Red velvet curtains, intricate antiques, and plush Victorian furniture compliments the grand staircase in the lobby of the Queen Anne Hotel. This hotel was formerly an all-girls school built in the 1890s. It’s rumored to be haunted by Miss Mary Lake, a teacher who died soon after it closed down centuries ago. It is believed that her room—four-ten—is supposedly alive with her restless spirit. Guests may feel a tug on their bed sheets, hear creaks and footsteps in the
wee hours of the night, or may even see her ghostly figure.
Ominous Victorian buildings, such as the Queen Anne Hotel, line various streets of San Francisco—with their dark bay windows and the shadows cast by their intricate structural designs towering over passersby. In the twilight, their beauty appears almost eerie. It’s easy to imagine the history that these buildings hold—decades of lives, and sometimes deaths, haunt these historic structures.
So how can you tell if the bumps and creaks in the night are just natural occurrences or someone trying to communicate from beyond the grave?
Most often, “paranormal” experiences are caused by
overactive imaginations. The mysterious sounds and even visions can often be explained away by just thinking twice about what’s experienced.
Angela Berquist is a researcher and writer for the now-mostly-inactive Bay Area Paranormal Investigations Society, which was created to document, investigate, and analyze activity that falls out of the realm of conventional scientific research. Berquist holds a B.A. in Clinical Psychology from San Francisco State and a Ph.D. in Consciousness Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Berquist’s studies of human consciousness have led her to think critically about paranormal experiences. She believes that things can be explained based on the levels of consciousness each person has but may not fully understand. “I think you can train yourself to experience the paranormal and can possibly even create a ghost,” she explains.
She argues that our collective unconscious plays a large part in our perceptions. “On some level,” she says, “the paranormal is perfectly normal; we just don’t always acknowledge or notice it.”
Berquist adds that ghosts and paranormal occurrences are a cultural phenomenon. “There’s a lot of hype in Western society, the way we experience the conscious is by seeing the details and separating reality. Other cultures see things as a whole,” she says.
Many paranormal researchers bring along fancy equipment, which sometimes get reactions and pick up on the ‘abnormal,’ but when it comes down to it, it’s important to remember that the meaning of the data is vague. Hallucinations are also a cause for some ghostly sightings. These experiences are very vivid and can feel very intense and real. Berquist points out that certain disorders such as schizophrenia may cause people to hallucinate, but even if a person isn’t diagnosed with a mental disorder, there could be temporary chemical imbalances that cause them to have similar experiences.
Part of the appeal of ghosts and the paranormal is being able to explore something beyond what we would typically encounter in day-to-day life. Even in ancient times, there was a standing belief that people’s spirits could exist independently from their bodies. Ideas of the spirit world have never left society; they’ve simply evolved.
The first reaction to an unexplainable experience may be to claim it’s a ghost or poltergeist, but there are other reasonable possibilities. The book, The Skeptic’s Guide to the Paranormal, written by Lynne Kelly, debunks some typical ‘ghostly’ occurrences. So the next time you or anyone experiences something odd, ask yourself some questions:

Hearing strange noises and creaks?
Often, sounds and temperature changes can completely explain the occurrence. Wood is an especially porous material—it can change with temperatures and, if next to
another building material, can create strange creaks and vibrations. Central heating and old pipes can amplify, transmit, and even distort sounds within the house through vents. Old pipes in particular are known to have air pockets and leaks, so when combined with new plumbing, pressure changes can enhance strange sounds. Mice and rodents can also be attributed to strange sounds in vents or walls.

Hearing voices? Radios, even when turned off, have been known to transmit signals. If the length between an inner metal band and
the broadcast frequency is just right, signals can be transmitted and
resonate in very rare cases.

Doors opening and closing or objects moving?
Structures, especially with wooden materials, can settle, expand, or contract, causing strange happenings with locks and closures, and the foundation of the structure itself settles, causing things to align differently. This can even cause doors, windows, or locks to pop open with the slightest pressure from a footstep or the wind. It can also explain objects sliding or even crashing—slow movement often goes undetected.

Did you see something strange through a window?
Freshly polished surfaces or slightly repositioned mirrors and glass can cause distortions with lighting. The human mind generally creates patterns to finish obscured visions, and faces are the most typical thing humans associate with sight.

Did you capture an ‘orb’ or ghostly shape in a photograph?
This can likely be explained either by out of focus dust, drops of moisture, or even an insect passing in front of your camera as you snapped the shot. With film, a photo can be double exposed, causing an image to superimpose over another, creating a ghostly image.

It’s not that genuine paranormal activity never occurs; it’s just more likely that as impressionable humans, it’s easy to jump to conclusions
to identify or justify what we can’t explain.
Berquist puts it bluntly: “People just like to get the creeps—an emotional reaction versus a rational one.”