I know a few of you already know these stories. Some of you believe- Some not.
Either way is fine- But here are just a few of my own experiences...
On another blog, unrelated, there is a comparison made to ghosts and voting.
I have to admit I did not 'get it'-
But it did make me think that I have to post a bit of my own experiences after a friend commented not believing.
My friend is not alone.
Many do not believe in spirits-
Many more did not believe unless/until something happened to them. (This is the category I was in).
As for myself, I always thought that spirits and/or ghosts were bad- They were scary things that you really couldn't see or touch- And they were harbingers of that doom and gloom feeling.
When I turned 16, my mom said she would take me to see "The Amityville Horror" movie- But only if I read the whole book first.
She bought the book, and we both read it as we could.
Still, reading the book did not prepare me for those 2 red glowing eyes I saw in the window in the movie...
You see, when I was about 3 or 4, I had come downstairs in the middle of the night to use the bathroom-
(A big girl I was, and did not want to wake my parents to take me anymore).
I came out of the bathroom, and had glanced into the kitchen. There were those 2 red glowing eyes looking at me from under the kitchen table. I quickly slammed the door, retreating to that little room, and screaming my lungs out.
So much for not waking the folks...
I do not recall how that was explained to me, but the image of those eyes have remained with me throughout my life.
Later on, growing up, now and again I would 'feel' someone here with me.
Since no one really believed, save for one experience my own mom had with my dads mom after she passed, I never did relay those scary, paranoid, experiences.
Those dismissive thoughts did not last long into my adulthood.
When I was about 23, I was dating my racecar man, Bob. One night he had stayed overnight, after getting some glass deep in his eye from working on the car.
At some point in the middle of that night I awoke and saw Roberta standing in the doorway to my bedroom. As soon as I thought to speak to her, I remembered that my daughters were all staying at mom and dads-
Bob asleep beside me, I knew I must have been dreaming. So I closed my eyes. I waited. Then looked again. "She" was still there.
Clearing my eyes, a closer look made me realize this girl was not my little Roberta-
This girl was wearing a dress I had picked up from a rummage sale earlier that day. That dress had yet to be washed- was laying on the laundry room floor.
I turned away once more, still thinking I was dreaming, and even pinched myself. Looking back a 3rd time, there she was. Still!
That was it. I screamed. I buried my face in my pillow. And I woke the sleeping Bob.
I did not even have the courage to tell him what had just happened! Just a "bad dream".
A few years later, remarried, my husband had fallen to nap on the couch one day. That afternoon he described that same little girl waking him!
At that point my own eyes really opened up.
I began to read many different stories- The library was only about 3 blocks away from our little townhouse-
What I couldn't find at the library I found in bookstores. Many people were corroborating my experiences, and my own feelings. I was thrilled! I was no longer afraid, or thinking these are bad things. After all, no one had ever been harmed at any point in my life, or with anything that had happened.
I have since experienced many different things that I realize are paranormal. As such they are defined as "Beyond the range of normal experience or scientific explanation".
I will enclose two of my favorite photos- taken in my own home...
02/09/2009
Two ladies in the doorway to the bathroom. (Original blogpost is here).
01/10/2010
Who is petting my dog? (Original blogpost is here).
Please back away from your screen if you have trouble seeing the images.
The history of my home is here.
There are more stories and images that are available to you simply by CLICKing here.
So... How was your All-Hallows-Eve?
XOXO
Me
From Ghost study, here, comes the difference between Ghosts & Spirits.
A ghost is someone who has passed on and is "stuck" between the physical world and the Afterlife. They do not cross through The Light to go on to the Afterlife, but stick around in this "netherworld" for one reason or another.
A spirit is a person who has passed on, but has actually gone through The Light and into the Afterlife. There they go through a life review learning process, and after that, are able to come and go between the Afterlife and our physical world.
Here is my stairwell, empty
ReplyDelete~
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I understand.....on all counts.
ReplyDeleteIve heard and read too many accounts of the paranormal to not believe. Ive never experienced such though.
ReplyDeletexoxoxoxoxox
I've had a few experiences myself and do believe. I can see in the photo with your dog being petted, but as for the bathroom and two ladies? I only see one presence or whatever it is.
ReplyDeleteAnnie, is precognition also considered paranormal? Yes, of course it is! "Beyond the range of normal experience or scientific explanation." I have it, unquestionably. Most of the time, I wish I didn't.
ReplyDeleteMy mother was different; she knew the moment someone died. When she was a child...perhaps six or seven...her mother was very ill, in a bed that had been placed on the first floor, as she could no longer use the stairs. My mother told me she had been in her own bed upstairs, the room was darkened, & suddenly she saw her mother, in her white nightgown, standing at the foot of the bed smiling at her. A few moments later, she heard the doctor (who had been at her mother's bedside) say: "She's gone."
She thought the doctor meant by "She's gone" that somehow she'd come upstairs. Of course, we know what that means. She'd died. My mother described my grandmother as 'shimmering' & then vanishing as in a vapor. Hearsay, right?
Wrong. One very cold night in Wisconsin, (where I was born), there was a severe snow blizzard, with huge drifts in the fields surrounding us. We lived in a rural area, had no phone & our only warmth came from the wood burning stove. But, it was very cozy & warm. My mother was in her house dress & suddenly ran out into the night calling my uncle's name, "Tom! Tom!" She thought he might have come to visit from Milwaukee & gotten lost in the blizzard. We had a huge old ticking clock, & I remember it was half past nine PM. The next day, my Aunt Virginia & her husband drove out to tell us that Uncle Tom had died. He died at half past nine...this was on the death certificate.
I've never had experiences like that. I know my husband's presence lingered for months after he died. We were both painters & shared this with helpful critiques...perhaps the most significant part of our relationship. I was frustrated while painting a horse. I didn't actually hear his voice, but a kind of mind communication...the smile, "Paint the horse & then paint out anything that doesn't look like a horse!" This kind of thing happened frequently, until I began to feel I needed to stop depending on him, I needed to let him go. This, I believe, is the "...but stick around in this "netherworld" for one reason or another." I did let him go.
I think that many people who don't believe in the paranormal is because they've never personally experienced it. Yet, even seeing it with my mother, (more than once), I had to believe.
I can't see anything in the photos but the little white lines?
This intrigues me the most.
"She" was still there.
Clearing my eyes, a closer look made me realize this girl was not my little Roberta-
This girl was wearing a dress I had picked up from a rummage sale earlier that day. That dress had yet to be washed- was laying on the laundry room floor."
You already know my beliefs on this subject. I have never been a witness to any ghostly apparitions, but have had encounters with "shadows" in the house I lived in before moving in with my daughter. I am a full believer in the existence of the unknown. Some may be able to explain some things but those people cannot explain it ALL. We do not die completely. Only our bodies do. Our essence, or our spirit, leaves and impression on time that lingers and carries on sorta like the reruns do on TV. Maybe that spirit is lost, or stuck in between worlds while they continue to repeat a part of their lives that was either the best part of their memory or the worst part. Either way, it is a mystery till we ourselves have become a part of it.
ReplyDeleteI do apologize for carrying on so long! I didn't know how to concisely explain what my mother experienced.
ReplyDelete"have had encounters with "shadows" in the house I lived in"
I once rented the perfect house, fireplace, garden, huge kitchen. I was increasingly uneasy there. I thought it was just me, adjusting, but I never felt that way when I went out. I later discovered a woman had been brutally murdered there. I broke my lease!
Sometimes I think of these entities like echoes...& I wonder, did she ever make it, or does she still linger in that house, & why?
Scootch....I saw those shadows for a long time while living in that house. Then I found out from another neighbor of mine that when my house was first a garage (it had been converted into a 2 story house) my landlords brother had committed suicide there back in the 70's. After that, I realized it explained so much of the things I had experienced there. But I was not afraid at all. I talked with him a lot after I realized who it was. Oh...I also was later told stories about other tenants who lived there only a short time and moved out in the middle of the night. I guess they were not so thrilled about the odd things happening there.
ReplyDeleteAnd my sister once lived in a very old farm house. Her daughter, who was small at the time, had the front bedroom. She refused to sleep in there alone and wouldn't say why. My sister went to bed with her one night and had planned to go back to her own room once her daughter had fallen asleep. But she awakened with the feeling of a presence in the room and that she was being stared at. She said there was an old couple standing there just looking at her. Well...they ended up switching bedrooms with their daughter. And they lived there for many more years after that. They moved away when my bro-in-law got a better job offer but the job fell through about a year later and the house they once lived in was empty again. So, for cheaper rent, they moved back. Those tenants that moved there after them, also moved out because of some weird stuff happening. But like me, those spirits never bothered my sister and her family once they adapted to their presence. Unfortunately, that house and land was sold and the house was torn down to make way for the owners new home. I wonder at times if those spirits are still in the area. Or were they just attached to the old house itself.
Peachie, I wonder if much has to do with where the person is 'stuck' when they die?
ReplyDeleteI don't think of 'ghosts' or death as scary...like "...old couple standing there just looking at her." That wouldn't have scared me, nor even the landlord's brother who had committed suicide. But the bizarre murder of the woman...was she caught 'in time' & I was feeling the horror she felt? It's possible.
"I wonder at times if those spirits are still in the area. Or were they just attached to the old house itself."
That's a very interesting question! If the owners of the new home feel the presence, then it's the land. But they might not feel anything at all, as some people don't 'pick up" on things like this.
I have read a lot about this subject and some things will say that a person who died a horrible death may not even know they are dead. I'm not sure if "how" we cross to the great beyond depends on "what" we believed the great beyond to be, or whether or not we were actually ready to depart at the time that was imposed upon a murder victim or an accident victim. Maybe those who remain to be seen by the solid living world are those who did not really want to leave it to begin with. But that makes you think twice about the suicides who did make that choice. However, many suicides were only trying to get help and end the misery in which they were in. And maybe "lingering" after a suicide is part of the punishment for doing something that should not have been done. But in that sense, a murder victim should not be punished in the same way. Maybe they linger for other reasons. Unfinished lives or attachments to the human world? Either way, it does appear that some spirits "missed the train" and got left behind to wander about in the world they once lived in. That veil between life and death is a thin one. And I imagine the veil between different planes of existence on the other side is as well.
ReplyDeleteSomeday we shall know for sure how it all works. I would love to come back and confirm some information to some folks when my time comes, but....more than likely, they would either be scared of seeing me or not believing in what they just saw. I suppose the skeptics equal the believers.
Have you ever known an individual whose personality was so strong that you actually "felt" their presence as soon as they entered a room? Even some time after they had left, you still feel them as if they were still there. They left an impression. And I believe that when we live our lives with a passion for life, or we experience a gruesome death, we leave an impression upon time itself. And hopefully, the true spirit went home while we watch the reruns and wonder. :)
I haven't read anything about this subject at all. It's something like people who believe they can interpret your dream for you. They can't.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how a person couldn't know they were dead? They can't speak or touch or move physical things. Wouldn't they know?
"Maybe those who remain to be seen by the solid living world are those who did not really want to leave it to begin with."
Either that, or they want to tie up loose ends, feel a responsibility for someone left behind?
Suicide can be the most rational, & even noble...thing to do. Not always, but very often. Just thinking about this now, I tend to feel that people who make sound decisions to commit suicide may be the most 'free' spirits of all. They chose the only absolute control that we have of ourselves.
I don't think we'll ever know "how it works" until we've been there.
I like this: "we leave an impression upon time itself."
These are the echoes I spoke of, echos a metaphor...yet not all can/will hear them!
I haven't read anything on the subject but my mom claimed to see dead relatives a few times . I'm a bit psychic myself . I live in a trailer in my g/f s sisters backyard which use to belong to the son of the house owner . The guy was a drug addict and schizophrenic and was found dead in here in the end . At one time he had taken an axe to the outside putting dents in it and he tore up a pick-up in the garage . And many nights the overhead cabinets the one on g/f s side of the bed opens just as I'm dozing off hitting the closet on her side of the bed . Maybe he kept his drugs in there lol
ReplyDeleteI'm one of those people who prefer to learn from my own experiences. By that, I don't mean to say that no one should read about them. However, when friends speak/write about them, I'm inclined to find them credible.
ReplyDeleteCharles, what other things have happened to you, & was he 'dead' from drugs or something else?
My strongest psychic ability is precognition. This was beneficial only once, & saved the life of me, & a friend. The others have always been negative, although I might not have known the specifics at the time. It's something like reading the Tarot, (I don't read them anymore); the cards only facilitate a 'magic' for the person I read for, but my senses were already there.
I felt an increasing darkness in my husband long before he had any symptoms or was diagnosed. I felt it was his physical, (& emotional), health & urged him to see his doctor.
It was too late. Perhaps it's primarily que sera, after all?
Our expriences here are with my husbands father. Roy smoked cigars when Bruce and I first started dating. Roy died back in June 1994. From time to time depending on what I cook..even in houses he never knew of...he is here. Not long after we moved in here last year...I brought Bruce his plate from the kitchen and as I turned to go back to the kitchen to get my plate and glass ..it was like I walked thru a cloud of his cigar smoke...just as I turned to say something to Bruce it had hit him..we both laughed..Drew thought we were loosing our minds when I told him his Granddaddy was here in the house. I sometimes hear things in the kitchen when there is no one in there...and I'm the only one in the living room..I tell Roy to help himself ..lol He was one that no matter whos house he walked into he made hisself to home...and headed to the fridge to see what was there to eat..lol He always loved our house because I made tea with real sugar..not that artificial stuff his Mom(rememeber Sunshine) used.
ReplyDeleteI also made desserts from scratch(he loved banana pudding). So far we've had no visits from his Mom..but thats not unusual..she didn't visit us when she was alive. I think Amy has though.
Anytime I see unexpected rainbows thats my sign from my Grandfather..that he's is watching me.
I believe and have my own experiences with the paranormal.
ReplyDeleteI've looked at the photos, over & over again. I even made copies & headed to my photo editing program. Couldn't quite make out the dog being petted(although I did see the form), but I do have to say that with the first pic, I got some eerie results. I did all sorts of things to it, raised the contrast, the lightness/darkness, noise reduction, negative, etc. all manner of things & I admit that I DID see the heads/faces of the 2 ladies in the doorway. The one towards the front appears to be bent downward a bit as if beckoning something(dog?) to come closer. They don't appear to be standing up directly. Maybe it's the angle or perspective of looking downward? I was going to ask what the circumstances were surrounding the photos, but it's possible I should read the blogs you referenced. I don't know what it is about so many "ghost", spirit, paranormal photos, they just always seem to be so dark, cloudy, over/underexposed,..more or less indistinct. It would behoove someone to produce a bright, color, crystal-clear image to set critics/skeptics in their place.
ReplyDeleteThe glowing red eyes could possibly have been a vivid imagination & reflections? by a tired girl in the middle of the night in a dark house? I'm sure you were given a multitude of "reasonable" explanations. I wasn't there, so I have NO idea. It's just always better to get the voice of reason out of the way before continuing on to things more unexplainable, right?
I'm posting the copies I made after doing my little editing maneuvers.