On September 11th 2001,I was working as a teacher. At lunchtime I suddenly felt terrible - nauseous, shaky, exhausted - and with feelings of depression and helplessness. I was told I looked awful - I simply couldn't go on teaching and was sent home. Wnen I got in, I slumped on the sofa and turned the TV on.- it was tuned to the Sky news channel as it had been in the morning. Immediately, the very first newsflash from New York came on. I lay there and witnessed the rest of the tragic events as they happened. My feelings of being unwell went away during the events. I now believe they were feelings of foreboding.
In fairness, 7 billion people in the world. There are bound to be a few of them that were unwell on that day.
Ok, I mentioned earlier (on the previous page, I think) that, as far as I'm aware, I've only ever seen ghosts twice in my whole life and went on to describe the first time. Here's what happened the second time....
Sometime in 1984, I went to stay for the weekend with a friend whose parents ran a very old pub (c1600's), in Buckingham Palace Road, about half a mile or so from Buck House. It was only a small pub, but it was about 3 or 4 storeys high.
As this was back in the days before all-day opening, the pub had closed at 11pm and was completely quiet and dark when my friend and I returned from a nightclub around 3am on the Sunday morning. Her parents and younger brother were fast asleep upstairs.
The pub still had it's original very heavy wooden studded front door, which was quite low, but wide. As we entered, there was a second, similar door, which was standing open and the bar was only a few feet in front of us. My friend only put the bar lights on, which threw out enough light for us to see where we were going and not trip over anything. She went behind the bar to pour us each a nightcap, while I got settled on a barstool up at the bar. She then came and sat next to me and we were just chatting about our night out and giggling over some of the funny things that had happened. We were both totally relaxed and to be honest, a bit merry, but not roaring drunk.
For some reason, I glanced back over my right shoulder at the second (inner) door and asked my friend if she was going to lock that too. She said they never bothered locking it as the first one was like Fort Knox (and I'd just watched her locking and bolting about six different things on it!) I was just about to look away again, when I thought I saw a shadowy figure standing in the small space between both doors (it was only about 2ft x 2ft square, from what I recall). Although this space was quite dark, it seemed the longer I stared, the clearer this figure became as my eyes adjusted to where it was standing.
It was a fairly tall man (around 5' 10"), wearing what I can only describe as typical Cavalier clothing, including a wide-brimmed black hat and fairly long cloak. I was even eventually able to make out the contrast of his white frilly collar and white stockings below where his trousers ended near his knees. I told my friend what I could see and she calmly said "Oh, don't worry about him, loads of people have seen him!" I glibly made a joke about him being the obligatory resident ghost of an ancient pub and asked my friend if she could see him too, but she said no and that she had never seen him at any other time either. As strange as it may sound, we both kind of shrugged it off and carried on chatting.
My friend was sitting to my left, so I was naturally facing slightly towards her, but the first time I looked away from her and down at the bar to pick up my drink, in my peripheral vision I could clearly see a man standing to the right of me, but whenever I turned my head towards him, he vanished! My friend laughed and asked me what on earth I was doing, so I told her what was happening and described him to her: a man with short, grey hair, in his late 50's or early 60's, wearing a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to just around his elbows, wearing a silver-coloured expanding watch on his left wrist, picking up his pint (in one of those old-fashioned 'dimpled' glasses with a handle), drinking some, then setting it down on the bar again. My friend said noone had ever reported seeing him before, although I could still see him from the corner of my eye as clearly as if he really was standing there next to me.
I found his presence so distracting that I eventually turned my back on him so that I was completely facing my friend, who found it highly amusing when I apologised to him for doing so. We were sitting at one end of the bar and as I turned to face my friend properly, I then had a good view of the rest of the bar, which went along behind her for some way, before curving round to the right for about another 3 or 4 feet.
However, as soon as I turned to face my friend, I could very clearly see a tall, lanky young lad (aged about 20), standing just by the curved part of the bar. He had longish strawberry-blond hair and was wearing a red tartan long-sleeved shirt. He was drinking a pint of lager from a straight glass. When I told my friend I could see someone else behind her, further along the bar, I think she thought I was getting a bit carried away by this point and obviously didn't believe me, as she rolled her eyes and said in a sarky tone "Ok, so who is it this time?"
As I described him, the colour drained from her face, she grabbed her drink and ran over to the door which led upstairs, whilst telling me to hurry up and follow her. I was completely baffled by her sudden change of mood and followed her upstairs to her bedroom. I was barely through the door before she quickly shut it behind me and hastily locked it. She was in a terrible state, but I had no idea why, until she'd composed herself enough to explain that I had just described her ex-boyfriend to a T ~ even down to his favourite red tartan shirt!
I was aware that a few years earlier she'd been in a relationship with a lad who had sadly been beaten to death one night in the late 70's (although thankfully she hadn't witnessed it, as she wasn't out with him that night), but I had absolutely no idea what he looked like, as she'd never shown me a photo of him, or even described him to me. We both sat there completely stunned for quite some time afterwards, trying to make sense of it all.
Apologies for this post being so long-winded, but it really has stayed in my memory all these years, as the whole sequence of events were so bizarre and I wanted to try and include every small detail. I can honestly say I've never seen anything else like that since that night almost 30 years ago and even sometimes try to make light of it by saying something along the lines of: "In my experience, ghosts are like buses ~ you wait ages for one, then three come along at once!" However, it really was no laughing matter.
One night working at the hospital I sat with a dying patient,they died and I was about to leave the room when they sat upright in the bed eyes rolling in head,shaking then flops back down.I'll never forget it.
One night working at the hospital I sat with a dying patient,they died and I was about to leave the room when they sat upright in the bed eyes rolling in head,shaking then flops back down.I'll never forget it.
One night working at the hospital I sat with a dying patient,they died and I was about to leave the room when they sat upright in the bed eyes rolling in head,shaking then flops back down.I'll never forget it.
Love reading this thread, reminds me of a few creepy experiences I've had myself. The earliest I can recall happened at my Grandma's house. I can't recall exactly how old I was, certainly younger than 11, but anyway, it was an old terraced house and it gave me the creeps. It had an enclosed internal staircase which could be reached via a door in the dining room at the back. It was very dark going up the stairs and even more so coming down. I always felt as if there was someone behind me. In the week we were there, the dogs next door would howl at midnight every night..it used to scare me to death. One night my sister and I went to bed and the moon, which was shinning very brightly, caused a shaft of light to stream through the window. I was just settling down when I noticed a monk, dressed in his brown habit appear in the moonlight. He looked as if he was holding a prayer book in his hands and he continued to look at it as he 'glided' along the shaft of light and then disappeared. I pulled the covers over my head and nudged my sister as I was petrified and wondered if she had seen it too..only to discover she was under the covers as well!
About 4 or 5 years ago, around 9 or 10pm, I was in my kitchen with my cat, who was watching me intently whilst I was preparing a dish of food for her, when I heard someone running up my stairs. They were quite light footsteps (like a woman's) and actually reminded me of the way I myself run up the stairs, but they stopped suddenly about halfway up.
As I turned to look out into the hallway, I noticed the cat had already turned round and was staring out into the hallway, so I knew it wasn't my imagination as she'd heard it too. The strange thing was, I didn't feel at all frightened or 'spooked' and didn't even bother going to look, as I knew there would be nothing to see.
I didn't know what to make of it and completely forgot about it, until a couple of days later, when I was speaking on the phone to an old lady with incredible psychic abilities, who I'd known since I was a child. We'd been chatting for a few minutes about general things, when she suddenly exclaimed "Did you hear someone running up your stairs a couple of nights ago?" I gasped in surprise, as I'd completely forgotten about the incident, but I told her I had and asked her how on earth she knew that? She just chuckled and said "Oh, your Mum's just popped in and said to tell you it was her!"
I laughed and remarked that I should have realised it was my Mum by recognising the sound of her footsteps and asked the old lady why she did it. She replied "She just wanted to let you know she's still around, keeping an eye on you!"
I lost my Mum over 30 years ago and have often thought I have felt her presence around me, but it was very reassuring to actually have it confirmed by someone hundreds of miles away, who could have had no other way of knowing what I'd heard a couple of nights earlier.
The house where I lived as I child was haunted. When my sister and I were small and in bed, babysitters would say they heard footsteps, but both my sister and I would be fast asleep. In the lounge you would get a smell of fish! When my Grandad died, my Gran stayed with us, and she said that as she was going to the toilet one night she tripped on the rug, but a man dressed in an apron and straw hat gave her his arm and supported her. A few years later, my dad bumped into the partner of the person he had bought the house off of. They were talking about these events, and he said that his partner had bought the house from an old lady, and she said that despite her husband dying, he was always with her. He was a fishmonger. Never felt threatened at all in the house.
My grandfather was a very heavy pipe smoker and smoked a brand of tobacco that went off the market years ago. It had a very distinctive smell. Even so he lived into his 90s.
He had a collection of very old 78rpm records (I still have them although I never play them), one evening I found one of them on YouTube, despite being recorded in 1912 the person who put it on had done a very good restoration.
I listened to it and part way through I became aware of that distinctive tobacco smell which was there for a few minutes. Of course it's possible that my mind was playing tricks, on every previous occasion I had heard the record I had been in his house - it stank of that tobacco and he hated opening the windows.
The house where I lived as I child was haunted. When my sister and I were small and in bed, babysitters would say they heard footsteps, but both my sister and I would be fast asleep. In the lounge you would get a smell of fish! When my Grandad died, my Gran stayed with us, and she said that as she was going to the toilet one night she tripped on the rug, but a man dressed in an apron and straw hat gave her his arm and supported her. A few years later, my dad bumped into the partner of the person he had bought the house off of. They were talking about these events, and he said that his partner had bought the house from an old lady, and she said that despite her husband dying, he was always with her. He was a fishmonger. Never felt threatened at all in the house.
Well, if you've got a ghostly fishmonger, maybe there's also a food hygiene in-spectre!:D
I know this may sound funny, but when I was living with my parents whenever I went to the bathroom, I always heard footsteps outside the bathroom door and then 'somebody' standing there. It would happen almost every time. I used to think it was either my Mum or Dad just going to their bedroom, but they were usually downstairs. One time I got so fed up of it, I pretended I wanted the bathroom, so I ran upstairs, locked the door and sat on the lid of the loo waiting. Sure enough I heard shuffling of footsteps outside the door and thinking the only explanation was either parent I unlocked the door angrily shouting, "What the hell are you doing?!" to find nobody there! When I eventually got married I moved in with my husband for a short while before we put his house up for sale and later we moved to a new house. Everything was fine for a while and then strange things would occur every time I went to the bathroom again! I'd go upstairs, shut the door and no sooner had I sat on the loo the door would suddenly make a very strange noise ….like a strange pop/bang/whoop sound....I can't really describe it, but it used to make me jump and for some reason made me feel afraid. I don't know what of, but after a few years of this and getting increasingly fed up with it happening every time, I decided to investigate and discovered the sound could only be created if I pulled the handle or catch towards me a little. So that freaked me out because it meant 'something' or 'somebody' would have had to be on the other side, standing on the top of the stairs and pushing the door.
In relation to those who have had nightmares, bad dreams, etc, I've experienced the following which kind of freak me out sometimes....1) I know I am dreaming, 2) I remember another dream I have had while dreaming, 3) I recognise parts of the dream I'm having as being something I've dreamt of before, 4) Dreamt of someone I had long forgotten about, but he/she appears in my dream exactly how they used to be and I wake up thinking, how the hell did I remember who they were let alone remember what they looked like! 5) Dreamt of someone I know who has long since passed away, 6) Dreamt I'm dead, 7) Dreamt of myself dying, including everything going black when the moment came, 8) Had a continuation of a dream I had the night before 9) I've even had a dream where I recognise parts of it as a dream I've had from years ago and actually remember the old dream while I'm dreaming, which I'd long forgotten about!
This is a very spooky story that happened to me years ago...so if you're reading this with the lights turned off, make sure you've locked all the doors. ;-) lol
Saturday - We booked a family holiday to Germany and went in the car so stopped at a number of places along the way before ending up in Trier. The house we had booked for the week seemed perfectly normal as we drove up. We got out, the owner greeted us and led us through into the house. It was extremely hot outside as it was August and the shutters were pulled down in all the windows, inside the house, to keep the heat out. The house had a kitchen/dining room, which doubled as a lounge, two large bedrooms and a large bathroom. It also had a balcony overlooking the garden from our bedroom. While the owner was stood talking to us, I suddenly felt very cold standing in the kitchen. I assumed, at first, it was because the shutters were down, but I wasn't entirely convinced as it felt 'icy cold'..the kind that makes you shiver uncontrollably. Anyway, after a day spent travelling we were all ready for a good nights sleep, so we settled down for a restful night...well, except for me! I woke up in the early hours having had the most awful nightmare and every time I managed to get back to sleep the same nightmare would happen again..and again.
Sunday - The next day we went to look around Trier and after a lot of sight-seeing we arrived back at the house and opened the door. I was immediately struck by a very strong unpleasant smell, which I thought was perhaps from the kitchen drains or something. We didn't stay in the house for long and went back out and returned sometime later. I opened the door of the house, stepped inside and..... nothing. The smell had gone. Now that puzzled me, because it was as clear as anything the last time. We'd even left the windows closed and the shutters down so, if anything, the smell should have still been there.
Monday - I woke up yet again, having had yet another awful nightmare and I started to develop a headache...and that would happen every single night we were there. We went to explore Idar-Oberstein in the morning and as it was a boiling hot day, we were pleased to get back to our cool holiday house later that day. When we arrived back and I'd j-u-s-t stepped through the front door I felt an over-powering smell of boot polish. No one else did and yet, to me, it was very strong and noticeable. There was also something else I could smell too, but couldn't think what it was..some sort of fruit or something, like cherries. Things took on a more sinister twist during the night when I woke up feeling very uneasy for some reason. I just could not settle. I went into the kitchen and put a plug in the sink and stuffed a wet cloth in the other as that awful smell was back again. ..it was nothing I'd ever smelt before (apart from the first time!) and I couldn't understand why no one else could smell it except me. Deciding I may as well visit the bathroom, I had to creep up a dark, curving staircase, (which, in the circumstances, was very brave of me!) and afterwards I had another restless night.
Tuesday - We went and explored France and Luxembourg before arriving back at the house... as soon as I opened the door I went through the kitchen, (passing the pantry near the bottom of the stairs) intending to open the patio doors in our bedroom. Having just walked past the bottom of the stairs I smelt smoke and by the time I'd reached the patio doors I knew what it was and thought, "Oh my god..that was cigar smoke!" and immediately went back to where I had smelt it only to discover it had vanished! I thought that really strange and later that evening, having developed yet another headache I went to lie down while the children went back out with their Dad. I had another restless night.
Wednesday - We went out for the day to explore the Roman Amphitheatre and Imperial baths..lots of very dark underground tunnels and not for the faint-hearted! We arrived back to the house later in the day tired and hungry and opened the door. Nothing. No strange smells whatsoever..which I found equally strange.
Thursday - The highlight of our stay occurred in the middle of the night. I had woken up and not being able to sleep, was just lying there. I was wondering whether I ought to get up instead, when I heard a noise. It seemed to be coming from the end of the bed and sounded like a big THUMP!. Thinking it was my husband struggling to negotiate his way back from the bathroom in the gloom, I decided it would be a good idea to switch the bedside light on for him. As I reached for the light switch I called out, "Just a minute, I'll switch the light on for...." and before I got the word "You" out, I saw 'him' (it was actually a figure of an older man), shuffling along at the bottom of the bed. When the light came on my husband, who was still IN the bed, had woken up bleary-eyed wondering why I had put the light on!
I've never, ever, wanted to go back there again....
So I was in my room getting dressed etc. this morning when I heard this horrible wailing. I have a dog but it wasn't anything like any noise I'd ever heard him make. My initial thought was that he was hurt or one of the cats was hurt, badly, possibly dying, and making insane and implausible agony noises. It was really loud, and just one long constant pained wail, not like a howl or a whine...it's difficult even to describe, I've never heard anything like it. I ran downstairs (though the noise stopped as soon as I opened my door) calling the dog's name and he sauntered up wagging his tail. I put him out but he didn't need a pee or anything, he'd been fed, he had water, I checked him over for injuries. Nothing. All the cats were out.
I figure either I was hallucinating from recent stress (I wasn't long up so it could have been part-dreaming or something) or he's discovered a new noise he can make and was making it just for the fun of it.
Or, you know, my house is haunted.......but no. I'm a 'the plausible explanation is probably the truth' kind of girl.
In relation to those who have had nightmares, bad dreams, etc, I've experienced the following which kind of freak me out sometimes....1) I know I am dreaming, 2) I remember another dream I have had while dreaming, 3) I recognise parts of the dream I'm having as being something I've dreamt of before, 4) Dreamt of someone I had long forgotten about, but he/she appears in my dream exactly how they used to be and I wake up thinking, how the hell did I remember who they were let alone remember what they looked like! 5) Dreamt of someone I know who has long since passed away, 6) Dreamt I'm dead, 7) Dreamt of myself dying, including everything going black when the moment came, 8) Had a continuation of a dream I had the night before 9) I've even had a dream where I recognise parts of it as a dream I've had from years ago and actually remember the old dream while I'm dreaming, which I'd long forgotten about!
I get those dreams too. Oh and fish. For years I've been having dreams about fish but I have no idea why.
I went on a date about 2006 and the girl was nice but a bit strange. Had a few drinks with her and i went home on my own (1am).
I was in the house on my own and heard scratching noises on the windows outside the living room. I looked out and the girl was there from the date crying "about being alone" and trying to get in my home. i certainly didn't give her my address and she must have followed me home!
I did not open the door or window to let her in and waited for her to go! My very first stalker!
I remember my Grandad telling me a few stories. When my Grandad lived in Ireland lots of people used to tell him not to go past the old vicarage after midnight. The one night him and a friend were in the gardens of the vicarage picking apples. They heard very loud music coming from the house. The next moring he spoke to the vicar asking him if h had a party last night, the vicar said no!
Also my nan when she also lived in Ireland told me a story that one morning she was collecting water from a well and a man she knew said hello to her. Afterwards she was scared because the man had died years before!
I'm only up to page 50 (so far), but have already read many posts related to sleep paralysis. This condition sounds absolutely terrifying and I count myself lucky to have never experienced it myself. I did, however, used to have terribly violent, graphic nightmares from a very young age (around 3 or 4 years old, from what I recall) which would make me scream out in terror, whilst still fast asleep. Looking back, I think it must have been a fairly regular occurrence, as I can still recall many of them and I also remember many occasions when my Mum would come running in and gently wake me up from them then comfort and reassure me. I have no idea what caused these awful nightmares, as I was always tucked up in bed very early, long before any scary programmes or movies may have been shown on TV. I was certainly never allowed to watch anything like that, even when I was much older (around 9 or 10 years old). They seemed to become less frequent throughout my teens, until they eventually stopped altogether by the time I was about 18 or 19.
It was around this time that I started having what I believe are known as precognitive dreams. I've never dreamed about disasters, or anything like that, but fairly personal things involving people I know, which I later find out have actually recently happened (without my knowledge at the time), or do happen within a couple of days of my 'dream'.
A few I can think of off the top of my head are......
I was struggling from the anguish of being dumped for someone else. I was heartbroken, as he really was the 'love of my life', but after having already spent about 2 or 3 months not eating or sleeping properly and people close to me telling me I looked awful and was going to end up making myself very ill, I knew I had to try to pull myself together and start to move on. It was hard, but I somehow found the mental strength to finally let go of my shattered dreams and convince myself I didn't want him back after the way he'd humiliated me. I promised myself I would never take him back, but was dreading bumping into him again and possibly having to put my new-found resolve to the test.
Around this same time, I had a dream in which I saw him as I was on my way to work one morning. Everything seemed perfectly normal ~ I was walking down my road, wearing the clothes I used to wear for work at that time and as I turned the corner onto the main road to head for the bus stop, I was shocked to see him walking towards me. All my emotions felt incredibly real, as if it really was happening and I can remember actually thinking to myself in this dream "Right, you'd better hold it together, don't you dare give him the satisfaction of seeing you fall apart and start blubbing!" So, I took a deep breath, smiled and said hello to him. He seemed really pleased to see me and kissed me on the cheek and as casually as I could, I asked him if he was still seeing *her*. He replied no, he wasn't and that he'd dumped her the week before because he'd found out she was seeing someone else behind his back. I can honestly say I felt no sympathy for him whatsoever and was in fact secretly very pleased upon hearing this news. There was a kind of loaded pause while he was staring very intently into my eyes for a few moments and I just knew that he was waiting for me to suggest that we got back together again. I knew this was the moment I'd been dreading ~ the test of how strong my new-found resolve really was, but I simply shrugged and replied "Oh well, you win some, you lose some.... anyway I've got to go, or I'll be late for work. Take care and I'll see you around." I smiled and kissed him on the cheek and walked away, feeling very pleased with myself for the way I'd handled the situation. It was at this point that the dream faded, but I think I woke up for work very shortly after, with it all still fresh in my mind. However, it had seemed so real, I really did think it had actually happened on my way to work the previous morning! It took me a few minutes to realise it was, in fact, only a dream.
Despite half-expecting to bump into him on my way to work that morning, I didn't, but recounted the dream to my best friend anyway over the phone later that day. She was struck by how detailed the information was and said she hadn't heard anything through the grapevine, but would ring one of our mutual friends and ask her. I told her not to be silly and that it was obviously just my subconscious, with a bit of 'wishful thinking' thrown in. She insisted on trying to find out and said she'd call me straight back. Within five minutes, she was back on the phone to me, excitedly telling me that not only was it true, but that it had happened exactly as I'd been told by my ex in the dream!
The next one happened a year or two after that, when I dreamed one night my heavily pregnant friend had called me from the hospital to tell me she'd just given birth to another little girl. Again, everything seemed completely real and normal, so much so that I happily passed the news on to another of our friends after work the following evening. She looked at me as if I were mad and insisted that she'd seen our friend that very same afternoon and she was still heavily pregnant! I was convinced the phone call really had taken place and we argued for quite some time about it, until I realised I must have actually dreamed the whole conversation! I'd been convinced all along my friend would have a boy this time, as she was a completely different shape compared to when she'd been pregnant with her first baby (a girl), just over a year earlier, but I knew from the moment I realised I'd dreamed she'd already had the baby, she was going to have another little girl. Sure enough, two or three days later, she did!
The final one is not only the most recent, but also the most poignant. For about 20 years, I was close to a friend's Mum, who was already battling cancer when I first met her. Every time she was approaching the time to be declared in remission, the cancer would unfortunately return again. She was a lovely, down-to-earth, proper old Eastender, who had a heart of gold. We often used to sit and discuss the afterlife as she, like me, was a firm believer, but she used to vow that she wasn't going to allow the cancer to get the better of her.
I had a terrible falling-out with her daughter (we still don't speak to this day) and so I felt it best that I kept my distance. I was still good friends with my ex-friend's younger brother though and would always ask him how his Mum was doing and to give her my love. One day I bumped into him and asked and he almost broke down as he said she was now losing her battle, was bed-ridden and they'd been warned she didn't have long left. I too was devastated and really wanted to go and visit her, but felt I couldn't risk it, in case her daughter (my ex-friend) suddenly turned up. The last thing I wanted was to cause any trouble. So, I kept her in my thoughts and prayed for her. Several months passed and during that time I often wondered whether she was still here or not, as I hadn't bumped into her son during that time to find out. I came to the conclusion that, realistically, she must have passed on by now, but I had no idea when and it was really bugging me. I felt I really needed to know.
One night, nine months after I'd last seen her son, I dreamed I was standing in a pure white room. There were no windows or doors, but I didn't feel at all concerned by that fact, or worried about being trapped in there. Suddenly, she appeared seemingly out of nowhere and walked towards me. I was immediately struck by how healthy she looked as she smiled at me. She simply said "I'm going now love, I've just come to say goodbye." I didn't need to ask, as I knew exactly what she meant by that and as we held each other for a moment, I felt what can only be described as a mixture of overwhelming love, peace and pure joy. It's a feeling I've never experienced so incredibly strongly in my waking life. As crazy as it sounds, it was as if we were in another dimension, but everything I was feeling was exactly as it should be. She kissed me on the cheek and as she slowly turned to walk away, she said "I'll see you again one day, but until that time...... believe!" Again, I knew exactly what she meant by that and felt relieved knowing that she was happy to cross over. It was not only as if there was a mutual acceptance of what was happening, but it seemed so natural and we both knew there was nothing to fear. There was no sadness whatsoever, yet when I awoke the next morning with this 'dream' still very fresh in my mind, I was so overcome with emotion that I burst into tears, as I knew that encounter and conversation really had taken place.
I later found out she had indeed passed away that very same night, but I honestly wasn't the least bit surprised.
Comments
In fairness, 7 billion people in the world. There are bound to be a few of them that were unwell on that day.
I wish I was that brave, I lept out of my skin the moment it started. :eek:
That's what I was thinking, I don't think you have much to worry about MsBehaviour.
Sometime in 1984, I went to stay for the weekend with a friend whose parents ran a very old pub (c1600's), in Buckingham Palace Road, about half a mile or so from Buck House. It was only a small pub, but it was about 3 or 4 storeys high.
As this was back in the days before all-day opening, the pub had closed at 11pm and was completely quiet and dark when my friend and I returned from a nightclub around 3am on the Sunday morning. Her parents and younger brother were fast asleep upstairs.
The pub still had it's original very heavy wooden studded front door, which was quite low, but wide. As we entered, there was a second, similar door, which was standing open and the bar was only a few feet in front of us. My friend only put the bar lights on, which threw out enough light for us to see where we were going and not trip over anything. She went behind the bar to pour us each a nightcap, while I got settled on a barstool up at the bar. She then came and sat next to me and we were just chatting about our night out and giggling over some of the funny things that had happened. We were both totally relaxed and to be honest, a bit merry, but not roaring drunk.
For some reason, I glanced back over my right shoulder at the second (inner) door and asked my friend if she was going to lock that too. She said they never bothered locking it as the first one was like Fort Knox (and I'd just watched her locking and bolting about six different things on it!) I was just about to look away again, when I thought I saw a shadowy figure standing in the small space between both doors (it was only about 2ft x 2ft square, from what I recall). Although this space was quite dark, it seemed the longer I stared, the clearer this figure became as my eyes adjusted to where it was standing.
It was a fairly tall man (around 5' 10"), wearing what I can only describe as typical Cavalier clothing, including a wide-brimmed black hat and fairly long cloak. I was even eventually able to make out the contrast of his white frilly collar and white stockings below where his trousers ended near his knees. I told my friend what I could see and she calmly said "Oh, don't worry about him, loads of people have seen him!" I glibly made a joke about him being the obligatory resident ghost of an ancient pub and asked my friend if she could see him too, but she said no and that she had never seen him at any other time either. As strange as it may sound, we both kind of shrugged it off and carried on chatting.
My friend was sitting to my left, so I was naturally facing slightly towards her, but the first time I looked away from her and down at the bar to pick up my drink, in my peripheral vision I could clearly see a man standing to the right of me, but whenever I turned my head towards him, he vanished! My friend laughed and asked me what on earth I was doing, so I told her what was happening and described him to her: a man with short, grey hair, in his late 50's or early 60's, wearing a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to just around his elbows, wearing a silver-coloured expanding watch on his left wrist, picking up his pint (in one of those old-fashioned 'dimpled' glasses with a handle), drinking some, then setting it down on the bar again. My friend said noone had ever reported seeing him before, although I could still see him from the corner of my eye as clearly as if he really was standing there next to me.
I found his presence so distracting that I eventually turned my back on him so that I was completely facing my friend, who found it highly amusing when I apologised to him for doing so. We were sitting at one end of the bar and as I turned to face my friend properly, I then had a good view of the rest of the bar, which went along behind her for some way, before curving round to the right for about another 3 or 4 feet.
However, as soon as I turned to face my friend, I could very clearly see a tall, lanky young lad (aged about 20), standing just by the curved part of the bar. He had longish strawberry-blond hair and was wearing a red tartan long-sleeved shirt. He was drinking a pint of lager from a straight glass. When I told my friend I could see someone else behind her, further along the bar, I think she thought I was getting a bit carried away by this point and obviously didn't believe me, as she rolled her eyes and said in a sarky tone "Ok, so who is it this time?"
As I described him, the colour drained from her face, she grabbed her drink and ran over to the door which led upstairs, whilst telling me to hurry up and follow her. I was completely baffled by her sudden change of mood and followed her upstairs to her bedroom. I was barely through the door before she quickly shut it behind me and hastily locked it. She was in a terrible state, but I had no idea why, until she'd composed herself enough to explain that I had just described her ex-boyfriend to a T ~ even down to his favourite red tartan shirt!
I was aware that a few years earlier she'd been in a relationship with a lad who had sadly been beaten to death one night in the late 70's (although thankfully she hadn't witnessed it, as she wasn't out with him that night), but I had absolutely no idea what he looked like, as she'd never shown me a photo of him, or even described him to me. We both sat there completely stunned for quite some time afterwards, trying to make sense of it all.
Apologies for this post being so long-winded, but it really has stayed in my memory all these years, as the whole sequence of events were so bizarre and I wanted to try and include every small detail. I can honestly say I've never seen anything else like that since that night almost 30 years ago and even sometimes try to make light of it by saying something along the lines of: "In my experience, ghosts are like buses ~ you wait ages for one, then three come along at once!" However, it really was no laughing matter.
You needed a new pair of undies I assume? :eek:
As I turned to look out into the hallway, I noticed the cat had already turned round and was staring out into the hallway, so I knew it wasn't my imagination as she'd heard it too. The strange thing was, I didn't feel at all frightened or 'spooked' and didn't even bother going to look, as I knew there would be nothing to see.
I didn't know what to make of it and completely forgot about it, until a couple of days later, when I was speaking on the phone to an old lady with incredible psychic abilities, who I'd known since I was a child. We'd been chatting for a few minutes about general things, when she suddenly exclaimed "Did you hear someone running up your stairs a couple of nights ago?" I gasped in surprise, as I'd completely forgotten about the incident, but I told her I had and asked her how on earth she knew that? She just chuckled and said "Oh, your Mum's just popped in and said to tell you it was her!"
I laughed and remarked that I should have realised it was my Mum by recognising the sound of her footsteps and asked the old lady why she did it. She replied "She just wanted to let you know she's still around, keeping an eye on you!"
I lost my Mum over 30 years ago and have often thought I have felt her presence around me, but it was very reassuring to actually have it confirmed by someone hundreds of miles away, who could have had no other way of knowing what I'd heard a couple of nights earlier.
He had a collection of very old 78rpm records (I still have them although I never play them), one evening I found one of them on YouTube, despite being recorded in 1912 the person who put it on had done a very good restoration.
I listened to it and part way through I became aware of that distinctive tobacco smell which was there for a few minutes. Of course it's possible that my mind was playing tricks, on every previous occasion I had heard the record I had been in his house - it stank of that tobacco and he hated opening the windows.
Well, if you've got a ghostly fishmonger, maybe there's also a food hygiene in-spectre!:D
Saturday - We booked a family holiday to Germany and went in the car so stopped at a number of places along the way before ending up in Trier. The house we had booked for the week seemed perfectly normal as we drove up. We got out, the owner greeted us and led us through into the house. It was extremely hot outside as it was August and the shutters were pulled down in all the windows, inside the house, to keep the heat out. The house had a kitchen/dining room, which doubled as a lounge, two large bedrooms and a large bathroom. It also had a balcony overlooking the garden from our bedroom. While the owner was stood talking to us, I suddenly felt very cold standing in the kitchen. I assumed, at first, it was because the shutters were down, but I wasn't entirely convinced as it felt 'icy cold'..the kind that makes you shiver uncontrollably. Anyway, after a day spent travelling we were all ready for a good nights sleep, so we settled down for a restful night...well, except for me! I woke up in the early hours having had the most awful nightmare and every time I managed to get back to sleep the same nightmare would happen again..and again.
Sunday - The next day we went to look around Trier and after a lot of sight-seeing we arrived back at the house and opened the door. I was immediately struck by a very strong unpleasant smell, which I thought was perhaps from the kitchen drains or something. We didn't stay in the house for long and went back out and returned sometime later. I opened the door of the house, stepped inside and..... nothing. The smell had gone. Now that puzzled me, because it was as clear as anything the last time. We'd even left the windows closed and the shutters down so, if anything, the smell should have still been there.
Monday - I woke up yet again, having had yet another awful nightmare and I started to develop a headache...and that would happen every single night we were there. We went to explore Idar-Oberstein in the morning and as it was a boiling hot day, we were pleased to get back to our cool holiday house later that day. When we arrived back and I'd j-u-s-t stepped through the front door I felt an over-powering smell of boot polish. No one else did and yet, to me, it was very strong and noticeable. There was also something else I could smell too, but couldn't think what it was..some sort of fruit or something, like cherries. Things took on a more sinister twist during the night when I woke up feeling very uneasy for some reason. I just could not settle. I went into the kitchen and put a plug in the sink and stuffed a wet cloth in the other as that awful smell was back again. ..it was nothing I'd ever smelt before (apart from the first time!) and I couldn't understand why no one else could smell it except me. Deciding I may as well visit the bathroom, I had to creep up a dark, curving staircase, (which, in the circumstances, was very brave of me!) and afterwards I had another restless night.
Tuesday - We went and explored France and Luxembourg before arriving back at the house... as soon as I opened the door I went through the kitchen, (passing the pantry near the bottom of the stairs) intending to open the patio doors in our bedroom. Having just walked past the bottom of the stairs I smelt smoke and by the time I'd reached the patio doors I knew what it was and thought, "Oh my god..that was cigar smoke!" and immediately went back to where I had smelt it only to discover it had vanished! I thought that really strange and later that evening, having developed yet another headache I went to lie down while the children went back out with their Dad. I had another restless night.
Wednesday - We went out for the day to explore the Roman Amphitheatre and Imperial baths..lots of very dark underground tunnels and not for the faint-hearted! We arrived back to the house later in the day tired and hungry and opened the door. Nothing. No strange smells whatsoever..which I found equally strange.
Thursday - The highlight of our stay occurred in the middle of the night. I had woken up and not being able to sleep, was just lying there. I was wondering whether I ought to get up instead, when I heard a noise. It seemed to be coming from the end of the bed and sounded like a big THUMP!. Thinking it was my husband struggling to negotiate his way back from the bathroom in the gloom, I decided it would be a good idea to switch the bedside light on for him. As I reached for the light switch I called out, "Just a minute, I'll switch the light on for...." and before I got the word "You" out, I saw 'him' (it was actually a figure of an older man), shuffling along at the bottom of the bed. When the light came on my husband, who was still IN the bed, had woken up bleary-eyed wondering why I had put the light on!
I've never, ever, wanted to go back there again....
I figure either I was hallucinating from recent stress (I wasn't long up so it could have been part-dreaming or something) or he's discovered a new noise he can make and was making it just for the fun of it.
Or, you know, my house is haunted.......but no. I'm a 'the plausible explanation is probably the truth' kind of girl.
I get those dreams too. Oh and fish. For years I've been having dreams about fish but I have no idea why.
I was in the house on my own and heard scratching noises on the windows outside the living room. I looked out and the girl was there from the date crying "about being alone" and trying to get in my home. i certainly didn't give her my address and she must have followed me home!
I did not open the door or window to let her in and waited for her to go! My very first stalker!
Also my nan when she also lived in Ireland told me a story that one morning she was collecting water from a well and a man she knew said hello to her. Afterwards she was scared because the man had died years before!
It was around this time that I started having what I believe are known as precognitive dreams. I've never dreamed about disasters, or anything like that, but fairly personal things involving people I know, which I later find out have actually recently happened (without my knowledge at the time), or do happen within a couple of days of my 'dream'.
A few I can think of off the top of my head are......
I was struggling from the anguish of being dumped for someone else. I was heartbroken, as he really was the 'love of my life', but after having already spent about 2 or 3 months not eating or sleeping properly and people close to me telling me I looked awful and was going to end up making myself very ill, I knew I had to try to pull myself together and start to move on. It was hard, but I somehow found the mental strength to finally let go of my shattered dreams and convince myself I didn't want him back after the way he'd humiliated me. I promised myself I would never take him back, but was dreading bumping into him again and possibly having to put my new-found resolve to the test.
Around this same time, I had a dream in which I saw him as I was on my way to work one morning. Everything seemed perfectly normal ~ I was walking down my road, wearing the clothes I used to wear for work at that time and as I turned the corner onto the main road to head for the bus stop, I was shocked to see him walking towards me. All my emotions felt incredibly real, as if it really was happening and I can remember actually thinking to myself in this dream "Right, you'd better hold it together, don't you dare give him the satisfaction of seeing you fall apart and start blubbing!" So, I took a deep breath, smiled and said hello to him. He seemed really pleased to see me and kissed me on the cheek and as casually as I could, I asked him if he was still seeing *her*. He replied no, he wasn't and that he'd dumped her the week before because he'd found out she was seeing someone else behind his back. I can honestly say I felt no sympathy for him whatsoever and was in fact secretly very pleased upon hearing this news. There was a kind of loaded pause while he was staring very intently into my eyes for a few moments and I just knew that he was waiting for me to suggest that we got back together again. I knew this was the moment I'd been dreading ~ the test of how strong my new-found resolve really was, but I simply shrugged and replied "Oh well, you win some, you lose some.... anyway I've got to go, or I'll be late for work. Take care and I'll see you around." I smiled and kissed him on the cheek and walked away, feeling very pleased with myself for the way I'd handled the situation. It was at this point that the dream faded, but I think I woke up for work very shortly after, with it all still fresh in my mind. However, it had seemed so real, I really did think it had actually happened on my way to work the previous morning! It took me a few minutes to realise it was, in fact, only a dream.
Despite half-expecting to bump into him on my way to work that morning, I didn't, but recounted the dream to my best friend anyway over the phone later that day. She was struck by how detailed the information was and said she hadn't heard anything through the grapevine, but would ring one of our mutual friends and ask her. I told her not to be silly and that it was obviously just my subconscious, with a bit of 'wishful thinking' thrown in. She insisted on trying to find out and said she'd call me straight back. Within five minutes, she was back on the phone to me, excitedly telling me that not only was it true, but that it had happened exactly as I'd been told by my ex in the dream!
The next one happened a year or two after that, when I dreamed one night my heavily pregnant friend had called me from the hospital to tell me she'd just given birth to another little girl. Again, everything seemed completely real and normal, so much so that I happily passed the news on to another of our friends after work the following evening. She looked at me as if I were mad and insisted that she'd seen our friend that very same afternoon and she was still heavily pregnant! I was convinced the phone call really had taken place and we argued for quite some time about it, until I realised I must have actually dreamed the whole conversation! I'd been convinced all along my friend would have a boy this time, as she was a completely different shape compared to when she'd been pregnant with her first baby (a girl), just over a year earlier, but I knew from the moment I realised I'd dreamed she'd already had the baby, she was going to have another little girl. Sure enough, two or three days later, she did!
The final one is not only the most recent, but also the most poignant. For about 20 years, I was close to a friend's Mum, who was already battling cancer when I first met her. Every time she was approaching the time to be declared in remission, the cancer would unfortunately return again. She was a lovely, down-to-earth, proper old Eastender, who had a heart of gold. We often used to sit and discuss the afterlife as she, like me, was a firm believer, but she used to vow that she wasn't going to allow the cancer to get the better of her.
I had a terrible falling-out with her daughter (we still don't speak to this day) and so I felt it best that I kept my distance. I was still good friends with my ex-friend's younger brother though and would always ask him how his Mum was doing and to give her my love. One day I bumped into him and asked and he almost broke down as he said she was now losing her battle, was bed-ridden and they'd been warned she didn't have long left. I too was devastated and really wanted to go and visit her, but felt I couldn't risk it, in case her daughter (my ex-friend) suddenly turned up. The last thing I wanted was to cause any trouble. So, I kept her in my thoughts and prayed for her. Several months passed and during that time I often wondered whether she was still here or not, as I hadn't bumped into her son during that time to find out. I came to the conclusion that, realistically, she must have passed on by now, but I had no idea when and it was really bugging me. I felt I really needed to know.
One night, nine months after I'd last seen her son, I dreamed I was standing in a pure white room. There were no windows or doors, but I didn't feel at all concerned by that fact, or worried about being trapped in there. Suddenly, she appeared seemingly out of nowhere and walked towards me. I was immediately struck by how healthy she looked as she smiled at me. She simply said "I'm going now love, I've just come to say goodbye." I didn't need to ask, as I knew exactly what she meant by that and as we held each other for a moment, I felt what can only be described as a mixture of overwhelming love, peace and pure joy. It's a feeling I've never experienced so incredibly strongly in my waking life. As crazy as it sounds, it was as if we were in another dimension, but everything I was feeling was exactly as it should be. She kissed me on the cheek and as she slowly turned to walk away, she said "I'll see you again one day, but until that time...... believe!" Again, I knew exactly what she meant by that and felt relieved knowing that she was happy to cross over. It was not only as if there was a mutual acceptance of what was happening, but it seemed so natural and we both knew there was nothing to fear. There was no sadness whatsoever, yet when I awoke the next morning with this 'dream' still very fresh in my mind, I was so overcome with emotion that I burst into tears, as I knew that encounter and conversation really had taken place.
I later found out she had indeed passed away that very same night, but I honestly wasn't the least bit surprised.