To consider we may have a ghost..?

[SimulationStation]

DH obv think I am AIBU but we live in a cottage built in 1856 and the incidents so far:

Hearing footsteps on stairs thinking it's our DCs only to find them fast asleep. Happens a lot!

DCs special 'taggies' (comfort blanket) disappearing for days, only to reappear in really obvious places we have looked at before.

DD's electric toothbrush turning itself on at 3 am in the morning. Bzzzzzz.

A friend convinced she saw a Childs face peering through our bannisters. DCs def in bed at the time.

DD 5yrs old saying 'who is the little boy that came to stay last night?' No little boy was staying!

I dont know. Possibly some could be explained but the toothbrush and footsteps freaks me out! Even DH has heard them, checked kids who are fast asleep and stated 'that's weird'.

Theres lots of things we dont understand, doesnt mean its not real.

Auras for instance, Ive actually had someone put their hands into mine, it was a very scary and strange sensation.

Woo woo even scientists get it wrong though.

Sometimes our greatest asset is our ability to adapt and cope in various situations against all known logic. Sometimes withdrawing into fantasy can help us cope in our darkest and most difficult of circumstances, like in times of war or trauma. If people lacked that a different way of seeing things, and an imagination that no one else had a lot of scientific discoveries would never have been made if the first place.

Its healthy to dream and maintain an open mind than close yourself off to the possibility.

howls like a werewolf

If you open your mind too far it will all fall out....

Exploding brain theory. Nice.

A great deal of effort has been expended over the years by open-minded scientists, trying to discover whether or not there actually is any type of 'energy' that could be identified as a ghost. They have found fuck all. Either there's been a fairly-easily identified physical explanation, or the 'phenomena' simply haven't re-occurred because they were being faked in the first place.

But the majority of people are both gulllible and disinclined to think deeply about anything much. Otherwise there wouldn't be all these woo-peddling con-artists getting rich, nor would there be the Lottery, racism, sexism, homophobia or the current financial crisis.

Scientists couldn't see germs years ago either.

My Dad is an anaesthetist (point being, a scientist). He talks of an experience he had when he was a young man, studying alone in his room at the top of a rented house. He had his head on the table, memorising something he'd just read. He heard footsteps coming up the stairs, opening his door, walking across the room and stopping right next to him

He had initially thought it was the landlord bringing him up a cup of tea, as he was in the habit of doing. But when nothing was said, and nothing was placed on the table next to him, he became a bit scared, and was at first reluctant to open his eyes to see who was there - because he was certain there was someone there. He opened his eyes to see - nothing.

Dad has no explanation for this, or at least not one he's willing to believe. He's the most pragmatic, sensible, no-nonsense person I know, and I can say without any hesitation that he's not a liar/fantastist/imaginative.

Scientists couldn't see germs years ago either.

Scientist still can't see dark matter. There is a missing mass to the universe we are yet to discover. They haven't proven its existence yet.

But the effects of bacteria were able to be observed repeatedly, leading to discovery of what they were and how they worked. Absolutely no woo stuff has ever been able to survive proper scientific investigation. Anything which actually occurs in the presence of a non-gullible witness always has a natural cause.

And in fact I am going to start peddling woo-stuff on Ebay, that ought to pay the bills.

I dont know what to believe. I dont WANT to believe, and i certainly dont want for things to happen to me. I dont seek things out. It doesnt bother me if others believe or not.

But these are the bigger things that have happened to me:

I worked in a shop with a large stockroom upstairs, open rafter roof, the whole floor space filled from with lots of rows of 12ft shelving units, in lines right across the floor. Enough room between them for you to walk comfortably down the aisles - no more. Apart from ALWAYS having the sensation of being watched from above up there, and various other odd things going on, one morning i had opened the shop and was down on the shop floor opening the till. I hadnt unlocked the door to the stairs to the stock room and i was first to arrive. Suddenly i heard loud steady footsteps above me as if someone was stamping across the stockroom upstairs. Diagonally, back and forth. Diagonally! Physically impossible because of the shelving units. And there was no one up there anyway. ???

A few years later and untill recenty i had a job in a village primary school. Some times i would stay late and clear up the art areas. Very often i was alone in the block of classrooms separate to the main building after school. In winter when it was dark outside i would get creeped out, but the two incidents which actually occured both happened in mid summer when it was sunny out at about 5pm, when i was totally chilled. First thing was a tea cup hitting the floor and smashing right behind my legs as i walked down a corridor. When i looked at the pieces they made up a pale green old fasioned tea cup. Never seen one like that in the staff room, or anywhere else. There was no body in the area. The place was silent - open plan - no one near me. ?

Same area of the school, different day, same summer - again totally alone in the area. I was walking through a carpeted area of a class room as i passed through i saw alot of little toys, couple of lunch boxes, building bricks, etc strewn around the floor under a coat big coat rack. I thought i'd get what i needed from the room adjacent and come back and gather some of it up.
I walked back into the area about - in all honesty 20/30 seconds later - and each and every one of these same bits and pieces were in a perfect pile right in the middle of the carpet. In order of size, largest thing on the bottom. Even the tiny little bricks were ballenced. I remember clearly looking at it, slowing down, and then walking on. I didnt feel any fear. I finished my work and went home. I just felt numb. If someone else had told me it had happened to them it would scare the sh*t out of me!

I havnt told many people about this stuff becasue it sounds made up. I know. But its the truth.

I've lived for 10 years in a cottage built in 1910 and seen not a peep of anything! Thank goodness. Reading the stories on this thread have given me goose bumps. Lots of other little things have happened to me, both as a child and as an adult. I still dont know waht i believe though.

things are either true, or they aint

we have lots of things that people used to believe were true, but were not. and now everyone laughs and says ' what a load of daft things we used to believe eh?'

Malaria - a major killer. It means 'Bad Air'

for hundreds of years, the only explanation was that the air was bad.

It wasnt. Its a parasite that gets passed from human to human by insects.

Ghosts. either true or they aint.

Scientists say they aint

I agree entirely mac

The very fact that i like (and will happily accept) a logical explanation for stuff makes my experiences so troubling to me.

I'm kind of in denial i like to pretend it all happened to someone else

Call our local Vicar round, we are good at sussing out if stuff like that is real our not. There are weired thngs that go on, and sometimes a Priest praying in your house helps... just my experience.

I'm very on the fence about ghosts. I think that powerful things that happened in the past might leave an impression, like a recording that replays in loops over and over again. I also think that old houses do collect the stored emotions of the people who have lived there - which can be very positive. In our last house, which was also old, there was supposed to be a White Lady. I didn't see her, but I did see a cat - a transparent one, that is. No open windows, DH at the bottom of the stairs so no escape for a cat which had strayed in. The sensation was completely benign, it was a good house.

I've experienced some things that were really difficult to explain based on current knowledge, but my take on that is that we don't yet have the technology to explain them, not that they didn't happen.

As to auras - everything has an electromagnetic field. Why is it so hard to believe that it can be manipulated when we do this with mechanical equipment all the time?

I think that as research mounts up we will venture ever more deeply into the realms of what we now think of as intangible and unexplainable - and the science will be there to support it.

I don't know about auras and psychics and 'woo' (what is this?). But the age of a house has nothing to do with it. I saw a man in a council apartment that could not have been there and I was not asleep or ill or drunk or taking drugs. I was walking on the pavement with my bread.

I am in a similar situation (but bit more frequent) and my advice would be:

1. Rational explanation. Tiny vibrations from faulty electrical equipment can cause impending sense of doom/seeing things that aren't there. Check you have no light bulbs touching edge of fittings, computers in loose casings left switched on when not in use etc.

1. The ghosts are real and/or you are experiencing an altered reality that can also be considered mental illness if it gets worse explanation.

a. Don't think about it. The more you think about it the more it will happen. b. Don't watch scary films, read scary books or mention the supernatural to other people so that they start telling you scary stuff, because then you will think about it and encourage ghosts/delusions (depending on your perspective). c. Don't get a priest in to bless the house (they won't exorcise your house anyway, the situation isn't serious enough), don't get a psychic in, don't get pagans in and don't make up supernatural backstories to it, you are just encouraging it. d. Don't tell your kids.

In short, IGNORE it and hope it goes away.

I have had two seriously wierd experiences where I could have said that I 'saw' a ghost. The first time I walked into our house (built in the late 1990s), before we moved in, 'saw' someone sitting in a chair waiting for me, and 'heard' them tell me I would experience a lot of deaths while living in the this house, but none of them would be of my immediate family, so I was not to be worried (this turned out to be true). The second time I was at my grandfather's funeral and I 'saw' him walk into the little chapel in his hiking gear, look at the coffin, mutter in a busy and vaguely irritated way that he was off, and 'saw' him stride off for a hike in the mountains with an Alpenstock. Both times were incredibly real, and both times I almost crapped myself. But I still think there is more to this than the ghost label, and it's probably some sort of manifestation of what's inside my own head. However the 'cures' are worth pursuing for people, in my view, as it doesn't matter what the reason is, as long as people feel better about living in their own homes. Same reasoning as to why it can be a good idea clinically to take placebos sometimes.

I would stand in the hall when everyone else was out and have a word with the 'ghost' - tell them you know they are there, but that it is very annoying when they wake you up or hide things, and you would appreciate it if they stopped because they've had their say now.

I bet you things will settle down after that,

Surely it does matter what the reason behind it is?

What if the person actually does have schizophrenia, or a brain tumour? This is something the church would consider before going ahead with any kind of 'cure.' It is inappropriate to use a placebo rather than diagnose a health condition.

On the other hand, what if there actually is a supernatural ghost? What if there really is something there in the supernatural cure? Then it isn't a placebo - it is just somebody messing about with something that they don't understand.

I have told my story at length before but here goes[in brief].Girl next door aged 16 attempted suicide[overdose on all painkillers in house] taken to hospital.I asked how she was on a regular basis.One day I was looking out of the landing window over their garden.I saw the girl standing there looking down the garde.I told dh that xxxx was home.I mentioned that she was wearing too much make up on her face as you could see where it ended at her jawline.
Next day I told colleagues that xxxx was home.I was a teacher and had taught xxxx as well as living next door.Colleague said the school had had a call to say xxxx had died the previous evening and the youger dc would not be in school.
I asked my neighbour if she had a neice or cousin who looked very like her dd.She said no and I told her what I had seen.She said she believed me as in the hour before death the girl's jaundice had become very pronounced on her face.She was much comforted by my story.I wasnt a believer but that is a true story[happened about 25 years ago].

I'm amazed at people that genuinely believe there's nothing beyond what science has proven. That would put all scientists out of work. They seem to cling to the hope that there's still something for them to discover. And for their children and grandgrand.....grandchildren.

I'm far more amazed at the people who persist in going 'Woo, it's a ghost' before they've eliminated all the obvious and likely rational explanations.

Well, I say 'amazed' but I have known for an awfully long time that most people are not very good at thinking.

Nobody thinks there is nothing beyond what science has proven. Especially since scientists don't use the word proof. Thats just a predictably lazy response from people who can't be arsed to think scientifically, instead leaping to supernatural nonsense just because they can't explain something.

"Hearing footsteps on stairs thinking it's our DCs only to find them fast asleep. Happens a lot!"

Wooden floorboards contract and expand with heat, making creaking noises. Quite normal. Especially in older houses. And boats.

And in our semi it is often very difficult to hear if activity on the stairs is us or the neighbours; I have been fooled many times, told dcs to go back to bed and then heard the neighbours obviously still up and talking on the stairs.

"DCs special 'taggies' (comfort blanket) disappearing for days, only to reappear in really obvious places we have looked at before."

Now this happens a lot in our house- all sorts of things disappear and then magically reappear. Dcs are not ghosts yet- but if they carry on like this....

"DD's electric toothbrush turning itself on at 3 am in the morning. Bzzzzzz."

I've had that happen, very irritating but more likely to be some kind of electronic fault.

"A friend convinced she saw a Childs face peering through our bannisters. DCs def in bed at the time."

Having spent some time as a youngster watching for seals I was always amazed to find how many seals suddenly switched back into the same rocks/seaweed/pontoons when I took a second look or the light moved.

"DD 5yrs old saying 'who is the little boy that came to stay last night?' No little boy was staying!"

All the children of my large extended family have had imaginary friends/made up stories about encounters at some stage. Normal, normal, normal.

I have had a fear of ghosts since i was a young child and i'm considering therapy... anyone else had the same problem?
yes, i'm being serious lol, but it can really cause me trouble sometimes