To ask what's the weirdest/strangest/creepiest thing that has ever happened to you?

[fruitysmoothie]

As the title says...

Placemarking

I've name changed as this would totally out me but I received a text message from my partner after he died!
He had a heart attack and died very suddenly at 4.00am on a Thursday AM aged 39!
House full of relatives & friends on Saturday talking about him etc, I went to bed than couldn't sleep so came downstairs for a drink, there were about 4 mobile phones on the table & one of them beebed.
For some reason I picked it up and his name was in the preview panel, opened it and it said 'Good Luck Mate'
Had been sent on the Wednesday before he died regarding a football match!
Absolutely amazing but I was really disappointed that he never text again!

Years ago when I was at school, we used to do the whole looking people up in the phone book thing seeing where they lived etc people we liked or hated! Anyway I looked this one person up by surname and area I thought they lived and thought oh that must be them X road. A few weeks later on the news a body had been found same surname as the person I'd looked up and on X road! It obviously wasn't the person id thought it was but the person out of the phonebook i'd mistaken them for! a bit freaky! And to top it off they were interviewing a man on the street who had the exact same unusual first and surname of my brother...I had seen him in the phone book a while before when looking under my surname, and thought that's strange having the same name. (You can tell I never had the Internet as a child)

I am only on Page 2 - doing mine then reading back but Cock and Wannabe

I told this one on the last woo thread

I was having a bad night. After a massive row with someone, I'd gone walking alone in the dark, the heavens had opened, I got soaked, and fell and cut my knee. Bit of a state all round. I ended up getting a cab home.
"Well!" said the cabby, "it looks like someone's home to look after you anyway."

Not comprehending I said "Oh, I live alone"

And he said "Well someone's in, look"

And there was clearly a figure outlined behind my front door.

When I opened the door there was no-one there.

If he hadn't said it, I'd have thought I was seeing things

I'll come back later - we lived in a creepy (but not malevolent) house and one sister is very sensitive to spookies.

I've got a few.
First, one that happened when I was still living with my parents. There has always been something in that house. Me and my sister would lie in our beds as kids and listen to what sounded like fingernails drumming on the bannister. When you went upstairs it would sound like all the kitchen cupboards were slamming shut.
Anyway, this one day when I was about 19/20 I went for a bath. There was nobody else home but I still shut the bathroom door to keep the cat out (she had a habit of falling into the bath). The door is very stiff, you have to really slam it to shut it properly and sort of bang it with your hip to open it IYSWIM. Anyway, I was washing my hair. Leaned back to wash the suds out and when I sat up right next to the bath there was a solid column of smoke about the size of a person right next to the tub. The bathroom wasn't steamy as I had the window open and the water wasn't that hot. I was really freaked out so I told it to go away. It did. Washed the rest of the shampoo off, and when I sat up again the bathroom door was wide open.
This one happened to my DSis and cousin. They were staying at my auntie's babysitting, both were about 17. Allsorts happened in that house. All the other kids were in bed. They were sat on the sofa watching TV when a commotion started in the kitchen next to the living room. Door slamming, taps running, crockery and cutlery crashing. It lasted about five minutes, they were clinging to eachother with fright. When it had been quiet for a few minutes they went to have a look. It was chaos in there. Cereal and other food all over the floor, plates broken on the work surfaces, sauces splattered up the wall, knives and forks everywhere. That just about made them hysterical so they had to call my auntie to come home early- she said it had happened before.
Something happened in that house to another one of my aunties who was visiting. She went to use the loo but on enetering the bathroom there was an old man stood in there.
And when another of my cousins was staying there, she woke in the night so see a figure sitting at the side of her bed with its back to her. She said it was the size of a child, but an unnatural shape. Almost like one of those wooden figures you used to see with the prizes on game shows. And all covered in horrible scraggly hair. It really messed with her, she wouldn't sleep alone for ages after that.
Woooooooooooooooo

We used to live in an end terrace in Birmingham, and an alley ran alongside the house. It was a strange house - 3 storeys at the back, and 2 at the front, which meant our living room was actually a floor up and we could see whoever was walking down the alley, very clearly, from our living room window.

The alley led to the back of our houses and a nature reserve, and really hardly anyone ever used it.

One day I was in the living room and heard these really loud footsteps - someone walking extremely heavily down the alleyway. Nosy as ever, I went to look out. It was a man in a sailor's uniform, carrying a long, white canvas bag over his shoulder/back. It was broad daylight, and he looked as solid as anyone. I didn't think it was anything weird or paranormal. Just unusual as Birmingham is about as far from the sea as is possible to get in the UK. So you don't see sailors every day!

Rare to see anyone there at all, so I told my husband later what I'd seen. He happens to be a military historian and told me I wasn't describing the current navy uniform but what sounded like a mid 20thC one...

One of our neighbours, then in his 70s (it was the early 1980s) later told us he'd been a sailor in WW2. So lads from there did join the navy, as well as the other services...

I had another narrow alleyway/stairway encounter, around 1994, in Scarborough. We were just back from abroad but had given up our rented house and so were temporarily 'homeless'. Although we knew we had a council house, about to move into it, it was still a scary, stressful time.

With our literally last few quid in the world, we decided to stay at a cheap B & B by the seaside and give our kids a couple of days' at the seaside, before we moved into the new house.

We had no car so walked from one bay to the other, quite long distances with our 5 year old and a baby in a sling. I decided to go to see Peasholm Park where I'd last been years before, every year, as a child with my parents. It was a fair walk from the B & B. I walked through the usual part of it, but decided to walk deeper into a sort of wooded area, recalling there used to be boating lakes there where the kids played with toy boats. In the 1960s, it had always been packed with kids and parents that time of year. But the further we went, the more obvious it was now disused (it must have been done up by now) and was all dank, and grim and overgrown and not like my golden memories...

The further we went, the more I realised we were no longer passing anyone. No-one. It was really overgrown and creepy. So we decided to find an exit. We could see a small flight of steps, which seemed to lead back upto the road. Not a place I remembered going with my parents, but at least we'd be out of there faster than if we turned back.

But as I was about to get to the steps we stopped as we'd have to carry the pushchair between us, and the stairs were quite narrow and a man was coming down...

Worse still, he was filthy. Quite easily the dirtiest looking person I saw in my life. He was wearing a weird striped outfit. And it looked almost like rags like a proper, old fashioned tramp you used to see years ago - only worse. Far worse. I thought "Bugger, I don't want to pass him on the stairs - it's so narrow, I'd have to touch him!" But my husband seemed unbothered. So I walked up the stairs, with the toddler and baby and husband.

As he passed me, in that really confined spot, the weird thing was I couldn't smell him. And he looked like he'd reek. Passed within mm of him.

At the top of the stairs, we were out on the street (near an old police station and presumably, the old jail?) and I turned to husband and said "Did you just see that man? How come we didn't smell him?"

He asked "What man?"

He didn't see a thing. Despite passing within mm of him.

I think it was only a day or two later I went to the Museum and they had an old Wanted poster for a 19thC convict, escaped from the prison - he was wearing the same clothes I'd seen this man in.

Not that I think it was necessarily him - am sure a number of men escaped from prison in nineteenth century Scarborough!

It was literally impossible for husband not to have seen him. He passed so close.

I'm not sure how I knew, but a former tenant of this flat killed himself. I knew he'd hanged himself in 1996 and his name was Kenny. I can usually 'feel' him in the stairway (this is a maisonette) but it was never a bad feeling.

A lady who's lived in this building for decades confirmed what I felt. But Kenny hanged himself in the woods just behind here, not in the stairway as I originally thought.

A lot of woo in my life . . . Some of which I can't talk about it was so awful.

My parents died very close together, my mother first, then my father 5 weeks later. We were staying at my sister's after my father's funeral and one night I woke up to see him at the bottom of the bed - he was upset and telling me that he couldn't get to Mum as he was too angry and wasn't allowed to be with her until he got his anger sorted. (He was a bit of a Victor Meldrew and got upset at silly stuff, wrote letters etc).

It was pretty horrible. Then about 5 days later I woke up to see both of them at the bottom of the bed saying it's OK we are together now and you don't have to worry about us any more. It was such a huge relief that they were OK.

I was thinking the other day how I'd love another Woo thread and then this one appears! I have found that this thread and the other woo threads in the 'classics' section; also the 'presence of evil' one keep closing on my phone! Weirdest of all is the posts saying 'I quite agree with you, xxxx' and when I look for a post by xxxx, there isn't one! Meta-woooo!!

Husband has had quite a few ghostly encounters. Although his kneejerk reaction is to try and find a rational explanation, still a few things have happened to him that are hard to explain.

In the 1970s he was taking part in a Civil War re-enactment, at Sudeley Castle so not unusual to bump into people wearing non contemporary clothing... However, he was going for a walk (wee?) in the woods alone, and saw this woman ahead of him, wearing a cloak just like the old 'Scottish Widows' ad and she seemed to be staring straight towards him but he realised.... she had no face.

Years later, I took a wrong turn and the second he even saw signs to Sudeley, his face went absolutely white and he begged me to turn round and go a different way.

I have heard a few ghost stories from other living history and re-enactment folk over the years, and I know many think that sometimes people wandering around in costume somehow creates the phenomenon.

Another time him and a mate were walking through Leicester and they both saw a large group of soldiers. On a street with an old barracks so nothing surprising there you'd think... Only, they were all in WW1 clothing (as I said upthread he's a bit of a military historian). Thing was, two of them saw it. And this was long before there was such a thing as WW1 re-enactors.

Maybe his strangest one though was when he was a kid, he was in the scouts and they were away on a trip. They were walking alongside a canal tow path and somehow (dyspraxic and a daydreamer) he lagged behind all the others then, looking one way as he walked, fell in. He couldn't swim. Just as he thought he was drowning, he felt a hand tightly grab his wrist and pull him clear out of the water onto the path. There was no-one there.

His grandma had died very shortly before and he thinks it was her!

WOW! Over 500 woo stories!

When my mum lay dying in hospital, she started talking about angels. "Bloody Christians, can't stand them preaching"! "What Christians mum? I can't see any", she then points at the wall "those angels, bloody Christians, they should bugger off"!
She died a week later (they thought she was going to die that day, but I guess she scared them off!)

Our hallway seems to be a picadilly circus when it comes to ghosts. Constantly seems to attract randoms who appear as light and shadows. Appart from one time a full on apparition would appear to me. He would take great pleasure in jumping out at me and freaking me out. I would walk down the hallway, he would step out and stare/grin and watch me jump. Eventually I would "startle" then swear.
I once left through the front door, and came through the back and saw him waiting and peering round the corner waiti for me. I literally rubbed my eyes, looked away and back again thinking I was mad. I said "oi" and he turned round and looked shocked! He got fed up with me not finding him scary (I would swear at him or say "oh hello" because it was getting routine) and disappeared a couple of months later.

When I married my DH we moved into his house before buying our own together. He had just told me he loved me and I was sitting on his bed on my own when I felt "something" surround me. It is hard to articulate this properly but I can only describe it as a physical/spiritual experience where I was encompassed in a feeling of absolute joy and euphoria. This lasted a few minutes and ended when the physical "thing" left me. At no time was I afraid. Strangely, my DH experienced the same thing a few weeks later when alone in the house. In addition to this his DS spoke about seeing a woman in the house in, as he described, "old fashioned" clothing. Whatever was in the house was good - pure, and I will never forget this experience.

On another note (and I see this has been mentioned by other posters in this thread), I have experienced sleep paralysis regularly throughout my life. Each time, I awaken unable to move and can hear what seems like a radio on in the background. It is never a pleasant experience. I have also woken up to feeling as if the bed/me is violently shaking. DH unfortunately doesn't believe me and seems to think I've been dreaming. Only, I haven't. Does this happen to anyone else? It completely unnerves me.

desertmum

My dh says on his first day back to work following his mums death he was lying in a hotel bedroom feeling very upset and she appeared ar the bottom of his bed. She smiled and then went. He felt massively conferred.

When my dd was on a trip abroad terrible event happened and I woke up and heard her shout 'mum' I had no idea she was hurt but she told me later she has called out for me just once before she passed out.

User, shaking is a commonly reported sensation either side of an O.B.E. or A.P. I've not experienced either myself, but there is a wealth of literature out there about them written by people who have.

Thank you for your reply Liz70. Yes, I have heard this before but I don't like to investigate too deeply as the whole thing frightens me too much.

pagemarking

Ooh, catching up on woo and vertical's post reminded me of weird TV happenings!

One Hallowe'en several years ago, we woke up at about 1am because the TV had come on and was blaring out a horror movie. I sent DH downstairs to switch it off and we went back to sleep. At first i thought it was something to do with us switching off the tv but not the set box and I wondered if the set box automatically 'woke' the tv. Then we realised that it had been on a channel we never watch, and the volume had been turned way up (much louder than we normally have it, loud enough to wake us up 2 storeys away). It happened another few times so DH, convinced there was a rational explanation, changed the set box.

Our old radio also used to turn itself on in the night sometimes too, and the stairs light intermittently flicks on and off when switched off. We've had two electricians look at it, tighten everything up and yet it still does it, although I haven't noticed it for several years (probably around time of TV/radio stuff). Creepy!! Have to say though I've never felt anything sinister in the house so it's probably temperamental electrics.

I havent have sleep paralysis for a few years.Thank God,it was awful.Mine was the old hag,standing in teh corner looking at me.

I felt "something" surround me. It is hard to articulate this properly but I can only describe it as a physical/spiritual experience where I was encompassed in a feeling of absolute joy and euphoria.

I have had this! I remember it so distinctly even though it was over 20yrs ago.

I was lying in bed - and I was actually very miserable at the time, because I had split up with a boyfriend and was rather heartbroken. And I just felt it - I struggled to put it into words too, but the word that came into my head was 'an angel'. Weird. I've never told anyone about that.

I've got an update on my previous woo regarding the disused kitchen in my work! My Ddad is a chef and although he never worked in the kitchen here he knows people that did and it turns out that one of the head chefs hung himself from the extractor for the cooker! A lot of the staff here feel as though they're being watched when they walk through the kitchen and it's always freezing even in the height of summer!

Dp was in work last year.He was in on his own,Saturrday morning it was early.Its a warehouse.

Anyway he goes to the loo,comes back out.Has to pass the ladies to get to the other door.Anyway the ladies main door is open and he looks in.There in front of a mirror is a girl in white.He must have looked for a couple of seconds but he says it seemed ages.

He just turned and headed for the door,It was only a minute later he realises what he has seen He doesnt go back in.He comes home and tells me.There was nothing on this site only open fields.

Not quite on topic, but to counteract my 'woo' experiences.

1. I was in my early teens and mucking about with friends in my room with a makeshift Ouija board. I don't think we really got anything out of it at all, but the glass did move a little.

About a week later, I kept hearing a deep breathing sound in my bedroom. Told my mum (a churchgoer) about the noise- not about the Ouija board and she came to listen, and said it was scary. There was talk of contacting the church to get a vicar in. When Dad got home, he was told about scary breathing noise. Dad being ever practical, scoped the room out fully, sussed the air vent/brick was clogged up and cleaned it. End of scary noise.

1. Same house, same room. I had put on my record player (yes, I'm old) and kept getting my music interrupted by strange voices. This happened every time I tried to play records in the late afternoon and into the evening. Eventually figured out that the speakers/system was picking up signals from the taxi rank three doors down.

Years ago my dd1 - about 8 at the time - told me she didn't like the mirror in my bedroom. Said she'd seen somebody reflected in it, when there couldn't possibly have been anybody there.
"Don't worry," I said. "It was probably just a shadow or something that looked like a person."
"No, no," said dd1, "I saw the face really clearly. IT WAS YOU."

I dismissed it as imagination until a few weeks ago when she mentioned it again. She's 17 now .