential paranormal presence by ghost hunters,” writes Marina Antoniou, associate professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick, in a release. However, EMF detectors can also discover wiring problems in your home and other issues that could be confused for paranormal signs.  

4. Do your research. Knudsen recommends familiarizing yourself with parapsychology, or psi for short. “Parapsychology basically breaks down into the words abnormal psychology… and it’s the academic study of the paranormal,” she explains.

She suggests checking out the Psi Encyclopedia, which is an online resource published by the U.K.’s Society for Psychical Research. “It’s updated constantly, and it will not steer you wrong,” she says. Some of Evans’s favourite titles include The Ghost Hunter’s Survival Guide: Protection Techniques for Encounters With the Paranormal and The World’s Most Haunted House: The True Story of the Bridgeport Poltergeist on Lindley Street.

Of course, reading about the experiences of others that are similar to your own could also be comforting. “People just want to know they’re not imagining these things,” says Evans. “There are some cases where people don’t want anything done… they just want to know they’re not crazy.” However, take care not to apply everything you read to your own experiences. “It could also influence people to start looking for similar manifestations that might not be present,” Evans cautions of consulting paranormal literature.

Knudsen says knowledge is empowering, although she adds that underlying mental-health conditions are behind some alleged paranormal activity.

5. Contact a paranormal society. If you’re still seeking answers after taking the previous steps, you could consider contacting a paranormal investigator. If you do, make sure to do your due diligence. “We always encourage people to look around,” says Evans. “If you are looking for an investigative team, look for one that does have a reputation, does have references, and isn’t in it for the money or to gain money from you,” he continues.

Evans notes that the Ontario Paranormal Society doesn’t charge anything for investigations, which it conducts for homeowners and institutions about 20 times a year, and that homeowners should be wary of anyone in the field who is trying to profit (Knudsen doesn’t charge clients for investigations either). “If you’re asking for money, then your evidence could be biased because someone’s paying you for a product.”