Door-pranking poltergeist?
 

Strange occurrences lately. There are three entrances to the main floor of our house. Usually, we use only one of these to go in and out of the house. All three are lockable, and we keep the two we hardly ever use locked.

In the last few days — and it’s winter here, so always one side or the other of the freezing point, outside — we’ve found the door we normally use ajar just an inch or two. That's happened maybe five times. My partner has complained to me that I neglected to close it so that it clicks completely shut when coming in. Then I mentioned to her (when she was last to come in through the door) that she’d been lax about closing the door properly.

But we weren’t thinking much about it, just a minor annoyance. And then yesterday evening (when trying to go outside) she noticed that the door was locked. Really strange, because we customarily leave that door unlocked, unless we’ll both be out of the house for more than just a few hours. You have to very deliberately lock it, and from the outside this must be done with a key. We discussed it a little, and both of us were certain we had not locked it. :icon_scratch:

So… Anybody here have experience with this sort of thing?

sum tims my doorss onn by thm slfss thy do
but i no hosess i liv in is very ol it it is bildin 1885;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

From my understanding, poltergeist activity is more along the lines of items being thrown, noises, etc. If you're sure nobody else has locked/unlocked the doors, it sounds like more of a spirit. You didn't say if anything else has occurred, so it's hard to say what's going on.

Whether anything else will go on, I don't know. We're out in the country, and there are just two of us in the household now. We know our neighbors, and every neighbor leaves his/her neighbors' places alone — it's a good situation that way, here. Besides, no one else would have had an opportunity to fool around with the door or lock at the varied times involved.

I'm no expert on poltergeists, but English-language dictionaries say the word translates as "mischievous ghost" or "playful ghost".

Yes, poltergeists are described as ghosts, however the activity is usually restricted to loud noises and moving objects. I'm not an expert either, I only speak on researching paranormal and talking with others. There is a theory that poltergeists occur because of a living resident's energy being projected into the home causing the incidents.

Thanks for the added info (no one else with access to doors, other activity). It sounds like you may have a playful spirit. I grew up in an "active" house, something was always happening Lol I know how unnerving it can be. Maybe research the history of your house? Hopefully, things quiet down for you.

I would change the locks . Make sure its not a mec. problem with the locks . Depending on the doors and locks , most are not that hard to change .

Thanks for the reply, desert rat. I, too, look for simplest and most ordinary explanations first. But...

Actually, I may not have been clear in writing my OP, but only one of the incidents involved the lock. Most involved the door simply opening itself, when we were sure we'd shut it.

The door has an ordinary knob mechanism with a spring-loaded "latch bolt" with an angled end, so that the latch slides into place when the door is pushed into shut position. We are careful to push the door well-shut in winter, as this is Canada and it's cold outside.

But the keyed lock is a completely separate unit, inset into the door about half a foot above the knob mechanism. The lock is brought into action by either turning a small knob from inside the building, or by using a key from the outside — and either of these very deliberate ways moves the "deadbolt" into the strike & mortise in the door frame.

The lock had not been used by us for over a week before the "self locking" incident, as we had no reason to use it.

Tanemom - After reading your last post about the door opening, I remembered something that happened in my house a few years ago. We have a breezeway/mudroom upon entering our side door. Off the breezeway is a door to the garage. We also had issues with the door opening on its own for about 6 months. At first, I was the only one to notice it. Then one day, my bf and I were in the breezeway chatting while I was sorting laundry (washer & dryer are in breezeway) and the garage doorknob turned, made that "unlatch" sound and opened by itself. It was not locked. It was quite loud; we both turned towards it when we heard the knob turn and witnessed the door open. Obviously, we kind of looked at each other in disbelief. But I had witnessed it before, so it was validating for my bf to see it too.

He investigated the door and found no issues/reasons why it would open on its own. My bf is very down to earth and thinks there's always a reasonable explanation, but couldn't find one this time. It happened here and there for a period of about 6 months and then just stopped. I still have no explanation for this. It sounds similar to your experiences so I thought I'd share.

How is everything going? Any incidents since your original post?

Headintheclouds, thanks for the reply... interesting to read your & bf's experience.

Overall, everything is going well with me and my household.

Since I made the OP to start this thread, there's been only one other open-door incident, that I know of, but nothing more involving the lock.

This has not been a rambunctious sort of thing that's going on in the house. So I actually haven't found the incidents to be unsettling or even spooky, just kind of interesting.

Posting two days after my last post, above...

This morning we woke up to find the main outside door again open a couple inches. It must have opened while we were sleeping. There was no sound, nothing woke us up except the usual time for arising (the "inner clock").

But something else happened, too. My partner is an artist (sculptor) and has a studio in a separate building on our property. Yesterday, she was in her studio working while I was off the property. This morning, she told me that while I was gone, she'd heard the distinctive sound of her front door of her studio shutting (she was in the studio's second room at the time). When she went to look, there was no one there, inside or out.