I encountered some strange things at a friends house and in fact she was so freaked out by it that she got a psychic in to ask the spirit to leave. Lights would turn on and off (we explained that with old electrical wiring), footsteps running up and down the hall (explanation we came up for that was people downstairs running and somehow because of the age of the house the vibrations made it seem like it was outside the door) but couldn't come up with anything for the hot tap being turned on at 2am (numerous times) so hard that it took two hands to turn it off.

Boots that were outside the house on a balcony being found inside in the hallway on a different side of a dead bolted door from the one they had been left. There was tapping and the bathroom door would bolt itself from the inside when no-one was in the room. My husband got so mad when we were there one day that he yelled "For Godsake open this door!!" and the bolt clicked and we could push the bathroom door open.

The woman who came to 'ask him to leave" (we all knew it was a guy) said that it was an old man who had lived there in the 1920s who was lonely because he had no family and like the fact that this house was busy and everyone was having fun so he decided he would join in and play practical jokes on us all. He "told" he would like to stay a little longer but would behave himself and would go after Christmas. We were all a little skeptical but the phenomena diminished and then the psychic came back and he left.

There were no problems at all until my friends flat mate, Deb, said it was a pity that he had gone and lo and behold really creepy things happened after that- horrible oppressive feelings, intense cold patches etc. The psychic came back for visit number three and told us that it was very evil an that she could not get him to leave but he would leave of his own volition if my friend made the house very feminine- she started lighting oil burners, having fresh cut flowers, got lots of pretty bits and pieces and one day- no more phenomena. And there has been nothing since.

Despite all of this although I am more open I still have reservations

Ana from New Zealand