A different sort of paranormal thread...

[BertrandRussell]

I thought it might be interesting if we shared experiences we've had that we could easily have thought were paranormal but which turned out not to be. I've got loads- but I think the best few are

1. A geeen man that only I could see that terrified me for about 6 months in the kitchen when I was about 3.
2. A man in black clothes riding a penny farthing I saw turn down a side road near where I live, and who had vanished when I looked down the road he took.
3. A white translucent figure of a woman in a bonnet sitting in the passenger seat of my neighbour's van early one morning. Ds and I both saw that.
4. My cats flying in every night for a week fluffed up and seriously spooked, and staring out the window at something I couldn't t see.
5. My selling 5 items on eBay and them all going to towns that held significance for me.

Obviously not as interesting as I thought!

Iv only seen this now, so don’t despair !

I’m interested - you said your experiences turned out not to be paranormal ?

I once thought I was being followed by some sort of ghostly spirit. Along a hedgerow I could hear footsteps shuffling in the dry leaves....

Turns out it was a hedgehog 🤷🏻‍♀️

Woman you've been hacked surely.

My cat went missing for several days (just after a house move). I thought he must have got out and be trying find his way back to his old house.

I couldn't believe it when I saw him on the landing at 1am - then he ran towards the stairs and disappeared. I searched all over - no doors and windows open so couldn't have got out - and was starting to think I must have seen his ghost (and he'd been run over somewhere).

A few days later I saw him again at the same time and I was more on the ball. It turned out he'd found an obscure hiding place behind a built-in cupboard, and had been sneaking out every night to eat and drink.

What were the explanations for your woo experiences Op ?

Have a couple of very real, very vivid memories of flying as a young child.
Apparently this is fairly common, and caused by the odd way in which early memories are laid on top of each other.

My brother and I were convinced our grandparents' house was haunted. It was something to do with the shape of the hallway and stairs causing resonance (I think - I'd have to ask my Dad to explain it again) which is what was causing the sensations.

I also had a haunted piano. The feeling went away when it was tuned and slowly came back as it went out of tune so I suspect it was the same principle.

I guess I'm one of those people who believes in ghosts, but I don't believe that they are anything to do with dead people, if you know what I mean.

I guess I'm one of those people who believes in ghosts, but I don't believe that they are anything to do with dead people, if you know what I mean.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but it sounds an interesting idea. What do you think ghosts are, if not spirits of the dead?

Can I guess the explanation for your experiences?

1. Not so sure about this one - something to do with being 3 and misinterpreting what you saw.
2. Hipster/eccentric type, you couldn't see him when you looked down the road as he had pulled into a drive by then.
3. A reflection of a real woman in a bonnet.
4. Cats be craaaazy. Especially at night. Could be a new cat on the block, or maybe a fox? Either you couldn't see it because you didn't know where to look, or the enemy cat was hiding, or your own cat was spooked by its own reflection in the glass.
5. A coincidence that seems strange, but isn't really when you think of all the people who ebay stuff to places that have no relevance to them. Statistically, if the entirety of mumsnet flipped a coin 10 times some of us would get 10 heads.

Mostly just old pipes Nd floorboards contracting and expanding as the temperature dropped or rose. Cracks and thuds and bangs and pings.

Though of another.
DH was working away. It was a dark, November evening and I was trying to get toddler dd to eat something before bed. The lights are on the kitchen but the rest of the house is dark, it is pitch black outside and I haven't got around to closing the blinds and curtains yet.
DD starts staring, rather disconcertingly, past me as though there is someone standing just behind me.

"Mummy! Look! the skinny long man is behind you!"
I turn around. Nothing but a wall and a dark doorway behind me.
"The skinny long man! He's behind you mummy!"
I turn around again. No-one. Tell DD not to be silly, there's no man in here etc.
She keeps staring beyond me and smiles the eerie smile of a child in a horror movie. "HE'S CLIMBING THE WALL MUMMY!!"

Right at the point where I am wondering if exorcists charge extra for evening call outs, I spot the daddy long legs on the wall....

SquishySquirmy-almost bang on. My green man actually spooked the whole family and all our visitors, until my mother for down to my level and saw the splash of green paint under a shelf where nobody else could see it. The penny farthing man actually belonged to a circus and the translucent woman was a patch of frost on the window. Cats- a new arrival cat that hasn't learned the hierarchy. And the parcels-coincidence. but all good soooky stories. If we had moved before my mum turned ghost hunter, I bet that would be a well embellished haunted house story by now.

Interested to know the explanations!

These are very interesting - great thread idea, Bertrand

I’ve had sleep paralysis before and it’s really really weird. It’s creepy enough when you know what’s happening, it must be absolutely terrifying if you don’t.

Oh blimey. I forgot the hedgehog. Dp and I once lived in Ground floor flat with French windows. We woke up in the middle of the night with the most terrifying noises in our bedroom. We were terrified. It was a lost hedgehog.

Love the daddy long legs..... :)

Thought of another!
Also involves dd freaking me out.
(She is a very bright child, and has always been very chatty with a vocabulary ahead of her age.)

We were driving near Stonehenge on our way somewhere else. We don't live near there, and have never discussed Stonehenge before.

As we pass, DH points it out: "Look dd" See those rocks? That's Stonehenge!"

"I know. People used to dance round there didn't they?"

"Oh mummy told you about it?"
I hadn't. Me and dh asked her how she knows this, but dd can't remember how she knows it. Just keeps insisting that people did use to dance there. "In the olden days"

Still not completely cleared that one up, though we have a couple of theories.

What do you think ghosts are, if not spirits of the dead?

I have a way of describing the aura I get before a seizure - things look more real, colours are brighter, edges are sharper. So the brain is capable of dealing with a lot more information than we give it credit for, but most of the time it's not needed (a bit like the fact that you can always see you nose, your brain just chooses to ignore it). When people see or feel "ghosts" they're seeing things that are perfectly natural, but unusual to them in that setting. The human brain goes "What's that" and the preferred response for some people is "A ghost."

I haven't explained that very well at all, sorry. I'm trying to walk the cat and he's dicking about so I'm not concentrating properly!

Bert I had to read that post twice.

I also thought you had been hacked.

That's interesting, YesItsMe.

As an aside, I have just become really conscious of my nose bobbing about beneath the edge of my spectacles .

Squishy- I bet she saw Stonehenge on Telly Tubbies or something like that. It's amazing what they learn on CBeebies!

"I'm trying to walk the cat"

I really could not let that pass without comment......

When I lived alone, I used to hear voices every night when I was trying to fall asleep. Low muttering sounds, occasionally louder, and banging noises but obviously no-one around. I thought I was being haunted by a grumpy old man.

Turns out it's a kind of tinnitus, and I still get it. I tend to hear bangs and crashes and people shouting my name as I fall asleep, but only if I fall asleep anywhere that's not my bed, or not at bedtime. Fun!

(Also - love the skinny long man!)