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Original poster

To start the spooky stories thread?

515 replies

SurpriseItsMeHorseyNeighNeigh · 02/10/2023 21:57

Of course I'm not, it's Halloween, let's get scared.

So what is the spookiest/most unexplainable experience you had? We're talking paranormal here.

OP posts:
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12
Justcallmebebes · 03/10/2023 06:55

WhileMyDishwasherGentlyWeeps · 02/10/2023 22:57

Some years ago we were on holiday in Romania. We’d booked an AirBnB in Transylvania. It turned out to be a charming little inn in the foothills of the Carpathians.

The first night we were there I awoke to the noise of a knocking at the window. I was strangely drawn to the sound, as if in a trance. In this mindless state I was compelled to draw back the curtains.

I was shocked. Outside was a man who looked like our old plumber - before he went home after Brexit - but floating in the air and displaying very sharp-looking teeth. He drifted away, muttering something.

Later I repeated to a local what I thought he’d said and apparently it meant, “You still owe me for the price of the more expensive taps you insisted on.”

I still shiver when I think about it.

That's hilarious 😂

Dramatico · 03/10/2023 06:59

I had a great great aunt back in Vranje where I was born. She always used to freak me out as a young child, because she was incredibly old, wizened and smelled bad. Her house was like a witches house to me, it was really old fashioned and FILLED with old wooden and woollen folk dolls. She always used to stare at me with eyes that I can only describe as HUNGRY...she would say things like "don't you like me?" "Are you frightened of me?"

Shortly after we moved to UK she died, I was about 8 at this time. We returned to her house to pack up her stuff. For some reason I took one of the dolls. I don't know why I did that, as I was frightened of all her dolls. Especially this one. It was made of a sort of papier mache and covered with stuffing and wool, the dress and bonnet were a dirty yellow like the colour of my great aunt's skin. The eyes were crooked and it scared me, but for whatever reason I took it and when we got back to UK I stuffed it right down in the bottom of my toybox. For some reason it was really important to me to hide it so I wouldn't see its face at night. But the thought of its face would keep me awake at night.

One night I woke up in the middle of the night. I remember flipping over in bed and saw my great aunt shambling towards me. She was grey and transparent but also very detailed, I could see the details of her dress and cardigan. I had never seen her walk in life because she was so infirm. She was shambling towards me with her arms held out and an awful smile on her face.

I very vividly remember flipping back to face the wall and pressing my blanket to my face. I remember how the blanket felt against my face and the fast way I was breathing. Eventually I guess I fell asleep. The next morning I told my mother about it - in our culture we do believe (well not so much now) that the spirits of the recently dead are restless and may walk at night, especially if something important is left undone.

Many years later I found out that my great aunt had an extremely tragic life. She was desperate to have children but had fifteen miscarriages, some late, and two sillbirths. Gynaecology was pretty terrible in the soviet era and so it was never really addressed medically but after the last miscarriage she was told never to get pregnant again as the next one could kill her.

The scary dolls were actually hopeful dolls she had made herself at the start of each pregnancy, so she could give them to the beloved children who never came.

I believe I saw her that night and that she had come back to tell me how happy she was that one of those dolls had finally found a child to belong to.

Justleaveitblankthen · 03/10/2023 07:09

@DraDramatico

Ah that's really sad.
I hope she is now at peace with her babies 😢

Alleycat1 · 03/10/2023 07:17

Lots of experiences and premonitions over my lifetime - here is the latest.
Neighbour owned a very distinctive ginger Persian cat. Husband and I mentioned that we hadn't seen him about for a few weeks and hoped he was ok. A couple of weeks later we came back from shopping and saw the cat sitting on next doors driveway, said hello to him and thought nothing of it.
The following week we saw our neighbour and said how pleased we were to see W...... as we hadn't seen him for quite a while and were concerned. Neighbour went a funny colour and said "W...... has been dead for three months".
Luckily my husband had seen the cat too.

Graciebobcat · 03/10/2023 07:22

Gindrinker43 · 02/10/2023 22:04

After my cat got run over he came back to visit. I could hear purring and felt him weaving between my legs but nothing there. Happened a couple of times after he died.

Yes, my main "paranormal" (I think it's the product of a grieving brain) experience was hearing/feeling my cat after she died.

My grandad said he saw my grandma after she died, and I knew he wasn't making it up.

Graciebobcat · 03/10/2023 07:25

Oh yes sleep paralysis. Worst episode was after watching a programme about sleep paralysis.

Lilibert456 · 03/10/2023 07:27

My little cat used to visit me. I could feel him jump on the bed, pad over to me and cuddle under the duvet just like he used to when he was living. I loved him so much but one time it freaked me out that I was actually cuddling a little dead cat. After that he has never visited again. I think he knew he frightened me and so stopped visiting.

violetcuriosity · 03/10/2023 07:36

Severnake forest keeps being mentioned, has anyone got a link to the thread please? I can't find it!

Autumnbear · 03/10/2023 07:39

Went to bed one night, not long after moving into my new home. As soon as I put the duvet over me I felt someone sit on the bottom of the bed. Thinking it was ds I sat up and said ‘come
on back into bed’ and no one was there. Went into ds’s room and he was fast asleep.
Found out a few days later that the previous tenant had committed suicide in my now bedroom a few weeks earlier.

GreenMarigold · 03/10/2023 08:04

Vebrithien · 03/10/2023 06:41

This was something I've posted before, on the original thread that became the Goat Man. It was initially in regards to how some places just feel "off"

"Regarding PP and Sussex, I grew up there, and spend many years being taken dragged on walks. My DDad used to repair churches, so at least once in every school holiday, I used to have to go with him to work. Church, graveyard, for the day.

The top of the Downs, I've always felt very safe with, there is a purity of feeling there.

Devil's Dike feels strange. It's probably the way it muffles and distorts the wind. I always felt very disoriented there, like I've been spun around and I can't tell which was is front.

The legend says that the Devil Himself was trying to dig from the Weald through the Downs to the sea, to flood the Weald. He could only dig for a single night. Someone in a Weald village heard Him, and in the early hours of the morning, got up and lit a candle. The Devil, seeing the candle flame in the cottage window, mistakes it for the dawn, and flees away.

Chanctonbury and Cissbury Rings make me feel very nervous, there is something primitive there, watching you.

We had a very strange one once, near Stenying. Wooded road, driving along. About to turn right, into a different road. At the road junction ahead, we saw what looked like a person standing on the left. It was like a 2D cutout of black shadow. Thin and tall, with clear long legs and arms, but in proportion. We indicated to go right, and the thing crossed the road, with one leg reaching to the other side, elongating, then the body and other leg followed over. As we left the original road, we then couldn't see it on the right side of the original road, or on the left of our new road. It was sodding creepy, the way it moved, and that there was no detail to is, just a black cut out. We did wonder if it was trying to get onto the car, as when it crossed, we would have been driving right over it, if we hadn't left that road. Crossroads were often chosen as placed to bury those outside societal norms.

We also had (differently) odd one, with my DDad at work. He was in the crawl space underneath some box pews (Downs church, box pews directly over the chalk bedrock). Could see something over in one corner of the space. Crawls up to it, to find a human skull. DDad said he never crawled backwards as quickly, before or after! Police were involved, there was no recorded burials or interments in that part of the church. The skull and disarticulated bones found were very old. However, there was the story from the 1700's, that the priest had been rather too friendly with the local Lord's daughter, and had disappeared one day. I think it is unlikely he was out under the pew (the smell of decomposition in the church?) But did wonder if the bones had been dumped back there, afterwards."

Goodness, the black figure you were describing sounds like it could have been on my road from the description of the location 😱

Georgeandzippyzoo · 03/10/2023 08:12

At the time BF (now DH) were driving back from the cinema. Dark, but not late possibly 10pm.
We came 'back' the vointry route rather ghan the main roads. A cyclist was infront of us and BF stayed back as we were going round a bend. As we moved into the straight road BF moved out, around the cyclist and back into our lane. He looked in his mirror and was 'shit where'd he go?' No ditch, no verge, no cyclist. We turned an drove back along, nothing.
A few days later we drove that road and further round was a bench which had lots of dried/old memorial flowers on. I asked a friend who lived near by and she thought it was in memory of an older man who had died while riding his bike.
Use the road regularly never seen anything else!!

Dramatico · 03/10/2023 08:17

Vebrithien · 03/10/2023 06:41

This was something I've posted before, on the original thread that became the Goat Man. It was initially in regards to how some places just feel "off"

"Regarding PP and Sussex, I grew up there, and spend many years being taken dragged on walks. My DDad used to repair churches, so at least once in every school holiday, I used to have to go with him to work. Church, graveyard, for the day.

The top of the Downs, I've always felt very safe with, there is a purity of feeling there.

Devil's Dike feels strange. It's probably the way it muffles and distorts the wind. I always felt very disoriented there, like I've been spun around and I can't tell which was is front.

The legend says that the Devil Himself was trying to dig from the Weald through the Downs to the sea, to flood the Weald. He could only dig for a single night. Someone in a Weald village heard Him, and in the early hours of the morning, got up and lit a candle. The Devil, seeing the candle flame in the cottage window, mistakes it for the dawn, and flees away.

Chanctonbury and Cissbury Rings make me feel very nervous, there is something primitive there, watching you.

We had a very strange one once, near Stenying. Wooded road, driving along. About to turn right, into a different road. At the road junction ahead, we saw what looked like a person standing on the left. It was like a 2D cutout of black shadow. Thin and tall, with clear long legs and arms, but in proportion. We indicated to go right, and the thing crossed the road, with one leg reaching to the other side, elongating, then the body and other leg followed over. As we left the original road, we then couldn't see it on the right side of the original road, or on the left of our new road. It was sodding creepy, the way it moved, and that there was no detail to is, just a black cut out. We did wonder if it was trying to get onto the car, as when it crossed, we would have been driving right over it, if we hadn't left that road. Crossroads were often chosen as placed to bury those outside societal norms.

We also had (differently) odd one, with my DDad at work. He was in the crawl space underneath some box pews (Downs church, box pews directly over the chalk bedrock). Could see something over in one corner of the space. Crawls up to it, to find a human skull. DDad said he never crawled backwards as quickly, before or after! Police were involved, there was no recorded burials or interments in that part of the church. The skull and disarticulated bones found were very old. However, there was the story from the 1700's, that the priest had been rather too friendly with the local Lord's daughter, and had disappeared one day. I think it is unlikely he was out under the pew (the smell of decomposition in the church?) But did wonder if the bones had been dumped back there, afterwards."

I believe you. Also Cissbury Ring is a Bronze Age burial ground. Before that it was a flint mine. There's a lot of weird power there.

Before anyone asks, yes I do believe in Woo! "There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

AmIAutumnalNow · 03/10/2023 08:28

bemorebernard · 03/10/2023 02:09

I won't recount my story . I've sent it to the uncanny podcast . People here aren't nice to people who have a story to tell as evidenced by the scepticism on the lady who posted the savernake story ! I totally believed her after several chats via pm .

Did you chat with her via PM?

You should have said

Discwriter · 03/10/2023 09:09

When I was a student, I lived in halls that were built about 100 years ago. There were 5 floors with a set of stairs at each end and the main stairs in the middle. Depending on your exam dates you could be one of the last women left. My room was on the right hand side on the 3rd floor, my friend right below on the 2nd. One year we were the last. I walked down the side stairs to go visit my friend and saw a shadow running down the far left staircase. Knowing it was just us, I yelled asking what my friend is doing on that side. No reply. When I got to her room, she was sitting and studying. I felt incredibly scared and told her what I just saw, she said she too has seen it before but didnt want to sound crazy - so avoided those set of stairs at all costs. I slept on the floor of her room that night. When we returned after holidays, some other students got a priest in and put a bible on those stairs, so obviously a few of us experienced this. I got the worst sleep paralysis in that building, where I would feel like I'm wrestling and cannot open my eyes. I never had it before or since. Even typing this, 40 years later - my eyes still welll up and I get goosebumps. That place was not right.

Graciebobcat · 03/10/2023 09:19

Discwriter · 03/10/2023 09:09

When I was a student, I lived in halls that were built about 100 years ago. There were 5 floors with a set of stairs at each end and the main stairs in the middle. Depending on your exam dates you could be one of the last women left. My room was on the right hand side on the 3rd floor, my friend right below on the 2nd. One year we were the last. I walked down the side stairs to go visit my friend and saw a shadow running down the far left staircase. Knowing it was just us, I yelled asking what my friend is doing on that side. No reply. When I got to her room, she was sitting and studying. I felt incredibly scared and told her what I just saw, she said she too has seen it before but didnt want to sound crazy - so avoided those set of stairs at all costs. I slept on the floor of her room that night. When we returned after holidays, some other students got a priest in and put a bible on those stairs, so obviously a few of us experienced this. I got the worst sleep paralysis in that building, where I would feel like I'm wrestling and cannot open my eyes. I never had it before or since. Even typing this, 40 years later - my eyes still welll up and I get goosebumps. That place was not right.

There is an Uncanny podcast (or possibly three episodes) about someone's spooky experience in halls. Look for Bloody Hell Ken.

LunaNorth · 03/10/2023 09:54

A couple of months after my mum died, I was teaching a student one to one with my phone on the table. I use it for the timer, etc.

I checked it at the end of the lesson, and it showed there was a missed call from ‘Mum’.

The voicemail was just silent.

Mum had a newish iPhone when she died, which we had completely wiped, and given to her best friend to use.

Discwriter · 03/10/2023 10:13

Ah I don't know if I have the liver to listen to that!

Frazzledmummy123 · 03/10/2023 10:38

When I was younger, my friend and I left a nightclub early as werent enjoying ourselves and went for food to a 24 hour cafe across the road. The cafe was on first floor of an old tenement building which was used as a makeshift mortuary during the war.

My friend and I were sitting across from each other waiting for our food when right in front of our eyes, a tumbler of coke slid across the full length of the table. Our hands were both by our sides, nobody else was near, and it was a full glass, with not even a breeze in the room. The only way it could have moved like that was if someone physically pushed it... (we were also both sober!)

UnctuousUnicorns · 03/10/2023 11:04

Frazzledmummy123 · 03/10/2023 10:38

When I was younger, my friend and I left a nightclub early as werent enjoying ourselves and went for food to a 24 hour cafe across the road. The cafe was on first floor of an old tenement building which was used as a makeshift mortuary during the war.

My friend and I were sitting across from each other waiting for our food when right in front of our eyes, a tumbler of coke slid across the full length of the table. Our hands were both by our sides, nobody else was near, and it was a full glass, with not even a breeze in the room. The only way it could have moved like that was if someone physically pushed it... (we were also both sober!)

Maybe there was a bit of liquid from condensation or something, under the bottom of the glass. If there were an ever so slight slope to the table, barely discernible, that could cause the glass to slide along. I've had this happen myself. Just a possible explanation.

I've had many supernatural experiences myself, too many to recount here.

Tambatamba · 03/10/2023 11:17

StowOnTheWold · 03/10/2023 03:17

Where is this place please @Tambatamba ?

It's here;

www.facebook.com/TheKingCharlesIIPub

MariePaperRoses · 03/10/2023 11:47

Circa late 80s. I met a woman called Christine at a party at my Cousins house. Christine's partner Adrian was a mate of my cousins partner.

She was lovely and we met again a couple of times after that through my cousin.

I hadn't seen or thought of her in weeks but one night I had a vivid dream about her. I have always had vivid dreams but not usually about someone I only slightly know.

In the dream, Christine was a passenger in a vehicle. A Range Rover. It's possible I may have seen her and her partner leave in it in real life but I don't recall ever knowing what car they had.

In the dream, a car pulls out on them causing her partner Adrian to swerve, and they end up in a field with the vehicle overturned.

In the dream I don't know how or why I was there on the scene but I ran across the field and Adrian was passed out or dead at the wheel but Christine was awake and crying but trapped in the car.

I was able to open a rear door and help her from the front to the back and out into the field where she was in a terrible shock and I cradled her and comforted her as we waited for an ambulance to arrive.

The ambulance arrived and I held her hand whilst they got her on a stretcher and took her away in the ambulance.

My dream ended there.

I casually mentioned the dream to my cousin on the phone a few days later.

A few days after that, my cousin phoned me to say that Christine and Adrian had been in a car crash exactly as I described and Adrian was seriously hurt but expected to make a full recovery (he did) and Christine had been taken to hospital in shock and had whiplash.

Then a couple days after that my cousin rang to say that Christine had told her that after the crash, 'Your cousin saw what happened and she helped me out of the car and stayed with me until the ambulance arrived!'

It was later determined by the police who told her that when the ambulance arrived, Christine was out of the car and laying in the field on her own.

I didn't see Christine for months and when I did she was adamant that I had been there.

My dream had happened the night before the accident.

I think I only saw her once or twice after that as our lives all went in different paths.

AffIt · 03/10/2023 12:05

Re: sleep paralysis.

I went through a period of this in my late teens in my first year at university, and occasionally in my early 20s. My father had died very recently, so I was stressed, grieving and, with hindsight, probably not in a great place mentally.

I read up on the phenomenon and the curious thing about it is how universal the experience is for everybody, no matter your background or culture.

The human brain is a mysterious thing...

Tambatamba · 03/10/2023 12:16

Vebrithien · 03/10/2023 06:44

Thanks! <goes off to read>

BloodyHellKen · 03/10/2023 12:21

Graciebobcat · 03/10/2023 07:22

Yes, my main "paranormal" (I think it's the product of a grieving brain) experience was hearing/feeling my cat after she died.

My grandad said he saw my grandma after she died, and I knew he wasn't making it up.

Show quote history

I've read about this before. There is a good documented case by a psychiatrist who saw their late spouse walking around their house very soon after they'd died whilst in the depths of terrible grief. Rather than think it was a ghost they proposed it was a grieving brain playing tricks/hallucinating. It's quite common apparently and I do wonder if many ghosts can be explained this way.

BloodyHellKen · 03/10/2023 12:24

Graciebobcat · 03/10/2023 09:19

There is an Uncanny podcast (or possibly three episodes) about someone's spooky experience in halls. Look for Bloody Hell Ken.

Show quote history

😁

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