Ghost Stories & Experiences

[Winterchild]

After reading some haunting tales on another thread, and to avoid further hijacking of that thread, I thought I would start this. I haven't found another recent thread like it, although there may be some out there.

Anyway..... with the recent advent of the Ghosts & Spirits Tarot and the coming of the haunting season, I thought it would be interesting to share our own ghost stories and experiences.

I have never actually seen a ghost, but have experienced strange happenings that cannot be explained in any more rational earthly way.

 

[DaisyDragonfly]

My grandmother had a ghost story she told me.

When she was little, she, her twin sister and her younger sister used to stay with their grandmother, who lived in a cottage up in Lanarkshire. The grandmother's family had lived in that cottage for generations and my grandmother remembered it as a beautiful place, covered with roses and next to a lake.

One night, she was with her sisters in the bedroom they all shared, talking of the day and the fun they had and would have. Hearing footsteps outside their room, they stopped talking: they should have been asleep a long time ago!

The footsteps didn't move on, though. They stopped outside the door. My grandma watched as the door handle moved down and the door swung open...

...and then swung closed. The door handle was released. There was nobody there.

More sounds of footsteps, but this time inside the room. The footsteps walked across the room, joined now by the swish of long skirts. By this time only my grandmother was watching - her sisters were hiding beneath their blankets - but though she strained her eyes, she saw nothing. Simply heard the footsteps, the swish of the skirts.

The footsteps moved across the room and back again. The door handle moved down and the door swung open...and then swung closed. The door handle was released. The footsteps moved on outside the corridor, away from their bedroom.

The next day my grandma spoke to her grandma about what she had heard but not seen. And her grandma's response?

"Aye, that was the family ghost. She likes to check at night, make sure we're all well. There's no harm to her. She's just come to protect us."

I don't know whether my grandma was pulling my leg or not, but it's certainly a great story

 

[ThunderWolf]

This thread was a great idea Winterchild! I was living in another house (besides the two mentioned in the other thread) when I was 27, and there were a few experiences I had there. One of the two most shocking (both took place in the same bedroom) involved a two year old boy and his monkey rag doll.

The boy's mother had lost custody of him, and my roommate had custody in the interim. We knew from his behavior and activity when alone in his room that he had a spirit friend he played with. We assumed it was also a small child, and my roommate had even claimed that she had seen the apparition of a little girl come into her bedroom one night.

Anyway, one night after the boy had gone to bed upstairs I was headed to the room next to his and looked in on him on my way.

He had this limp rag doll-ish toy stuffed monkey, and when I looked in on him the monkey was standing on it's feet next to the boy's bed with it's arm resting on the mattress.

Mind you, this was a limp rag doll. Had it been caught in the rails the arm would have been bent, and the monkey would have been hanging limp, but it wasn't! It was standing erect, and the pupils of it's eyes were staring right at me!

The really odd part of it was that I didn't remember the monkey having pupils in it's eyes, and when I checked the next day I found that it didn't.

 

[gregory]

My house eats things.

Seriously - a few things just disappear and never return. Things that everyone saw in one place and suddenly they aren't and are never seen again. Most recently a tarot deck (LUCKILY it was a backup...) which was on the table in the living room after I used it, and which hasn't been seen in almost a year now

Only my SO and I were here at the time, and he never moves my stuff unless we have company - which we didn't. I went to put it away when the grandchildren were coming - and it just wasn't there any more to put away. And despite tearing the place apart - after I misplaced another not backup one - which I found easily enough - it has never ever resurfaced....

There are other "not occult things" examples. But this had the most clear and obvious history where we both knew where it was and suddenly it wasn't. I guess there's a ghost out there (we are certain sure we have ghosts anyway !) who wants to read the cards.

Oh - a neighbour put down a 2 litre bottle of coke on her table, went to the toilet and when she cane back it had gone and was never seen again. She lives alone, down a LONG driveway, and the doors were locked. I think this is a ghostful area of the UK, myself.

We also (both) often see two of our cats wandering by. Only those two. Many others have died here, but only Flurp and Smokey ever show up to visit.

 

[sedgeez]

this thread is such a good idea

ive had a few experiences over the years, just little things, but then me and my boyfriend moved out 2 years ago, and that house definitely had something in it

this may be long, just warning you

its started on the first day in the house, just little things, a vase flew off the fire place in front of me and my dad (and i mean flew, it shot across the room), but it didnt break. a canvas fell off the wall in a similar fashion for no reason. i was cleaning the kitchen (the last owners left it a mess), while james (boyfriend) and my dad went to bring the rest of our stuff, and there was this almighty bang from one of the kitchen cupboards, no one else was in the house. i suddenly felt this overwhelming feeling of dread and backed up into a corner. it felt like something was coming towards me, like i could sense it, then james and my dad opened the front door and the feeling went away instantly.

then that night, i woke up to hearing was sounded like really loud footsteps going insanely fast up and down the stairs, in our room, and into the bathroom repeatedly, and then james let out this ear piercing scream. it scared me to death so i shook him awake. he then told me that he was awake but couldnt move or speak (sleep paralysis), he said he could see a shadowy figure running in and out our room, which is what i had heard. he said it kept leaning over him when it came in the room and he couldnt move or speak.

we both believe in the paranormal with us both having some experiences from being children, so this shook us up abit. things like this continued for a while.

also i kept getting long scratches from my elbow to wrist with no explanation. i was on the couch watching tv one day and i felt burning on my arm and i looked and there was a fresh scratch. the xmas tree 'fell' on me when i was alone too. i say 'fell' because it seemed more like it had been pulled with the force of it. the tap used to run by itself, the kettle used to boil itself, to cooker used to turn itself on. a family member stayed one night and we hadnt mentioned anything to them with fear of scaring them and the next day he said he couldnt sleep and kept hearing footsteps in the back room. i have heard the foot steps in the back room too, its joined into the kitchen and i was washing dishes. its laminate flooring and it sounded like bare feet slapping on the floor towards me, every time i looked over it stopped.

we had a small cupboard under the stairs, and we just had random stuff in it, we never went in it really. but one morning as i rolled over in bed half asleep, i heard a door slam really loud, it scared me to death, but then an overwhelming urge to sleep hit me and i just went to sleep. later that day i needed something from that cupboard and we couldnt open the door, it doesnt lock and the door is normally loose. but we kept trying but couldnt open it, so james took the handle and everything off and still could not open it, even though there would be nothing to stop it now. we walked away from the door and it opened itself. there was a really cold breeze coming from the cupboard. we got what we wanted and shut the door and couldnt open it again after that, we had to leave the stuff that was in it when we left.

we also had a few pets, 2 dogs, 16 mice, 2 rats and a hamster.

the mice were split into to tanks, boys and girls (we got 2 mice from a pet shop and they gave us a boy and girl for some reason which resulted in babies )
we woke up one morning to find all the females had ate each other. they werent starving as we adored them and looked after them so well. it was very strange. the boy mice did the same, with only the dad left who was so old and blind he could barely move. but somehow he climbed out of a big tank when he could barley move and got into my hamsters cage and got killed. then one of the rats ate the other and then the other died for no reason, and then my hamster died.

my dogs were quite distressed in this house which after all the animals dying was one of the reasons we decided to move, we didnt want anything to happen to them as well as us.
i must point out that the animals dying all happened in the same week.

there were a few occasions when i was on my own and there was really loud banging from the back room that terrified me. and the dogs were going crazy.
james was on his own one day i was in work and he was off and the living room door was shut. the door handle started vibrating like mad and he rang me thinking i had come back from work when he was at the shop and was playing a prank on him.

things used to move all the time too, in weird places. the tv remote completely disappeared, we searched everywhere and could not find it, then we came in from being out and it was on the arm of the chair. that happened twice.

also i cant forget the overwhelming feelings you got in this house. you could have had the best day at work but as soon as you set foot in that door, you felt unbelievably depressed and angry all the time. we noticed as soon as we moved that we felt better and didnt argue half as much.

i know there alot more stuff but i cant think properly right now, there was so much that happened. we are both so glad we moved out and our dogs are so happy now and well behaved.


sorry for the long essay

 

[Winterchild]

Oooooooh.....

Thunderwolf your story about the monkey sent shivers up my spine...... reminded me of one of those Tales from the Darkside... *shudder*

Gregory I was saying in the other post.... I often get things taken.... I wonder if some of us have a spirit that follows us and likes to play, or take things it thinks we shouldn't have? But also I have had things appear from nowhere, with noone having any idea how they got there or where they came from. If I find a tarot deck I will let you know... and if you should come across a pot of Selenium tablets....!!!

My most unbelievable and inexplicable experiences all occurred in the same house though... and a few people sensed stuff there, it was exorcised in the end. This house was in Suffolk and it used to be an old Mill cottage about 400 years ago. One room was always cold... more than cold it was malevolent almost.... Sometimes outside I would feel I was being watched and at first I used to think it was the mad landlady(who was shocked that anyone would want to rent the place..). Wel the first real *happening* was one evening when I had a couple of mates in. We were all sitting in the living room and suddenly there was a huge crash.... We went running across the hall to the kitchen, and the electric cooker which was on a perfectly flat stable floor was leaning as far forward as its flex would allow .... All the pans etc had crashed onto the floor.... It was like incredible... We couldn't even talk about it, it was so crazy... Nothing could have caused it.... No doors open no wind the two cats had been with us.... And noone else could have gotten in....

Another evening my flatmate and I were sitting in the living room ... Again the cats were in there and noone else was in the house... And we heard this noise like something falling down the wooden stairs.... We went out to check and at the bottom of the stairs was a candle in an old candle holder that neither if us had ever seen before .... and the candle was smoking like it had just been blown out.... Oh man that was enough for me... I left. My mate stayed on and said it got worse and worse (he wouldn't even talk about some of the stuff) until he got it exorcised.

Other houses I have not even been able to step inside so strong was the energy.

My Mum has had a couple of experiences too.... she had a friendly cleaning ghost in one old cottage... this ghost would clean the house and shine the kitchen floor!! Apparently she was well know in the village by the locals! Another house Mum had was new but built on an old monastery in Oxfordshire and soot would keep appearing on the floor in front of the fire... except is was one of those pretend fires and there was no chimney there in that particular room! The original owners spent a fortune having this place built to be their dream home and moved out within 6 months. Mum left after a year.... I cant remember other things that happened as I didn't see Mum much during that period.

 

[Winterchild]

Sedgeez

Oh my, you are a braver lass than I.... I would have been out like a shot... had you heard of others having similar experiences in this particular house? That's horrid about the animals...that they all turned cannibal.... I know it does happen sometimes but not that often or all at once. We had mice and rats for years and never experienced that.

 

[sedgeez]

Oh my, you are a braver lass than I.... I would have been out like a shot... had you heard of others having similar experiences in this particular house? That's horrid about the animals...that they all turned cannibal.... I know it does happen sometimes but not that often or all at once. We had mice and rats for years and never experienced that.

Well at first we tried to explain how things wetre happening, but then multiple things were happening a day with no explaination.
The people that lived there first went suddenly, the landlady wouldn't say why. They left that suddenly that they left nearly all the furniture and the house was a state when we got it. I don't even know why we rented it, it was horrid with damp patches etc. But we were desperate to move out of my mums house.

But when a few people stayed over they have experienced things or felt something.

I love paranormal stuff but that was just plain scary!

We had experiences at both my mums and james mums. But at my mums it was nothing to major and it wasn't an unpleasent ghost. Just things moving, drawers randomly opening and footsteps. That sort of stuff, but it didn't feel unpleasent.

James' mum wasn't as nice though. But it wasn't as bad as that house. The tv was off and it kept flicking on and off making the weirdest noise for ages. This happened a few times and one time I unplugged the tv and it carried on!!!

And then, what topped it off, the screen went black but one bit stayed white, this terrified me. It was in the shape of a small child or babies hand, and it was pulsing on the screen.
Ill never forget that. And one time I'm sure james was possessed. He has depression quite bad and anxiety so I think that's why he's a target
But we used to sleep on his mums living room floor, making a bed from cushions (we lived at my mums but stayed at his mums at weekends).
One night he said he felt weird as we were about to go sleep. We had experienced a few things by this point and even took pics in the dark and caught orbs. The next thing he shoots up and starts mumbling stuff, I got worried and sit up to see if he's ok. He was saying he couldn't breath and punching himself in the chest, then he started rocking back and forward. I was getting worried as he didn't seem himself, and with all the other stuff that has happened I just felt very uneasy. Then he burst into tears, so I said I was going to get his mum, and he grabbed my arm and in a low growly voice said 'no'. Then it was if he woke up and asked why we were sat up and what was wrong.

Very strange

 

[newlillith]

I'm loving the scary stories on here!

When I was a kid I had some ghosty stuff happen, but was so freaked I just tried to ignore. Recently though when I started getting more into my spirituality I opened up more to the possibility of spirits. That's when I started noticing the ghost in my last house. It was a new build house (built in 1987) so I'm not sure why he was there. The same family had lived in the house the whole time before we bought it, but maybe someone had been on that land before. Anyway, things only happened when I was alone in the house. I'd be sitting in the living room and things would fall in the kitchen--things that had no business falling. One time though the light plate above the oven fell and when I went to replace I realized I'd left the oven. Whew! He saved me that time. Often when I would go to lay down to take a nap I'd be drifting off the sleep, then hear footsteps and the basement door would open and close. That woke me up! I could never sleep by myself in that house. I never got the feeling he was anything less than friendly, but sometimes I still got the willies. Of course now that we're in a new place I miss him a little!

 

[sedgeez]

I'm loving the scary stories on here!

When I was a kid I had some ghosty stuff happen, but was so freaked I just tried to ignore. Recently though when I started getting more into my spirituality I opened up more to the possibility of spirits. That's when I started noticing the ghost in my last house. It was a new build house (built in 1987) so I'm not sure why he was there. The same family had lived in the house the whole time before we bought it, but maybe someone had been on that land before. Anyway, things only happened when I was alone in the house. I'd be sitting in the living room and things would fall in the kitchen--things that had no business falling. One time though the light plate above the oven fell and when I went to replace I realized I'd left the oven. Whew! He saved me that time. Often when I would go to lay down to take a nap I'd be drifting off the sleep, then hear footsteps and the basement door would open and close. That woke me up! I could never sleep by myself in that house. I never got the feeling he was anything less than friendly, but sometimes I still got the willies. Of course now that we're in a new place I miss him a little!

I love the bit when the plate fell and you realised the oven was left on even when they're nice you can't help but feel a bit creeped out. Its still a little eerie I guess.

My dad has saw a ghost before. My mum has had experiences but she gets super freaked out so pretends she doesn't believe

My dad told me that in our old house, when I was a baby and my brother was about 7, he woke up with a cold breeze on his face and when he opened his eyes there was a little old lady stood at the bed
He tried to wake my mum up but she vanished before my mum woke up.

He went to see some sort of medium, but not about this, he went with a friend for a different matter that had nothing to do with my dad. But as he was leaving the medium said, 'don't worry she won't harm you. Just ask her nicely to leave because she's scaring the children'. He also said her name, which I can't remember now, but afterwards my dad went home and spoke to an old lady acros the street who said that woman had lived there before us.

So that night my dad had a bath, he asked her nicely to go, and that's he's scaring the kids.
After that it stopped.