Funky Weird Stuff --> Have You Encountered a Ghost?

[Fairy]

I haven't done one of these in a while. I think I'll do a new Funky Weird Stuff poll every day until Halloween this year! So, I've asked if you believed in ghosts a couple times, but since it's the first one, and there's already a "would you purchase a suspected haunted house" thread to inspire me, I'll start with simply, have you ever encountered a ghost? Maybe you saw it, maybe you heard it, maybe you felt it. Maybe all three.

Ok, go.

[citymama]

Dude, you're at it again!

And cue the spooky music now.

[ellies mom]

I'm going to try not to get all teary telling this but here goes. It wasn't all me but involved the same "spirit".

Many years ago, my best friend Mary was shot and killed by her boyfriend. The next day, the girl who saw her last told us about their last conversation before she went into their house. So, she was recounting the conversation and it was obvious that she was quoting Mary but when she got to the last part, as she said "Don't worry. I love you. I'll be OK." I felt this overwelming presence of my friend as though she was talking directly to me. It was amazing.

So fast forward a couple of days, everyone went dancing at our favorite club, kind of as a good-bye. One of my good friends that knew her but not all that well stopped by for a bit. Later that week, we went out to a local bar and he says to me "I thought it was your friend Mary that I know that died." I tell him that yes, it was Mary, you knew her". And he tells me "No. I saw her Thursday night at the club. I was standing inside the bowling alley (attached to the club) and I saw her. She smiled at me, waved and walked into the club". He knew Mary well enough not to get her confused with someone else.

[Fairy]

Dude, you're at it again!

And cue the spooky music now.

I totally am. Every year at this time (and sometimes in the middle of Spring for no reason, too!). It's been a while, we have an influx of new people, and I have a couple new poll ideas for Funky Weird Stuff. It's Halloween, so I had to do something ghost-related (blame Corie, she reminded me), but I didn't wanna do a "do you believe" one for a third time. I thought this would satisfy :-)

[elektra]

I'm going to try not to get all teary telling this but here goes. It wasn't all me but involved the same "spirit".

Many years ago, my best friend Mary was shot and killed by her boyfriend. The next day, the girl who saw her last told us about their last conversation before she went into their house. So, she was recounting the conversation and it was obvious that she was quoting Mary but when she got to the last part, as she said "Don't worry. I love you. I'll be OK." I felt this overwelming presence of my friend as though she was talking directly to me. It was amazing.

So fast forward a couple of days, everyone went dancing at our favorite club, kind of as a good-bye. One of my good friends that knew her but not all that well stopped by for a bit. Later that week, we went out to a local bar and he says to me "I thought it was your friend Mary that I know that died." I tell him that yes, it was Mary, you knew her". And he tells me "No. I saw her Thursday night at the club. I was standing inside the bowling alley (attached to the club) and I saw her. She smiled at me, waved and walked into the club". He knew Mary well enough not to get her confused with someone else.

chills!

I have never seen a ghost that I know of.
BUT, there was this one night where DH was away for work and DD started crying in her crib, but DS was already in bed with me nursing.... I wasn't sure how I was going to handle it, so I was praying something like, "please God let DD go back to sleep", like a real prayer though, not just a "puhleeze God, why can't you let this kids stay asleep for once!" if you can tell the difference.
Anyways, I got this strong calming feeling come over me and then I immediately thought of someone who had passed away a few years ago. It was a friend's brother- so kind of random but the thought of him came flooding into my mind. It was like he was my angel for that night, making sure my kids were sleeping and that I was ok.

[rlu]

Going to the Winchester Mystery House tomorrow, will let you know.

eta: heard some footsteps behind us and as we were the last tour, I paused, turned, didn't see anything. A minute later through a doorway I saw a lady pass. Then the lights went out. The guide hurried the tour on.


Turns out we had run over our time. So, nothing here. Poor Sarah, so certain she was being haunted.

http://winchestermysteryhouse.com/sarahwinchester.cfm

[ellies mom]

That happened to my sister a 18-24 months after Mary died. Mary had lived with our family for a while and was a nanny. My sister and and nephew Robert were living with my parents. Robert slept in Mary's old room and the only way to get to his room was past my sister's. Well, one night Robert was crying and my sister saw someone pass her door and heard Robert calming down like he was being comforted. She called out for the person to bring her the baby but they didn't and she fell back asleep. The next day my sister asked my mom why she didn't bring the baby into her room and my mom told her that she never went into the baby's room that night. Our family "folklore" is that it was Mary.

[elektra]

chills!

I have never seen a ghost that I know of.
BUT, there was this one night where DH was away for work and DD started crying in her crib, but DS was already in bed with me nursing.... I wasn't sure how I was going to handle it, so I was praying something like, "please God let DD go back to sleep", like a real prayer though, not just a "puhleeze God, why can't you let this kids stay asleep for once!" if you can tell the difference.
Anyways, I got this strong calming feeling come over me and then I immediately thought of someone who had passed away a few years ago. It was a friend's brother- so kind of random but the thought of him came flooding into my mind. It was like he was my angel for that night, making sure my kids were sleeping and that I was ok.

I told my friend about this and she said very matter of factly that she felt like her brother was her guardian angel for her son, and that she had felt his presence before too. Her brother died while she was pregnant with her DS.

Hopefully Melissa chimes in about her girl in the basement that both she and her DH saw!

[klwa]

I lived at a boarding school my last two years of high school which had once been a hospital. The dorm I lived in, more specifically, had been, at various times, both a psych ward & a morgue. (sp?) Never noticed anything odd junior year, but senior year, we'd hear noises in the RA partment above us on nights she was on desk duty. (Furniture being dragged across the floor, etc.) One night we were joking abotu our friendly ghost & a ball that was wedged behind some books on my book shelf started bouncing on the floor. Another night we were discussing him & my shoes flipped from being on their side to teh correct position. And another night, when my roommate was out of town, my room door got locked while I was in the bathroom, directly across the hall, washing my face. My keys were still hanging on their hook in the room & no one was in the room when I got the RA to come unlock it for me. Ghosty got fussed at that night.

[daisymommy]

No, but I 100% do believe in them!

[vejemom]

I have a story kind of like that of Mary and Elektra's friend's brother. My aunt (mom's sister) had non-hodgkins lymphoma and was chronically I'll for the last 25 years of her life. She and I did not have a close relationship. She found young kids exhausting due to her health. I was a young kid for a significant portion of the time she was sick. In later years, she made an effort to maintain a cordial relationship. She even bought me a cartoche (spelling?) necklace on a trip to Egypt that she and my uncle took.

She died after a long hospital stay. My mom was particularly devastated because my aunt was her last immediate relative. They lived in New York. Despite being in the hospital, her death was rather sudden, so I did not get to say goodbye to my aunt before she died. A few nights after the funeral, I felt such an overwhelming presence in my room that I bolted upright in bed and turned the light on as quick as I could. I called out, "Aunt Eileen?" There was no one there. But i felt a sense of peace in the room, if that makes any sense. Eventually, I fell back (with the TV on for light :rotflmao:)

The next morning, I opened the top drawer of my dresser. Neatly placed on top of the clothes was the cartoche. I hadn't seen it in months, and thought that it must have been lost in the move from grad school back to my hometown. My mom took great comfort in the whole thing, and still asks me about it from time to time.

[Fairy]

Catherine, that's a great story!

I also hope Melis pipes in about her chick in the basement.

[wimama]

My best friend and I were obsessed with horror movies back in junior high. We would have sleep overs and scare our selves silly watching the scary movies. We lived in a more rural part of our town and it took close 20 minutes to bike to her house, except we figured out that the woods at the end of her street had a trail through it and the trail ended on the border of my families family farm. The trail actually ended up on the exact border of our farm and another old family farm. If we walked through the woods on the trail, it took less than 5 minutes or so to walk the trail. My friends father told her to be careful back there because there was hunters back there, that had a tendency to shot at just about anything that moved. We were always real careful and would whistle or talk to our selves loudly walking through the woods, so any potential hunters would know we were there and a human. I always had the someone is watching me feeling back in those woods, but caulked that up to the scarey movies and her father's warning.

That is until the day I walked through the woods myself going from her house to my house. About half the way through I had an overwhelming feeling that something was watching me and I felt chills. Then, I noticed when leaves rustling behind me, like someone was following me. The leaves were not rustling anywhere else, only behind me as though someone was walking behind me. At one point I stopped and sat on a log, to see if I could pin down the noise, the rustling stopped and then resumed sounding like it was getting closer. At that point, I was fairly close to our property and I ran and kept running until I was a good acre or two onto our property.

I told my friend and she admitted that she had the feeling of being watched in that section of the woods. She played in another section of those same woods closer to her house, with out having those weird feelings. I think we still both caulked it up to all the scary movies we had watched. Until, my friend told her mom about the short cut. She was at our family vegetable stand/market and decided to try out our short cut to go back home. She must have had a similar experience to me, because she forbid us both from ever walking on that path again. She was perfectly fine with our short cut before walking it by herself that day.

Those woods had well cut paths through them and I know that there were Indians that originally lived in that area. As a young boy my uncle used to find old arrow heads on the property all the time. Maybe there were some spirits that still walked those old trails. I don't know. I moved from the area within about a year or so of that episode, so I never tried walking that trail again after that.

[Mikey0709]

Another story here about a ghost comforting the baby!

My family lives in a 300+ year old home in Northern Virginia which we have known several people to have died in the house going back to George Washington times.... but more recently my Aunt passed in the house suddenly 15 years ago. This house was her dream and she adored it. She always felt a presence in the house and actually bought it on auction and cared for the elderly woman they bought it from who WANTED to die in her home.

My family was down there for a visit after the birth of my first son and we were sleeping in an attic turned into a bedroom - which was a HUGE room. My mom and i were sharing a bed and the baby was in a pack n play close to us. In the middle of the night my mom saw a woman she THOUGHT was my cousin (this is now her bedroom) at the end of our bed pulling up our blanket. Then she walked over to the baby and covered him up. All my mom remembered seeing was the figure with long blonde hair, looked at her but she didn't say a word. In the morning she asked my cousin what time of night did she come up - and she said she was NEVER in the room all night long - - she slept in the living room. My mom then realized she saw her sister - also with long blonde trademark hair - that passed away in the house.

On our next visit a few months later i was up in the same room myself changing the baby - and i heard someone say my name - loud and clear. I turned around to look and even went down the steps, and no-one was there. Again - a calm came over me and I knew this was my aunt - - who was my favorite aunt and i was also named after her.

Needless to say i have a had a hard time falling asleep the next time i was there for a visit - -but oddly it was never a SCARY situation - but very calm and peaceful....i was afraid to fall asleep - yet i WANTED to see my aunt. My moms 3rd sister refuses to stay overnight at the house.

[elektra]

The scariest part of this story to me is that the ghost put a blanket in your DS's crib! Ghosts don't know about the latest "no blankets in cribs" suggestions I suppose! LOL!


Another story here about a ghost comforting the baby!

My family lives in a 300+ year old home in Northern Virginia which we have known several people to have died in the house going back to George Washington times.... but more recently my Aunt passed in the house suddenly 15 years ago. This house was her dream and she adored it. She always felt a presence in the house and actually bought it on auction and cared for the elderly woman they bought it from who WANTED to die in her home.

My family was down there for a visit after the birth of my first son and we were sleeping in an attic turned into a bedroom - which was a HUGE room. My mom and i were sharing a bed and the baby was in a pack n play close to us. In the middle of the night my mom saw a woman she THOUGHT was my cousin (this is now her bedroom) at the end of our bed pulling up our blanket. Then she walked over to the baby and covered him up. All my mom remembered seeing was the figure with long blonde hair, looked at her but she didn't say a word. In the morning she asked my cousin what time of night did she come up - and she said she was NEVER in the room all night long - - she slept in the living room. My mom then realized she saw her sister - also with long blonde trademark hair - that passed away in the house.

On our next visit a few months later i was up in the same room myself changing the baby - and i heard someone say my name - loud and clear. I turned around to look and even went down the steps, and no-one was there. Again - a calm came over me and I knew this was my aunt - - who was my favorite aunt and i was also named after her.

Needless to say i have a had a hard time falling asleep the next time i was there for a visit - -but oddly it was never a SCARY situation - but very calm and peaceful....i was afraid to fall asleep - yet i WANTED to see my aunt. My moms 3rd sister refuses to stay overnight at the house.

[EllasMum]

I love this kind of thread. :popc1: I'm not completely convinced ghosts are out there, but I want to believe. (yes, I was/am an X-Files fan ;))

[BabyMine]

I have lived in a haunted house.
I have actualy seen a ghost and when I was close to death after the eclampsic seizures I even talked to someone.

[gatorsmom]

No time to write a lot but wanted to add my family's experience. Then I remembered I'd already posted about it before (about a year ago) so I thought I'd quote it here. My cousins and I LOVE to talk about this stuff but our moms and aunts hate discussing it.

My mother's family has a history of strange things happening to them. It seems to get passed down from mother to daughter. My greatgrandmother Rose (as was told by my grandmother's only living sister not long ago) was rocking with her very sick 2month old son. He had whooping cough which he'd caught from a neighbor girl. Rose was holding him in her arms rocking him when she saw her deceased mother looking at her in the window. Rose screamed, "You can't have my baby!" And when she looked down, her son had passed away.

Rose's daughter, Sarah(my mom's mom)- used to have strange things happen to her all the time. She was very open to it and not at all afraid. She always knew when something was happening to one of her children (my mother had 9 siblings). Sarah passed away about 30 years ago and my aunts don't like to talk about them now, but there were very frequently unexplainable things happening to their mother.

My mother had gone down to the basement freezer to get something for dinner one afternoon. Their basement is pretty dark. There is a bright ceiling light at the foot of the open stairway down to the basement. Mom had just turned the corner and she saw her deceased mother (Sarah) at the foot of th stairs looking at her. My mom said she was shocked- this had never happend to her before. She said her mother was standing there looking at her just as plain as if her mother really was there, wearing a black pantsuit. My mother was certain that her mother never owned a black pantsuit in her life- a fact that all of my aunts agreed with. Mom said she blinked and her mom was gone. Mom had a funny feeling about her father who lived alone after Sarah died. She called one of her sisters who lived near him to check on him. When she did, he complained about a spot behind his ear he'd found. It turned out to be cancer but they had discovered it early enough that it was removed and he needed no other treatment. Mom feels certain it was her mother warning her to check on her dad.

Some of my mom's other sisters have said they've had some strange things happen to them too, but they won't talk about it when I pressure them. They've all said they don't like that stuff to happen. My grandmother didn't seem to mind it. Maybe that's why it happened to her so frequently. I don't know. When my mom was sick with terminal breastcancer, I told her NOT to come back and haunt me unless it was an emergency. So far, so good. LOL.

[edurnemk]

I have several stories, actually.

I've felt a presence in several occasions and places in my life. At the house I lived in as a teenager, I felt and heard someone come into my room a couple of times, the door even opened and closed right there in front of me. It was a new house, but I don't know if ever anything happened in the area. My little brother later confessed he saw weird things in that side of the house and the backyard all the time (like orbs of light and such), and he was terrified but didn't tell anyone because he thought no one would believe him.

At the house we moved after this house, nothing weird happened until my aunt Theresa died. By then I was married and my little brother had moved into my old room, and he would wake up at night terrified hearing things and feeling a pressure on his chest (when we visit we stay in my old room and I'm always so nervous after hearing about my brother's experiences). Around that time, the housekeeper was in the kitchen once and saw a cab pull up in front of the house, a lady with blond hair get out and walk up to the door, and then she heard the door open and close and steps going up the stairs. A little later my mom came down and the housekeeper asked about the visitor, and my mom was like "what visitor?". She described the lady and my mom is sure it was her sister. She had died without having a will, and my parents and another relative of my cousin were fighting over his custody. After my parents were given guardianship and he came to live with them, things went back to normal (my aunt had always said she wanted my parents to be guardians but she never actually made a will).

When I was 25, I worked for a pharmaceutical company, and several of the people who worked in the lab were terrified of staying late, because they had seen a lady in white roaming the lab and night. Well one day, I was in the lobby of building across from the lab, and through the window I saw a woman and a child walking from the lab to the parking lot. I thought is was weird, because children are not allowed in there. So I walked to the door and opened it and they were gone, from being right in the middle of the open space, to no where at all.

Finally, when DS was born, for the first few weeks I would sometimes feel a presence in my room, but not friendly or calm or anything, it made me feel very uneasy. DS would stare into a specific corner of the room at times, and I just felt there was something there. So one day I stood up, looked into that direction and said firmly "stay away from my son!". And I never felt that weird energy there again, and DS stopped staring at that corner of the room.

[Mikey0709]

How about your kids - - do they ever say strange stuff to you?? My oldest son who is 5 ALWAYS tells me that he sees his OTHER grandpa... who passed away 20+ years ago.... and mentions other imaginary friends who do stuff and help him all the time.... which gives me the chills sometimes.

Sure makes me wonder if toddlers and kids are more apt to experiences???

[Lolabee]

I've got a few stories, mostly related to the house I grew up in. Everyone in my family has mentioned at some time or another that they felt someone's presence on the first floor of the house, especially at night. We always kind of assumed it was the wife/mother of the family we built the house and owned it before my parents bought it. I never actually saw her or anything, but one night my mother and I were both awakened by the sound of the squeeky old doorknob at the base of the stairs turning repeatedly (the second floor was a converted attic, and my parents had installed a lock on that door after the house was broken into when my sister and I were little, we always locked the door before we went to bed for the night.) As soon as my mother stood at the top of the stairs and turned the lights on the turning stopped.

The one time I actually saw an apparition was when I was in college and was home for a vacation. I woke and and saw what looked like a very angry, glowing man at the foot of my bed. I gasped, pulled the covers over my head and reached over to turn my bedside lamp on. When I pulled the covers back down the figure was gone. Several years later my parents had some friends over for dinner, including one lady who claimed to be psychic/clairavoyant. She claimed that she saw the female ghost of the former owner, and that she was afraid to leave because some menacing male presence wouldn't let her leave. She then supposedly did some kind of cleansing ritual to release all of the spirits from the house. The funny thing is that I had never mentioned the scary guy I saw at the foot of my bed to anyone because I just thought it would frighten my mother.

The last story I have is not exactly a ghost story but still pretty creepy. When I was away for college I kind of drifted from my HS best friend and we fell out of touch. One night I had a horrible dream that she was in the hospital hooked up to all kinds of monitors, and that she had horrible burns on her chest. It really shook me, and after a couple of days I finally broke down and called her. After we chatted for a few minutes I went ahead and told her about my crazy dream. She started to cry and admitted to me that she had just been released from the hospital for a suicide attempt. She had actually coded at one point and had burns on her chest from where the shock paddles were used to bring her back. I always assumed that dream was some sort of wake up call to bring us back together as friends, and it definitely worked.

[edurnemk]

How about your kids - - do they ever say strange stuff to you?? My oldest son who is 5 ALWAYS tells me that he sees his OTHER grandpa... who passed away 20+ years ago.... and mentions other imaginary friends who do stuff and help him all the time.... which gives me the chills sometimes.

Sure makes me wonder if toddlers and kids are more apt to experiences???

A friend of mine who is really into New Age and reincarnation stuff, says we are born with an open channel that closes off around 6 yo, so kids perceive a lot more than adults.

I have heard stories of kids with imaginary friends, that upon further research turn out to be real children that lived in the house decades before.

[BabyBearsMom]

I told my friend about this and she said very matter of factly that she felt like her brother was her guardian angel for her son, and that she had felt his presence before too. Her brother died while she was pregnant with her DS.

Hopefully Melissa chimes in about her girl in the basement that both she and her DH saw!

Now I am dying to hear about Melissa's girl in the basement!

[PunkyBoo]

At our old house, the previous owner had been an original homeowner, raised his kids there, he passed away in the house, of natural causes, several months before we moved in. There was a cute clock in the kitchen that we half-jokingly wrote into the offer on the house, and they "let" us keep the clock. Regardless of how many times I replaced the batteries and reset the clock, it was always wrong. Like I would set it at night, in the morning it would read 3 hours later. It was HIS clock, I think he was just messing with us. But we also assume he loved peanut butter: A few times our jar of peanut butter would be mysteriously half-empty when DH and I hadn't eaten any...

[katydid1971]

I haven't but my brother has a few times (alone and with other people). I think he's one of those people who they are attracted to more, its funny because he is really a very UNspiritual person.

[gatorsmom]

How about your kids - - do they ever say strange stuff to you?? My oldest son who is 5 ALWAYS tells me that he sees his OTHER grandpa... who passed away 20+ years ago.... and mentions other imaginary friends who do stuff and help him all the time.... which gives me the chills sometimes.

Sure makes me wonder if toddlers and kids are more apt to experiences???

Yes, but not my kids, it was my cousin John. His mother (my aunt Patty) told me about how when he was about 3 or 4 he used to talk about his "other mother" all the time. He talked to this other mother and played with her and told Patty the things his other mother said. My aunt Patty couldn't figure out who he was talking. Then one day they were looking through a photo album and Patty showed John pictures of her mother who had passed away several years earlier. Her mother never knew any of her Patty's children. He got excited and started saying, "that's her! That's my other mother!"

[edurnemk]

Some very close friends of the family once had a very scary event happen when their eldest was 2 yo. A band of burglars/kidnappers tried to break into their house, they rang the doorbell pretending to be delivering a gift, when the mom opened the door, they knocked her over and ran inside trying to find their DS, who was sitting in his highchair in the kitchen. The mom tried to fight them off, and then the one who had ran inside to find the child, came out yelling "he's not in the house!" and they took off. (investigators later discovered they were disgruntled employees who planned to kidnap the child, this was 30+ years ago). The mom ran back inside and found her DS still in the highchair, the guy had been in there and didn't see him or hear him! The DS told her that his grandpa, who had passed away several months before had come and told him to be quiet: "Grandpa said shhhhh!".

[wimama]

Ok, I have a few more stories.

First, was at the hospital I worked at during college. The department I worked in was in a separate building on the edge of the hospitals property. You had to drive up a winding road to the top of a hill to the old, smaller 2 or 3 floor building. Bordering up next to the building and still on the hospital property was a fairly popular hiking trail head. I frequently had to drop off paperwork after dark and I was always super scared to go there and drop off the paperwork. I always felt the most uneasy when standing on the building steps and it was to the point I would keep my car engine running, look around the parking lot and run and stuff the paperwork in the box and run back to my car. But, it was isolated and dark area, so I felt that is why I felt uneasy. Then one day I was there during the day and I had a meeting with my supervisor. We walked into her office, I went to sit down and the door shut behind us. I thought it was odd, but no uneasy feeling. I joked with her “Oh, someone shut the door for us! Then, my supervisor filled me in on the history of the building. Apparently doors frequently opened and closed themselves. It happened more often toward the end of the work day and that was one of the ways everyone knew it was time to go home. The building had served as a tuberculosis ward for several years, that is why it was set back from the main hospital, and many patients probably suffered and died there in that building.

This is about what I considered to be a neighborhood haunted house. It was small house, abandoned and boarded. Back when I was 11 years old or so is when this went down. Apparently a poor college student got permission to live there even with no working electrical or water. Apparently, he went insane. My aunt was coming home one evening and the crazed guy was in the street naked yielding a garbage can lid and swinging an axe. She speed up and got around him. The fire department tried shooting him with water from fire hoses to take him down, but had no luck. They had to shoot and kill the guy when he charged them. Here is the really creepy part that no one else in my family either remembered or would admit to me at the time (again I was only 11 or so). I distinctly remember my grandfather telling the story of that house one Christmas Eve years prior. He had passed away before this incident happened, so I could never verify the info with him. He told of the original owners, two sisters. One sister used to sit on the porch often. The one sister went up missing. The story is very fussy because I was so young when I heard it. But, I think he said they eventually found her body in the closet. Next owners, was a family and the father wound up going crazy and killing everyone in the family. I had watched too many Amityville movies too not be seriously freaked out about that house. My grandfather was a very practical and serious man, not one to tell stories. I never researched the truthfulness of the story, because I really didn’t want to know the truth. The story still freaks me out.

Third and final story, I promise. LOL. This one is from a patient I took care of in college. I was one of her home health aides and often cared for her. The lady was a very serious and regal old woman from England. One day, after returning from the hospital, she opened up and started telling stories to both me and another aid, about her life in England. She told of the time she stayed at her fiances family home. I am not sure if it was a castle or what. But the home was very old and in the family for at least a few generations. Her first ghost sighting was when she was taking a bath. A man appeared while she was in the tub and he disappeared just as fast. She took it as just a mishap, until she saw and recognized the man’s portrait on the wall and asked who it was. It was deceased family member. Another incident was when she thanked a family member for covering her up during the night. She had become chilled and later awoke to discover an extra blanket pulled up on her. The family member said “Oh, that is just “Sophie” or whatever they called their ghost. Evidently “Sophie” the ghost often pulled up blankets for people, she also liked to open and close the drapes at night, which my patient also did eventually experience, as well. The creepiest was when that same male ghost appeared to her on the staircase and spoke to her. I forget exactly what the ghost said. But it was a warning about her fiance. The next day she got word that her fiance was killed in the war.

[Fairy]

A friend of mine who is really into New Age and reincarnation stuff, says we are born with an open channel that closes off around 6 yo, so kids perceive a lot more than adults.

I have heard stories of kids with imaginary friends, that upon further research turn out to be real children that lived in the house decades before.

Yes, this is something very widely believed to be true (by the believers, that is ;)). I definitely think this is true. DS often talks about his invisible friends, and he's had multiple incidents in his room of being afraid. I have asked him what he is seeing in his room that scares him, and he just can't seem to verbalize it. Just monsters and scary people. He does not feel that way sleeping in any other room, only his own. He does have imaginary friends (from "invisible friends land"), but he's never said he's seen anyone. So, I'm leery to believe anytihng other than that he's got normal fears, plus imaginary friends. But I still believe the above statement is true, even if I'm not sure it's true of my DS.

[Fairy]

Some very close friends of the family once had a very scary event happen when their eldest was 2 yo. A band of burglars/kidnappers tried to break into their house, they rang the doorbell pretending to be delivering a gift, when the mom opened the door, they knocked her over and ran inside trying to find their DS, who was sitting in his highchair in the kitchen. The mom tried to fight them off, and then the one who had ran inside to find the child, came out yelling "he's not in the house!" and they took off. (investigators later discovered they were disgruntled employees who planned to kidnap the child, this was 30+ years ago). The mom ran back inside and found her DS still in the highchair, the guy had been in there and didn't see him or hear him! The DS told her that his grandpa, who had passed away several months before had come and told him to be quiet: "Grandpa said shhhhh!".

Oh wow. WOW.

[crazydiamond]

Scary then funny

Scary

When I was 12 I was on my way through the woods with a hammer to work on a tree fort I was building with friends. I got to a part in the woods, I think I got hit in the face with a tree branch. I got angry, furious, and took out my hammer in a rage and started smashing something at my feet - some sort of small plastic containers. Then I moved on. Later we heard that a teen boy had committed suicide in the woods a day earlier. I went back through that area again and noticed that what I was smashing was the old polaroid instant camera film containers - from the police evidence crew taking pictures of the dead body - right there were I broke into a rage.

Funny

When I was 35, I had just gotten out of a bad marriage with my wife. I was miserable. An old female friend from college who lived out of state found out and asked if she could visit and cheer me up. I hesitated as I knew this old friend always wanted to be more -and i did not - but I need a friend so I agreed for her to come visit me. I put her up in my guest bedroom at my house (ya - I know I am old fashioned). About two in the morning I was awakened by the sound of someone in my bedroom - it was my female friend saying there was a ghost in my guest bedroom and she needed to slide into bed with me.

[edurnemk]

Scary then funny
About two in the morning I was awakened by the sound of someone in my bedroom - it was my female friend saying there was a ghost in my guest bedroom and she needed to slide into bed with me.

:hysterical: Did you buy it?

[Melbel]

I like to think of my experience as one with an angel or messenger from God, rather than a ghost. Here's what happened...

After my dad's funeral in November 1994 in South Florida, my then boyfriend (now DH) was pumping gas at a station located in the corner of a strip mall at a busy intersection. When he went in to pay, I was very sad and looking down with the car door cracked open to get some fresh air. I was startled when a young woman with darker skin and hair handed me a piece of paper. I looked down to see what she had given me and was surprised to see that it was a pamphlet with Bible scripture relating to death and everlasting life. I only looked down for at most a couple of seconds, and was understandably surprised when I looked up and the young woman was gone. This was an open area with clear lines of sight. When I asked DH if he saw the young woman, he had not. I would have convinced myself that I had imagined the whole thing except for the fact that I was holding the pamphlet in my hands. I still remember the warm soft breeze.

[Melbel]

:hysterical: Did you buy it?

and did you "comfort" her? :rotflmao:

[Fairy]

and did you "comfort" her? :rotflmao:

Dude. Ya can't just leave us hanging, here.

[crazydiamond]

:hysterical: Did you buy it?

Nope - Bad divorce, woman friend travels across country to see me, begs to come in my bed because of a ghost...... and....... I turn her down.

I think even the ghost was shocked - "dude! really? I was trying to help you out!".

[momm]

Not reading this thread anymore during my 3 a.m feedings.

Shudder

[Fairy]

Nope - Bad divorce, woman friend travels across country to see me, begs to come in my bed because of a ghost...... and....... I turn her down.

I think even the ghost was shocked - "dude! really? I was trying to help you out!".

You? Are funny :-)

[lizzywednesday]

How about your kids - - do they ever say strange stuff to you?? My oldest son who is 5 ALWAYS tells me that he sees his OTHER grandpa... who passed away 20+ years ago.... and mentions other imaginary friends who do stuff and help him all the time.... which gives me the chills sometimes.

Sure makes me wonder if toddlers and kids are more apt to experiences???

In the realm of parapsychology, it's very often a child who will recount experiences with ghosts as if they're talking about imaginary friends. I think, in general, littler kids are just more accepting of things like ghosts!

My own parents tell stories about me talking with my great-grandparents, whose home we lived in while I was growing up, even though they had been dead for several years before I was born.

Psychic experiences tend to run in my dad's family, though. When my oldest cousin was born, my great-grandfather was still alive but my great-grandmother had already passed away. My dad's cousin had a dream after the baby was born and, in the dream, she was visiting with my great-grandmother ... who told her to tell my uncle that she'd seen the baby and he was beautiful. And, so she did. (IDK what my cousin thinks of this story!)

As a preteen, I volunteered with my Girl Scout troop to help clean the Great Hall at a local historic site (Ringwood Manor) that's allegedly haunted. (Hans Holzer, the infamous paranormal investigator, did an investigation himself!) The Great Hall leads from the front door of the Manor house and is bordered by a formal Parlor and the Music Room to the left and leads to what would have been kitchens (but is now a gift shop and administrative offices) to the right. While cleaning some of the wood paneling in the Hall that faced the Music Room, I felt as if someone were staring me in the back. None of my siblings or troop-mates were behind me when I turned around to see who was there. It was just a creepy feeling, like the former owners thought maybe we'd do a poor job of our cleaning or something.

I didn't visit the Manor again until high school, when I was invited to be a performer with my elite choruses during their "Victorian Christmas" event. The Music Room felt a great deal more welcoming then!

[ShanaMama]

The scariest part of this story to me is that the ghost put a blanket in your DS's crib! Ghosts don't know about the latest "no blankets in cribs" suggestions I suppose! LOL!

A dear friend of mine has told me the following story several times. It is very significant to her & she retells it as if she is reliving it each time. I forget pertinent details, but the idea remains. I think she feels it was an angel/ G-dly type experience rather than a ghost. This was before the days of no blankets in cribs and her baby was soundly asleep. My friend was sound asleep as well until she was awakened by a voice (I don't recall if she recognized the voice- it may have been her grandmother?) that urged her "check the baby, check the baby." She roused herself & checked on her baby, who was completely entangled in his blanket. She literally caught him just in time.



I have lived in a haunted house.
I have actualy seen a ghost and when I was close to death after the eclampsic seizures I even talked to someone.

Now near death experiences are well documented & I believe not as uncommon as 'ghost stories'. I would guess that almost everyone who 'has been to other side & back' has something to tell. The question is if they actually share it or not.

[Carrots]

I voted No, because I don't believe in ghosts. However, I had a really weird experience babysitting some neighbor's kids when I was in high school. At the time, I swear there was a ghost or a murderer in the house, but now I think it was perhaps the heat coming on or the house settling or some other rational explanation.

[fivi2]

I voted No, because I don't believe in ghosts. However, I had a really weird experience babysitting some neighbor's kids when I was in high school. At the time, I swear there was a ghost or a murderer in the house, but now I think it was perhaps the heat coming on or the house settling or some other rational explanation.

This is me. In college, my friend and I swore our apartment was haunted (in new orleans). We were only half kidding! I don't really believe, but that house was creepy. (We both woke up at different times feeling pressure like someone was pushing on our chests, or feeling like someone was looking in at us standing in our doorways.) We had both experienced it several times before finally telling each other. Also weird noises and lights turning off and on, that sort of thing. The pressure thing usually gets some "scientific" explanation (sleep paralysis? can't remember) but I thought it was odd that living in that house was the only time in either one of our lives that we had experienced it.

[edurnemk]

I just came back from a trip with family. I reconnected with a cousin who I don't see often because she lives in another town. We confided and she told me that she can see and hear things since she was 4 or 5 but never tells anyone because she thinks people will think she's nuts. Anyway, it turns out her life is pretty much "Sixth Sense" meets "Ghost Whisperer". She's also a huge believer in Angels, as am I. But she told me some stuff that is too much to be just a coincidence, and in too much detail to be made up. For example, a few years ago a close friend of an uncle and his family died tragically, and a few days later my cousin saw them and they told her where to find some important documents (will, etc), she called our uncle and told him and he told the family, and everything was as she described (in the friend's office, there was a wooden desk with 3 drawers, in the middle drawer there was a green folder, and there it was). She told me several of these stories, oh and also our dead grandmother plays tricks on her, like turning the radio on and off.

The creepy part was that we where staying at a ranch in the middle on nowhere and one night she asked me to go downstairs with her to get something from the kitchen, because she was scared to go down alone at night. I just said "Well, now I'm terrified to go downstairs because if you're scared there must be something!". Of course it didn't help that it was Halloween.