Have You Ever Experienced a Ghost or a Spirit?

[joyce]

I was watching a show on Discovery I believe was called Paranormal Kids, and it made me wonder how many people have ever experienced a ghost or a spirit. Watching that show made me wish there had been something like that around when I was growing up. I could feel for these children and completely understood how they felt like outsiders with their peers and family members. I've expereinced stuff for as long as I can remember and it's only been the last ten years that I felt comfortable enough to share them with people. I've also experienced the feeling of people thinking you're crazy or just making stuff up. Now I don't care what someone thinks because I understand if you've never experienced anything like this, you can't possibly understand. Heck, when I was sixteen I even had a pastor at my church tell me I was just filled with the devil. I was just wondering how many of you out there have had an experience that seemed "out of this world".

[wyntermoon]

Yep, all the time. When I started researching it more for a college paper all hell broke loose, I had opened a floodgate. I started doing ghost hunts around that time, talked to a ton of people who didn't think I was crazy and now write ghost stories (plus investigate when I have time). I'm not lucky enough to "see" them as some do, I'm more intuitive/clairaudient. They do, however, enjoy pulling my hair and breathing in my ear while I'm on a hunt. Rotten teases. ;)

[joyce]

That sounds so cool! I think people are more open now than they were a hundred years ago when I was growing up. I only had one girlfriend who believed me, which was a relief in itself. I love hearing stories about what other people have/are experiencing. I know about opening that floodgate thing.:)

[Zelenka]

The theatre school I attended in London was reportedly rife with ghosts, and I have to say several strange things happened whilst I was there, to me personally and to some of my friends. I remember a very odd incident happening on a school trip to a German WWI cemetary in Belgium too. Lots of odd little incidents over the years.

Surprisingly though, one of my best friends recently got interested in ghost hunting and insisted I go with her on a few walks and nights in places that are well attested to be haunted, and absolutely nothing happened on any of them!

[HeronW]

Since you asked :}

I've had a few incidets starting when I was in my early teens. I was never afraid because I always knew the world was more than what normal senses perceived.

--at 14, I saw the ghost of my cat cross the floor of my bedroom and come to me.

--at 20, a family friend had just killed herself by carbon monoxide poioning in her garage. My folks went over to see the husband and son at home. I was left alone, didn't know when they'd be back and I heard 'her' say 'half an hour'. My folks were back in 30 min.

--at 34, I'd taken a class in perceptions and closing my eyes I saw two people by the teacher. After the class I told her their descriptions, the feeling I got --they were her grandparents who had died within a year of each other and she adored the and missed them.

--at 36, I saw, again eyes shut, an older blonde woman near someone I'd just met at a gathering. I asked her later if she knew such a woman--yes, her mom, who had died of cancer, with whom she'd been very close.

[dadburnett]

I really don’t know what a ghost or a spirit truly is, yet I have experienced a presence many times … some benevolent thing in “my” house. I lived alone in one old house which had no phone and “my friendly spirit” would wake me up each morning with a loud ringing of the non-existent phone. I’d tell it what time to wake me up and, on time, the phone would ring loudly … it even began to ring again if I did not quickly respond. “It” was said to be the spirit of a deceased aunt who had lived there many years ago. I’ve had other experiences there and in other places … things beyond the invention of my imagination.

[Ali B]

Yep, see them all the time. Growing up I never knew my sister growing up so it was cool to find out, when I finnally got to know her, that she has been visited by ghosts, too. Must be a family thing.

[Jersey Chick]

When I was about 12, I woke up in the middle of the night and realized my mom was standing in the doorway to my room. I asked her why she was there, and she didn't answer. She just stared at me for a few minutes and then I closed my eyes and fell back to sleep. The next morning, I asked my mother why she was in the doorway and she told me she wasn't - she hadn't gotten up at all during the night. So, being the stubborn mule I am, I said, "Sure you were. But you had on a a long, flannel nightgown.." and I went on to describe the nightgown in question. She got a little pale at that, and told me that I'd seen her mother - who wore this long, pink flowered flannel nightgown during the winter.

When I was 17, my grandfather (who'd lived with us forever) died the Saturday after Thanksgiving. A month later, My boyfriend and I went down to his shore house to clean it out. He was in one of the back bedrooms, boxing up some stuff, and I was in the kitchen, which overlooked the front walk. All of the sudden, I could hear this odd noise. It sounded like footsteps, only every other step was a scuffing sound. I heard it all the way up the walk, and it ended just outside the door.

My grandfather had broken his knee in a construction accident years before I was born, and could no longer bend or straighten his leg all the way. When he walked, it was step-scuff-step-scuff-step.

I've heard my dog, Bear, who died five years ago. And our cat, Casey, who died over the summer. I heard Casey jump off the kitchen counter about a month after we lost her. I also saw her sitting there, where we'd kept her food dishes. She'd been gone about two months at that time.

I've also known things had happened before anyone told me - the same guy I'd been at the shore house with had been in a car accident and I knew it about three hours before I got the call. Same with my mom. If I say, "You know who I haven't heard from in a while..." it's guaranteed they will call or show up within the next 24 hours. I've been places for the first time, yet knew where everything was - that sort of stuff happens in my family so much, we don't think twice about it. My husband thinks it's kind of cool, actually.

[joyce]

Wow, your stories are very interesting. Thanks for sharing them. I guess because I've had experiences, I love to hear about others. Sometime I think I might write about them. Jersey I remember when a dog of mine died when I was 14. I was heartbroken. Several nights after he died I remember waking up and hearing him barking just outside my window. I knew he was just checking in. :)

[Siddow]

The first time was when I was five, but that was the only physical manifestation. I woke up in the middle of the night to find a woman standing beside my bed, but she was transparent. I slipped out of bed (I couldn't scream, it was like my throat was clogged) and went downstairs. When I reached the bottom, I looked up and she was leaning over the railing. My mother told me many years later that a woman had committed suicide in that house before we moved in. I guess that was her.

At other times throughout my life I've had odd things happen--toys making noise when there's no batteries in them, stuff falling off walls for no reason. My HS sweetheart died in 2002, and he called me on his birthday ten months later. I didn't talk to him, but the phone rang at about 3am, one of those tinny rings, not the normal one...it woke me up and I said Happy Birthday and it stopped.

And just recently...I was sitting at my desk on December 16th, about 5pm, and I heard this sound...kind of like when a fan goes off balance, a quick "whoom, whoom" and I got chills. It felt like someone was right behind me. I turned around, and there was nobody in the room, the fan was off. Later I get a phone call from my stepmother to tell me that my father had died. She came home and found him dead shortly after five.

[Jersey Chick]

**shivers**

Also, at my mother's house, in the one bedroom (where my grandfather died) I can smell soft pretzels baking. He used to make them all the time and, no matter what time of year it is, I can smell them baking. No one else can.

[joyce]

Once again, thanks everyone for sharing your experiences with me. It's always great to know you're not the only one out there seeing/feeling this stuff. :)

[johnnysannie]

I was watching a show on Discovery I believe was called Paranormal Kids, and it made me wonder how many people have ever experienced a ghost or a spirit. Watching that show made me wish there had been something like that around when I was growing up. I could feel for these children and completely understood how they felt like outsiders with their peers and family members. I've expereinced stuff for as long as I can remember and it's only been the last ten years that I felt comfortable enough to share them with people. I've also experienced the feeling of people thinking you're crazy or just making stuff up. Now I don't care what someone thinks because I understand if you've never experienced anything like this, you can't possibly understand. Heck, when I was sixteen I even had a pastor at my church tell me I was just filled with the devil. I was just wondering how many of you out there have had an experience that seemed "out of this world".


Yes, I have, on many occasions throughout my life. I've written about a couple of my experinces for FATE magazine.

[eldragon]

My now deceased father was a reluctant medium. Every place we lived, he was pestered by ghosts and apparitions.

The house I grew up in was an old funeral home, complete with a casket in the attic. My dad saw a woman apparition there once, but mostly it was noisy. There was one back room that was plagued by whispers and whistling. None of us kids would sleep there. That house had such a feeling, we kids were afraid of it the whole time we lived there (about 17 years total) but I went back after we moved out and the place was empty and the feelings were gone.

After that my dad began to see apparitions more frequently, in most of the places we lived. He was a super intelligent man, had a genius IQ and was not one to discuss such matters. Still, things continually happened to him and those of living with him were often involved.

There are lots of stories, but one house we rented was God-awful. The apparition of a pilgrim woman often walked down the hall when my dad was around, and nighttime was so loud you had to wear earplugs to get any rest. From strange animal noises to music playing to things crashing and falling, some nights were horrible. Doors slamming, the sound of chains rattling, you name it. Pillows flew across the room, and one morning a log from the fireplace had been stuck up into the crawlspace opening in the garage. Explain that!

We moved the day our lease was up!

When my dad was struggling with throat cancer, and the night before the appt that the oncologist told him he was terminal and to make arrangements, he (dad) sat in the kitchen with a grim reaper style figure hanging around near the ceiling. My dad died within 2 months.

There are more stories, but I guess those are the best. I personally am not aware of seeing any apparitions, per say, but hearing them? Absolutely.

[deathwizard]

Though I enjoy these kinds of stories and find them fascinating, entertaining, and love to write about them, I have to admit that nothing like this has ever happened to me. And I personally don't believe that it's part of the life/death cycle to be able to come in contact with people who have died. All that said, I certainly can't disprove any of it, and it might well be that I'm just one of those people who lack the ability to be in touch with spirits, etc.

[Jersey Chick]

It's never happened to my husband, either. He used to really freak out over some of the things - like mentioning someone we haven't seen in a while, and having that person show up. But now he's so used to it, that when I tell him I have a bad feeling about something, he usually listens. And he doesn't freak out quite so much - he actually thinks it's kind of cool. :)

[joyce]

It's never happened to my husband, either. He used to really freak out over some of the things - like mentioning someone we haven't seen in a while, and having that person show up. But now he's so used to it, that when I tell him I have a bad feeling about something, he usually listens. And he doesn't freak out quite so much - he actually thinks it's kind of cool. :)

Same with my husband. I think after all these years he's grown use to things. My daughter seems to be blessed with the same gift, so the poor man is out numbered. Now he just listens and is glad it's not happening to him. :D

[joyce]

Though I enjoy these kinds of stories and find them fascinating, entertaining, and love to write about them, I have to admit that nothing like this has ever happened to me. And I personally don't believe that it's part of the life/death cycle to be able to come in contact with people who have died. All that said, I certainly can't disprove any of it, and it might well be that I'm just one of those people who lack the ability to be in touch with spirits, etc.

I can understand completely if someone has never experienced any of this stuff. I've never set around asking for any of it to happen, it just seems to happen from time to time. When I was young it use to scare me to death, especially after someone from the church told me it was the devil. As I grew older I realized it was a gift. Sometimes a gift you didn't want, but a gift at any rate. :)

[Siddow]

We have something in this house we call The Peepers. It's just like dark blobs, not really in a shape of anything, but you see them out of the corner of your eye, peering over the stair railing or around a corner, ducking into rooms when you enter the hallway. What's funny is that they've always been here since we bought the house (new construction) in 2000, but we never discussed it. I, of course, thought I was just seeing things. Then one night me and hubby are sitting on the sofa, and I see one at the stair railing. I turn, at the same time my husband looks at it, too, and I go, "Did you see that?"

"Yeah," he says. "You can see them, too?"

"Yeah, like, ever since we moved in."

He says, "Me, too! I thought I was crazy or something."

Then I find out my sister sees them, my son sees them...so either we're all crazy, we all have the same eye disease, or there really are black blobs in our house. :D

[MMWyrm]

There is a ghost of a woman 'living' in my house right now, though she has not been as active lately. I have seen her walking about in the back bedroom - transparent half apparition. She occasionally exudes emotion, but doesn't really do anything and doesn't interact.

[wyntermoon]

Speaking of Peepers, we moved two months ago into a house we've been building for four years high on a mountain top. My husband and I both "see" things running in and out of the house all the time. He doesn't see anything normally so I was surprised when he told me he was tired of all the flashers (out of the corner of his eye). There was a major airplane crash on this mountain in the 70s, 150 people died; this is making one heck of a good ghost story for me too, I just didn't expect to have so much...inspiration.

[Shadow_Ferret]

No Never.

My wife says our townhouse was haunted. She saw a couple apparitions.

I think she's nuts.

[deathwizard]

No Never.

My wife says our townhouse was haunted. She saw a couple apparitions.

I think she's nuts.

Those were just your girlfriends sneaking out through the back door!

[liamay]

My nine-year-old daughter sees people who aren't there all the time. It is frightening to both of us. It has been going on a year now. I don't understand it, but am in touch with some people who are going to help. When it is happening to you, it is scary. She wants it to stop. We are a normal family and she is a great, funny, out-going kid. I hope this doesn't effect her too badly. It's funny because I have been writing a ghost story for a couple of years now, but she has no idea I am. Weird!!!!

[joyce]

My nine-year-old daughter sees people who aren't there all the time. It is frightening to both of us. It has been going on a year now. I don't understand it, but am in touch with some people who are going to help. When it is happening to you, it is scary. She wants it to stop. We are a normal family and she is a great, funny, out-going kid. I hope this doesn't effect her too badly. It's funny because I have been writing a ghost story for a couple of years now, but she has no idea I am. Weird!!!!

I commend you for seeking out someone with knowlege of this to help put your daughters fears to rest. Growing up with these situations happening and having nobody to turn to (60's) was the hardest and most confusing time in my life. I know it is scary, but it truly is a gift. I hope whoever you speak to is smart enough to help and relate this to you and your daughter. Good luck.

[Susie]

I love your stories, guys. Brings chills. I've had some experiences with ghostly things. Like one time when I was about to go to sleep, I felt hands rubbing my hands. It didn't feel bad, just strange. Then one time I was sleeping in my lounge chair and I heard someone's voice loudly yell "Sue," in my ear. It wasn't Mr. Susie. He was sleeping. Then recently I was half asleep and woke up to see something black on top of the ceiling. It looked like a Victorian carriage and it just strolled along and then disappeared! Very weird. While in the water, I was having a lot of trouble and tumbling around. I heard a voice say, "Go through the wave," and I did. That kept me from drowning.

[SLake]

No Never.

My wife says our townhouse was haunted. She saw a couple apparitions.

I think she's nuts.

Maybe nuts is better than being blind?

'Spooks' have been our life -- for my wife an accidental seer or 'gifted' as they say, whereas I had learn to see what's there. Don't assume I'm away with the fairies. I'm a very down-to-earth person.

Whilst 'better than being blind' seems like an insult it isn't, when the 'real world' of science these days is convincing those who give grants that the theoretical study of multidimensional brains and reincarnation via mathematics is perfectly valid. Curiously there is more proof for ghosts than for 'multidimensional brain' science, which they admit cannot be proven, but works in theory. They can do that because they're 'experts,' which makes the difference, so they claim.

But yes, your wife's probably nuts, me too, but seems we're in good company with 'the experts.'

[storygirl]

I've had tons of strange experiences throughout my life. Lights going on and off, something not where I left it, and etc. I have always been curious and thought I was courageous. I had an actual list of things I would say and do if I was ever actually lucky enough to see a spirit or a ghost or whatever you'd like to call it. I wouldn't be afraid, I'd march right up to it and ask what I wanted to ask. So simple.

Then one night, as an adult, I woke up to see a lady standing in the doorway of my bedroom. She was an older lady with a cloudy appearance and she was about a foot off the floor. Well, I'd always planed for this and you know what I did. . .I hid under my covers.

Yup, I pulled the blankets over my head and counted to ten. Then it took me a good three minutes to build up the courage to peek at the doorway again. I peeled back the covers, looked, and she was still there, staring at me. So at that time, I did the only logical thing I could. I hid under my covers again. A few agonizing minutes later, I looked again and she was gone. I spent the next few minutes building up the courage to go check on my kids, which meant I'd have to go through the doorway. Finally I hopped out of bed and sprinted through the door at a speed which would rival an Olympian runner.

My kids were fine, the "ghost" was never threatening. And sometimes, I still wonder if I really saw what I think I saw.

[joyce]

My mother was a very determined woman, putting it nicely. When she died she started visiting me at night. I'd see her cloaked in black standing by my bed looking at me. I never saw her face but I knew it was her. I was so mentally tired at this time because I'd spent a year taking care of her dying as well as my father dying. After about two weeks of these visits I asked her to go away and please let me go to sleep. A part of me felt mean, but I really needed to get some sleep and she was driving me crazier than she did in real life. She left and I never saw her again. I still know she comes around to visit by strange things she does, but she never bothered me again when I was trying to go to sleep. By the way, if you're reading this mom.....thanks!:D

[SLake]

My mother was a very determined woman, putting it nicely. When she died she started visiting me at night. I'd see her cloaked in black standing by my bed looking at me. I never saw her face but I knew it was her. I was so mentally tired at this time because I'd spent a year taking care of her dying as well as my father dying. After about two weeks of these visits I asked her to go away and please let me go to sleep. A part of me felt mean, but I really needed to get some sleep and she was driving me crazier than she did in real life. She left and I never saw her again. I still know she comes around to visit by strange things she does, but she never bothered me again when I was trying to go to sleep. By the way, if you're reading this mom.....thanks!:D

First 'spook' I saw same thing, under the covers! A huge wolf at the window. Next one -- looked like the surgeon from NCIS -- David er... can't recall -- I stared him out and he faded away. My wife sees them all the time. Oh and an inlaw of hers who teased her about "spooks woo woo -- you silly woman" was alone later that night and a monk appeared at his bedside waving a forbidding finger. The inlaw was out of bed, running down the street in his boxer shorts, lol.

While none of my wife's inlaws 'believed' she still got a telling off about the incident -- frightening the poor man, er, somehow...

[Unique]

After about two weeks of these visits I asked her to go away and please let me go to sleep. A part of me felt mean, but I really needed to get some sleep and she was driving me crazier than she did in real life.

that would be hateful. and harmful. i'm glad she left.
hope she's happy wherever, wherever.....

losing sleep for too long WILL make a person psychotic. it's a torture method, you know.

hmmm .. wonder if anyone i know died lately? but i haven't seen anyone ... hmmm...

[beezle]

Saw one once, when I was twelve. That said, I'm way too much of a cynic to believe in ghosts.

[Shadow_Ferret]

Maybe nuts is better than being blind?


I'm not blind. Ghosts just fear me.

My son claimed he heard voices in his room, about the same time my wife was seeing this woman who appeared on the stairs, by the closet, and by our bed.

So I put my son to bed one night, he was already asleep, and I said out loud, "You wake him up and I'm gonna kick your asses."

And he never heard another peep in his room, even though my wife kept seeing the lady.

[SLake]

I'm not blind. Ghosts just fear me.

My son claimed he heard voices in his room, about the same time my wife was seeing this woman who appeared on the stairs, by the closet, and by our bed.

So I put my son to bed one night, he was already asleep, and I said out loud, "You wake him up and I'm gonna kick your asses."

And he never heard another peep in his room, even though my wife kept seeing the lady.

Seems you know best. Good luck with that.

[xhouseboy]

I was seventeen years old, asleep in my bedroom. I heard my mother's voice telling me to wake up, and actually felt her gently slapping my face (she slept in the room upstairs). I still remember what she was saying to me and there was a kind of anxiety in her voice as she said it: 'Get up. Please wake up.'

I woke up facing the wall and immediately felt that I wasn't alone. I dreaded turning around, but I forced myself to.

There was someone standing at the foot of the other empty single bed in my room. I could see that whoever it was wore a white shirt open at the neck, and I could also vaguely make out the shape of a face and short dark hair. A little orange ball then moved away from this figure and out the bedroom door, which was lying half open.

I was about to say something, but just couldn't speak. Then I just felt absolutely terrified and I leapt from the bed, vaulted over the other bed and switched on the light. The room was empty.

I went upstairs and woke my mother, asked her if she had just been in my room. It was obvious she hadn't.

That might have been the end of it but for an encounter I had with an old woman who lived a couple of doors up from us. She lived alone, was about eighty or so, and I was helping her clear some junk out. We got to talking and she told me that about thirty years previously a youth who had lived in our house came around the the bend on his motorbike and was killed instantly when he hit a stationary bakers van that was parked outside the house.

She had photos of herself and his family from back then. And in one of these photos he wore a white shirt open at the neck, and his hair was dark and short. They had actually laid his body out in the room where I then slept, as it used to be a spare sitting room.

He also had a small dog, a Cairn Terrier, that was also in some of the photos with him.

True story. And strangely enough, although shit scared when this happened, I continued to sleep in that bedroom and didn't feel afraid at all.