Some places are best avoided! And some things you should never do! You should never venture where angels fear to tread or summon spirits from the other-world!
My late cousin Sheena who was endowed with the second sight warned me about this. She stated, "Never ever interfere with the world of spirits. Believe me it exists! You can never know what the consequences can be and it can have fatal results."
What if you rent or purchase a home where the rent or price is incredibly cheap but it turns out to be haunted by a ghost which views the new resident as wholly unwelcome? What happens if the place also happens to be a zone of poltergeist activity? With all the racket and commotion caused by a poltergeist then the new tenant might never sleep peacefully. They might even flee from their new home. However, it would be strange for a person to claim that he or she was rendered homeless by a ghost. People might be convinced he or she had escaped from a psychiatric hospital—or were just joking.
But as some famous legal cases demonstrate, if the seller of a house fails to inform the buyer that the home is haunted, they can be taken to court—in New York anyway—for failing to disclose those details to potential buyers! Realtors are legally obliged to inform potential buyers if they are selling 'stigmatized properties' {i. e. homes where a dreadful crime was committed or which are known to be haunted}.
Would anyone challenge the accusation in court that it is impossible for this home to be 'stigmatized' because 'ghosts don't really exist! It is all in the mind?' After all, according to one survey only 40% of Americans believe in ghosts {YouGov survey}. America is not Scotland—where as many as 65% are believe in ghosts.
Of course, some might claim, "There are no ghosts in this house. You are seeing things!" …which raises the question as to who really sees ghosts! People who tend to see ghosts tend to be highly sensitive, have the second sight and are often young children.
But a large group of people who tend to encounter ghosts more than anyone ought to be the homeless. They tend to be always on the move. They can stay the night in abandoned or old railway stations which many people prefer to avoid. When I joked with one homeless woman that I had come to Moscow to avoid some ghosts in Scotland she answered, "If you want to see ghosts I can show you lots of them in my home town of Yekaterinburg. We have a lot of them."
A beggar outside a local church in the Aeroport district of Moscow told me about the white lady who haunts the French Embassy in Moscow. The white lady is thought to have been the luckless lover of the former owner of this mansion who was murdered and her body buried in the wall. The owner threw into a rage and murdered the woman after discovering her in bed with a secret lover. This happened at the turn of the 19th century.
I have heard that many of the homeless had odd experiences after squatting in number 14 of the Arbat Street in Moscow. Although this building was destroyed by German bombers in 1941, sinister events still occur at the location. The foul reputation of this building is due to some terrible events where suicide and murders had taken place. Five children and the father of one family were all found hanged and an old colonel shot himself in front of an orchestra because his young wife had run off with a lover and thus stained his honor. Some witnesses claimed to have seen a reenactment of this event or heard the music which was played on the night of this suicide.
I think the worst thing I have ever done is to unwittingly summoned spirits via a Ouija board. The events occurred in 1983 while I was renting a room in the Leith district of Edinburgh. I ended up putting up many friends who had become homeless. I remember two homeless young men who were bored. They persuaded me against my better instincts to summon a dead relative. One man wanted to ask his deceased grandfather whether he could disclose our fate. I tried to console myself that nothing would happen. It would be a 'non-event.' But no! It turned out to be a huge mistake.
I should have heeded my cousin's advice!
We cut out the letters of the alphabet, laid them out in a circle and placed an empty glass in the center of the letters. The glass moved. It seemed to move without our pressure. The spirit moved the glass to spell out some words. We learnt that my friend's grandfather had served during the First World War and had murdered one of his comrades out of jealousy. When asked about our future the answers were all terrible. You wouldn't want to know. The two homeless would end up in prison and I would soon die. After that, we decided to break off contact. My friend just said, "Let's just forget about all this."
Then strange things began to happen. An alarm clock on the mantelpiece not only went off but quickly shot across, falling off. Washing up liquid along with cutlery fell into the sink. We then tried to sleep. While my two companions with better nerves slept well, I was unable to. Almost all night I watched this unseen spirit flicking used matchsticks into an ashtray.
All I can say is that I hope this room has not become stigmatized!
I heard from some newspaper reports that some poor buyers bought a home without being aware it was terribly haunted in England. Despite the fact that no local person in the village would go near or visit this house, the seller managed to sell the home without the buyer knowing. Living in this home turned out to be a nightmare. Despite switching on the heating, the rooms were always freezing cold, and the new owner often heard terrible noises and saw spirits. But she could not find a new buyer for this home and was stuck in it.
Her health was ruined–both mental and physical!
However, in Britain there is no law which obliges sellers to disclose all the details about the house and whether it is haunted. When the owner told local people that she lived at this home the locals were shocked by the revelation. They never went near it!
Does it matter whether a house is haunted? Or if bad events took place in it? It does! Doctor Rundall Bell estimates that if a murder took place in a building it can cut the value of it down by 10 to 15%! Unfortunately, in many American states there is no real protection for buyers who purchase stigmatized properties. Sellers are not even under legal obligation to disclose the details of say, whether a house is haunted or it is a place where some terrible crime took place.
However, in the state of New York the law sees things differently!
New York must be the only state where in some circumstances it is illegal to sell a haunted house without first telling the buyer about this! The 'Ghostbusters law' was passed in 1991 and arose from a case when in 1989, the Ackley family put up their haunted house in Nyack, New York, for sale. Jeffry Stambovsky decided to put in an offer to purchase the house. But when he later discovered the house was terribly haunted he withdrew his offer and asked for his money back. As a result, a court battle erupted. The case even reached the New York Supreme Court appellate division where 3 to 2 judges voted for rescinding the sale. As a result a new law emerged making it illegal to conceal if housing for sale was knowingly haunted or not 'because it could negatively affect the value. '
Well, some people might ask, “Why should ghosts knock off the value of a house?” After all, they are largely harmless. It depends on the new owners. Some people shrug it off and others don't believe in ghosts in the first place. No ghost, no problem!
My parents lived calmly in their house in Bearsden despite the fact it was haunted. They slept soundly—oblivious to the odd noises! If someone had told my father his home was haunted he would have mocked them. He would be even more bemused if someone had told him he had an obligation to tell the new owners of which he was selling his house that it was haunted. He just did not believe in ghosts.
When the new owners moved in they could not stand this situation. They complained to our neighbors that the house was haunted. They even wanted to move out because of this.
When a curious Russian visitor was shown my old house which was haunted she wanted to ring the doorbell and ask the dwellers whether they had seen the ghost. My brother told her "No, you just can't do that. You might upset them. Maybe they don't know." Yes, I think they don't need to know. Ignorance can be bliss—as they say!
It is clear my cousin Sheena was so right. Don't interfere with the other-world! We have more than enough acute problems in this world!