BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Jul 03 - 11:51 PM

Gareth--"stomata"? Try "stigmata" instead. I love this stuff!

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Jul 03 - 11:09 PM

My brother was staying at a friend's house and awakened during the night. He went down the hall to do what he had to do, and on the way back to his room was surprised to see the profile of a man in shadow at the end of the corridor.

He mentioned it the next morning at breakfast and was told, "Oh, yeah. That's just Dad. We've all seen him. He just hangs around some nights keeping an eye on things."

The end of hall had no window, just a door to the attic. Nothing to cast a shadow such as he saw.

Dad had been dead for seven years at the time.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Gareth
Date: 20 Jul 03 - 07:39 PM

Well - I can not comment on reality, paranotmal experience or what but I relate the following so that 'Catters can make thier own decisions.

Summer 1968 My parents were out in East Africa. I was in the UK. The intention was that I would meet my father in London, ( he was scheduled to come home for a week for discussions with the FCO, befor we both flew back to Malawi. Telegram arrives at my boarding school, "Visit Cancelled".

Now nothing unusual about that.

In the mean time I develope stomata/ Sores on my wrists, ankles and stomach. Nothing painfull, a query perhaps, Doctor could find no cause.

7 days later, fly out to Malawi, am met at Airport by mother, and to my surprise taken staight to Hospital, Father is in intensive care afrter road accident. Massive wound on stomach, where he was impalled by bits of car, weeping wounds on wrists and ankeles where infections had occoured due to drip feeds being inserted under less than sterile conditions.

Father recovered, tho his health was never good subsequently.

I was not aware of the problem prior to arriving at Blantyre, some 5000 miles from London.

Co-incidence ?? Make you own choice.

Switch Now to the quiet Oxfordshire Village of "Kingston Bagpuize" in 1988. I had gone to visit my brother. Brother was a Farm Manager, his tied cottage was an agricultural Labours Cottage dating back some 300 years. OK, a pint or 5 was had at the local Inn. Chat in the bar with one or two of the locals, I was introduced as Huw's brother, and an amature historian (its safer than a Loss Adjustor), discussion ventures round to the "Swing" riots, 1820's ( Yes they did affect Oxon )

That night I had the most vivide dream, concerning a farm worker awaiting transportation to Australia, for his participation in the "Swing" revolt. Subsequent, but shallow digging demonstrated that this particular farm, or parts there off had been on the recieving end of rick burning etc.

Co-incidence ?? Make you own choice.

One or two other stories, but they will wait.

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 20 Jul 03 - 07:06 PM

Seen some, felt some, spoken to some!!

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: GUEST,Bograt
Date: 20 Jul 03 - 06:46 PM

Good thread. There is also this site which may interest some
of you.(Sorry can't do clicky things yet)

http://www.issc-taste.org/arc/dbo.cgi?set=expo&ss=1

Lets have more, please, and is there any way to train yourself
to be more receptive to phenomena?

Cheers

Bog

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Amos
Date: 20 Jul 03 - 01:10 PM

Anyone can exorcise if they have clear intent and a bit of focus.

Your Mum certainly did!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Shelley C
Date: 20 Jul 03 - 12:59 PM

My Mum told me this one that happened to her. Back in the fifties, she had just started a new job as a teacher in an old school. At the top of the building was a room known as the apple-loft where they used to store books. On her first day, the Headmistress told Mum that the apple loft was haunted. This Headmistress was a bit of a batty old lady, so Mum took it with a pinch of salt.
But when she had to go and get some books from the apple loft, she felt a very menacing presence which quite scared her. So she said out loud 'Go away, we don't want you here!' She didn't tell anyone about the experience, as she wondered if she had imagined it.
About a year later, Mum and the Headmistress were showing some visitors round the school. One of them asked 'Do you still have the ghost in the apple loft?'. The Headmistress replied 'No, that's a very strange thing. No-one has seen or felt it since Pat (my Mum) started work here'.
Did my Mum have the power of exorcism, or was it all in the mind?

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Jul 03 - 02:07 AM

Never actually, truly seen one but felt many......and caught some glimpses out of the corner of my eye. Would like to see at least one...

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Helen
Date: 20 Jul 03 - 02:00 AM

An incident about "Do ghosts like music or what?"

When I used to go to music sessions at a friend's house, just after she had moved in to that house I "noticed" one evening that there was an old couple sitting in the next room looking through the large opening into the back room where we were playing music. At first they seemed puzzled about why people were playing music in their home, but after a short time they just settled back and started enjoying themselves. They left after an hour or so. I don't see people as if they are there, but in my mind's eye, almost like a visual memory.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Jul 03 - 12:03 AM

Come to think of it, there was a fourth.

Ft. Carson, Colorado, December, 1968. About 6 of us were working very late in the Special Services theatre, making up the set for "You Can't Take It With You," which we were putting on. The building was a leftover from WW2.

It was around 2 a.m. when we heard a door close, and when we looked up there were two Military Policement standing at the front of the building watching us. At the time I was in an MP company, so I waved, but they didn't wave back. After a few minutes they left.

The next day we were talking about it and realized then that the MPs had been wearing short-sleeved summer uniforms -- and the type of brown, buckle-top combat boots that were issued long before the black ones then in use -- Korean War vintage, at least. And no one had actually seen them leave.

We didn't know then what was going on and I still don't. No fear, no nothing -- just a couple of guys standing there watching us make set....

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: LadyJean
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 11:47 PM

I was working at Animal X's, doing press releases and updating the database for Costume Con 11. It was right after my mother died, and I wasn't sleeping well, anyway. The work was keeping me sane.
Now and again, I saw a woman standing in the foyer of Animal's 1901 house. She was dressed in the style of about 1910, including a Queen Mary hat. At first I thought she was a mannequin, dressed in a costume. When the mannequin started moving, I figured I was suffering from lack of sleep, which can cause hallucinations. When someone else, who didn't know thing one about turn of the century fashions, or Queen Mary hats talked about meeting a woman in a hat with a crown and no brim, who disappeared. I figured I must have seen something. But I'm not scared of anyone who wears Queen Mary hats.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 11:33 PM

For some reason I was thinking about these things today and knew there had to be a Thread on it.

1. My grandmother was living with us when she died in the summer of 1957. The first night after she passed away my great-great aunt, who was also living with us, awoke and looked out on the brightly moonlit backyard. There was my grandmother, looking worried. "Is everything okay, Tilly?" she asked my g-g aunt. "Yes, Clara, everything's fine," replied Aunt Tilly. "Okay, then I won't be back." And she left.

2. My mother died around 2 a.m. Central time in 1981. When my brother Ted left her side to notify brother Tony and sister Martha, they were already hurrying to the room. It was 3 a.m. near Akron, Ohio, where I was living at the time, and I awakened with a jolt. My wife said, "What's wrong?" and I replied, "Mom's gone." A few minutes later the phone rang....

3. For a while in the mid-60s I made and set tombstones; my brother followed me and later, after he returned from Vietnam, dug graves. One night a couple of years ago we were talking (and drinking). He asked me, "When we made tombstones -- was there ever any time or place you were, well, afraid or anything?" "Yes," said I after some thought, "there was. The Old Jewish Cemetery on 24th Street." "Felt like you weren't wanted, didn't belong there?" "That's it exactly." "I've always wondered if anyone else felt that there."

If the past, present and future are all different sides of the same coin, if the living, the dead, and the not-yet-born all exist at the same time....

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 10:52 AM

Don't think this was a ghost, but it sure weren't normal. Many years ago, I was teaching at Hunter College in Da Bronx, New Yawk City. One bright, sunny day, As I was walking up the steps to the door of the building where I taught, the door opened, and I walked through it, without thinking until I noticed that there was no one in sight. It was an old, heavy door.. not automatic. I had opened that door countless times, and did countless times after that. But that one time, on a brilliantly sunny day, something opened the door for me.

A little late to be trying to ingratiate yourself with a teacher..

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: poetlady
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 03:10 AM

I don't really know if I believe in ghosts, but being of the Christian religion I believe in spirits, and I do believe the soul lives after the body dies. Whether visitation is allowed, how, and why seem open to speculation.

My mother told me a pretty, slightly creepy story. When I was a baby, my mother heard a voice on the monitor saying something like, "There, there, it's okay." No one was in the room and it seemed very odd to her. She told my aunt on my father's side about it. My aunt said, matter-of-factly, "That was my mother." My grandmother on my father's side died before I was born.

The Bible refers to a spiritual gift, called "discerning between spirits," which it is my theory God often equips young children with for their protection. I remember as a child, I'd be frightened of certain places for no apparent reason. One of them was my brother's basement. I would not go down there alone, and when I was there I was always uncomfortable, though I did not know why. Years later, I was told that a man had hung himself there.

Another interesting thing is there was this one room in my grandparents house I was afraid of as a child. It seems it frightened the other children too. Something unsettled about it somehow. My mother was sleeping there one night. She woke up and something had grabbed her ankle. She felt it, was sure she felt, but I don't recall she saw anything. There are graves in the yard there from many, many years ago. A child is buried beneath a tree in the yard next to the room. There are a few other members of the family who previously occupied the house buried in the yard as well, but we're not sure where they are. I didn't know about any of it, but I remember how I hated to sleep in that room.

Lastly, once in the middle of the night, my mother and grandmother were sleeping. There were sounds of things moving about in the kitchen. My mother's uncle had just died, though I cannot recall his name. Mother asked grandmother what she supposed that was. Grandmother said "Oh that's just (the name I forgot)." She seemed to think it was perfectly normal and understandable. I do believe her sister, who lived somewhere else and probably hadn't heard of the kitchen incident, reported to have seen an apparition of him, as well. It was like he was saying goodbye.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 02:25 AM

It's been my experience that they tend to look, as someone said above, vibrant and bursting with energy- I remember untroubled brows, upright posture and arms filled out and fit, for instance. Later I sometimes realize that they looked as though they were in their 30s (even when I never saw them in their 30s in 'real' life.)

What seems so odd to me is a different thing- my brother who died 3 years ago has appeared twice in pale blue denim shirt and pale blue denim jeans. I never saw him wear anything like that before. My father wears white shirts with sleeves halfway rolled up. Why? (If I were 'imagining' it, why would my mind come up with that?) My point is wondering what is going on in their lives right NOW that they dress like that? I suspect that there are a lot of surprises a-waitin' us...

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 04:15 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Justa Picker
Date: 23 Jun 01 - 09:02 PM

Thanks for the above, Helen.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Helen
Date: 23 Jun 01 - 08:56 PM

Mrrzy,

Sometimes, if they have found themselves, by which I mean, found a harmonious balance within themselves, they come back in their happiest, healthiest state. Sometimes, a person comes back and visits when they are feeling sad and haven't come to terms with problems that they had in their lives and they tend to be fixed into that time of their life that troubles them. If they can then come to terms with that problem then they can revert to the happy healthy state.

That happened with my paternal grandmother. When I first saw her I was really worried because she seemed to be lost and wandering in a half-conscious state. After I meditated and contacted her and we had a long, deep and meaningful conversation I felt that she went off and reconsidered what she had been worrying so much about, and I stopped having that sense of her wandering lost in the wilderness.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Justa Picker
Date: 23 Jun 01 - 05:30 PM

Well Mrrzy,
When my grandparents "visited" me, my grandmother looked as she did to me, when I was about 6 or 7 years old, but my grandfather looked the same as he did when I saw him a couple of days before he died. The interesting thing about his appearance, was that he had sort of buzz cut with white hair stubble on his head (in life he parted his hair to the side) and he had a tan, and looked very vibrant and healthy. Neither had ever been to Florida nor had tans in their lives. My grandfather passed when I was almost 15 and my grandmother when I was 22. (I'm 47.)

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Little Hawk
Date: 23 Jun 01 - 05:22 PM

Sometimes yes, sometimes no, according to what I've heard.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Jun 01 - 05:05 PM

I still wish my Dad would come see me. Or let me see him. Wonder how he'd look - would be 57, or 76, for instance? For those of you who see, do they seem to stay the age at which they died?

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Helen
Date: 23 Jun 01 - 08:38 AM

When I lived in a house which was 100 years old (at that time - now 113) there were a few instances of weird happenings.

It was a 3 storey terrace house built on a very steep hill, with the front door level with the street, a basement floor which opened out onto the garden, and an upper floor. My room was in the basement and the other three people sharing the house had their rooms on the top floor.

Often, when no one else was home and when I was downstairs in my room, under the dining room, I would hear the front door open and close, fairly brisk footsteps along the hall, into the dining room, across that room to the door to the kitchen (built in the enclosed verandah) and across to the stove. Many times I would get up from what I was doing and go upstairs to have a chat with whoever had come home - it was a very sociable shared house at that time. When I got up into the dining room & kitchen I would find no one there, no lights on, no sign of anyone. I would have heard them either going back out the front door or going up the main stairs.

It happened quite often, and I would listen each time, after the first couple of times, to make sure that it was actually in our house and not in the adjoining house. But it was always right above my head when the footsteps sounded in the dining room, so it was unmistakeable.

So, one night I was sitting alone in the front lounge room on the street level, with the open fire going, pretty focused on my reading or studying or something. I got up and went upstairs to the loo, which meant having to go through a dark room to a closed in verandah, and around to the right into the bathroom. When I came out I switched the light off, so it was completely dark and suddenly realised that I was "face-to-face" with a very strong presence. I couldn't see anyone but I felt the presence, my hair stood on end, my heart was racing etc. I took off, without much conscious thought/volition - flight or flight response - downstairs into the lounge room with all the lights on and took a while to recover my composure.

I had not seen her but I found that I could "see" her in my mind, and describe her fairly clearly. She was wearing very drab clothes, with a straight skirt which was midway between knees and ankles in length. She was just "waiting" - that was the message I got. Waiting for what, I didn't know.

When I recovered I decided to go back up and see if I could see her, feel her presence or communicate with her, but I didn't get much response - but then again I was too agitated to be sure of anything by that stage.

Later, a very powerful and insightful psychic/spiritual counsellor told me that she thought that the young woman had committed suicide by gassing herself with the oven, due to severe depression as a result of being raped. That brisk and purposeful walk to the oven made sense in the light of that story.

After my encounter, I realised that at night I had always hung onto the light switch, and turned the corner into a more lighted area before switching the bathroom light off, but the night that I saw her I had switched the light off without thinking before leaving the bathroom and that whole area was very dark that night because everyone else was out.

I also realised that I used to reach into the light switch in the lounge room to turn it on before entering, and I sensed the presence of a young teenage boy who just used to stand near the window, over to the far left.

After I meditated and sent this female spirit lots of loving light and energy and suggested that she look around for the guide who was waiting to show her to the light, her presence stopped being obvious around the house, and I felt very strongly that she had moved on.

Another time I went out to a man's place for dinner. He was a friend of my new boyfriend but I hardly knew him. He invited us to sit at a table near the back wall of the house, in another enclosed verandah (pretty common practice here in Oz, to make more room in the house). I was sitting right next to the side wall of the house, on the driveway side and as the other two were talking I kept glancing sharply to my right, at the side wall, with an impression of small quick flashes of light.

As we talked the host started to tell us about the window which used to be in that exact spot (I hadn't said anything about the flashes of light, by the way) and how, no matter what he did, the glass in the window used to keep getting broken. He would keep replacing it and it would keep shattering. He checked thoroughly for ordinary, everyday causes, such as vandalism, structural faults, etc but there was no ordinary explanation that he could find. He finally replaced the window with pieces of wood to blend with the existing wall. That is when I told him about the flashes of light.

I have always been psychic, and I use these powers as second nature, although I don't take them for granted. I use them in combination with my other deductive and logical/analytical abilities and more often than not the different perspectives agree, in an uncanny way. So, I have lots more examples but I've rambled on too much already.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 09:12 PM

Bald Eagle - Yes, I still maintain that ultimately there is no such thing as the supernatural, but that it's a matter of perspective or familiarity. If people cannot comprehend an event, then they tend to feel that maybe it is supernatural.

I regard spiritual matters, such as the existence of the soul, or spiritual healing of people, as perfectly natural, though non-material in origin (but not in effect).

Whether or not a natural thing is "susceptible to scientific enquiry" is entirely contingent on how far the science involved has advanced, and in what direction, and on what tools and methods it has at its disposal.

We can now scientifically explain many things which we couldn't in the past...such as radio waves, for example, or electricity or X-rays.

We will someday be able to explain psychic phenomena and a number of other non-material things as well, I expect.

At that point they will leave the realm of the supernatural and unknown, and will become common knowledge.

And so it goes...

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: GUEST,BigDaddy
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 08:53 PM

This all reminds me of the time William Butler Yeats asked an old Irishman whether he believed in "fairies," or not. The old man replied (not an exact quote), "Believe in 'em, aren't I plagued with 'em every day and night?" And, again, "For those who believe, no explanation is necessary, for those who do not believe, no explanation is possible." Franz Werfel, I believe. And as for me..yes...I've seen them, heard them, felt them as have my parents and others in my family. J

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Jenny S
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 11:31 AM

I have, several times, been awoken in the morning by my (dead) mother saying my name in my ear. Trouble is, I can't ever make out what she wants to tell me, or why she wants me to wake up!

Nancy, once (unknowingly) took a photo of a "spirit"(?) while we were walking in the woods. You can see the photo at: http://BardofAvalon.ifrance.com/BardofAvalon/Otherworld/SpiritofForest.html (There are some other "Otherworld Encounters there, too)

Another time, Pat & I saw an "Otherworld Castle"... During the winter months we would often visit and explore different market towns throughout West Devon and East Cornwall.

On one such excursion, as we were weaving our way through side-streets to leave the town and make our way home, we saw an old castle which we had never noticed before.

The castle was a small, ancient building atop a conical hill. Such castles are not unusual in the area. There are similar castles at Totnes, Barnstaple, and Saltash.

So we were not surprised to see such a castle, though we were surprised that we had never noticed it before - and we promised ourselves that we would return again to explore it.

However, some months later when we decided to return for another visit we found that we had forgotten where we had seen the castle. We thought initially that it had been near Torquay - at Babbacombe or St Marychurch perhaps. But when we returned there we could not find it.

So, over the next few weeks we re-visited all of the towns which we had visited just those few months before. Still we could not find the castle again.

We pored over detailed maps of the area, and visited every likely-looking feature (and discovered lots more interesting places in the meantime: but that's another story...). Still we could not find the castle which we had seen earlier.

Fifteen years have passed since then, and still we hope to find again the castle which has so tantalised us all these years.

J

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: hesperis
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 11:12 AM

He probably does. Scientific enquiry depends on the tools we use... and on the perceptions we define it with.

Scientists often aim for objectivity, without realizing that because they are already a part of the world, they are subjectively affecting that world BY trying not to be subjective.

And then you have people bending over backwards to be "objective" and merely ending up being destructive instead. True objectivity is not actually possible. And yet the scientific method is based on being "objective"?

Bah humbug.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Ringer
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 10:00 AM

If you define "natural" as susceptable to scientific enquiry, Little Hawk, do you still maintain there's no such "thing" as supernatural?

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Matt_R
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 09:58 AM

She's not possessed! She's just from outer space!

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 09:50 AM

Matt, I think your cat is possessed

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Amos
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 09:49 AM

I really love the way the mechanics of the world have preempted words like "normal" and "logical" to define only those things operating within Newtonian material bounds. The only reason a spiritual event of any sort would seem illogical is if one had a set of data in mind that didn't allow for such things to happen. Of course, then when they happen anyway it really looks "weird". Culturally this indicates to me that we suffer from very poor training in the disciplines of logic, and ontology and that we suffer from hali-gnosis (stinky methods of knowing).

A.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Matt_R
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 09:27 AM

I'm on the low end, yes, but I think my mom is somewhere in the middle. And so is our cat, I believe!

One day my Mom drove my youngest sister to school and dropped her off. When she got back, there was one thing strange going on...the door to the hutch where we keep the stereo was open, and the radio on the stereo was playing. It was CERTAINLY not on when she left, as my mom is not a big fan of music, and since it is in the living room, would have noticed if it was on before. The only one in the house? The cat.

Our cat sleeps on a wooden shelf in our laundry room, which is connected at one end to the kitchen, by a door, and connected to the garage by a door on the other end. We put her in there every night and close the door. One morning we came out to find a strange sight. The house was still completely locked up, the electric garage door opener was locked closed, the door between the garage and laundry room (which is steel plated) was locked and deadbolted, but the doorknob on the door between the kitchen & laundry room was hanging out, with the hole it fit in being cracked and splintered, like someone tried to jerk then knob off the door. And the knob doesn't even lock. The only one in there? The cat.

Also, we have an electric staple gun that we keep plugged in,in the kitchen, and use to staple school paper together. The stapler will often times go off by itself, when no one is in the room. When the computer was in the kitchen, it used to dial into the internet when no one was in the room. Even when the computer was "asleep". And I have an option on there that when an automatic dialup (for a task scheduler, e.g.) start, it requires someone to click "ok" for it to connect.

My mom has also heard a child's laugh in the house on a few occasions, in the middle of the night, when there are only 3 people in the house, my parents, and my 19-year-old sister. My mom also hears a phantom radio playing music in the middle of the night too. It's just low enough so as to not make out what the music is. Once though, it was so loud that it woke her up. She thought it was the clock/radio that had gone off, but it wasn't on...she woke up my dad, but he didn't hear anything. I CAN actually remember hearing something similar when we lived here back in 1983, and I was about 4 years old. I got so scared I got out of bed and ran to spend the rest of the night in the doorjam of my parents' bedroom.

Interestingly enough, there was an accident a few hundred feet from our house abour 3 years ago. 3 Marines coming back from lunch were killed, including a young woman Marine who was my age (22).

My mom used to have the weird dreams when we lived in the apartment in Okinawa, Japan. Weird waking dreams that seemed like reality. Dream where the bed would depress like someone was sitting on it, or a cat was jumping on it, even though there was no one there. Weird dreams of strange male voices whispering her name, or ones where one of us kids where calling to her. They continued until the 1st shipment of our belongings from America arrived, and we hung up the decorative crucifix that belonged to my Grandmother (my mom's mother), as well as the brass crucifixes that me and my sister have. I have the one from my grandfather's casket, she has the one from my grandmother's. Somehow I think when we hung them up, our grandparents were watching over us. My mom always used to call my grandmother a "watcher," who would wait at the window for hours until her children where all home....

--Matt

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: hesperis
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 04:48 AM

Yeah, glasses tend to jump away from me if I'm really angry. It's a weird feeling, because this ZING! of energy comes up my back, and then if I'm reaching for a glass, it jumps away. One time I angry, and just sitting at the table, and I felt the ZING! and my stepdad, over five feet away from me, dropped the plate he was holding. He just could not hold onto it.

But as for ghosts... I had a dream once, where I felt "frozen", I couldn't move my body at all, and was barely able to breathe. I heard someone come down the stairs, unlock the door, and start clinking around in the kitchen, and then washing up. I felt a male presence in my apartment, and was really disturbed. I knew it wasn't a "real" person, though, and that it meant no harm. I thought very strongly that I wasn't comfortable with it being there, and to please not return until I got accustomed to the idea of having a ghost around. The sensation immediately disappeared, and I was able to move again.

I never felt comfortable sleeping in the bedroom of that place, preferring the livingroom.

I later found out from a neighbor that she had felt a ghostly presence too, and she was convinced that it had scared off a burglar. The burgler had come through the top outside door, forced open the bottom outside door, and abandoned his work when the door to her apartment had been one screw away from being open.

It could have been noise from upstairs. It could easily have been noise from upstairs. But a friend of mine turned to me one day and asked if there was a ghost in that apartment, because she felt that something was there. Her boyfriend ws also there, and he was visibly nervous, before she even said anything. (He was normally fine with being in my place.)

And I noticed that people tended to be nervous in my apartment after dark, especially if they weren't true friends to me. And that people who wanted to use me in some way had a lot of trouble finding my apartment, even if I thought they were friends of mine at the time.

Has anyone else had things disappear? I am missing one of my CDs, and a book that someone lent me... which I have never read because it disappeared almost as soon as it came into the place. And the guy wants it back... I find no trace of them with any energy stuff, and they are not where I last put them. Or any reasonable place, either.

Sigh.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 03:50 AM

Years ago I remember a really wierd experience when I and my brother were kids and had just had a massive arguement. I went into the bathroom and opened the bathroom cabinet. As I opened the door of the cupboard a glass came out horizontally and then went vertically downwards full force smashing the basin below. It left a perfect round hole in the basin and the glass unbroken rolled round on the floor. Scarey stuff!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Hawker
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 02:50 AM

Hi,
I have had many'psychic experiences, some may be explained scientifically but the majority have NO logical explainaton. One of the weirdest phenomenon that both I and my husband experienced was about a year after we had removed the doorbell from our house, we were sitting watching TV it was late in the evening, too late for visitors, and the door bell rang. We both heard it, went to the door and there was no-one there. We decided it must have been on the TV. later we went to bed, shorthly after we had got into bed, the doorbell rang again, this time there was no TV to blame it on, and again there was no-one there, not even the doorbell! Weird?
I agree that some are more receptive to this kind of happening than others, but also believe that if someone or thing wants you to see/feel/sense their presence, then you will.
Sleep well!
Lucy

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 02:30 AM

Penny, I live in an old house museum. Not too many people have lived here since it was built 100 years ago so the history is fairly clear and can be tracked quite readily.

The person who preserved the collection and history of the person we commemorate here died in September a few years ago. I had got acquainted with her that last year, and she was glad I was here; she said she thought I had the same feel for the house she had. About three weeks after she died, as I passed between the dining table and the radiator there was a clear, pleasing scent that I identified as violets or as a violet-scented toilet water. After that from time to time I would check out that same spot; sometimes it would be there and sometimes it wouldn't. (I don't remember any particular scent in connection with her, but she was 84 and always impeccably dressed and made up, so cologne or perfume is almost a given.)

On that December 19th I checked it again- and suddenly it seemed like the whole room was full of piney boughs. I decided it was time to decorate for Christmas!

There were/are lots of other odors in this house- sometimes an oven heating or cookies baking, or a tomato-y dish that seems to be ready to eat. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for their occurrence and I'm not the only one who smells them.

There are no other houses near by.

This, of course, is not the only phenomenon here- it's a great house, and I love it.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 01:41 AM

WARNING: SKEPTICS BEWARE!

I've got a couple of minor ghost stories, but don't feel like typing them out tonight.

One thing I will say, though...there is no such thing as the supernatural, because everything is natural. Some things (like ghosts) are not so generally accepted in this cultural framework, that's all, which is not to say that they are unnatural...they're just unexpected. When people see a natural event that they did not think was possible, they call it supernatural.

This is precisely the way some tribal people reacted to their first encounter with, say, gunpowder or electric lights, radio or television, and even 2 dimensional pictures (which some of them could not see at first, just as most dogs and cats cannot see what's on the TV and recognize it although they do recognize the sounds!). We are not very familiar with spirits in this culture, so we tend to call it a supernatural event when we encounter one in an obvious way.

People called Christ's healings miracles. That's simply because they didn't understand the perfectly natural healing mechanism he was using (a method of moving vital energy or life force where it's needed) when he healed people. Many people have that ability to some extent, all people have it potentially, and Jesus certainly appears to have had it fully developed, as have a few other individuals in the course of history.

So there are no miracles, and there is no supernatural, but that is what people call it if they are unfamiliar with it, and they are astounded as a consequence. If it happened a few times every day in front of their eyes, they would soon accept it as just another normal occurence, as long as it didn't cause them any great difficulties, and they would soon have a nice scientific explanation for it too, in all probability...or at least a theory or two.

And, of course, there are some hoaxes and some honest misunderstandings of phenomena out there too...(yawn) just so the skeptics don't get too disturbed by what I'm saying here.

But fortunately, there will always be genuine mysteries. Both scientists and mystics would be in a sad situation if there was nothing strange left out there to investigate. What a dull world it would be.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 12:13 AM

3 weeks before my dad died I had a vision of him laid in a coffin,my cousin saw this as well.I somtimes get "deja vu" type things(2 or 3 times a year).Sometimes I get very clear dreams that come true, last year I dreamed of a horse called"Kings Magic" winning a big horse race, I watched the race with interest to see "Kings Best" win.john

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 12:01 AM

well, once I was reading by a low light, when something flickered just on the edge of my vision...I slowly turned my head, and there was....a curtain blowing in fron of a window!!!...oh, never mind...I'm with Matt on this one...ghosts avoid me, spirits hide from me, and I'm just NOT wired for auras....

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Sorcha
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 11:22 PM

I don't know if this counts or not; I rather doubt it, but all day today I have had one of those Panic Attacks deep in the stomach. The one where you know they are coming to take your children away or reposess your house...no real reason for it.

Went out to supper (I was too "sick" to cook, and not hungry, but the fellas were). Just as we were finishing, Bubba's girlfriend came crashing into the restaurant and said that Jeff had rolled his pickup, didn't know how bad or if he was hurt, didn't know if Blue Dog was in the bed.......immediately the Fear in the Stomach went away....IT had happened.

Jeff (one of my Other Kids) is OK, Blue Dog was at home and it's only the truck that is totaled.

Another: When we moved into this house (10 yrs ago), the attic was half unfinished attic and half "started bedroom". We finished the bedroom part for daughter Kate, and she moved in shortly after Valentine's Day, '91 and immediately started having sleep problems. Never had any before.

I stayed up very late one night, after she went to sleep, and spent some time in Her Room.......out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of an "aboriginal/Native American female......naked, very short (4'5" or so) with VERY long, black hair. Hair clear past her bum and not braided. No sense at all of menace, but a lot of anger.

Seems that "we/Kate" had invaded her space......I watched for several days and kept seeing the lady and she was very angry, so Kate and I did a Ceremony involving Light, Corn, Tobacco,Sweetgrass, Sage and Silver. Told her she was not threatened in any way, and we were sorry she was angry, etc. It must have worked because she has not been back since and Kate is now quite comfortable in her room.

Upshot is----who really knows???

I've had a couple other strange experiences especially at Historical Sites; mostly feeling like I was being watched and judged......don't know what the Verdict was, but I've never been frightened.

My dad used to visit as a "feeling", but hasn't since Mom died, guess he was worried about her.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Pelrad
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 10:28 PM

"Do ghosts like music or what?" I think they like the artistic temperament. I've found that among my acquaintances who experience strange phenomena, the majority are artists of some kind. Of course, that may just be the type with whom I choose to discuss these things, or the type who are willing to discuss them in general...It is a very subjective study.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Penny S.
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 07:01 PM

I have a suspicion about a way the sense of smell thing might work if not extra-sensory (which is not to make any implications about what has happened to others). It is based on observation of my own perceptions, involving a live person. He was someone I knew fairly well, and indeed was rather interested in at the time. I knew the way he looked at a mile distant, and close up, the sound of his voice and his piano playing, the mood I was in when he was around, my response to his sense of humour, and also the feel of him nest to me while rehearding the final chorus of an operatic society performance - so the scent of his clothes, too. On one occasion, I caught sight of his back disappearing round a corner in the town, and found that my mind instantly recalled everything, as if he was close up - the whole sense of his presence. I have noticed it with others since, and I think it's part of how we recognise people. If we do have a multisensory image which is triggered by small details, it would serve to provide the whole for comparison and identification in unusual circumstances.

Not a psychic explanation, but then, who's to say that it might not be triggered by a visitor, anyway.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 03:48 PM

Oh, yeah, dreams, forgot about those. I occasionally have prescient dreams, but they are always about mundane things, like dreaming the Style section is torn in my Sunday newspaper, and Lo, that Sunday, indeed no usable Style section. Once I was out with several sisters traveling across the wilds of Ghana, and we were on our way back to Abidjan (civilization!) in a bush taxi, and I fell asleep and dreamt that Mom had changed the date of the big dinner party with ministers and other dignitaries, and indeed, we came back filthy and dishevilled and the house was surrounded by large black mercedes' - they (my sisters) were really glad I'd had that dream so we knew what to be prepared for! But that's the only one I can think of that actually mattered, in any way. Mom had forgotten we were due back that day, and had changed the dinner party the week before my dream, which happened on the day we were going home... (I also dreamt we came in dancing the Can Can, so when we got there, my oldest sister started doing the Can Can so that part could be true too!)

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: GUEST,djh
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 03:24 PM

I am fascinated by the dream state, both the twilight state that JP spoke of and deep REM dreams. I have had 2 instances of psychic dreams forshadowing events. What do such instances say about the nature of reality?
My sister had an extreme series of incident along these lines.She started to have strange dreams and even waking notions about a friend who would soon die in a car accident. There are more details to this story than I have time to relate, but here is the short version.
My sister was working in Europe and her friend D came over from the states to visit. She started having the dreams of D bloody and at one point even imagined it while looking at her while awake. During the visit there was an incident where a woman had a seizure in a bank hit her head on the counter and bled profusely, D was the closest person and in her attempt to help the woman she became somewhat covered in the woman's blood. The woman died. My sister thought this was what the dreams were about.
D died in a car accident days after arriving home. D kept on coming to my sister in her dreams after passing and both my sister and D's father saw D in the same clothes when she would astral visit. My sister wasn't going to bring up D's visits to D's parents, but, a complete stranger's input led her to speak of it to them.
A woman who worked with another of D's friends saw a picture of D in a group on the friend's desk and asked if D had passed away. She proceeded to related to the friend that she is somewhat psychic and that the girl in that picture had been coming to her in her dreams telling her "they need to know I am alright".

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: GUEST,SharonA
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 02:55 PM

Kendall, what a story! Talk about pennies from heaven...

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: GUEST,djh
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 02:36 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: mousethief
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 02:23 PM

Matt, you and me should start a group. We appear to be at the same end of the spectrum. We could sit around and talk about how we've never had any paranormal experiences, then eat fried chicken and watch old movies. Couldn't be any duller than MENSA, could it?

Alex

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Matt_R
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 02:19 PM

I'm so low on the spectrum, I don't even register! I've never felt or experienced anything strange. Though, since I grew up in a non-traditional style, e.g. not listening to lot of different kinds of music, never having friends, never seeing movies, these sorts of things tend to leave "impressions" on me. I sort of carry around the feeling for weeks. Like the time some friends and I watched The Wizard of Oz to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon album. It was such a surreal experience that I still can feel the unsettlingness of it still. That's about as weird as my experiences go...

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Justa Picker
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 02:06 PM

You also have to keep in mind that as far as many (not all) in the scientific community are concerned, that which cannot be explained without concrete proof, is easy to dismiss or rationalize away. EXCEPT for the fact the these phenomenons are operating on dimensions which completely transcend the laws of physics, as well as linear space and time. Just because their existences can't be pigeon-holed, explained, and rationalized by scientists and physicists, does NOT mean they don't exist.

A case in point is that many doctors and scientists claim that out of body experiences as they occur in clinical deaths on operating tables, and the ensuing lights and tunnels, and being met by loved ones are merely hallucinations triggered by an oxygen deprived brain with a massive endorphine release, creating these "illusions" and the innate subconscious desires to be met by missed loved ones is manifested. Fine. There's a nice, easy to understand and rationalized explanation that pacifies the scientists and doctors. But, it's only one theory. It does not however explain how someone can leave there body during an operation, and later when resuscitated, tell the doctors and nurses word for word of their conversations during the operation.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have a friend who is extremely psychic, as was his mother, and his grandmother. He's probably one of the most laid back, mellowist people I've ever met. He can look into your eyes and tell you what's been eating you lately, without you volunteering a word, and, he is always right. He can see and read auras. He can tell who is an "old soul" and who isn't. He has assured me, that everything you are, you get to take with you when you leave here. In conjunction with the experiences I've had, that's good enough for me. He can also heal people with "energy" by placing his hands on you, and you feel a tremedous sense of warmth and heat. (Think of an electric heating pad, only more intense.) Again I've experienced this first hand, and in no way was it psychosomatic.

Some are more open to receiving these things than others. It's almost like the ability to receive certain radio stations. Depends on how powerful the signal is, and how much you can naturally extend your "antenae" to pick up the signals...but once you've experienced things, your antenae will extend, and it will become a strange, yet familar and somewhat welcoming experience.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Justa Picker
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 01:43 PM

Well Ebbie, I don't presume to be any kind of an expert on the subject. I can only speak from my own experiences, and from what I've read, watched on tv, and from others I've discussed it with, who themselves have experienced it in one form or another.

Naturally our perception of reality and everything we've been conditioned since birth to perceive as REAL provides the grounding on which to determine that which is not or may not be real, of course based on each persons own vision of what reality is to them.

The first couple of times this happens, you naturally think "what just happened didn't really happen did it?". I must have been dreaming or maybe it was a mild hallucination, and we try and find reality based reasons to rationalize and dismiss it.

But after a while, it gets beyond the realm of coincidence and then you have to start adjusting and altering some those pre-conceived perceptions and notions of reality to include the possibility that this just might be real. And of course talking to others who've had similar experiences, reinforces the idea that you're not alone nor are these experiences unique just to you.

There are many many well documented cases (over the history of mankind,) and of course more recently by people in all walks of life, including respected scientists, academics, politicians --people who are considered credible, rational, and not prone to perpetuate myths or stories on the gullible.

Based on your light switch experience, it sounds to me like you've got company. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 01:40 PM

Mudcatter Little John Cameron LIVED for a while in a "Haunted House" here in Toronto, on Huntley St. (yes, next door to that OTHER "Huntley st. thing")

Perhaps if he sees this, he'll give an account.

Rick