By: mbuehner@ameritech.net

After dropping off my kids at their high school early one dark morning,
I was just about to turn onto the highway near us and suddenly saw a
white haze.  I hit the breaks, wondering what it was.  Just as I stepped
on the breaks, a car on the highway ran the red light. The car would
have hit the side of my van, had I not paused for this apparition, thus
injuring a small child seated on that side of the van!
 

By: Paulroger2@aol.com
 
Trinity Episcopal Church was built in 1892 and sits on the corner of Bush and
Gough Streets. In San Francisco.  It is a large stone gothic church that was
designed after the Durham castle in England.
I have been a sexton (caretaker) for the church for about the last 10 years.
Meals on wheels have started their program of feeding approximately 160
elderly folks around the neighborhood at our church.  Monday through Friday
between 11:30am and 1:30pm the dining room is full of elderly people and it
is a good way to utilize the space.
However, two of the kitchen workers have quit shortly after starting.  They
only lasted a few days when on two separate occasions they became frightened.
One worker was going up the steps to the hallway when he suddenly saw a
ghost, sort of like a grey entity or shadow of a figure coming out of the
men's bathroom. and disappear through the wall on the other side of the hall.
The other worker saw it again on another occasion near the entrance to the
kitchen from the hallway.
We used to have a 7-day candle on the healing alter that burned 24 hours a
day.
When Paul, who is the other sexton, and I would come in to clean on Monday
morning, the candle would always be out and I or Paul would always have to
relight it.  It never went out on any other day and their are two other 7 day
candles in the church that burn 24 hours a day, but they never went out like
this one did. every Monday it would be out.  We thought it must be a draft
somewhere,  funny though the draft always happened between Sunday afternoon
and Monday morning.
I saw it one evening in the church when I was vacuuming near the chapel
alter. It looked like a 3 dimensional shadow of a human figure and it came
down the steps and went right passed me.  Startled by it, I turned off the
vacuum and swiftly made my way down stairs calling out for Paul.  I made him
come back up with me to investigate my experience with the ghost.  We sat in
one of the front pews and waited silently for a while but nothing else
happened that evening.
One time, it was late afternoon,  I was straightening all of the kneelers
pushing them all underneath the pews.  When I walked down the middle aisle I
was checking that all the kneelers were in straight rows.  About halfway down
the church in one of the rows, one of the kneelers was pushed out  from the
rest of the kneelers. This kneeler looks different from all the rest and is
sort of an oddball kneeler and I distinctly remember pushing that kneeler
under the pew.  I was startled by what I saw, but I went over and pushed it
back underneath the pew. no one else was in the Sanctuary with me and Paul
was cleaning the rooms downstairs at the time.
On still another occasion It was a Sunday Morning, people from the 8:00am
service had left and the Father Michael had gone into the Rector's office to
chat with Father Cromey.  I  was again vacuuming the carpet in the Sanctuary
of the Church when the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I turned
around and saw a tall slender figure wearing an off-white linen suit and he
was across the aisle in the other section of pews but he was standing their
facing me, and as I started to focus on his face he vanished right before my
eyes.  I was not startled this time because I sensed the figure was not
trying to frightened me. I turned off the vacuum and paused for a few minutes
and looked all around the church, hoping to get a glimpse of the ghost again,
but I didn't and I continued with my vacuuming.
One time, it was about 10 in the evening and I was mopping the bathrooms in
the ambulatory, (a curved half-circle hallway where the church offices are
located), and minutes before, I had come out of the room where the cleaning
supplies are kept.  As I began mopping one of the bathrooms I heard like a
man's footsteps coming from that room.  I stopped mopping and the footsteps
went down the hallway passed the bathroom doorway and  I could see out into
the hallway and I saw nothing as the sounds of the footsteps walked passed
and continued to the other end of the hall. I was frozen stiff and couldn't
move.  Again, the hair on my neck stood up and I flung the mop aside and ran
downstairs yelling for Paul.
Sometimes when I am in the men's bathroom downstairs all alone.  I often feel
like someone is watching me.
This is where other people have observed a grey shadowed figure standing in
the hall just outside of the men's restroom.
Other people have had similar experiences too within the walls of this old
church built in 1892.
There is a crypt under the church where the founder, Rev. Flavel Mines is
buried. and we also have the columbarium in the Sanctuary of the church that
holds the remains of about twenty people.
Another time, about eight in the evening, our neighbor Andy went out to
dinner with us, we took him to a little cafe located near the church.  So we
parked in the church parking lot.  When we came back from the cafe, I took
Andy into the church to show him around.  We came down the backstairs and
into the hall, when Andy suddenly said frantically, "what is that!"  When I
looked down the hall I didn't see anything, but Andy described a grey shadowy
looking figure near the Men's restoom door in the hall, it had vanished by
the time I looked.  I never told him about the ghost until he saw it himself,
because lately, I have sort of forgotten about it.
But with this recent occurrence with the two kitchen workers,  it's reminded
me about my ghostly experiences here and I know that it is continuing.
I said out loud one time to the ghost, that I didn't want to be startled by
it or to hear it anymore and for me it seemed to stop.  but who knows, one of
these days or nights, it's going to give me another startle when I least
expect it.
I think it's fun because I know that the ghost is not mischievious and is
just trying to get to another part of the church when people come around.  So
I guess it's a lonely ghost. probably a church member from long ago. or
someone that used to attend one of the support groups that go on every
evening in the dining room.  I don't know.
But when I have had my experiences with the ghost or ghosts, at the time, I
wasn't thinking about anything spooky  when it happened.  so I know I didn''t
imagine it.  I'm usually thinking about other things and not anything to make
myself get spooked.
And the kichen workers didn't know anything about the ghost prior to their
ghostly experiences there.
Anybody near by that would like to come out and shed any light on who or what
it wants.
 

By: nugget207@hotmail.com

I want to start off by saying that this is a great site and I love reading
about everyone’s ghostly experiences, even though I must admit I have a hard
time believing them all.  There’s some stories that you can just tell that
that the person writing it is a kid with an overactive imagination.  I only
say this because even though I am a ‘believer’, I am a college educated
rational individual and I can also be the biggest skeptic you’ve ever met,
which brings me to this incident that occurred while I was still in college.
  I just want to stress to everyone that’s as skeptic as I am, that even
though this experience sounds extremely unbelievable, that this is true and
really did happen.  I know that this is long, but bear with me, I want to
make sure I don’t leave anything out.
This incident happened one night in late October in 1994.  I was a junior in
college at the time, and had very little free time to do anything because
besides class, I also worked part time and was very active in my fraternity.
  Every year we would have a big Halloween party at one of our fraternity
brothers houses and just have a completely wild, chaotic night, but nothing
can compare to what we all experienced that night.  I got to the party
shortly after it started, got a beer, and noticed people coming out of the
basement.  I asked one of the people what was going on down there and they
told me that my friend Jeff had brought his ouija board to the party and was
down there ‘acting stupid’.  Apparently these people didn’t know Jeff very
well.  He took the ouija very seriously, if anything he was addicted to it,
he constantly used it and kept in close contact with a spirit named Jack
that he’d contacted through the board.  I’d come to learn that Jack wasn’t
the most pleasant spirit and was a pretty mean individual who had died in
prison, but for some reason, Jeff liked conversing with him.  I then
proceeded down the stairs to see what was going on.  There were about 10
people down in the basement (by the way, this was NOT a finished basement,
this was the spooky concrete-floors-and-dust-everywhere basement).  Jeff and
a girl I knew named Lynn where using the board and talking to “Jack”.  Lynn
began to get tired of it, she was just trying to have a good time and she
thought that Jeff was just taking the whole thing way too seriously.  Before
she could get up to go back upstairs, a girl we knew named Dana came down
the stairs.  As soon as Dana came down into the basement, the board went
absolutely nuts, moving around at a frenzied pace.  Jeff said that this
wasn’t like Jack and asked the board what was wrong.  The board spelled out
that it wasn’t Jack, and it just kept spelling Dana’s name over and over.
Jeff asked the board if the spirit knew Dana and it said YES.  At this
point, everyone’s kind of looking around confused and everything, and Dana
was just looking at the board all weird.  Jeff then asked the board what
it’s name was at it spelled the name MICHAEL and that he was six years old
when he died…..this is when Dana went ballistic, she just started crying
uncontrollably and shouting, but we couldn’t understand her because she was
crying so much.  She then ran upstairs and out the backdoor.  A couple of us
followed her to try and find out what was going on and to try and calm her
down.  We went outside and saw Dana crying on another girls shoulder, this
other girl looked both pissed off and scared to death at the same time.  We
asked her what was wrong and started yelling at us “How could you pull such
a mean trick like that, you should feel awful for doing this to her!!”  We
were clueless, we asked her what she was talking about and she then told us
that Dana had a younger brother named Michael…that drowned when he was six
years old.  A chill immediately when down my spine.  Once Dana calmed down a
little bit, she told us that she’d been trying to contact Michael over the
years, but was never able to.  She then offered to buy Jeff’s ouija board
from him so she could keep in touch with her brother.  At this time, “Jack”
came back and it was like he and Michael were “fighting” over control of the
board.  Jack then told Jeff that if he burned the board that night before
midnight, that he soul would be set free and he would be at peace.  Jeff
immediately wanted to set the board on fire because he said he’d developed
some sort of relationship with Jack and wanted his soul to be at peace.
Let’s just say Dana didn’t like that idea a bit, so they both got in a huge
argument and the party became totally chaotic.  By this time, everyone at
the party (only about 50 people) knew what was going on and everyone started
fighting and yelling, split down the middle either on Jeff’s side or Dana’s.
  Eventually, Jeff snuck outside with a can of lighter fluid and set the
board on fire with Dana standing over it crying her eyes out.  As you can
guess, no one was really in the mood to party after that and everyone ended
up either staying at the house the party was at or left for home to get
their head back together.  After that night, not one person I know that was
at this party ever talked about that night again, not even once!  I don’t
know how to explain what happened, but all I know is that there’s no way
that this was some sort of ‘trick’ or joke that Jeff and Dana could have
played on us.  Being the skeptic that I am, to this day I’ve tried to find
out how they could have pulled this over on us.  Dana was just a
friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend that not very many of us knew that well, and
that night at the party, none of us knew that she had a brother.  Just that
one friend of hers at the party that yelled at us knew anything about it.
And then there’s Jeff, he just takes the occult way to seriously and would
never use it as a basis for a joke, and if it was a trick, he’s not the type
to let it go, he’d make sure he threw it in our face about how much he
scared us and what a great joke it was every chance he got, that’s just how
he is.   To this day, anytime I tell anyone about this, when I get to the
part that the spirit was her brother, I get a chill all over my body.  Words
simply cannot describe what it was like being there that night and what
happened, but I’ll never forget about it, I can remember it just like I was
there yesterday.  If anyone wants to write me about this or anything, feel
free to at nugget207@hotmail.com

By: LTB2@go.com

My name is Tracey.  I'd like to share my story with you and the others.
When I was 18 years old, my best friend and I decided to rent an apartment together.  We found a tiny little house built over a garage on an old estate.  The estate included this little abode (which was called the gardener's shack), the caretaker's cottage and the main house. My friend and I chose to rent the gardener's shack.
Shortly after moving in, we would occasionally hear scratching noises (at all hours of the day and night) which seemed to be coming from the one closet which was located in the bathroom.  Thinking it might be mice or rats, we laid down some traps and rat poison.  We never found any dead rodents, nor did we ever find any droppings, but still the scratching sounds continued.  My friend was spooked by these noises, and hung a crucifix above her bed to no avail.  The sounds continued.
About a month later I was alone one afternoon and decided to vacuum.  I had the doors and windows open, as well as the stereo turned on loudly.  While I was busily vacuuming, I suddenly felt the hair on my arms and neck stand up.  I was also immediately filled with a sense of incredible dread and great fear - and I sensed, rather than heard a voice saying "get out, get out of the house right now".  I hesitated for only a few seconds, thinking "this is crazy", but the overwhelming feeling that I had to get out that very second made me shut off the vacuum, grab my keys and run out of the house, slamming the door behind me.
I drove over to my mom's house, shaking like a leaf, and told her what happened.  About five minutes later the phone rang.  It was my grandmother, and she asked to speak to me.  After I said hello, she relayed to me that everything was going to be fine, that I was no longer in danger and that "it's gone now, and it won't come back."  I asked her how she knew to call me.  She stated that she had been contacted by a spiritual guide via automatic writing, who said he was my protector and would guard over me.  He (this spiritual guide) stated that his name was Daniel and that it was imperative that my grandmother reassure me that I had nothing to fear anymore.
I went home shortly thereafter and immediately felt a different 'sense' in the house.  I felt safe and knew that 'it', whatever it was, had been banished.  Neither my friend nor myself ever heard any noises again.
About a year later I was speaking to a man who was familiar with my neighborhood and asked me where exactly I lived.  I told him the location and he asked if I lived in the gardener's shack.  When I replied that I did he said, "I used to live in that house also.  Have you heard the story about it?"  I stated that I hadn't, and he went on to tell me that in the early 1930's, the gardener living in that house had murdered his wife there.
Was that what I sensed - her fear and the urge to run away as fast as possible?  Perhaps - but I am grateful that my spiritual guide stepped in to protect me.

VISITATION

By: Darryl.Wisher@med.va.gov
 

I'M RELAYING THIS  ON BEHALF OF ONE OF MY CO-WORKERS WHO GAVE ME HIS
PERMISSION B/C I FOUND THE WEBSITE. HIS NAME IS SPEEDY MCDANIELS AND THIS IS
HIS STORY:

MY STEP-FATHER USED TO SMOKE CIGARS AND YOU COULD ALWAYS TELL WHEN HE WAS
NEAR B/C YOU COULD SMELL THEM BEFORE YOU COULD SEE HIM.HE WOULD ALWAYS BE
NEAR WHENEVER YOU WERE ABOUT TO GET IN TROUBLE FOR DOING SOMETHING THAT YOU
HAD NO BUSINESS DOING ANYWAY. HE DIED WHEN I WAS ABOUT 20;OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW
BETTER THAN TO DO THE WRONG THING BUT  STILL YOUNG ENOUGH NOT TO CARE. IT
HAPPENED ONE DAY IN PATTERSON N.J. WHERE I AND THE OTHER KIDS WERE STILL
LIVING AT THE TIME THAT WE WERE JOYRIDING, IN THE CAR THAT HE HAD LEFT TO
US, AT TOP SPEED.NOT TOO MUCH TIME HAD PASSED BEFORE MY YOUNGEST STEPSISTER
ASKED "DO YOU SMELL SOMETHING";AND WE ALL AGREED IT WAS ONE OF HIS FRESHLY
LIT REALLY BAD SMELLING CIGARS. SO WE SLOWED DOWN BUT NOT COMPLETELY
CONVINCED THAT IT WAS ANYTHING MORE THAN OUR IMAGINATIONS WE SPED RIGHT BACK
UP AGAIN AS SOON AS THE SCENT DISSIPAITED. DO I REALLY HAVE TO TELL YOU WHAT
HAPPENED NEXT,IN A CAR WITH ALL OF THE WINDOWS OPENED B/C THERE WAS NO AIR
CONDITIONING,FLYING LOW TO THE GROUND,ANOTHER FRESHLY LIT CIGAR WITH THAT
UNMISTAKABLE SMELL.WE KNEW IT WAS HIM,SO WE SLOWED DOWN AGAIN ALL THE WAY
HOME BUT THE CIGAR SEEMED TO LINGER A WHILE UNTIL WE GOT THERE;AS IF HE WAS
GOING TO HANG AROUND  AND WATCH US  THIS TIME.LISTENING TO THE RADIO FOR A
WHILE AFTER THAT B/C WE WERE ALL SCARED WITLESS FROM THE EXPERIENCE IT
SLOWLY SEEMED TO WITHDRAW. WE ALL AGREED TO GET RID OF THAT CAR.

The Lonely Farm House

By: SBCY1979@aol.com

When it comes to the paranormal, I think what we don't see is much more
chilling than that which visually presents itself to us. This was definately
the case when my parents visited an old, run down farmhouse in Bedford,
Michigan, sometime around 1974 or 75. Here is the story I've been told
numerous times.
My parents had just returned to Michigan from living in Iowa for the past
couple of years. They enjoyed taking country drives on weekends and were
currently looking for a "fixer-upper" house to buy, hopefully in the country.
 On this particular occasion, they were driving along 2 Mile Rd., just 1 or 2
miles to the west of the villiage of Bedford.  When they passed a house with
an old For Sale sign nailed to a tree in the front yard, my dad stopped the
car and backed it up so they could view the house. Naturally it didn't look
like much from the outside. A neglected farm house, probably 2 or 3 bedrooms,
some of the windows missing or broken, paint peeling off... other than that,
perfectly livable with a little repair.
My mom took the phone number on the sign, and they drove into town to their
apartment to call the owner.
They got her on the phone, and found her to be a very nice lady. She invited
them to go back out to the house to look around by themselves and she said
that the door was always left unlocked.  (This was back when people could be
trusted.)
They got back in their car and made the 15 minute drive back to the house. It
was a bright sunny day (I have pics they took of the house) and after they
finished exploring the overgrown yard and outside of the house, they tried to
get in...  but couldn't...  the door was locked.  This irratated them a
little since they had made the drive out there for nothing. So they got back
in their car and drove home to call the owner again. She apologized
repeatedly, but seemed completely baffled, as the lock on the front door,
(the door which they used) could not be locked without the key, and she had
the only one. She invited them to come to her office and get the key if they
were still interested in the house. They did, and made a third trip to the
house. This time they went straight to the door. Before trying the key, my
dad tried opening the door again. The knob turned with ease, and the door
swung open. Somehow, it had been unlocked in the past hour.
That alone was enough to make them weary of purchasing the house, but they
proceeded to look around, taking pictures here and there. The first room they
entered was the kitchen. A large kitchen. It appealed to my mom as she loves
to cook and there were rows of cupboards lined up along the kitchen wall. My
dad says there must have been 40 or more cupboards. Ample space to store
cookware. They moved on to living room and then upstairs to the bedrooms.
They spent about 20 minutes in the rest of the house poking around and
imagining where furniture could go. Infact they nearly forgot about the
incident with the door. And as they walked down stairs and into the
livingroom were quite convinced this may be the house for them. The middle of
the country, no people around, plenty of privacy, the quiet of the woods all
around...
They passed through the living room and into the kitchen. When they did, they
stopped dead in their tracks. To this day, my dad says both their jaws nearly
hit the ground when they saw what had been done.  No blood on the floor, no
dead body, etc. That would have been more believable than what they saw. Each
one of the cupboard doors had been opened to an exact 90 degree angle, after
having all been closed 20 minutes earlier. In the time they had been in the
house, they had not heard so much as a footstep come from the kitchen, let
alone any type of noise indicating the movement of wooden cupboard doors. In
a city, it would be a little more understandable. But out here, they could
hear a bird singing a half a mile away. If anybody had had time to open all
40 or 50 of them without making a sound, they would definately not have been
able to do so in such a precise manner as this. After standing there in awe
for a brief minute, they hurried through the kitchen and out the door and to
the car. My dad started the car up, and they drove back to the owner to give
her the key. They gave her their story, and declined from looking any further
into purchasing the house.  I don't recall being told how she reacted but if
she had given them any history on the house that might have attributed to it
being haunted, I'm sure I would know about it.
The house is no longer there. It collapsed a few years later. But I have been
by the foundation and seen the remains many times. I have never gone through
the rubble, since there is probably nothing there, and there are nearby
nieghbors now who might get supspicious.
What happened in that house that day? Was this an unusual joke by an
extremely clever prankster with nothing to better to do with his time on a
weekend afternoon? Or was there a spirit within that old farmhouse that did
not want my parents to buy the house? It will always be a mystery to me.
 

By: joet@delmarfair.com

I moved to Sacramento, CA in the fall of 1980.  I just turned 17 years old
and was in my senior year in high school.  I shared a room with my younger
brother.  My sister had just moved in with us and she had her own room.  My
parents had their room and all the bedrooms were off one hallway.  About one
month after moving in, I started to differentiate the sounds I heard at
night.  It was cold, so we ran the heat during the night, but I noticed
sporatic cracking and banging sounds throughout the house.  All the bedrooms
were at the north end of the house and there was a family room attached to
the kitchen on the other side (south side).  This is where I would hear
distant bangs on the walls at night.  Three months later my older sister
moved in with us, so I moved into a room with my younger brother who was 15
at the time.  This bedroom was the first bedroom or the front bedroom.
Immediately I started hearing footsteps coming from the family room.  I
would wake up around 2 or 3 a.m. and hear someone walking around.  I kept
forgetting to tell my siblings as I had a busy schedule in school and we
didn't hang out much together socially.  Time went on, and I eventually
mentioned the footsteps to my brother who said he heard them sometimes, too.
The next time I woke up hearing them, I woke him up.  They always walked
around in a circle in the family room, but this time they started walking
down the hallway where the bedrooms were.  We heard the footsteps stop at
our door, like someone was standing outside in the hallway.  We opened the
door and no one was there.  I didn't notice any cold chills, at all.  I
didn't know about the coldness back then, but I don't remember a temperature
change.  This was winter time anyway, I would have thought it was a draft if
there was a cold spot.  Any hoo, this became a regular thing, for months.
My brother would wake me up if he heard it, and vice versa.  Summer came and
I graduated from high school.  A friend of mine had a pool and my siblings
and I were hanging out there one day during the week.  That summer we had 40
days in row where it was 100 degrees or hotter.  I remember quite a few 110
degree days that summer of 1981.  This particular day, I decided to drive
back to the house to get some cassettes I had in my room.  (Devo, Pat
Benatar, Queen, Supertramp.  You know the decade.)  The house was closed up
with the air conditioner on.  All the blinds were closed to keep the sun
out.  I walked into the house, not thinking anything except "get the music
and get back to the party."  I went into my bedroom, found the cassettes and
started for the door.  As soon as I got into the door jam, I heard a sound
behind me.  It sounded like a doll.  The kind of baby doll that when you
pick it up, it makes this "mama" sound.  I turned around thinking "what the
heck was that."  I looked and there was nothing there.  So, I turned towards
the door again and it did it again.  "Mama".  I turned around and I knew I
heard something this time.  I went to the window and lifted the shade to see
if someone was outside.  There was no one around.  When I put the shade
down, it did it again.  "Mama."  Real clear and it was coming from the
direction of my closet, which was open.  I could see everything in there and
there was no doll.  As I was staring at the closet, it did it again.
"Mama".  It was coming from behind a shelf, next to my closet.  I moved all
the stuff off and looked behind it.  Nothing.  As my head came out from
behind the shelf, it did it again.  I was looking at the spot where a doll
should have been, but nothing was there.  I couldn't figure it out.  Then
the phone rang, and I about jumped through the ceiling.  I was suddenly
aware that I was there by myself.  My mom was on the phone and I told her
what just happened.  She told me to leave and come back when someone was
there.  I drove back to the pool party and told my siblings and friend what
just happened.  My sister said she had been hearing footsteps at night that
stop in the hallway, which she never mentioned before.  My brother and I
told her we had been hearing the footsteps too.  We drove back to the house.
I showed them where it was coming from, but nothing happened at that time.
That particular sound never came around again.  I lived there for 4 more
years and had other things happen sporadically, but that was the most
definite event that happened to me.  I was visiting there last October 2000
and I brought my dog with me.  I sleep in that room when I visit my parents.
I have no qualms about staying in there, but apparently my dog had issues.
She sleeps through the night, normally, and when I would wake up at night,
she would be sitting up in her dog bed looking around, wide awake.  Poor
thing, I thought.  She's probably protecting me from something (she thinks)
and can't go to sleep.  Thanks for your time.

By: Salsa1cod@aol.com
 

My name is Terry and I'm 18 years old.  It wasn't until the age of 12 that I
started experiencing hauntings.  At first I saw figures in dreams, but later
I would start to see black figures sitting in my room at night.  Of course
young and frightened, I would duck under the covers and wish for them to go
away.  One night, the same thing happened, i saw a figure but went under my
covers and hoped they would go away, but when i brought my head back up, i
saw a white heart around the figure, then both disapeared.  The worst
experience is when i was sleeping in my basement and was awoken by my mothers
footsteps upstairs.  I tried to roll over to see the time, but couldn't, then
i felt shaking, like someone was trying to wake me up.  I opened my mouth to
call my mother, but nothing would come out.  I would find out about a year
ago that after my grandmother died when i was about 7 years old, my aunt, who
is a psychic, said that my grandmother would be by my side to watch me and
protect me.
 

By: JROBILLARD@prodigy.net

My entire life I have been intrigued by the paranormal. Psychics, Ouija boards, Hauntings , ghosts everything. Drawn to it.  In my early teens I used the Ouija board. Which I now believe to be very dangerous. I believe I attracted many spirits, invited them into my life this way. I could tell story after story of things that have happened to me . Things that I relate directly to my use of the Ouija board.
I want to share with you my scariest experience though.
At this time in my life ( I was about 16- 17 years old) I had been dabbling in witchcraft with a girlfriend of mine. Candlelight spells etc....We were complete novices in it. We would go to second hand stores, book stores wherever and look for books on spells etc... AT this point we had been using the Ouija board all the time. We would bring it to school with us , everywhere... A spirit named Devin would always "talk " to us on the board. Sometimes our fingers did not even have to be touching the triangle for it to move. We began to realize that this spirit was not as it first presented itself to us. It would get angry if we told it we had to go. The triangle would 'fly' to NO. It would swear sometimes. When we got really scared we  put a small statue of Mary on the board and the triangle pushed it right off the board and it broke. This is around the time when we stopped using the board. However I think we brought some spirits into my mom's house then. I would hear rapping on my walls. My dog would stand at my closet door with his hackles raised and bark like crazy... People saw spirits in the house.. A young man in a leather coat. A young boy in the basement with blue overalls and a baseball hat on. An old lady, cats.. You name it. I began saying the Rosary every night. I kept two sets of them hanging on my walls in my room.
Well, one night I had my girlfriend sleep over (the one I used to do candle spells with) My room was on the second floor. We were in bed and my window was open (screen down)Almost asleep and I heard pebbles hit my window and someone call my name in almost a whisper. I said "Jessica did you hear that?" She said "NO"
I told her to listen and sure enough we heard pebbles hit the window and someone say , "Julie"
I was nervous.. Having been a trouble maker in my youth I used to sneak out of  my house all of the time. People used to come to my window throw pebbles and I would sneak out. At this point in my life I was trying to get back on the right track had been sober for about 4-5 months and to be quite frank, I did not want to see whomever it was that could be calling for me.
I said "Jessica, go see who it is.."
she said , "No f#$%ing way, you go."
We heard the pebbles and someone call my name again.
I got up and went to my window. I looked out and at first I did not see anyone. Then I got that feeling. You know , my hair stood on end. Then I looked down and there sitting on the brick walkway that goes behind my house was a white dog. Staring right up at me. I could  see its  face clearly. It's eyes, nose, mouth(which looked like it had a slight grin on it's face) head ears..... but it's body was like a blur...You could make out the shape if it's body but it was almost see through.
At first I said to myself "hmm a dog... " and I looked for a person. That is when I really realized that the dog was sitting there looking right at me and I got a horrible feeling. Like it was really evil or something. Then I began to doubt what I was seeing. So I said to it " Don't leave but don't come in" I felt like an idiot saying it.. But I did not know what else to do. I did not want to tell Jessica what I was seeing because I wanted to see if she saw what I saw. I am yelling to Jessica to get the hell over here. She finally came over I said to her, "What the hell do you see?"
She said , "I see a DOOOOG!!"
We slammed the window shut . Locked it , grabbed the Rosary beads off of the wall, pulled the blankets over our heads and said the Our Father and Hail Mary about 100 times . We were scared to death.
The next morning we got up and went outside to look below the window, to see if there was anything there. Of course there was not. I will tell you that it has been 12 years ( I am 28 now) and I have never looked out any of my windows at night.
Please, If you post this do not put this next part in...
 I have always felt that I am a bit psychic. If you can call it that. I have premonitions and pick up on things. I sometimes know things before people tell me etc. I have to say that after that experience I pretty much shut that part of myself off. I stopped using the Ouija board, practicing magic (I was a novice with the magic anyways) I used to be much more perceptive . Until lately.. I  met a man at the restaurant that I manage who is in no doubt in my mind 100 % psychic. It is like we were drawn to eachother. Meant to meet.  Not in the romantic sense at all. I find myself to be more intune with myself these days and pick up on things with ease these days. Not in the I see spirits sense or that  I know what card you are holding in your hand stuff. Just knowing stuff. I don't know how to explain it. I attribute this to my new friendship that I have developed with Rob. He has renewed my interest in that part of myself again.
Why I felt the need to put that down I don't know. But there must be  a reason.....

By: ErinKOC@aol.com
 

Okay, I know this is going to sound very strange but it's very true. When I
was fairly young I lived in a 160 year old house. On occasions I used to hear
a gunshot and someone walking around on the roof. Then this person would
groan and a flash always fell by my window. I didn't know what this was but I
never mentioned it to my parents. When a creepy face appeared in my window I
told my mom. She said that someone had been killed on our roof. About 50
years ago a man was reshingling our roof and watching the fireworks on July
4th. The fireworks were held in a park about 1/4 a mile away, so we could see
them from our house. Some kids were fooling around by our neighborhood lake
with a rifle. They shot it into the air and threw it in the lake. The stray
bullet hit the man in the head and he fell about three stories down. A few
years later one of my second grade teachers was talking about a man snooping
around in her backyard. When she asked the man what he was doing, he told her
that a man was killed on her roof. I told her that it was actually at my
house since the houses were so old. We moved out of the house in 97 but I'll
never forget the guy on the roof.

By: hotandspicy@imagewireless.ca

When my mother was pregnant with me, our family moved out to a small
town just outside of Regina, Saskatchewan.  When I was five, I had a
bedroom at the end the hallway, right across from my parents.  One night
at about midnight I woke up and saw a girl, about the same age as me
standing in the doorway.  She was transparent, and reached her hand out
towards me and mouthed what looked like Help! then disappeared.  Years
later I was talking to my sister about weird stories and she described
the same story.  She had that room when she was five also.  Later we
found out that the couple my parents had bought the house from had a
daughter who had passed away at the age of five.  There was other things
happening in the house like the telephone cord swining around for no
reason ( it was in a corner no where near a window or doorway.)  Often I
heard footsteps when I home alone, walk up right behind me, and when I
turned around, of course, no one was there.  And most nights at around
midnight I would hear footsteps coming up the stairs, throught the
kitchen, down the hallway, turn around and loop through the living room
and dining room and back down the stairs to the basement.  I never
really feared any of this, it always felt like was being protected.  And
to this day, when I walk into a house, if there is a presence of any
type, I can feel it right away.  I don't know how to decribe it, but it
happens and I feel as though it was a gift given to me for some reason.
Maybe one day I'll find out why.

By: hillwig5@alltel.net

I have had "Psycic" experiences of my own so I am not a disbeliever. This didn't happen to me but I believe it still. While my husband was stationed in Bremerton,WA on the tugboats part of the duties was to take smallboats out in the harbor to make sure that no one was trying to get aboard the decommissioned ships anchored there. The Wasp was the ship used to transport dead men home from Viet Nam. Shipyard workers were to go onboard to make sure that everything was a sit should be but no one would do it. Various men have seen floating lights on the deck. On another occassion Navy personnell had to go on board to get the mattresses that had been stored on the ship. There was no light on it so they had to use flashlights and a system of marking each hatch with a chalked "X" to find thier way back out. The men left the doors open under the "X"'s. After they retrieved the mattresses they started back only to find that all of the hatches had been closed and "dogged" down from the other side and all of the chalk marks had been erased. After getting off of the ship they tried to find out who was pulling the prank then found out that the rest of the men they worked with had been in a meeting with the Captain of the base. No one else had access to the ship except those men. It has benn said that if you put your ear to the hull of the Wasp you can hear the voices of all the dead men that was brought back from the war. Believe it or not, I believe it. My husband is a big skeptic and even he wouldn't go near the U.S.S. Wasp.

By:  carriewitch@YaHoo.com
    I'm a nurse who was working in a luxurious assisted living home for Seniors.I was working my night shift one night when my aide approached me reporting that a patient was wandering the halls upstairs.It was about 12:30am when I found the patient sleeping in a chair in the hall.I assisted her back to bed and went to make my rounds.As I passed an empty room I heard water running.I entered the unlocked lighted room and saw the water at the kitchen sink running full force hot and cold.I turned off the water.I then conducted a thorough search of the room including the bathroom/shower area and found the room to be completely empty.I turned off lights and locked up and left.About 45 min later something told me to go upstairs and recheck the room.As I got to the door I could hear running water again!I unlocked the room,turned the lights on,and went inside.There in the bathroom,the hot and cold water faucetts wer on full blast!!!All my hair stood on end.There were only three of us working and I was the only one with a key!!!!
 

By:Allydaugherty@yahool.com

Hi there my name is allyson, when I was growing up I was said to have one the most haunted houses most people have been to. My aunt is a medium and seems to think that there are seven spirits in my mothers house. We have had such things happen as razors being given tome while I was in the bath tub. I once heard some one coming runnign down the stairs it sounded almost as if some one had fallen. Not five seconds later me dog and my cat at the time where standing on end hissing and barking like someone had broken in the house. Then for no apparent reason they stopped and no one was there. This was in my bed room. Then two nights later while haveing a sleep oer with my friends. They awoke me in the middle of the night to shw me a black figure dancing along the walls. I got up to make sure there wasn't a light leak or anything and told them to go back to sleep. Shut off the lights again and with in a few minutes it was back and almost huvering.
 

By:FOXFYRE86@AOL.COM

        I read the description for Spider Gates Cemetary and would like to add something...first of all, to my knowlege the place is called Spider Gates not because of eight gates, but because of the awesome ironwork on the main gate which, when the gate was closed became a monster spider.  The Cemetary is not in "Worchester" (correct spelling if anyone is interested is Worcester) it is actually in the town of Leicester, Massachusetts, just across the road from, I think, the west end of the Worcester Airport runways, and down a dirt road a little ways through some very empty and desolate wooded area.  As far as the place being haunted, there is no doubt in my mind of that. I lived for over 30 years in that area and know many individuals who visited the cemetary on a dare or date and had something extremely strange happen that frankly about scared them out of their Keds. The majority of them declined to make a repeat visit.  There are a lot of very old cemetaries in that general area, another of which we used to pass through walking to the unofficial swimming beach at the water skiing end of Long Pond.  Those gravestones were about the oldest I have seen, dating to the 1600's.  We had to walk through quite a chunk of pine forest and out in the middle of nowhere, all of a sudden you come to a little overgrown glade surrounded by ancient fieldstone walls and the head- and foot-stones which were almost totally obscured by plant grass, vines and plant growth, forgotten for who knows how long and seen only by those locals who knew about the shortcut to the little beach.  Another point of interest and which must most certainly have its share of spooks would be the Rutland State Park, what we townies have always referred to as the "Prison Camps" which was what the area served as during the Civil War.   I hope this is helpful or at least interesting.  I find this sort of thing fascinating.   You see, I grew up about 3 miles from the Spider Gates Cemetary, in Paxton and spent much of my summers exploring the wilderness areas all around there with my Dad hunting for good fishing, blueberries, hickory nuts, pheasant and deer in season and just general exploring.   It is beautiful country and painfully beautiful when the leaves change in the fall.
Love your site...You guys are AWESOME!!!!
 
 

By: GLIDESLOPE@prodigy.net

Payne road has a history slightly deeper than one man with a death obsession...
Payne road is now part of, what was, Payne Plantation. Payne plantation was one of the largest in the area. Although its founder placed the plantation on a very unusual plot of land. This land was, essentially, a valley with steep hills on all sides. The mansion was placed on the northern most hill over-looking the entire plantation which was located in the valley and on the surrounding hills. Slave shacks scattered the hill sides. Some shacks are no bigger than a 8 by 8' closet.  A small river ran through the center of the valley suppling water to the plantation, mansion, and the slaves.  A small chapel was located 250yards and 45degrees to the right of the masion and the main field located 300yards directly infront of the mansion. The slave shacks were located 90-110 degrees to the right of the mansion. 200 yards infront of the masion lay a small bridge...just large enough for 1 carriage.
Now that you have the basic lay out allow me to give you the story.
Payne was an extremely racist man, much like many of the plantation owners of the day. He fathered a family, 4 girls. The girls grew up isolated from the outside world due to Payne's Over-protectiveness. They grew to despise him and despise his cruelty to the slaves. Payne soon learned that his oldest daughter was inpregnated....but....by whom?  Seven months later Payne's daughter confessed that it was a slave that inpregnated her. Payne lost his mind. He cursed the lord and turned to devil worship.......brutally sacrificing the slave to the evilness he held close to his heart.     Within a matter of months he learned that his youngest daughter (only 15 years of age) was also inpregnated by a slave. Payne brutally sacrificed that slave and began to murder hundreds of slaves with everything from a stick to a musket. He maliciously murdered his family and the slave children (unborn and born). Shortly there-after he burned the entire plantation, killing at least 10-20 more.
This is why the trees on payne road are soo young and the grave stones are charred.

"Out of the Blue" Update

By: Bear1dad2@aol.com
 
 

Side note:  For those of you who may have read a previous version, this is
the complete story.  It contains parts that I was too ashamed to write about
the first time since it does not put me in the best light.
    I have always been a believer in the paranormal.  I have had many unusual
and unexplainable things happen around me.  Around me is the key.  I have
never had anything happen to me and never have I feel threatened.  That
changed during November 2000.
    I bought my first home in 1999 at the age of 40.  The house was very
quiet and peaceful (unlike my last home of fourteen years which had a great
deal of energy in it), and I was so glad to have this refuge.  Out of the
Blue, after having lived in this house for a year and a half, this all
changed during November, 2000.
    My couch divides my living room so that I can have an entry (behind it)
where the door to the hallway and bedrooms can be found.  Each night I played
the same game with my nine month old puppy.  I would sit in front of the fire
place and throw a toy into the dining room or behind the couch.  Often it
would land in the hallway or even further into the guest room.  Always, she
would run after it and bring it back.
    One night, I threw the toy and it landed just behind the couch, possibly
six feet away from me.  The couch sits high off of the floor about ten
inches, so I could clearly see my dog's head as she would come up and then
back away from the toy.  She would get within inches, and then put her ears
back and back away.  She was clearly excited about the game and wanted to get
the toy, but she just could not seem to push herself that last four inches to
grab it.  I could not figure this, so I went around and tried to encourage
her.  Once I was there, she simply gave up.  I got the toy and brought it
around.
    I threw it back and again, she would come close to picking it up, but
then back off.  I went around and looked at her and she was looking up and
making the same facial expressions she makes when I am talking to her.  It
was as if she was looking at someone who was talking to her.  I saw and felt
nothing.  So, again I picked up the toy.  The game was over; she simply would
not play if I threw it behind the couch.
    The second night we began playing again, and it started out well.  She
would go behind the couch for a while, and then all of the sudden, she
cowered down and ran to me.  I went around and tried to call her over, but
she was obviously not pleased and would not come.  She did not seem
terrified; she did not want to go behind the couch, though.
    The third night, all was going well again, but this time went very badly,
quickly.  Once again, she started out by going around the couch, but then
stopped in mid skid looking up about the tenth time around.  She began to
growl...a sound I had never heard her make before, and she was backing up.
Her face was that of a very frightened dog as she was looking up at something
that I could not see.  She backed right up until her hind end touched the
front door when she panicked and began to wet all over.  She was house broken
for about four months at this time.  She ran through the house to the back
door wetting all over and begging to get out.  Something had scared her very
badly.  She was acting as if she were going to die if she did not get out.
    I was angry after letting her out and went back in to the living room.  I
don't know what made me consider this, but I went back in and started telling
whatever it was that this was my place and my time now.  It had had their
chance and it was not to come into my house and scare my dog or me.  It was
not welcome.  It had to go, and go now! I was emphatic.  I guess it left
because the dog came back in later and all was well for a few more days.
    Several nights later, I was playing with her again in my bedroom.  The
hall is a square with a door on each side.  My bedroom door is beside the
door to the living room and only about four feet away from where my dog was
having her problem before.  I was on my hands and knees with my back to the
door; my dog was facing me and the door while we were playing.  Once again,
she began to back up, growling, and wetting everywhere.  She began to run
around the bed to find a way out.  I felt so sorry for her and I was angry.
She did not deserve this.  I spun around and saw and felt nothing.  I just
yelled, "Get out of my house now."
    The dog was so freaked out, that I had to carry her to the back door and
she when into a complete panic in my arms as we went through the hallway.  I
could hardly hang on to her.  Whatever she saw was right there.  Once through
the hall, she calmed down again.  For the next few days, I could not get her
back in the house.  It was not gone, although I could not tell this.  She
spent all of her time in the very back of the yard wanting me to come out and
be with her.
    A few days later, I had a reason to go out into a detached garage that
has been converted into a family room.  The room is not original to the house
and I have spent many comfortable hours there.  It was late morning with the
sun up.  As soon as I opened the door, I felt the presence for the first
time.  It was unlike any other that I had felt before.  I would not call it
evil, but I would call it angry and mean.  My skin wanted to crawl off my
bones and run out the door.  I just stood there thinking that I was not going
to be chased from my home.
    In the family room was a cage with two finches in it.  I checked them for
food and water and they were fine.  Before I left, I said one more time, "Get
out of my house; off of my property; I don't even want you in the street in
front of my house.  Get out, Now!"    I was still feeling pretty creepy about
it and just shut the door and left.  About a half hour later, I decided to go
back out.  I did not want this thing to rule me with fear, and I was getting
pretty edgy.
    I went in and the feeling was gone.  I was so grateful.  But as I turned,
I noticed that both birds were dead.  I could not believe my eyes.  It just
did not make since that these two birds that I hatched from eggs about six
months before would both die at the same moment for no apparent reason.  This
thing went after animals.  This scared me because I had never had any type of
manifestation like this and I took it as a direct threat.  I felt so sorry
for the birds.  I kept kicking myself for not taking them out of the room
when I left.  The poor things did not deserve whatever it was that happened
to them.  The feeling was now gone in the room, but it was as thought it
wanted to show me a thing or two before it left.
    As my computer was in this room, several days later, I went out to work
when I got to feeling that I was not alone.  It was not the creepy feeling I
had before, but clearly the feeling of a presence was with me.  A battery
operated clock that I have began to tick very loudly for no apparent reason.
I looked up at it and noticed that I had not reset it with daylight savings
time.  I even glanced back at my computer to verify that it was exactly one
hour ahead.  Then I noticed that the second hand was caught between the seven
and eight and could not move forward.  This was causing the loud ticking.  I
have had these battery operated clocks do this very thing before, so I
decided not to be concerned over it.
    I decided to communicate with the being and said, "If you want to
communicate, let the clock start back up again."  I waited and the clock
continued to malfunction.  So I turned back to my work wanting very much to
get it done and out of there even though I thought the clock was just acting
up on its own.
    For no reason I can think of, a thought went through my mind that is
simply not something that I would think.  I thought, those birds died because
I did not give them water.  I killed those birds!  Intellectually, I knew
better, but I had to look to make sure.  I would never mistreat an animal.  I
turned my head to look over and at that moment, all the water began to run
quickly out of the water bottle onto the floor of the cage.  I could hear it
glugging and see it spilling.  That was enough for me.  Why did I think that
and why after a week did the water decide to just pour out right then when I
got the urge to look at it? I went back in the main house.  It was the middle
of the day.
    Later, I went back out to lock up, and noticed that the clock was now
working again.  In fact, it was only forty-eight minutes ahead instead of one
hour.  Those twelve minutes were about how much longer I had been in the room
after it malfunctioned.  As soon as I left, it had gone back to working
correctly.  Two months later, it is still forty-eight minutes fast...no more
malfunctions.
    The following night, a friend called to catch up.  She is a longtime,
very close friend, so I decided to confide in her.  We had meet when I was
serving as a new minister of the church she had been a member of for some
time.  As soon as I told her, I felt that I had done the wrong thing.  I told
her I did not want to say any more while in the house.  Too late, the cornice
that was hooked to the wall and ceiling for a year and one half came down at
such a strange angle as to hit me.  Six big chunks were taken out of the wall
and ceiling as the screws that I used to put them up were long and still
unbroken.  She said, "What was that?" and I told her.
    I asked her to pray and I would too.  A few minutes later, it was gone
and has not returned.  It was too much for me and I do not want to experience
any of it again.
    I finally got up the courage to tell my next-door neighbors about the
incident the other night while at their house for dinner.  They were the
first house in the division in 1948 and have been the only occupants of their
house since then.  They have known everyone who has lived in my house over
the years.  No one has ever died in the house.  However, there was a
mild-mannered woman who was a lot of fun as a neighbor, but for some reason
she would periodically grab a knife and go after her husband with all intent
to kill him.  He had spent many nights next door waiting for his wife's rage
to subside.
    When I heard this, a final piece of the puzzle came together for me.  It
is something I am ashamed of, but I have to tell the whole story for you to
see the whole picture.  A week before this all began, my puppy had made me
chase her all over the neighborhood.  I got her and I was frustrated, but not
really angry.  She was a puppy after all and there was no harm done.  I kept
thinking how do I train her to come to me when I call? I brought her in after
carrying her about a block.  As soon as I entered the door, an instant rage
came up in me.  I wanted to punish that dog severely and teacher her a
lesson! I let go of her and gave her a slap that felt great, then another.
She had never been hit and these were strong blows.  I will never forget the
look in her eyes.  At that moment, she gently grabbed my hand as if to say,
"enough."  It was like I came to my senses and I was horrified at what I had
just done.
    Now I do not know why the following occurred...sent me your remarks if
you have insights.  I just started throwing up.  By the time I got to the
bathroom I had diarrhea, was sweating profusely, and was hyperventilating.
Whatever it was, it had controlled me that night.  But this was before
anything else had begun so I had no clue that it was anything but me acting
in a way I had never acted before in my life.  It was my dogs eyes looking at
me and the gentle way she tried to stop me that brought me back and I felt
guilt like I had never had before.
    I had never hyperventilated before and let me tell you, that is a trip.
I knew that I needed to hold my breath, slow it down, or get my head in a
paper bag, but my body kept saying deeper and quicker breaths with fix it.
(Now I have an idea of what it is like for the woman in labor when the doctor
says, "Don't push!") The sweats did not stop for almost an hour.
    Had my previous neighbor been controlled, too?
 

By: Deeringer2821@aol.com
 

When my sister and I were little my parents had bought an old set of
furniture from an estate sale.  The furniture was red velvet and very soft.
My sister decided to sleep on the furniture one night.  That night about
midnight my sister woke up and whispered my name I awoke to hear high-heel
shoes coming down the hall way.  My sister laid there froze with fright.  I
saw about have of a lady walking down the hall and towards my sister.  The
lady pull my sister's sheets up to her next and kissed her on the head.  Then
the lady walk towards me and smiled.  Then she turn and walked back down the
hall.  We fell back to sleep.
The next day my Mom complain that we should not play in her closet and steal
her shoes.  We told my Mom what happen and at first she didn't believe us.
The next night my Mom fell asleep on the couch and saw the lady, but this
time the lady was crying.  My Mom got ride of the furniture about three
months later.  We never saw the lady again.

By: charlene.klaus.l434@statefarm.com

I will start out with my experience.  When my family and I first moved into this house (I was about 3 at the time) our neighbors told my parents a story about a man who lived there many years before that went crazy and killed his family and buried them in the basement.  Don't know if it's true or not but it would explain alot.  Anyway we had alot of strange things happen there.  My sister (who is two years older) and I had a playroom that was a partially finnished attic.  The playroom had a small door which led to an unfinnished part of the attic.  Once in a while we could here a baby crying back there.  Tears are forming as I'm recalling this.  We would also hear whispers through out the entire house.  When we went to bed we could here people running up and down the stairs.  Almost every night it would sound like someone kicking a box down the hallway.  Other strange things like faucets turning on by themselves and strange knocking on the walls would happen often.  The one thing that happened to me when I was about 6 years old I awoke to some of my toys floating above my head.  I ran out of my room, which was directly across from the playroom, and I heard our record player playing.  Just as I screamed for my mom everything stopped.  To this day my mom doesn't believe me.  She believes that the house was haunted from personal experiences that happened to her.  Needless to say we have moved from that house and now I live in a house where a woman recently hung herself.  Thank goodness she did not stay.
 

By: godsproperty24@hotmail.com

Here are a few events that's happened to me and my brother in the past few years.  Maybe you can shed some light on these happenings.
First of all, our house is about 30 years old, and only one other couple owned it before we moved in about 16 years ago.  My parents say that something is going on with our house.  They said that a long time ago, when I was about 2 or three, they heard a baby crying and they went to see if it was me or my brother and we were both fast asleep.  I had never really had anything happen to me, up until last year, but my brother has experienced one bone-chilling encounter that makes me shiver just to write it. It was summer and we had stayed up really late talking.  It was about 2 or 3 in the morning and I had finally got him to get out of my room.  I had almost fallen asleep when he bursts into my room shaking and breathing really hard.  I was extremely angry at him for scaring the heck out of me, because I thought he was playing a joke.  He panted out "I saw a black figure in the hallway on my way back from the bathroom.  I turned around and turned back and it waser I would have heard him get up, because the floors are very creaky.  I joked that it was either a ghost or a burglar in the house, trying to lighten the mood, even though I was scared to death.  One of my friends asked if I could lock my door.  I said I could, but I didn't want to get up.  (I know, I'm a coward) After a year or two the noise finally stopped and me and my friends went to sleep.  We don't really talk about that night.  Those are the incidents that stick out in my mind the most.  Even though I wish they wouldn't.  We also hear knocking, all the time, everywhere in the house.  I've gotten so use to it though that when it happens I just smile.  Also, when I was younger, I had continuous nightmares.  Not normal nightmares, but bloody, gory, horrifying nightmares.

 It wasn't Santa Claus

By: ibell386@fcg.net

A very good friend of mine told me of an incident that happened to his brother, Tim, and his wife. I can honestly believe this story,as my friend is not the type to ever make anything like this up, much less lie to me. Besides, he still had a hard time even relating it to me.Anyway, Tim and his wife were awaken in the night to see something climbing out of their fireplace. When it "unfolded " itself and stood upright it was around 6' tall and appeared somewhat birdlike with huge wings on its back. The couple was paralyzed with fear and couldn't speak. The thing grabbed Tim by the skin of his chest and dragged him across the room to the fireplace where it attempted to pull him, then suddenly dropped him and disappeared up the fireplace alone. The couple couldn't speak until the thing was gone. Tim consulted his priest and his doctor, as he had laccerations on his chest from the claws that grabbed him and floor burns on his knees from being dragged. This happened about ten years ago in Streator, Il.
 

By: QuiltsFrmHom@aol.com
 

    My home is only two years old. My husband and I built it ourselves and it
sits on a hill in a small town. My daughter Courtney, who is fourteen years
old, woke me up one night to tell me that her bathroom door was locked. ((
Her bedroom has a joining bathroom that locks from the inside))  I assumed
she had turned the lock while she was in there earlier in the day and then
walked out and shut the door behind her with it still locked by accident.
Keep in mind this is not a dead-bolt. It is a simple turning lock on the
handle.
    Well, I got up to investigate and sure enough it was locked. She had to
use the bathroom in the main hall instead because I was not going to try to
unlock it at 1:30 in the morning.  The next morning I found that I would have
to take the door off of its hinges. This didn't bother me so much, I just
told her to be more careful.  That night, she came into my room again with
the same story. I told her to just go back to bed and I would have her father
fix it in the morning. It seemed strange to me that it had happened again,
but I knew it was just a simple mistake that anyone could make so I didn't
get mad once again.
    The next day the door was took off the hinges and unlocked once again.
Guess what happened that night? Yes, you're absolutely correct.  I was very
frustrated and began to think my daughter was either playing tricks on me or
she was just very  forgetful. I informed her that it had better not, under
any circumstances, get locked again. I yelled and it upset her because she
insisted it was not her forgetfulness. It stopped for three days. I thought
it was my daughter and that her getting punished had made her stop locking
the doors on purpose and I wouldn't have to bother with it anymore. I was in
for a rude awakening....
    On Saturday night I let Courtney stay at a friend's house. None of the
doors became locked so I just knew it was her by this time. The very next
morning my bathroom door was locked. I thought, "Well, maybe I did lock it
myself by accident......that has to be it. Courtney couldn't have locked it
to get me back, she hasn't got back from her friend's house yet." I was very
confused but I still took it off its hinges.
    All of the bathroom doors in our house still become locked on their own.
I am getting very scared about this. I believe in ghosts, but I never thought
I might have one in my home. It came as a shock to me when it actually
starting happening to me and it seems as if all my beliefs in spirits are
being tested.
 

By: cherrie@intertex.net

My story takes place this past Sunday, January 14,2001, I am a nurse and I work at a small hospital.  I and several of us at this hospital have experienced different things with unknown beings.  I have been slapped in the back by something in one of my patients' room, the patient didn't do it, she was lying in her bed and wasn't near her for her to do it to me.  Then there was a male patient who called the nurses station to ask who slapped him and we didn't see anyone in his room nor come out of his room.  These are just a few things that have happend.  But what I am about to tell is this happened to me this past Sunday.  It was around 2030 pm I began passing medication to my patients.  I had parked my medication cart in front of this patient room and noticed a slim, young man who was nicely dressed wearing a beige shirt, blue slacks and a brown belt, standing next to her bed, looking down on her. I couldn't see he face or his head.   As I was preparing the medication I thought, I would give them a little more time to visit.   Well,  I guess he saw me and decided to walk to the chair in the room.   It  was  behind a curtain that gives privacy to patients when the door is open.  He sat down in it.  I saw him walk but didn't hear him make any noise, foot steps. The room was a little dark but had light coming in  from the hall.  One of the nurses that was working with me came to me and started talking and I told her not to talk to loud due to a family member in the room.  So I took the patient's meds into the room, I knocked on the door and turned on the light.  I looked to the right of me to where this person should have been sitting in the chair but the chair was empty.  I looked around in this patients room for the visitor and there was no one there.   There was no way for this person to leave this room  without me knowing it.  I wasn't scared.  The patient began calling out to Timmy.  She has not done
this before.  This patient has dementia and alzheimers disease.  So there was really no one to back me up to what I saw.  But thats ok, I know what I saw.............

By: jgiddings@charter.net

My friend and I were walking through the graveyard that is not even a block away from my house. My friends and I used to go there allot just to look around and sometimes bring flowers that we found on the path there. Well my friend and I saw this hole near one of those graves. My friend decided to put her hand down in the hole. I thought that she was totally crazy. At that same time both of us heard someone yell at us.  "Get out of there and leave us alone."
My friend asked me if I heard that and I said yes. We both looked at each other and we ran. We didn't even notice how stupid we must have seemed thinking that we heard that voice and seen things that looked like people. As we were running out we had to go through rusty old barbed wire. My leg felt like it was being pulled back as I tried to get out. I yelled to my friend that I was caught. She didn't believe me because my foot was not caught on any barbed wire it was just kind floating is what she said. When I yelled at her to help me the second time my foot fell and got scraped by the spikes and the wire. We ran all the way home. She never came back to the graveyard with me ever again. Every time I went back with someone something would happen like we would hear voices or see things. When someone new would come with me they never would came back. There was only one time that a person came for a second time. That time nothing happened.  I don't know but  I think that something try's to scare first timers away and when someone comes a second time they can't scare that person. This might sound unreal but we know what we heard and saw and it was more than real.
 

By: MELASARG@southernco.com

A long time ago, well not too long ago, about 10 years ago, I lived in an
old nieghborhood in Lithonia, GA.  In this nieghborhood was a very old
cemetary from around the 1700's or so.  Now right about now, your saying to
yourself, "Yeah right, a cemetary in your nieghborhood." but believe me, if
you know the city, it's the only nieghborhood with a cemetary.  Anyway, I
had moved there back when I was around 5 or 6 years old, and life was
ordinary for me as a child, or atleast I thought.  A few days ago, I
actually went to my therapist for a session.  During this session he wanted
to try some hypnosis on me so I said sure.  As he had me under, I started
seeing flashbacks of being a child in that old nieghborhood.  Once those
memories were awakened, I can remember seeing some strange things.  When I
was young, I was not a very popular kid and only had one friend who just so
happened to live in the same nieghborhood as me.  So on days when he was
doing other things, I was kind of left on my own to find something to do.
During that time, the area was still under alot of zoning for construction
so even though thier were alot of new houses being built, there was also
alot of woodland.  I used to hang out around my brother's friend Shawns'
house and play G.I. Joe's on a huge granite rock.  It just so happens that
Shawns' house is right next to the cemetary.  Many a time I can recall
seeing figures out of the corner of my eye and hearing sounds only to not
see anyone there.  I am a very rational person, and even though I believe in
ghosts I had never entertained the thought of hearing or seeing one.  I can
actually picture in my mind one day when I was playing at that granite rock.
I had my G.I. Joe's out and was doing my thing when I heard my name.  The
day was sunny and quiet and no one was outside in that part of the
nieghborhood.  The strange part is I remember it was a woman's voice and I
can actually still hear it saying my name in my head.  I can also remember
times when I would see tall men out of the corner of my eye, or someone just
beyond the clarity of sight, like a figure running away quickly with no
sound or disturbance to the objects around them.  Maybe it's an active
imagination coming back to haunt me, but if it isn't, I hope it doesn't stay
because I'm a fradey cat.
 

By: eas1988@webtv.net

It was about 20 years ago and my greataunt shirley was spending the
night at my grandma`s house. She was sleeping on my uncles bed,(he was
out of town), and in the middle of the night when she was sleeping the
bed started to shake. Nothing else in the room was shaking but the bed.
It wasn`t an earthquake and she didn`t see any one shaking the bed so
she knew it was a ghost!

By: Octopussy1912@aol.com
 

I havent told a lot of people about my story.In fact,you are the first.I
didnt want to tell anyone because I was afraid they would laugh at me.If you
dont believe me,then dont email me back,and dont show anyone this email.In
fact,pretend you never read this.
   I live in a modern house,which was why I didnt realise I was being haunted
before.I thought that  ghosts only haunted old,Victorian etc houses,but thats
just a stereotype.Ghosts can appear anywhere,as I now know.
   Ive lived in this house for thirteen years,and never noticed anything out
of the ordinary.
  Only,a few months ago,strange things started to happen.For example,I would
return home,and find all the doors and windows unlocked.Ormy porch wndow
bangs open at 6.00 pm every night prompt,even when there is no wind.
  Recently Ive started having dreams of a young girl who talks to me.She
looks about 5 or 6,but her face is that of an old,old woman.I cant tell you
what she says,but she comes back every night,and my sister has recorded me
talking in my sleep,saying over and over again."The Red House.The Red
House.The Red House"

Farley House,Kentucky

By.marcie112@yahoo.com

I am the owner of this house it has been in my family for 75 years it was built by my grandfarther and passed on to my farther now me my grandfarther died in the 60's after a minning explosion .we have experinced several strange things here we wake  at night and he is standing at the foot of our beds smoking his pipe and he smiles sweetly. Several neighbors have seen him walk the grounds at night with his lantern . We see shadows on the walls the animals play with him at night.We have herd him call our names. we feel him pass us on his way past us a cold breeze. We have also experinced a little girl here we dont know her she has been seen in my nices room she plays with my nices doll collection . We do not fear these spirits or whatever they are. We feel like they are here to watch over us .

Experiences with "Shadows"

By: malkadoran@yahoo.com

I found your website and read a few of the stories...
About two months ago, something... interesting...
started to happen in my house.
This started about November of 2000. At least, that's
when I first noticed it. Boy, was it a wake-up call
(no pun intended).
I'm a light sleeper, and the slightest noise or change
in air temperature can wake me up. I also tend to get
up at about 3am or 4am and do some work. I'm a web
developer, so I can do some projects on my computer at
home. To do that, I've got my computer and network
equipment in my bedroom. I leave it on all the time,
so there is always a hum from the fans and the
blinking green, red, blue, etc. lights from the
various equipment.
Anyway... One night, I really needed to get up early
to work on a project. I turned on my MP3 player on my
computer, got the volume just loud enough to get me to
get up and turn it off, and then set the stereo to
3am. I know this, because I had set the alarm time for
6am a few days before, and I had to change it back
that night. The function was set, and I turned around
to get into bed. I was about 11:45 or so...
The bed and computer desk are on the opposite sides of
th room, with the bed on the southern wall, the
computer and door on the northern wall, the windows
(with large wooden blinds I keep shut all the time) on
the eastern wall, and my closet door and bathroom door
on the western wall. I sleep with my feet towards the
computer.
The first incident went like this: At 2:58, I wake up.
I rarely beat the clock this early. What woke me up
was the sound of keystrokes on my computer. About four
or five rather loud clicks. I opened my eyes and
looked down to see a black shadow blocking out the
lights from my equipment, and then just dissolving
away.
Funny things is, I wasn't scared, just very angry. I
am not a horror fan, I don't enjoy slasher movies, and
I can't stand roller coasters. I don't really like
ghost stories, and just the thought of seeing a ghost
give me goosebumps. This thing just annoys me, but I'm
not frightened of it... Don't really know why.
I did the usual - I asked of my parents or
grandparents had been in my room the night before. No
one else had been there but me and my "shadow."
I've seen it a few other times
  - While getting a drink from the kitchen, I saw a
shadow dart out of my room and down a fully-lit short
hall to the garage. All I saw was a three-foot tall
shape, a torso and two legs, but that was enough
  - While working on a project late at night, I've
felt something watching, turned around, and saw a
shadow on the wall dissolve before my eyes. The light
from a lamp was shining on just that spot on the wall.
My younger brother, while back from college during the
holiday break, had something wake him up at 4am and
"scan" him. He said he felt a tingling sensation start
on the left side of his body, move slowly to his right
side, and back again. He looked up, and saw a shadow
blocking the lights from across the street just before
it dissolved. I had not told him anything about what I
had seen. He came to me and told me about it, ending
with "What the hell was that?" I think it annoyed both
of us, but neither of us were frightened of it.
It has make a few more appearances over the past two
months. I borrowed a digital camera from the office
and I just tried to take photos... the camera doesn't
want to work. I just tested it on Friday, and had
taken a few test photos at the office. If this is the
shadow's sense of humor, I'm not laughing.

By: san_dimas_lil@hotmail.com

Hey,
  My name's Liliana, I'm 23, I'm from Australia.
I was recently on your Shadowlands website, and I came across where I could
submit my own ghost story. I admit it's not very scary, but it's true, and
some people might find it interesting.

A few years ago I moved into my own place, and while the first few nights
weren't too bad - just the odd clanking, and smashing, what followed just
got plain annoying!!
I have an old wooden cupboard, with removeable doors, and, I'd often wake up
in the morning and find the doors removed, and my clothes on the floor.
Also, the moving around of certain pieces of furniture was frequent, and
allot of the time, I'd think I've lost something, then a few days later find
it somewhere completely different to where I'd left it!
Anyways, I got my friends over one night, and we tried a Ouija Board (yes
I'm aware of how dangerous they are, but I'm an experienced Ouija Board user
so gimme a break, lol).
Anyways, we discovered that the ghost in my house had lived there for a long
time, and was really quite friendly.
His name was Jonothan and he had lived in the house with his parents, until
he died when he was 13 of Leukimia.
Jonothan explained that he didn't like the way I had redesigned the house,
that's why he was moving the furniture. And the whole thing with taking my
stuff and putting it in different places of the house, that was just his way
of playing hide & seek.
Anyway, I told Jonothan that I didn't mind sharing the house with him, as
long as he didn't keep hiding my things, and throwing my clothes around, and
moving the furniture.
Anyway, we came to an agreement that we would share the house, and anything
he didn't like, he'd try to live with it.
So, yeah, I haven't heard much out of him lately - just the occasional
flickering of lights, or moving of furniture OCCASIONALLY, just to let me
know he's still there.
I've now learnt not to move the furniture back to where I had it , after all
he's been living there allot longer than me.
Yeh, so that's my story. Thanks!

By:  charlene.klaus.l434@statefarm.com

This is a story that a friend told me after I was in his house.  He told me that right after his parent's were married his dad was driving home from work and for no reason turned down a street and stopped at a house that he just had to buy.  He went up to the door and ansked if they were willing to sell their home.  And hey said that they were just talking about it.  The house had been in the family for many generations until then.  Come to find out some of the family practiced black magic.  There is still a pentigon in the attic.  Before my friend's father bought the house he was the nicest person ever.  After moving into the home and having a few children his father started getting abusive.  He would always sit on the porch with a strange look in his eye. Or in the basement polishing his gun collection  After most of his family grew up and moved out, his father left, and his mother left to another state to take care of her dying mother. It was only he and his older brother left in the four story house.  So his brother made the third level another apertment.  Over the years many strange things would happen to the people living in the apartment.  One family lived there and one of the brothers chased the other brother out with a butcher knife.  They moved very soon after that.  A couple of girls moved in and were so scared they left one day and never came back not even for ther stuff.  And my friends brother had made a bedroom in the basement and if anyonr other than him would stay in that room they would have a dream of a man without a face dragging them out of bed and into the bathroom and they would wake up in the bathroom.  Before I was told all of this stuff I want to that house to help my friend move out and his brother asked us to stay (This house is in Chicago, IL and we lived in  St. Paul, MN).  Not knowing the houses history I still know I did not like being there.  I knew I did not want to be left in the attic alone when we were getting boxes from there.  I just felt uneasy.  After we got home he told me about the house and the reason why he left (without most of his stuff) is one morning while he was still sleeping his brother came crashing through his bedroom wall with a sledge hammer saying over and over, "I have to change this house".  So we came to the conclusion that it may not be haunted but the house itself me be evil.
 

By: u32smm@abdn.ac.uk

I am a student at Aberdeen University, Scotland and had a few strange
episodes at the Hillhead Halls of Residence (student accomodation). The
strangest occurrence was that of my friends and I being 'haunted' by a
7-foot tall 'man' who was wearing a long black coat and a black rimmed
hat with a dip in the middle (cannot remember what it is called!). This
thing would appear to us in that we each could see it for a second and
then it would disappear, even though we could still feel it. It appeared
to me in a local night club...and I hadn't been drinking, so it wasn't
that. It would also appear in my flat and my friends flats and even one
time it appeared when I was in a laboratory class at uni. I ignored it
and to make sure I recognised that it wasd there it moved the blackboard
rubber across the board (where the chalk is kept). No-one else saw it
there. You probably think this is really crazy, but it drove my friends
and I almost mad for 3/4 of a year. If you know of anyone else who has
encountered this...as I have the feeling that this thing hadn't actually
lived but was something quite different, I'd be very pleased to hear
from them.
Another occurrence happened when I was on my way to the shop on campus
and something made me look to my left as I walked along. To the left
where there is a narrow single road and trees/bushes which slopes away
down to a path and the River Don there was also something quite beyond
the usual. I saw between 6 and 8 cloaked and hooded black figures which
looked as if they were 'floating' towards me. I couldn't actually see
their feet but they were moving through the bushes and grass. I quickly
ran to the shop and then totally forgot that I had seen anything. It was
sooo strange. I only remembered when I came back out of the shop and
decided to walk the other way back to the flat. But then I decided to
walk the same way and prove that I didn't have to look in that
direction. The problem was that I just couldn't not look to my right and
when I did they were there again. I've never run so fast!
Anyway, I just thought that I'd let you know what strange things have
happened in Aberdeen and that I'm sure there are more things that have
happened here, but people just don't talk enough about it. Afterall, we
are certainly not mad and there are too many othere people with similar
experiences!!!

Premonition

By: rlong@ncci.net

This happened about a year ago and thats when my grandmother was very ill and dying. She die 1/16/00 AT 1:00AM. That night i had a bball game and my mom worked.  So my mom said you can stay at your friends house for the night. I went there and got ready for bed and went to sleep. around 12:57am and i woke up and got a cold chill then my blanket flew off and saw my grandmother standing there right in front of me. she said by and waved then the phone rang and it was my mom and she told me she was dead.
 
 

By: bnclay@free2air.com.au

I was only a boy   of 7years of age when we lived in a haunted house in Beaconsfield w.a in Perth Australia you had a feeling of someone watching you or all the time behind you in the hall that was where my toy box was and I would never walk in there I would only run and grab what ever toy was on top in my box as I flew past.
at 8 pm on the dot every night a door leading from that hall to the lounge room which was very hard to open because of the carpet, would open on its own and something would appear to go from there through the lounge room to the dining room there was swinging saloon type doors on the dining room and they would swing as it went through we got used to it as it happened every night at the same time on the dot.
in the morning at the same time every morning 6am  we would hear foot steps on the wooden veranda out the front my brother and I asked our mum who it was and she said it was the milk man my brother at the time was only 6years old and mum did not want to scare us but the truth was that we did not have our milk delivered,so one day my brother and I decided that we wanted to see the milk man so we waited for him at 6 am sure enough the footsteps started we could see the floor boards moving with them but no one was there.
another time I was in bed asleep when something woke me up I looked down to see a man sitting on the end of my bed so I threw the blankets over me and waited I looked again after a few minutes he was gone so I got up and went and told my mum she believed me but at the time told me I was dreaming but she knew the truth.
one night my aunty stayed in the house alone with her little dog at 8pm the lounge door opened and the dogs heckles went up he watched something go from the lounge door to the dining room door growling at it as it went then he settled down again after that we sold the house the people who bought it from us stayed only a short time and it has been on the market ever since  this is only one of many experiences I have had with ghosts hope you get something from it

By: LElmaliah@jds.org

I was in my bedroom at 1:45 when I heard foot steps downstairs, along with
the footsteps there was some humming too!  I looked down at the stairs and
saw this faided figure looking up at me and humming.  She wore a long dress
and look like she was from the 1800's.  I couldn't actually see her face but
I saw the out line of her.  She walked and every foot step she took made a
loud noise.  I was freaked out and still am!
 

By: Kjr0920@cs.com
 

my story.... My best friend died on 8/16/99  from a motor vehicle accident,
she had just turned 30.  The reason I mention her birthday was from the
moment she turned 29 to her 30th birthday she was very concerned about
"getting old".  Well two weeks after her 30th birthday she was killed.  Nici
left behind, a heart broken fiancee and  four doberman pinchers  (her babies)
that needed to be taken care of.  One evening about 2-3 weeks after her
death, I was at her home, had let the dogs out, feed them and was now
returning them to the basement, this was no easy task, they did not want to
go down.  While I was struggling with the dogs I heard Nici calling me,
telling me that she wanted to tell me something.   I didn't even think about
my response, it just came out and I told her a little irritated that I was
too busy getting the dogs down and to hold on.  I had totally forgotten that
she was no longer here, it wasn't until I closed the door and turned that it
occurred to me that she was gone.  I have to admit that I left the house
very, very quickly.  I also regret doing that since I have wondered what she
had to say.
During that month I had some pictures developed that was taken at the house
on 8/26/99 - this was due to a very close friend turning 30.  There was
supposed to have been a big party for Nici and this other friend.  We decided
to have a small gathering of  the "gang" at Nici's home.  One of the pictures
was of her dog Blue and myself but there is a "mist" in the picture.  The
mist is infront of Blue but it is very clear.  I still have the picture.
It's nice to know that Nici came to the party.
One other thing occurred.  Since a young child I have categorized homes, some
happy, some sad, most have no feeling.  I don't know when this started but I
have done this for many years.  Prior to Nici's death the home had no "feel"
to it.  After Nici's death it was very, very sad feeling, when you entered
the house it just pressed in on you.  I do not believe that this was Nici,
this may sound strange but I always thought that this was from Farris her
fiancee, they had lived together for six years.
 

By: CheeseCake_Smurf@msn.com
 

This happened when I was about 14-15 years old. We had lived in a home in Schenectaday, N.Y. for about 12 years, brand new so we knew no one had been murdered in it or anything. Well, I had just gotten done being yelled at by my parents and I stomped off into my room. I was really mad and layed down under the covers to cry. I heed. She said "stop stareing at meeeeeeeeeee" and slapped me across the face, so I slapped her back. I hadn't even slapped her that
 t hard but I had burns across my hands. On my face where she had slapped me, my face was also burnt. She had been sitting at the foot of my bed cross legged and I guess I fainted because the next morning when I woke up, my face hurt and I couldn't remember past the last above incident.

By: MHSH513001@msn.com
 

I use to be a total sceptic of ghosts and those sort of things until I had my own experience with something that I still to this day cannot understand. A few years ago I dated a man that lived in a house in the older part of the town that I am from. I stayed at this man's home quite a few nights and one night I decided to go to bed early. As I layed in bed, not being able to get to sleep right away, I noticed that the light in the other bedroom had come on and I heard the closet door open and the sound of someone going up the steps to the attic and then the light went off. I for some reason thought it was a little peculiar but brushed it off as my date putting his guitar away because he stores it in the attic in case someone breaks into his house; and a short while later finally went to sleep. The next evening when I went back to my date's house I noticed the guitar out and made a mention of hearing him putting it in the attic the night before. My date went very pale and started shaking a little bit, he then stated that he had left his guitar out last night and that he didn't go into the other bedroom for anything. He said that he had had some similar experiences happen to him and that he had had previous dates swear that there was something or someone there with them while he was away. We went over every possible explination and could find nothing to explain it but I did realize that I didn't hear the light come (it is an old house with the push button switches that are very loud) I just saw the light come on and heard the very distinct sound of someone going into the attic that is probably why I thought it was peculiar but didn't pay much attention.

By: Aaron@cua.edu
 

I have visited your web-site and read all of the articles. In reading
some of these articles and stories I was reminded of some strange things
that have happened at my home. Before I go on I would like to state that
I am a rational person, I live a normal life, 9-5 job, I am college
educated and I don't frighten very easily. I have ruled out all
reasonable natural explanations to these strange occurrences so I
thought I would tell you my story and get your advice.
I guess I should start with some background information about the house.
The house was built soon after WW2 c.1947. It has had only one owner, my
grandparents, my grandfather died in 1990 and I still live there with my
grandmother. There is no strange history about the house or the
surrounding area that I am aware of. The only person to have died there
was my grandfather. It has been and still is a normal, happy home. The
only event that I could describe as "violent" was when back about 30
years ago, someone hanged themselves in the woods that are below the
house. All of the strange events have occurred in the basement of the
house over the years. They are few and far between, but none the less
memorable and easy to recall.
The basement is basically in two halves. As you go down the stairs you
come into the rec room. This rec room is finished off, complete with
wood paneled walls and tiled floor. Directly at the bottom of the steps
to the right as your are coming down is a door that opens to a
storage/utility/workroom. This room is shaped like an upside-down "L".
As you walk toward the back of the house there's my grandfather's
workbench, you hang a right and there's the washing machine and at the
end of this "hallway" is a small bathroom.  There is also a second door
in the rec room that when opens right up to the washing machine.
Now I'll tell you about the events that have struck me as odd to say the
least.
The first time I recall something strange happening is when I was 7(I'm
24 now). I was sent down to the basement to play in the rec room so as
not to disturb my grandmother's Wheel of Fortune time. I remember
wandering into that utility room and walking around. But as I recall
though, when I turned the corner and started heading towards the area
where the washing machine was I stopped and decided not to go back
there. Now as a child I was never afraid of the dark but when I turned
the corner towards the washing machine and bathroom this awful fear came
over me and I quickly turned back and got the hell out of the utility
room. Ever since that day and up until the time I was 12 I would NEVER
go into the basement after dark without turning on every light and then
turning them off and running upstairs as fast as I could when I was
finished playing or what-not in the basement. Even to this day I get an
uneasy feeling when I go down there. I even like to have doors that lead
to the utility room locked when I'm down there watching TV or on my
computer. The thing I think is really strange is, sometimes I have these
feelings of dread and other times I don't.
Another one of the strange things that happens are objects that seem to
disappear and then reappear a few days later in the same spot where I
was looking for them. A good example would be my CDs. What I do when I
listen to CDs is I keep my favorite ones handy i.e. on top of the CD
player. One day I went down in the basement to get this one particular
CD and it was gone. I asked my grandmother if she had seen it or had
moved it she said she hadn't. I knew my brother or my cousin hadn't been
there, my brother likes to "borrow" things. I looked all through my CD
collection, in my car, under furniture, at work and I couldn't find it.
Some days later my girlfriend had asked me if I had certain CD she could
borrow, I did but it was one of my older ones that I hadn't listened to
in some time, and when I went to get it, sure enough there was the
"missing" CD near the bottom of a stack of my older CDs. I know that
nobody could have moved it since I had just listened to that CD the
night before and had gotten up that morning to put it in my bag to take
to work and listen to. Similar things have happened with other objects
around the house, my wrist watch has on several occasions shown up in
the basement next to my computer, after I knew I took it off and left it
in my room, video tapes have had similar things happen to them.
Lastly are the strange sightings we have seen. My first sighting
occurred when I was about 11. I was sent to the good old basement to get
some soda for dinner (we had an old refrigerator down in the rec room at
the time). As I walked down I noticed the utility room's door at the
bottom of the steps was ajar, I went to close it and I as I looked in
there I swear I saw a small snake slithering over some boxes. I slammed
the door and ran upstairs and told my grandfather about it, he
investigated but he couldn't find anything. I almost ruled this sighting
out because snakes had gotten into the basement in the past, but the
fact that it was springtime, and the boxes were pretty high up led me to
think it could be something else. My second and last sighting happened a
few days after my 18th birthday. I went down in the rec room to listen
to my walkman and as I often did I would walk around, dance, or fiddle
around with some of the old junk I had accumulated down there while I
was listening to my music. I had some blue plastic crates stacked up on
a book shelf. I caught something white out of the corner of my eye, I
spun around to see what it was, and it was a black and white cat sitting
on the crates, I blinked and it was gone. It startled me but, not enough
to send me from the basement. The most interesting sighting happened to
my grandmother about a year ago. She was doing laundry in that utility
room one afternoon, she had moved towards the storage area to hang a few
clothes on the line, she said she got this feeling that she was being
watched, when she turned around she saw the image of an old man. She
blinked and he was gone. I asked her if it was my grandfather(he died in
the house), she said it wasn't, and she didn't recognize who it was. Now
my grandmother is a total skeptic but I figure she must have seen
something for her to mention it to me. The last encounter I had happened
in the early fall. I was in the basement watching TV and I had drifted
off to sleep on a make-shift couch I had put down there. I was sound
asleep when I felt a sharp jab on both of my shoulders and the words
"wake up!". I sat right up looked around and saw I had been asleep for
over an hour. I quickly shut off the TV and went to bed.
I had thought of getting some people involved that have the equipment to
check this out but my grandmother would never go for it. I'm almost
certain there is something there. I don't feel physically threatened but
I do get an uneasy feeling from time to time. I cannot explain the
sightings or the objects being "lost". With the information I have
provided, can you give me an educated guess as to if I have some kind of
spirit in my home. And if you think I do is there anything else I can do
to further determine if it is a ghost of some kind.

Home Experiences

By: [gordon.porritt@nem-co.com

Im just writing to say how impressed I am at how you dealt with your ghostly
experiences.
My family and myself were haunted when I was eight years old in an old
bungalow at a Surrey estate in England,(UK)which bred horses. I thankfully
only experienced the noises and smells, however my mother & father
experienced full spectral visuals and even spoke to them of which my parents
didn't tell me about till much later in life(thank god!) my brother saw,
heard, smelt nothing.
One of the daily experiences was for me to wake up at 03:00am in the morning
everyday for a year, you can understand by the end of it I was in a bit of a
mental mess and I am sure now that if I ever did see one I would have
probably lost my mind.
However when I look back on the whole experience I feel it has effected me
in a good way. I as a person never get low as I just have to remember my
experiences to realise I am so better off now than then. Also it only helps
me confirm the existence of god, the power of spirit and heaven and hell
(The bible gave us respite from the haunting).
The only negative thing is I cannot sleep in a room in complete darkness
ever again! and this does annoy my girlfriend little as I am nearly thirty
now.