The Cause of Haunted Houses

Ghost stories are never set in new-build flats. It’s always large, old buildings — like the mansion in The Haunting of Hill House.

Some people believe that old houses have memories, and that these memories can affect the present occupants. Even if you’re not superstitious, there is still something eerie about living where others have lived (the same applies to sleeping in a hotel bed, knowing that countless others have laid their head on the same pillow). It is as if part of them were still there — like a residual stain that no amount of cleaning can erase.

A realist would say that “inanimate objects do not have memories”. But, in a very realistic sense, they sort of do. All houses exhibit signs of its previous occupants. Sometimes it is something subtle like a barely perceptible scratch. Other times, it’s glaring, like a massive hole in the wall.

In large old houses, there are many more potential signs of previous occupancy. It is possible that the fear of ghosts is the fear that the previous occupants (whose signs of existence are manifest throughout the house) will return. (This is the lesson in Goldilocks — the story of a girl who naively encroaches upon the property of…