11 Creepy Paranormal Phenomena Debunked By Science

2. Poltergeist Activity

What’s Really Going On: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Tales of haunted houses can be seriously creepy. Apparitions, unexplained noises, an evil atmosphere descending over a household – all sure signs that you are being visited from beyond the grave.

In 1921, a paper was published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology describing the experiences of a family known as the “H” family. They had become tormented by evil spirits in their home with slamming doors, disembodied footsteps and shifting furniture. One night, the lady of the house awoke to find two people watching her sleep, only for them to disappear before her eyes; A feeling of depression and evil fell over the house and even the plants started to wilt and die.

And all because of a dodgy furnace leaking carbon monoxide into their home.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colourless, odourless gas that, when breathed in, can be absorbed into the red blood cells and will slowly replace the oxygen in the body. CO poisoning can cause hallucinations, weakness, nausea, confusion and eventually death.

Another interesting case is that of a Redditor who thought his landlord was stalking him. He began finding mysterious post-it notes around his apartment with vaguely creepy messages such as “Our landlord isn’t letting me talk to you, but it’s important we do”, but when he checked the footage from a security webcam, he found that all of the files had been recently deleted.

After turning to Reddit for advice, most responses were regarding legal action he could take against his landlord – save for one sharp-eyed user who suggested he get a CO detector. The original poster followed his advice and discovered that he was breathing in dangerous levels of carbon monoxide. He had been entering a dissociative fugue state whenever he went to bed, and had simply been leaving the post-it notes for himself and forgetting.