BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: mousethief
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 01:38 PM

I know the state you refer to, Justa Picker. I've gotten some great poetry in that state. But never, alas, any visits from anybody.

I envy y'all. My life is a sheer unmitigated monotony of explainable phenomena.

Even when my mom had a poltergeist, and I was living in the same house (next room even!) I couldn't hear or see or feel anything.

I think, Murray, you must be right, and I'm on the very low end of the spectrum.

Oh well. Such is my lot.

Alex

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 01:29 PM

Great experiences, JP. May you have many more. What I like about these life experiences is that you can be sure you will.

What I don't understand is why in the world a person- I, specifically- can't just accept them with finality. Instead of doing that, I still find myself saying 'I think', instead of 'I know'. There are even times when I debate the possibility of total extinction of consciousness at death. And that cannot be- else from where do these beings come? Anecdotal evidence is real.

The latest phenomenon I'm experiencing is the physical feel of a warm hand covering mine when I reach to flip this one particular light switch! Go figure.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Justa Picker
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 12:52 PM

There are also states of consciousness that make one very susceptible to experiencing these phenomena.

Various forms of meditation at peak moments can trigger out of body experiences and astral projection.

Also have you ever been physically exhausted and tried to sleep but your mind won't "shut off", until you eventually reach a "waking dream-like state" where you're not quite awake but you're not quite asleep? It's a very delicate and subtle level of consciousness, and you're immediately aware of how fragile this state is, so you can either fight it and become very fearful (and it disappears immediately) or you can embrace it, and then experience what follows.

I've been "visited" a few times by dead relatives when I've been in that state. The most powerful aspect of it for me was the sense of smell as it pertains to the body odour of the individual. As a kid I remember the security of snuggling with a grandparent and baked into that memory was his smell. To experience this in a vision or a semi-dream like state is truly amazing and a little freaky.

I remember the first time it happened, having a conversation with my grandparents, and it felt as real as if they were actually there in the flesh. I recollect the doorbell of our house ringing and going downstairs to answer the door and seeing my grandparents there. They looked vibrant and healthy and exactly the way I remembered them as a kid. As I invited them into the house, I whispered in my grandfather's ear "Have you come to get me?" and he smiled and said "No we're just here for a visit." I then introduced them to my wife and kids, and then said, "wait, you can't go yet. I want to call Mom and tell her you're both here." But by the time I could get to the phone, they were gone, and I suddenly sat up in bed, completely startled with all the hairs on my arms and legs standing on end. This happened about 3 or 4 years ago on Chistmas morning, having gotten up very early with the kids (and having gone to bed late the night before) so that they could open their presents, and then heading back up to bed when they were done. I couldn't get back to sleep but was very physically tired. I tossed and turned for a long time and eventually I fell into this space, and the rest I've described ensued.

Course as soon as it was over I immediately got up and went downstairs and described the whole thing to my wife. I said it didn't feel like a dream because it was too real and the sense of smell really got to me. She suggested I call my best friend who is a psychic and tell him about it. I phoned him, and before I got too far into describing the situation the first thing he asked me was whether I had any sensations of "smell". I said "yup". He said it was probably real, and not a dream. I happened to be talking to my brother a couple of days later, and before I could tell him about my experience, he asked me if anything strange had happened to me in the past few days...and I asked him "why"? He then began describing almost exactly what I'd experienced, and this really freaked us both out!

I think to those that have these types of experiences they are in fact very real, but to try and convince others who've never experienced anything like this, is probably a waste of time. But it only has to happen to you a couple of times, to refute those doubts about the possibility that these things can and do exist.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 11:08 AM

About the "EMF effects" - my erstwhile bro-in-law was an old Navy man, and knew Morse Code like some people know their native language. One day he's lying on his heating pad (back injury) and starts "hearing voices" without hearing anything. That is, he could somehow sense? Feel? Knew about? A conversation happening, fairly slowly. One-sided, as if he were listening to half of a telephone conversation, he would get the questions but not the answers. He closed his eyes to listen harder and it went away. When he opened his eyes again, it was there again, somehow in his ken without him knowing which sensory modality it had entered through. He was just about to get really weirded out, when he noticed that the little light that tells you your heating pad is on was flickering. He was receiving Morse Code from somewhere! He was "reading" the message at a sumliminal level, the way we read languages we can read without paying attention (As in, look at this array of lines, but don't read the word WALL), and was obviously tied in electrically with someone's actual electrical signals. But for a while there he thought he was hearing something supernatural!

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: kendall
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 11:06 AM

I'm a natural born skeptic, but, I know what I know. I was there.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: GUEST,Patrish
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 11:02 AM

Do you know I have typed my experience here three times and each time I have posted it it has very annoyingly disappeared (gremlins in the mudcat)So I can only suppose its not meant to be here. But between you and me I am Bl**dy cross.
Patrish

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: SINSULL
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 09:42 AM

Something is screwing with me today - unplugging electrical appliances. At first I thought it was the kitten but there is no way she could have disconnected the stereo. And when I got to work, my fan was unplugged. Strange.
I have told my ghost story on another thread and won't repeat it here. None of encounters have felt dangerous. I do have the unfortunate talent of knowing (bolt of lightening striking) that someone is about to die. Has happened too often and in too many unusual circumstances to be ignored. I have made it my policy never to share the information with the person involved and wish it would just go away.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: RichM
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 08:56 AM

Explanations of the scientific kind are theoretically useful. But those who defend them strongest are those who have never had a personal experience of the paranormal.

Ghost stories are entertaining. I have had some personal encounters, mostly benign and interesting. But one of them taught me not to get involved further, without having a very good reason.

Some encounters are simply dangerous. And no, I won't talk about that one. I will state some indicators that a paranormal encounter is happening:

Seeing something, of course, and: Feeling a sudden wind or cool temperature; A feeling of unease or dread; And the best one: the hair on your back, or the back of your neck, feels like it's standing up.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Wolfgang
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 07:53 AM

old thread with basically the same theme: Favorite ghost stories

In case you feel like reading something from the skeptical side, read Joe Nickell's 'Entities', Prometheus Books, 1995. Nickell is known for his follow-up studies of well known haunted sites and for his wealth of different and often very creative explanations.

In case you want to read good ghost stories without any scientific intrusion, there is this website.

Usually a single explanation will not fit all the recollected facts and I shall not attempt to find an explanation for any of the cases described, not even for any single aspect. I'll give you only a short and not exhaustive list of a couple of explanations that have been found each to be able to explain a subgroup of the phenomena. Whether someone believes that after all these explanations have been tested there remains a residuum of unexplained or not is more personal taste than anything else. Here's the list:

- pranks (usually by youngsters). For instance in the Observer of December 31, 2000, one could read of the late confession of a prankster in one of the most famous cases in Britain, namely the Borley rectory which once has been named (in a booktitle) 'the most haunted house in England' (there was a movie as well, of course). The prankster has described in detail how he did, e.g., ghosts without heads. Great idea.

- hypnopompic or lucid dreams (can seems very real)

- a standing infra-sound wave in a house (e.g. from a big, slowly rotating fan) can lead to many of the physiological side effects (hair standing up, fear, etc) that have been described. This is from a recent issue of a parapsychological journal, the J. of the society for Psychical research.

- EMF effects from near senders on electric or quasielectric equipment (the man who could listen to the radio in his tooth; I once had the local AFN in my radiator)

- nightly encounters with animals under bad viewing conditions (in one case, a barn owl sitting at face level has led to a very frightening percept)

- wind and temperature gradient action on house structures

and many, many more

And never forget that if you do not find a mundane explication it does not follow with necessity that there is none. There may be one you don't know or have not thought of.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: kendall
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 05:17 AM

A few years ago, I was visiting a good friend in a little town just west of Augusta. He lives in an old house that was a stop on the underground railway before the Civil War. He was in the process of turning a small room into a bathroom, and he was showing me what he was doing. The door was closed, there was no one else in that room. As he talked, I heard an odd sound behind me, I looked around and a penny came rolling across the floor out of a blank wall! I was dumbstruck! When I mentioned it to him, he shrugged and said "It happens all the time, I have a jar half full of them". I found out afterwards that there was a killing in the cellar, and, although the spirit was not a bad one, it had a puckish sense of humor, and delighted in scaring the hell out of people. Being Catholic, he does not believe in spirits, but, still, there were so many such incidents that he finally had the place blessed. There have been no incidents since. There were many incidents before that, but, I didi not witness those.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Michael in Swansea
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 04:26 AM

It was 1968, I was with my girlfriend, Christine, in her parent's house. We were sitting there talking, as 17 year olds tend to do when left alone, when she suddenly stopped and stared at a corner of the room. I felt a distinct RISE in temperature and looking at the chair that was in the corner of the room I saw a purpley coloured mist taking human-ish form sitting there. I couldn't make out any facial features or hear any sounds coming from it but Christine was answering it "Yes", "No", "Maybe" and giggling once or twice. I just sat there transfixed.
After what seemed about 10 minutes "It" disappeared and Christine turned to me. I asked her if everything was okay and she she said "You saw her didn't you? She told me you could" Christine explained that "It" was her Paternal Grandmother who had died 5 years earlier and she visited her a couple of times a year. Christine also said that this time they were talking about me! I felt honoured.
Christine and myself spent 5 years together before we went our separate ways.

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 02:01 AM

my take on this is:

the mudcat never reined in the men from wyoming or the tittering cats

thank the good Lord....the MC is finally following its "natural paths."

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Rev
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 01:27 AM

This might not be as dramatic as these other stories, but it is musical. Back around 1995, I was in Crested Butte, Colorado, in a late-19th century tavern called the Forest Queen. There was a hot bluegrass band playing (including Michael Kang of String Cheese Incident), and I noticed that there was a swinging door to the right of the stage that was swinging, and I mean really swinging. Back and forth, back and forth, quite vigorously, and seemingly in time with the music. No one else in the room was paying much attention to it, but I went over to investigate. There was no draft coming through the door, just a staircase going up. I actually stopped the door from swinging, and went up the stairs, but there was nothing up there, no open windows or anything. The door actually started swinging again, and I just decided that some of the local ghosts were just showing their admiration for the music. I've also heard footsteps and other sounds at my Mom's house in Stonington, CT. usually when no one else is home, and I am playing music by myself. I've even had to stop playing and go upstairs to see if someone was there. Do ghosts like music or what?

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 12:48 AM

Sometimes I am too sensitive, but it's never made me feel in any danger or anything. Somewhere I wrote about our hanuted house in Mystic. I am still trying to find the thread I posted it in. I also have some others to relate, later, when I have more time.

Great idea for a thread, JP!

Thanks,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 12:39 AM

I never had a personal experience, but my father "walked" to visit two of my sisters: once very soon after he died, he came and sat on the couch in my eldest's living room; the couch pressed in where he sat, but she could see through him, he wasn't quite solid. She remembers thinking This will be OK, if he comes and visits once in a while. It felt companionate, she said. He never did come back, though. Then years later, the next oldest had a son she named after our dad. One night when she was just finishing nursing the baby, he came and looked into the crib at his namesake. She, on the other hand, was very freaked out by this. I would have loved it, I think. I wish he'd visit me.

And aren't poltergeists statistically linked to having a troubled and peripubescent girl in the house?

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Pelrad
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 12:26 AM

Let's see... The guy in the basement I couldn't see with my eyes, only with my "mind's eye." Hard to explain. If I averted my eyes from the spot I could see him plain as day in my mind. He was about six foot three or four, burly, with black hair and a black beard, a red flannel plaid shirt, khaki-colored pants, and workboots. He had dark eyes, too. Sometimes he had a grin on his face. There was a heaviness in the air wherever he stood. I talked to him a few times but it made my hair stand on end when he responded (not out loud, just like words standing in my mind) so I didn't do that too often. Besides, I didn't want to encourage contact because he seemed to like me a little too much.

The first time I saw him I told myself there was no way a big man like that could fit through a little teeny basement window, so he couldn't be there. They seem real like that sometimes. The first time we tried to smudge him away, he seemed really puzzled and just stood there looking at us like he couldn't figure out what we wanted. He got really quiet for a few days, then started showing up in other parts of the house.

No luminescense. It was more like a snapshot, like there was really somebody there.

As for the guy in the museum, he was standing on a landing inside a historic house when my husband and I came into the room. He was just standing there looking at his hat that he had in his hands. Then he put it on his head and followed us halfway down the stairway. He was just minding his own business, though, didn't seem to notice us. He was so vivid I thought he was a fellow visitor to the exhibit. Seemed real.

Usually it's more like seeing something out of the corner of your eye. If you look straight on you can't see anyone. Also, there's sort of a projected presence that emanates from them that isn't there with a living person. The air around them is slightly charged. I'm not describing it well, but I've never articulated it before.

Thank goodness they never look like the ghouls in Sixth Sense or I'd be cowering under the covers every night.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: wdyat12
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 12:22 AM

Paranormal? Humbug! Well I was a sceptic too, until one stormy night on the coast of Maine I had a violent argument with my father and left our new house in anger and disgust. As I ran down the road past the the old family lodge on the Kennebec Point Pennisula that my great grandfather built, the wires overhead began to glow with a green gaseous plasma. St. Elmos Fire was playing in the wires like it did in the rigging in the novel, Moby Dick. I had never seen this phenomenon before, yet I was familiar with it from what I had imagined while reading Moby Dick in my senior year of high school. I stood there in amazement and then ran back to the new house confused and scared. I passed my drunken father in the door and went to bed. I dreamed a very strange and disconcerting dream that night.

I was at the First Baptist Church in Georgetown, Maine. I was one of six pollbearers in a procession up the steps of the church. The air was still that day and it was hot and humid and everyone felt uncompfortable, but when we carried Dad inside the white curtains flowed like ghosts from the open windows. Many poeple I didn't know spoke of my father's life. I did not speak of or for my father then.

One year to the day I reexperienced this dream in reality and I was equally confused and scared as I was in that dream.

wdyat12

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Justa Picker
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 12:05 AM

It creeped me out experiencing it, believe me.
Can you describe your ghost more vividly?..skin color?..luminescence?...and how it was obvious to you it was a ghost?

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Pelrad
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 12:01 AM

P.S. Your story creeped me out. No way would I have stayed the night. I'm a real wuss about this stuff, which is why the basement man got on my nerves so easily. Apparently I went to school with his son, so you would think I'd be LESS scared of him...Nope.

We do have a poltergeist who leaves broken window glass around the house, but it's pretty quiet so that's okay.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Pelrad
Date: 20 Jun 01 - 11:57 PM

Yep. I ignored it for nearly thirty years, and then it all crashed in on me when the ghost in our basement returned and fixated on me. He started following me around the house, which really creeped me out. Finally after about three weeks he came to stand outside my bedroom one night and I gave him a very stern talking-to. The next morning he was gone and I hope he stays gone. Turned out the entire family (mother, father, and at least one brother) had seen him before.

A few weeks ago I was up at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Maine and saw a man in one building, felt a young woman in another. The young woman's presence communicated itself pretty well, and as for the man, it was the first time I ever confused one with a real physical person. I actually turned to talk to him and didn't realize what I'd seen until he disappeared.

I used to see things all the time, but talked myself out of having seen them. They sometimes travel pretty far to talk to my mother, though.

My husband cannot sense them at all. I think my son can, though. He keeps asking me who the man in our kitchen was, the one who looked like Daddy but had black hair.

Subject: RE: BS: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 20 Jun 01 - 11:35 PM

My take on this is that some people are psychically receptive and some are not. My level of psychic awareness is about as low as it is possible to get, yet my SO is extremely sensitive. She has sensed atmospheres in houses immediately, where I felt nothing, and sure enough, she was right every time, something nasty had happened there. But it all just sort of passes me by.

Murray

Subject: Experiences with Ghosts & The Paranormal
From: Justa Picker
Date: 20 Jun 01 - 11:19 PM

Taking a cue from the thread On Stage Weirdness I ended up describing a personal experience I had 20 years ago here.

It got me thinking and I'm wondering if others have had personal experiences? Only share whatever you're comfortable with.

I'm absolutely fascinated with this subject, as well as temporary clinical death situations and out of body experiences, and have done a lot of reading on the subject by such authors as Raymond Moody, Ian Curry and others. Thanks.