Lets here em. If you think you've seen one I'd like to hear about it. Please...stories only and no religion or debate in the thread... if that's possible.

Here's mine:

When I was about 20 years old I rented a room on an upper floor in a large house. One night I woke to see a glow on the wall. I was sleeping with my face towards the wall and when I saw this glow I had to turn to see what was lighting up the room.

What I was could only be described as it is in the movies. There was an image of a person standing just off the foot of my bed. For some reason I assumed it was a woman although the face seemed out of focus to the point that I could not make it out as male or female. The figure had the shape of a person in a wedding dress but again it was a blur so I couldn't see it clearly and it was glowing. There was no movement or noise but I got the impression it was looking at me. I looked at it for a few seconds.

I had always been interested in ghosts and had claimed that if I ever saw one I'd do my best to communicate with it to see if it was possible to learn more of why it was there. Here I was with that chance right in front of me and what did I do?????

I screamed like a banshee...thats what I did! I couldn't help it... it just came out! I immediately realized my mistake but it was too late and the figure just faded away. It looked a lot like someone turning down a dimmer switch on a light. It was gone and I had blown my chance. I was in no way frightened at that point even though I had been terrified seconds earlier. I waited a bit to see if it'd come back. It didn't.

I learned later that week that the night of that ghostly visit had been my grandmothers birthday. She had died a few months earlier. Not sure if its connected.

that's my story....any others out there?

Best,

Tim

When I was a kid, maybe 8-12 years old, I woke up at night and saw what appeared to be my grandmother in bed beside me. Of course, she was dead at that point in time but she looked just as I remembered her in life. I was too scared to do much of anything, I think I must have turned away and eventually dropped back off to sleep. Today I put it down to a child's active imagination. But, who knows? No way to prove anything one way or the other.

One night, as a boy, I had a very long and vivid dream. When I woke up, I went to tell my brothers about it. I went into my oldest brothers bedroom. I found my brothers totally freaked out. They had been comparing their very vivid dreams....the same dream that I had.

The dream was of this huge mall, unlike any of the time. My mother was waiting for an appointment, and we went exploring. We went into an elevator. My middle brother remembers struggling to press the buttons. My oldest brother remembers seeing space craft overhead, I remembered dinosaurs. My mom didn't have the dream.

Let me start by saying as a cynic and hate monger I believe in nothing, but I do have some cool ghost stories!

San Jose California, Halloween party at an old Victorian house near San Jose State University, around 1978. I'm at a party up in the large attic, the booze is flowing, I puked in a very expensive hat someone had, it was great. This was one of those types of parties where if you were not invited or known you were not going to get in. The Tubes White Punks on Dope played on the stereo and I noticed an old guy at the top of the stairs looking around with a grimace. He turns around to go down and at that time a couple walked to the top of the stairs side by side, no room for the old guy to have passed. I went down stairs and no one else had seen the old guy but me.

USS Simon Lake, Kings Bay Georgia. I'm in the bearthing and my buddy Buggsy Kevin Richard Malone was down the row from me where I could see him in the red light (bearthing is like barracks on a ship). At around 2 in the morning Bugs is up on his elbows talking but no one is there, I watched him talk for a few minutes, shake his head, then put his head down and went back to sleep. The next morning we are at the chow hall and Bugs tells me that his brother was there the night before and told him to tell his mom he was alright, Bugs thought this was a dream and I told him he was talking in his sleep too. About an hour later I found out that Bugs had to leave, his brother had died the night before in an accident on the oil rig he worked on. Interesting huh?

USS Simon Lake, Kings Bay Georgia: I looked down an elevator shaft where torpedos are moved from storage and saw a guy in khakis (making him an officer or chief) at the bottom with his head down walking around. I looked up to see other guys coming for quarters (where duty personel gather to make sure we didn't escape) and looked back down and he was gone. A chief had fallen or jumped down it years before and died, was it him or an inspector who got out quick? I don't know.

Decatur, Georgia: 1980: I'm at my childhood friends mothers apartment spending the night and Kay was upset because her boyfriend was getting involved with a Satanic type cult (he was a druggy). I gave her my copy of The Satan Seller by Mike Warnke and told her to read it. That night I see a shadow of a person, no kidding, on the wall and then it moves in and I felt pressure on my chest pushing me down. At the same time I hear Kay yelling "help me help me" but all my strength left me and I went to sleep. The next morning Kay asks why I didn't come help her, she also had seen a shadow and felt it push her down by her shoulders and she made a religious statement and it went away. Cool huh?

Other than that my best friend, who died of cancer a few years ago, comes and visits me in dreams and we talk but I accept those as just really nice dreams.

Shhhh! What was that?

I too am a non believer, but I love to listen to the stories. I even watch Ghost Hunters every week.

About 3 months ago, I woke up in the middle of the night because I felt like someone climbed in bed with me and put their arm around me from behind. It just felt like someone holding me very close and tight. I couldn't move, I couldn't even speak for several seconds. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, but was probably 10 seconds or so I was able to scream "Eddie, Mary..who is that?" These are my 2 best friends who have keys to my apartment. They've both been known to play tricks, but I really can't imagine either of them climbing in bed with me at 2 AM. I struggled and kept asking who was in my bedroom. I finally broke free and turned around...and of course no one was there. I really have no idea what happened, but I'd never experienced anything like that before.

Pepka, I had something very similair to that.It happened a few times. I felt someone sit down on the bed and had to pull the duvet out from under 'them' before I could turn around and find noone there. I thought, I could have been half sleeping the first time, then it happened when I was wide awake. It only ever happened in that room.

Great stories, Santa.

George

I like Ghost Hunters (my wife watches all of 'em) but want to hunt down and beat up the guys from Paranormal State, they suck.

Thank you George! All of 'em happened....

I saw casper on tv once.

Apart from that I've never seen one. I don't know if I want to see one. I think I might get scared.

Its funny how you NEVER forget these things EVER.

Best,

Tim

If you watch ghost shows you'll see they often go to CalNeva casino in Lake Tahoe. They say the ghost of Marilyne Monroe and others are there and my wife really wanted to go there to see ghosts. I took her (I'm pretty close to Tahoe) and had her pose in front of the place with her hands up and making a scary action. I then put it on the computer and told her that there was something very odd in the picture, kind of a mist or shape. She was very concerned about ghost following us since I walked around saying "you ghost are a pack of wussies and I double dog dare you to follow us home!". I showed her the picture and told her to look closely above her shoulder. She cracked up because I went to clip art and found a cartoon ghost doing the same action as her and put it next to her! It is on power point but I'll send it to ya Tim if you want to post it, I don't know how.

A few years ago, I was commissioned to perform a series of aerial straightjacket escapes with the ropes on fire at a fair in New Brunswick. Centered directly in the middle of a grave yard, was the hotel that was reserved for me by the client. A very old hotel that was originally built as a priest monastery, I opened my bedroom window and could almost touch a head stone.
After I performed my last performance at the fair a few miles away I arrived back at the small hotel around midnight. I sat in the lobby and had a coffee with the desk clerk. On saying goodnight to the clerk he mentioned to me that tomorrow; before I left the town of Buctouche NB that I must travel down the road a few miles to see their famous tourist trap. He did not tell me what it was but assured me that I must check it out. The next morning, over a glass of orange juice, I mentioned to my assistant that I dreamt of the tourist trap, telling her that" there will be a huge grey factory with piles and piles of sand". Although I really had no intentions of seeing another tourist trap, because of my vision, I had to go check it out. After our 30 minute drive to get there, it was nothing at all like my dream. Turned out to be the worlds longest boardwalk and I had no intentions of walking for miles. We headed back for a 6 hour drive back to our home in Halifax. Along the drive home we saw an exit for St.John, New Brunswick. Since I have never been there and have always wanted to go there and visit the location of the old insane asylum where Houdini discovered the straightjacket, my companion obliged, so we are off to check out St.John. Arriving in St.John on a Sunday and most of the town is quiet. I stopped in at antiquities shop (I also collect old handcuffs and locks).I asked the grey haired gentleman sitting behind the counter if he ever heard of the lunatic asylum. His eye brow raised up and asked" Are you a magician? This totally through me for a loop. How did he know? I can’t imagine that there is a long list of magi’s that stumbled into this small little dusty shop with the same ambition that I had.
I said "yes I am a magician”. The gentleman gave me directions on how to get to the asylum and I thanked him and carried on. After driving around for about an hour and not having any luck finding the place, I pulled into a park. Not too far from where I had parked was a man sitting in his car having a cigarette. I went over and asked him if he knew the location of the asylum. He said " That's funny that you would ask me that,” I am a retired asylum employee. The asylum was demolished a few years ago, you’re standing on it" I looked around and was shocked. I walked over to my car and instructed my assistant to look across the street; there was the grey factory and many piles of sand!

I have never been to St.John NB before, nor have I ever seen pictures of the location of where "The New Brunswick Provincial Lunatic Asylum "once stood.

On a side note-the factory is a pulp mill, the piles of pulp look like piles of sand.

I still wonder to this day what spirit gave me this apparition, one of the souls’s buried in the cemetery or maybe even Houdini himself.

http://198.164.154.3/heritage/LunaticAsylum/intro.htm

Best,
DF

Tim:

It's true, you never forget them, but age plays rationalistic havoc with the memories. How could one have REALLY experienced such phenomena? After all, waking dreams are extraordinarily vivid, and simulacra can cause our minds to piece together visions or patterns from things our eyes never really saw. The cynic, the sceptic, the materialist will nearly always have a plausible and imminently reasonable explanation that reduces the most palpable and terrifying experience to a physiological malfunction of one banal sort or another.

Except, more than three decades later, one's brother still corroborates independently-experienced events that one's parents too-vigourously denied.

Religious spin on this topic? Not from me. But perhaps a comment from the foreword to Stewart James' tome:

Tear apart and pry asunder
All things to their inmost core.
You will find them made of wonder,
Everything is something more.

First line of the couplet should read:

"Weigh the world and pry asunder..."

Several years ago my family and I were living in Germany. There were various oddities that would occur in the house, like appliances turning on by themselves, which can easily be explained by wiring. One thing that I could never figure out though would happen in my room. If I set my watch down on my dresser, it would start to cycle through the menus and change the time by itself. When I picked it up, it would instantly stop and the time would go back to normal as if it never happened. This would only happen on the dresser, and only with the watch.

10 years later, and I still haven't replaced the dead battery.

I had something happen when I was ten years old that I still don't understand. I am not a believer in ghosts, so I've just filed this under "unexplained." I was at my friend's house trying to get to sleep on the couch in the rec room (remember "rec rooms"?)and at some point I looked toward the stairwell that led up to the first floor, and saw a green luminous thing that looked like a face, with sort of triangular eyes. I ducked under the cover and tried to pull myself together and tell myself that it had to be nothing and I was being stupid. So with a burst of courage I sat bolt upright and stared straight at it. It seemed to move very fast straight toward my face and I screamed my head off. My friend's dad came down and flipped on the lights and yelled at me for waking everyone up, and that I was just dreaming and to go back to sleep. I am absolutely positive it was not a dream. Honestly, have you ever been awake and wondered if you were dreaming? I knew I was awake. I have no explanation.

I recall watching something on the beeb a few years ago about common "paranormal" experiences and always remember this one as it had happened me a number of times. I don't remember the explanation or rationalisation and I don't have one except to say I'm not a believer. Someone mentioned something similar above.

It begins with the feeling of waking and sensing a dark presence in the room, possible a sensation of being able to hear breathing. Then the "shadow" can move towards the bed, possibly accompanied by the sound of footsteps. You are of course at this stage petrified, but stuck to the bed, attempting to scream, but unable to make a sound. The "darkness" comes over you and you feel a deep pressure on your chest. The apparition may or may not take on a form, the most common of which (no pun) are a witch or gargoyle. The pressure gets worse and worse until eventually you let out a scream and wake up in a sweat.

As I said I can't recall the explanation. It hasn't happened to me for a long time, since I was a kid, but I seem to remember in my case the shadow took on the shape of some sort of creature.

Anyhows, I still don't believe, but there you go.

Scott

Scott,

Sounds like you might be describing hypnagogic sensations.

Although not considered paranormal, the experience can be unsettling, even if you realize what is happening at the time.

Steve

Steve

Cheers, will check it out

Scott

I have experienced that (and similar thing) a few times in my life. What actually happens is that for some reason your brain wakes up before your body-you are in a semi dream state. You are still dreaming but aware of your surroundings. The reason why you cant move is because when dreaming your body is partially paralyzed (to a degree) to prevent you from doing harm to yourself. Try as you may, you cant move a muscle and as you are partially concious to your surroundings and situation it may feel you are being held or just paralyzed with fear.

I discovered this when I had a similar incident. What made me think about the real reason was the fact that I thought (was dead sure) that it was the middle of the night and when I "broke free" and actually opened my eyes (I did think they were open because I tried to look but couldn't) it was a bright sunny morning. I asked a friend who is a doctor at a sleep clinic and he explained the thing.

Only “ghost thing” that has happened happened when I was 15 and I was at an old abandoned house with a friend-in the afternoon, not in dead of night. We were on the 2nd floor when all of a sudden we heard footsteps from the floor below. We knew nobody could have entered thru the front door (no back door) because it was kinda stuck and made a lot of noise and we would have heard that. We climbed to the attic, stayed put and listened to the footsteps coming up the stairs. We didn’t look as we tried to stay hidden. The footsteps went down and just stopped. For years we were sure it had been a ghost.

I went to that same house over ten years later and could piece together what had happened in reality. The stairs to the basement were concrete, not wood. The house has 3 floors, including the basement. The basement is half above the ground level and the double doors of the basement were missing already when the incident took place-I remember that because we had been to the basement before and my dad also confirmed that the doors indeed were gone. The house is in the middle of a field, but very close to a farm house and the couple that lives there owns the place. So likely the owner had heard us (we were shooting with BB guns) and came in thru the basement because the front door was so hard to open and the concrete stairs explain the appearing/disappearing footsteps.

So, no ghosts for me. But I cherish that one incident-when it happened it was exciting and horrifying as heck. For a 15 yo it was quite a rush! LOL

Youtube has some interesting videos that people have shot in their homes. Search for "poltergeist" and you find some. Obvious fakes there (like neat things with time-lapse "animation") but they are fun to watch.