Wife Thinks the House is Haunted
As a skeptical person who embraces reason, nothing is more troubling than having a spouse that is truly scared of the dark. I discussed in a previous article how my wife is a moderate christian. What frustrates me far beyond her christian faith is her superstitious nature and irrational beliefs in the supernatural. She openly admits to believing in ghosts and objects being haunted. So much so she is scared to go into unlit rooms or walk down the driveway at night to get the mail. As a firm believer in the importance of rational thought it drives me crazy how she will let supernatural ideas of which there is no evidence for negatively affect her life.
One day she was going to the utility room of the house to handle some laundry through the garage and closed the door that connects the garage to the kitchen. When she came back the door was open. I happened to be in the study at the other end of the house when she came in the room frantic and asked if I had been in the kitchen and opened the door to the garage. I told her I hadn’t and the next thing she said left me dumbfounded, “Then there is a ghost out there.” I laughed at first but she explained what had happened and she was serious.
Perhaps I was a little to harsh with my initial reply, “Dont be dumb.” I then tried to explain there were other possible, very much more likely explanations like the door wasn’t closed all the way or latched properly and a difference in temperature and air pressure between the rooms caused a draft to apply a force on the door that opened it up some. Even though I had provided a logically reasonable explanation she still wanted to entertain the possibility it was a ghost or spirit of some kind.
I let it go thinking surely she would not dwell on such a silly idea, but I was wrong. I’m not sure how she found them but there is some group here in middle Tennessee that does paranormal investigations in homes for free. Perhaps she saw them on one of those stupid ghost hunting shows she love to watch. Oh yes did I mention this, she enjoys those types of shows where they will sit around usually in the dark and the most common line is “Did you hear that?”. I can’t even name the title of one because they are all so stupid it makes me sick to think about.
Anyway, supposedly this ghost hunting group here in Tennessee will come out to some one’s home and “investigate” any supernatural activity that could be going on. My wife told me how she was thinking about writing an email or calling them to have them come out and investigate the ghost activity in our house. Needless to say I flipped. I asked her if she had lost her f’ing mind to invite strangers to our home to investigate some supernatural BS. I explained there are only two possible conclusions one can make about these people, they are either crazy and delusional, or they are looking to scam and take advantage of people’s stupidity. Even though this issue was never brought up again I later learned from my wife that she had indeed contacted the group by email, describing what she thought was going on and left a number for them to call. They did call her and left a message but she never returned it since I had such a big issue with it.
This is just one example of how my wife has irrational fears and ideas. There are some other stories like a phone flying off the hook and landing on the floor “by itself for no reason”. This was witnessed also by my mother-in-law so it’s a good assumption beliefs in supernatural occurrences was passed on to my wife from her parents. They get mad at me because I won’t accept that it happened the way they say it did or that there was some unseen supernatural force or entity that must have done it. What’s even more interesting is how my wife and mother-in-law are somewhat afraid of the dark. They are hesitant to go into a dark room until the lights are turned on, not because they might bump into something but rather to make sure there is not a ghost or something there.
Anyone can see from the previous descriptions how big an impact these irrational beliefs in the supernatural have on my wife perception of reality so much that it clearly affects her life and cause a false sense of fear where there doesn’t need to be one. Many might assume from these that my wife has some sort of mental illness wayI assure those people that my wife, while truly believing our house might be haunted, is otherwise quite normal and sane. This is what is so confusing. She is very intelligent and has a good understanding of the world around her yet she still entertains these somewhat laughable thoughts.
I am sure that beliefs in supernatural ideas like ghosts and haunted house go hand in hand with religious beliefs like god and christianity. In many of the ghost hunting shows the people pray to god and jesus for the spirits in places to be cast out. I guess if someone is gullible enough to blindly make wild assumptions without analyzing the situation with reason then they are more than likely to believe in other things just as far-fetched without evidence.
Related posts:
Loading ...
Dear TN Atheist,
That was an interesting article about your wife believing in ghosts. That’s too bad she’s unwilling to embrace natural and more logical explanations for the open door. Since you’re an engineer, instead of just telling her how the door might have opened, you should investigate this phenomenon, and try to re-create the same event. If you could actually demonstrate how easily the door could’ve opened and connect the dots in the causal chain, your wife might be more impressed. In other words, she might be more willing to accept your explanation if you SHOW her.
This might not be the exact cause, but I thought I’d throw it out there as a possiblity. You said your wife was doing laundry when the door opened mysteriously. If the clothes dryer vents into the garage, when she turned the dryer on, the air blowing into the garage could have been the “ghost” that pushed the door open.
Good luck,
GA Atheist