As a child, did you see people that weren’t there?

[SisterAgatha]

We are watching a scary film and a child can see a man in the bedroom. DH is freaked out by this but I used to see a man in my bedroom all the time so I was kind of unphased. I used to see a shadow by the door, which walk slowly over and crouch next to the bed, then disappear. Very obviously my imagination.

I asked DH did he not imagine similar then? No, he says I am weirdo.

This is a standard fear, right?! I’m sure lots of people ‘saw’ this kind of thing as kids? Reassure me please 😂😳

I didn't. Could have been a ghost. Is that reassuring?

All the time. My mum told me it was just my imagination, and I remember being really impressed that I could see my imagination. It just faded away as I got older.

This is not reassuring, I just whatsapped a friend and they said no too. 😳

Mum said I used to talk to a man on the ceiling but I don’t remember that at all.

Oh thank god!

I've never 'seen' anything like this, but if this is a common thing and probably down to childhood imagination as you say op, then surely this is what people think of as ghosts then? Things or people they see in their imagination? Seems sensible and more plausible than them just being actual ghosts.

I’ve read about a theory that until children are about 4 they can see spirits, then that ability fades. It doesn’t bother them as they don’t see it as abnormal, they don’t know any different.

I don’t remember seeing any as a child but from teenage on I’ve seen and heard dogs that could not have been there, a few people, and felt my cat a week after she died, jump onto my bed. Never bothered me.

Yes I remember seeing the bed sheets move too after the rabbit died but again, I am pretty adamant it’s imagination. I’m just shocked at the difference between my reaction that it’s totally normal, to DH’s reaction that it’s totally freaky 😂

Saying that my kids have never mentioned anything like this and I have 3… so maybe it’s not so common.

No

Could you have had a fever or been dehydrated?

Yes! I used to see one particular person in my house, always coming around corners or the stairs. I also had 2 imaginary friends who were very vivid to me but I knew the difference between them and this lady who I could literally see.

It still remains a mystery to me, but when I was around 18 I began to get intense sleep paralysis with extremely real hallucinations - the first one I ever had I could see, hear and feel my bed violently shaking and partially lifting off the floor. I say shaking at the computer googling it expecting to hear that I was possessed by demons but the first link was about sleep paralysis! Had never heard of it before and without that knowledge I can easily see why people believe in ghosts or hauntings - I had frequent experiences involving women and children and they are just so real.

I'm just mentioning that in case it helps or in case it provides some kind of explanation about why some people's brains seem to be wired for hallucinations. Funnily enough, a year or so after meeting my partner and living with him, the SP has died down and never happens as long as he is sleeping in my bed. If he's gone, they tend to come back to the point where I don't really sleep til he's back.

Simple brain phenomena, or am I haunted??

God no. I would have moved into my parent’s bed permanently if I’d ever seen anything like that! 😱

I did. Now, I think it was some sort of recurring dream except that I would be half awake. It was very very real and happened numerous times over a period of a couple of years I think.

My bedroom window was opposite a road bridge with a clear view of the bridge. I would wake up, look out of the window and I would see a black, open style horse-drawn carriage with a tall lady dressed in dark flowing clothes sitting in it holding the reins. I would watch the carriage go across the bridge, not able to take my eyes off it but terrified in case the woman turned to look at me! She definitely had an evil sort of air to her.

I was a very sensible child, not into imagination games but I had significant breathing difficulties some nights and I think this vision is connected to that.

I have done this all my life ( I am 70). It doesn’t bother me now, and it didn’t bother me as a child ( although I learnt fairly early not to tell anyone about it).

it very rarely has much significance on ‘real life’ (whatever that may be), so I wouldn’t be too concerned ; best keep it to yourself though, as I think you are discovering.

Fucking hell. You're so calm about this when I - who doesn't believe in ghosts and didn't see that- have just wet myself with fear because I'm sure you saw an actual ghost of a Victorian horse riding witch. WTFuck? You must have been petrified.

No, never seen anything like that. From the replies here you aren’t alone but I have never heard of anything like this from anyone I know, maybe people don’t talk about it. If it was really a perception of a person in the room, then that seems different from say, an imaginative child seeing a shadow and letting themselves go along with a flight of fancy that it was like a person coming into the room, if you know what I mean.

I was once staying at my grandparents and I swear I woke up, saw my mum walk along the corridor in a long flowing dressing gown, from the guest bedroom, past the room me and my brother were in and then down the stairs (room was at the top) and then I followed into the living room where I started screaming as she disappeared straight through the fireplace. My gran, then mum came downstairs to see what was going on and went white as a sheet when I explained. My mum had what they thought were recurring nightmares and 'sleep walking" episodes of exactly what I described. Her childhood room was where I was sleeping that night!

I've heard this theory too.

Yes. Every night when I went to bed I used to expect to hear and see "the people". Mostly it was what I assume were auditory hallucinations but I would also see a person sitting in the corner of the room. It was literally part of my nightly routine, didn't bother me one bit.

I remember once, I would have been about 10ish, I woke up in the middle of the night, I couldn't see anything, but I was aware of a very unpleasant and frightening presence.I called out to my father but my parents were too far away to hear. I just stuck my head under the blankets and went back to sleep again. I was absolutely scared to death. When I was older my parents told me that they too were aware of this presencene and also dragging noises in the attic. Eventually about 5 years later we moved into a new build flat.

I used to have conversations with an old man who used to sit at the end of my bed. It used to really freak my parents out. I don't remember it now though.

I heard that kids have a higher level of naturally occurring DMT than adults because their neural pathways are developing. I wonder if that's why these kinds of things only happen to kids.

No I didn't.

I still go through phases of seeing large (man sized) shadows and movement. Sometimes I don't see anything for years.

Last night I patted and tutted my cat up onto the bed as I saw her distinct shadow out of the corner of my eye. She was pts in May.

Yes I used to - didn’t think anything of it until I mentioned “the old lady who lived in the school” years later and watched my parents go white.
Not in my house - interesting as I lived in a 500 year old house - but at my gran’s house when I was small as well as at my school.

I did all the time, one holiday I even got that scared and emotional and my nanna was trying to calm but I was terrified, so my mum had to take me home early.

I did as a child but only once. I saw a nun in the hall way of our school , she was a friend of another nun who was a teacher. The nun used to visit her after elevenses break every so often. The day I seen her was the first day back after Easter break and I was in the hall after using the toilet and seen her on the lower level. I rushed to tell the teacher she was there and it was then I was told that the nun had died over Easter. I got in the height of trouble for lying but my mom always believed that I saw her