In the house where we live

This house is really old.  Not too old but probably 1940's era.  Even though this house isn't really old, there is an old feel to it.  The decor in seemingly from a different time.

I know what it is but it looks like a young Queen Elizabeth holding a baby alien to me.

The design is different from what we are accustom to, which also add to the antique feel.  The history of this island is very long.  The first settlements here were in the 1770's soon evolving to the community we see today.

All of the original houses on the island are gone...with the exception of one, now a museum.  The new houses many built on the sites of older houses.  What kinds of stories can be found here?  Since the first time I set foot on this island, I got the feeling that there are more things dwelling here than just the people, something other worldly.  We'll come back to that.

As much of my development into an Anthropologist has occurred while I've been visiting this island, much of my understanding of this place is seen through the lens of anthropology.

"Step on a crack, break your mothers back...Step on a line...I don't remember the rest.  This was one of the sayings I said as a child which I'm sure many of you did as well.  On the island there is a variation of this...along the streets there are "utility" caps.  Each one is labels with a letter: an A,V, or K.

 

The A is access to the water system, the V is for street run-off and the K is access to the water system.  caps are varied in size, and are located all over the island.   When walking around the island my wife told me that when she was a child there are a practice of not stepping on the K, everyone would avoid them because they represented "poop" or something.  If you were to come across an A you would step on it because it represents loves and the V... well I guess I'm not the only one who doesn't remember everything about their childhoods.  Interestingly, our Jasmine (our niece), told us that if you accidentally step on a K, if you jump on it three times you can counter act its negative effects.  

Another "super natural" tradition here involved a beautiful flower (not sure the names of it).  It is said if you bring these flowers in the house, someone you know will die.  

I'm not sure if anyone has ever tried it, but it would seem that if you bring these flowers into the house eventually someone will die...I've never been able to get a time table on this (immediately, within a day or something longer...)  I guess experimenting in with this might go against modern research ethics.  

I'm don't generally believe in ghosts, not to say I don't believe in ghosts.  Yes, I'm sitting on the fence and despite its appearance it is not all that uncomfortable.   I am a scientist, so I do rely on empirical data...but are there things that are important that can only be shown through experience?  Sure there are...the laugh of a baby, the feeling of falling in love (actually my research shows this might not be the case), standing in awe of a sunset...oh and being followed down a hall by something that completely disappears only after a fleeting glance. 

I believe this house has something living in it that is not "human" as we know it and it likes to mess with me. 

Exhibit 1:  While walking down the hall in the basement, I had the feeling that something was walking behind me,  when I look up into the mirror at the end of the hall, I observed a reflection of a human head like form just behind me...just as I recognized it for what it was, it quickly drifted into the room to the left (the room we are currently staying in).  

Mirror at the end of the hall

Panorama of the basement hall way, scary without phantom heads. 

Exhibit 2: One night, after everyone had left (we were the only ones in the house) I was sent to the middle floor of the house for something.  It was a dark night, and all the lights were off.  As I approached the wall were I knew the light switch was, my hand passed through the plain of the wall into the open door beside it (this leads to my wife's mother's bedroom).  I thought nothing of it. I did what I needed to do, and returned to my family down stairs.  The next morning I woke up to a very quiet house.  Which was unusual, most morning I would hear my wife and mother-in-law talking about something.  When I went up stairs all the door in the hallway were closed.  Again I though nothing of it.  I entered the kitchen to find my wife reading. Whispering to me she said, "My mom must have come home last night,  her door was closed when I came up."

Ok, not too weird.  I did recall the door was open the night before so that was a logical explanation.  

Within two minutes her mother walked in the front door...She hadn't been to the house, nor had anyone else.  It was open when I went down stairs and was closed when my wife came up...

Light switch

Bed room door open

Bedroom door closed

The latest happening occurred during this visit.  Madeleine was up stairs, later at night.  She wanted to come down stairs but didn't want to come down in the dark so she left the light on in the hall.  Again no one else was home.  She proceeded down stairs, well illuminated.  At about 4:00 am, she woke me from my sleep and asked me to go up and turn off the light.  I was awake...all be it very recently, so I climbed the stairs in the dark and continued into a completely dark hallway.  "Oh, the light must be burnt out...so I went to check the switch...which immediately light up the entire area...I ran down stairs as safely as possible and curled up next to my wife...actually between my wife and the wall.  

I can't say for sure if there is a ghost in this house, or if there is something else going on.  It seems that no one else has any other experiences, but everyone seems to believe these stories as true and not my imagination.  Dane Peterson (President of the Society for Student Anthropologist at BC) and his wife Kristina came here for a visit last year.   He admitted to hearing someone walking up the stairs when no one else was in the house.  

Some say it is my wife's grandfather who built the house that is here.  My mother-in-law says maybe it my birth mother...why she would come to Sweden from Cambodia to mess with me when Seattle is perfectly fine for hauntings is beyond my understanding.  

Regardless, science is the best system we have for understanding the world and people we live with.  But science can't answer all of our questions...I guess the biggest question is does it need to?