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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To start a new woo thread

302 replies

arh25 · 23/09/2025 08:50

Has anyone had any woo experiences, particularly if it's something/someone you've seen? I know that not everyone believes, just I've had some odd experiences myself and it makes me wonder. Especially with Halloween next month and it being a little while since we've had a woo thread. Would love to hear your stories!

OP posts:
VivaForever81 · 26/09/2025 19:48

When I was 8 my mums neighbour went to a psychic fair. She was stopped by a woman who said there is a little girl following you, she’s about 7, athletic looking with blonde curly hair. My mums neighbour had no clue who this could be but said to the woman (and later my mum) that sounds like my neighbours daughter (me!)
My mum had a miscarriage when I was one, she went to the psychic herself and was told.. This little girl is your daughter… (According to my mum she planned to call this daughter Joanna)
Now I don’t remember this but according to my mum lots of woo stuff started happening.. Poltergeist type stuff, toys flung across the room, a sense someone was watching, lights turning on and off. This went on for years.
In the same house when I was 14 I was babysitting my mums friends daughters who were five and six, I put them to bed in my room and sat downstairs. Not long after I heard them both screaming and crying, I run up to see what was wrong and they both looked terrified, pointed to the corner and said.. There is a ghost in the corner with blonde curly hair! (I shit myself, and we all went to another neighbours and waited for our parents to come home.
I moved out at 16 and didn’t think about it much. In my twenties I moved 200 miles away with my son. I was always wary of anything spooky and avoided it but at a party one night someone brought a Ouija board, I flat out refused to go near it and sat in the corner away from the action.. The pointer thing on the board kept shooting to me! (A friend said, someone obviously wants to make contact, I just knew it was Joanna)
After that weird stuff kept happening in my house, toys moving, lights turning themselves on and off but the weirdest thing was this…
My son who was around 3/4 started talking to it. I watched him in the hallway chatting away, when I asked who he was talking to because there was no one there he said… I’m talking to Joanna mum, she’s just like you and she got stuck! He’d also come into my room at night and say she was waking him up!
I asked a psychic to come around and she said she could sense a female relative who was very jealous of me for being alive.
She did a cleansing and I’ve heard nothing since (nearly 20 years) so hopefully she’s passed over!

FeeLipa · 26/09/2025 21:18

My dad's old house was haunted. All 4 of us saw a shadow walk quickly out of the end bedroom and along the upstairs landing multiple times. The first time I saw it was on moving in day. I had been dropped off with the first van load and was sat on the floor putting bits into a wardrobe. I jumped out of my skin.

The end bedroom had a fitted wardrobe with mirror sliding doors. We would often hear them slamming. Detached house so no neighbours to blame.

The kitchen was long, running across the back of the house, with 2 separate doors going into the living room either end. As you walked into the kitchen we would see someone walking out through the opposite door.

It was a horrible, gloomy house. Despite huge windows and a ton of magnolia paint it was miserable.

It got to the point where me and my sister would avoid being home alone, and my brother's gf refused to to upstairs to the loo alone. My dad refused to acknowledge any weirdness. In the living room we had lots of large leafy house plants, one day he was sat on the computer and they all rustled as if someone had just ran through the room. He ended up selling it within a year.

I think some places keep onto energy. Almost like a memory happening on loop.

CoffeeCantata · 26/09/2025 21:28

@FeeLipa

I know just what you mean about some houses - they have a sad, gloomy atmosphere and there’s nothing you can do about it. When I’ve been house-hunting I’ve sometimes walked into the hall and just known I’m wasting my and everyone’s time…but you can’t turn round and leave - it would be rude!

FeeLipa · 26/09/2025 21:34

@CoffeeCantata last month my daughter moved into her new uni house, she thought I was a weirdo when I asked if her housemates had noticed any weird vibes when they moved in a week before. Very old cottage near a harbour, but very light and peaceful.

I'm a dog walker and do cat sitting - there's a pair of cats who have a gloomy house. The atmosphere feels heavy, lots of dark corners despite skylights and I find myself not looking in certain areas. Owner also has dried sage hanging so who knows what that houses story is.

wizzbitt · 26/09/2025 21:35

When me and DP were first going out we went to Paris and visited Père-Lachaise Cemetery. It’s a popular tourist attraction so was fairly busy. We went to see the regular resting places of the famous and were having a nice stroll. It was during February half term so a little bit damp but quite mild. I’m not usually woo at all but suddenly the lovely relaxed feeling changed and I knew it was time to leave. The wind started to pick up and wisps of wind flicked around me and it really felt like a menacing presence wanted us out. I remember trying not to panic as we were really early on in the relationship and I didn’t want him to think I was mad. Anyway we found an exit, went to a cafe and it was all forgotten.
Years later I told DP about the feeling I’d had that afternoon and he had felt it too!
It probably seems obvious that you might feel the presence of ghosts or something else in a cemetery but I’ve walked through plenty and never felt that feeling I had then, before or since. Was scary.

Flannelfeet · 26/09/2025 21:41

CurlewKate · 26/09/2025 08:33

Of course there are loads of things we can’t explain. That does not mean they are inexplicable. Science isn’t finished. Of course we don’t know everything-but we do know some things.

And to the poster who politely told me to leave the thread? No.

I have seen you post on other threads since I joined so I dont think you are a troll. Just saying your own opinion.

Flannelfeet · 26/09/2025 21:57

Verv · 26/09/2025 15:31

Ive had a few odd experiences, but the 2 most notable -

I'm an urbex photographer, so have spent a lot of time in abandoned buildings. I will preface this by saying im not woo, largely sceptical and dont get freaked out easily, generally i find abandoned places exceptionally calming.

Weird thing 1 - Not scary
I was exploring Blackburn Royal Infirmary with a friend. We had come up a fire escape and were climbing into the building through a first floor sash window which was open/broken that led into an open plan ward. I went first, and as i was hauling myself through saw a man crossing the ward from right to left. Was a bit surprised to see him so said "Oh! Hello, sorry" - no response. Assumed he was another photographer so didnt think much else of it as you do run into them sometimes.
Turned back and took my friends backpack from her through the window and had her hand to pull her through, she looks up and past me and says "Hi.."
We were both by the window dusting off our knees and got our first good look at the ward - absolutely nobody in it. I asked friend if she'd seen the man and her response was "well yeah i said hello to him!"
The weird thing was that as soon as we stepped into the ward our feet were crunching glass/plaster etc and our steps were really audible. His were not, he was crossing in absolute silence. He was also crossing from the direction of a doorway to the end of the ward that had no exit and was in the middle of the ward when we saw him.
There was no time for him to retrace steps and leave in the couple of seconds between seeing him clearly enough for two people to say hi, and disappearing completely. We went all round the hospital that day and it was otherwise deserted and silent. Neither of us were scared by it at all.

Weird thing 2 - bloody scary.
Same friend and I were exploring a place called Birkwood in Lesmahagow which was an ex psych hospital. We'd been trying to get in for ages and had our first success. Summertime and a dry clear quiet day.
We had been in the building for 5 hours or so and worked our way down from the upper floors to the lower. Birkwood had some fantastic and beautiful spiral staircases which were the goal of the trip. We had finished up and were on the gorund floor in the doctors office, which was off the main entrance hall and still had some psych textbooks on the bookshelves.
There was a partition wall in the corner which was plaster but had been broken through to reveal an alcove that was full of old patient notes, which we were sitting down reading. Id got a numb foot so had got up, left the office and wandered down a small corridor towards the nurses quarters.
I'd stopped because i could smell fresh cigar smoke, really strongly so was just standing in the corridor trying to pinpoint the odour. Friend came out of the doctors office to give me a row for smoking inside (i did smoke at the time, but im not daft enough to do it inside an abandoned tinderbox) - I told her it wasnt me, and we both stood there really quietly like "WTF". We moved into the main hallway where the smell was really pungent. It was 100% fresh cigars. We were standing there in silence trying to see if we could hear anybody moving around and then it all got really quite horrific. There was a shift, it got cold, and if i had to describe it, it felt like the building was breathing in, like the air got sucked out of the place. Our hackles went up, and then there was a series of BANG BANG BANG as the doors in the upper floor started to slam shut almost as if they were closing in a row and the sound was coming towards us. We decided to bolt, but didnt have time to get down to the basement where we originally got in so grabbed our bags and ran straight down to the main front door which was boarded either side with plywood. We were totally bricking it and could feel/sense this rush behind us like a wave of GET THE FUCK OUT so frantically kicked out the plywood to the right of the door and head-dived through it.
Could not get out of there fast enough.
The building collapsed completely about a month after that, and I was googling it (i always thought it was an insurance job by developers as it was listed but derelict) and as i was searching found a load of stuff about it being haunted and who had died there, and most of the reports mention phantom cigar smoke.

Please write a book about your tales.. I was very gripped there.

YumYa · 26/09/2025 21:59

Worried198423 · 25/09/2025 14:52

I seem to have a thing of seeing my kids doppelganger in the house.

  1. My son would have been about 12.
I seen him leave the toilet and go in to his room. Literally 2 seconds later he came up the stairs. I went in to the bedroom and he said he was downstairs all morning. Went down toy partner, he said the same.
  1. My youngest son would have been about 18 months old. I woke up to him sitting behind me,we slept on a pullout sofa so it had space behind.
I wentvto grab him thinking my partner had brought him down. He shirked back giggling went to get him again. He basically dissolved before my eyes. Ran the stairs and there he was stretched out in his cot.
  1. Funnily enough this is the baby from no.1 but this happened last year so he was about 16.
I was in my bedroom which is downstairs, seen my son walk into the kitchen.i wanted to see him so I went in and he wasn't there. He wasn't out the back so I called him and he came down the stairs. He wasn't downstairs at all yet. Last one involves my partner. I'm a light sleeper,so I felt my partner getting out of bed. Walking around it to go out the door. But when I turned he was asleep in bed. I've no explanations for these. But I've loads of things happen to me. I must attract them or something.

I'm very woo thinking but I'd be seeing the GP.

Lolarose999 · 26/09/2025 22:34

Mines weird, because I remember the details over 30 years later.
When I was 6, I was being watched by the next door neighbour, dad wasn't due back for another hour... but for some reason, I walked up my drive and tried the door and it was open.

My dad was there, in the kitchen. I said dad? He smiled and said he was going to take a shower, I heard the footsteps, the taps. I said ok, I'll let neighbour know you're home. I ran, I was literally 1 maybe 2 mins at a push.. I ran back around, and from the top of the street I see my dad's car in the distance driving down the road. He parks up, greets me, and unlocks the door.

I later realised that dad's car was never there the first time I went there and never mentioned it to either of my parents.

YumYa · 26/09/2025 22:40

@Lolarose999 wow a time slip or glitch in the matrix.

OneFootintheHedgehog · 26/09/2025 22:42

YumYa · 26/09/2025 22:40

@Lolarose999 wow a time slip or glitch in the matrix.

Or a mimic or a really good vardoger experience!

YumYa · 26/09/2025 22:45

OneFootintheHedgehog · 26/09/2025 22:42

Or a mimic or a really good vardoger experience!

Show quote history

Just googled that. Interesting.

frostybritches · 26/09/2025 22:51

Reading this thread before bed is my new favourite hobby

UnctuousUnicorns · 26/09/2025 22:55

@Lolarose999 fascinating! I had a bit of a time slip experience once, but nothing so weird as that!

OneFootintheHedgehog · 26/09/2025 22:56

frostybritches · 26/09/2025 22:51

Reading this thread before bed is my new favourite hobby

If you haven’t already, you should definitely read the old “What is the creepiest thing that ever happened to you” threads on Digital Spy. Some really great, very creepy, stories. I read it again every year or so!

AndSheDid · 27/09/2025 01:48

CoffeeCantata · 26/09/2025 17:37

Yeah but are you going to give a rational explanation for them as promised?

Show quote history

Tell you what, you start a thread where people post experiences in order to have them debunked and I will.

unsurewhattodoaboutit · 27/09/2025 03:51

@AndSheDidyes you’re very clever and intelligent. So clever.
However, most people don’t actually want you to debunk. They just want to tell their stories. Did you never sit with your friends as a kid trying to spook each other? What did you do? Did you say ‘well actually you will find that…’

AndSheDid · 27/09/2025 04:27

unsurewhattodoaboutit · 27/09/2025 03:51

@AndSheDidyes you’re very clever and intelligent. So clever.
However, most people don’t actually want you to debunk. They just want to tell their stories. Did you never sit with your friends as a kid trying to spook each other? What did you do? Did you say ‘well actually you will find that…’

Which is why I haven’t. @CoffeeCantata has repeatedly asked me to. I was just responding to her complaint that debunkers never follow through..

sashh · 27/09/2025 06:16

I've mentioned this before but on YouTube there is a documentary called, 'ghosts on the underground' which is worth a watch.

Mr Ballan also on YT has some creepy stories which he is excellent at telling. They are not all ghost stories, there is a fascinating one where a woman starts to hear voices telling her to go to a Dr.

TheChippendenSpook · 27/09/2025 10:54

I haven't listened to Mr Ballen but I do listen to Mr Nightmare and Whispered Diaries. They help me get to sleep.

Worried198423 · 27/09/2025 11:20

YumYa · 26/09/2025 21:59

I'm very woo thinking but I'd be seeing the GP.

Show quote history

Why

Worried198423 · 27/09/2025 11:22

sashh · 27/09/2025 06:16

I've mentioned this before but on YouTube there is a documentary called, 'ghosts on the underground' which is worth a watch.

Mr Ballan also on YT has some creepy stories which he is excellent at telling. They are not all ghost stories, there is a fascinating one where a woman starts to hear voices telling her to go to a Dr.

Ghost of the underground is so good.
People who wouldn't be at all woo having experiences.

Imfat · 27/09/2025 11:47

10 years ago I was in Boundary Mill in Lancashire. (Lots of shopping outlets)
I was there as the weather was atrocious and I was waiting for DH to finish an exam at a place of his work.
I knew he was going to pick me up at 4pm.
Last hour I saw a stand with a male fortune teller claimed to be the 7th son of the 7th son etc.
FT told me that my lift home was going to be late. (DH got there at 4.30pm)
That my child was going to make me a grandparent. ( It was DD who told us she was pregnant 2 weeks later)
I had a strong connection with Canada. (Unbelievably my younger brother who was in the army was given the news of his next deployment that same day)
He also told me that I was going to drive a new car. (DH won a car in a raffle)

CoffeeCantata · 27/09/2025 13:27

Worried198423 · 27/09/2025 11:22

Ghost of the underground is so good.
People who wouldn't be at all woo having experiences.

Show quote history

Ghosts on the UG is brilliant. Especially the one where the man is on the platform alone and his colleagues see someone standing next to him on the CCTV whom he was unaware of……😳

CoffeeCantata · 27/09/2025 13:31

AndSheDid · 27/09/2025 01:48

Tell you what, you start a thread where people post experiences in order to have them debunked and I will.

Show quote history

Cop out!

It’s an incredibly bold, arrogant and patronising statement to say that ‘all these stories have a rational explanation’ and then to add that ‘but people need to tell them’.

How on earth would you know either of those things?