Ghosts?

Next year I have a novel coming out about a haunted glass house at a carnival in the 70s. But that's next year. I'll have to get back to you ....

The apartment that I moved into was home of the owners only son that never married and never had children. He lived a long life alone and died in my apartment. It was never rented out after his passing and I just so happen to be the 1st and only one thats lived here since his death. I've had a few experiences here through the years (I've lived here 12 years now), that definitely make me believe in the paranormal.

At first, it was misplaced items. Now keep in mind I lived by myself here with my son who was 1 at the time. My books, pens, china would be moved to different spots, I had some instances where I thought I saw a shadow and would looking quickly and would be gone. There was always a sense of being watched and things making noise (door openings, plates falling off the drying rack). Then one day I just called it truce and just spoke out loud to my house and in a friendly manner, basically said, i'm not here to be in your way, you are more than welcome to stay -just don't scare me or my son and we're cool. It stopped about 5 years after living here, I guess he either left or is now just part of the family and hangs out unnoticed since he couldn't scare me off.

Funny thing is, I met my husband 6 years ago and married 2 years ago. When my husband moved in he asked me if I ever thought I spotted something in the corner of my eye or felt like someone was watching me. I told my husband to be nice to him and talk to him and let him know he (my husband) wasn't a threat. Haven't had any experiences with him in over a year and half. I'm guessing he probably stopped by to see who my husband was and has now left us.

Needless to say, it is something that I definitely believe in.

I may write further on this in a future post, but I had a truly freaky incident happen quite a long time ago.

My boyfriend and I got our own place in the 'burbs in the mid 1980s. It was a bungelow, with two bedrooms and a basement. All seemed well, and then little things began to happen...

We owned two dogs and a cat. In order to keep peace during mealtimes, we locked the cat in our room to feed her and locked the dogs in the spare bedroom which we have removed the carpet from to keep them from ruining it. One day, while eating our own dinner, the cat appeared. I jumped up to see if I had left the door open, but it was closed and still locked. Okay, no big deal, we must have a hole somewhere and we all know cats can "squeeze" into tight spots. Written off...

I had the day off of work and decided to go grocery shopping. I came home alone, let the dogs out of the bedroom and carried the dry groceries to the pantry in the basement. Usually the dogs followed me everywhere, and without noticing until a few trips later they stood at the top of the stairs and just sat down. I felt very uneasy, even unwanted in the basement. I felt like something was mentally pushing me to stay away from the basement, perhaps even the house. I decided to bring them with me, but when I tried to get them to come down, they just whined, then they turned around and went to the front door. Okay, explainable or not, I took the dogs with me and drove around until my boyfriend came home. Eventually, I just laughed about it, thinking what a dumb girl I was being!

The worst event was when we arrived at home one day after work. To prevent the dogs from chewing up the entire house and our belongings while we were gone, we always locked them, one small mutt and one English Springer Spaniel, in the spare bedroom with food and water. When we pulled up in the driveway, we both looked at each other and finally one of us asked, "Is there something wrong with the house?" After careful examination, we counted the shutters, (there had been alot of thunderstorms during the day), looked around the outside, and decided everything was okay. The front door was locked and we entered our abode.

Upon entering the otherwise clean house, I spotted several pairs of my clean underwear strewn about the living room floor. "The dogs must have gotten out," I decided, since our stereo, t.v., guitar and amp and other valuables were in plain sight. I hurried to the spare bedroom and to my surprise I found it not only still locked, but completely damaged. The door, which was completely knocked clean of the door jam although still "standing," had a huge "smash" in it. It appeared that a very large and very strong man had attempted to "shoulder" it open. The only problem was that this damage was all from the inside of the house, not from the room! Not knowing what to do, we called the cops to report the damage, but as we explained our plight, we realized the cops assumed that we had a "domestic" and were trying to prevent from being blamed for the damage to the door.

This proved most uneasy for me. I slept very lightly and felt unsafe after that. We lasted about another month, and time eventually began to fade the memory of the brutal damage to the door...

The final straw came when I awoke from my sleep with a terrifying sense of being "watched." I rubbed the blurred vision from my eyes, to find a "ghostly" figure of a short, bald man with a pipe in his hand staring straight at me. Violently I nudged my partner awake and the vision disappeared. But that was enough! We broke our lease, but luckily it was the first week of the month and he was able to rent the house out before the next payment was due!

I've never had any paranormal experience, unfortunately. But I find the whole subject fascinating. I love reading real stories of hauntings and such and read anything I can get my hands on in relation to this topic. I've always wanted to experience a ghost or spirit or whatnot, but alas, they've seemed to avoid me so far.

My sister says she sees ghosts and who am I to say she doesn't. I don't - because I just don't. Once my sister asked me, "Don't you want to see them?" and I just said "I don't know, but if I did I would probably just tell them to move on and go to where you're supposed to go". It seems sad and boring being a ghost. They don't do much. They don't tell us anything about anything. If they scare you it's for no good reason. I like fiction about ghosts because it can add that odd artificial thing to it called "a plot". Real life doesn't have that, but plots feel good.

I am a completely boring person who hasn't ever experienced such an adventure.

But I believe I could.

And that's the first step. *Grin*

I totally believe and have had experiences throughout my life. Not only does my current home have spirits, the former apartment I shared with my best friend was the home of several, as well. I've written a couple articles here on Gather about my "hauntings" in addition to a couple other locations that are notorious for being inhabited by spirits, which can be found in my archives here, too. My first is, "We Were Not Alone" about my former apartment and my most recent is "Though I Live Alone, I Always Have Company" about where I currently live. Three other works dealt with locations that have been featured on the television series, "Scariest Places On Earth"; "Charleville - A Tale Of Terror", "Chillingham Castle" and "Killing At Chillingham"; both of which are located in the British Isles. Feel free to look them up and take a read...during the daytime, unless you feel brave enough to read that at night before bedtime.

I've had quite a few experiences with ghosts. Growing up we lived in a house that was originally "an old folks home" as my mom put it though she didn't tell us this until after we had sightings and incidents. The ghosts were friendly enough. I had to share my bedroom with one of them. I love this topic and could go on and on about it. Maybe write on it. Thanks for bringing it up. Loved reading Bexsy and Genine stories!! They were very similar to my own encounters.

i know it opens portals for unwanted spirits/demons, but is exciting

please read and comment on my very first article!

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976965546

inspired by many of you! thanks.

Yes, I have had and have paranormal experiences. I also am Wiccan and have practiced for over 20 years, and think I was attracted by the " Do no harm, harm none" part in the first place. My wife is Malaysian and has retained many of the practices that were taught to her as a child. When we first moved into this house we had a hell of a time with the dogs, but we put it to the wild animals that abound here, until we watched the dogs in the back yard ignore a rabbit and a squirrel and stopped to watch a wandering deer, then went back to their thing of the moment. That night they started raising hell again, at the cellar door. So I went over and opened the door and the cellar had an etheral glow in it. When I got downstairs and in the middle of the cellar the glow ceaased. So there I stood in a pair of boxes and the switch being at the top of the stairs, wherever they were...and we have a very dark cellar. Items were moved throughout the house but especially anything placed on the fireplace mantle was assured of being gone the next day. I am not fearfull of ghosts, but dammit leave my stuff alone. We called a American Indian friend of ours and she said she would bring herself and another and do a cleansing we wished. We did. She came and brought with here a chief from the Mohawk tribe. As soon as they came in the house both said "there is something here, not harmful but here." The ceremony worked, we can put items on the mantle, most of the time-without them being on the hearth in the morning. There still here but they don't bother anyone, and I think they feed the dogs cause they stay quiet at night.

Great stories from everyone. Cassie and Rob, I'll check out your sites later this week after my finals! Girl in Training, great topic to open up! Kudos!

I lived in a house where the television (and older set where you pulled out the volume control to turn it on) would come on in the middle of the night. After a few of these occasions, I decided I'd unplug it, because I assumed it must be going bad...

That night, it came on by itself anyhow. I gave up at that point.

I think the best ghost hunting show ever was Sightings from the early 90's.

I went to school in Athens, Ohio which is known to be one of the most haunted places in the world. I've gone on tours, explored by myself, and took many photos and videos of my experiences ghost hunting. It's a lot of fun, but other than strange audio I haven't found much to prove the paranormal. Lord knows I'll keep trying though : )

Very interesting article.

Edinburgh has lots of ghost stories - I have to say that the Mary King Close area is really weird to take a tour through.

There are lots of ghost walks around the Royal Mile, although I haven't been on any of them!

I'm not a believer, but keep an open mind.

A friend passed away several years ago. I lived across the country and was unable to attend his funeral. That very day at the time as his memorial service our cats began to go crazy. They jumped around and then settled next to each other and watched the vaulted ceiling and both their heads and their eyes went back and forth--to and fro-- for ten minutes. They continued to look at the ceiling in spite of us calling to them.

During this entire time the house became very cool and the hair on both my arms and my wife's stood on end. It was around Christmas time. Was it because of the sudden coolness?

We think my friend came to say goodbye and the cats watched as his soul paid us a visit. (the hairs on my neck and arms are rising as I write this!). We read somewhere that cats can see spirits--- true?.

Believe it or not!

Ishbel believes in the Loch Ness Monster but not ghosts? I think the idea of ghosts is ridiculous.

LNM? Tourist bait.

Ishbel is that why you guys started making crop circles too? More kook attractions?

Umm... when people discuss hauntings, there are several theories, one of which describes a historical imprint that replays itself over and over on a location. At that point, it would make total sense that a ghost would have clothes on.

What I described would have to be considered a "poltergeist" (noisy ghost) b/c things were moved, etc.

I've known people who have had experiences. They don't know the why's but they know they don't make sense in a rational perspective of the world.

Girl my house in Iowa...which I just sold...was built in 1881. It was one of the oldest houses in town. The old front part of the house was original and the back part was added on in the 1940's. I would "see" a shape...not real defined...out of the corner of my eye. I happened to say something to my daughter about it and she said not to worry it was just Howard. She said he watched over the house and the families that lived in the house. She said he told her this one time when she was sick in bed with the flu and a high fever. She said that he came out mostly when one of my 2 kids was sick and watched over her and her brother. Now I dont know if this is my imagination or not but I started to pay closer attention when I saw the vague person shape and it did seem to be more frequent when someone was sick.

Anyway I happened to be talking to the woman that sold me the house and told her what my daughter said. This lady was in her 80's and she told me that her father...who she had inherited the house from was named Howard. And her older brother had died in that house. At first I thought she was pulling my leg so I went home and checked the abstract of the house and sure enough her fathers name was Howard.

I never felt uncomfortable though the worst Howard ever did was turn on the tv and turn the living room light on sometimes.

In a house we lived in when my kids were younger, my youngest son had an imaginary friend named Matthew that he claimed looked like him. I never thought much of this and allowed him his many hours of play with Matthew. One day I had put my son down for a nap in my bed and I was laying with him, and was in that world where you aren't asleep but you aren't fully awake either. All of the sudden I heard my cat screeching and looked up through my bedroom door just in time to see her go hauling butt through the living room with a little blonde haired boy chasing her. I yelled to my son to get his butt back in there and lay down it was naptime! I then looked over to see my baby sleeping beside me! That was our first experience with Matthew and his family! Will post more later on some of our other experiences! They were never threatening though!

One thing I loved to do, and have not done in a long time, is go to a cemetery with a camera and take pictures of the old headstones. The stand up ones usually found in older cemetaries.

This one is my experience alone, unfortunately. This particular cemetery is in South Hill, Puyallup, in Washington state. The Historic section is at the very top of the hill and has Meeker buried there, the founding father of Puyallup. Anyway...I had just finished the older section and was moving to the more modern headstones, but still standup...

I was using a 35mm manual with flash, but the flash was off as the day was bright and sunny. I had found one that looked interesting, so I focused in on it. I would like to note that at this time...I was alone...and since the area where I was is at the top of a sloping hill, I could see I was the only one there in the general vicinity. the only other people I could see where a couple of acres away, towards the bottom of the hill, closer to the main street. In no way could they have been the ones to cause my experience.

Just as I finished focusing in on the headstone and about to snap the shutter...I felt this buzzing in my head...an incredible tingling/buzzing inside of my head...towards the top. Then...I felt/heard in the same area of the buzzing, "NO!" All of this was taking place just before I was about to snap the shutter for the picture. Needless to say...it took me aback and I lowered the camera, glancing around. There was no one around me close enough for me to get that loud or that intense of "voice". I was still feeling this buzzing in my head...and got a chilled feeling despite the heat. I respectfully apologized to whomever it was that did not wish for their or their headstone picture to be taken and I left the cemetery. While I have never gone back to that cemetery, I still on occasion get the same buzzing feeling every so often. No voice though...never any communication, just that buzzing. In fact, I felt it often when living in the apartment in Tacoma, WA

As a side note...none of the pictures in the general area of the cemetery where I had my experience turned out...and the rest of the pictures of that cemetery were nearly ruined. Despite the brightness of the day, the pictures turned out dark and extremely grainy. However, the pictures of the cemeteries before and after came out just fine.


Most recently, five or so years ago, myself, my husband, and our daughter lived in an apartment in Tacoma, WA. We were there for five years about...moving in just before our daughter's 1st birthday. Before then, we lived in a one bedroom, so she always slept with us in our bed. Anyway, a little while after we moved into the Tacoma apartment, she began waking up in the middle of the night, screaming. This continued for a long time, and eventually, we just had her sleep with us so we could get any sleep. As she got older and could talk, she would tell us there was something in the room. Now, my husband claims to be able to see ghosts. I know that I am not able to...though on rare occasions, I am able to feel a presence...a feeling as though they wished to communicate with me...and sometimes, I hear whispers. Inaudible in word content, but obvious whispers.

However, we convinced her that the spirits could not harm her if she did not want them to...and if she woke up because of "it", she was to tell it in a firm voice to "Go away. I do not want you here."

There was a few occasions where I would wake, hearing her talk.

Things quieted down a bit. My husband got me a computer and I began to get into chats and forums. Because we did not have a desk for me, we put my computer on the dinner table...the kitchen would be behind me, the patio glass door in front of me.

One night, as I was working on some fiction I was writing, from the corner of my left eye, I saw my husband walk toward me, pass me by and go into the kitchen. Normally, he would get up for a drink, check on me, ask me when I was coming to bed, and then go back to bed. However, he passed by without a word, went into the kitchen...I heard the fridge open and close. I glanced up as I heard the door close, to use the glass door to look at his reflection, to ask him to get some meat out of the freezer to thaw for dinner tomorrow night. There was no reflection in the glass. I turned to look into the kitchen, no one. I got up and went into the bedroom and he was lying there, sleeping. I shook him to wake him and asked him if he just got up to get a drink, and he was pissy with me for waking him up and no, he had not gotten up.

My daughter and I also were sitting on the couch, watching TV, she was about 5 then. We HEARD the sliding closet door, one of those doors that are on a track, so it slides open, in the hall, slide open...then close.

Our laundry bi fold doors, closed when we left the apartment, would be open when we returned.



When I was younger, we lived in a rental house. I was about 6 years old, my sister was 4, our brother was just born. It was a three bedroom rental house, and after our brother was born, my sister had to move in and share the room with me. I remember constantly hearing my mom asking us where all the spoons were. The spoons in our house would CONSTANTLY go missing. We'd look high and low for the damn things. We'd eventually find them in odd places...back of the couch, on a shelf in the closet, under a chair...and they would be stacked up, spooning one another, in a neat pile.

A couple months before we moved out of the house, my sister and I shared an experience in our room that terrified us both. If any of you have kids, you might understand this. Those closet doors on those tracks? Yeah...you know how kids are always knocking the doors off those tracks? Well, my dad finally got tired of having to fix our doors, so he took the doors off. Our beds were on the other end of the
room, under the window. Mine was on the right side of the bed, against the wall to the door. My sister was on the other side...we both faced the closet...heads to the window, feet to the closet, which was about...hmm...i think the room was about 10x12 feet.

We kept a couple dolls on the shelf in the closet, with some stuffed animals...our toybox was on the floor, in the closet, our clothes were hung, but pushed to each side of the closet. I had the right, my sister had the left, the toybox was in the center.

We had gone to bed and were sleeping when I just woke up. I remember feeling...odd. Dazed. I looked at the closet and my sister's doll stood up and began to walk along the shelf in a jerky motion. It could have been "walking" off the shelf, it was dark with only a nightlight, but it was at shelf level. My sister, who I had not realized had woken up, and I started screaming at the same time. The doll then LAUNCHED itself away from the closet and landed almost to the center of the room, just as our dad come running into the room.

My mother refused to even discuss what happened. She did not want to hear it or talk about. She's from Taiwan, and was raised in a very rural countryside, poor family...so we grew up with a lot of stories and beliefs. She was Buddhist, but had become Christian when she married Dad. Even to this day, 20 some years later, she doesn't like to talk about the house. I have a feeling she's had experiences there
as well.

I do not know why we call them ghosts ! they are simply earth bound souls and your aunt did well in helping them or maybe just one in finding the light and progress, instead of staying in the house.
I have had my share of experience with " lost souls" or I could also call them souls who refuses to understand that they do not have a body anylonger, or too much attached to the material side of their incarnation on earth.
Loved your article
thank you for sharing

Yes, I have had experiences. I don't talk / write about them much, but if I can muster some of them up, I'll post them and let you know.

I've always been not so much a believer, but then I write stories about vampires and demons and things that go bump in the night. But, and yeah there is a but..I've had a few encounters that make me lean more toward it being real than not.

The first is short...on the day of my 10th birthday we were living in Millington TN on the Navy base there, my mother had gone to Texas to be with my great-grandparents as my g-granddaddy was having some major surgery, she was due home the day after my birthday so I knew my party would be coming later. When I woke up that morning there was weight on the end of my bed, you know how you can fell it when you try to move your feet? I dismissed it as the dog sleeping there and was going to try to get up without waking her up, when I drew myself to a sitting position and looked down to see if she had moved I realized that I was looking at a hand but, not a hand. Even then I was crazy for scary stuff so instantly I thought ghost and slowly tried to drink in the image, I was totally stunned and now frightened when I realized it was my great-granddaddy sitting there..I asked him if he had died and he nodded and then he said it'd be okay and that he would keep his eye on me and he was gone. I took off like a shot to my dad and told him that granddaddy Camp was dead, he told me it had to have been a bad dream that he'd just talked to my mom the night before and everything was going alright. I think that was the first time I argued with my dad about anything, and to this day he will laugh and shake his head when he tells folks how insistent I was and how much he did not believe me until the phone rang about a half hour later and it was my mom in tears because my granddaddy had passed away in his sleep about 5am.

The other..was funny to me but not to my sperm donor or his wife and son...but no time to write that one up now...

Girl, this is such a fun thread! I'm going to feature it at Galaxy Wanderer - what a wonderful conversation about ghosts. I'm writing a story about a ghost I have known and will post it soon. There is so much more in the universe we do not understand that that we do.

I've had quite a number of experiences with ghosts, visions, angels, Ouija boards, etc., far too much to recount here. However, most of it is documented in my book: "Glimpses 2" It Could Happen To You! along with 90 true tales of the paranormal by other folks from around the world. http://www.freewebs.com/paranormalbooks

hey there ^_^ glad to hear you are also a ghost fan! Everyday I watch this show called A Haunting and love reading books on these kind of things too!

For anyone interested, I have three true ghost stories posted on here, if you have read them, thank you, if not, please check them out.
Tracks

Bridge

House

I love this subject too! I have had some ghost experiences, they really creeped me out. why does it always gota happen at night? have you read anything on that?

I have walked in several rooms and became overpower with fear for no reason. Later I learned that people were murdered in those rooms. I have never seen a ghost but I have felt cold spots in a warm room and got a strange feeling. I always leave before I learn what might be there.

fascinating to learn about

I Believe but if I try to tell you all I will only end up scaring myself. Maybe later.

But I WILL say that Ouija boards are dangerous.

I am a "sensitive" as well as a collector of ghost stories. I am working on a book of fact, fictional, and factional ghost stories. Feel free to email me any of your experiences!


The Lady By the Window
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976826375

The Ghost of Carla
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976826373

The Murderer-A Ghost Story
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976826372

I've had unexplained happenings in my life...some of which I wrote in "Ghouls and Ghosties and Long Legged Beasties and things that go bump in the night!" when I first started the group.....other than that, my life has been pretty quiet.. ;-)

I believe in Ghosts. I think it is cool!!!

I loved this piece and when you wrote this, "It's weird, how humans are always drawn to things on the unknown"--I can attest that in my two-way communications with any one of the seven guardian angels or spirit guides I brought in with me at the moment of my conception, I can say you are right ! My angels agree that humans just need guidance to understand what is real but unfamiliar to them. Please check out my articles on my experiences and get back to me. Have a great day !

Did You Bring Guides also? I did

my Brothers Spirit Still Here

I love this kind of stuff too! BUt I have never experienced anything. We live within a few miles of the Gettysburg Battlefield and people see stuff ALL the time. People around here are nuts over that kind of stuff!