Experiences that shook your beliefs (Originally most "haunted" cali thread)

[Soul Power]

I have always had a serious interest in the paranormal, as I'm sure many people here do, but not a single TV show on the subject is believable in any way to me (of course). I have had an experience that is not scientifically provable (but it is COMPLETELY unrelated to ghosts...but was some form of psychic experience) but I KNOW it happened and it has left me in a very...."I don't know" state of mind when it comes to things such as religion and the metaphysical.

Bottom line is I want to go to one or several locations that are supposedly "haunted" and find out for myself, on my own, because really....I just want to know. creaks and unexplained bangs, and the feelings that I have within places that are old are not enough to convince me....
Anyone know of some locations?

[kesslari]

There's a place in Ventura - it used to be called Andy's BBQ Heaven. No idea what it is now. Definitely haunted.

Also there's a town called Summerland - just south of Santa Barbara. It was created as a Spiritualist town - seances and such, in the late 1800's. The Big Yellow House - restaurant now, whorehouse at one time, Spiritualist house before that. Also quite haunted.

[MakiSupaStar]

There used to be a cemetery in El Toro, but it's gone now. It had old style grave stones. Kids used to party there. Actually it was where I got laid for the first time. (hopefully, that wasn't some creepy goth ghost). Apparently it was haunted and people would see all kinds of weird stuff there. I didn't grow up in that area, and only had the stories the kids told me to go on.

But around by where I live, there is really only one story I know of. My mother used to be the attendance clerk at a local school here. There was a family that had a child with a lot of absences. My mom called and inquired about it, and the father quite frankly said that they haven't been getting a lot of sleep because of a poltergeist. My mom kind of laughed it off. The family tried moving to a different house, but somewhere in the move, the mother went back to the house to get a few things they left behind. Apparently, she confronted the spirit (or so the story goes) as she was found dead of a sudden heart attack that evening when she didn't report home to the new house. I've often picked my moms brain for an address or even the neighborhood, but she's long since retired from that job. Around the same time, a local radio station caught wind of the story and did a Halloween show from the house, and it didn't go well because of disruptive activity. I was only 9 or 10 at the time.

[Jay Ralston]

The haunted house at Disneyland is haunted. I've also heard that so is Pirates of the Caribbean.

[duff beer]

There is no such thing as a haunted house, although there are many people that believe otherwise. So far, no one has claimed Randi's $1,000,000.00:

Challenge Info

[Papa Dangerous]

Shadowlands Haunted Places Index - California

That is my go to site if I wanted to search haunted places here in NY. I think it has a list for all the states. Idk though, I never searched the site really.

[Soul Power]

Originally Posted by duff beer

There is no such thing as a haunted house, although there are many people that believe otherwise. So far, no one has claimed Randi's $1,000,000.00:

Challenge Info

No offense but that really doesn't mean much to me, considering the experience I had (although completely unrelated to ghosts). I didn't happen to have a camera with me at the time and even if I did it wouldn't prove anything, but I know it happened and so does the woman involved.

[Jay Ralston]

Originally Posted by Soul Power

No offense but that really doesn't mean much to me, considering the experience I had (although completely unrelated to ghosts). I didn't happen to have a camera with me at the time and even if I did it wouldn't prove anything, but I know it happened and so does the woman involved.

Hey Soul Power,

Would you mind pm'ing me what happened. I am curious to know your story.

[rr5025]

Originally Posted by Jay Ralston

Hey Soul Power,

Would you mind pm'ing me what happened. I am curious to know your story.

Screw that. Post it in a thread. I think a thread of tales would make excellent reading (though I think we've had one at some point).

[MakiSupaStar]

Originally Posted by rr5025

Screw that. Post it in a thread. I think a thread of tales would make excellent reading (though I think we've had one at some point).

+1.

[Bongolation]

Originally Posted by Soul Power

No offense but that really doesn't mean much to me, considering the experience I had (although completely unrelated to ghosts). I didn't happen to have a camera with me at the time and even if I did it wouldn't prove anything, but I know it happened and so does the woman involved.

You should learn to be more critical of your experiences.

As I mentioned some months ago, I experienced what under other circumstances would have been an utterly terrifying and completely convincing apparition, a human-sized "ghost" walking diagonally across the middle of my bedroom.

I have absolutely no feasible explanation of how it was produced, but I do know what it was: My neighbor walking past my window, caught in some very unusual combination of reflection and projection through a hole in a blind within my room.

If I hadn't heard him walking past and obviously producing this very peculiar illusion, I would have been scared shirtless, and forever convinced that something was indeed, "walking in my home."

I'm sure such uncommon and impressive events are responsible for the really convincing "ghosts" people see.

[Papa Dangerous]

I believe as much as I am skeptical. Every time I catch something out of the corner of my eye. I pause and look at my glasses lens to notice any blotches. I try to keep my head still and try and move my head in the same fashion I just did, and notice the items in the corner of my eye. I try to take color, shape, and details into consideration and try and make sense of what is that I think I am seeing. I will always believe a story if someone tells it adamantly, but I am not going to assume it was real at the same expense due to possible misconceptions.

SO with that said... Let's hear some stories!

[Bongolation]

Originally Posted by Papa Dangerous

I believe as much as I am skeptical. Every time I catch something out of the corner of my eye. I pause and look at my glasses lens to notice any blotches. I try to keep my head still and try and move my head in the same fashion I just did, and notice the items in the corner of my eye.

You'll drive yourself as crazy as Swedenborg doing this.

Odd you should mention this, but when I was prescribed some "safe and effective" [*NOT!*] Ambien, one of the many scary things about it was not only that it put me in a near-psychotic state, but seemed to create a constant flurry of creepy movement and images on the very periphery of my vision.

A week of that crap and I'd be in the nuthouse for keeps.

I will always believe a story if someone tells it adamantly, but I am not going to assume it was real at the same expense due to possible misconceptions.

Wait, so...if I yell loud enough, you'll believe me?

[kesslari]

Originally Posted by Bongolation

Wait, so...if I yell loud enough, you'll believe me?

Isn't that how the internet works?


+1 on Ambien being scary stuff.

On ghost stories - they are fun, and they are interesting, and as to their absolute veracity - we believe a lot of things we can't prove. I can't prove that you're not a bot, but I'm willing to suspend disbelief and have this conversation with you.

[MEKer]

Weirdness-----never happens--OK-here's a never-happened thing that happened in Findlay, Ohio, 1967

Facts are:
I was living at home, senior in High School. My sister, Linda (with roommate-Judy), was living in the upstairs portion of an upstairs/downstairs duplex on an alley on 216 ½ Larkin St. You had to walk up the exterior stairs on the side of the house and enter through the kitchen. Linda’s bedroom was straight ahead thru the kitchen. If you went to the right you entered the living room and then Judy’s bedroom. If you went left you’d enter some smaller room.

Linda gave me a key to their apartment so I could stop in on my way home from high school if I wanted to, as it is a long walk from Findlay High to Hancock St. where I lived with our family. But I only occasionally stopped in her apartment and both Linda and Judy were at always at work, so I was alone and rarely stayed more than a few minutes.

One evening, I think in late September, Linda called me and accused me of messing up her apartment. I did no such thing. After that initial call, she called me periodically, accusing me of moving things around, taking food out of the refrigerator and leaving it on the counters, throwing things on the floor. Each time the damage or disarray seemed to get worse and she threatened to take the key back.
After a good month of this, came the day it came to a head. I stopped by her place on the way home from school---it was Friday. My friend, Gary, was with me. We climbed the stairs on the outside of the house and could see some guy in his kitchen at the sink in the house across the alley. He saw us as well. We went into the apartment. Stayed a couple minutes, got bored and left. The guy was no longer in his kitchen and so did not see us leave. Linda called me when she got home from work, accused me of malicious damage and demanded the key back. She said the neighbor guy saw me and Gary go into the apartment. I denied we did any damage. The phone conversation ended badly, me still protesting my innocence and wondering what the...!

That night close to midnight Linda is at our door pounding and yelling to be let in. Our Dad let her in, calmed her down and asked what was happening.

She said the following and please excuse the graphic-ness:

She came home to find feminine napkins scattered all over the house, ketchup on them, and other things thrown all over. She was furious, at some point asked the neighbor guy if he saw anyone (he ID’d me and my buddy as being there earlier). She called me and we argued. By the way, roommate Judy was gone for the evening with her boyfriend.
After cleaning up, Linda finally went to bed about 11:30’ish I guess.
She had “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” (Simon and Garfunkel album) playing on the record player at the foot of her bed. Her door was closed.

Then the following happened:
She heard footsteps coming up the exterior stairs. She heard the locked kitchen entry door open. She called out Judy’s name a couple of time---no answer. Then the tapping of high heels crossing the linoleum floor of the kitchen to stop right outside her bedroom door. She called Judy’s name again----no answer. Linda became very scared and as the bedroom door opened slowly, she pulled the covers over her head and--according to her--froze in fear.
Linda says the “person” stood over her, she could hear faint breathing and feel it looking at her. Then it tip-tapped itself to the foot of the bed and the music ceased. It stood a moment, went back to stand beside her by her head again. And then tip-tapped out of her room, closed her door, tip-tapped across the kitchen and out the door, closing that door as well and then she heard it stepping down the staircase until it was gone.

At some point soon after, Linda screwed up her courage to run from the apartment, grabbing her purse/keys and came to our house to tell us the tale. She was freaked.
Dad had her call Judy and tell her to not go home.

The next day, me, Dad and Linda went to her apartment and met the house owner in the front yard. Linda told him what happened and he admitted that he knew this stuff happened in that apartment (never the downstairs half) to every renter he had had in the apartment, but could not tell prospective renters or he’d never be able to rent the place. Dad demanded she move out that day and that the owner give Linda and Judy their pro-rated rent money back. He instantly agreed and he profusely apologized. Judy had showed up also by the way, as arranged.
We moved their belongings out of there that day and stored it in Dad’s garage and the girls stayed with us for a bit until they found a new place. Also, weird as heck, is that there was never any more music on that album--I mean it was no more than a white noise disc from then on. I don't know----you tell me.

BTW: Years later, Linda’s fiancé at the time and her husband for the last 40 yrs, Ed, told me he had actually seen a woman walk across the bedroom doorway when he was laying down resting in the bed one day and it spooked him cuz he jumped up---and nobody there.

It looks like the thing was attached to the house, not my sister specifically. Could still be there for all I know. The poltergeist stuff started small and really got drastic. Things had to actually be moving all over the place through the air for that crap to happen. Scary indeed! Whew.

So there is the tale.
It truly, actually happened and make of it what you will.

[Quickie]

Anywhere my ex mother in law visited.

[Quickie]

Originally Posted by MEKer

Weirdness-----never happens--OK-here's a never-happened thing that happened in Findlay, Ohio, 1967

Facts are:
I was living at home, senior in High School. My sister, Linda (with roommate-Judy), was living in the upstairs portion of an upstairs/downstairs duplex on an alley on 216 ½ Larkin St. You had to walk up the exterior stairs on the side of the house and enter through the kitchen. Linda’s bedroom was straight ahead thru the kitchen. If you went to the right you entered the living room and then Judy’s bedroom. If you went left you’d enter some smaller room.

Linda gave me a key to their apartment so I could stop in on my way home from high school if I wanted to, as it is a long walk from Findlay High to Hancock St. where I lived with our family. But I only occasionally stopped in her apartment and both Linda and Judy were at always at work, so I was alone and rarely stayed more than a few minutes.

One evening, I think in late September, Linda called me and accused me of messing up her apartment. I did no such thing. After that initial call, she called me periodically, accusing me of moving things around, taking food out of the refrigerator and leaving it on the counters, throwing things on the floor. Each time the damage or disarray seemed to get worse and she threatened to take the key back.
After a good month of this, came the day it came to a head. I stopped by her place on the way home from school---it was Friday. My friend, Gary, was with me. We climbed the stairs on the outside of the house and could see some guy in his kitchen at the sink in the house across the alley. He saw us as well. We went into the apartment. Stayed a couple minutes, got bored and left. The guy was no longer in his kitchen and so did not see us leave. Linda called me when she got home from work, accused me of malicious damage and demanded the key back. She said the neighbor guy saw me and Gary go into the apartment. I denied we did any damage. The phone conversation ended badly, me still protesting my innocence and wondering what the...!

That night close to midnight Linda is at our door pounding and yelling to be let in. Our Dad let her in, calmed her down and asked what was happening.

She said the following and please excuse the graphic-ness:

She came home to find feminine napkins scattered all over the house, ketchup on them, and other things thrown all over. She was furious, at some point asked the neighbor guy if he saw anyone (he ID’d me and my buddy as being there earlier). She called me and we argued. By the way, roommate Judy was gone for the evening with her boyfriend.
After cleaning up, Linda finally went to bed about 11:30’ish I guess.
She had “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” (Simon and Garfunkel album) playing on the record player at the foot of her bed. Her door was closed.

Then the following happened:
She heard footsteps coming up the exterior stairs. She heard the locked kitchen entry door open. She called out Judy’s name a couple of time---no answer. Then the tapping of high heels crossing the linoleum floor of the kitchen to stop right outside her bedroom door. She called Judy’s name again----no answer. Linda became very scared and as the bedroom door opened slowly, she pulled the covers over her head and--according to her--froze in fear.
Linda says the “person” stood over her, she could hear faint breathing and feel it looking at her. Then it tip-tapped itself to the foot of the bed and the music ceased. It stood a moment, went back to stand beside her by her head again. And then tip-tapped out of her room, closed her door, tip-tapped across the kitchen and out the door, closing that door as well and then she heard it stepping down the staircase until it was gone.

At some point soon after, Linda screwed up her courage to run from the apartment, grabbing her purse/keys and came to our house to tell us the tale. She was freaked.
Dad had her call Judy and tell her to not go home.

The next day, me, Dad and Linda went to her apartment and met the house owner in the front yard. Linda told him what happened and he admitted that he knew this stuff happened in that apartment (never the downstairs half) to every renter he had had in the apartment, but could not tell prospective renters or he’d never be able to rent the place. Dad demanded she move out that day and that the owner give Linda and Judy their pro-rated rent money back. He instantly agreed and he profusely apologized. Judy had showed up also by the way, as arranged.
We moved their belongings out of there that day and stored it in Dad’s garage and the girls stayed with us for a bit until they found a new place. Also, weird as heck, is that there was never any more music on that album--I mean it was no more than a white noise disc from then on. I don't know----you tell me.

BTW: Years later, Linda’s fiancé at the time and her husband for the last 40 yrs, Ed, told me he had actually seen a woman walk across the bedroom doorway when he was laying down resting in the bed one day and it spooked him cuz he jumped up---and nobody there.

It looks like the thing was attached to the house, not my sister specifically. Could still be there for all I know. The poltergeist stuff started small and really got drastic. Things had to actually be moving all over the place through the air for that crap to happen. Scary indeed! Whew.

So there is the tale.
It truly, actually happened and make of it what you will.

My wife claimed she saw my late mother walk into the bedroom one night in our old house (where my mom died).

I believe her.

I believe your story.

[Muddslide]

We should remember that the word skeptical doesn't mean "One who doesn't believe." rather, it means "One who does not know, and tries to acquire knowledge and experience to find out."

I definitely believe that people are too quick to jump to ghosts or UFOs, etc. as explanations for things. IMO, all rational/natural explanations should be sought out and exhausted before we jump to the supernatural.

That said, I also definitely believe there are a lot more phenomena that happen in this world and the universe than we have even conceived of. Some may well seem "supernatural" to us, but much of this may well be phenomena that have perfectly natural explanations which we simply don't yet comprehend.

I myself have had some very odd experiences which I cannot easily categorize or explain. Though I am an agnostic and a skeptic, it doesn't mean I dismiss out of hand the possibility of such things as ghosts.

Perhaps ghosts aren't simple disembodied spirits, but are "imprints" (if you will) of physical and psychic events from the past (or future) that replay themselves in a sort of loop in time that we can't currently explain.

[Quickie]

Originally Posted by Muddslide

We should remember that the word skeptical doesn't mean "One who doesn't believe." rather, it means "One who does not know, and tries to acquire knowledge and experience to find out."

I definitely believe that people are too quick to jump to ghosts or UFOs, etc. as explanations for things. IMO, all rational/natural explanations should be sought out and exhausted before we jump to the supernatural.

That said, I also definitely believe there are a lot more phenomena that happen in this world and the universe than we have even conceived of. Some may well seem "supernatural" to us, but much of this may well be phenomena that have perfectly natural explanations which we simply don't yet comprehend.

I myself have had some very odd experiences which I cannot easily categorize or explain. Though I am an agnostic and a skeptic, it doesn't mean I dismiss out of hand the possibility of such things as ghosts.

Perhaps ghosts aren't simple disembodied spirits, but are "imprints" (if you will) of physical and psychic events from the past (or future) that replay themselves in a sort of loop in time that we can't currently explain.

Interesting theory.

[Soul Power]

I'll post my story, but it's going to be hard to understand and believe; truth is I don't know even know what to make of it even years after it occured, but here we go....
Met the first girl that I ever loved in high school, I'm not going to bother typing up all the details surrounding the relationship but at the time that this happened we were very close.
Well, I was completely sober and had been for quite a few weeks and I was sitting in my chair wasting time, when I started to feel like I did on the peak of an acid trip (people that haven't tried it won't understand what I'm talking about), but not EXACTLY like it. That sensation of lifting out of your body, or something close to it, except instead of morphing patterns and geometric visuals like on acid trip it was completely black. The only colors that I saw were similar to what you would see when you press your hands against your eyes....
The biggest similarity that the experience had with an acid trip was the complete breakdown of my sense of time, ego, personal history, my name, where I live, EVERYTHING. I didn't KNOW anything, and it felt like I was no longer on this planet. Towards the end of it I heard a voice screaming the name of the girl, nothing else. It was not my voice, and it was not a voice I could recognize, but it was a very loud scream. After the scream was over I ....Woke up? That's the best way I can describe coming out of it, and I was NOT ASLEEP, I had plenty of sleep the day before and have experienced microsleeps before and this wasn't ANYTHING like it.

After I got out of....Whatever it was, I felt an urgent need to call her, almost like I knew something had happened. I call her and she had gotten in a car accident just seconds before this experience happened.

I looked at the clock and the experience lasted only about a minute or two, maybe even less, but it felt MUCH LONGER when I was there. I have never been able to voluntarily trigger this and it's been several years since that incident. We have parted ways long since then, and are not on speaking terms. The sad part is we never really had a serious talk about it.

This experience has baffled the s*** out of me, and shaken every belief I've ever had about perception and reality. Maybe I had a psychotic breakdown and it was coincidence, maybe it was a real psychic experience, I don't know, and I will NEVER know. I'm the kind of guy that deep inside, when a person I'm close with is telling me that they've been wronged; I won't take their side. I might fake it, but I know deep down that I don't know the full story. Bottom line, I have to experience it before I believe it. And even then, I still don't know. What science tells us could be a watered down version of reality simply because it is completely beyond our capacity as human beings to comprehend for all I know.
So, naturally, because the idea of ghosts intrigues me, I'd like to have a REAL experience, and not the B******** of cold spots which can be explained by poor ventilation, or big knocks which could be pieces of lumber falling somewhere due to the age of the building, or something running in the corner of my eye. I won't believe there are ghosts until I am literally face to face with one.