Ghosts and other spooky stuff

[nntsci 11075]

I want to preface this thread by noting that I'm a skeptic and don't believe in ghosts what so ever... but...

 

I was at a rental cottage a couple weeks ago and having my first shower in the cottage after a hard day of swimming, canoeing, and stuff like that.

 

The water went cold probably due to having a small water heater tank, and I think someone turned on the tap in the kitchen. Anyway, I stepped out of the shower (brrrrrr) to adjust the water, and felt a hand on my shoulder caressing me. It felt warm and sensual. I was the only person in the bathroom, the bathroom door was locked, and I can't actually imagine my wife sneaking into the bathroom to join me in the shower anyway, so I looked around in surprise... nothing. I looked up and saw that there was a towel hanging on the shower rod and thought, oh, it must have been the towel dangling onto my shoulder and my brain interpreted it as a hand. But for a brief second it sure did not feel like a towel.

 

Anyway, I got back in the shower, but kept my eyes wide open. As I said I'm a skeptic and didn't believe that it could be a ghost, but while I was washing my hair I kept half expecting to find a bone in my hair as happened in the Grudge -- I think I watch too many movies. And like all people in ghost movies, we stayed in the cottage... but then it was a friendly ghost giving me a bit of a massage; not a scary ghost, LOL.

 

Speaking of which, the film, the Cabin in the woods was on the TV later that night.

 

Anyway, when I got out of the shower, I was afraid to mention it to my wife cause I thought perhaps she would want to get right out of there... and having spent several hours driving to the cottage I didn't want to go anywhere else... but she didn't, suggesting she is not as superstitious as she used to be... of course, it helped that I already explained it away as a (rather sensual) towel.

 

Didn't have any other experience like that for the rest of the week.

 

I've had other ghost like experiences, all of which I can explain away as nothing special, but I thought it would be fun to start a thread about spooky things you've experienced.

[gc1968 2033]

I've got one for you.

 

My niece is around 3 or so, and sometimes she says and does things that are frankly kinda creepy. She sometimes talks about life experiences and things as if she had experienced these things herself, even though it is impossible. I've only witnessed one episode of this type first hand although have been told several. The one I witnessed pertains to ghosts though.

 

My brother and his family, as well as myself were visiting at my mothers house. My niece was talking to my mother, and she said "Grandma, I like coming here, sometimes when I come here my friend is here". My mom asked her which friend, and named a couple of little girls that sometimes come to play when my nieces and nephew come to visit. My niece said "No, his name is Frank". Everyone looked at each other, because none of us knew any kids named Frank, so my mom asked what Frank looked like, and my niece pointed to a picture of my grandparents, and said "that's Frank, and he is saying that lady is named Greta". Of course she had the names right, but she had never met my grandparents, since they had both died before she was born. My brother asked her what she meant by the way she phrased that part about 'he is saying' and didn't she mean to say 'he said' , and she said "no he is saying it, he's right there" and pointed just over my moms shoulder. Needless to say it gave everyone a shock, especially my mom, who already says that sometimes she feels like grandpa is still around.

 

The skeptic in me says that it was just her memory of someone talking about the picture in front of her coupled with her very active imagination, but I'm not entirely convinced that is the explanation.

[Guest **cely***r***ne]

Children are much more vulnerable or open, if I may say so, to spirits. They do not understand our fear if we have any of souls that have departed. And spirit senses this and is more liable to "communicate" or show themselves to kids.

 

This is amazing! Such a gift she has :)

 

I get goosebumps whenever anyone mentions "ghosts". I love this stuff!! I am a total believer...but really have no choice as some spirits like to play games with me :s A couple years ago I had a chair that was "haunted". An old lady with clothing from the victorian era. She never wanted to leave and was a dark spirit. She had to be banished, and my chair thrown away. I've had a cat spirit in my home for almost 5 years...he follows me everywhere I move to. This cat was mine years ago. And like an old saying goes if your cat bites you, makes you bleed and licks it up, he is yours forever. Well, Jackie did that and hes still around. Funny thing is I find pieces of cat food everywhere and little wet paw prints in my bathroom. I do not own a cat and there were no cats here before I moved in!

[Guest s****aswe***ess]

I had a spooky but amazing experience after missing my cousin who was my sister really in closeness wise and how we grew up together!

 

Anyways very sad my cousin past away may 2011 after a long hard battle of cancer, She fought hard and this im finally able to talk about with out effecting myself mentally.

 

So me and my sister were so close and the summer after she past away I moved into a basement apartment bought throw pillows did it up nice but was missing her so bad. Went to a local walmart.. bought more throw pillows. Went home fell asleep, woke up took the pillows i bought and ripped the tag off... looked at the tag.. and the brand name of the pillow was her name :O I had to call my nan crying in happiness and kinda scared! There was never anything we could find growing up with her name on it like pens, pillows, toothbushes all those cool things you could get with your name on it wasnt avail in her name and these pillows were!!! just on the tag! but still i believe that was some sort of message she sent me because i missed her dearly <3 always do!

 

Xo Selina oX

 

Thanks for this thread!!!! :)

[Midnite-Energies 110563]

One of my favorite memories involves my Grampie. He's actually my stepfather's father but we always had this connection even though we didn't live close to one another. When he passed away I went to the funeral and actual gravesite which are things I try to avoid because I am way to empathic to not be affected. Grampie always had a smile and a great sense of humor. I hadn't seen him in awhile before he died.

 

At the service, one of the younger cousins sang a song and I felt Grampie there and knew he loved hearing it. There were also a couple more times when I could sense his enjoyment and that he was close to me. I figured out of everyone in the room, I was the one who would be sensitive to him.

 

Then when the burial was over, everyone was going back to his house for a reception. We were one of the last to go. When we went to get the keys to the car, the key was gone. I checked my spare key and it too was gone. I had the distinct feeling that Grampie wanted me to stay for awhile longer as we didn't have much time together prior to his passing. While others looked for the keys or a way to get into my car, I stood under the shade of a tree and talked to Grampie. I told him I knew he was there and that now he was happy and not changing (he was on heavy morphine that made him rather hateful which is why I didn't want to see him) and that I loved him and would miss him. I had such a wonderful feeling of love and peace and then it was gone. I reached into my pocket and my key was back and when we checked, so was the spare. I smiled all the way to the house.

 

This is just one potent example, I have experienced others and have had friends tell me about their experiences. I believe there is much beyond our senses and unless we believe in it, we will never see or experience it.

[nntsci 11075]

Great stories everyone. I work at home a lot and very often weird things happened when I'm alone. Like doors upstairs opening and closing by themselves. I eventually figured it was the door to my eldest son's bedroom that wouldn't latch properly so I replaced the door handle with a ghost proof model.

 

I've also heard banging around downstairs in the middle of the night. I think that it was actually the icemaker in the refrigerator... or so I rationalized it.

 

The weirdest thing however was that I heard my clock radio alarm go off in my room at around 11:30 during the day -- it shouldn't go off at 11:30, but sometimes my wife resets it and forget about it, so upstairs I went. . When I got up stairs to turn it off, it wasn't on. I looked at it. Nothing weird about it. Went back stairs and 10 minutes later it came on again... same outcome. Apparently the ghost needed to get up for noon or something like that, but hit the snooze button the first time.

 

Another time I could have sworn that my wife alarm clock which makes a buzzing sound, came on... but when I got upstairs, her alarm wasn't even plugged in (I knew that because I had unplugged the stupid thing -- it was so unreliable). Again, when I got upstairs, no alarm. A few minutes later the ghost had a shower. BUT. This one had an easy explanation. My 16 year old son was upstairs; he had stayed home from school because he was sick. It was actually his alarm.

 

Once I had a sleep paralysis experience. That is where you wake up and you can't move. Sleep paralysis is a normal thing that happens during REM sleep to avoid injuring oneself during dreams. But sometimes people partly wake up, are still paralysed, and see things such as witches or aliens. My dad used to wake up in the middle of the night screaming about some witch on his chest, but he slept on his back. I rarely do that. But once I woke up and was lying on my back and felt a weight on top of me pressing me down. It felt warm and was more like a woman lying on me, but there was I didn't think it could be my wife -- would never happen, lol. As I slowly woke up more, I could move my arms and embraced that weight, I could feel someone lying on top of me, but as I encircled my spook, it disappeared slowly. Again, I didn't feel any fear, but what a weird experience.

[piano8950 32577]

Complete skeptic here.

 

In my religion, the concept of something called Jinns exist, which would be the closest to what most people may relate to ghosts (also how the whole genie thing came to be). Many people of my faith claimed to have some sort of encounter, but for some reason, I've always rationalized any weird sounds around my house with assuming its some pipe or creak due to heat expansion, or something of that sort.

 

But the difference between a Jinn and a ghost is that ghosts are meant to be remaining spirits from people whose bodies have long passed. Jinns are said to be living creatures, and this is where it gets a little confusing, they are said to live on the same planet we do, but in an entirely different dimension (for lack of a better word). Like us, they have the concept of religion, love, marriage, and they do die. Unlike us, they have the ability to move very fast over very long distances. They can also choose between being good and evil, or living in the many shades in between. Satan or Shiatan is actually supposed to be a Jinn that did not bow to Adam when God commanded all Jinns and angels to.

 

They are also claimed to have one other fairly interesting ability, take on the shape of anything. Because they are believed to be immensely more powerful than humans, we are exposed to them in a way that does not go the other way. As well, take upon control of a living human (Think The Exorcist, perhaps less scary).

 

I've never put too much thought into such things. I figure things like ghosts and jinns and spirits and all that stuff is just nonsense. But I'll tell you what though, I switched on a lamp after reading some of the stories here. You know, just in case ;)

[Squid 196]

Sorry for the long winded story but I need to set the context for my one and only experience with the unexplained.

 

My father passed away when I was very young leaving my mother to raise five children ranging in age from two years to eleven . It was very hard on my Her both financially and emotionally but she endured. She also never remarried or even dated committing her life to raising her children and honoring the memory of my father .Many years later when all my siblings had married and left the nest I was the only one left living at home. I was a young adult and occupied a basement bedroom ,with my Mother's bedroom on the top floor.

 

One Sunday afternoon while taking a nap I suddenly felt someone grab my leg and shake me . Sitting up half awake I thought I saw someone or perhaps just a shadow leaving my bedroom and gave chase . I never caught that image , just rounding the next corner or up the stairs but it led me to my Mother's bedroom where I found her crying slumped in the corner.

 

My Mother never confided in me why see was so despondent that afternoon but for some reason I feel that if that " shadow " had not visited that afternoon my life would have changed dramatically.

 

Squid

[Guest *Ste***cque**]

The logic part of me says this is all just us putting a superstitious twist on an explainable or even inexplicable experience. In other words, this is nothing more than coincidence.

 

Having said that, I have had sleep paralysis when I was a young man. I mentioned this in another post a while back. It happened to me a few times before but this time I was living alone in a rundown building and was reading in bed one night. I felt a powerful electric current pass through my body and I was paralyzed. I could only move my eyes no matter how hard I tried to move my body. I then heard the door to my apartment open and could hear movement outside my bedroom door. From the corner of my eye I saw an alien like figure(gray/hairless, big head) peak its head through the doorway opening. With a superhuman effort from a shitload of adrenaline I jolted up to a sitting position no longer paralyzed. When I looked at the doorway there was nothing there. That felt so real I swear I saw something. I've since learned there was a name for the condition and it could be brought on by stress, which I was going through at that time in my life. I won't deny it was scary though. I still have an irrational fear of being in my house alone at night. I worry I'll have a recurrence of sleep paralysis and see that visitor again.

 

I think all this can be explained without being superstitious but I've said before, we know so little of how the universe works that anything is possible.

[Guest Ot**w***og****n]

Although I have no personal experience(s) in this vein to relate I do remain very open-minded about all this along with the existence of alien life elsewhere. Why? I have no idea really, but I do believe my late wife watches over me.

[Guest realnicehat]

I have also experienced sleep paralysis a few times. The instance I remember most vividly, I was awakened by a large crash (or at least I think I was) on the main floor of my house. Startled, I wanted to investigate but I could not move. Breathing seemed hard, I was petrified. Eventually, I was sitting up in bed but I was never sure if the paralysis was real or had been part of a dream. I can recall being unable to move and trying to force myself to, and I can remember when I was sitting, but there is no moment of relief when the paralysis breaks (you would think this to be significant) in my memory.

 

 

When I moved in to my house years ago I briefly thought it was haunted. Laying in bed early one morning, half awake, I heard someone run down the length of my hall. I jumped up to see what it was but nothing was there. I went back to bed and was drifting off when what ever it was came back down the hall. There was no going back to sleep after that. A few days later this happened again but with a little twist. This time, after the running, I heard a rustling noise outside my window. I looked out to see a squirrel climbing down the tree while another watched from the roof. It seems they create quite the echo when they scamper around up there......

[nntsci 11075]

I used to believe my parents house was haunted, but if it was, they never showed themselves and never hurt anyone. I used to hear the sounds of a party in the living room below my room at night, not loud, but it had that cluttered ambient sound that you get with a lot of people talking at the same time. I actually had this idea that my rather dull work-a-day parents had a great social life at night, but once or twice I snuck down to see what was going on... nothing. Dead silence.

 

When I was young I remember waking up as the sun was rising and often being afraid to get out of bed I would see faces in the edge of the curtains. It must have been a weekend because no one else was up yet. Anyway in addition to the faces in the curtains, I could see the door of my room bending in. Did you ever see the original haunting? Well there is a scene just like that with the door breathing. I don't recall any sound effects though, but the bending inward to the point where I feared the door would burst in any minute. This happened several times, but would disappear as the sun rose and other people (my mother) would get up. I think the bending was an optical illusion resulting from the grain of the door.

 

Another time I was home sick with a flu. My parents went out to get some medicine or soup for me. I can't recall how old I was, but I'm guessing maybe 11 or 12? Anyway I heard the door open, and footstep clomping up the stairs, go into my parents room and open the closet door. I called out, Mom, nobody answered. My parents came home about 1/2 hour later and I cried out and told them what I had heard. My dad thought it was a burglar and rushed around looking for things missing; nothing was missing.

 

The house used to creak all the time. But once we got a cat, it was more tolerable. If you have a ghost, get a noisy pet that way you can blame all the weird sounds on the pet. I my current house, we only have aquariums... no mobile critters.

 

But I don't believe any of these experiences were actual ghosts. The sounds and images were likely the workings of a tired and fertile (and sick) imagination. I also think that because I grew up with these sounds and they never harmed anyone, they don't scare me. Real or not, I don't believe these experiences can be harmful. I don't actually believe in ghosts at all... but it would be cool if they did exist. And its fun to tell stories about them.

[Nicolette Vaughn 294340]

This past Christmas Eve, I was wrapping presents at the dining room table and saw an old man standing on my staircase that looked like my Uncle who died 8 years ago. He was also my Godfather. I wasn't scared because I've experienced this before but it was startling.

 

And just before Christmas 2012, it happened to be a full moon that night. I was sitting at the dining room table again on my laptop and had left my dinner plate on the kitchen table. No one else was in the kitchen and the plate was nowhere near the edge of the table when all of a sudden it crashed to the floor but did not break. A family member who was sitting on the sofa also witnessed it and we were both freaked out. Both cat were upstairs sleeping.

 

Late at night, I always see my cats eyes roaming across the room like someone is walking in front of them. This happens on almost a daily basis. A couple of times they chased whoever it was. Most likely my cat who died in my house last year.

 

On two separate ocassions, I've also felt someone tuck me in tightly when I was sleeping and it felt so real that I woke up. One was in a really old hotel.

 

And when I was 5 years old, I remember seeing a woman in a long white gown walking past my bedroom. I could see her because the bathroom light was on. I wasn't asleep at the time.

 

My mother is psychic so all of these things are not new to me. She once told my ex bf through a reading about his dead grandmother's glasses and a turkey platter. His parents called her up and couldn't believe the accuracy because no outsiders knew about these small details. She has channeled a few deceased people that way.

 

I've also lived in a haunted house from the time I was born until the age of 5 and at another house when I was 7 or 8. My parents were once sitting in the kitchen and could hear footsteps up the stairs. No one else was in the house. They believe it was the man who had previously lived there and had died a few months before.

[nntsci 11075]

"My parents were once sitting in the kitchen and could hear footsteps up the stairs. No one else was in the house."

 

I've heard the sounds of walking so often, but I believe (rationally) its can be explained by wood getting distorted and by people walking over it, and then bouncing back. Wooden stairs creek a lot. Or at least that's what I tell myself. LOL. My dad told me that when he was younger, he was staying with a cousin's house and he heard the father and the 3 son walking out in the morning to do their farming... then a few minutes later the same sequence of sounds again when he was alone in the house. Obvious not from dead spirits. He said he could even make out the actual sequence of each person in the creeks, big dad, big older son, medium son, and littlest son.

 

Another story he used to tell is he'd wake up and see a little man at the foot of his bed. As I said before he was always plagued with dreams of ghosts (e.g., a witch trying to suffocate him) that were often associated with sleep paralysis and his sleep apnea. Anyway, he told his cousin. The next night he saw someone again at the end of his bed and jumped out on the little man. Turned out it was his cousin. Nearly killed the poor boy. The previous occurrence however remain unexplained, but the big difference was that when the fake ghost (his cousin) appeared he didn't have sleep paralysis and was able to jump on the fake ghost/cousin.

 

In spite of all these experiences I remain a skeptic, but love ghost stories.

 

As to being psychic, I'm totally skeptical. I had a friend who believed she was psychic. I asked her to guess my middle name. After 30 tries I had to start giving her hints. Another time I told her I was going out for some meaningless distraction, and she started trying to guess what I was going to do. Her guesses were hilarious, and very wrong.

 

The only sounds my pets make a night is some croaking from some aquatic frogs. Its a pleasant sound... add to that the escaped crickets that get out of my son's lizard terrarium. We get the lazy hazy daze of summer all winter long. Sometimes I think we may have a ghost cat, LOL that chases the crickets around at night.

[Nicolette Vaughn 294340]

"My parents were once sitting in the kitchen and could hear footsteps up the stairs. No one else was in the house."

 

I've heard the sounds of walking so often, but I believe (rationally) its can be explained by wood getting distorted and by people walking over it, and then bouncing back. Wooden stairs creek a lot. Or at least that's what I tell myself. LOL. My dad told me that when he was younger, he was staying with a cousin's house and he heard the father and the 3 son walking out in the morning to do their farming... then a few minutes later the same sequence of sounds again when he was alone in the house. Obvious not from dead spirits. He said he could even make out the actual sequence of each person in the creeks, big dad, big older son, medium son, and littlest son.

 

Another story he used to tell is he'd wake up and see a little man at the foot of his bed. As I said before he was always plagued with dreams of ghosts (e.g., a witch trying to suffocate him) that were often associated with sleep paralysis and his sleep apnea. Anyway, he told his cousin. The next night he saw someone again at the end of his bed and jumped out on the little man. Turned out it was his cousin. Nearly killed the poor boy. The previous occurrence however remain unexplained, but the big difference was that when the fake ghost (his cousin) appeared he didn't have sleep paralysis and was able to jump on the fake ghost/cousin.

 

In spite of all these experiences I remain a skeptic, but love ghost stories.

 

As to being psychic, I'm totally skeptical. I had a friend who believed she was psychic. I asked her to guess my middle name. After 30 tries I had to start giving her hints. Another time I told her I was going out for some meaningless distraction, and she started trying to guess what I was going to do. Her guesses were hilarious, and very wrong.

 

The only sounds my pets make a night is some croaking from some aquatic frogs. Its a pleasant sound... add to that the escaped crickets that get out of my son's lizard terrarium. We get the lazy hazy daze of summer all winter long. Sometimes I think we may have a ghost cat, LOL that chases the crickets around at night.

 

Correct me if I`m wrong but I thought the intent of this thread was to share or recount stories of the paranormal, not compare or make light of other members experiences.

 

Comparing stories and then quoting an other member`s accounts in what appears to be undermining occurrences of what actually happened through their eyes is somewhat insulting. Equating your experiences to those of others as something that can be scientifcally explained completely goes against the purpose of this thread.

 

It is one thing to be a skeptic but if you`re going to start a thread about paranormal phenomena and then cut down other people`s experiences or compare them to events that can be explained, don`t bother.

 

Please respect the fact that others do happen to believe in paranormal phenomena and while I`m very aware of others who are skeptics or non believers, I don`t make light of people who don`t believe. To each their own.

[nntsci 11075]

"It is one thing to be a skeptic but if you`re going to start a thread about paranormal phenomena and then cut down other people`s experiences or compare them to events that can be explained, don`t bother."

 

I'm sorry that you were offended. I did preference this thread by stating that I'm a skeptic and explained away my own spooky experiences. I just thought it would be fun to talk about them. Didn't mean to offend.

 

So much for that conversation.

[Nicolette Vaughn 294340]

"It is one thing to be a skeptic but if you`re going to start a thread about paranormal phenomena and then cut down other people`s experiences or compare them to events that can be explained, don`t bother."

 

I'm sorry that you were offended. I did preference this thread by stating that I'm a skeptic and explained away my own spooky experiences. I just thought it would be fun to talk about them. Didn't mean to offend.

 

So much for that conversation.

 

It's a great fun thread but my experiences are not the same as yours which is what makes it good to talk about but I felt that trying to explain away certain things from another person's experience such as why cats behave the way they do or why floors creak late at night cannot always be fully be explained through a concrete scientific theory. That's what makes paranormal dicussions so interesting. Don't worry, I won't hold it against you. ;)

[nntsci 11075]

"cannot always be fully be explained through a concrete scientific theory. That's what makes paranormal dicussions so interesting. Don't worry, I won't hold it against you."

 

Well, I enjoy explaining things away... its my nature. But as I've said, it would be really cool if ghost do exist... Like when I felt that hand caressing my shoulder. It felt real. I looked up and there was a towel. Was it the towel that was flirting with me... or a ghost. I don't know. AS I said, I think it was the towel, but I kept my eyes open while I was washing my hair because I wasn't fully convinced.

 

In my opinion, Its fun to try and explain it, and of course, when you can't explain it away, its even more fun.

[EvaAdore 7767]

You're welcome.