There are houses and castles that are said to be haunted by the spirits of the deceased. While many people tend to avoid such spectral dwellings; some individuals actually seek out such places to acquire paranormal experiences. There have been houses said to be haunted whereby the owners allegedly have experienced ghostly phenomena that frightened them to the point of selling. Sometimes homes are put up for sale, after the owners have learned a murder or a suicide was committed there, even after many years. In other instances owners have decided to sell, even though they have witnessed nothing strange nor ghostly effects. If the owners have learned the house was built over an ancient burial ground for example many simply choose not to live there is the right thing to do.
Castles are centuries and centuries old and the law of averages state eventually some of the dwellers had to have had certain bad, shocking and fatal incidents that believers can only conclude lead to evil spiritualistic effects.
In some cases, old homes and manors have developed such a solid open consciousness of being haunted curious townsmen seeking contact with the supernatural, show up and readily pay small monetary fees for a tour. In different cases, ghost hunters pay a premium to live as a visitor in the house or stronghold for a short number of days. This situation is especially true with castles due to their extreme age and longevity thus become by nature rich in history.
It is well known many old residences and buildings can have various features in rooms and hall ways that the public does not know about. There can be trapped doors, secret panels, secret passages because they were built that way to provide the families protection against invading enemies which may even have been soldiers or knights of the King’s army. In some cases, houses and castles might have secret one way mirrors leading to secrets rooms where the people inside could observe others through the special mirrors without being seen. One example is that of the Mont Sainte-Odile Monastery in France, which dates back to the 7th Century AD. In 2003 the library became aware that hundreds of rare and valuable of the monastery’s books mysteriously vanished without a trace, behind locked doors. It was later determined by law enforcement using a security camera an old bookcase in the library could swing open that lead to a secrete passageway. Eventually one thousand of the stolen books were recovered in good shape in a teachers apartment who took them simply for the thrill of doing so! It was said that the secret passage was used by senior monks to spy on the younger monks.
There can be a large painting hanging on the wall which has gimmicked eyes. The eyes of the painting can be part of separate, movable section, from inside a secret room, in which a person inside that room can peer out and then move aside and close the painted eye section. In other instances people in the outer room might catch a glimpse of eyes of a painting following them as they walk around and think they had a paranormal experience. There are even times when eyes of a painting are not in any way movable but so fixed they appear to follow you. The famous Mona Lisa is a “eyes that follow you painting” which is based on lighting and human perspective and is more of an illusion than anything else.
In some cases, houses and castles that were built with special secret features were used by the owners and crew to play hoaxes on people who have come to experience some type of psychic occurrence. People of the household were known to put on a costumes from very olden times and be seen by others in dim light walking in a hallway and then disappearing, when they turned a corner and quickly went into a secret panel or a secret passage and closed it with it resembling the rest of a wall or the rest of a floor. In this way, observers would feel as though they actually experienced a ghost walking by. In other cases, strange sounding groans can be made in other rooms by the household people near air ducts to the guests in other rooms to stimulate ghostly sounds. Staff of the household also have been in secret rooms near guest rooms produced heavy footsteps sounds to simulate the sound of ghostly footsteps. Some hoaxers, through much practice, have gotten very good at what they do, until they get caught and then they say they were just having fun and games, but, of course, fraud hurts the true study of the paranormal. Some hoaxers actually deprive great pleasure in fooling; deceiving others.
