lol Jim

I have a hard time admitting I believe in them, but we have what we refer to as "the poltergeist" here.and the most common thing that happens is that something that is always put in a particular spot....such as the hook where I always hang my keys....the item will go missing and no matter how hard we look, we can't find them. The next day....they are right back in that spot. My husband didn't believe me for a long time, and then he found out for himself....he still can't believe it. My extra set of truck keys came up missing, for example. I found them on the floor of the truck. I had vacuumed the truck a dozen times, and they weren't there. One day I went out to get in the truck, and there they were. They were gone missing longer than most items. Most are only gone a day or two. It is to the point that if something comes up missing, I don't even want to look for them. I just wait to see if it is returned the next day, or the next, and it usually is.

This will sound stupid but three times in my life I have seen three people surrounded by waves of colour - think of wavy crepe paper surrounding someone and that's what it is like.

The first time was actually me. I was taking this all-day course by mistake. I misread the syllabus. I thought the course was for parents who wanted alternatives to yelling at their kids but it turned out it was for angry people who didn't want to pass that anger onto their kids. Anyway, at the end of the class we were supposed to envision ourselves as kids running over a hill and trying to dispense with the anger we were holding in. Obviously no anger here because myself as little girl was surrounded in happy yellow waves.

The second time was a few years ago and I got into the car with a girlfriend who was completely enveloped in purplish pink grandma waves. I had to get out of the car it was so suffocating. She hadn't told anyone but sure enough she was going to be a first time grandma.

Whenever I see my sister, this started about 3 years ago, she is completely surrounded in black wavy crepe paper swirling about her. I don;t know what the problem is and won't ask but I can't be within 6 feet of her because it's so overwhelmingly sad.

Anyway, that's my story and it's interesting for me. One of my friends, a couple of times as had a little flick of green about her. I have no idea what that means although she is a very envious person of other peoples lives.

LOL Jim!

Yes, I have had "visits" from my grandmother that have awoken me during the night. My mom has had the same visits. The first time I felt a tap on my shoulder that I could still feel several hours later. I did not see anyone, but if this makes any sense I could feel the presence of my grandmother. It was a feeling that I only ever had when I was with her. A very protected, loving and peaceful feeling. The other visits were similar. I miss her dearly.

I've never seen a ghost. Don't believe in them.
Doesn't mean they don't exist though.
The only paranormal thing in my life that I can
think of is when I used to walk by certain streetlights,
they'd go out. When I was away from them they'd come
back on. Must have been my electrifying personality.

Yes, I do. And I have.

We have a ghost living here, tho we haven't really heard much from him in the last few years. He showed up soon after we moved in. He was most connected to my DD. She actually saw him once. Our dog knew he was here, and would just wag his tail. The first we really noticed him was that first Christmas. We have a fruit cellar in our basement with a door on it. We put a lock on that door and hid the key (the kids still don't know where to find it!) and hid Christmas presents in there. While we were wrapping one night, with the kids sound asleep, we kept hearing footsteps pacing the hallway. The dog was downstairs with us. He would look at us, look up, look at us and wag his tail. Telling us it was ok. It got to the point DH went upstairs to see if anyone was here.

I was raised Methodist. We had been married several years, the kids born, DS was probably 5-6 when I converted. Along with our sponsors, we went to the Cathedral in Cleveland for a special mass. After we were seated, before mass started, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and my DFIL was sitting there. He had passed away in 1994. My DSIL was my sponsor, and she refused to turn around and look. She could feel him, her father, there.

We now have 3 bunny ghosts who run thru the house. Sunflower has teased us since she passed in 2002. Obsidion (Sydney) since Christmas 2012. Sunny passed just 2 months ago, and has joined the other two running thru the house.

Tami

I've written about the house we had that must've been haunted other times. I can find the link for that if you want. Before that house, I didn't believe at all.

Other than that, I used to have this recurring "nightmare", except I was only drifting off going over what I needed to do the next day at work, a checklist if you will. It lasted for months. Every night, I would feel like I'd have to find my boss because something happened to his wife, and he'd be overseas. Then I'd fully wake, realizing, it wasn't happening. It finally happened. Except, he and his wife were both overseas, and it was his daughter. I did hook him up with the attending and she was ok. Quit having that premonition after it happened. Whew. Nothing since!

Other thing, freshman year of university. I'd know the phone was going to ring before it did. ALL the time. I always knew if it was for me, or for my roommate. Don't ask me how, cause I really don't know! She and I had been friends for years before (I even waited a year to attend so we'd be in the same grade, finally), and it bugged her I would know it was going to ring. Mostly when I kept on putting on my makeup and say, "It's for you". Don't know if it bugged her cause I knew it was going to ring or that I wasn't going to get the phone, but I think the former.

Nowadays, I can think of someone, just now it's my son... and they'll call me. If I can't stop thinking of them. Did that the other day to my work friend. I thought, I wonder if Chris wants to go to the VA for a snack, and when I picked up the phone, she was already on the other end! Let's see if my son calls/texts me here shortly. He's at marching camp surrounded by friends, so why would he? He's having fun!!!

I do not believe in ghosts or anything paranormal. I believe in science. I do believe that strange and unexplained events happen, but just because I don't know the exact scientific whys, does not make it supernatural.

We had a Tupperware container land in the middle of the kitchen one night while we were sitting in the living room. Tupperware is usually kept inside the cupboard, but maybe it had been on top? I'm short, so I can't always see what my husband put on top of the cupboard. There is an air vent there too, although I believe we checked if the air was on. Maybe it was a small earthquake? There is a reason that can be logically explained by science, we just don't know it. It was weird though.

This may seem ironic, but fantasy with magic and supernatural creatures are one of my favorite book and movie genres.

This happened when I was house sitting for a month for a friend. I was standing in the middle of the living room, and a photograph literally flew across the room....landing at my feet. It had been sitting on a cabinet just inside the front door. I don't mean it toppled over....it literally was like someone had picked it up and thrown it. One day I came in the house and there were some magazines sitting on the arm of the couch. It was craft magazines. Something I have no interest in and would not have looked at them.....I suppose they had been in a magazine rack at the end of the couch. It startled me because I was the only person who had been in the house and I knew that I hadn't looked at the magazines. I mentioned it to my friend when she called to check on things. She said, "Oh, don't worry....the house is haunted." That is the only times anything went amiss there....oh, I take that back. I kept the key to her house in the pocket on the driver's side door of the truck. Went to feed my animals, came back to her house, and couldn't find the key. Looked everywhere. We finally had to crawl in a window to get into her house. Next morning, got ready to come back home to feed my animals again, and the key was back in the pocket. Believe me...we really searched for that thing....neither of us wanted to crawl through a window to get in her house...and that window as small!

Having a premonition is common. So too is being awoken by a dream and not being sure if it's real or not, or thinking something happened or a thought came to you during the night when it was really all "happening" while you slept.

Do you keep track of the ones that come up and go away and nothing happens?

I don't believe in the paranormal. People I've encountered who purport to have some rare ability or skill have always proven to be hucksters and phonies.

Daydreams, night dreams, imagination, "visions" provide enough of an explanation for me. As I said, I think we all have experienced odd moments that amount to simple coincidences. For those of you who believe in things that are really only imaginary, do your kids a favor and don't pass on those feelings to them.

Yikes! I just had a premonition that Snidely was going to jump in and post something snidely-ish...maybe even rude! Hah!

We had some very strange experiences in this house, most of them centering around me but one incident that Robert and I witnessed together. Nothing happened when I was asleep, or in any way impaired, or in a dream state. Some of the events were visual, some were auditory and others olfactory.

Everything started very shortly after the sudden death of our neighbor and ended just as suddenly about six months later. None of it ever really frightened me, other than the night I smelled the very strong odor of cigarette smoke in the bedroom. That alarmed me, thinking it was an intruder. By the time I had jumped up and turned lights on, the stink was gone. My neighbor was quite a chain smoker.

At the end of 2007 I took a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. One day while my wife was at the conference I took a tour of tunnels and chambers beneath the streets of the old city. The guide told various stories of the history of the tunnels, including stories of crime, intrigue, death and murder. Also stories of ghostly feelings, sounds and visions that had been reported over the years. In one of the chambers the guide finished her story and said, "You'll notice I stayed in the tunnel outside this chamber. I don't go in there. That chamber is where the most malevolent ghost had been reported." I felt a chill. Of course since its a cold dank underground tunnel in Scotland, a chill is to be expected.
After everyone left that chamber, I took the below picture of the corner where the presence was most ofter reported.

See the ghost?

Snidley, I haven't passed it to my kids, they actually told me first, even tho we already knew about it. At 4 and 7, I would not have done that. Oddly enough, they both are VERY sensitive to things like that. They are now 30 and 27. I don't think anyone else in our families in the past have had any sensitivity, or if they did, they never mentioned it.

I forgot to mention that DD could never have a snow globe in her room. They were always smashed to the floor while no one was home. The only one she still has, is one that we have kept in the living room.

Tami

"Yikes! I just had a premonition that Snidely was going to jump in and post something snidely-ish"

Hi rhizo. I think the word you're looking for is "rational".

Hah back at you !

SW

So glad we are entitled to our own opinions. Now I will go back to my imaginary and irrational world :)

"Believing in" science doesn't mean disbelieving anything that hasn't been proven or that you or I cannot see.

Science is a process that's dependent on the knowledge available at the time & on the means of attaining new knowledge;
the fact that it hasn't proven or disproven something has nothing to do with whether that 'something' exists.

Bacteria existed long before scientists figured it out.

I can't see infrared light, but it's there.

Science is fact. What are not facts are not personal truths, irrational arguments against scientific evidence, or the complete lack of evidence as "proof" for one's personal truths.

Bob, that sounds like a fun tour. Thanks for sharing the picture!

This post was edited by alice_sj on Wed, Jul 23, 14 at 22:36

Harry's mother, BeeGee, lived with us for only a few months before she died from gastric reflux/bloat. We were devastated; she was such a sweet dog.

Although she hadn't seen him since he was three months old, she recognized Harry as her pup immediately. They picked up the mother and son roles and never put them down again.

She loved hunting with Wes. She was "old and retired" so she got to do all the "bad" things she wasn't allowed in her former home. She'd retrieve a couple birds, then eat one. (A big no-no for hunting dogs.)

She'd go to retrieve something and detour off to find other fun or go for a swim coming back at her own pace. She had a blast while she was with us.

A few days after her death I saw her in the mudroom, sitting by the chair where Wes puts on his hunting boots. I saw her trot through the kitchen and mudroom several times. She was tiny and furry; Harry is huge and smooth haired. I was not mis-seeing Harry.

Wes assumed I was going over the edge, until he saw her. Twice. The second time he saw her was after we got Sam, her great-times-four nephew.

Wes was gearing up to take the boys out. He said "Is Sam with you?" Nope; he's outside. He replied, "Well BeeGee is in here with me." I told him he was fortunate and blessed.

We saw her briefly several times until Sam was settled in. I haven't seen or felt her in a couple of years now.

We had a former engineer walk through the hallway and bedroom on our base house, too. I saw him three or four times. He was just checking on the place and passing through.

I didn't believe in ghosts at all. I'm not a huge believer now. But in our first home, my son kept seeing "line people". I think that's a pretty good description when you're two. One day, he looked at me with a look I'd not seen nor have I seen since, such a glare! Then he said, "They're chanting for us to get out". Chanting? A two year old saying chanting? At that point only his father and I were around him. It was somewhat rural and he didn't go to any nursery or preschool. Just us. I'm really sure I'd never used chanting in a sentence around him or to him. I don't think Ed would use chanting for anything, even now. But that's just not an ordinary sentence nor was it an ordinary look.

That was also one eerie house. The people before us left in such a hurry, their clothes were still in the washer and dryer. Who does that? Even if you're dodging someone collecting rent, surely you need your clothes? You felt watched in the two front rooms all the time. In that upper corner, over there. I had to sit with my back to it because it bothered me so much. He didn't see line people once we moved out. We actually sold the house for a profit and paid off all of our debt. We didn't leave because of the chanting. And I don't think I've ever been any place else that's "haunted". I'm not sure it was haunted in the strictest definitions, but maybe? There were too many unexplained things in that house.

this is about the only house that's been "quiet"...our house in wa was different, but then there was an old step I found in the yard so the possibility of another home at sometime...

Many little kids have imaginary friends they can describe and interact with as if they were real.

There was a documentary on PBS about the London underground (tube) & the stories about odd things people have seen & experienced in there.

One incident that I remember was about a guard, a no-nonsense kind of guy, who walked the lines at night to be sure that nothing was obstructing the tracks, nobody was wandering around down there, etc.

He spotted another guy in a guard's uniform, maybe an older style of uniform, carrying an old-fashioned lamp.

He hailed the man & said something like, "you walking this stretch of track too, huh?"

& the guy said yes, & the guard commented, "that's a real antique you've got there" (or some such), referring to the lantern.

& the guy acknowledged it.

When the guard got to the telephone from which he had to check in at certain times, he asked the desk clerk what the heck they thought they were doing, posting 2 guards to walk that stretch of line.

& the desk clerk said, well, we didn't post an extra guard, & asked if the guy looked "old-fashioned", etc.

yep.

turns out that the ghost/apparation/spirit/leftover energy had been down there for many years, seen by many people.

I wonder if maybe whatever we are dissapates in the open air, but if there are deep layers of earth on all sides of us, maybe something gets 'stuck'.

Then they did experiments with low-level sound vibrations, can't remember what they were called, & they found that these induced feelings of dread much like what people experience when they feel 'haunted'.

Science has neither proved nor disproved it, so it's not something that we can reasonably acknowledge in all instances (obviously) or write off in all instances.

It's a big world & a big universe, & our brains haven't encountered all of it, much less figured it all out yet.

I really wished I knew the answer. No one knows what is on the other side after death, but I sure hope my husband and I are together. The strangest thing that happened to me was a week before my sister passed. She was dying of cancer and she said she wanted me to be there as she passed. I told her if I was meant to be there something will make me go. About a week before, my DH and I were sleeping and suddenly a loud whistle (like someone doing a wolf whistle) woke us up. There is only the 2 of us so we thought someone broke into the house. He jumped out of bed and found nothing. I really think it was someone on the other side letting me know it's almost time. The day she passed something told me to get to her place asap. Believe me, nothing would have stopped me. I felt like someone was pushing me along. She passed a few minutes after I arrived. I really wished she would come back and give a good lottery number so I could retire. LOL I think she's too busy up there having fun.

My VERY Christian Grandma always said that if after her death I thought I was seeing her it would not be her. It would be demons tricking people. So if it happened all I had to do was to command it to leave in the Name of Jesus. I believe this.
She also told me that when she was a child, about 1907, her mother rented a room to and was taking care of a sea captain who was dying of syphilis. After he died, her mother saw him on the stairs. I suppose as though he was coming downstairs.
This one and rather sweet thing happened to me. One night I got up to either go to the bathroom or get a drink, I don't remember. I didn't turn a light on. But walking alongside of me I saw what I thought was a little black dachshund. What struck me immediately was the utter sweetness of the little dog. A few months later my gentle and sweet little black kitty died. It took me YEARS to realize that it wasn't a little black dachshund, it was my sweet Pepperlily. I truly believe she was telling me she was going to pass but would always be with me. Again, it was YEARS before I understood and that it wasn't a dachshund. I love you, Pepperlily.

Bob - I was in Edinburgh two months ago, and some members of my tour group went on that same underground tour. I didn't because I'm claustrophobic. They said the tour, while interesting, was a bit contrived.

BUT, yes, I do believe in ghosts. One lives with us. A young woman hung herself in a house I once owned, which was next to the house we lived in. She was 20. My son, who was a teenager at the time, heard and felt her many times. He saw her once, when we were moving away from that house, and can describe that incident vividly enough to make your hair stand on end.

We thought we left her behind when we moved - guess not. She moves things, knocks things off the walls, etc., every once in a while in our current house. She was particularly active when I moved a certain plaque off the kitchen wall (a plaque which was in the house where she died), but she settled back down when I put it back in its usual place.

I call her by name and greet her when I come home. I tell her I don't care if she lives with us, but I don't want to see her. My hairdresser was in her class in high school and tells me stories about her. I need to go visit her grave, which is about 15 miles from here in a small country cemetery. Her headstone (which I can look at on-line) has her picture on it. That's just a bit un-nerving.

Interesting events and opinions.

Snidely, I can understand that, since you've never experienced anything such as what other posters here have, and I have, you disbelieve. I, too, would've poo-poo'd it a number of years ago, and maybe, I'm ashamed to say, even thought people silly.

But - I believe. Maybe there's another realm out there - I don't know. But I have had completely inexplicable occurrences in my home that have nothing to do with seeing images or ghosts or whatever. I've learned from 2 past owners of this house, separately, that they, too, experienced similar things.

My "ghost" is a woman, mischievous, and I like her. Call me crazy.

Interesting events. I have the missing stuff, then the finding it where we'd already looked and looked before. Not sure how science can explain it not being there one minute then suddenly reappearing the next...um, wormholes perhaps? They are theoretically possible...right?

In our house, we smell cigarette smoke in certain rooms, we experience it separately. If I smell it, then my husband cannot and vice versa. We will only smell it for a minute or two. One day we were sitting on the couch and said "do you smell that cigarette smoke?" and my husband says "no I don't smell it now" then he goes on the say out loud "you know, I don't mind you hanging out in our house but could you please stop smoking". HAHA! Then I said "yeah that stuff will kill ya!" Then the other day I was in the kitchen and heard and saw what I thought was my dog going to the back door so I went to see if she needed to go out and she was fast asleep in the front living room so it was not her! So our house is kind of haunted but nothing sinister.

When we were searching for a home to buy, there were two homes that seemed to be haunted. One of them, we went into and I looked for a minute and said "I have got to get out of here...NOW!" This hasn't ever happened to me before but the house totally creeped me out! There are people living in it now and have been there a few years so I guess it's OK. Then there was another house that was being sold after an estate was settled and had been empty for a long time. It was a cute house so we went over snooping around when it was vacant and I walked into this screened in porch and as soon as I walked in I heard what sounded to be a group of people screaming, my husband was outside and he heard absolutely NOTHING! Then when I walked through the porch area to the back yard there was a dead bird on the back porch...it was very creepy too.

Another very weird thing happened to me years ago, we were renting a house and I kept waking up during the night and when I would open my eyes, I would see a bright glowing head floating across the room and then it would disappear once I would fully wake up. I thought it was night terrors. Then I was talking to a neighbor one day, I had never mentioned the floating head or anything to them. He was just telling me about how the man that lived there was killed in a car wreck and he was decapitated. YIKES! We were renting from his widow. I had no idea her husband was dead or anything. Maybe he was trying to tell me something but I wasn't getting the message?

I believe in ghosts and the paranormal. I just think there's too much in the world that can't be explained by science, at least not yet. I've also had my own personal experiences after the loss of my mom and several other people close to me.

I also understand people who don't believe, and who take a more rational and black and white approach to life. My fiance is like that. He doesn't believe in ghosts or any kind of afterlife for that matter, which go hand in hand.

I think a lot of things can be chalked up to coincidence, but it's funny because the more rationally minded people can understand just how mathematically rare some of those coincidences can be. Possible? Sure, but very unlikely!

This isn't about a ghost, but about a dream. I took care of an old man, (who had been a former neighbor), for 8 years. I had known him for many years before that. He could be very difficult and his family was happy when I started taking care of him because I was just about the only person who would and could deal with him. He had emphysema so badly, he could hardly walk, and when he died,he hadn't stepped out of his house in four years. I drove over there to see about him (40 miles round trip) every day, and as he got worse, I was there up to four times a day, and even spent several nights sleeping on his floor to be near him. He knew he was dying and we talked about it a lot. I asked him if he could, to please send me a sign from the other side. He didn't believe in things like that, but he said he would....just to mollify me, I am sure. I was with him when he died and I followed his wishes as to who to call and what to do. Even though I took care of him, his house, his yard, everything...I always tried to make him feel like everything was with his approval and tried to make him feel like he was still in charge of everything.

After he passed....no sign. Then I had a dream about him. He called me on the phone. He said, "Why don't you come to see me any more?" I didn't want to say "because you died"
so I said "You don't live where you used to." I didn't want to tell him that his niece, who he didn't like, was now living in his house....so I said, "Ken, you died." He said (and this was just like him...something he would say to me quite often) "Are you sure about that?" He sounded so incredulous. I don't know if I woke up then or if I said I was sure...but that was the dream and the last time I dreamed about him.

As for looking for a "sign from him". I really didn't expect it. So if this is something that came from my subconscious, I am okay with that, but I thought it was kind of interesting because he was a large part of my life for a long time and I had dreamed about him a few times before that.

In another one of the dreams I had about him, before the phone call dream....I dreamed I was in a hospital bed and I knew I was dying. I felt okay with that. People were standing around my bed and Ken was standing at the foot of the bed. He walked out of the room. In the next scene from that dream, I was walking down my driveway. He had given me his truck and as I passed it, I saw a piece of notebook paper, folded in half, stuck beside the side mirror. Ken used to write down things he wanted to remember to tell me. Always on notebook paper, always in pencil. He had written, in pencil, that he was sorry he wasn't able to stay with me at the hospital, but he couldn't stand to watch. (Just like him....when he had to have his cat put down, I had to take it to the vet for him). There was more written in the note, but I woke up and didn't get to finish reading it.

My sister has a ghost story. Back when she was in college. She said a guy friend of hers got drunk, drove up to the mountains and passed out on a frozen river. He then froze to death.

She was writing a college paper when her hand zipped off the paper and started writing on it's own. (she showed me the paper). Saying hello from Dave and he was fine. He was hanging out till his reincarnation, telling her what his new name would be, city where he was going to be born and the date...a month in the future. She said she'd look for him....perhaps see a birth announcement in the paper. She saw nothing and they never spoke again.....she tried.

I asked her about this incident, years later. Her response was she took a LOT of good drugs back then, don't put too much importance on THAT incident. She looked spooked.....didn't want to talk about it....ok.

But as far as ghost stories go....not bad....

There is no reincarnation. The Bible says that there is "but one time for man to die".
So many of these posts are really about demon activity.

Several years ago, we stayed at an old B&B. The first night, something woke me up and an old woman with long white hair, wearing a white nightgown and an absolutely hateful look on her face, was floating next to the bed. Scared the heck out of me and considering how loud I screamed, it's a good thing we were the only people in the guest quarters that night.

After staying awake the rest of the night, I came to the conclusion that it must have been a weird nightmare and I didn't really see anything. I was nervous the next couple of nights, but slept quite well.

The morning we checked out, one of the owners joined us for breakfast. We chatted and hubby asked him if the property had been in his family a long time. He said no, they had bought it a few years prior. He and his wife used to vacation in the area and noticed the property each time they drove by.

They found out the owner, an old woman, was getting senile and suspected everyone of trying to steal from her. She would sneak out of the house at night and walk around to look for intruders, with her long white hair open and wearing a white nightgown.Her relatives were making arrangements to have her put in a nursing home, but she passed away before that and they sold the property to the people who turned it into a B&B.

I still sometimes wonder, was it a dream and a coincidence, or was she still patrolling the property and trying to chase away intruders?

A number of years ago, I went to a get-together at the home of a gardenweb member.

The group was all from gw, & at the time only a very few of us knew each other.

The woman who told this story wasn't someone I knew, & she told it without fanfare or drama.

I can't remember the names, & although I've written about this on gw before, I can't remember the names I used then, so I'll call her Jessica.

She said:

My husband's parents died when he was a little boy, & his older sister, Patty, raised him.

They were very close, & when Doug & I got engaged, I was nervous about meeting her.

It turned out she was a lovely person, & she & I became close, too.

Patty moved to Hawaii & lived there for maybe 12 years, where she met a really nice guy named Todd;
they became 'best friends'.

& then Patty moved back to Texas.

Patty was killed in a car wreck just before I learned that I was pregnant.

Time went by, the baby was several months old, & one night the phone rang.

It wasTodd, looking for Patty.

In all the uproar, nobody had called Todd.
He didn't know Patty had died,
didn't know that Jessica had had a baby,
didn't know that the baby was a girl.

Todd had called Doug & Jessica because he'd discovered that Patty's phone # was no longer working.

He said,
'I had the weirdest dream last night.
I dreamed that Patty came to see me, & we sat up all night & talked & laughed, just like we used to, & then she stood up & said, "I'd love to stay, but I have to go back to Texas & look after my little niece." '

Deeby, I don't think anyone has alleged reincarnation ("in the flesh").

That territorial or 'patrolling' business reminds me of something I heard from someone who had lived in "the old Pratt place" for several years.

The Pratt place was a sprawling 2-story Victorian on a big farm/ranch.

Mrs Pratt raised her sizeable family there & helped raise the grandchildren.

When the younger generation took over, she moved into her favorite bedroom upstairs, placing her rocking chair where she could watch the sun set.

After Mrs Pratt died, the family sold the farm & moved on.

The next owners put a rocking chair in Mrs Pratt's room too, & they sometimes joked about it rocking when no one was there...but nobody took it seriously.

One week-end they were to go out of town, & they decided that thier 2 teen-aged daughters were old enough & responsible enough to be left alone.

As soon as the car disappeared around the curve, those girls started rounding up their friends for a party.

The party got out of hand, & one couple went upstairs...
but they fled back down the stairs when they opened the bedroom door & the chair started rocking.

Another couple took that as a dare & started up the stairs (like many old houses, this one had a door at the bottom of the stairs so you could close off the upstairs in the winter).

As they got close to the stairs, the door slammed shut.

The party atmosphere disappeared, & everybody went home.

The girls were so scared that they told their parents.

who said,
"Good.
Mrs Pratt is still looking after idiot young girls.
Thank you, Mrs Pratt."

just remembered:

I used to work with another Realtor, a strictly all-business, no-nonsense person.

I told her about this, & she started nodding.

She said that the 3rd or 4th owners had asked her to sell the property;
she listed it, put up the sign, measured, took photos, etc.

She said she always was uneasy in that house, but she never said anything to the owners (who wants an overly-sensitive, maybe slightly loony, Realtor???).

Nobody who looked at the house stayed in it long.
You would almost have to say they fled.

until this one couple came along, & the whole atmosphere changed.

They bought it & moved in &, as far as I know, lived happily ever after.

Maybe Mrs Pratt liked them best?

I've never seen a "ghost", but I saw some strange things not long after my Dad passed away. I would see a large white dog out of the corner of my eye, but only a glimpse. It looked like a Great Pyreneese. I'd turn my head quickly trying to get a good look, but there was no dog there. This happened often for about a month. Also, I would see clusters of tiny blue butterflies around my porch.
One day I was on the front porch watering the hanging baskets when I noticed my dog staring at something at the end of the porch. I saw what looked like a a bubble or a wisp of smoke that was only a few inches from the porch and then disappeared. My dog made a crying sound. My dad and I used to spend quite a bit of time sitting on our front porch. I've always felt those things I saw was him trying to let me know that he was ok, or maybe I just wanted it to be him. Anyway it did comfort me.

I watched this on TV awhile back and it's available online to watch as well. It's about a young boy that remembers having lived another life. So his mother takes him back to his old house where he remembers vacationing. He lives in Glasgow.....

Here is a link that might be useful: The Barra boy. The boy who lived before.

Deeby, after her mother died, my very dear neighbour found it really hard to cope, as they had always had a difficult relationship and I think my friend felt guilty for not spending enough time with her mother when she was alive. One afternoon my neighbour was reading a book and started to cry, as the part she was reading reminded her of her mom. She said she was shocked out of her socks when she heard her mother's voice and looked up to see a 'cloudy' version of her mother, sitting in the chair across from her.

She said her mother said "Don't cry, (my friend's name) I know you love me and I love you just as much. Just pray to Jesus whenever you need comfort, because I can't come here anymore." Then my neighbour said she simply 'faded away' just like how they show in movies.

Deeby, her mother was a very strong Christian, but my friend is an Atheist, which was the cause of much of their difficult relationship. If her mother's 'appearance' was really just demon activity, why would it have encouraged prayer to Jesus for comfort?

Why would it have to be demons?

Most of the stories I have read here are of a positive nature, bringing comfort. I don't think of demon activity as being anything but negative. As I shared in my previous post, my grandmother's visit to both my mom and myself (different times/different locations) was comforting and happy.

I don't know why that person said(assumes) that it would have to be demonic activity. I think if it were, you would feel the negative energy. The feeling in our house is not a negative feeling and this house is a very cozy home.

Lots of interesting stories! Blfenton, you have a gift--and so do some others here.

My dictionary defines "paranormal" as events "that are beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding." I would say most religions fit right into that definition. In Christianity, for example, the virgin birth, the event celebrated at Easter, the miracles attributed to the saints--all these things certainly exceed the scope of normal scientific understanding. They are taken on faith.

As for the "science is fact" argument, Sylvia made the excellent point that science doesn't have all the facts yet. She mentioned bacteria, and I immediately thought of Ignaz Semmelweis. Before Dr. Semmelweis discovered that hand-washing could reduce the number of women dying in his hospital from childbed fever, doctors were going from bed to bed, examining patients and transferring germs from one to another, killing many of them.

The medical community reacted to Semmelweis' research with anger and derision. His findings weren't accepted until many years after his death. That's how science is sometimes.

Alice and Snidely, do you really think we know everything at this point?

I can state that I believe in reincarnation--not because I find the idea comforting (would you want to be born in Liberia right now? Syria?), but because "there is considerable historical and clinical evidence that reincarnation is a reality." That quote is from Brian Weiss, MD, educated at Columbia University and the Yale University School of Medicine, where he was the chief resident in psychiatry.

I've been reading about reincarnation since I was a teenager. In India, where the concept is accepted, there have been many documented cases of very young children remembering their past lives and recent past families. Often they have been reunited with them.

Nicole, your sister experienced automatic writing. The well-known journalist Adela Rogers St. Johns discovered that her son could communicate with her in this manner after he was killed in a war. Her book about it is entitled No Good-Byes. And remember Albert Payson Terhune, who wrote the "Lad of Sunnybank" stories? After he died he contacted his wife through automatic writing. She wrote a lovely little book about it called Across the Line.

I have had many dream visits from those who have passed on. Dream visits are easily differentiated from regular dreams in which the deceased appear. Two of the visits were from pets. In one, Holly came to me to say goodbye when she died during the night. I was in Florida, and she was home in Pennsylvania. She appeared unexpectedly in my dream, and I was startled to see her. I knew as soon as I woke up that she must have died. She had.

The other concerned my collie-shepherd, Caroline. Thanks to a hunter who shouldn't have been on my property in the first place, Caroline lived for years with three legs. She was a big dog, and eventually arthritis set in big time. Our vet tried several kinds of meds.

One night she appeared in a dream, running through a silvery brook on four legs, splashing happily. She said to me, "I have come through the fire. My days of suffering are over." In the morning I discovered she had died.

So when I tell grieving pet owners I have no doubt they will see their beloved animals again, I mean it.

For those of you who believe in things that are really only imaginary, do your kids a favor and don't pass on those feelings to them.

Snidely, you go too far when you start dictating to us what we should or shouldn't tell our children. Our children. Not yours.

deeby, as a Christian, I have to say, why would there be a Holy Spirit, but no other spirit? And, I think God only shows us a very tiny fraction of what Heaven is like. Yes, Heaven is here on earth, but not in the same colors, beauty, etc. So what does Heaven really look like? It could incorporate spirit forms. It does say we get a new glorified body. Why not in energy form? I know all the near death experiences I've heard entail people being freed from the bonds of a corporeal existence and dread coming back to the "weight" of a body. That includes experiences from people who come back more founded and seem to want to live like Jesus lived, as selfless as possible, and tell everyone about Heaven and He-double you know whats.

alisande, I'm not sure if I'm amused or shocked by the discussions of "demons and ghosts" in this thread. If I have to pick one, I'll say I'm shocked.

Of course not everything is known. Knowledge advances when things are discovered, proven, and replicated by others. That a notion hasn't been disproven, doesn't mean it has credibility or likelihood. Many things are possible but still highly unlikely. That's the case with much of what's discussed in this thread.

Facts and faith-based beliefs are unrelated, don't confuse them. They're sometimes contradictory, but that doesn't change what's true vs what's an unsupported human belief. See the link for what a "fact" is. Believe whatever you want.

Everyone is of course free to pass along to youngsters whatever they wish. But encouraging or passing on irrational superstitions isn't going to help them succeed in the world, it's far more likely to do the opposite. Is it worth the risk?

PS - Your Dr Weiss isn't an authority. He's a huckster-entertainer - daytime TV guest-type person, not a medical researcher. Everyone should know the difference.

PPS - I know the Semmelweis story. Until the 20th century, medical practice was half enlightened, half useless magical medieval sorcery. Read "Demon Under The Microscope" for a good narrative of how knowledge of infection vectors and ultimately antibiotics developed.

Here is a link that might be useful: An explanation of what IS a fact

Encouraging children to keep their minds open to the possibilities that there's more to life, the universe, & everything than we already know, as opposed to refusing to 'believe' anything other than what has been proven to the satisfaction of scientists, is not what I'd call "passing on irrational superstitions".

Curious, open-minded, exploring children grow up to be the theorists, scientists, & researchers who find 'new' knowledge.

But encouraging or passing on irrational superstitions isn't going to help them succeed in the world, it's far more likely to do the opposite. Is it worth the risk?

Snidely, since nothing of a spiritual nature has been proven by science (or verified as "fact," according to the Wikipedia definition you linked), by this reasoning all established religions can be classified as "irrational superstitions." So I guess you're suggesting we raise our children to be atheists. Sad.

I've had the thought that religion & science are more about questions than answers.

As we find answers, we think of more questions.

As Alisande said, when doctors *knew* that they knew how to deliver babies, & yet so many of the mothers died, somebody, some questioning soul, came up with the bright idea of handwashing.

which saved women & babies & opened the door to more questions, to the study of bacteria & to the use of sanitary & sterilizing techniques in many other areas-medical, food preparation, laundry, etc.

"So I guess you're suggesting we raise our children to be atheists"

I didn't say or imply that.

What I did say was that in my opinion (and what I say is my opinion, everyone is welcome to have their own and either agree or disagree), facts (whether scientific, historic, or otherwise) and faith-based beliefs are unrelated. Don't confuse them or try to bring one in on a discussion of the other, it doesn't work.

I'm not shocked, but enjoy the comments.

BUT SLOW DOWN HERE!!

Y'all have been not abiding by GW philosophy...................
"Please avoid topics like politics and religion where opinions vary widely and feelings can be strong."

If you've been participating or contributing such, DROP IT!