Noises associated with paranormal phenomena are a lot more common than visual effects. In a large number of hauntings nothing is ever seen only heard and of the audible phenomena footsteps are in the majority (to be strict the most common effect of a haunting is not through sight or sound but through feelings, the cold chills and the impression you get that you are being watched).

The problem with noises is that it is very difficult to eliminate natural phenomena as the cause mainly due to the fact that most noises are short lived and difficult to localise. When you hear a sudden creak which direction did it really come from? Most of the time all you can say is that it came from somewhere over there. Even then the sound could have come from above or below and the real direction is lost in the echoes and acoustics of the room.

A classic example of a ghostly sound with a natural cause was that affecting St Michael and All Angels at Millbrook. If you read the story then you will find that this is a case of don’t believe everything you hear.

If you are investigating a sound then you must make every effort to prove it has a natural origin. Sounds are elusive and the causes can be more so. Creaks and groans caused by a building slowly settling into the ground can sound very human at times. A cat wailing in the night can sound just like a baby crying. Even rhythmic noises, such as a click which repeats every few seconds can have a natural source, in this case usually due to cooling of a building after the heating has been on or the sun has warmed the roof space.

Footsteps are the most common of the sounds, but natural sources of sound can be misinterpreted as footsteps. Footsteps are usually heard coming from the rooms overhead but the sound could be coming from elsewhere in the building and is being conducted through the walls and floor. How often have you heard the sounds of people talking several rooms away? The sound does not (can not) come direct to your ears it has to be conducted. Such sounds tend to be muffled as only the low frequency end of the sound is conducted (high pitched sounds tend to be eliminated whilst low frequency sounds, like a lorry going by outside makes the walls and floors resonate so they act like a speaker). A rhythmic creaking of a floor can sound like footsteps when heard from a distance but the ‘footsteps’ will just be in one place (as the sound is not moving). If the sounds fade away your mind, which thinks you can hear footsteps, will interpret the fading as footsteps which are receding, the mind is very easily fooled.

Sounds can occur anywhere and irrespective of the age of a building. A classic example is the house in which we, LCD, live. The house is a modern, only 5 years old, detached house yet there can occasionally be heard a sound which to all intents and purposes is footsteps. In the living room one of our members has heard four distinct steps crossing the main bedroom overhead. The sounds start in one corner and cross to the bedroom door. There are no pipes under the floor anywhere in that region and the steps cross the bed to get to the door. This has happened four times, the first couple of times there were only two steps now there are four. No logical, earthly explanation has so far been found.

Some sounds can not be simply explained away and really it is these you are looking for. We have two classic examples which are given herein both of which were recorded at the White Hart Inn at Ampthill during an all night vigil. In the first sound you can hear one of the Luton Paranormal Society members talking to a male staff member of the White Hart with the strange sound over the top, almost like a demonic laugh.

The Laugh   

When the recording was made the recorder (a tape dictation machine using its internal microphone) was placed on a ledge in a small alcove in the room (see the image below). The LPS member was sitting on the window sill on the left of the room and the White Hart staff member was sitting on the centre window sill. Another White Hart staff member was sitting on a chair between the left and central windows and two other LPS members were by the right hand window. The tape recorder had been set up by an LCD member who remembers the conversation that was recorded (at the time he was standing about two metres from the recorder). At no time could the LCD member remember anyone making any noises (coughing etc.) during that part of the recording. Yet the sound is there on the tape and it does not really sound like any noise anyone would have made even allowing for the distortion of using the internal microphone and the echoing effects in the room (which was devoid of carpet and furnishings except for the plastic/metal chair).

The second recording was done in an unoccupied room with the tape left on for approximately one and a half hours. This room was not one which any members of LPS entered until after the recording was complete. The room was very similar to the one given in Image 1 above except that it is effectively a mirror image with the ensuite on the left and the main door on the right. The windows at the far end of the room (opposite the door) face outwards onto Dunstable Street which by then was deserted. The room is one floor up and sits roughly over the main entrance to the Inn (just to the right of the door as you face the building).

Get Out!   

The recording was started at 02:30 and from then on the only sound of the door opening was when the LCD member left the room. The doors are all heavy and very noisy so if the door had been opened, no matter how gently, the recording would have picked it up. At one point on the tape you can hear the muffled sounds of the LPS and staff members changing rooms, voices can be heard but they are very indistinct as the sounds are coming through the walls and floor. Then as it goes quiet you can clearly hear the sounds on the clip included herein. There is the distinct sound of a voice shouting ‘Get out!’ twice but the voice is very quiet as if it has come from some way away (compare the level with that on the first recording which is very loud). The voice does not sound distorted so it has not come through the walls or floor or even the window, it just sounds as if it has come from a long way away. Were we disturbing something that wanted us out of the building? In 2001 there had been a fire at the White Hart and refurbishment was nearly complete when LPS visited, had the work disturbed something?

It is possible that the sounds recorded above were made by people playing tricks but no one recalls any sounds even remotely similar to those on the first recording. On the second recording no one enters the room so what was the source of the voice as it does sound is if it is in the room? In fact no one knew the second recording was being done apart from the three LPS members who were in the same team as the LCD member who set up the recorder. All four members of the team stayed together for the whole duration of the recording, so whose voice is it?

Remember that a lot of the sounds you hear will be natural, eliminate those and what is left just might be paranormal.