Yesterday, the television in the main floor living room turned on by itself. It did the same thing the day prior. In the two months we've lived in this new house, this is the third or fourth time it’s happened. The first two incidents can be connected to my messing with a remote for another TV in another room (same manufacturer, who will remain nameless to avoid sending cries of poltergeistic—yeah, I coined that word—television scares throughout the land). In the last two incidents, neither I nor anyone else in the house was doing anything like that.
Then yesterday, the basement TV went on by itself three or four times during the day. That's the only day it’s done so since it was installed downstairs a month or so ago. Again, no one in the house was messing with a remote for another TV.
In addition to the televisions turning on, my lighting has turned on by itself more often over the last couple of days. The difference from the television phenomenon is that my lighting does this sporadically, but in the last couple of days it has increased, seemingly so as not to let the television have all the fun.
What would cause this to happen? Sure, there could be an electrical short or surge, although I don’t know enough about that stuff to tell the difference between the two; I do know enough to say “It might be a short” when someone wonders why the TV and the lights are acting strangely.
Or it could be dust. This was the reason given to me for why my smoke alarms recently shrieked for one cycle, approximately 6 seconds, a couple of times a week. I tested and replaced backup batteries, researched potential causes, and ignored them for a couple of weeks, hoping the latter would be the trick. It wasn’t.
Another possibility: my new house is haunted. I didn’t think that for the first two months, but maybe the ghosts were checking us out before deciding if, and how, they should haunt us. Now that they've witnessed some of our living patterns, they have decided how to proceed. My mother-in-law watches a lot of TV, so maybe the ghosts are messing with her by turning her living room TV on while she’s watching in her bedroom, or at random times when she’s not watching at all. Or maybe the ghost or ghosts are simply being polite by turning the TV on for her, knowing that she sometimes struggles with the remote.
As for the lights, the only option is that the ghosts are messing with me. I don’t need any courtesy light management because I have things all set up. It/they know that I am mildly obsessed with the lighting in my house, so they are going to have a little fun at my expense. No big deal. This morning, I woke up to every light in my bedroom set to the brightest setting. I chuckled, turned them off, and rolled back over to sleep, except I didn’t sleep. Instead, I thought back to the last time my wife and I thought we had a ghost in our house. It was in New Orleans. My brother and youngest daughter often felt a presence in that house, though neither was frightened. My wife and I witnessed patterns on the mirror. After a shower, when the mirror steamed up, we noticed random shapes on it, like someone balled up a fist and pressed the side of their hand against the mirror. When we wiped them away, they came back the next time. We cleaned the mirror dozens of times to see if that was the problem. Maybe the mirror glass was faulty or steam-resistant in those spots, but most likely it was the ghost who was sending us messages only after showering that we never understood. Makes total sense.
We moved from our condo in Newport to this house a couple of months ago, but we only recently moved my mother-in-law’s house. Did the ghosts come with the clothes and furniture? We never felt any ghosts while we lived in that house, but maybe they were already in the moving truck and came along for the ride. The ghosts from our house in New Orleans didn’t move with us to Brooklyn, and we felt no presence of ghosts in our condo in Newport, so maybe we have some hitchhiker ghosts who like to play with lights and TVs. At least they’re not writing messages in blood to scare us out of the house. Or maybe they're warming up for Halloween.
They're just welcoming you!
I’m going with friendly, mischievous ghosts. For now.