Hearing Footsteps & Knocking At Night Spiritual Meaning
Updated 2025.03.26
Do you hear noises when no one is home? The incidence of strange sounds increasing in your presence?
When I was growing up, I lived in a very old home, dating back to the 1800s. Both of my parents worked during the day, so when I would stay home sick, I would often find myself home alone watching old movies rented from the public library.
Dozing off during them, I’d frequently wake up hearing footsteps and soft speaking voices upstairs, I’d excitedly call upstairs to my mom - thinking she was home.
Inevitably, she wouldn’t respond. Because she wasn’t home. No one was. Out of frustration or having to use the restroom (there was only one in the house), I’d walk upstairs expecting to find her - and I’d find no one at all.
In my house growing up, this was a recurring theme, and it could easily be attributed to the creaking of an old house for the footsteps and my fever for the voices.
However, these experiences have occurred in essentially every house I’ve ever lived in, which at this point, is about 10.
Expanding on footsteps, I’d regularly hear banging or knocking on doors and mistaken it for my father and being in trouble, or the opening and closing of cabinets or doors in the kitchen. Upon investigation, no doors or cabinets would be opened or closed - simply the noise.
What’s going on here?
Spirits can communicate with us using sound and the ability to hear these communications is called clairaudience.
Not everyone hears non-physical noise, which can sometimes manifest telepathically as a voice within. It’s an intuitive gift that can be strengthened and managed.
Clairaudience is one of the main types of spirit communication among mediums.
If someone in Spirit is trying to get your attention, one of the best ways to do this is to make an audible noise - again, again and again.
Thus, if you hear a noise once and it’s a Spirit communication, ask to hear it again and it’ll happen. Maybe not within the next few minutes, but perhaps the next day. If it doesn’t re-occur, it may be something else entirely.
The creation of audible noise is a simple energy shift and can be easily explained by the laws of energy transformation and conversion.
With inputs of energy and matter to a system, changes of temperature and pressure - sound, heat, light and physical objects can all materialize.
What type of Spirit would do this?
Think of someone you know in spirit who had a boisterous, extroverted, bossy or loud personality.
Did your dad have a loud, booming voice that carried across a room? Do you know someone who had a way of always getting attention while alive?
If so, they may be fond of creating audible sounds to get your attention - after all, they did so when they were alive.
Are you a little skeptical of Spirit?
If so, audible sound is a common technique used when a person is doubtful because there’s very little room for unexplained noises. This communication method may also be used by other Spiritual energies to get through any resistance to believing their presence is real.
What do you do?
Step 1. Identify the Spirit
To help you narrow it down, the person you hear is going to fall in one major category - someone who has been in your house and knows the layout of the land.
This could be a Loved One in Spirit or a previous resident of your home or property. If it’s a Loved One, this doesn’t necessarily mean they lived with you at any point.
To find out who is making this noise, you can ask for a sign to verify their identity. These noises could be anyone in Spirit, but usually, it’s a deceased person - less likely a Guide or an Angel.
Spirit Guides and Angels tend to be a little more gentle on their visitation methods.
Check out the most common signs for deceased loved ones here and I suggest giving this person options to identify themselves, such as, “If you are person A, provide this sign to verify, if you are person B, please provide this other sign to verify.”
If you are familiar with using a pendulum, you can also ask them yes or no questions to help identify who it is. These are my pendulum recommendations.
Comfortable with the Ouija board? The reason why it exists is to spell out the names of Spirit visitors. Ouija boards are safe to use with proper precautions.
I suggest starting with asking for another sign or using a physical tool to ask for confirmation of who it is. If there is a Spirit someone in your house making a ruckus - they want to be identified and noticed. Thus, they will often be eager to assist you in the identification process.
For more help with spirit identification, check out The Spirit Identification Key.
Step 2. Ask them to leave or set boundaries
You may want to tell this Spirit to stop what they are doing, especially if it’s waking you up or otherwise causing disruption.
Set boundaries for your house and make a list of what are ‘allowed’ forms or spirit communication, and what are ‘banned’ forms of communication.
As always, you can adjust these boundaries depending on your comfortability level with Spirit.
To start, during your next meditation ask the Spirit to stop or to adjust what they’re doing so you can better understand the message.
All in all, unexplained noise in the home isn’t always related to a physical cause, sometimes the reason is spiritual. You may have spiritual visitors! But do not worry - often times, these visitors are related to the person hearing the signs of their presence or are connected to the property, which means they can be guardians or Ancestral land spirits.
For more content like this, start your 14-day free trial in The Membership!
The Membership is a guided intuitive and spiritual development program, featuring a curated online hub of rotating learning topics with at-home lessons and exercises, live workshops and guided meditations so you can flourish in your sacred connection anywhere, anytime and at your own pace.
Other Articles You May Enjoy:
