Yes you read it right, there have been many reports of, what people believe to be, haunted computers. Can you imagine a spirit in a machine or more accurately, in an electronic device. I am not saying that I believe in spirits mind you, but there are a lot of strange things that go on that can not be explained. There are also many reports by people who truly believe that a spirit has some how entered their computer or lives on the internet. Is there some parallel between what people perceive to be spirits and computers? One thing that immediately comes to mind is the fact that both are thought to be involved with energy in one way or another. Many believe that a spirit is pure energy left over after the body dies. A computer operates on energy, electricity to be exact. Could a computer operate on spirit energy if it existed?

I think this might be a very interesting point. I wonder why, when you look at these so called ghost hunting shows on tv, you never see any investigators carrying a lap top through the haunted house or even a PDA with wireless capacity? Sure they usually use computers to monitor rooms that have cameras in them but this is not the use that I am talking about. If a spirit actually existed and was able to somehow transfer it's energy into a computer, wouldn't it make sense to carry a computer that was on and had internet connectivity? Can’t you just see it, a paranormal investigator is going through a supposedly haunted area and his lap top is on and all of a sudden a face appears on it, it is the face of a deceased resident from the past who begins to talk to the investigator. Chilling thought isn’t it?

Every year, many thousands of weird reports of ghostly things going on, on home and office computers, are reported. As with ufo sightings, many of these things can be explained by pranks, crossed connections and the such, but there are always some that just defy any explanation. Hey when your dead brother Fred comes up on the computer and begins to talk to you and answer questions it becomes real hairy. Let’s take a look at what some people have said about their computers and why they thought that they were haunted.

One man, who bought a new computer, tells the story that when he installed his computer in a particular room in his home, the room became much colder than it had ever been. No matter what he did to try and heat the room, it didn’t work. He then moved the computer to another room and that room became much colder than the rest of the house and the original room where the computer was first installed became warm again. This in itself was just too strange to explain, but things got stranger. Attachments to the new computer refused to work. We all know that this could just have been improper installation but let me go on. Software that had been installed on the machine would vanish. Photos of different things would change as if someone had altered them in a photo program but the computer was only used by one person and he claims that he didn’t do it. The computer began to scramble the phone line but when it was unplugged, everything went back to normal. The computer’s owner had the machine checked by a repair service which went over every part and the machine was found to be in perfect working order. Shadows began to appear by the machine and the dog refused to enter the room. At this point the owner got rid of the machine. Was this a haunted computer? Well there was certainly something strange going on here.

A student tells of a borrowed computer that began to act very strangely. When he turned the machine on, the screen began to crackle and two strange looking beings appeared. He stated that he could hear squeaks coming from them but somehow he could also understand them. They told him that he had tapped into an alien world. The communications didn’t last long and he was never able to reach the beings again. While this is not a haunting, it is never the less interesting.

Another report tells us about a computer that was haunted by the ghost of President Nixon. You must admit that this is quite unusual, but there is more to it. It is claimed that Mr. Nixon doesn’t haunt just one computer, but can be found on many thousands of different computers. Hey it sounds like he is more popular now than when he was alive. But wait, this haunting has an explanation. The ghost of Nixon is actually a program that is recording all your computer activity. It is what is commonly known as a Trojan and should be removed from your computer.

An older man tells the story of why he thinks his computer is haunted. One day while sitting in the same room as the computer, he noticed that the photo on the screen saver had begun to change slightly. Two eyes were coming into view in the center of the picture. He couldn’t believe it and it scared him a little. It took a few more days but heads of people were beginning to appear. He called in his family but they all said that they didn’t see anything. This upset the man even more, could he have been going crazy? Weeks went by and by now, entire bodies were visible. One day his bell rang and it was a friend. They sat in the room that the computer was located in and when his friend turned his head toward the computer he shouted, “what the hell is that?” The man asked him what he saw. He said that he could see people coming into view and an old man walking down a road toward a farmhouse. Thank God, the man said, I thought I was losing it. The photo on the computer had been changed but the strange effects were still taking place. You can now see the lips moving on these people on the screen but you can't hear anything. If the machine is connected to the internet the people don’t appear. Strange, very strange.

Are spirits attracted to electrical devices and are computers their priority devices? Hey I don’t know if spirits even exist but if they do what device could be more symbiotic than a computer?