Ghost Story

This is really my attempt to lay down in writing the only paranormal experience that I can say that I've ever had. That this event happened about 22 years ago, and that it may not be considered an actual paranormal event by some people doesn't bother me. The story I'm telling here is true as best as my memory serves me, and the other person involved has corroborated all the happenings many times over the years whenever this story has came up in conversation. A recent discussion with a colleague brought this tale once more to my mind, we were talking about the power of our imaginations and how we can sometimes give ourselves the creeps and get a spooky feeling just by thinking of ghosts or the paranormal or whatever(the relevance of this will be evident later).

Anyway I'll recount the story. When I was around 18 years old I was dating a girl from a very rural part of my country(Ireland), I was living in Dublin and she was from 'out west', it was the beginning of a long relationship, and at the time of the 'events to be described' I had only traveled to her neck of the woods one time previously. My girlfriend had a couple of single friends, so myself and three companions mounted an expedition to go and visit with them for a weekend. One of the girls had the keys to a unoccupied relatives house that was about a mile or so outside the village they all were from. So the scene was set for some teenage revelry as you can imagine.

We arrived in the village by bus on a friday evening, met the girls in a pub, had a few drinks and left at closing time. We walked the mile out to this house we were staying in, it was a long dark walk, no street lights here. When we arrived and let ourselves in, the girl whose relatives owned the house informed us that it had been her uncles home and that he had died some time previously, she said he had been an old man living there on his own for quite some time before he passed away. The house itself was a relatively new-ish house, it was a bungalow probably built sometime in the early eighties, not like most of the other houses in the area which were older. We settled in the sitting room and got the fire going.

Now, I'm not going to lie here, we had brought quite an amount of booze with us, beer and cider, none of us drank hard liquor, but enough that were were all roaring, shouting and singing until the wee hours that night. Seeing that myself and my girlfriend were the only couple there we were awarded the largest room with a double bed to sleep in. And sleep we did, well into the next day. This is where I can say that the creepy-ness comes into my story. I had the distinct and disturbing feeling of being watched as I lay in that bed, even to the point that I felt that the 'watcher' was standing at the foot of the bed looking down at the two of us(this is something that I didn't mention to my girlfriend at the time). Again, I'll be honest, my main concern during that time was the fact that my girlfriend and I were sharing a double bed for the first time, and not much else. In this sense it wasn't until the days afterwards that I had time to analyze the event and feelings that occurred in this house. The feeling of being watched was one that I ignored at the time, but it was an odd feeling that I had never experienced before, or after, ever.

The next evening followed the same plan..pub, long walk back to the house, everyone sitting around the fire partying well into the night, except that this time our numbers had swelled by a few more people.

My girlfriend had had enough to drink and was quite drunk. I helped her down the hallway to our room, took her shoes off and put her in the bed, I remember it being quite chilly in the house in general but the room seemed very cold. She got into be full clothed. I sat with her for a few minutes, and she seemed to slip off to sleep quickly enough, I turned off the light and went across the hallway to use the bathroom. While i was in the bathroom I heard her mumbling, and I had a quick look in to see was she ok, she seemed asleep. I then left to return to the party at the other end of the house. As I was walking along the hallway I suddenly heard my girlfriend talking, there were gaps in what she was saying as if she was having a conversation with another person. I stopped and listened. Her voice sounded calm and drowsy, like somebody talking in their sleep. Suddenly she started to speak louder and with a tone of alarm, then she started yelling "who is that?" and then "(my name), is that you?" and it sounded like she was struggling, this was then followed by her screaming my name for help. Needless to say I was there in a jiffy, I found her sitting up in the bed confused and distraught. She asked me if I had been in the room all the time with her, she said that somebody who she had initially thought was me was whispering to her and then began to grab at her aggressively and that she felt that she had to fight this person off. We both were tired, we were both drunk, so we didn't put too much thought into all this, we went to sleep. The next day again I had the unshakable feeling of being stared at from the foot of the bed.

For me the one thing that sticks in my mind all these years later was the feeling of being watched. I didn't go into that house thinking of ghosts or anything remotely paranormal, I was there to party, and it was a place for all of us to sleep, that was it. It was only retrospectively that I began to think that there may have been something going on in that room. Yes my girlfriend was inebriated at the time, but we subsequently had a long relationship, living together, and I never saw or heard her behave like that afterwards. She, to this day, can remember the almost suffocating feeling of somebody whispering, muttering and pawing at her in the dark, and how she initially thought it was me, then the realization that it was not.

I don't think that my feelings of being watched in that room were 'self induced', they were something that I believe I actually kind of suppressed at the time, but they were definitely something I noticed due to the very odd sensation they gave me, and again, I have never felt that feeling since, it was quite unique.

So, did we experience the paranormal? I really don't know. What do you think?

I dunno if it is or isn't but I like clicking on a thread and seeing a wall of text with thought and purpose, Interesting story, Thank you..

S & F

reply to post by seabhac-rua


I'm with Slayer, we don't see enough text on ATS these days.
Snf

For the sake of comment.
My opinion of anything paranormal comes from scripture.

reply to post by seabhac-rua


Outstanding! Thanks for sharing that. Of course the experience was real. The kind of experience that people report often enough.

I used to rent rooms in a house. People responded to adds in the paper. None of them knew each other beforehand. I got several reports of somebody waking people up in the middle of the night. One guy told me it was a women shaking him awake, telling him he had to leave, right now.

Others said they heard someone in the room with them or heard shuffling footsteps in the kitchen when nobody was home. I myself heard this phenomenon the last day I was there. I was alone in the house.

Over the years the stories added up from complete strangers that never met but who reported the same things over the 8 years I stayed there. Cost me a lot of money running adds to replace roommates that suddenly left.

I remember asking the old man next door if he knew who lived there before and he said an old woman owned the place and died there. "That place is haunted you know?" Well thanks of telling me sooner! Any way, your story has some of the same elements.

Reminded me of my experience.

reply to post by intrptr

Thanks for your comment.

It's almost as if you had a bad tenant who made the others leave, except they were invisible.

You've actually reminded me of another strange story I've heard recently. Not long ago I bumped into a woman whom I was in school with when I was a child, she is a single mom now with two young daughters. She told me that she and her two girls had moved into a house that is next door to the house I grew up in. Her youngest daughter, who is nearly 3 years old, keeps asking her "who is the woman with the scary face?" The little girl is seeing a woman around the house and she is frightened of her. My friend asked me who used to live in there when I had lived next door(when my family moved in to this residence all the houses were new so all the occupants on our street were the first to live in these buildings). I remembered the family who had lived next door to us well, the same house my friend is living in now. The mother of that family is now deceased, I remember her having a disfigured face from a disease she had, she was a nice lady but she had very bad OCD. When i told this to my friend, her jaw hit the floor. Her child is seeing this woman, but nobody else, neither my friend or her other daughter, sees her. Even typing this now, it makes me feel sad.

reply to post by seabhac-rua

It's almost as if you had a bad tenant who made the others leave, except they were invisible.

For whatever reason they are still there and still lay claim to "their" house. As weird and as seeming without purpose, those are the reports.

Don't ask me to explain why suddenly across America it seems more and more people report this odd phenomenon of being driven out of their homes by "others" who, it turns out used to live or work there. Another odd thing seems to be the "occupants" have the same traits in death they did in life. If they hated women, thats who is afflicted, if they hated kids they scare the kids.

Like if they were selfish in real life they are still that way, possessive of their house, for instance.

They have not learned anything and retain their position, trapped in their domicile, unable to do anything mostly except stare at the intruders in their space. Maybe thats why people feel they are being watched. Its spiritual on a minimum energy budget (or something like that).

Every time I hear another tale of that sort of thing it has the same parallels. We don't know each other, your tale of the parties and the bedroom spook was a long time ago, far away and yet matches so well. Besides which you said that it only happened there. Same with mine.

reply to post by seabhac-rua


Sorry, replying twice to your post…

When i told this to my friend, her jaw hit the floor. Her child is seeing this woman, but nobody else, neither my friend or her other daughter, sees her. Even typing this now, it makes me feel sad.

You tell her to tell that lady to back off and stop scaring her daughter. Tell her to state in loud terms, this is my house now. If you want to remain, fine, but you leave my daughter alone from now on.

Its a kind of owning your space. Sometimes it takes the whole family, sometimes it doesn't stop and requires more action. Sometimes you have to periodically remind spooks like you would a real prankster person that likes to jump out and say boo! They are real people too, just no longer in bodies.

Its not hopeless though there are steps to take to give her and her family peace.

reply to post by seabhac-rua


While I have never experienced anything like this and don't believe things til' I do, I still enjoy a thought out thread. Thanks for posting.

Too bad you didn't ask your girlfriend at the time whether her uncle was a known weirdo(pervert). Who knows what happened but if it had happened to me I'd probably be creeped out as well. If there is some phenomena in the world and it was her uncle maybe he had some kind of weird obsession with her and didn't like you in bed with her.

Just a thought.

reply to post by seabhac-rua

Interesting story,thanks for sharing.I know it very well,that feeling of being stared at,from earliest childhood memories.I used to feel watched from the sky too,but that was something different altogether-the watching that made me afraid,was inside the house I grew up in.I was adopted as a baby,by people who lived in a really creepy old house,which stood on a graveyard,right up next to a deconsecrated church.From earliest memory,I felt an invisible presence/maybe several presences, lurking around me,watching-and I actually got a physical feeling from it.In all my time on the net,and in all the books on I've read(concerning the subject of real people's experiences with the supernatural)I have never come across someone who felt it the way I did-i am always hoping that one day I Will come across someone who experienced the same physical reaction to a malevolent spirit,just because it is an interesting thing-i would get this really extremely weird physical sensation in my throat,not an itch,or a scratch or pain-just a weird but very strong physical sensation,like a pressure,almost.When I was a few years older than a toddler,I started thinking of it as the "hysterical" feeling.

Because I had to live in that house,I guess I could'nt go around screaming,weeping or making a fuss every time I sensed this thing(s) near me,that would've helped me none+i knew that,even as a small kid.My parents were never gonna move from there because the rent was so cheap+they liked that the house came with enough space for veggie gardens,a poultry run,etc.This house was on the property of my father's employer,in an area that had become industrial,and they liked the fact that the previous tenant was a lifelong friend,the Freemason who facilitated their adopting me,incidentally.So I jolly well had to put up with the unseen presence(s) that terrified me.When I felt it near,I think my terror and aversion concentrated as that physical "hysterical" pressure feeling in my throat.Also,I just somehow knew,to pretend to ignore this thing was best,it was what I should do,and I was a funny kid in my own way,I would never,never give it the satisfaction of acknowledging it or letting it see I was afraid.When my mother sent me for instance,to the lounge to fetch something for her,even in daylight hours,I would sing to myself,walking down the hallway,into the lounge+back again,though
I was crap scared,I could feel the weight of that stare-it felt Heavy,if you can imagine what I'm trying to describe.

No matter where I lived,I have always had strange+sometimes extremely frightening things happen,though the truly terrifying experiences which almost drove me to a nervous breakdown,was thankfully confned to one house,in a certain city in my country.There was an old lady who died in the room I picked for me+the hubby,and my oldest daughter would often hear shuffling footsteps in the kitchen at night.I felt the old lady's spirit staring at me from the doorway of the bedroom on occasion,too-but she was never a problem for us,just a lingering presence.There was a lot of satanism+satanic activity in that neighbourhood+i was targeted for tormenting+frightening,maybe because my hubby was almost never home(contract work) and i was alone with 2 young girls,idk but there was a campaign against me to terrify me,and make my life a misery,from the satanic folks,there was the old lady's spirit,the least of my worries,and another aspect of the metaphysical which I'm not going to include because it has nothing to do with ghosts.So yeah that was a hellish time of my life,that I would be very hard
pressed to wish upon Hitler even.

In the house where we live now,out in the African Bush,I have felt that entity(ies) that cause the hysterical throat pressure-feeling,but I have always ignored it.Well,I would stare straight at where I sensed it to be+settle in more comfily into my couch,as if to say:'Well stand there,then,I am watching my show,watch me till you're tired of watching,I just don't care anymore" It has'nt been back for more than 3 years now,incidentally,maybe who knows,it Did get bored of watching,or maybe I have become really boring even to a spirit


Other things that happened here is groceries items throwing themselves off the kichen table,cutlery jumping out of the drying rack while my hubby+i were right there in the kitchen,my silver rings have a habit of dissapearing never to be seen again,so although I love silver+gemstone rings,I never get attached to a piece anymore,after being heartbroken over a lovely chalcedony ring that my hubby bought me.I think it is the person that is haunted sometimes,not the places.If "haunted" is even the right word,but for this specfic thread that word will suffice.And in places,for instance,the old graveyard house+the suburb where satanic activity was rife,it amplifies one's personal haunting.Well that's my theory,anyway

Interesting story, I won't say paranormal or not.
But if there is paranormal, I could see anything paranormal being pissed at young people getting drunk/parting with no sense of worth or respect to a home that is not theirs.

saying goes, paranormal can feed off of your actions, if this saying is true then there may have been something you all made angry.

Hopefully you all didn't leave the house in a wreck when it was time to leave.

reply to post by Raxoxane


Wow, you certainly have had an unusual life. I'm glad to hear that you are able to deal with this seemingly ongoing presence. It seems that something is 'attached' to you. Have you ever thought of trying to remove that attachment with the help of a priest for example?

mysteryskeptic
Interesting story, I won't say paranormal or not.
But if there is paranormal, I could see anything paranormal being pissed at young people getting drunk/parting with no sense of worth or respect to a home that is not theirs.

saying goes, paranormal can feed off of your actions, if this saying is true then there may have been something you all made angry.

Hopefully you all didn't leave the house in a wreck when it was time to leave.

Yeah, I've often thought about that. As far as I remember the uncle had passed away in that house, and probably in the very bed we were sleeping in. We didn't wreck the place, the girl who's family owned the place was there all the time with the rest of us, and although there was a couple of 'headbangers' amongst our ranks everybody was cool, nobody was being a dick. But we weren't tiptoeing around either, and essentially we were unsupervised teenagers having fun. The thought that somebody would not be too happy about us intruding upon what had been his home and his place of passing had only occurred to me years afterwards.

reply to post by seabhac-rua

Hi,thanks for your reply to my post,i sent you a u2u message,a happy day to you and yours

reply to post by seabhac-rua

This reminds me of something that happened to my adoptive mother's youngest son and his cousin,which was her husband's nephew.

My father was a farm manager,and he had a whole house to himself,about 4 bedrooms if i recall correctly,which was nice,we would go there for holidays and some weekends.Incidentally,he would often tell us about weird things that happened in that house when he was there alone.For instance,he would be having his evening tea before bed,sitting by the kitchen table,and suddenly a plate that had been in the drying-rack,would suddenly fall out of the air+shatter next to the table.He used to tell me all the farmworkers would be sure to be in their homes before nightfall,because as his dear friend,a labourer on the farm, told him:"they say the devil walks around here after dark"

Well there was another farmer who shared farming+responsibilities with him,they were lovely people,the man+his wife,i remember+he agreed that one holiday,when they went away somewhere for a change,he would house-sit for them,feed the pets,etc.My mother and i were there too,we slept in their guest cottage meters from the house.My adoptive brother and his cousin,my dad's nephew,arrived one day during that period, to spend a day or 2 there also,so they went to my dad's house to sleep over there,the guest cottage was small for 5 of us.

Sometime in the late eve/night we were woken up by a hammering on the door of the cottage,i woke up too,and bleary-eyed walked to the door,i remember my brother was very upset,but my mother sent me back to bed.I asked her+my dad the next morning what the trouble was with Will+John,and they told me that my brother(who was clairvoyant,btw) was getting ready to fall asleep,when he sensed something,and opening his eyes,he saw a man sitting on the bed,with his back turned to him.He saw too,that it was not his cousin John,but a spirit/ghost/apparition,and then as he still stared dumbfounded,the spectre began slowly to turn around,and that's when he bolted,woke John in hysterical fear,and they did'nt even use his car parked outside,they were so terrified they ran the shortish distance to the house where we were,in the dark.

I have to say,i felt creeped-out in that house,but i never had any strange or scary experiences there,like my dad+brother,still i did sense a presence,but no more creepy than in our own house.

That brother has a lot of trouble since childhood,my mother told me when he was still a kiddy,they lived in a small town in my country called Bot River:
www.guywithcamera.co.za...
It was not the yuppie get-away town it is now,anyway,but there was a cemetery they had to walk past on her way to the shop,or wherever they wanted to go,he was still a toddler but could walk-when they passed this cemetery,he would often get hysterical and scream+beg her to pick him up,point in the direction of the cemetery,and scream:"The thing is coming,look the thing,pick me up!"Used to freak her out.I often wonder,he turned into a hopeless alkie soon after graduating from high school,he was a very deeply troubled man,with a lot of anger and hostility,i wonder if it was not that the clairvoyancy and the things he saw drove him to alcoholism because he could sleep better at night when sozzled? A sad life,anyway,i don't even know what became of him,i lost contact because he never returned my calls or letters,i did try,but he was'nt interested,then he moved away.I hope he finds/found some peace towards the end of his life,if still alive he is almost an elderly man now.