Is there a strong link between basements and paranormal activity?

I'm curious to see your take on this ATS. Is there a strong link between basements and paranormal activity? Now I know if a house is haunted in general , no room may stay unaffected. But for houses in general is it just me or does it seem like if there's any room that's going to experience paranormal activity it always seems to be the basement?

It's not just in all the movies we see, and stories we hear It's something I've personally experienced. I've slept in a basement room for only a brief period of time in my life ( In a home where the backyard stretches out to the woods at that, If that accounts for anything).
And I can honestly say I have experienced some of the most bizarre paranormal sensations to date as a result.
I've experimented with shuttling around the house and sleeping in different rooms and can honestly say I am not affected near as much as when I sleep in the basement.

Can anyone with experience with the paranormal, who has researched the paranormal or who just wants to weigh in shed some light on this issue?
Does it have something to do with the fact that spirits gravitate more towards anything underground? Is it the fact that they like to target someone who's isolated more from those who sleep upstairs in numbers ? etc...
Or is there nothing to this phenomena?

Cheers guys

a reply to: freedom7

My most paranormal experience inside a house, which was the top hat man peering into my and my brother's room and scaring us so much the babysitter called the cops and we stayed the night at our neighbor's house, happened on the second floor.

We had a basement. Never had a paranormal experience there. I have no idea why you'd ask why most paranormal experiences happen in basements. Many, many areas don't even have houses with basements. Here in CA, I've never even met someone with a basement. You don't think we have paranormal experiences?

The other paranormal experience in the above house was in the attic where I eventually had a room when I didn't want to share with my brother anymore. Then here in CA, my wife and I have both had paranormal experiences, mostly in the bed room, like clear whispering in the ears or knocking sounds on our door in the middle of the night when no one else is there.

a reply to: freedom7

It is my opinion that basements are usually creepy places and when we enter them our senses go into hyperdrive and our perceptions become skewed- thus leading to more reports of perceived paranormal activity in them. The same could be said for attics and cemetaries. However to be fair if one were to look at it from another point of view basements are generally underground and thus closer to the fabled Underworld, or at least closer to corpses as they are buried underground as well.

In my experience, areas that are "familiar but different" (basements, attics, areas that are dimly lit, or limited in visual distance somehow, as well as transitional areas - hallways, corridors, etc.) have always seemed to put me into an alternate/parallel state of awareness (which meets my personal definition of "paranormal"). Also, I seem to have had (at one point at least) more "experiences" while alone than with other people.

The fact that these states can be individual and not necessarily reproducible creates great confusion, as well as the fact that, in general, we have focused on quantifying the objective in the last 100 years or so more than the subjective.

a reply to: GeauxHomeYoureDrunk

Perhaps a relic of using caves as protection and/or "holy spaces" by our ancestors?

Makes a lot of sense to me, actually.

It's possible since all the electrical and plumbing is usually located in basements that this accounts for the "Paranormal Factor" since some electrical fields from old wiring affects humans negatively, running water can acoustically mimic voices.

On the other hand basements in much of the US are underground, so can't discount that "doorway to the underworld".

a reply to: freedom7

Maybe it's the difference in air pressure and temperature? A basement room is typically going to have a different level of humidity and there can be a temp difference by being underground. This could also lead to sound qualities unlike those of rooms where they have windows and floorboards.

It's possible our senses are out of their comfort zone in underground spaces. Not like some overt awareness, but maybe more of a subtle sensation that occurs on a level we can't quite put a finger on. This would have the effect, on some, of being predisposed to be sensitive towards thoughts and feelings we'd be oblivious to, or disregard, in normal rooms.

It could also be a hard-wired response from our past. Let's face it, we've been part of the food chain for millions of years and outside of it for a few thousand. We say 'spookiness' when our distant ancestors would describe it as being primed for danger.

That's not to rule it out altogether as even our ancestors had traditions of hauntings and 'spookiness.'

ETA - Caver and Gryph got there first while I was typing

a reply to: Kandinsky

Back at'cha!


I can say any paranormal weirdness here has been split pretty evenly between upstairs and the basement.

From the basement we get what sounds like a radio playing music from the 40's & 50's. Not rock or swing music, but more "evening type" music. Classical ballads. While making out the words is almost impossible you can easily recognize the musical style.

Upstairs we get the odd small back shadow person and colored orbs.

I've attributed this to the home being over an old mine, altho we have no radon present.

a reply to: Kandinsky

Truth is truth.

Thanks for "the backup" ... or vice versa, you're welcome.

a reply to: Caver78

Nice one

My experience runs similar to yours. My parents' home had a cellar which could have been creepy and wasn't at all. People heard male voices in the room above it sometimes and it was upstairs where footsteps and weirdness would happen now and then.

All I can ever say is 'Who knows? Still working it out.'

I know there can be scientific reasons for senses being in overdrive, and just the aspects of a colder, darker room can throw one off etc...

But that being said, When you literally see aspirations manifest into the room with a clear cut contrast in it's color v.s the darkness in the room, and you hear growling over your bed etc....

It becomes nearly impossible to deny that there is a realm that somehow co- exists with ours

a reply to: GeauxHomeYoureDrunk

GoHome has it right, I think. It's just that basements are little used, tend to be darker, and are used for storage. They're also colder. Attics are the same way. There is just too much going on in a well-lit kitchen or front room where people hang out all the time. Both these are much more rare in modern house construction. ghost are going to have a much harder time of it in the future just finding an appropriate place to hang out.

Some believe the quartz content in basement construction can help store and amplify energy.

One other point to consider is that of EM leaks through old & exposed wiring with poor insulation and contacts, pipes conducting electricity through contact and old junction boxes...all of which will be more exposed in an old basement.

This leakage can cause a sense of unease, paranoia, being watched...even hallucination.

a reply to: freedom7

Basement's are often creepy places so too are loft's used more for storage than other purpose.

Basement's have the dubious distinction of attracting idiot's whom want to dabble in the occult without even understanding what they may be getting into.

But in truth haunting's can follow a number of pattern's.

Item related haunting's or spiritual attachment's, an antique or something that was dear to someone whom has passed over can be such an item.
Place related haunting's or spiritual visitation's were a spirit or ghost may frequent a location even long after the building that once stood there has gone.
Person related haunting's or spiritual attachment's, most are probably benign but not something to be welcomed and many are definitely malign.

Random haunting's or rather encounters with spiritual or other dimensional being's that may or may not be ex-corporeal (on our dimension) people whom have passed over to this other dimension but sometime's impose upon this lower realm are also a possibility.

Due to the link between human psychology, the occult and less informed individuals dabbling in such in place's such as there basement's as well as a host of nefarious activity's including murder and body disposal which have taken place in basement's they are probably more likely to have a bad presence or an angry, sad or vengeful presence than other room's of the house, these spirits may not essentially be the victim, they could be the perpetrator of spiritual parasites drawn by the evil act that then linger.

Flowing water can act as a natural barrier to some type's and also attract's other type's and of course basement's these day's are often a nest of piping and plumbing so?.

a reply to: freedom7

Yes. Underground. Under the surface. The true reality.

Have you heard of kivas?

Shamans of old would end the spirit realm through holes in the earth.

Mine started in an attic bedroom, the strongest activity was ground level

Basements, attics and closets seem to be areas where paranormal things are reported to happen. Under beds seem to be a favorite spot as well. They're are claims that these areas are often "portals" where other world beings gain entry into our realm. I tend to go with the theory that items stored there have spirit attachments. Furniture, old toys, photographs or portraits, personal items that have a history are said to attract paranormal activity in many such spooky stories.

Ask youself If live was a bethesda game what would be the bugs and the cheatcodes ?

The Basement is usually more fluid Reality. Remember Reality becomes fixed (rendered out) when observed.

Also basements below ground level. Sometimes the renderout of reality is quite buggy below ground level guess it takes less resources that way.

But usually not real ghosts just interference with parallel reality's .

I remember one (unconfirmed) case in which a man was lost in his basement for 6 months.

Things to get rid of interference in the basement :

big speakers in the basement and play white noise for several hours at high volume (increases entropy distance between realities) big ventilator in the basement.

Good :

Making pictures of basement showing them to people (fixes the fluidity problem)
Inviting people in the basement (copy's location memory different brains)
Moving objects around in basement periodical (induces a re render )

Bad :

Don't let children or dogs in the basement.
Don't touch eachother in the basement.
Don't ever play with oiji stuff in the basement.

A lot of paranormal activity, especially that associated with the appearance of ghostly spectres and/or the repeated "replaying" of previous traumatic events (like a murder or suicide) seem to be associated with Stone/Rock and the presence of Water.
It's like the conditions for these types of event are improved or amplified by the presence of certain types of Rock & Water?

A foggy road, an old castle with a well, a stone bridge over a river and... maybe a damp basement cut out of the surrounding bedrock could imitate these conditions?

Add in the previous comments regarding the EM from old wiring and the generally dark spookiness of basements heightening the senses and invoking millions of years of cave-dwelling threat sensing.... and yup! I can see that basements could be linked with the paranormal.

G

a reply to: freedom7

Electromagnetic fields are supposed to affect the brain in a way many liken to paranormal effects. Basements are often more likely to have stronger EMF leakage, from wiring, breaker box, etc.

Maybe there's more to it than that - just a single thought/consideration.