Why Do Ghosts Make You Cold? A True Ghost Story, and the History Behind Paranormal Cold Spots

A True Ghost Story: Standing in Charlie

Thank you to Luke for letting me share his true strange story on the podcast!

Luke was 19 to 21 years old, dating a girl who was "really into witchcraft, pagan stuff," and who regularly told him she would see ghosts. He didn't believe her, until one night in his room, when he got up to use the bathroom.

"As I walked through the doorway, I went sub zero cold, like, to my core. Ice like cold right down my spine, and an almighty shiver ran through me. I'd never felt anything like it before, and I haven't again since."

His girlfriend's response? A nonchalant: "Oh, you're stood in Charlie."

Charlie, as she explained, was a 12-year-old Tudor boy whose spirit she spoke to regularly. Luke's reaction: "Unreal, man. It's the only thing that's ever made me think... is it all real? Never known cold like it."

What Is a Paranormal Cold Spot?

From Wikipedia:

"According to ghost hunters, a cold spot is an area of localized coldness or a sudden decrease in ambient temperature."

Temperature decreases associated with cold spots range widely, from a few degrees Fahrenheit to over 40 degrees. Many ghost hunters use digital thermometers or heat-sensing devices to measure such changes.

"Believers claim that cold spots are an indicator of paranormal or spirit activity in the area. However, there are many natural explanations for rapid temperature variations within structures, and there's no scientifically confirmed evidence that spirit entities exist or can affect air temperatures."

The History of Paranormal Cold Spots: Older Than You Think

1747: Emmanuel Swedenborg, Swedish Seer and Scientist

Emmanuel Swedenborg, who was not a muppet though he sounds like one, was a trained scientist, leading expert in mining and metallurgy, military engineer, astronomer, physicist, zoologist, anatomist, financier, political economist, and biblical scholar, wrote in 1747:

"A spirit is compared to the wind, John 3:8. Hence, it is that spirits have come to me both now and very frequently before with wind, which I felt in the face. Yea. It also moved the flame of the candle and likewise papers. The wind was cold and indeed most frequently where I raised my right arm, which I wondered at, the cause of which I do not yet know."

1874: Sir William Crookes, English Chemist and Physicist

Sir William Crookes, attendee of the Royal College of Chemistry, pioneer of vacuum tubes, and the inventor whose work led Wilhelm Röntgen to discover X-rays, wrote in Researches into the Phenomena of Spiritualism:

"These movements, and indeed, I may say the same of every kind of phenomenon, are generally preceded by a peculiar cold air sometimes amounting to a decided wind. I have had sheets of paper blown about by it and a thermometer lowered several degrees. On some occasions, I have not detected any actual movement of the air, but the cold has been so intense that I could only compare it to that felt when the hand has been within a few inches of frozen mercury."

The Skeptical Explanation

Good paranormal investigators, she explains, first try to debunk what's happening, and only if they really can't explain it do they bring out the big guns.

The mundane theory here... A draft. Houses are drafty. And when someone with a witchy, ghost-seeing girlfriend tells you you're standing in a ghost, a cold sensation can feel far colder than it might otherwise.

Luke, because you specifically said "it was a cold like I've never felt before," well, yeah, because you were like, what is that? Then she tells you you're standing in this ghost. That's scary, dude. Even if you can't see it, that's scary. So it felt even colder to you because you're scared.

Who Was Charlie? A Tudor Ghost Profile

Charlie is described as a 12-year-old Tudor boy, placing him somewhere between the late 1400s and early 1600s.

"The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603, including the Elizabethan era. The Tudor period coincides with the reign of the House of Tudor, which began with the ascension of Henry the Seventh and ended with the death of Elizabeth the First."

Charlie was almost certainly not nobility. Children born outside of nobility in Tudor England were dressed in loose-fitting wool or muslin dresses until their families could dress them properly, along with a cloth bonnet. The fabrics of a laborer's clothing were "serviceable and simple", linen for shirts, wool for doublets and hose.

And as for color, Tudor sumptuary laws dictated exactly who could wear what:

"Only knights, lords, and above, or having an income of £200 per year may wear red or blue velvet... You also can't wear black fur or genet... You also can't wear lynx fur... You can't wear leopard furs. You can't wear embroidered clothes."

Unless Charlie was the Tudor equivalent of earning £297,000 USD a year, he wasn't wearing any of that. And the most popular color for men in the Tudor period?

"The most popular color for men, to the point that it is difficult to find portraits of the individual wearing anything else, is black."

Submit Your Own True Strange Story

If anyone has a true strange story that they would like to hear narrated on the show, I wanna hear about it immediately. I wanna hear about it right now. So go type it up. Send it to madamestrangeways@gmail.com

Remember that you can feel afraid and not be in danger. You're safe here with me. Probably.