A desperate knock at the door

Let me preface this by stating that I am generally a skeptic as regards paranormal occurrences, but that the multiple witnesses to the phenomenon I am going to describe, and the strange circumstances which surround it, have forced me to question whether the explanation lies outside the usual realm of reason.

Three years ago, in December of 2006, three friends and I were sitting in my living room, playing a game. It was evening, around seven o'clock. Suddenly, there was a loud series of knocks at the back door of my house (which is the one we use most commonly, and through which visitors who know us always enter); five quick, sharp raps were sounded. I walked to the door, expecting it to be another visitor, but nobody was there. I returned to the living room and resumed my game, assuming that it was some kids playing a prank.

About twenty minutes later, give or take, the same pattern of knocks occurred again. This time, I was much quicker getting to the door, hoping to catch the pranksters in the act. There was nobody there, and upon searching the back yard (which is fenced in) and the driveway (which is the only way of leaving the yard), I found no sign of an intruder. There was nobody on the sidewalks within sight of the house, either.

When I returned to the house, I decided to wait in the kitchen, out of sight of the door, to see if the knocks would occur a third time. They did; after another short span of time, the five loud knocks were beaten out again. I immediately stepped in front of the door and threw open the window-sash; nobody was there, or within view, and nobody could have left so quickly that I would not have seen or heard them making their escape. I was well and truly scared by this, and decided to remain in the kitchen until the knocks happened again, but they did not; after most of an hour, I gave up my vigil, and my friends and I returned to our game, albeit somewhat shaken.

We put the incident out of our minds for some time, until October of 2007, when it happened again. Once again, we were in the living room, and once again, there were five very loud raps on the door in very rapid succession. I investigated outside and once again found nothing. The raps did not happen again that evening, so once again, I put it out of mind.

This morning, I was awoken at 6:30 AM by my mother, who had not been present for either of the previous instances of these knocks, and whom I had never told anything about them. She was visibily shaken, and informed me that as she entered the room with the door in question to take the dogs out, she had heard five loud, angry or desperate-sounding knocks on the door. I asked her to try to repeat them by banging on the door herself, and she did, producing a sound exactly like what I had heard.

There was nobody outside, and indeed, nobody could have seen my mother enter the room through the door, the window in which is obscured by a sash of opaque fabric. This has never happened in the morning before (to my knowledge), and it did not happen again, although I remained in the room waiting for some time.

What is going on? Have any of you experienced anything like this? My family is frightened by the occurrences; my sister, who witnessed the first two knockings, believes that the unseen visitor is my father, who passed away two months before the first incident. I am not so sure; he was a patient, even-tempered man, and the rappings at the door speak of desperation or even anger.

I am not scared by these events; I am curious. If any of you have any input, please let me know.

Im sorry ive never had an extreme case like that happen but i can tell you that

I used to live in house very close to a huge cementary. On many days around the same time when i was the only one home noon time, in the kitchen i would here a knocking on wood maybe one of the cabinets in the kitchen. At first i thought it was the door once, then it kept happening. It kept happening so much on different days i came to accept it and got the feeling it was just the same ghost passing through and it was his/her way of saying hello.

It happened one time when a buddy of mine was over and he got freaked out lol, while i laughed. I told him it happens very often and not to be freaked out. `

Yours sounds like an extreme case of this

Did these knocking sounds come in threes? If so, then that's bad news. Three sharp knocks is a sign from the spirit world that something bad is going to happen.

Personally, I think you're being warned about something. Take the spirit's advice, look for signs.

smits who are you addressing? Topic creator said 5 sharp knocks

mine were random, sometimes it would be only one series of knocks, the one time i got scared when it first started happening it kept happening almost like the spirit was toying with me or getting a thrill out of scaring me. After that i never got scared again and thought if it as a friendly was to say hello and it happend for at least a year and a half after, it became normal to me.

When i go back to the USA i will be going back to that same house to live and im sure it will still be there.

I had a similar experience around 10 years ago in an old rented property. Myself and a couple of friends had noticed a few odd occurrences after moving into the house, we had all experienced feelings of a "shadow" person moving near us whilst alone in the house, or caught a similar apparition walking into to rooms as you walked past, but when you did a double take and looked again - nothing.

One room in particular seemed to hold most of this paranormal energy, and unfortunately it was my bedroom

Most nights as I was just going into a deeper sleep I would hear a sharp double tap on either of the windows in the room, but always sounding like it was on the inside, not the outside. Checks outdoors would reveal nothing, the house was enclosed in high walls and a locked gate so it would have been very difficult to get in quickly and disappear without trace. The tappings would occur almost always as I was just about to go to sleep, as if to keep me awake. When I finally did get to sleep, I had very vivid dreams of a man tied to a chair in the room, two men circling him for a few seconds and then one of the men pulls a weapon and shoots the person in the chair. These dreams were also characterised by scenes of blood pouring from the walls (I kid you not - its was like something out of The Shining). During this time other people who stayed over and crashed also complained of a shadow like man standing over them as they woke up suddenly in the night - who would then disappear. These events continued for around 6-9 months, including a night a girlfriends stayed over, I returned home later than her to find her half asleep in bed asking me to "tell the man in the room to stop waking her up" - it was at this time I basically asked the spirit to just move on and let us be, or if they wanted help to leave a sign or something.... within a few days the entity settled down and over the next few days disappeared without trace. Naturally I was intrigued by this so did some research and found out the house had been a brothel many years past and an illegal gambling house - maybe somebody didn't pay their debts???

Interesting and the only genunine paranormal experience I've had as far as I know.

I've experienced something quite similar to this, but I won't go into details as I don't have the time or energy to type out the story again (a quick search in my posting history will show the story). I will say that it involved several loud knocks on my bathroom door while I was in it. Just as you described I quickly opened the door, but no one was there. It happened about three times until a note passed under the door and it read "I used to live here x years ago, you are going to die tomorrow". Needless to say I was scared out of my mind. The way the note was propelled under the door was unearthly. It literally flew in. And I can recall hearing the writing before the note came in. Opened the door, and no one. Couldn't have been a prank as no one was with me at the time. I also seem to recall the lights flickering quite deliberately before the incident occurred. I called my pastor and he told me to burn the note, and said there were some 'evil forces' trying to scare me. I for one till this day believe it was a poltergeist. I remember going online and discussing the ordeal in a chat that involves such things, and they told me it was a mischievous demon that I let in the house by doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing. Funny enough, I was doing exactly what they said leads to such infestation. It shook my very foundation and opened me to the spirit world. Needless to say, if you're spiritual, just say a prayer to ward off any negative spirits that may be in your house. Do that and don't be too frightened. They will scare you, but they won't physically harm you. They're just looking for your attention, and there is something within your vicinity that is drawing them to you. Still, try some prayers to see if that helps.

I have experienced knocking like this. Try knocking back immediately in the I same pattern. I did this for a few months, even starting the knocking myself upon entering my studio. The whatever it was, would respond in kind. It was rather cool. This eventually led to a wonderful 3 week experience for me. On the other hand. We eventually moved to another house. I built a studio in the garage and the knocking resumed in this new location. However, in my zeal to maybe enjoy the prior exeperience I had, I failed to notice the slight difference in the rhythm of the knocking. I invited the "knocker" into my studio. The result was not good, but was short lived.

I think this ghost may have been waiting for an invite, so that it could deliberately do whatever it wanted in your house. Some spirits are clever, clever, clever individuals.

reply to post by The Parallelogram


So, what's the situation now? Has the knocking stopped?
Has anything unusual or "dramatic" happened in your life time since this began?

Yes as long as the knocking doesnt seem precise you may just be dealing with a regular spirt.

Could it have been a woodpecker?

genuine question, not trying to be smart.

Originally posted by locster
Could it have been a woodpecker?

genuine question, not trying to be smart.

I know it was a genuine question, but I still had to laugh.

Only a few days ago a cousin and I were wondering about a series of strange, sharp knocking sounds just beyond the terrace where we were sitting. I went and fetched a pair of binoculars: and sure enough, it was a woodpecker, trying to knock down a pine tree, by the appearance of it...
It's surprising because neither of us had ever seen or heard a woodpecker in a city garden.

So, yes, it definitely can happen.
But I don't think this was the case here.






[edit on 25-10-2009 by Vanitas]

Nothing strange lately, but then again, the two earlier events were more than two years apart. I only decided it was worth making a thread about when it happened a second time, in precisely the same manner as the first.

And I doubt it's a woodpecker; the sound was much too forceful, and I haven't seen (or heard) many of them at all since moving to North Carolina.

when i first moved to my apartment, i experienced a few things.

first thing, i had left dvds on a chair, and in the morning, they were wet. neither me nor my girlfriend were aware that we spilled anything on or near the chair, and we weren't even drinking water (that's what it appeared to be)

a week or so later, clothes were found across the room from where i left them...although i admit couldve been my own doing but not remembering.

the most frequent would be flickering lights and a tapping on the roof when i knew for a fact no one was there. it happened more often when i was angry/annoyed, almost like it was feeding off of me. one time it got to the point where it was making me even more mad, i yelled at it, and it stopped. i later apologized and heard the tapping in a lighter manner...i'm guessing it accepted my apology.

my advice though is not to go inviting it in in any manner. it could be nice, but if it's a mischievous, that's just asking for trouble. hope it all turns out well.

and if not, find a holy man to bless your place....whether you believe or not..that always seems to work.

I've had a similar experience.

I made a thread about it! I was in my bedroom, and heard loud knocks at my bedroom door.

I was the only one in the house and I have creaky floorboards, so no-one could have done it as a prank!

Spooky, but it could just be your Father trying to communicate and getting frustrated that he can't.... Just a thought!

tO

reply to post by The Parallelogram




No, I didn't think it was a woodpecker, either: they don't usually knock on doors... do they?

Anyway, it may be a good idea to keep the mind and the spirit totally open and calm (like you seem to be doing)... and in that state of mind, if it happens again, maybe try to communicate with "it".
(By that I don't mean any procedures or even words. When the mind is in a state of calm awareness, coupled with a total absence of expectations, information finds ways to reach us directly, so to speak.)

And, maybe, if you happen to perceive there is a "presence" of some sort, it might be a good idea to heed the advice of others here, to have the house "blessed" or whatever ritual is found to be helpful.

Personally I don't think it's a haunting of any kind.
Then again... what do I know?





[edit on 26-10-2009 by Vanitas]

reply to post by TheOmen


I've heard about such experiences before.
Maybe it would be a good idea to collect them all in a single thread, so people can "compare notes".

Originally posted by TheOmen
I was in my bedroom, and heard loud knocks at my bedroom door.

I was the only one in the house and I have creaky floorboards, so no-one could have done it as a prank!

That certainly is strange, considering that in your case the knocks were on a door inside the house. That would rule out a prankster much more readily than I can do in my own case.

Originally posted by Vanitas
Personally I don't think it's a haunting of any kind.
Then again... what do I know?

Except for having been there yourself, you know as much as I do I'm very open to the possibility of a rational, non-supernatural explanation for these events; that's why I made this thread.

I'm more puzzled than anything regarding what happened. Any explanation at all would be satisfying; I'm just trying to gather all the opinions and perspective I can.





Thanks to everyone for sharing their related experiences, and their theories on my own. If anything else of interest happens, I'll post about it.

I had a similar experience and it turned out to be my Plumbing. The pipes would make very loud distinctive knocks in rapid succession.

Just a thought.

I have heard tapping and dishes settling for years. The only time that I feel very uneasy is when it gets dark. It has taken years to make myself calm and unafraid. When I was younger my bedroom door never latched shut. It would come open and close moving about 1 inch for quite a while, maybe 5 or more minutes when I was trying to sleep. My brother use to be able to see the Ora of spirits (he told me that he can't anymore but I think he is lying to me) and he said there was a very big red spirit outside my door. This came after we messed with the Ouija board, and when I would go into my room it would follow me, he said. It's like it was waiting for me. My room was cooler than the other rooms upstairs by a lot while it was burning up in the summer. I asked the spirit to make my room a little cooler so it made my room much hotter than the rest.
Well, I moved about 20 times since then and it seems like I am being followed now. I always see a large shadow at my closet door every time I get a new room, and I use to see a huge shadow outside my studio when It was dark in the hallway. I have moved again and it is still here, I do not think my boyfriend feels it. I told him about it a long time ago, but he never said that he didn't believe me and he doesn't seem worried.
Things are pretty calm not, I always hear ticks or small noises in the kitchen when I am in the living room, but when I am in there I do not hear these things. Sometimes I see something out of the corner of my eye in the day, and shadows in dark corners at night, usually only in the bedroom next to the closet. But I am relatively not bothered, Just feel kinda creepy at night when I feel like I am being followed around the house.
I moved into a different house another time and I think there was something different in that house. I stayed in the basement and I felt so so followed when I was going upstairs. It creeped me out. I told my roommate about it and she said yeah, just ask them to stop because they actually get more freaked out because they do not think that you know they are there. I did ask him to stop following me, and he stopped. I would say hi to it when I would come in and I always felt that it was in the corner by the wood bench that was there when we moved in so that is where I spoke to. I just felt watched, never harassed.
My cats do not seem bothered at all, they are just always trying to sit on me and sleep with me, but that is normal for cats. I had 2, one ran away, and the other had kittens. The mom died and there are still 4 kittens. Soon we will only have 1, but my point is that they are not bothered, and they will be 5 months soon.
From what I have heard, and do not quote me, but animals can see things like this. I have been told by 2 people that it is evil, by bro and my old roommate, but my cats are not bothered. This helps to comfort me. I rarely feel crazy in the day because everything seems to subside.
What time of day did this happen to you? I agree that it was good that you did not respond to it, and that if this ever happens again that you should ignore it. Trying to communicate is not a good idea. If you recognize that it is there you should only tell it to leave and that it died. Ask it to leave you in peace and pray to God. I was told to stand in my front door and point outside and say, "This is my house and you are not welcome here. I want you to leave." I hope that you live in peace, but keep this in mind in case you are ever bothered. Even if it is evil you should not have any worries. Spirits cannot hurt you in most cases. I have heard of some before, but a lot of this is exaggerations. I am not saying that it does not happen, just don't believe everything you hear and be careful and don't play with the Ouija Board.