Who keeps closing my bedroom door?

I never thought I would create a thread here at ATS. I am usually more of a reader and occasional commenter. However, recent events at my home have caused me to pen this thread.

I live in a “Century” house – a common expression in the Mid-West to denote homes older than 100+ years. I have lived in this house for 18+ years with only a few incidents of paranormal activity. Nothing really has been going on for the last few years – until this week.

To clarify things here in the beginning, I will explain that my husband and I sleep in separate bedrooms. This is convenient for us because of our snoring. His room is only ten feet from my room. I sleep with my bedroom door open and he sleeps with his closed – not latched closed, only closed enough to block noise.

Wednesday morning I awoke to hear a man downstairs talking. (This is not unusual at all as my husband on weekdays sometimes wakes up before me and will conduct business in his home office with his door closed as to not disturb my sleep.) I lay in bed (fully awake) and listened to the conversation. It was not anything I could make out, but it was definitely a man’s voice speaking. It sounded to me that my husband was conducting a meeting with his office door closed. I thought nothing of it until I heard my husband’s alarm clock go off and he then hit the snooze. Realizing that it was not my husband downstairs, I was curious. I never was able to explain that.

Later that evening (approximately 9:30 local time) while my husband was in the shower, I was getting ready for bed. While sitting on the edge of the bed I watched the bedroom door slowly start to move. It was obviously closing on its own. It took a many seconds for this to happen (I did not count as I was fascinated by what I was seeing) and I watched in amazement as it continued to close completely.

I got up out of bed, opened the door fully, and sat back down in bed. No sooner than I had done this, the door again starts to close. It closed completely. For a second time, I got out of bed and opened the door fully to the wall. I waited a few seconds, and yes, again, the door began to close. This time I stopped it before it was able to close completely. I should add that there was no force against me that was trying to keep the door open. It was simply gliding along.

On Thursday throughout the day, the door remained open. My husband later that evening left town and I was by myself. On Thursday night the door closed itself again in the middle of the night. It was open when I went to sleep. I woke up at 2:00am to visit the bathroom and low and behold the door was closed. I didn’t expect this and proceeded to walk face first into the door. I opened the door and it remained open the rest of the night.

On Friday evening I went to sleep with the door open. I woke up at 2:30 am to visit the bathroom (I’m old, don’t judge) and AGAIN found the door closed. I opened the door and proceeded to the bathroom. Early this morning (7:15 am) I woke up to find the door closed yet again.

After lying in bed wondering what is wrong with this door – I then heard our doorbell. It was not the clarity with which I would normally hear our doorbell, but something along the lines of being in the distance or muffled.

Surprised by this, I immediately looked out the window and there were no cars in the driveway. After running downstairs and opening the front door, there was also nothing there.

I am completely mystified by these recent events. After last night, the husband and I have decided to set up a video camera in the bedroom to try to ascertain if anything can be “caught” on camera as the culprit. As soon as I have video of this, I will post it here.

I guess my question to the ATS community is – has anyone else had this happen? I have before, but not at my house and I believe it was directly related to my Father whom had passed away only few weeks earlier.

Any suggestions, comments, or advice you could give will be greatly appreciated.

Rochester

Could be the house is off kilter due to settling.

However, I suggest you never watch "The Entity" or "Poltergeist" if you're going to spend a lot of time there alone.

eta: I've also seen older houses have doors shut when a stiff breeze blows up outside due to them not being very tight, also if you have central air it can happen when the system cycles on.

reply to post by Bedlam


Thanks for your response Bedlam,,

No, our house has been "off level" for many years. The doors that are effected by this are blocked by doorstops. My bedroom door has never had any leveling issues prior to this week.

This is completely new phenomenon and I am at a loss to explain why this happened now.

I am not sure about paranormal activity but please for the sake of your safety the next time the doorbell rings late at night, or in the early hours of the morning and you are own your own do not run down to answer it. Looking out of the window is sensible and if you see no one there call the police.

If a friend or relative or anyone else wants to contact you urgently at an unusual hour they will do it by phone. Tell all your friends, family, neighbours etc that you will not answer the door after dark when you are on your own and explain that if they need to get hold of you to do it by phone in the first instance.

Safety first, I am certain your husband would agree with me on these points.

Kind regards

DON'T DO IT!!! What if you set up a camera and it is truly something horrible? Seriously? Would you be ok living with that? I have thought of doing the same thing in my house, but do not truly want to see anything... as I and my entity get on quite well without me knowing if it looks like the really old, creepy guy on Poltergeist. If you filmed it standing over your bed with slime and fetid roaches cascading out of it's mouth onto your duvet while you slept... it might leave you feeling somewhat.... violated.

Other than that, it sounds like you coexist with it nicely. We all want the answers to everything. Sometimes there are none. It could be the house, but it could be something else. Who knows. As long as you don't get an "evil" feeling from it, live and let live maybe.

Originally posted by hotel1
I am not sure about paranormal activity but please for the sake of your safety the next time the doorbell rings late at night, or in the early hours of the morning and you are own your own do not run down to answer it. Looking out of the window is sensible and if you see no one there call the police.

If a friend or relative or anyone else wants to contact you urgently at an unusual hour they will do it by phone. Tell all your friends, family, neighbours etc that you will not answer the door after dark when you are on your own and explain that if they need to get hold of you to do it by phone in the first instance.

Safety first, I am certain your husband would agree with me on these points.

Kind regards

Ummm - OK. I'm over 50 and know very well the dangers of answering a door.

I appreciate you advice and concern.

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe


I have always told my husband - if we see them, I am out of here.

I'm not afraid, I do not get a sense of malevolence. It is just weird that it started happening this week.

reply to post by Bedlam


We don't have central air here, only a few window units used in the summer. The one in my bedroom is permanently installed. This has never been a problem before.

I initially thought it could be the a/c unit in the bedroom; however, this would not explain the lack of movement in the daytime vs. much movement in the nighttime. I never touched the controls all week.

reply to post by Rochester

I was not suggesting that you were not aware of the danger but I do know that when a doorbell rings late at night the immediate thought is that it must be something urgent or serious and your instinct is to go and answer. The fact that you say you are no longer in the first flush of youth was not why I advised as I did, I would advise the same to anyone, but a woman on her own of any age is considered to be especially vulnerable by the police, and they certainly won't be angry if you call them because you were worried and it turned out to be nothing serious.

Stay safe and well.

reply to post by hotel1


I apologize if my first response was dismissive. I did not intend it to be that way.

I only opened the front door after the doorbell rang because it was fully daylight outside and I can see if anyone is on the porch from the many windows around my house.

I'm sorry if my first response came off a rude. I'm just trying to find an answer to this.

Best,

Rochester

reply to post by hotel1


I understand. Thank You for your concern. I will try to be more aware in the future.

Thanks for your responses.

Originally posted by Rochester
reply to post by hotel1

 

I apologize if my first response was dismissive. I did not intend it to be that way.

I only opened the front door after the doorbell rang because it was fully daylight outside and I can see if anyone is on the porch from the many windows around my house.

I'm sorry if my first response came off a rude. I'm just trying to find an answer to this.

Best,

Rochester

There is no need to apologise that was my bad I misread and thought you said the doorbell rang late at night, but I suppose it is also a sensible practice if you are on your own in the day. I certainly did not perceive your response as rude.

reply to post by Rochester

Happy to be of service, friend.

So - I guess no one really has any explanation as to what might be causing this to happen out of nowhere.

I appreciate the concern for my safety - I really do - I was hoping for something more as an explanation for the recent activity.

I will set up a video camera tomorrow to see if we can find an explanation.

Regards to all who responded,

Thank You,

Rochester

reply to post by Rochester

If this is a corner door that swings a quarter circle, then it is possible a misalignment is the cause.

If this door is mid-wall and swings a half circle, it would be impossible for misalignment to close the door. Any tilt in a half-swing door will either pin it open against the wall or swing the door from the wall to a half closed position.

If you confirm this is a half-swing door, I can give you more information.

Best regards,
Z

reply to post by hotel1


Thank You,

I really only wanted advice on what could be creating this and why all of a sudden this happened this past week.

As I said in the OP - the only "spirit" i have ever known to close doors is my Father shortly after he died - and that did not happen in my house - it happened in his when I was staying in his house.

I can't explain why this started this week and was only looking for guidance from the community.

I suppose I will never know, as is the case with many mysteries in my house.

Best to you,

Rochester

How long have you been married? my old(century) house had issues with doors randomly closing also, installed alarm system on the house (NOT ADT, A locAl company] the doors were set to chime on motion[front & back] , but sometimes still hearing the doors chiming, and rushing downstairs only to find nothing .

Now back to the subject. If you have ruled out that drafts may be causing this the next thing to check to see if the door has sloped hinges designed to make a door close too, or if the hinges have worn into a closing slope by the door not being hung perfectly square. I realise I am sounding very cynical here but I think it is always best to rule out the easily explainable before looking for a more exotic answer.

Originally posted by DrZrD
reply to post by Rochester

 

If this is a corner door that swings a quarter circle, then it is possible a misalignment is the cause.

If this door is mid-wall and swings a half circle, it would be impossible for misalignment to close the door. Any tilt in a half-swing door will either pin it open against the wall or swing the door from the wall to a half closed position.

If you confirm this is a half-swing door, I can give you more information.

Best regards,
Z

Thanks for the response,

This door is closing "full circle" in that it is against the wall and then slowly moves to the fully closed position.

I'm not sure what you mean by "half circle" or "mid wall".

The problem is that this has never happened with this door in the 18 years I have lived in this house. It only began to close itself this past week. Much to my amazement - I watched it do this 3 times.

If you could elaborate on your questions, perhaps I can give more meaningful answers.

reply to post by Rochester


Just buy another door-stopper. Problem solved.
Can't be a coincidence that it happened to other doors in your house.