The Haunted Auckland team was called to this family home after many incidents of paranormal activity including fire alarms going off, people being touched, family members’ names being called, shadow figures being seen on walls and ceilings, and sleep disturbances being experienced by every member of the family.
Prior to the current tenants moving in, the home had been vacant for a year, unable to be successfully rented to anyone – unusual in Auckland’s buoyant rental market. The current family was enticed to take this house after being offered a substantially reduced rent.
The team was told of unusual sleep behaviour being experienced by both father and one of the daughters. They would both go to sleep as normal, but would wake in the morning having spun around 180 degrees in the bed, with their feet ending up at the pillow end of the bed. Whilst this could potentially be explained away by a father passing his sleep disorder down to one of his children, the team did find it strange that the father could spin around in the bed, without disturbing his wife beside him.
How is it possible for a tall man to rotate fully in bed without waking someone right beside him?
Haunted Auckland received the following mail from the family:
“I’ve got little visitors in my house and one of my friends from work told me that she saw you on the Good Morning Show and that you might be able to help. There is a little girl in our house and I don’t think the she realises that she’s dead. She is very playful and not a bad spirit BUT, there is another spirit that follows her – My little girls call her “the witch on the ceiling”. She makes us all feel very uneasy and me and my kids can’t sleep at night.
Just a short story: we were sleeping one night and our fire alarm went off between 1am-2am in the morning. My husband got up in a panic thinking that the house is burning down. As soon as he switched on the hallway light the fire alarm stopped. We checked the fire alarm and there was nothing wrong with it as it’s not something that malfunctions.
Two nights ago my mum was sleeping and the little girl was touching her face and my mum told her to stop doing that because she was tired and wanted to sleep. I hope that you would be able to help us. Hope you hear from you soon.”
First Investigation 22nd March 2013
Weather Conditions on the night – Warm and dry
Lunar Cycle: Waxing Gibbous – 5 days until full moon,
Temperature in the Building – Between 21C and 23C across the entire home. Typically the lower temperatures were downstairs, which was a garage, and warmer upstairs in the living area.
Team observations:
The property was a modern four bedroom family home, well looked after, tidy, clean and comfortable. We all agreed that they were a very nice family and that nothing seemed odd.
The house consisted of a dining room, lounge and kitchen which were the first rooms off the hallway after coming up the stairs. Four bedrooms and a bathroom and toilet were also accessed directly off the main hallway of the home. An ensuite was located through a door off the fourth bedroom.
Upon arrival the team talked with the family about the recent experiences they have had.
EMF & Temperature:
EMF and temperature readings were taken for each room in the home. The main focus of the investigation was on the rooms in which activity had been reported – primarily the bedrooms.
Mark used his EMF meter to collect data around the property, and observed some unusual results in his readings. Unusually high field readings were registered on the EMF meter along the same wall in both the Grandmother’s and the first little girl’s room (in which the ‘witch’ was seen on the ceiling). We found the high reading rather unusual. The nearest neighbouring property was a good distance away from this house.
The father (who is a builder) told us there was no wiring behind the wall that would be giving off such readings and there were no wall power sockets on those walls in both rooms. The team was surprised to note that EMF levels rose quite drastically half way up the walls. Sharply leaping from zero to two milligauss as it reached a certain spot. No other EMF activity was detected in any other rooms in the house.
One of the girls and the grandmother both have the pillow end of their bed up against this wall and so we made the suggestion to move the beds across to an alternative wall to see if this may help improve the activity being experienced.
Unexplained Phenomena:
Whilst the team were sitting in the dark in one of the daughters’ rooms recording audio and attempting communication, a pair of child’s fairy wings that were hanging on the door knob beside where Mark was sitting, suddenly moved.
The team didn’t see them move, as the room was dark, but everyone heard the sound they made as they knocked against the door. Mark was sitting closest to the wings – but hadn’t moved, and was too far away to have accidentally knocked them. On immediately turning the light on the wings were seen to be still slightly swaying.
EVP Sessions:
The team conducted EVP sessions in both the children’s bedrooms and the Grandmother’s bedroom. Upon reviewing the audio recording, nothing unusual was heard.
However, the audio recording did pick up the sound of the fairy wings banging against the door – and the team’s response to this. Prior to this, the team had been asking the usual questions, such as, “Who are you?”, “What do you want?” and “Why do you scare the children?”
We recorded audio of the whole investigation at the house and upon reviewing heard what sounded like a child’s hum as we were in the hallway between the bedrooms and a short giggle while we were downstairs in the garage. Unfortunately these were both so soft that we have been unable to transfer any usable audio online which retains any audible level of sound.
Cleansing:
The family was keen to have a cleansing performed on the property in order to try to restore normality and proper sleep routines to their home. The parents were unhappy with their children’s distress and were eager to find a swift resolution. Two team members performed a cleansing on the house, utilising elemental energies to remove negative influences from the home and to encourage any spirits to return to their rightful places.
Follow Up:
Upon following up with the family, the mother advised that they had initially experienced an improvement at the home and believed that the little girl they’d felt was in the property had eventually left. Unfortunately, the improvement had been only temporary and they reported that the activity had stepped up again and they would be grateful if the team could return for a second visit.
Second Investigation 13th May 2013
Weather Conditions on the night – Fine and clear.
Lunar Cycle: Waxing Crescent – three days after new moon & solar eclipse
Temperature: Not measured on this occasion, but comfortable.
Team observations:
The team had asked that the children be removed from the house for the second investigation. We did not want to further disrupt them by our presence in their house, nor disturb them by performing a cleansing whilst they were present. The children were taken out by their father, which placed some time constraints on our second visit to the property.
The mother spoke with is about what had been happening in the house since our previous visit and was particularly focused on a porcelain doll which she had owned for many years. The doll had been made by a lady that the family knew in South Africa and had been brought over to New Zealand when they moved.
She said that they had noticed one of the doll’s eyes would sometimes appear to have changed colour and that its facial features would be changed.
The doll was beautifully made, with genuine human hair – and was of great sentimental value to the family. The doll was being kept in the room where the Grandmother was sleeping.
The Grandmother told us that a man comes “every single night between 1am and 3am” and bangs on her bed or does something to wake her up. She says that she has seen him and reports that he wears black shoes and a long black jacket.
During the investigation, team members reported smelling an odour of burning rubber, which would come and go. Whilst the owners were burning incense in their main bedroom, this did not turn out to be the smell which was being sensed.
A black obsidian crystal was left with the family for the girls’ room, along with instructions on cleansing and charging it to act as a cleanser for negative energies.
Follow up:
Upon following up with the homeowners, we were delighted to receive the following feedback:
“Awesome! I can’t believe the big change. Many thanks for all your help. PS. My daughter says thanks for her shiny rock lol ;)”
Summary
The team did not manage to gather any hard evidence which would indicate that this house is haunted. However as the occupants of the house report that the activity happens between 1am and 3am and we were not there at that time we probably should not be overly surprised by this.
However, Haunted Auckland take very seriously the activity which is reported to us by home-owners (who after all, are in the house for more than just the few hours we are able to be there). We are always concerned when children are being affected – and in this case the children in the house were both scared at night and seeing odd shadows in their bedrooms. All of the adults were reporting disturbed sleep and a range of activity at night. Nonetheless, we were interested to note the strange EMF readings and the apparently spontaneous movement of the fairy wings on the door.
Whilst the team would have welcomed the opportunity for an overnight investigation, the priority was to assist the family in this situation – and we are delighted that we have been able to do this successfully for them.
