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?

I think so many people have seen "ghosts" that one day they will be scientifically explained. Just because we don't understand them now doesn't mean they don't excite. I'm with the time residue theory.

@CounsellorTroi - I've seen you debunk lots of ghost stories here in the past so I'm not 100% convinced on your stories.

What? You think I am in denial or something?

How does anyone explain what happened to me?! I don’t believe in ghosts but it very very definitely happened, I was not tired or drunk or on drugs, I had not heard the phrase said in the week before (I’d been working normal hours and hanging out with friends in the evenings), it was not the voice of anyone I knew, I know for a fact that the next door neighbours were away (they had a home in the countryside and I asked them after the fact), there were no devices it could have come from, and having told no one my friend (no offence to either of us, but we’re VERY dry) heard the exact same phrase in a different week. So what was it?! I have no explanation, why couldn’t it be a “ghost” or the unexplained as I have no rational explanation. Never had it happen since. I can recall the voice now. Bloody loud! And fyi to be very thorough - I had considered it could be a burglar as it was summer and most flats were empty then, but I asked the security at the lobby to check the cctv and no one had entered our corridor of flats for those days and neighbours confirmed no break ins. I will say I was determined to find out what it was!

Also did not have any heatstroke (was sunny not hot) and floors and walls of flats were totally soundproofed really, lived there four years without hearing any neighbours. So I have no idea! But I hated it! Wasn’t scared but annoyed by it and still no idea what it was at all

I think it’s something to do with consciousness. I think dreaming, ghosts, auditory hallucinations etc are all to do with a state of consciousness. If - in a dream - it’s fully possible for your brain to provide an experience where you can see, feel, speak, touch, sense objects and people - why does that ability simply just switch off when you are awake? And what is it’s function? Why have we evolved to dream, and why are they so important that we spend at least 8 hours a day in a semi conscious state?

How does anyone explain what happened to me?! I don’t believe in ghosts but it very very definitely happened

Are you the one who says she heard somebody shout “get out” at her in her flat that was in an ex-factory? You didn’t react very well to the ‘ghosts may not be 100% real and you need evidence to support a statement that they are’ argument, as I recall: you turned spiteful and one of your posts was deleted, so it’s surprising to hear that you now say that you don’t believe in ghosts.

Did you ever wonder why you only heard the “get out” once? It hardly suggests a vengeful spirit who doesn’t like anyone putting their sofa where his spinning jenny used to be, does it? Otherwise you and other people would have heard it all the time. Your flat mate claimed to have heard it too, but only told you after you mentioned your experience to her. Funny that. You also say that you weren’t frightened. Why not? Most people would be scared if a disembodied voice shouted “get out” at them when they were alone in their home.

Let’s accept, for the sake of the argument, that it ‘very very definitely happened’, as you state. Why would your ghost lodger choose a sunny afternoon to make his feelings known, and why do it once and once only? Is it not more plausible that if it happened it was some sort of hallucination, as the OP suggests? In which case, you don’t need people on the internet to explain it to you.

How does anyone explain what happened to me?! I don’t believe in ghosts but it very very definitely happened, I was not tired or drunk or on drugs, I had not heard the phrase said in the week before

I'd go with some form of auditory hallucination, which can happen with entirely well, rational, sober people. There is the coincidence with your friend but the memory is a funny thing. I can remember things definitely happening in one place. Then I realise that the memory of place and timing of the event do not much up, that I wasn't at that place at that time and so must be conflating memories or misremembering. The human mind is actually quite fallible.

So yes, I believe you heard that shout. But I think the answer is more likely to lie in how the human brain functions than in some supernatural force. It could be something external - some circumstances make hallucinations more likely. But I doubt it was a vengeful ghost.

A friend of my mine has one of those smart doorbells that announces when someone is there. One evening it announced “person”; the message popping up on her phone accompanied by an image of her garden path with a blurry shape on it. She went outside and there was nobody there. She put it down to the system malfunctioning and didn’t think much about it.

The following evening the announcement happened again - “Person”. She happened to be right by the door this time, so looked out immediately. Nothing. Her daughter was at the bottom of the garden, at the far end of the path, and she confirmed that no-one had walked down that path in the last ten minutes. While they were standing there mystified, the message came up again, and the blurry image was clearer this time, the outline of a woman wearing a hat, carrying a basket, standing on the path a few metres in front of them. But there was nothing there.

My friend said out loud something along the lines of “We mean you no harm, but you are scaring us, please go away”. It hasn’t happened since. She was pretty spooked by it, and has shown me a screen shot of the image. She had been having some major building work done the week it happened, so she wonders if something had been disturbed.

I’ll just leave this here

www.independent.co.uk/tv/lifestyle/slug-ringing-doorbell-constantly-video-v782c2432

@BigYellowHat

I’ve got two, neither of which happened to me. When DS was two, he was sat on his booster seat at the table. He suddenly started waving at the stairs, laughing and saying ‘hello Alfie’ He really was laughing and looked overjoyed. The only people we knew called Alfie were my grandma’s dead uncle (who loved kids) and her grandfather. My grandma was actually there at the time and was quite freaked out. Second story. DSS was about three and was in the car with DH. They were driving along and all of a sudden DSS pointed out the window and said something along the lines of ‘I used the ride my bike along here’ DH asked him what he meant. DSS then said ‘I used to wear black clothes and then I rode into a tree and then I was with you’

DH was really freaked out and it turned out there was a motorbike crash there about 4 years previously where a young man rode into a tree. DSS never spoke about it again and has forgotten the conversation now.

This is fascinating. I am a huge believer in past lives

@CounsellorTroi that’s amazing! I will send that to my friend who had the ghostly images!

I've had some odd experiences, some of which I've been able to explain, some not
At a time of great stress I was at my parents'house asleep,and suddenly was woken by the sound of someone thumping hard on a door, scared the heck out of me. But it sounded as if it was a big thick old wooden door, like on a church, and neither of their doors were like that, and actually had there been someone there it would have set the outside light off and it didn't, all this I thought about after wards. I realised that it was actually my heart pounding, well that sent me off to the docs prety smartish
Some more knockings, at home this time. on several occasions - loud urgent bang, bang, bangs, as you'd knock if you were knocking the door. First time I rushed downstairs and no one was there. It happened occasionally for some time, and sometimes I went downstairs as it had woken me up, sometimes I was actually awake. It happened on occasion when the neighbours were away, on very still mornings, no particular reason, there was a period when I was awake, unable to sleep when it happened, eventually I just kept calm when it happened, until another time when it woke me up and I rushed downstairs, as had not had time to think, again, no one at the door. It could have been the stbx, I did wonder that, although he was a lazy sod and it would have been too much usually for him to get up early and do that, no car noise afterward, but could have been on his bike or he could have left it out of sight. Definite knocking, 3 times each time, nothing in the house, no boiler noises, as didn't have one, no animals and from downstairs near the door area - I really don't know . - I did hear, talking to people, that it is not uncommon down to the 3 knocks. So either awake or asleep, so not in the falling asleep state
I also heard voices, just outside my bedroom, and put them down to being in a bad state mentally, by that time I just ignored them, as knew it was just hallucinating.

It only happened at home, never [apart from the pounding heart episode] when elsewhere
I did have a different odd experience once when I was staying with my Dad who was coming to the end of his life. He had very poor hearing, abd suffered from what they call musical ear, he would hear music such as Viennese music, or old hymns. Mum would explain it away to him that it was from houses nearby, even though she couldn't hear it and there was nothing wrong with her hearing
I couldn't get to sleep one night so went downstairs to get a drink of water, only to hear, when I got downstairs, the music coming from the kitchen, under the bedroom where Dad was. No one else there, it had been silent when I went to bed. Had to go through the living room and deffo not in there. I ran back up to bed, risked getting a drink of bathroom water and made sure that I took up a drink with me from then on
Never had it before or since

I've had many experiences but I'll give one for now.

A few years back I lived in a very old flat with my ex. From the moment we moved in we both felt that there was a strong presence of a bloke in the hallway. It was fine during the day but typically the moment it got even slightly dark the atmosphere was uncomfortable and you felt completely watched. Obviously being a flat, all of the rooms branched off of the hallway so it wasn't great. One evening it got so bad I asked my ex to close the living room door as I felt this presence so strongly staring at us having our dinner.

A few days after I moved in, I woke up early and heard someone in the next room clearing their throat as if to get my attention. It 100% was in the next room, not through the wall so it sounded muffled or me being half asleep, it was clear as day. I even got up to see if someone broke in or someone was there and nobody. My ex was next to me fast asleep.

He started seeing a man on a few occasions, that would start from the hallway/bedroom doorway and move to his side of the bed. It was a silhouette of a man in a cowboy type of hat and overalls, (don't mean this offensively) but foreign looking. One night I was fast asleep, my ex used to stay up really late. I woke up to him cowering in to me shaking and I asked what was up. He said the man appeared stood over him watching us both and it really scared him.

When our relationship broke down and he moved out, we still were seeing each other for a little while after and living alone I felt there was another man right by me on my side of the bed at night that had a protective calm presence over me. I thought at first that I was making it up as I already sensed the other presence in the hallway and on the other side of the bed and was probably freaking myself out until my ex brought it up too and said he felt the protective prescence on my side of the bed. Still, it was scary feeling cornered and feeling two presences each side of me living alone and I used to hide under the duvet all night long until it was daylight every night.

I almost forgot to mention that when my ex was seeing the man, I did a google of the history of the area my flat was on and in the 1800's it used to be a huge area of fields and farmland. I looked at farmers clothes in the 1800's and it does seem to matche up to the description my ex gave.

[quote VenusClapTrap]@CounsellorTroi that’s amazing! I will send that to my friend who had the ghostly images![/quote]
It’s obvious it’s a slug at the beginning of the video, but towards the middle it does look decidedly eerie!

I’m open minded! Think it’s weirder that you think me and the friend had the exact same experience months apart with the same phrase and it must be an auditory hallucination. And that our landlord later said others had reported the same over the years (he pretty much always rented to City types so we’re generally lacking imagination). I didn’t offer it up to friend, we were discussing spooky things as a joke as one of our friends aunts believes in ouiji boards (we don’t). If anything I’m a skeptic about everyone else’s experiences but no I don’t think mine was an auditory hallucination. Have never had anything before or after like it, no history of anything like that and no reason for its cause or having heard it before. Felt totally out of context but was so loud right beside me into my ear! As if someone next to you in the pub turned and shouted right into your ear. So weird. Never felt “spooky” in there otherwise and never had any “ghost” or spooky things happen to me otherwise. I am defensive about it, I don’t like people writing off my experience and how hard I worked at the time to figure it out! Really spent a long time going over the flat and building to determine the cause.

@Backstreetsbackalrightdadada

I’m open minded! Think it’s weirder that you think me and the friend had the exact same experience months apart with the same phrase and it must be an auditory hallucination. And that our landlord later said others had reported the same over the years (he pretty much always rented to City types so we’re generally lacking imagination). I didn’t offer it up to friend, we were discussing spooky things as a joke as one of our friends aunts believes in ouiji boards (we don’t). If anything I’m a skeptic about everyone else’s experiences but no I don’t think mine was an auditory hallucination. Have never had anything before or after like it, no history of anything like that and no reason for its cause or having heard it before. Felt totally out of context but was so loud right beside me into my ear! As if someone next to you in the pub turned and shouted right into your ear. So weird. Never felt “spooky” in there otherwise and never had any “ghost” or spooky things happen to me otherwise. I am defensive about it, I don’t like people writing off my experience and how hard I worked at the time to figure it out! Really spent a long time going over the flat and building to determine the cause.

But you specifically said the voice didn’t come from any external source, but was ‘inside your ear’. Surely it’s more likely to have been an auditory hallucination than a supernatural entity possessing you and speaking inside your head.

No, like shouting beside me - as if someone was really close and shouting right inside my ear (but wasn’t sourced inside my ear, if that makes sense). Like they were beside me, I still remember it really clearly - to my left right by my side. Horrible! Well not really at the time, I was sort of haughty about it - like ok, I’ll go then! But it was horrible not finding a reason for it. I don’t really take it others “unexplained” things (though this thread has been very interesting!) but this really is unexplained, my friend not only had no reason to lie but is VERY dry like me. I haven’t told people in real life other than friend. I only found out as she mentioned it making a joke of it and I spoke to her later about it.

(I don’t like the not-knowing, maybe you can tell lol)

I heard a ghost story of a young man in modern day clothes who wore a red t shirt.
He haunted the bottom of the stairs in a block of flats, and a few people had a sighting. The person who told the story later found out a drug addict had overdosed there who matched the description of the sightings.

Also, when I had a mental breakdown I met the grim reaper. I'm not claiming to have really met him, calm down, it was clearly a hallucination caused by psychosis, however the way I described the "grim reaper" was as a tall thin man in dark trousers and a black hoodie of the modern sort.

I interpreted the hallucination as the "grim reaper" because they were following behind me, I couldn't get a look by just turning my head, but I could sense an empty, hollow presence. It was only when I forcibly spun right round fast to look directly at him, the face inside the hood scared me so much I ran into oncoming traffic.

I was just thinking of ghosts/visions etc in modern clothes.

@CounsellorTroi

So how on earth do people explain the cats (or dogs) on beds after they die? What is that?

Sleep paralysis hallucinations?

Not long after our dog died - we’d had her for over 14 years and she was very attached to me - I was downstairs, fully awake in the daytime - and heard the exact same noise she’d made when (as always) she’d followed me upstairs, jumped up on the bed (as usual) but then realised I’d gone downstairs again, and jumped down. It’s quite a high bed.

This was a very frequent occurrence - a hefty thump!

I went up to check what could possibly have made that noise, but there was nothing.
That was the only time it ever happened, though.

@WheelieBinPrincess keep partying Laurabear?!

Very minor bizarre thing just happened. I was in the kitchen and had left my phone in the dining room. I have a very distinctive alarm on my phone, set to go off regularly (getting out to school on time type thing).
Thr alarm had gone and I had turned it off as another goes in five minutes.
From thr kitchen I heard the alarm go and stop. Came to check and it's been snoozed for 5 minutes.
Just me home as DH is walking DC to school.

I said thank-you.

@Laiste

Well here's what happened to me. I had 2 experiences in the same building a few weeks apart. I have told them before on MN.

I should say i don't believe in 'ghosts' and i really don't want to believe in anything else to be honest!

So the first thing was I had a tea cup fall onto the floor out of nowhere right behind me (it smashed). I was at work - a collection of buildings - some old, some not. The part of it i was in at the time was not.

I was the only person in that particular building at the time, i needed the loo and had walked down an empty corridor and had just arrived at the loo door, which stood open. I was perfectly happy, going home soon. Just before i stepped through the door into the loo cubicle the cup smashed right behind my feet in the corridor.

I looked around obvs. Corridor empty I had to pick up the bits, and put it in the bin. It was clean, a plain pale green old fashioned style tea cup. I'd never seen this cup in the staff room.

Weirdly in the moment i wasn't overly spooked by it. There was no feeling of malice or dread in the air. I mean it was sunny outside, ground floor, big windows and it was a bright clean modern building. I just thought it was bloody odd!

A few weeks later i was walking down the same corridor but a bit further along. Alone in the building again. Sunny again. About to go home again. I walked past an 'open to the corridor' carpeted area on my right, picked my phone up from a desk round the corner and walked back again. Didn't take much longer than it took you to read this paragraph.

As i had passed the carpeted bit the first time i had noticed some bits and pieces which had been kicked under a coat rack and made a mental note i'd pick them up the next morning. Walking back past the carpeted area i glanced to my left and there in the middle of the floor were all the bits that had been under the coat rack. They were balanced perfectly one on top of the other in a 'tower'. About 3 foot high i guess.

I have zero explanation. I didn't touch it, i stopped and looked and then carried on walking! I only started to freak out a bit after i'd left the building. Delayed reaction.

I didn't tell anyone at work for obvious reasons, but couple of days later someone who works in that carpeted room said a weird thing had happened to her - a clock had fallen off the wall above her desk and instead of landing on the desk had sort of shot into the middle of the carpet area about 10 feet away. Same spot where the tower had appeared. She said it didn't bounce off the desk - just flew off the wall!

I still never said anything about what had happened to me. I have in fact only told 3 or 4 people in my life because it's all just too - weird and unsettling :(

The nursery story, but you have changed a few things - the 'bits and pieces' weren't kicked under a coat rack-?

Yes have heard it before on here!

Has your story been on the bbc uncanny? Xx