Has anyone here ever experienced anything paranormal?

[Skip Intro]

I love paranormal movies and am intrigued by things like the Ouija board. I would love to have a seance. Just kind of poking around in another realm.

One of my sisters has tons of pics of one of her daughters surrounded by some strange mist. Different locations, different dates, but that mist is there. Pics of others around at the same times and places don't show it. Strange.

Other than every now and then feeling some presence, or hearing some odd sound in my house (living alone), I've never had anything otherworldly happen to me. And I'm sure this might be easily explained, but a few nights ago, a tall plastic glass (plastic cup, I guess, no such thing as plastic glass) on my living room table tipped over. By itself. No ceiling fan. No windows open. Nothing blowing around the papers nearby, on the same table. But this big plastic cup, suddenly, as I was watching a movie, fell over. There was nothing underneath it. No wind. It just, fell. Just tipped over. No apparent reason or cause. Didn't lose a lot of sleep over it, but it did happen. Aaaaanyway...

Has anyone here ever experienced something that defies logical explanation? Anything that you attribute to the paranormal?

[Rhiannon12866]

1. Before I answer, I have to tell you that I'm not much of a believer in things like this.

But I did have an experience that truly made me wonder. My father died, obviously a pretty awful thing, and it was extremely hard on everybody. He really was the heart of the family and I was the eldest and always close to him. He died on November 30th and his birthday was January 22nd.

On the night of his birthday, in the middle of the night, the smoke alarm in the house went off. Nobody was cooking anything and there wasn't a fire, but it went off all on its own. And then the horn on my car, which had belonged to him, started honking, as well, and I couldn't make it stop. It had never done that before and it never happened again.

Now it was very cold that night, so that could have been an explanation, but then something also happened to my grandmother, his mother. She kept hearing music, and it was driving her crazy, since it was faint and she couldn't figure out where it was coming from. She finally discovered that it was a music box that she had kept in her dresser, and it was a music box that my Dad had given her. That also happened on what would have been my father's birthday. And I was in NY, while my grandmother was in North Carolina.

I don't know what caused all that, never will, and nothing like that has ever happened again, and it's been 20 years. Like I said, I am a skeptic, but I like to think that my Dad was somehow communicating with us, on what would have been his birthday. :)

[hamsterjill]

24. Something similar

Like you, I'm a skeptic, but I have had a somewhat similar occurrence involving a birth date.

A couple of years ago, I unexpectedly decided to run home during my lunch hour. I had no particular reason for having to drive home, but just felt like doing it. When I walked into the house, there was smoke. Without going into too much detail, I was able to extinguish the source of the fire and prevent any real damage to my house. I'd gotten there just in the nick of time.

Being an animal lover, I thought immediately of my pets! If I'd not been there, they would most likely have died.

Then, I remembered that it was my mother's birthday! Even though I'd just been scared out of my wits, a sense of calm came over me, like someone was protecting me. I believe it was her - some how, some way. She died many years ago when I was very young, but I can still remember feeling calm and protected by her as a child. It was that same feeling of calm on that day two years ago.

[Rhiannon12866]

30. Wow. I can understand that feeling, too.

I have a hard time believing in actual ghosts, though I know that some people claim to have seen them. But I do wonder what really happens when someone dies, where that life force and energy goes. Love is sometimes so strong, I wonder if it can transcend the physical body. You felt this was your mother, and I have sometimes felt I could kind of channel my Dad, know what he would think or want done about something, even if it's something we never discussed. And it would have been just like him to have tried to reassure me in some way. I can't know, but all those events were an unbelievable coincidence. :hug:

[Tripod]

39. In this case, not a coincidence.

[LibDemAlways]

2. At my dad's funeral the priest was explaining that the

deceased never leave us. They are always with us. At that moment a plant on the altar behind him began to rock back and forth until several berries had shaken loose. It startled everyone. The priest stopped and retrieved the berries and handed them to my brother.

Later that afternoon I was by myself in my house when I felt a hand press against my back.

No logical explanation for either, but both happened.

[old mark]

3. I don't believe in spooks or spirits, either, but when I was working

in a state mental hospital ward one night, I saw a frail old woman walking slowly down at the far end of the hall as I looked through the nursing station window.
I went to see if she needed help, and there was no one there, and none of the patients in the rooms there were awake or out of bed.

The nurse told me that I had just seen one of the ghosts on that ward. She said that is pretty common, and several other staffers I spoke with saw the same thing, over a period of years, as well as other things on different wards and buildings.

I don't believe in them, but that seems not to make any difference.


mark

[MorningGlow]

4. Yes, tons

I've lived in three houses with ghosts (including the one we live in now), encountered ghosts in other places, done "housecleanings" to get rid of icky and/or incorrect energies, and was in a coven for 15 years which gave me lots of other opportunities to convene with the Other Side. I wouldn't even know where to start.

One thing I can say from experience, though--if you do try to contact the Other Side through a "seance" or what have you, be sure you protect yourself or do it with people who know how to set up a protective shield. Otherwise you're leaving yourself open to nasty entities showing up and, you know, not leaving. It can be really bad news.

[Patiod]

25. I thought I had, but.....

So shortly after my mom died, I was sleeping at her house alone. My dad was in the hospital, and I was there taking care of their grumpy old dachshund, Frankie, who I've known and loved since he was a wiggly little puppy.

That night, I had a dream so frightening that it woke me up at 2 am, shaking. I called my insomniac SO, who was still living at our apartment.

"I just had a horrible dream that I saw my mother across a room, and I waved at her, and she came over to me, but then she turned into a drooling werewolf and snarled at me. It was terrifying."

"Where you sleeping with Frankie?"

"I always sleep with Frankie when I'm alone in this house, why?"

"Did you by any chance kick him or roll over on him when you saw your mom in the dream and waved at her?"

"Maybe."

"And what happens when you move Frankie when he's asleep?"

"He growls and snarls at me......"

Here's a picture of the snarling, drooling werewolf himself:

[NV Whino]

5. I had an experience with the ghost in a friend's house

Sofie was a former owner and she apparently stuck around to make sure my friend an her husband did right by the farm. I was housesitting and in the kitchen cooking dinner when the back door opened. Now, you have to understand it took a strong grip to turn the knob and get the door open. So I said, "Hi, Sofie," closed the door, making sure it was latched and went back to cooking. A few minutes later the door opened again. I went over to close the door and said, "Bye, Sofie." My friend and her daughter had several encounters. She did like a good party and frequently showed up at parties or large family gatherings. Sofie's presence has dissipated and no one has encountered her for several years. I suspect, having assured herself that the farm was in good hands, Sofie moved on.

[Kali]

6. um

have SEEN some of MiddleFingerMom's posts??!!??

[madmom]

7. Not I, but my mom...when I was in high school we lived in

what was one time an old one room school house remodeled into a house. My mom was in bed (my dad worked 2nd shift) and she felt a bump on the bed, like when someone runs into it. She thought it was my dad coming home from work. When he didn't get into bed she turned and looked for him and there at the foot of the bed was a "man" holding a bundle, trying to give it to her. This happened more than once. She got to the point were she wouldn't go to bed until my dad got home. Later at a New Years eve party they were talking with an older neighbor guy who just so happened to have gone to school in this house. She described the "man" to him and he said it fit the description of the schoolmaster. They have since moved and the old house has been torn down.

[RebelOne]

8. Yes, many experiences and I am an atheist

and don't believe in ghosts, but I have had things happen that I could not explain. One example is that I have had several dreams that predicted future events in my life and those of friends and family. In one dream, I saw the death of the son of a co-worker. Several days later, he was shot dead by police during a robbery. Another, I saw my brother-in-law in an accident, and a couple days later, he and a friend hit a tree while driving too fast around a curve and ended up in a canal. Fortunately, my brother-in-law only suffered a broken arm and a few cuts and bruises. There are many more that I could write a book about.

[struggle4progress]

9. Paranormal ... paranormal ... sounds familiar. Is that where you see two of everything

but otherwise everything's normal? Or is that stereotype?

[BlueIris]

10. You know those lists of "toxic" topics you should never discuss online?

I'm starting to think this is one of them.

[snagglepuss]

18. why toxic?

[kentauros]

34. It IS a topic probably best discussed

in the ASAH forum here, a safe haven away from the inevitable septic dismissals ;)

[Fire Walk With Me]

11. That depends entirely upon your definition of "normal".

Which is a matter of highly varying perspective :rofl:

[Iggo]

12. No.

[Liberal Veteran]

13. This morning, when I woke up, it felt like 6:30am, but the clock said 7:30am.

That's pretty damned spooky in my estimation.

[csziggy]

29. That's not ghosts - that's aliens!. Still spooky, though

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/8357151/UFO-files-Alien-abduction-or-clocks-going-back-How-one-man-gained-an-hour-after-seeing-UFO.html

[Tripod]

14. I have had a lot of experience.

I have to go to bed, so I'll try commenting more tomorrow. :hi:

[Tripod]

27. I'll mention one, out of many.

I have dealt with this since my teens. But I'll tell you about my most recent. I work at the Queensburt Hotel in northern NY State. I work nights and was sitting in a dark restaurant that was only light by street lamps outside, filtering in through the windows. I had just made a phone call on my cell, and left voice mail. I set my phone on the table and closed my eyes, and rubbed my face. When I opened my eyes there was a man about 20 or so sitting next to me. Dressed in a dark blue button up, collard shirt, with a black silk looking vest on. Medium brown hair, and a firm jaw line. I was startled, and wondered how any one could have come and sat down so quickly. Then he just vanished. This Hotel is very haunted. Many others, including myself, have had multiple experiences. Guest even will request room changes,because things will be moved around their rooms while they are sleeping, or not in their rooms at all. So for me this has all been very real to me for a very long time. Good luck on trying to come to terms on this for yourself. :smile:

[JeffersonChick]

15. Yup. My grandmother

One day a few years ago, I had my kids in the car, and was talking fondly of my deceased grandmother, whose presence I had felt at times in the past. Not 2 minutes later, I pull into the driveway, get out, and go up the walk to the front door. The kids were behind me. Suddenly, they both erupt loudly, "OMG! What was that? Mom!", or something to that effect. I turn around to see what's the matter, they point to several pennies on the ground - that they insist appeared just behind my head and fell. It didn't occur to me right then, not until a few minutes later - the term "pennies from heaven". My kids didn't know what that meant. I explained to them that it's thought that sometimes, deceased loved ones will drop "pennies from heaven" to let you know they're there, thinking of you.

[raccoon]

22. I've never heard that, about the "pennies from heaven" but I like it.

I think there's always a logical explanation for "paranormal" events. I can think of some things that've happened to me that SEEMED paranormal but later on realized they weren't paranormal.

Never underestimate the power of the mind! I thought my cat was jumping on my bed while vacationing at the beach (cat was about 200 miles away).

And think of voodoo--it only works if the person (the victim of the spell) believes it will.

[Skittles]

16. I don't believe in it but love eerie stories, movies

yes INDEED

[DFW]

17. Most amazing thing I ever saw

The Democrats carried Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina in 2008.

I don't think I've ever seen anything as unlikely as that in the last 30 years.

Probably won't for the next 30 either :-)

[snagglepuss]

19. I have had dreams that are omens. Its only been four or five but they always

involve a women dressed all in black or someone in a full length black diaphanous veil.

They have always been about a warning or death of someone in the family however on Thursday I had such a dream but am hoping it was about the earthquake. In the dream I was standing with my Mom in her bathroom which is on the second floor of her house and facing a street however in this dream the bathroom is on street level and the wall was blown out. Running toward us was a woman dressed it what seemed to me a black burka. Alarmed and frightened I froze but pushed my Mom to the side. When the women got close I saw she was wearing a long diaphanous black veil under which was a white brimmed hat. She was hysterical and speaking in a language I didn't understand except for the word time. She kept saying the time, the time while pushing me past me to see a clock which I hadn't seen before that showed 8:30.

The other dream with a veiled figure was about 20 years ago. The person under the veil was my sister who was dancing on a stage and didn't want to get off. The dream had a very disturbing feel.That next morning I got a call from my sister that she had been rushed to hospital the previous night and found out that she had kidney stones. I didn't tell her the dream but wrote it down in a journal.

I thought no more about it till an number of days went by and the stones didn't pass. She was then sent to a specialist who said the stones were too big and she needed an operation When I heard this I was concerned because I had been told by a retired doctor years earlier that people ought to avoid, if possible, operations that involve the organs given the number of complications.

I became concerned because the operation is invasive and my sister had given birth just several months earlier. She refused to get a 2nd opinion because she said the specialist told her there was absolutely no other alternative and time was of the essence because the stones were stuck. I had grave concerns about the hospital which I didn't tell her about but I was very worried.

When she told me she was going to keep her newborn with her in the hospital so she could nurse him I really got concerned and recalled the dream and realized what it meant. It meant my sister wasn't going to get off the stage and she was in danger. I then spent several days frantically calling around to find out about this operation and names of other specialists.

I got the name of the best kidney specialist in town who had pioneered a laser treatment. When I spoke to his secretary and told her whole the story and that the operation was within days she spoke to the doctor and he arranged an emergency lunch time meeting with my sister. My sister was deemed an excellent candidate for laser removal of stones, a procedure which didn't require any hospital stay.

The several dreams of a women in a long black Edwardian dress have always preceded a death. I once had described such a dream to my sister, part of which involved the woman walking along a path over soft rolling hills. Within weeks an aunt died When we were at the cemetery my sister came up to me and said this is exactly what you dreamed isn't it? We were on a path in a cemetery with distinctive soft rolling hills.

[Lucinda]

20. Yep. A lot.

I'm too sleepy to explain clearly right now though. :)

[Ten Bears]

21. I don't believe in ghosts.

That being said, I once pummeled one into obscurity. About 13 years ago, shortly after moving into our new home, I awoke in the middle of the night and was surprised to see how bright the bedroom was. I looked toward the foot of the bed and noted that light was coming in from a window in that direction, it was a full moon as best as I remember. At the same time I noticed a strange haze hovering over the bed. I thought that odd and could not determine where the haze was coming from as I could see the total outline of the haze and it did not appear to originate from anywhere. At this point my wife awoke and sleepily greeted me in a sexy tone. She turned over on her back and immediately screamed and pulled the cover over her head. I urgently asked her what was wrong and she peeked out from the covers, said "It's still there." and ducked under the covers again. I guessed that she too had seen the haze and interpreted it as something menacing her. I began to punch into the haze repeatedly, thinking I would break up whatever pattern she had seen and told her there was nothing there. After a moment she again emerged from the cover and announced that it was gone. She said that she had seen a face hovering over her. I have joked since then that if there are ghosts they steer clear of my house since one of them had suffered a severe beating when he tried to haunt it. I imagine them telling one another, "don't go there, he isn't afraid of us." I lived in that house for ten years and never saw the haze again. My now ex-wife still lives there. I hope the ghost comes back.

[rainbow4321]

23. My sister has had stuff happen at her house

Her kids have seen people in their rooms--dressed in 1800's garb (little girl and woman), heard voices, stuff from cupboards have disappeared and then reappeared within a matter of hours in the same spot, loaf of bread found in the middle of the kitchen floor (had been securely on the counter--no cats or little kids messing with the counter stuff).

She recently had someone come over, a lady who is known in the area for contacting the afterlife. Sis brought her in to see if she could figure out what was going on in her house.


But sis got a really huge surprise. The lady came into contact with our deceased father and grandmother.

Sis offered NOTHING about them but the lady described our dad to a T..what he looked like, his quick temper, family and marital dynamics that NO one outside the family would have known. Said how he knew that he and our mother had grown apart towards the end but that he still loved her (she was having an affair just prior to his dying of a heart attack), referred to his relationships with some of our siblings that, again, NO one would have known.


She saw our grandmother surrounded by roses, lots of roses. What the lady didn't know is that when grandma was alive, she was the caretaker of our rose garden..she nurtured and tended to those roses like they were her kids.


The way the lady described it, when people die they may lose their physical bodies but they remain a ball of energy that can go anywhere, anytime, there are no constraints or things stopping them from going where they want to go.


The lady went onto say that the people in the 1800's garb are "land-connected" spirits who probably lived on my sis' land a long, long time ago. She said the best way to get them to "leave" is just tell them when they appear next time "this is our house now, we want you to leave" and they will usually not come back.

[femmocrat]

26. Yes, when I smell cigarette smoke in the house....

I know my dad is trying to tell me something. We don't smoke.

I also get sort of "premonitions".... like a flash of something... and then it will happen.

[orleans]

28. yes. n/t

[LaurenG]

31. Yes - many times

I don't talk about it much (anymore) and when it happens now I just consider it interesting.

The most recent was having a butcher knife flung invisibly across the kitchen (away from me and right out of the dish drainer)last Christmas. :shrug:

[Deep13]

32. No. No one has ever experienced anything paranormal. nt

[kentauros]

33. Plenty!

Most of them have been OBEs (Out of Body Experiences), with one waking vision having to do with a black panther :)

[av8rdave]

35. No, but then I'm probably not open to the experience

I have family members who have had paranormal experiences, but not me. I have even stayed at some famously haunted places, with nothing out of the ordinary happening or being seen.

For years, our layover hotel is Louisville was the Seelbach (NICE hotel), which is supposedly haunted by multiple spirits. http://www.thecabinet.com/darkdestinations/location.php?sub_id=dark_destinations&location_id=the_seelbach_hilton

No such luck for me.

The same result (or lack thereof) at the Hotel Galvez in Galveston
http://www.galvestonghost.com/storiesgalvez.html

In both cases, I mentioned my disappointment to the staff when checking out. You'd think that would warrant a free stay!

I don't discount the possibility of the paranormal. I just haven't experience it myself.

[Rabblevox]

36. I normally stay away from "woo" topics, but I "felt" my mom about 6 weeks...

after her death. And she led me straight to a relatively worthless, but meaningful trinket from a shared memory from my childhood. I can't explain it, I don't even try. But she was very real, very "present", and very much my mom. And it was somehow important to her that I have this. Sorry for going all mystical, I'm very much a nuts and bolts kind of guy. But I try not to deny what is smack in front of my face.

[Phoonzang]

37. Once.

I was a teenager. Wide awake in my house and saw what I thought was my Mom cross from one room to another. I went to follow her to see why she was up and there was no one in the room. She was sound asleep elsewhere. What I saw looked like pitch black, 2 dimensional cutout in the shape of a person. Like a chunk of reality was missing. I wasn't scared by it. Just...confused.

Something like this perhaps:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_peopl

[RedCloud]

38. Do non 3-D entities count?