Am I seeing ghosts?

[bengal38]

My Grandmother died 12 years ago (this July). We shared the same name so were very close. When she died I didn't go to the hospital as I was at school but she was surrounded by my mum and her sisters.

For the past 2 years I have been having a strong sense of intuition. Seeing things out of the corner of my eye.

Last night I went up to bed and my husband came up about 15 mins later. I was sort of drifting in a sleep but was aware of my surroundings. I did hear and see my husband walk into the room to sort himself out. Our passage light upstairs doesn't work. My husband then went into the bathroom and I heard him close the door. About 2 mins later I thought I heard him open the door and walk into the room. I did hear footsteps in my room as well. 'It' walked round my side of the bed and I turned round and said "what are you doing walking round my side of the bed". What I saw was like a person walking wearing white which the moment I spoke just sort of disapppeared. I went back to sleep but I felt scared but at peace. (Hard to explain).

Moments later my husband came out of the bathroom, checked the kids and got into bed. I told him what had happened and he told me not to be silly and that I was just tired.

Has something like this happened to anyone before? I do feel quite scared to be honest. Sometimes I am in the kitchen and I think that my someone is standing by the doorway to the through-lounge but when I look up no-one is there?

Don't be because no you didn't see ghosts,you were dreaming

The rods and cones in our eyes mean that we see things much better, in low light, out of the corner of our eyes. This means that if you see something (maybe a curtain or shadow) out of the corner of your eye, when you look directly at it, you may not see anything.

However, I don't believe in ghosts or an afterlife so I may not be the kind of person to reply to this post.

Think it's more likely you're thinking about your grandmother right now, so when you're in that half-asleep state, that's what you convince yourself you're seeing. But then I'm a cynic

I do get the feeling that people are places / watching me, but then I have anxiety and paranoia...

You'd be better posting this in philosophy/ religion/ spirituality. There's a lot of ghost chat over there & less cynics.

The last bit of the op indicates she probably needs to stay here and hang out with the cynics

No you are not. There's a particular type of bad dream where you're sort of awake but not, and people often feel a 'presence' during these dreams, but it is not ghosts.

I used to get those dreams LittleEdie,scary but just dreams.

I knew i was asleep but couldn't make myself wake up and would try to shout and wake up DP.
Eventually i would wake up and then go back to sleep again.
Haven't had it for a long time now.

They're a bit like dreams but when you are between asleep and awake. They have a fantastic name hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations for ones which occur when falling to sleep and waking up respectively.

Echobitch - it sounds like you had them with associated sleep paralysis (where you can't move or wake up).

There are no such thing as ghosts, so try to forget it.

You can't trust what you see or hear when half asleep as the mind plays weird tricks when you're in that stage. I had a similar experience when I was a child (dark shape by the door) and it was just my eyes playing tricks on me.

You didn't watch Lightfields last night did you?.

I've seen ghostly figures walking towards me, sat on the end of my bed, actually in bed with me and I could hear them breathing. Scary, but always a common denominator of me in bed. Your brain can conjure up all sorts of things when you're asleep. It can even make you think that you're perfectly awake and seeing things that aren't there. I've seen them dissolve as my brain wakes up.

It's quite common to hear voices and see things as you are drifting off. I used to hear my Grandmother's voice calling me quite regularly. Unfortunately, I haven't actually heard it since she died.

I second Hypnogogic hallucinations. I suffer from them, usually when I am very overtired, but they seem very very real. I hear voices calling my name and hear other noises. It's also very true about the rods and cones in your eyes attuning to low light.

Maybe it would help if you googled Hypnogogic hallucinations and also how the eye works; if you can read about it in plain science speak, iyswim, it might take some of the mystery or potential fear out of it.

On another note, do you feel guilty about not being with your Grandmother when she died? I'm wondering if you have some unresolved emotions around her passing, that you are translating into 'seeing' her? My condolences though, as you obviously loved her very much and miss her. For you

No! They don't exist, innit.

I have seen a few at different times and felt someone around me

Quick, tell The James Randi Institute.....it's got a million dollars waiting for you!

Hypnogogic or hypnopompic hallucinations as on the point of sleep
interpreted by your conscious mind as related to your grandmother because
you care for her and have been thinking of her

I get them a lot especially when Im ill, usually faces or figures eg coming through the wall, occasionally auditory, floating or posture changes. I always am aware its unreal and fades if I can wake myself. Also get Alice in Wonderland phenomena when ill, though that seems to have faded in intensity as Ive grown older. I find it fascinating how our minds shape our reality.

Ah....Alice in Wonderland effect! I get some cracking fevers, and was once entertained for hours (or maybe it was just minutes) by looking at an expanding and contracting copper bangle.....

No one can say for sure they do or don't exist - just what they believe. I believe in science but I also believe in the unseen. There's nothing wrong with believing in a feeling or to think you've seen something. Sometimes it can be explained with science and sometimes not. If you are comfortable believing that 'it' was your grandmother and you feel peaceful then that's fine.

One point of supernatural stuff is to believe in it even though it is elusive. No one can say it definitely doesn't exist as they just don't know for sure only what they believe.

No such thing as ghosts. Fret ye not.

reading my post back it sounds as though I live in a hallucinatory world
but honestly Im functional and have no overt mental illness

Ive always had these perceptual issues (which fall in the normal range of human experience) and so have had to learn to live with them from a young age
I often wonder if I was in a different family (eg a religious or superstitious one) whether I would have been encouraged to interpret my perceptual issues differently. As a child though, it was occasionally confusing.

"A strong sense of intuition" - I really don't know what that means, but it sounds to me as if you've been "priming" yourself to experience these things, and your brain is obliging.

As someone who has regular hypnagogic hallucinations I promise you that nothing you've described is any different from the shit my brain conjures up when I get stressed or overtired.

I lived in a flat above some stables (I worked there at the time). The buildings were old and I shared my flat with a ghost. I think he must have been a stable lad, possibly head lad. I was never scared of him and never saw him, but I always knew when he was there and he used to turn things on - stereo, radio, kettle etc. He was quite a comforting presence really.

So from my experience I will not say 'no such thing as ghosts'. What you feel and see may not be your grandmother because you're scared, but then again it might be.

I don't believe in ghosts as, scientifically, how can they exist and there is a rational explanation for everything. Or is there?

I have had 2 experiences of ghosts which I cannot explain and i won't go into here.

However, when my aunt died, and 6 years later when my dad died, I had dreams about them both. Each dream was happy and comforting and reassured me that wherever they are, they are in a good place.

I read a poem on the London Underground about why we dream about dead people - I can't remember the name of it, but it's apparently something to do with our brains trying to make ourselves feel better about our loss. It's only about 6 lines long, I wish I could remember it!

I have thought Ive heard or seen things when I am just dropping off to sleep.

I thought I saw something once, but what it actually was was a vehicle headlight shining into my room in a sort of arc.

Ive been sure voices have woken me up, but I have read that this is something that can happen, some people hear a scream?

Don't be scared OP, there is more than likely a reasonable explanation, sometimes when things don't make sense our brains fill in the gaps and come up with something that isn't real. Its just our brains way of making sense of things.

I am open minded about things woo related, but I think this sort of things is very common and just how the brain works when it is shutting down into sleep mode.