For a couple of years now, my grandmother has made claims of poltergeists and other apparitions in her house.
At first, she would talk about things like rushes of air moving past her, pictures falling off walls, and plants being knocked off tables. As time went on, there was a story about a lady dressed in early 20th century clothes, looking at pictures on her wall. The lady was looking at the pictures, and when my grandmother approached her, she disappeared though the curtains. Not long after that my grandmother awoke one night and a little girl with flowers in her hair was at the foot of the bed, looking at her. These were typical of most reports of apparitions, semi-transparent figures who seemed to float and vanish into thin air. At the time I totally believed her, while the rest of the family just kind of laughed.
About a year ago, she told me that "the ghosts were back." She really hesitated to even tell me what she had seen, she was truly afraid. She talked about waking up and seeing the curtains sort of "blowing", like the window was open, and apparitions floating in through them. She said they really weren't blowing though, just more like an illusion of it. Her story got really creepy when she talked about this huge shadow, cast from a dim nightlight below a table that she leaves on overnight. She said the shadow was "evil", and would bulge and move around the ceiling. It would "eat" these other apparitions, and they would try to escape it.
This is when I began to question the validity of the experiences, and began to investigate more deeply. My mom had told me that she takes a lot of medication each day, and was probably hallucinating. I checked the list of medications, read the labels, backs of the boxes, checking for drug interaction precautions. There was some indication that mixing the drugs could cause hallucinations. But what really got me about the whole thing was how much it sounded like an acid trip, or hallucinations of schitzophrenics, both caused by effects on one's dopamine receptors. I beefed up a little on the subject, and currently my theory is that she is, in fact, hallucinating due to drug interaction.
Where this doesn't make sense is her earlier reports of things falling off walls and feeling things move past her. She didn't hallucinate having to clean up a plant that fell off the table.
I'd love to hear some thoughts.
At first, she would talk about things like rushes of air moving past her, pictures falling off walls, and plants being knocked off tables. As time went on, there was a story about a lady dressed in early 20th century clothes, looking at pictures on her wall. The lady was looking at the pictures, and when my grandmother approached her, she disappeared though the curtains. Not long after that my grandmother awoke one night and a little girl with flowers in her hair was at the foot of the bed, looking at her. These were typical of most reports of apparitions, semi-transparent figures who seemed to float and vanish into thin air. At the time I totally believed her, while the rest of the family just kind of laughed.
About a year ago, she told me that "the ghosts were back." She really hesitated to even tell me what she had seen, she was truly afraid. She talked about waking up and seeing the curtains sort of "blowing", like the window was open, and apparitions floating in through them. She said they really weren't blowing though, just more like an illusion of it. Her story got really creepy when she talked about this huge shadow, cast from a dim nightlight below a table that she leaves on overnight. She said the shadow was "evil", and would bulge and move around the ceiling. It would "eat" these other apparitions, and they would try to escape it.
This is when I began to question the validity of the experiences, and began to investigate more deeply. My mom had told me that she takes a lot of medication each day, and was probably hallucinating. I checked the list of medications, read the labels, backs of the boxes, checking for drug interaction precautions. There was some indication that mixing the drugs could cause hallucinations. But what really got me about the whole thing was how much it sounded like an acid trip, or hallucinations of schitzophrenics, both caused by effects on one's dopamine receptors. I beefed up a little on the subject, and currently my theory is that she is, in fact, hallucinating due to drug interaction.
Where this doesn't make sense is her earlier reports of things falling off walls and feeling things move past her. She didn't hallucinate having to clean up a plant that fell off the table.
I'd love to hear some thoughts.