Halloween Spooky Thread Paranormal Experiences... Lately, I've been on a kick watching some of these ghost hunter type shows where a team of people go to a place that is reported to be haunted. They have a bunch of equipment that can supposedly see infrared and electromagnetic presences and record voices. Its a little creepy and interesting at the same time. But I also can't help but wonder if its all bullshit. I say because I've never had a paranormal experience. I've never heard or seen anything. But people swear they have. Focus: What have been your paranormal experiences? Do you believe in them if you haven't had any?
I can't talk right now. I am afraid of spiders so when I spotted one on the ceiling heading my way a co-worker sprang into action, climbing a chair and trying to wack it with a file. Well the little fucker avoided it all and landed square in front of me on the desk (which I had scooted back from as far as I could already). I jumped and EEEKKED!! *shiver* I'm still hebbed out. Anyway, spiderbump.
My grandmother had died. After her funeral, I went back to her house to stay there by myself over night since my parents house was full and it didn't really creep me out or anything. In the middle of the night I got up to go potty and I knocked the prayer card from her funeral off the nightstand and didn't pick it up. As I was sleeping I had a dream she gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. When I woke up in the morning the prayer card was back on the nightstand. Maybe I did it in my sleep, but I don't know.
One time after taking a shit, I noticed there was nothing on the paper when I wiped. I turned around and looked in the toilet and there was nothing there. I know I felt a decent sized turd come out, but where did it go? Was it a ghost poopy? I guess I'll never know.
No experiences, I've long given up on believing those sort of things, which are only shown in "proof" through blurry photos and terribly acted reality shows. Since this is a "Boo" thread, here are movie images from my childhood I remember scaring me. Enjoy: Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler
Growing up I had night terrors, this meant I'd wake up in the middle of the night, be paralyzed, and think there was some sort of ghostly malevolent presence in the room. Other than that, I have seen an old man wandering around a cemetery very late at night by himself. Could've been a ghost, could've been someone suffering from Alzheimer's. Ghosts and fairies, all the same. In rural Ireland you'll find people who swear fairies are still real and claim the Saints intervene in day to day life. When I was a kid, the thing that gave me the most nightmares were the God damned Gremlin movies. I still can't watch them. The female gremlin still scares the crap out of me. I wish I was joking but I'm not exaggerating at all. I can watch horror movies, Saw series doesn't bother me, same with Aliens etc, put on Gremlins and I'm crapping myself.
My first college girlfriend was extremely close to her grandmother. I guess between work and other things with her parents when she was growing up, her grandma hand a big hand in raising her for awhile. Well shortly after we began dating, her grandmother died rather unexpectedly. We'd recently began sleeping in each other's rooms, and one night she was over and I woke up feeling this really pleasant warmth over me. I found it odd considering it was February and pretty damn cold outside, and I looked over at my gf next to me, not touching me (which I assumed was the origin of the heat) and kind of a content smile. I fell back asleep kind of confused, but noticed the next morning that my desk chair was pulled out and slightly rotated toward my bed, when I'd pushed it in before going to bed. I asked her about it and she said, almost casually, "I felt you wake up, and I looked up and saw my grandma sitting in your chair." The hair on the back of my neck stood up as she went back to flipping through her magazine. When I pressed her, she said that it had happened multiple times and she always felt very at ease. I woke up to similar warm sensations multiple times that year, usually in her dorm room, but I usually just laid very still and fell back asleep. I don't know if it was stress related or a half-asleep dream projection, but she always mentioned without a hint of fanfare or attention seeking. Similarly, our dorm was pretty small, only about 100 kids when the others had 300+. We were adjacent to another smaller dorm, probably only 50-60 kids, Wilson Hall, and as a result, shared RA responsibilities for rounds. Well, Wilson Hall was unique cause it had a completely different floorplan than all the other dorms, as it used to be a residential mental institution. As a result, bizarre occurrences were pretty much the norm. The hospital had been closed for over 50 years, but there was a mildly disturbing amount of leftover items. There was a passageway in the basement, that lead to an outbuilding which had served as offices, that doctors used to travel back and forth, unseen by patients so as not to freak them out. It was very crudely closed up. There were also rooms, now used for storage that had soaking tubs still in them that had been used for electroshock therapy. But the creepiest, was in the attic, only accessible by keys the head 3 RAs had, were largely empty rooms that still had a bunch of chains and restraints. The residents always had issues like their showers, in an extremely creepy location in the basement, running cold, flickering lights, random noises from hallways and vents. No specific sightings of anything directly, but enough little shit to freak you out. Well one day, aforementioned girlfriend went over with another girl on rounds with our RA and saw the chain room. I never saw it, but everyone who went said they felt their skin crawl, and they got a weird uneasy feeling. Well she was telling my roommate and I about it as we were laying down about to go to bed that night. She was clearly freaked out as my roommate goaded her for details. Well she drifts off and I start to fall asleep. Well my dickhead roommate thought it would be HILARIOUS to slyly call our room phone from his cell, and we had older, classic bell ringer, LOUD phones. I guess my girlfriend had just gotten to REM and dreamt she was walking into the attic and saw someone chained sitting away from her, and the person began to turn around RIGHT as our phone rang. She woke up with a bloodcurdling scream and I can honestly tell you I have no been so freaked out in my life. I did the instinctive fetal position, hands over ears, and kind of yelled. Just entirely fucked up.
I'm still skeptical, but I really want to believe in all of this stuff and have loved ghost stories and other paranormal things pretty much my whole life. I've never seen anything and haven't really had any full blown "Oh, this is my ghost story" type of experiences - which is probably a big part of why I can't fully believe in it - but I've heard a few things and have had several eerie events happen. My dad has said that he 100% did not believe in anything paranormal or spiritual until after I was born because all of these strange things kept happening. The one I tell most often is that I woke up in the middle of the night when I was 7 because I heard the piano playing. I went out into the living room because I wanted to watch my mom playing and as soon as I reached the end of the hall I stopped hearing the music and realized the room was dark and empty and also that my mom had died a week or two earlier. I could've sworn I never told anyone about it. Then, when I was 16 my dad and I were in the car on some trip and we ended up talking about ghosts or something along those lines, and he says "Well, you know how I usually feel about all this stuff. But, I can't remember if I told you, this was my one biggest creepy moment. It was right after mom died, and I woke up in the middle of the night to the piano playing..." Now, part of me wonders if maybe he did tell me this when I was much younger and I kind of absorbed it as my own memory. Or maybe it was the other way around. OR MAYBE IT'S PROOF THAT GHOSTS EXIST. Another one was when I was trying to fall asleep when I was in my early teens, home alone. All of a sudden I hear this woman frantically screaming in Spanish, I think, with a little girl crying. My eyes snap open, I don't hear it anymore. I look out my window. No one's there. (And I grew up on a country road - it's not like people were walking by my house ever.) I feel like it was probably one of those weird auditory hallucinations you get sometimes when you're right about to fall asleep and you're still kind of half awake, but I get those all the time and it was never like this. It was very vivid, and I was pretty damn sure I was still fully awake. But I've always had really fucked up sleeping problems, and since both of these things happened when I was asleep/trying to fall asleep it makes me question them a lot when I'm in a skeptical mood. My other big story isn't even really mine. Last summer, I was visiting home. My dad had left this pile of papers on the desk in my old bedroom. It was a couple of photos, a few letters my mom had written her parents while away at school and travelling (which were very strange to read), and the document of what my uncle read at my grandfather's funeral. It was over twenty pages long and really strange, and I was learning all this fucking bizarre stuff about my family, and it was just this very odd hour or two as I was reading all of these things. Then, literally as soon as I finish the last sentence of the speech, I get this series of texts from my best friend (who I started to become friends with right before my mom died). She was with her family way upstate, and one of the family members had convinced everyone there to visit this medium she had been to the last time she was in that area, which is strange in and of itself because their family is very pragmatic about death and it's actually even been this source of friction between her family and mine for how much of a "get over it and move on" attitude they have about death. Anyway, apparently they had been with this medium for over an hour, and it was fucking insane all of the things she was telling them about the people she was "talking to" for them, and everyone was a total wreck, sobbing all over the place. Then, right near the end, she turns to my best friend (who hadn't really been the subject of many ... um... conversations) and says "Did you know a [my mom's name]? She died of breast cancer? She wants to let you know that she's here and she watches over you and ... someone very close to you ... your closest friend?" I'm not sure why my mom was crashing their family's seance - maybe because of all of the stuff I had been reading. I don't know how this stuff works. Anyway, I fucking lost it. My poor dad and his even poorer girlfriend came home to me hysterically crying. I've been trying to figure out a logical explanation for it ever since but between that and all of the deepest darkest skeletons she knew about their family it was probably the strangest thing that's ever happened to me. There's a whole laundry list of things that weren't exactly paranormal but just kind of strange or creepy, too. Like: last year, I got in line at a store, and realized that I was standing behind my ex-step-cousin who I hadn't seen or spoken to in ten years or so, and had apparently just moved to the city. I wrote my dad afterwards saying "Woah, so weird- I just ran into [cousin]!" and he said "Even weirder that it happened today, of all days." "Why, what's today?" "[My stepmom] died eleven years ago today." Things like that. And then, just this morning, I woke up feeling this huge weight on my chest and I thought - Oh my god! Don't so many stories of being haunted start this way? Is it finally happening? Am I going to open my eyes to see this headless figure floating above my bed? But it was just my cat.
I don't believe in the paranormal, so I'll just call this "weird:" About a year ago, my grandmother died. Day after, the whole family was at her house (which is walking distance from our place), and this young black cat showed up begging to be let in. My grandfather swore it was her, which I guess made sense because she was the exact type person who would return to earth as a fucking black cat. Anyway, the cat followed me home and has been here ever sense. In fact right now it is sitting in my lap, purring, staring at me with the "I will eat your soul" look. I can't stand cats, but this one is pretty cool
My hairdresser claims to see dead people and we talk about it on the odd occasion when I am getting a haircut.
Very likely some neurological explanation for this one, but goddamn it felt real to me. So I was...young. Roughly eight, I'll guess. Fully awake, sitting on the floor of the basement living room, back against the couch, on which dad was sitting. Sister is on the open floor to my right, sitting cross-legged, all of us watching TV. All of a sudden, I look at my sister, and another her gets up and goes to the playroom, while the "original" her continues watching TV. And I just kinda watch it happen, look at my dad who has no reaction, and go back to watching TV. A few minutes later, Original Sister gets up and goes to the playroom. Like I said, probably some mental hiccup, or a glitch in the Matrix or something, but one thing I know is that I wasn't dreaming. One thing that's happened to me three times and is most definitely real is sleep paralysis. Shit is freaky as fuck, the only times in my life I've experienced truly abject horror. As you've probably deduced, it's being paralyzed in your sleep, usually either just as you wake or are drifting off. Basically, your brain wakes up but your body doesn't, including your eye lids. First time was at my girlfriend's at the time, waking up from a nap in her bed. Fully aware of my surroundings, I couldn't do a thing. I tried screaming and at most let out a tiny whimper. Then I tried rocking off the bed, hoping to knock something over so she'd come into the room. Fucking nothing. The worst part, possibly, is how quickly your brain (or mine at least) can scare the crap out of you, especially when you've never heard of this condition, like I hadn't. What if I'm like this forever? What if they think I'm dead and bury me alive? What if my lungs stop moving? And on and on, all alone in darkness. So I research it and calm myself down, thinking I'm ready if it ever happens again. Yeah, didn't work. My calmness lasted about five seconds before losing my shit, trying to scream and all the rest. The scariest dreams I've ever had didn't make my heart race like it did when I finally woke up. AN HOUR AND A FUCKING HALF?! I'd fucking kill myself when I did wake up.
I get this shit on occasion. Mostly after wild swings in my sleep schedule. Happened a lot during college when I'd only get a scant few hours of sleep over a few days because of midterm/finals cramming. Then I'd crash out on a couch and have it happen. Ill just try and go back to sleep instead of fighting it by trying to move or yell or something. Since you are in and out of sleep during it the waking dreams can become very scary.
You should read Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. Focus: I'm not into the paranormal stuff, but I do find the "ghost hunter" TV shows to be hilariously bad.
I don't know if I believe in paranormal experiences, maybe. I've had a couple living in Germany just the past couple of months. Most houses around here are old as shit, easily over 100 years old and all of them have creepy ass cellars and basements, plus I went wandering around some mental hospital with some friends one night. Nothing too scary, mostly just that eerie feelings and hearing noises. Fuck night terrors, seriously, I thought I outgrew them once I hit the teenage years and I didn't get any for a while. Nope.
I don't believe in any of that crazy shit, but my mom is convinced my dad's ghost has been visiting her since he passed away. Some of the stories she calls me up to tell me about are so ridiculous they don't even count as coincidences. For example she was looking for a pen once and *gasp* found one of his old work pens. Then she smelled cigars once out running shortly after giving away his old cigar box. Seriously. The only one that kind of made sense, as in you'd actually find it strange is a couple nights after she moved into her new house the stereo randomly turned on and started playing his old favorite song. The rest of her 'experiences' are pretty lame. I know a lot of people from St Augustine, which is supposed to be one of the most haunted towns in America so naturally a lot of them believe in ghosts and everyone has some stupid story about something in their house being rearranged or some other such bullshit. Ugh. I used to get sleep paralysis all the time in my teens. It is incredibly weird and freaky the first few times it happens to you. I remember I used to be paranoid that everything would freeze up and I wouldn't even be able to breathe, but I'm pretty sure that's not actually possible. It still happens to me once in awhile, and I'm kind of used to it by now. It also thankfully doesn't last nearly as long anymore.
My father had a sort of sixth sense in that, when someone in the family died unexpectedly, he usually would smell roses before we were notified of the death. I had a lot of fun with him with a can of Wizard rose-scented air freshened. He also told me that when he was in high school, he worked at a Catholic hospital and witnessed an exorcism being performed. Said the guy was actually levitating about 4' above the bed.
I'm on train with the sleep paralysis thing. It's wicked creepy and I hope it never happens to me again. One night it was cold and rainy and I had my window open when I fell asleep. I woke up and couldn't move and I can't help but feel a cold sensation and see something near my closet. I shrugged it off and went back to bed. Fast forward to the next night, windows closed and my TV is on this time, it happens again and as I snap out of it my TV turns off. It's hard to tell whether I was dreaming or not, I still don't know till this day. There was also some weird stuff when my grandma passed last year. Her and her sisters used to have this ceramic squirrel they used to have and they pretty much played a game with it. They would steal it from each other and see how long it could go in their house without the other person stealing it back. Well a few days after she passed some whiskey fell onto the table and left a outline of a squirrel on it that wont come out now because its imprinted into the table. Also, I would always talk to her about how I was considering joining the Air Force and she always wanted me to. My grandfather was an army vet so she always respected all of the military. I dropped off an information sheet two years prior at the recruiters under his door and never heard from them once. This was until exactly a week after she passed and I was sitting in her seat on the couch where she would watch tv for hours and I get a call. Pretty weird coincidences and could've been completely random. Still a little odd though. I can't help but think there is the possibility of ghosts, but I don't know, I'm still on the fence.
Little bit surprised at the number of people who believe or are on the fence about paranormal stuff. Honestly not trying to be a dick, but...why? Don't you guys think that, in terms of ghosts and stuff, we would have found solid, testable evidence by now? MANY people, over MANY years have tried to prove these things, and they've all failed, even though definitively proving them true would be one of the biggest discoveries of all time.
I guess I'm on the fence about it because I've heard so many stories from people that I consider to be trustworthy indivuduals, swearing on their mothers that what they saw or heard was true. They have shown on TV, certain hotels and other buildings notorious for being "haunted" and there is footage of a door slamming or something. But who can honestly say that it is all not faked? You can't. The whole concept does seem rather far fetched, especially me being a non-religious person. That and the fact that, according to things I've read, the key to getting rid of them is the use of religous sayings or tools.