Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don't believe in the supernatural. This term is usually applied when persons cannot explain or do not understand events that happen to them. When these events are closely examined by others, a rational explanation is found in the overwhelming majority of cases. Usually the rational explanation is one of the following:
1. Mind playing tricks on the person or mental illness.
2. Misunderstood natural phenomenon.
3. Hoaxes.
For those rare events that cannot be explained by one of the above, I still won't apply the term supernatural. I just think those events are caused by natural forces that science does not currently understand.
With all that being said, during my teenage years, I had a few spooky experiences. But, they can be explained by one of the above reasons.
Strange events occurred when I was in college and still living with my mother and two sisters. One night I was awakened around 3 am (I remember because I looked at my bedside clock) by a light shining in the bedroom. Being groggy, I at first assumed my mother was checking on me, as she had done before, and that the source of the light was from the hall bathroom which she usually turned on when checking on me. Waking up a bit more, I noticed that the light source was not coming from that bathroom but from a figure standing in the doorway shining a light around my bedroom. I rationalized that the power must have went out and my mom was using a flashlight to check in on me. I asked her what she was doing and the figure replied, "Nothing, go back to sleep."
The next morning, I remembered the incident and wondered why my digital clock was still working if the power went out the night before (it did not have batteries) but still didn't think much about it. Later that morning, my mom asked if I had been up the night before as she heard something turn over in the house. I told her no and asked if that's why she checked on me. She said she had not checked on me all night. I asked my two sisters if they had been up the night before and they both said no. I then proceeded to check all the doors and windows and found them all locked so there was no chance that we had an intruder the night before.
Two years after that incident another even occurred. My mother had died of cancer by this time and my younger sister and I were the only persons living in the house. One night my sister was awakened by a noise in the hallway next to her bedroom. Thinking there was an intruder, she grabbed her gun, opened her bedroom door and saw a light moving slowly down the hallway. The light turned the corner toward my bedroom and disappeared. My sister turned on the hall light and found the hallway empty. She checked my room, found only me asleep and proceeded to check all the doors and windows for tampering. She found nothing.
A few weeks later, my sister's boyfriend was napping in her bedroom. The door was open and he awakened to see a man walking down the hallway and turning the corner to go into my bedroom. He assumed I had a boyfriend visiting and went back to sleep. Later that evening, he asked about my visitor and I told him that I didn't have a man over. He was a bit creeped out and insisted that he saw a man. That night, my sister shared her story for the first time about the incident she experienced and I relayed the events for the first time about my experience two years prior.
I see one significant common denominator in these events and that is the fact that they occurred just after somebody woke up from sleep. They were probably lingering dreams. There's nothing supernatural about them. But they do show how the mind can play tricks and they make a good 'ghost' story.
I had a major experience with a haunting.
I met a demon. Interestingly, at first demons can look enticing.
Quite enticing as a matter of fact.
We dated. We got married. Then the fangs came out. The scales. The fire breathing. Then all sorts of strange happenings began.
It took eight years to eliminate this demon from my life. EIGHT years. She finally disappeared after a Superior Court Judge told her to do so. I didn't think before then that judges had power over demons. I beleive it now.
I like the explanation that something unexplained is natural but not yet explained by science.
I think there is something to all of this though. Here's a couple of my experiences to evaluate:
I have seen a "ghost" of a little girl 3 times since moving into my house (a 100 year old bungalow) Two times I initially thought I was seeing my daughter, but the figure vanishes a few seconds after I see her. I don't do drugs and hardly even drink (maybe once or twice a year) and wasn't drinking before these events.
The first time I was in the bathtub; My wife opened the door to talk to me and I saw the girl standing behind her. Thinking it was my daughter, I yelled out shut the door, so my daughter would be spared the horror of seeing me in the bath My wife turned around and no one was there; my daughter was in the other room watching TV.
The second time I was sleeping in bed; I woke up and saw the girl standing in the doorway. She looked at me and ran down the hall. I jumped instantly out of bad and ran after her. Of course no one was there and my daughter was sleeping in bed. (this could be a waking dream by your explanation)
The third time I was in my boiler room seated, building a ship model. I heard footsteps go down the stairs (almost right over my head) and turned around to see who has just come down. There was the litte girl; she vanished almost immediately. I again ran to the spot but again there was no one around.
The girl was about 5-7 years old and was wearing the same off-white old style dress each time. She was as solid looking as a real person.
The sleeping thing happened in the middle of the night, but the boiler room incident was in the middle of the day, and the bathtub in the early evening.
On another occasion I was in the garage and something whispered into my year. It was exactly like someone was standing there right next to my ear; and it wasn't words, but it sounded human. It was kind of angry and hissing in tone. No one was in the garage and this was also in middle of the day.
Another afternoon I was laying on the couch; I noticed the curtain was open. I thought it should be closed and the curtain started scooting along the rod all by itself. The loops of the curtain moved as if something had hold of each loop and was tugging it along the rod. The curtain itself is thin muslin and does not have any "springyness" to it.
It's not just me either...Yet another time I came home to find my wife in a panic. She said she heard the back door open and heard footsteps cross the kitchen. She went into the kitchen to greet me but no one was there.
I could go on with more...
So here's the creepy part that always seems to be in ghost stories but absoutely true. I looked into the history of the house and found out the origional owner's 5 year daughter died there in 1918 of influenza.
I wasn't even thinking about ghosts or upset in any way when all these things happened. They were totally out of the blue.
I've had the house checked for radon and put up carbon monoxide detectors; there is no sign of either. Ghosts don't fit in my comfortable and explainable litte world. WTF is going on ?
I'm another person who doesn't believe in any supernatural phenomenon, hauntings or things of that nature but I remember growing up and even as an adult that my aunt and uncle's house in my home town seemed very frightening to myself as well as my sisters. I can't think of any rational reason for it. One of my sisters when she was grown up and at least in her thirties at the time happened to spend the night there and she told me she was scared to death. I can't tell you how many nightmares I've had about that house and it makes no sense. My aunt and uncle were like a second set of parents. They never had children of their own and we were extremely close to them growing up. I'm sure that there's some psychological reason for this fear that doesn't involve anything that anyone should really be afraid of. Maybe something scared myself and my sisters there when we were very young children and it's still lingering in our subconscious, I honestly don't know the answer but I think I can understand how an irrational fear might grow into something even worse if a person held certain beliefs about ghosts and hauntings.
@MontanaGuy: Did you perceive the house itself to be scary? Was it an older house that creaked and groaned at night or perhaps resembled the stereotypical haunted house depicted in children's books? Did you hear spooky stories about the house from someone? Perhaps you were affected psychologically by some preconception about the house.
For example, growing up, I lived in an old house that had a large newer addition built by my father. Being cheap, he salvaged wood from old slave shacks that he found. The house didn't have much outdoor lighting, was set back off the road and surrounded by overgrown woods that seemed to encroach on the house at night. As the house was old and the newer addition wasn't built properly, the floors and doors sloped at odd angles and creaked a lot. Many of our pets would freak out and cower under the beds for no apparent reason. I often felt a sense of foreboding in that house and did not like being in the dark. I felt like a presence was stalking me from behind but never actually saw anything. I am absolutely certain that the stories about the house being built with old slave homes, the fun-house like slanting of the doors and walls, and the creepy dark woods had something to do with this fear.
Additionally, I often get a disoriented feeling when I visit older homes. By disoriented, I mean lightheaded or dizzy. This does not happen when I visit newer homes. If I believed in ghosts, I might be tempted to conclude that these older homes are haunted and that I'm somehow being affected.
Since I don't believe in ghosts, I've concluded that perhaps these older houses have settled and maybe some of the walls and floors slant at an angle that is almost imperceptible. I'm very visual and perhaps pick up on this resulting in disorientation.
ETA: @Chango: Auditory and visual hallucinations are often the result of physical or mental disease; you might want to visit a doctor. You've checked your home for 'illness'; it would be wise to check the self as well. Please don't take this advice as insulting or negative; that is not the intent.
Maybe something scared myself and my sisters there when we were very young children and it's still lingering in our subconscious, I honestly don't know the answer but I think I can understand how an irrational fear might grow into something even worse if a person held certain beliefs about ghosts and hauntings.
Possible... When it comes down to it, you can't really know what reality is with 100% certainty. Reality is whatever your brain interprets it to be from the exterior signals it gets. It's easy to mess that up too. I've read studies that correlate ghost sighting with natural electromagnetic pulses, for example.
I got my degree in anthropology; every human culture that has ever existed has held a belief in spirits, so maybe evolution gave us a tendency toward believing in ghosts and the supernatural as well.
Another idea that is a little bit more crazy that I have been looking at are things like string theory. Physicists can mathmatically prove the existence of mulitple dimensions, and the quandary that gravity is so weak but keeps the universe in line can pretty much only be explained by including multiple dimensions in the equation. It would seem there is much more to matter than the human body can perceive. Could a ghost sighting be a result of a something that allows us to see part of an otherwise obscured reality?
@MontanaGuy: Did you perceive the house itself to be scary? Was it an older house that creaked and groaned at night or perhaps resembled the stereotypical haunted house depicted in children's books?
It's a very old house that my uncle added extensive additions to. It doesn't appear to look like the typical scary house like you'd see in a movie at all. I think the original house was probably built in the early 1900's and I've seen old photos of it. It really doesn't look scary but I think it's really odd that myself and both of my sisters have exactly the same unexplainable fear of that house.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My wife turned around and no one was there; my daughter was in the other room watching TV.
