Patricia Telesco

Most people associate haunted houses with strange sounds and unusual lights and shadows. However, there are other phenomena that indicate a house is haunted. In the following viewpoint, author Patricia Telesco describes common signs that a house is haunted. She is careful to point out that these signs often have more ordinary explanations-or even nonghostly paranormal ones. She mentions "false faces," which she defines elsewhere as spiritual entities or energies that appear or that interact with humans much like ghosts do but are not ghosts (spirits of the deceased). Only after "false faces" and natural causes have been ruled out should a person begin to think that a ghost or poltergeist may be present.

Telesco has written many books and articles on paranormal topics, including The Language of Dreams, Future Telling, and Folkways: Reclaiming the...