To think ghost stories are BS, but my experience was a bit odd?

[BigMoan]

I moved into a 1950’s house previously occupied by a couple. They were the sole occupants since it was built. The husband died, and a few years later the wife moved to a care home. The house was then put on the market.

Our first night in the house, we’d put a car seat centrally on a table. It fell off.
Few days later, I heard our piano being played - I went in the room and no one was there.
Then a week or so later - daughter went to the bathroom, froze and said there’s someone in there. She described the person as a male, like a shadow and wearing a suit. I hadn’t mentioned anything about ghosts to her, and told her it was just a shadow - perhaps Daddy had walked past when she was about to go in. For a few weeks after she was scared of the bathroom, wanted an adult with her. And now - if ghosts come up in a book/on TV - she always refers back to this experience.

A few other weird things happened. And then nothing else. The house felt ‘creepy’ for a while. Absolutely nothing creepy about it now.

If course it’s ridiculous to think it was a ghost, but what was I experiencing? Was it just the strangeness of moving somewhere new? Just wondered if anyone else had had a similar experience?

@Roosk - I get what you’re saying. Kids can imagine a lot and when I was 6/7 there was a programme on The Snow Queen and I thought the gap between my curtains looked like her.

Still doesn’t explain if a child is eg in one incident seeing soldiers where they don’t know there have been them, someone here posted about her DD seeing someone with black eyes etc.

My DB as a child did used to hallucinate (eg monsters) due to asthmatic medication but he knew they weren’t ghosts nor real monsters.

I'm a scientist. I'm an engineer.

And I must say, I'm not 100% sure how much of "themselves" people might leave behind after they pass away.
We certainly leave physical and emotional traces like our belongings, photographs, things we wrote, our social media accounts... What if our brains (especially when close to death?) could also leave behind less tangible (yet still very much real) "foot prints"?
Human brains are very sensitive to other human brains. Part of human communication uses unconscious channels, like pheromones. There is also emerging evidence that we can influence each other's brain waves (e.g. brain waves synchronise when holding hands with a loved one!). None of this is supernatural, even though the mechanism is invisible to our eyes. Our brains work with chemistry and electricity, which are very much real.
Could a dying brain leave some kind of temporary "message" (thoughts, visions, feelings?) behind? Something living brains may accidentally pick up when they come nearby? The idea is obviously unproven, but it would be very presumptuous to claim it's entirely impossible.

(obviously, there's also lots of people who will just pretend to have these experiences for money/fame/attention/etc.)

Hmm, logicallly I don’t think ghosts are real. But as humans are energy, and energy never dies I don’t think it would be a reach to say that energy could manifest in a way we cannot yet explain.

Only experience I really have of this is once, staying in a B&B in Devon, I woke up because someone sat at the end of my bed, pretty much on my leg. I remember waking up and seeing the indent of the blanket, and seeing it move around slightly in the shape of someone being there, but no one was sat there. Then the pressure eased, I couldn’t see a ghost but I remember feeling absolute terror. I screamed for my dad who checked the whole room and couldn’t see anything amiss. I convinced myself it was a realistic nightmare at the time but honestly, I really remember being awake. I do. Nothing else has ever happened to me since but I do still feel a bit sick if I think of that night.

When I first met now DH we lived in a shared house. House was victorian terrace. I never particularly liked the living room and always felt uneasy going past the little cupboard under the stairs.

Similarly if you were in the kitchen, I used to hate washing up at night as there were no blinds and I always felt uneasy that I would see the reflection of something behind me. Never mentioned it to DH because I thought hed think I was a fanny.

One day (literally middle of the day) I was in the kitchen making my lunch. The kitchen was a newish, quite long extension and so I was quite a way from the living room. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something move in the living room (I was the only person in the house at that point as all other housemates had gone out to work). I look up and I see a dark caped figure gliding across the living room from where the window was to where this cupboard under the stairs would be. Definitely a human shape (with a hooded cape on) but also definitely gliding rather than walking. Checked the living room/hallway and no one else there. Grabbed lunch and went and hid in room.

Flash forward a few months and we were in our room watching TV. We'd been watching some won't of spooky film and DH cracked a joke about some figure in the living room. Asked him what he meant and he said he hadn't told me as he hadn't wanted to scare me, by about 6 months previous hed been in the kitchen and saw a figure. Proceeded to describe exactly what I had seen.

The only thing I can think of is we were both stood at a similar point in the kitchen, next to the fridge. I had done a parapsychology module as part of my psychology degree at uni and my lecturer who took the module had been involved in a couple of investigations where uncomfortable feelings and items shaking/moving had been pinpointed to things such as old air con units that were making low level frequency noise and it was these that we're causing the experiences people were having. I wonder if we were both being hit by low frequency sound at the same spot. Oean, your body (and especially brain) are predominantly water so I wonder if the frequency was disturbing our brains enough to cause a hallucination. Although I fnd it odd we saw the same thing.

Similarly, the mind is a weird and wonderful thing and we only know/understand what a small proportion of it does.

From another point of view, those talking about embedded memories, have a read up on "stone tape theory" - really interesting.

@CryptoDad - I'll second that. My mum had a cushion flung at her legs in Coombe abbey after having a conversation with a hotel worker about ghosts.

Saw one once. Wa pretty obvious what it was. They are real, hate to tell you.

But what I saw was a solid shadow, and it was shaped like a human but...had never been human. I dunno how I know that, but I do. A fallen angel perhaps. Commonly recorded as 'the hat man' in the research i've done since.

Hope to never see anything like it again. But boy oh boy is there stuff in this world we have no knowledge off.

@BorderlineHappy

I have had loads of experiences.

The thing about only seeing ghosts in old fashioned clothes would be because they stand out.
Someone dressed like you in Tesco wont have the same impact.

If they’re in your bedroom they will.

Most people don’t seem to be seeing these ghosts in Tesco, do they? And only Victorian type ghosts. Never someone in ski pants and a bros sweatshirt.

@Kanaloa

Are they though? Apart from the shows like most haunted, which tend to explore old castles ect, I don't think I've heard people talk much about about clothes ghosts wear. Probably too busy running away screaming in the opposite direction if they had the presence of mind to figure out if they had tudor robes or a 70s catsuit lol.

Maybe it's just because of my interest in the specific area but I find that many of the things reported are shadow figures. So clothes isn't much relevant.

Also when you think about it we've only had modern times for the past what...100 years tops? Where as there were thousands of years before that where people dressed differently. So actually, it would be odd if lots of them were in modern garb.

I was responding to a poster who had said ‘people saying why are they always old fashioned, you wouldn’t notice them in Tesco.’

Nobody said they’d seen a Victorian ghost in Tesco, it’s most often in their home. So whether they were wearing jeans or a corset you’d notice them in your own home.

Saw one once. Wa pretty obvious what it was. They are real, hate to tell you.

Well thank you, person on the internet who I have no knowledge of. Based on your one experience and absolute confidence, I shall thenceforth believe that ghosts are real. And shaped like hats, apparently.

@Pinkbonbon

Saw one once. Wa pretty obvious what it was. They are real, hate to tell you.

But what I saw was a solid shadow, and it was shaped like a human but...had never been human. I dunno how I know that, but I do. A fallen angel perhaps. Commonly recorded as 'the hat man' in the research i've done since.

Hope to never see anything like it again. But boy oh boy is there stuff in this world we have no knowledge off.

What kind of ‘research’ was that? Peer-reviewed articles in credible journals on how to distinguish fallen angels from common-or-garden ghosts?

Or googling?

But what I saw was a solid shadow, and it was shaped like a human but...had never been human. I dunno how I know that, but I do.

Do you bollocks. How can you write this stuff with a straight face?

Do fallen angels wear hats? I thought it was more trench coats and a smart shirt. Of thousands of eyes and a flaming spear or something.

These spooky anecdotes are always a bit thin on detail, aren’t they?

Upthread we hear the self-proclaimed sceptic telling us all about the house with the nuns and the bricked up child fathered by satan or something, but when another poster asks where this notorious haunted mansion is, the answer was, “it’s not in the U.K.”. Well, where is it then? Name the house and its location. Why is it a secret?

As for the be-hatted fallen angel: where did he show up? Please say that it was in Tesco.

@Kanaloa

Do fallen angels wear hats? I thought it was more trench coats and a smart shirt. Of thousands of eyes and a flaming spear or something.

They wear naan breads on their heads, obviously, hence explaining UFO sightings.

@Kanaloa

I was responding to a poster who had said ‘people saying why are they always old fashioned, you wouldn’t notice them in Tesco.’

Nobody said they’d seen a Victorian ghost in Tesco, it’s most often in their home. So whether they were wearing jeans or a corset you’d notice them in your own home.

And surprisingly frequently in their bedroom. While they are in bed.

Does anyone remember the poster who said there was a little boy appearing in her bedroom every night? Just stood there looking at her?

They wear naan breads on their heads, obviously, hence explaining UFO sightings.

Okay possibly

But seriously why was he called the hat man? Like was he wearing a hat? Did he steal people’s hats? Was he the ghost of a hatter?

I would actually like to know.

I did do my own ‘research’ and came up with an article explaining that the ‘hat man’ is an ‘unexplained’ phenomenon in which many many people report waking up in the night to see a ‘shadowy figure.’ No further description of this shadowy figure, so I’d offer an explanation that sometimes when you wake up you’re still in that in between place and might mistake a shadow for a ‘shadowy figure.’

I'm not into spooky stuff at all, but have seen two of my cats after they died.. clear as can be!
One was the day after he was put to sleep..I was in 6th form and at school when he was pts. He jumped up on my bed , clear as anything and purred..I put a hand out to stroke him without even thinking, and he was gone.
The second was my beloved Morph, he also popped back a few days later to me and to my daughter.
I can't explain it, don't understand it, but it happened. I'm inclined to think that there is residual energy that probably dissapates.
I'm expecting my dog to stick around after she goes one day as she is always by my side!

I've told this before, likely under a different user name. More strange than ghostly though.
I'd fallen asleep and thought I woke up to see a male figure standing at the foot of thr bed. He was covered in hundreds of what appeared to be flickering flames. When I looked closer I realised they were leaves. I was not afraid and asked who he was. He said "Lew".
I dozed off again.

Assumed in the morning that I'd been asleep the whole time but was a bit puzzled by a flaming leaf man, so googled "Lew + flames + leaves" and came across the legend of Lugh. I had honestly never heard of him before.

Whilst I continue to have bizarre dreams, none have ever included experience of a flaming figure again.

I'd fallen asleep and thought I woke up…

Well, there’s your answer then. You didn’t.

Most people don’t seem to be seeing these ghosts in Tesco, do they? And only Victorian type ghosts. Never someone in ski pants and a bros sweatshirt
I agree somewhat,but if they where in more modern clothing they don't stand out.
That was my point.

The house I lived in 26 years ago had an d man who had died a few years before

He was dressed like my grandad dressed.
So he wasn't modern dressed but certainly wasn't dressed in olden type clothes either.

Was in town another day and a man passed by me in a tracksuit,but he and the tracksuit were completely grey.
Like black and white TV.
He looked normal facial features but there was something off,like time stops still
Next minute he was gone

I thought that was where your story was going. Let me guess. You are special, and more sensitive than us normals. We are, in fact, all surrounded by ghosts, but we can’t see them. How fortunate that we have wise people like you, with special seeing powers, living amongst us.

Are you 12?

lam it wasn't the asleep/awake aspect that bothered me. It was the association of Lugh with fire and birch trees. I'd never heard of him before.

Either a deity has visited you or you’ve read about ‘Lugh’ in a book about the supernatural - which you are clearly interested in - and dreamt about it. Which is the most likely explanation, do you suppose?