Sitting in the bedroom of a suburban house. Lights are off except for the faint glow coming in from the window from the streetlight outside.
It was the middle of winter and even though were inside, we had to switch all heating off to be able to eliminate any possible audible interference. And yes… it was COLD.
I and another investigator were here to help a family with claims of paranormal activity and most of it seem to centre around this area of their house.
Knocks were heard from what appeared to be inside the walls.
Shadows claimed to be darting across the hallway at 3pm at night.
Feelings of uneasiness and of being watched seem to happen as well as objects seemingly moving from room to room on their own. And in most cases, disappearing alltogether.
One part of this bedroom had an open door wardrobe. The tenants would often claim the hangers would swing on their own.
As we sat there for a while, I decided to try and figure out if there was a reasonable explanation as to why the hangers would move.
Firstly I jumped around near the wardrobe seeing if the floor below would tilt the foundations of the wardrobe and make it move. Yes, sometimes when investigating and trying to find a PAE (Possible Alternative Explanation) you can look a little strange, to say the least.
There was a slight swinging of the hangers but not enough to be consistent with the witness statement.
I decided to walk casually past the wardrobe. Just as I did, I just brushed passed one of the hangers. This then hit the other hangers and in what could best be described as a domino effect, got them ALL swinging. And in a decent swing.
The biggest clue was that they continued to swing for a while. So, if you were to walk past it and come back minutes later, it could appear as though they were moving on their own with no assistance from anything living.
What actually happened is called Inertia. It’s a part of physics and is known as one of Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion.
Sounds a little wordy? Do not fear! Here it is broken down:
There are 3 Laws of Motion.
1) Inertia
2) Force
3) Equal and Opposite
We’ll go into Inertia in a moment but the second Law of Force means for something to move an object it needs to have mass itself.
The Third Law of Equal and Opposite means that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction so if something is picked up and weighs 1kg, the “thing” picking it up must have a mass and energy enough to overcome gravity as well to move it.
So… Inertia. How could this be affecting your investigations?
Inertia means if you have an object and it is stationary, it will stay stationary.
It also means that if an object is moved it will continue to move.
In short? An object will be stationary unless there is “power” applied to the object to make it move.
So if something like a light bulb that dangles from the ceiling is moving and yet wasn’t before, there is a possibility that something like a breeze started its swinging motion and it’s still swinging minutes later – and therefore not something caused by the paranormal.
Or if there is a chain swinging that wasn’t before. Maybe someone was near the chain, moved it slightly unconsciously (we’re in the dark as well, right?) and it was still swinging minutes later.
You can also try finding a PAE (Possible Alternative Explanation) too by recreating the situation by moving the object and timing how long it swings for – just to be sure.
Keeping Inertia in mind when investigating is a wonderfully beneficial insight to have.
