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Experiences that shook your beliefs (Originally most "haunted" cali thread)
- Thread starter Soul Power
- Start date
Well, I doubt it is original to me, though as I recall I came up with it independently.
"I don't know" is a good place to be. Too many people are afraid to say it, so they let their superstitions run away with them. Keep saying, "I don't know" until you know. You probably never will, though.
I have, several times over, been paralyzed from fear, but I cannot think after looking back that "ghosts, ghouls, etc." is the only answer.
Several of my friends are very outdoors-y and we frequently camp, fish, canoe, rock climb, etc. and I have more than once been creeped out on a camping trip. Most of them wholeheartedly believe in Bigfoot, so that's usually the way most of the accounts end. I don't feel the same way, as many of the events have been weirder than that.
Once, hiking, he walked under a street lamp that cut off the second we were under it. We asked the ranger the next day about the light, and it wasn't one that had any sort of "on/off" switch. The bulb hadn't shot either. The only explanation that us, or the ranger, could come up with was that one of our lights or reflective tape tripped its sensor.
Other times, we've heard god-awful animal calls and what has sounded like brutal killings and feedings. Those things occur pretty frequently in areas infested with predator cats/bears/boars though, so those have a pretty likely culprit.
Several of my friends are very outdoors-y and we frequently camp, fish, canoe, rock climb, etc. and I have more than once been creeped out on a camping trip. Most of them wholeheartedly believe in Bigfoot, so that's usually the way most of the accounts end. I don't feel the same way, as many of the events have been weirder than that.
Once, hiking, he walked under a street lamp that cut off the second we were under it. We asked the ranger the next day about the light, and it wasn't one that had any sort of "on/off" switch. The bulb hadn't shot either. The only explanation that us, or the ranger, could come up with was that one of our lights or reflective tape tripped its sensor.
Other times, we've heard god-awful animal calls and what has sounded like brutal killings and feedings. Those things occur pretty frequently in areas infested with predator cats/bears/boars though, so those have a pretty likely culprit.
At my grandma's place in Mexico, we've heard weird voices in the kitchen at night, a shadow is often seen walking around the house and it suddenly disappears, felt someone sitting right next to you when we are sleeping, and there is a weird noise in one of the bedrooms under the bed to be precise (where the shadow is seen the most) I can assure you that I have experienced all of it, and I'm still skeptical about ghosts and paranormal stuff, but those experiences sure make you question a lot of things.
No explanation and no opinion either way, but here it is.
The original part of our house is close to 100 years old and was originally built behind an iron foundry as a pattern shop on the ground floor and an office on the upper floor. It's cut in to the side of a hill with the ground floor opening to the front and the top floor opening on to a patio. The original building had no inside stair to connect the bottom and top floors. It was converted to 2 apartments back in the late 50's when the foundry burned down, then later converted into a single home when an addition which basically doubled the living space (and added an inside staircase), was built about 20 years ago. All traces of the old foundry are long gone, leaving a nice front yard and a buffer of trees which sets the house well off the road and out of sight from anyone passing by.
Wifey is convinced we have a ghost. She says this ghost has come in and sat on the end of the bed a few times when I was out late and she was in bed alone. She's also found the front door open just a crack when she knows it was closed and locked. She also says things are always being moved on her desk in the office behind the kitchen.
I've never seen anything like that, but I have seen other things.
We leave the light on in the bathroom down the hall from our bedroom so there is always some light coming through the open bedroom door. On more than a few occasions I've been laying in bed and have seen shadows that look exactly like the shadows created when wifey is coming back from the bathroom. Since I've always seen this while laying in bed I've allowed it could just be some very vivid dreams. If that was all I'd seen I'd never mention it, but there's more.
I was in the kitchen one day gathering some empty pill bottles I needed to take and get refilled. I put them on the counter, turned and took a step to my left to open the fridge and get a bottle of water to take with me when I left the house. I never heard a thing, but when I turned back to the counter, all the empty bottles were knocked over and scattered down the length of the counter.
I was working on the back porch building wifey a potting bench. I took a break for lunch and went in the upstairs bathroom to wash my hands before going downstairs to fix me a bite. When I was done I went back upstairs and decided to hit the head before I got started back. When I walked in the bathroom, the bar of soap I'd used not 20 minutes before and returned to the soap dish, was not just in the bottom of the sink, but an attempt had been made to force it into the drain.
Our daily routine is to get up, do a little workout together, then while wifey gets showered and ready for work I make breakfast. I work at home so after we have breakfast and she leaves for work, I clean up the kitchen, make the bed, then get a shower, dress, and head to the shop or office to start my work day. One morning I get out of the shower and when I walk into the bedroom, the bed I just made is now covered with clothes pulled from hangers in the closet and strewn all over the bed.
This only happens in the old part of the house and only when one of us is home alone.
Local lore says the original owner hanged himself in the upstairs shop when he lost everything during the great depression in the 30's.
The original part of our house is close to 100 years old and was originally built behind an iron foundry as a pattern shop on the ground floor and an office on the upper floor. It's cut in to the side of a hill with the ground floor opening to the front and the top floor opening on to a patio. The original building had no inside stair to connect the bottom and top floors. It was converted to 2 apartments back in the late 50's when the foundry burned down, then later converted into a single home when an addition which basically doubled the living space (and added an inside staircase), was built about 20 years ago. All traces of the old foundry are long gone, leaving a nice front yard and a buffer of trees which sets the house well off the road and out of sight from anyone passing by.
Wifey is convinced we have a ghost. She says this ghost has come in and sat on the end of the bed a few times when I was out late and she was in bed alone. She's also found the front door open just a crack when she knows it was closed and locked. She also says things are always being moved on her desk in the office behind the kitchen.
I've never seen anything like that, but I have seen other things.
We leave the light on in the bathroom down the hall from our bedroom so there is always some light coming through the open bedroom door. On more than a few occasions I've been laying in bed and have seen shadows that look exactly like the shadows created when wifey is coming back from the bathroom. Since I've always seen this while laying in bed I've allowed it could just be some very vivid dreams. If that was all I'd seen I'd never mention it, but there's more.
I was in the kitchen one day gathering some empty pill bottles I needed to take and get refilled. I put them on the counter, turned and took a step to my left to open the fridge and get a bottle of water to take with me when I left the house. I never heard a thing, but when I turned back to the counter, all the empty bottles were knocked over and scattered down the length of the counter.
I was working on the back porch building wifey a potting bench. I took a break for lunch and went in the upstairs bathroom to wash my hands before going downstairs to fix me a bite. When I was done I went back upstairs and decided to hit the head before I got started back. When I walked in the bathroom, the bar of soap I'd used not 20 minutes before and returned to the soap dish, was not just in the bottom of the sink, but an attempt had been made to force it into the drain.
Our daily routine is to get up, do a little workout together, then while wifey gets showered and ready for work I make breakfast. I work at home so after we have breakfast and she leaves for work, I clean up the kitchen, make the bed, then get a shower, dress, and head to the shop or office to start my work day. One morning I get out of the shower and when I walk into the bedroom, the bed I just made is now covered with clothes pulled from hangers in the closet and strewn all over the bed.
This only happens in the old part of the house and only when one of us is home alone.
Local lore says the original owner hanged himself in the upstairs shop when he lost everything during the great depression in the 30's.
Could anything be more haunted than a reform school?
Worse than them abandoned nuthouses, prolly.
Uh, yeah-that qualifies as a poltergeist and it is intentionally active which shows it makes choices which you can surmise is then an intelligence of some sort. Try and get a cheapie video cam going and capture any activity.
Stuff like this happens. Frequently it at some point escalates as I told about in my post on page 1 of this thread.
It IS weird. It DOES happen. There IS some sort of intelligence behind it when it behaves in a current fashion and not a looped residual re-play of past events. I do NOT immediately assign a religious description to it, although I do notice that all cultures usually "repel" such paranormal actions via their particular brand of religious counter-measures and often with good success when other methods fail. For that, I also have no explanation. Sometimes I think that since a religious belief can strengthen somebody's "will" in the face of unknown fear, they can "over-will" the entity that is causing the scary actions. Seems that it happens, so make of it what you will. I have no answers and as another guy said once:
"I don't really believe in ghosts, but I have been afraid of them all my life."
Lights that come on via sensor do that all the time. Ive had streetlights turn off the second Ive walked under them, but never considered it to be anything paranormal.
For the record, I live at the foot of Turnbull Canyon in Ca (look it up), it suspposedly one of the most haunted places around. Legend has it that its the site of many Satanic rituals and more than a few murders. The last known murder to occur up there was last spring. A woman's body was dumped there, and found about a week later, missing an arm. Ive not witnessed anything too scary up there, though I did once find a mech sack full of chicken bones.
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While I do believe in ghost's I've never seen one myself. Did have one occasion where an empty, large rectangular box tilted back and forth on it's own in my basement. Once heard footsteps walking across my kitchen floor. These were heavy steps, too. I live alone, too.
Funny thing is, my house isn't that old. I'm the third owner, the house was built in 1978 and nothing out of the ordinary ever happened here.
Funny thing is, my house isn't that old. I'm the third owner, the house was built in 1978 and nothing out of the ordinary ever happened here.
I used to manage retail stores. Had one very old store that folks always said was haunted. Weird stuff happened- lights turned on that were off, doors slammed shut, power surges, things falling for no reason-all things I rationalized as normal.
One morning I was opening up just before dawn. There was a shopping cart behind a display. It was stuck up on one of the shelves with no chance of rolling off without some force being applied. I noticed it because I thought that somebody must have really shoved it hard to get it up there. I was also confused as to how none of the product fell from the shelves when the cart was shoved.
I was up at the front of the store counting the safe when out of the corner of my eye I saw something move. I looked up to see a shopping cart very slowly rolling down the aisle. I ran to the center aisle where the cart was rolling just in time to see it smash at full tilt into the wall at the other end of the store. There was no downward slope or any reason the cart would have rolled and picked up speed. Also, the middle aisle the cart went down had lots of displays and things in the way that had to be steered around to get down to the end of the store. I turned around to see that it was indeed the cart that was stuck on the shelf down at the other end. I know there was nobody else in the building because I had the only key and the alarm was on.
I went to the front and stayed by the windows until the sun came up and my assistant showed up. I got the chills just typing this post.....
One morning I was opening up just before dawn. There was a shopping cart behind a display. It was stuck up on one of the shelves with no chance of rolling off without some force being applied. I noticed it because I thought that somebody must have really shoved it hard to get it up there. I was also confused as to how none of the product fell from the shelves when the cart was shoved.
I was up at the front of the store counting the safe when out of the corner of my eye I saw something move. I looked up to see a shopping cart very slowly rolling down the aisle. I ran to the center aisle where the cart was rolling just in time to see it smash at full tilt into the wall at the other end of the store. There was no downward slope or any reason the cart would have rolled and picked up speed. Also, the middle aisle the cart went down had lots of displays and things in the way that had to be steered around to get down to the end of the store. I turned around to see that it was indeed the cart that was stuck on the shelf down at the other end. I know there was nobody else in the building because I had the only key and the alarm was on.
I went to the front and stayed by the windows until the sun came up and my assistant showed up. I got the chills just typing this post.....
I'll play.
I bought my first house from friends - my old drummer and his wife. It was a century+ old Victorian in South City, St. Louis. Ted (my old drummer) told me a few tales of having their stereo come on spontaneously - being in this house automatically makes you think about the possibility that it could be haunted.
Anyhow - long story short, they wanted to sell, I liked the place with it's hardwoods, three floors and fireplace. I took possession in March and even though I had no furniture and the power had not yet been turned on, I wanted to spend the night in my own new house. So I grabbed my futon, my black lab and we went to camp out in the living room by the fireplace. Again - house COMPLETELY empty.
Somewhere around midnight we were both startled awake by what sounded like a bowling ball falling from a high shelf and rolling across the third floor! It was LOUD! My dog was freaked - I was freaked - I grabbed a fireplace poker and a flashlight and stared to head upstairs - classic horror film no no, right? LOL
I kept encouraging my dog to go first - she wouldn't have anything to do with it! I finally 'cleared' every room - every closet - NOTHING. There was nothing to be found that could have made such a sound - but man, we both sure heard it.
Flash forward a few years - I got married - my wife's dad dies - we're living in that same house sleeping in our bedroom on the third floor (the same room where I swore I heard the bowling ball fall and roll) - and in the middle of the night an antique music box my wife's dad gave her that had been dormant for years starts chiming away as if it had a fully loaded spring. We both woke up disoriented - realized it was the music box and just then it stopped playing. We were both pretty freaked out. That thing had been moved from her parents house, up to school with her, then to her apartment and finally to our place - never made a peep.
I got up to check it out. When it went off and woke us, it was playing full tilt - like someone wound it and let it go - then it stopped dead - didn't wind down - just stopped. So I picked it up figuring if I shook it, it would probably start up again - nothing. I gave the winder a little twist and let it go and got a very weak, 'plink' - but there was no stored energy in that little box.
A few months later - same damn thing. The box just stars playing like someone wound it up. Again - neither of us wound it - and when I checked it out there was no evidence that it was just 'glichy' and malfunctioning... We both chalked it up to 'weird - but...'
Both of our kids were born while we were still in that house and both of them would stare up at the same corner in the living room and smile for no apparent reason. We'd both look at them, then follow their gaze up to the corner - where it looked like they were clearly watching something - something we couldn't see - but they'd both do it - just that corner - big smiles. Neither of us are 'ghosties' but both of us couldn't help but think, "hmm.... was her dad/their Grandpa paying us a visit?"
OK - last one from that house. I had a vivid dream. I always have vivid dreams, but this one was very linear and memorable. I was with a friend who is like a brother to me. We grew up together from age 10, went to school together, had our first bands, lived together, the whole 9... this is years later and he had moved to Austin, TX. - and that's where I thought my dream was taking place - because I was riding around with him down near some high bridges and overpasses.
He hopped out of the car and went running up the stairs of a bridge that was 8 stories high. He was way ahead of me up the stairs and I looked up to see him sliding down the railings like a skateboarder grinding rails. Just as I was about to say, "Don! Stop it! You're going to..." he fell... I watched him fall 6 stories down to the road below where he lay twitching. I remember vividly running down the stairs thinking "Man... he's messed up! I can't believe that fall didn't kill him!"
That was the dream. Well, it turns out that my friend had moved back to St. Louis some time ago but wasn't getting in touch with anyone because he was battling depression and addiction living with his parents. When he finally felt OK enough to get back in touch it was about a month or so after the dream I had. He and I were having lunch catching up and he started telling me about his depression. He said, "Yeah... about a month ago I went to the new bridge they're building downtown and climbed up the stairs underneath to the top flight and climbed onto the railing and was going to jump. The only reason I didn't was because I thought it might not kill me..."
Now the first few 'ghost stories' I can write off to a lot of things... that one really stopped me cold.
I bought my first house from friends - my old drummer and his wife. It was a century+ old Victorian in South City, St. Louis. Ted (my old drummer) told me a few tales of having their stereo come on spontaneously - being in this house automatically makes you think about the possibility that it could be haunted.
Anyhow - long story short, they wanted to sell, I liked the place with it's hardwoods, three floors and fireplace. I took possession in March and even though I had no furniture and the power had not yet been turned on, I wanted to spend the night in my own new house. So I grabbed my futon, my black lab and we went to camp out in the living room by the fireplace. Again - house COMPLETELY empty.
Somewhere around midnight we were both startled awake by what sounded like a bowling ball falling from a high shelf and rolling across the third floor! It was LOUD! My dog was freaked - I was freaked - I grabbed a fireplace poker and a flashlight and stared to head upstairs - classic horror film no no, right? LOL
I kept encouraging my dog to go first - she wouldn't have anything to do with it! I finally 'cleared' every room - every closet - NOTHING. There was nothing to be found that could have made such a sound - but man, we both sure heard it.
Flash forward a few years - I got married - my wife's dad dies - we're living in that same house sleeping in our bedroom on the third floor (the same room where I swore I heard the bowling ball fall and roll) - and in the middle of the night an antique music box my wife's dad gave her that had been dormant for years starts chiming away as if it had a fully loaded spring. We both woke up disoriented - realized it was the music box and just then it stopped playing. We were both pretty freaked out. That thing had been moved from her parents house, up to school with her, then to her apartment and finally to our place - never made a peep.
I got up to check it out. When it went off and woke us, it was playing full tilt - like someone wound it and let it go - then it stopped dead - didn't wind down - just stopped. So I picked it up figuring if I shook it, it would probably start up again - nothing. I gave the winder a little twist and let it go and got a very weak, 'plink' - but there was no stored energy in that little box.
A few months later - same damn thing. The box just stars playing like someone wound it up. Again - neither of us wound it - and when I checked it out there was no evidence that it was just 'glichy' and malfunctioning... We both chalked it up to 'weird - but...'
Both of our kids were born while we were still in that house and both of them would stare up at the same corner in the living room and smile for no apparent reason. We'd both look at them, then follow their gaze up to the corner - where it looked like they were clearly watching something - something we couldn't see - but they'd both do it - just that corner - big smiles. Neither of us are 'ghosties' but both of us couldn't help but think, "hmm.... was her dad/their Grandpa paying us a visit?"
OK - last one from that house. I had a vivid dream. I always have vivid dreams, but this one was very linear and memorable. I was with a friend who is like a brother to me. We grew up together from age 10, went to school together, had our first bands, lived together, the whole 9... this is years later and he had moved to Austin, TX. - and that's where I thought my dream was taking place - because I was riding around with him down near some high bridges and overpasses.
He hopped out of the car and went running up the stairs of a bridge that was 8 stories high. He was way ahead of me up the stairs and I looked up to see him sliding down the railings like a skateboarder grinding rails. Just as I was about to say, "Don! Stop it! You're going to..." he fell... I watched him fall 6 stories down to the road below where he lay twitching. I remember vividly running down the stairs thinking "Man... he's messed up! I can't believe that fall didn't kill him!"
That was the dream. Well, it turns out that my friend had moved back to St. Louis some time ago but wasn't getting in touch with anyone because he was battling depression and addiction living with his parents. When he finally felt OK enough to get back in touch it was about a month or so after the dream I had. He and I were having lunch catching up and he started telling me about his depression. He said, "Yeah... about a month ago I went to the new bridge they're building downtown and climbed up the stairs underneath to the top flight and climbed onto the railing and was going to jump. The only reason I didn't was because I thought it might not kill me..."
Now the first few 'ghost stories' I can write off to a lot of things... that one really stopped me cold.
I have heard tons of stories that cant be explained. I havent really experienced anything other then one night a few weeks ago I was riding in the truck with my dad. We were heading home and going through some town, I forgot where we were coming from, but anyways. We were stopped at an intersection and out of the corner of my eye I saw a figure across the road on a street corner, it was a figure of an old man walking very slowly with a cane. He was a foggy sort of white, just his entire figure was, and he turned to look at me and thats when I glanced over and he disappeared, just like that. It freaked me out a little.
I got one that ill share later.
I got one that ill share later.
There's 2 places that come to mind that I would like to visit.
Waverly Hills Sanatorium in America, look it up. And Crowley Hall in England. Both places have seen their share of death and are supposedly haunted. I don't believe it until I see, feel or hear it myself, but those two places give me the creeps just watching them from my computer screen with Youtube on.
But I live in Belgium and Belgium isn't haunted by ghosts, it's haunted by senile laws and delirium tremens, all governed by absurd politics. Yes, I live in the land of chocolate!
Waverly Hills Sanatorium in America, look it up. And Crowley Hall in England. Both places have seen their share of death and are supposedly haunted. I don't believe it until I see, feel or hear it myself, but those two places give me the creeps just watching them from my computer screen with Youtube on.
But I live in Belgium and Belgium isn't haunted by ghosts, it's haunted by senile laws and delirium tremens, all governed by absurd politics. Yes, I live in the land of chocolate!
