I am fairly sure, in hindsight that I saw a ghost and just hadn't realised it at the time!
You See Him Here, You See Him There
A few weeks after my father's sudden death I saw him walking down a busy road. I only saw the back of him and I turned to see the front of him and he was gone! This happened maybe four different times in all, for about a week.
Finally, I mentioned this to my sister and she said thank God I had told her, as the same thing was happening to her! After we talked about it though, it never happened again. We thought it was Dad just letting us know he was okay.
Now That Was Quite A Shock
When I was a teen I became interested in the paranormal, after the experience I mentioned earlier in the survey, with the spirit of my gran.
One night I went to the cemetery to do an experimental investigation, and I remember seeing a tall, misty, translucent figure. From what I could see it was a man, slightly bent over, walking across the path around 30-40 yards in front of me. While he appeared to be walking I can still remember that there were no feet to be seen.
I was both amazed and afraid at the same time, but my fear got the better of me and I bolted out of there as fast as my own feet would take me.
Who Is That Tapping?
I was sitting on the couch watching the television when I felt a finger tap three times on my shoulder. I turned and looked, because it was very obviously to me that a person was tapping my shoulder. No one was there! My parents were in the other room, too far away to have tapped me.
Here One Moment, Gone The Next
I was lying on the couch in my living room. I awoke to see the form of a man sitting in a kneeled position across the room from me. He was looking right past me (over my head), not at me. I blinked and he was gone.
Poltergeist Activity or Ghostly Impressions?
We were sleeping one night when we woke up to a loud, thudding noise. I just thought it was one of our cats but I looked on the floor and they were both right there sleeping.
Well, then my dog started growling, and my daughter yelled out from across the hall. Had I heard that noise too? We both wanted to know what the dog was barking about and I told her I wasn't sure what it was.
Then, it went quiet for the rest of the night.
We have like little things happen like this but not all the time. At one stage things were being moved around a lot in my daughter's room; she would even hear small, soft voices talking to her, but she could never make out what they are saying.
This stuff started happening to her ever since we moved into this house, and just recently, I started experiencing things too. We don't feel threatened or really scared; it's just weird when it happens, and we don't feel like it or they are here to hurt us.
Down on the Farm
It was when I was a teenager living on the family farm. Myself and three other family members saw three black panthers later in the evening around dusk in our front yard.
We had chickens in a shed in the back, so for protection of ourselves as well as the animals we decided to shoot the cats. My brother, my brother-in law and myself all took aim with high-powered hunting rifles. We all shot at the same time on my mother's count of three.
I saw the middle cat that I shot at flip backwards, then the light we were using to see at night went out. In fact, all the lights flickered and went out for almost a minute; then they came back on.
We remained in the house for the rest of that night.
The following morning we went out when it was plenty bright. There were no cats to be found anywhere. (I never missed when I was a young man) Anyway, we saw that the ground was scratched up real bad (no blood) and there were tracks that went into a freshly plowed field that I had cut with discs the day before.
We followed the tracks towards the woods.
There we saw three distinctly different animals. One was dragging a leg. About half way into the field the tracks just stopped. No back tracking movement was evident and there were no trees within a hundred yards. There was no way for anything to move without making tracks. Yet, no animals!
We did see them a few weeks later in another part of that same field but only briefly. It was in the area of an old slave graveyard, where over 300 slaves were buried after dying from malaria.
Whose Cat is This Anyway?
I was about 17 at the time. I was passing by my brother's bedroom when I saw there, sitting on the bed with its front paws tucked under its body in the characteristic way cats sit, a black cat. I remember its green eyes looked up as I was about to pass and then, as I stood staring at it, in about 2 seconds it disappeared just as quick as it had appeared.
Upon telling my mum she told me of a similar sighting that she had of the same black cat. Also, my little brother, when he was about 11 years old told me of how he awoke one morning to see a cat on his bed. He began stroking the cat thinking it was our own household cat, but upon coming out of his doze he realized that our cat stayed in the garage of nights, so it couldn't have been him. He said then the cat disappeared.
Shiva
After my uncle died my brother and I were staying at his home to once again observe the Jewish mourning ritual of "shiva."
While going from the living room into the kitchen I stepped into a kind of invisible "cloud" of my uncle's distinctive "personal smell" that seemed to be detectable in a discreet, circumscribed area.
If I stepped slightly one way or another, it was not detectable.
I called to my brother to come to where I was standing to see if he could smell what I was experiencing. He is a PhD research scientist and reluctantly admitted he could, but dismissed any significance.
Months later, my husband and I were in the house working when we both clearly heard loud knocking that seemed to come from my uncle's bedroom. When my uncle was alive, he had a habit of napping in the afternoon and when he wanted something would knock on his bedroom wall rather than call out.
On another occasion, we were both standing in the kitchen and I felt my left upper leg get incredibly cold.
At the time I had never heard of so-called paranormal "cold spots."
Down at the Jail
I was on a ghost hunt, something I picked up doing because of the unexplained things from childhood.
I was in an abandoned jail and we were taking pictures. I saw a full-body male standing in a strange pose, with his arms close to his body, his shoulders curled up near his ears, with dirty blonde hair, sad eyes, unclean clothing...
It only lasted during the time it took for the flash to go off, and as I was the only one looking in that direction I wasn't eh only one who saw this.
I saw him so clearly; I sketched him out. I can still remember him to this say. He was looking right at me and he was very frightened.
What is That Noise
When I was about 15 years old, my parents told me they felt the house I was growing up in was haunted. I had already come to that conclusion myself so I wasn't bothered by what they told me.
However, one day I noticed a strange buzzing sound in the room with me. It was similar to someone snoring. It started to fade after a few minutes, but then I realized it was just moving further away, into a different room. I followed the noise from room to room for about half an hour. I went outside several times to see if it was a chainsaw in the distance but it was quiet outside.
Eventually it faded to nothing.
Are You Still in Here Grandpa?
I was in my friend's house with my only guy friend and a girlfriend. We began to file into a room one by one; my girlfriend went first, my guy friend second. Then, suddenly my guy friend exclaimed that his ears started ringing as he stepped a foot inside the room. As I got myself inside the room, I almost fell to the ground because it felt as though something was pressing down on me, pushing me to the ground. My girlfriend just shrugged all this stuff off and said, "Well, my great grandpa did die in here after all."
Does She Approve of the New Décor?
We moved in to my in-laws' home after their passing, and when my wife decided to change the color of the kitchen walls. After this, a door started closing on its own, and I heard my dead mother-in-law's voice talking to me, in response to a statement that my wife had made. There was also a tingling feeling across the back of my head when I heard her responding.
Did I Just Hit That?
I was driving at sunset, but the sun was still visible, when I rounded a street corner and "hit" a shadow person who had run "onto" the road right in front of me.
It was so clear, so visible that I swerved to avoid hitting it. My car passed right through it. It had a head and legs and arms and torso but it had no feet or hands and it seemed to be small like a pre-teen. Very unnerving.
Is That a Topper I See?
It was a hot summer's night, the windows were open and I had fallen asleep on the sofa.
I don't know how long I'd been sleeping but when I suddenly woke up I saw the shadow of a man standing over me. It was a black shape and he was wearing a stovepipe hat. I was terrified, and didn't sleep the rest of the night.
A Friend Beyond the Grave
When I was 15, my friend died in a car accident. I was devastated, and couldn't stop crying. One night, he appeared to me, just his head, floating above my bed. He let me know that he was okay, and not to worry about him. I was able to move beyond the grief after this experience.
A Mother's Love
Three years ago, my grandson's mother died. He now lives with me. When my grandson fell in love, his mother came to me and told me to tell his girlfriend about her. At the same time, she appeared to his father and a friend to tell them the same.
Two of us told other people before we told my grandson.
This is My Home Too
Our house was built in 1895 and the closet in the bedroom is a double door closet that juts out from the wall. We decided to tear it down and move it to the end of the room so we would have more space.
When we finished the job we discovered a small door that opened into a small closet, like the type people had over a century ago, when they didn't have many clothes as we do today. After finding this closet, I had an overwhelmingly strong feeling, both when waking and sleeping, that there were several people in the back of the house who were talking and were upset.
When my husband asked me if I felt like we were not alone, it was like a jolt.
I told him what I had also felt. I had heard and read about spirits getting upset when their previous homes are disturbed, but I had never experienced it before. I insisted that we have the small door covered back over and we even put the closet back where it had been. After that, the feelings of other people being in our home left us.
Just Weird
The house I live in now has strange things happening in it. I am not scared and neither is my family, as no harm has ever occurred to us.
Once something did whiz past me and as it did I felt a strange cold sting on my left breast, and then I went into the bathroom to check what was up. There I found three x's scratched on my left breast; the x's were there for about 24 hours and I showed them to my husband, then showed him when they were gone.
We also, hear what sounds like people having a conversation in my youngest daughter's room when she isn't home and, when I open the door no one is there. I have heard someone washing the dishes before (2 times) when no one was in the kitchen. I also hear my name being called, but no one is there either. Just weird!
Monte Cristo Homestead, Australia
I went to the Monte Cristo homestead, a place in the outback that is renowned for being haunted. I had dinner with the owner before a larger tour group arrived.
I saw momentarily a grey image of a woman at the top of the stairs looking down at the dining table. She was only there for a moment but, at around the same time, there was a bright blue ball of energy that zipped around the light above the table for maybe a couple of seconds and it made the light start rotating.
I looked at the owner, he met my eyes, and we both said nothing to the rest of the group. Later while on the tour I was in a particular room and a crystal shard that was a mantelpiece ornament lifted up twice, turned 90 degrees and then moved back down. It did not counter swing. I checked it out at close range and there was no material reason for it to have done this.
The Old Man on the Stairs
Well, I was living with my girlfriend and her 4 years old daughter. The daughter said she liked to talk to an old man who was on the stairs of the property quite a lot, so her mum and I were quite aware of something going on.
However, on one occasion when her daughter was not in the house and I had gone to bed early, I was woken by what felt like someone shaking me. I then noticed that my girlfriend was not in bed so I got up to find her asleep in the bath. I know she would probably have woken, had she gone under the water if she was a normal healthy woman. However, since then we have found out that she is diabetic and that it can be fatal if she gets tired in the bath.
The Experiences Can Happen Early in Life
When I was 10 I spent weekends out at my grandmother's house, way out in the middle of nowhere.
One night I couldn't sleep so I decided to get up and get some water. As I walked out of my room there was a tall black shadow of a man right in front of me. I didn't move; I just stood there not knowing what to do. Then, I heard my grandmother cough. Startled, I jumped and turned! She wasn't actually there next to me, but when I turned back the shadow man was gone. However, a cold blast of air rushed by me, blowing my hair back and raising goose bumps up my left arm.
This scared me so much! I have never told anyone 'til now!!
Who Is That Lady?
I was eight, my older brother was eleven, and my younger brother was six. We had just moved into a new house and because we only had one bed we had to share it.
I woke one night to see a woman standing by the wardrobe in the bedroom and she started to float towards me. I then woke my older brother and he saw her too and we started shouting for our mom. Mom came into the room, put the light on and the figure of the lady vanished. Next morning we described the lady to Mom and her partner and we found out that the figure was Mom's partner's mother; the wardrobe belonged to her. We had never seen the lady before!
A Message from Sarah
I was killing time before I had to pick up my daughter at horse camp. I was sitting alone at a picnic table in a hiking area. I was looking out at the pond and felt as though something wanted my attention.
I think her name was Sarah, and she wanted me to know her drowning was an accident.
It seemed very important to her for me to know it was an accident. I don't know if there ever was a drowning there or why she definitely wanted me to know this. Her name was Sarah and she was about 15 years old.
Is Seeing Really Believing?
I was sitting on the toilet in the Edwardian house of an old lady who was a good friend of mine (we were sixty years apart in age!)
The door to the corridor was open and I saw someone walk along it. I expected them to turn up the stairs but they didn't. When I told my friend she said, "Oh that's Mother." I didn't believe in ghosts at all at that time, although my family were said to be psychic, read tealeaves, etc. What struck me the most about this incident was the way the ghost apparently disappeared through a wall. Even now, having seen what I saw I still really don't believe in ghosts!
Get Away
Ghost! Angry ghost! He said we had his land (through a medium). It would happen at nights, mainly. He used to pin me, and my flatmate down and hit us during the night. There was deep breathing, touching too.
This was just before, during and for a short time after my mother's death. A medium advised me how to deal with the ghost. I think my Mother would have chased him away also, but on the other side. My friend and I still talk about it!
I have had other more pleasant experiences also! And some rather odd ones too!
A Visitation
; I was in bed and had lots of trouble getting to sleep. Suddenly, I turned myself over and I saw a black, shadowy body shape over the top of me. Strangely, it did not worry me at the time. I believe it was my brother.
True Ghost Stories: Real Accounts of Death and Dying, Grief and Bereavement, Soulmates and Heaven, Near Death Experiences, and Other Paranormal Mysteries (The Supernatural Book Series: Volume 3) Page 2