My Paranormal Experiences

I posted this on another forum back when it was happening, and kept a running event log there. All of this happened when I moved in with a friend of mine who swore his house was haunted. /shrug. The timing was right, and I was in the market for a place of my own. Apologies for long story, but the events were over some time.

Shortly after I moved in, he told me that at night he often hears voices. They are faint, and usually only audible when a fan is on. We've looked through the bedroom, listened at the walls, checked for intermittent radio signals on all the electronics, and all without success. Oddly enough, and quite independently, his girlfriend has heard them as well. She asked one night if I had had the TV or a radio on in my bedroom the night before, and when I told her no, she looked puzzled. Then she said she'd heard voices, kind of muttering late that night as she was lying in the bed reading. They were too indistinct to make out, but definitely followed a conversational pattern of speech.

I shrugged that off. Having a background in Psychology, I just figured that there was some rational cause, and so...left it at that.

Let's move down the road of time...

A few weeks later I was up one morning getting ready for a morning jaunt to a nearby town. I was standing outside my friend's bedroom in the hall, when I paused at what I thought were voices. I clearly heard my friend and his girlfriend talking, and thought, "Wow. They are up early. They must have a busy day planned." (They are remodeling the house, and she comes in on weekends and gives us orders. Ha!) So anyway, not wanting to eavesdrop, I went downstairs, and continued on my way.

Later that night, when I returned, I asked them what had gotten them up so early. Concerned that perhaps my waking early had stirred them, I asked if I had inadvertently woken them with my morning routine.

They both looked at me oddly, then shared that "couple look" that says, "What is HE talking about?" I laughed a bit and chided them for pulling my leg. I explained that I had been up around 7AM, and that I had heard them talking as I walked by the doorway. I told them that the conversation was too low to make out, but that it was definitely their voices. A male and female, and in conversational tones.

They shared that look again, and looked at me once more.

"We didn't get up until about 10 this morning." my friend said, smiling.

I gave them some more grief about it, but they were adamant. I let that go as well.

Move forward in time...

A few days after that, I was sitting downstairs watching TV. It was the middle of the week, and no one was home but me and the cats. Somewhere around 8:30-9:00 o'clock, I heard my friend sigh heavily from the stairwell.

Puzzled I looked up and asked, "Yo man, when did you get here. I didn't think you'd be home until 9:30 or so." The cats looked up sleepily, then returned to hogging the couch.

I waited a second, and then it dawned on me. I was sitting between both entrances to the house. The front door on my left, and sliding glass patio doors on my right. At no time had anyone entered the house.

I got up dutifully. The hair on the back of my neck standing straight up. Not knowing was worse than the fear, so I trudged up the stairs. I checked each and every room. No one.

I went back downstairs, and resumed watching TV.

Move on a few days...

I was taking a smoke break outside near dusk. Again, the house is empty. (My friend works late some nights, whereas I'm a 8-5 kind of guy.) I was sort of aimlessly walking around in the backyard, when I happened to glance up at the bedroom window for my room. I was quite surprised to see a shadow walk past the wan light from the other bedroom.

I thought about that a second, then realized that the light had been off when I walked past the room to go downstairs. I sighed, put out the cigarette, jarred the butt, and dutifully walked the house again. Not to my surprise, no one was there. And the light at his bathroom vanity was on. (My friend is a nut about conservation, so lights are turned off when we leave for any amount of time. Okay, so he could have missed once. No one is perfect. I'll allow for that. But I didn't notice the light, or I'd have turned it off. And I STILL don't know what caused the shadow...)

Moving on...the weirdest one of all...

Once again, I was alone in the house. I was doing laundry, and had a bundle of clothes fresh from the dryer. I was walking into the bedroom to dump them on the bed and fold and hang them. Sitting on my computer desk, just beneath the window, was a cat. Well, the shadow of a cat. (He has two, one of which is black. She's a big cat, quite fat, and tremendously cuddly.) So, anywho, I'm looking at this shadow, and thinking, "Something isn't quite right about it. I'm pretty sure the cats are downstairs, and I never saw one come past me."

Now, the hallway is big enough for a cat to sneak by, and I was dragging clothes out of the dryer, and I didn't have any lights on, because the dryer has a light in it, and I was just going to dump the clothes on the bed and turn on the light anyways...

In real time, this process takes place in maybe two or three seconds. I'm standing in the doorway, looking towards the window. I have an armload of clothes. I am trying to turn on the light with my elbow, while staring at this thing sitting on my desk. To say I am relieved when I see the long, black, feline tail, twitch upwards, is an understatement. To say that when the light came on and NOTHING was sitting on the computer desk, even though I NEVER took my eyes off of it...is something else. My hair stood up. I had chills. I was CONVINCED that his black cat was sitting there. The tail movement had been the clincher... Except, apparently, it wasn't.

Moving on...

Tonight I was cooking dinner. My buddy has a knife block with lots of knives in it. I have, like I guess everyone that spends any time in the kitchen, a favorite knife. It has a serrated edge, and I generally use it for just about everything. The problem is, there is another knife of the same size in the block, without the serrations, and they sit side by side. Now, the knives don't always sit in the same slot, so I figure I have a 50/50 shot at getting my favorite when I take one out of the block.

So...I pull out a knife and I note...it's the wrong one. It's been one of those days, but I'm in a hurry, things are cooking, and I need to get that stupid onion cut up now. I smile ruefully that even with a 50/50 shot, I still have gotten the wrong blade.

I turn to flip the burgers in the skillet, and when I turn back... guess which knife is on the counter. It's the one with the serrated edge. Now... I don't get it. I KNOW which knife I pulled out, because of the series of thoughts it lead to. The kitchen is well lit, and I even took the time to look specifically at the damn edge.

There were other things, but those were the ones that happened at the time. Of them all, the "cat" incident still makes the hairs on my arms stand up. It was....very odd.

A bunch of us were watching a movie over there one night too...about 5 of us...my 2 kids..me, him and his gf at the time.

Suddenly there is a bright..and I mean BRIGHT flash of light from the formal dining room. Looks like something electrical.

I jump up and run in there..sniffing...thinking ozone...listening for that zap and sizzle, right?

Nothing...
[Continued]

I search high and low...by now..everyone is asking me WTF are you doing? I'm like....didn't you guys see the light? And they're like...uhm...no. Except for his GF. She saw it.

So him and my son...God the two of them together might be 10 on a good day..start making fun of us and talking about the Blue Light Fairy and so on...

And I'm like..#, it's your house. If it burns, you have insurance.

So...we settle in, watch some more movie and BAM...he jumps up and my son follows him..

and we're like...WTF dude? and he's like..didn't you guys see that bright flash?

And we're all like..nope, because really we didn't see the second one..

So we end up driving around the block, trying to shine lights in the window down the hall...all kinds of # to debunk it...nothing...

Never found a cause...

No electrical faults, nothing. Hell, there's nothing in there... at least at the time there wasn't.

That was scary. I've seen power lines go down, and transformers blow..and it looked like that.

Where I work, my office is just inside the front door and to the left. There used to be a counter out there that a hundred years ago, a receptionist would sit behind. So...in order to get out of my office I had to go out my office door, then turn to my left and go through ANOTHER door to get out from behind the counter...

Hand a 'u-turn" and then go OUT a third door to travel about 6 feet. It's hard to visualize, but simple to map out on paper.

Anywho, one day I was leaving, and as I'm the boss, I like to know who is in and out of my building for a variety of reasons.

I notice a tall blonde lady with black rimmed 60ish style glasses walking on the other side of the counter.

Her hair is either up or very short. I don't know which.

She's wearing a red polo style shirt. I know this, because I had one on as well. And in the couple of seconds it takes to see her, note the shirt, close my door and think... I don't know who she is... but I'll point out we're wearing a similar type shirt to introduce myself.

I step out from behind the counter, hit the uturn, and head to the door...the hallway there goes straight to a glass door with a fire handle... you know, the kind you push down to open?

This is maybe...5-6 steps? Maybe...

She's gone.

Vanished.

The door never opened, and she was only out of my sight for less than a second...not more than one second anyway you slice it.

I stopped in my tracks...

My secretary at the time was officed on the other side of the hall on an inside wall...

I called to her thinking... I must be seeing things.

This lady must have walked into HER office, and I just thought she was on the other side of the counter. Hard mistake to make, but hey....eye witness testimony is only about 30% accurate.

So I asked her if someone had walked in her office...

She said, "No, why?"

I said... "Oh, no reason..." and I'm looking at the huge chill blains on my arms...

She said, "Yeah there is a reason because you sound funny." She came out of her office and made me explain it to her. Freaked her out a bit...

I was like...holy hell. I thought apparitions were supposed to be all...apparition like.. Not a chick in a red shirt.

And it's like 3 in the afternoon...in the middle of a work week...

It was just...weird...after. Not scary at the time...

She just looked like any of a thousand people that walk by my door going in and out of the building.

I love it when this stuff happens:

The hair on the back of my neck standing straight up.

Chills, spine tingling, goose flesh and hair standing on end are all involuntary responses by the body.

Fear in the presence of nothing to be afraid of. So why the response?

You are in the presence of sprits.

It is said by some that there are more and more people who are becoming aware of other dimensions and so maybe you are one of them. Possibly this is a heads-up that there are many things which cannot be explained by science and folks who want 'proof'. There will probably be many logical-thinking people who get surprised by what they see and experience and this maybe a way to wake us all up to what is really out there.

Currently no-one (apart from governments) puts any money into psychical research and so maybe as more and more people have unexplained experiences there will be more openness to this kind of funding. Lets hope so because it will open a lot of doors to new areas which have been the domain of the 'occult' for too long.

Good thread and I am sorry it all make you uncomfortable. However, after a few more months of this you will become used to it and it will be just another incident in a long line of incidents you have experienced. I am constantly amazed at the way the Universe works and pushes us towards directions we would never have thought we would venture into. Maybe something really interesting will come out of this series of events for you.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I am mostly curious how you, with a background in psychology, approach these paranormal experiences? They must have challenged much of what you thought you knew? Or maybe not? Did you have to adjust your beliefs to make sense of things? Or do you acknowledge there is a rational explanation for each event? Just curious how you have changed with these experiences (something I noticed you hadn't mentioned in the OP.)

Very interesting nonetheless!

I can't help but wonder if spirits or entities (or whatever they are) choose to present themselves only to certain people. Sounds like they simply want your attention.

I've had quite a few encounters in my house also. I came face to face with a ghost in the middle of the night. I'm an atheist and ghosts go against everything I believe in. I still have a hard time rationalizing it. I've come to the conclusion they do exist.

I'm not the only one that has seen ghosts in my house. My cousin lives with me and he's had encounters also.

I was laying in bed one night and couldn't sleep. I got up to go to the bathroom and there was someone standing at the end of my hallway. I jumped 2 feet off the ground because I thought it was an intruder and it startled the hell out of me. I went into kick ass mode and was ready to rip someones head off. I went charging down the hallway at full steam and got face to face with it. It literally disappeared right in front of my eyes.

My cousin was in the computer room and he felt someone touch his shoulder. He thought it was me and when he turned around no one was there.

I went into the kitchen and grabbed a soda one night and when I returned 5 minutes later all of the cabinet doors were open.

Lights are consistently turned on when I know I've turned them off.

Stuff likes the fall all the time in my house. One night I was in the computer room home alone. There were some old iron bed rails that sat in the corner of the basement untouched for 10 years or so. They were heavy and couldn't move on their own. One night I'm sitting there and I heard a loud smash in the basement. It scared the hell out of me I was afraid to go down there. When I finally got the courage to the bed rails had fallen over and smashed most of my fishing poles.

Sometimes in my house I'm just sitting here and I get this overwhelming feeling that there is something in the room with me. It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I hate going into my basement at night.

I've had people say to me "you should try to make contact". All I have to say is F- that. I hope when I move what ever it is it stays here. I don't even like to acknowledge what ever it is that's here.

a reply to: Vrill

That's some pretty weird events! Thanks for sharing with us.

Your friend has a ghost... simple. Could be the former owner, or it could be a family member checking on someone.
Animals will also come back to visit us. Do you know if he or his girlfriend had a cat to die? If not, then probably the cat of the former owner/renter.

My question to all of you posting here is, why have I not seen any of you posting in my paranormal thread?
(Click on my signature)

a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha


Hi there. Sorry for the late reply. Ive been extra busy.

Yes, very much so. It challenged my entire belief system. I was a "Have to see it to believe it" kind of guy before these incidents took place. So it shook me to the core for a few days, then all at once I just realized that "holy hell, ghosts and hauntings are real!"

Some of the incidents took me quite a while to wrap my head around. I am not afraid to discuss my experiences either unlike some folks are.

Honestly, now I am very interested in starting a Paranormal Ghost Hunting group where I live. The subject fascinates the hell out of me now.

Finally I get around to your thread,I actually logged in only to reply here,but got distracted by some "mayhem and foolishness" as Niecy Nash would say:-)

Well this is interesting,as a person who has experienced paranormal acitivity of some kind or the other since early childhood,I love reading other members' experiences,thanks for sharing,s+f.

The cat was neat! Well I'm obsessed with cats,so for me personally that would've been an cool experience,and awe-inspiring instead of scary.My daughter saw the ghost/spectre of a much beloved cat of mine with me on my bed one night,a while after this cat had dissappeared,never to be seen again,which left me heartbroken and in tears for weeks.Now in life,this cat absolutely Doted on me:-) one specific day I woke up feeling really drained+sickly,and spent the day in bed.A friend+her kids were staying with us at the time,and she told me that this cat spent All day with me ,and seemed so concerned,he would nudge my face with his nose,stalked up+down next to my sleeping form,she said it was a wonderful thing to see,like he was trying to nurse me.I was half-unconscious all day,but next day I was right as rain+she told me this.

So after his dissappearance,one day I felt sickly again,and spent the day in bed again.My daughter told me some time afterwards,that in the evening she came to say goodnight to me,before she had to go into bed,the usual hugs and kisses-but stopped short at my room's doorway.Because on my bed,was Spaceman,my dearly beloved lost cat-and she said his eyes were glowing red,so this scared her,and she just left off saying goodnight and went to ther room,her father was home,so was not unduly terrrified,but she said she did'nt want to disturb the spectral cat.Why she did'nt tell her father,I don't know.She's a very stoical person,though,so maybe she just accepted it as one of those things.In that house,we had many strange things going on,I slept in the room wher the previous owner had died of a heart attack,in the master bedroom.

I would sense a presence standing in the doorway looking at me,my oldest daughter heard footsteps in the kitchen some nights,just like the shuffling footsteps of an elderly person in slippers.The owner who passed was on was in fact an elderly lady.Those were the benign experiences,there were terrifying malign others also,metaphysical in nature,but they were of a different variety,not of the spirit world,not the "ghostly" variety,but worse.They don't apply to this thread,though.

In the house I grew up in,which incidentally was built on top of a very old graveyard,meters away from an old deconsecrated church,the menacing presences I always felt looming over me,was Very very scary.Still I tried to not let on I'm noticing,I had from early childhood,age 3-4,a very strong feeling that it's best to ignore them,or at least to make it seem like I was oblivious of their presence.I"m a sensitive/empath,so maybe on some deep intuitive/subconscious level,it was an instinctive coping mechanism.One cannot ignore it but you can act like you're oblivious to them.I remember when my mother would send me to fetch something in the lounge,as a tiny kiddie,I would be feeling them/it next to me down the hallway,and I would hum a tune,or sing,to make it seem I was totally unaffected.Later as I grew into my teen years,I could still feel them/it but by that tine,it did'nt bother me much at all,I was so used to unseen presences it was practically second nature.

In that house,my mother would wake up to the sound of knocking coming from inside her wardrobe,then after waking she could hear it slowly taper off+fade away.She once felt an invisible cat walking on her bed ,one night when she was alone in the house,I was sleeping over at a friend+all the family members were out of town or visiting friends.That really scared her,I guess it must be very freaky to experience.

When I was small I would come to the kitchen after she'd put me to bed,and I would tell her my father was home,why does'nt he come out of their room,she must go fetch him because I want to say hi.He worked as a farm manager about 100 miles away,and seldom came home,so I would be very excited.I was too small and short to reach the door handle-which was a good thing-because she would go into their room,put the light on-and there was of course no one.Yet I would insist I heard him in ther,opening drawers,moving things around etc.

After his death she remarried and they moved,renting a house on a farm outside the neighbouring suburb to the one I grew up in.One night while visiting and sleeping over for the nigh,I heard someone rummage through the cutlery drawer in the kitchen.I was sleeping in the room closest to the kitchen,they wereway down the hallway at the furthest end of the house.This sound freaked me out,as I knew they were both asleep+we 3 were the only people in the house that night.So when I heard it distinctly a second time,I switched on my lamp and went down the hallway,to their room-and indeed they were both fast asleep.I did'nt sleep the rest of the night:-) I kept thinking to myself "ghosts with butcher knives" :-) a reply to: Vrill

a reply to: Vrill

It almost reminds me of a time warp.

Like you were picking up on future or past activity with the voices and the cat and shadows.
The girl in the red shirt too.

Perhaps you are somehow caught in the flow of a cross timeline.

What I mean is (just entertaining a thought here) that time is like a tapestry of interwoven electrified threads,
and sometimes the threads will touch and generate the occurrence on that thread, and if you are sensitive enough, you will be able to hear and pick up on what is happening on that timeline in that space.

Kind of a weird thought,
but that is what I am getting from your story and my own "guide".

No matter what, it certainly is an interesting story, thank you for sharing it.
s&f