A thread to share the rational explanation of "spooky" things!

[seeker]

When I was a child I freaked my family out by being terrified of a "green man" in the larder. Until somebody got down to my level and saw the face shaped green paint splash on the wall under a shelf.

My dp's radio plays random music even when turned off. It's done this ever since he dropped it in the bath. The dampness inside it is occasionally mking a connection.

Anyone else?

Will you be providing the explanations

When my mum and I were decorating a bedroom in her house a picture 'flew' (and I use this word because I cannot think of another) accross the room and smashed into the wall at the same height that is was hung on the other wall.

When we were stripping the paint from the banister in the same house, we had left the paint stripping gun at the top of the stairs, while we went and made a coffee. While we stood drinking the coffee in the hallway discussing colours the paint stripping gun 'flew' (again can't think of a better word) all the way down the stairs, it didn't touch any of the stairs on the way down it travelled at a height of approximately 5 foot more that it was when it was put down and it travelled around a sharp bend in the staircase. It smashed into the front door about four foot above the floor.

I could go on

Explain away.......

I can't. You were there. Use your critical thinking skills and find your explanation. There will be one!

The picture situation is easy to imagine, admittedly the other is harder without seeing the layout of the house.

Room maybe 12 foot across, picture leaves wall rapidly and hits opposite wall hard at the same height (approx 5 foot above the floor). How?

My 'critical thinking skills' are stumped, after 14 years of pondering I have come up with nothing.

I'm wondering why you were drinking coffee in the hallway. I have drunk coffee in the kitchen, my bedroom, the living room and even the bath - but never the hall. Is there a rational explanation?

Another explanation needed then for this please. Years ago was visiting a friend. Getting ready to go out and she brushed her hair, left her hairbrush on the bed. Locked the bedroom door, and off we went.
Came back later on, the hairbrush was on the dressing table.

And this one - out at a park with friends, standing on a path when I got a definite clip around the ear. Except that there was nobody standing next to me. Nothing on the floor that could have fallen off a tree/bush etc.

When I was 11 I saw the dog of one of our residential social workers. It walked out of my bedroom, across the carpet and disappeared into the wall. The dog had been put to sleep about a week previous to this.

The childrens home must have been using hallucinogenic mushrooms to feed us with because I definitely wasn't asleep or drunk.

I also don't even like dogs, so it wasn't wishful thinking about the departed mutt

The problem is that no one reading this thread can be know for certain that any of the events that have been described here took place in that exact manner.

The human memory plays many tricks.

It happened exactly that way in my case. I have no problems with recalling events accurately.

No one can "explain" these events because they weren't there.

But, really, what are the odds? What's statistically more likely - the ghost of a dead dog walks through a wall, or a young child imagines or misremembers a confusing event? We have absolutely no evidence at all that the former has ever happened (and would fly in the face of all known physics if it did) and masses of evidence that the latter has many, many, many times.

The same goes for objects "flying" through the air. No, I can't explain it - but I think whatever the explanation is, it's extremely unlikely (extremely as in trillions upon trillions to one against) to be some malevolent "spirit" or whatever.

@Hiddenhome "I have no problems with recalling events accurately". Then you would be a remarkably unusual human being. Study after study has shown that our minds do not work the way we think they do, that memory is not as infallible as we might think it is. One event with 10 witnesses often has 10 different versions of what happened - ask any police officer. And not one of those witnesses is a liar or an idiot, we just tend to notice & ascribe things differently.

Re: The Hairbrush.

Friend puts hairbrush on bed. Picks it up again, unthinkingly (& unnoticed by you) to tidy hair a bit more and puts on dressing table - and promptly forgets (we forget 99% of everything we ever do). You both get back - but wait, didn't you see her put the brush on the bed???? Why is it now on the dressing table? She also recalls putting it on the bed, but has completely forgotten using it again.

Cue Twilightzone music.

This is a likely event that happens every day all over the world (or similar). That a fashion conscious spirit shows up to prat about with hairbrush is an event so extraordinary that if proven true it would change literally EVERYTHING we think we know about life, reality, physics and virtually all of science.

I know which one my money's on.

Clip round the ear? Muscle spasm on your scalp close to your ear? A flying insect that smacked into your ear then flew off sharpish? Dunno. But anything I can think of, no matter how outlandish, is infinitely more likely than a supernatural spook wanting to beat you up.

Due to events that occured during my childhood, my memories are certainly sharper than most.

Friend had a skinhead at the time so no need to tidy up hair. We'd been mucking about and she said she'd brush her hair, although it didn't need doing.

Ear thing - it was right at the top bit of my ear, close to where I have a piercing.

Not saying either were spooks, just things unexplained to my mind. Gobblers - interesting what you experienced.

Hiddenhome- Due to events that occured during my childhood, my memories are certainly sharper than most.

How do you know that though? How do you even know the reliabilty of other peop,es memories in order to compare your perception of your own?

Notgeoff - you ay she locked her bedroom door, so it was shared accommodation?
Smeone else had a key? And even that is less likely than misremembering.

I was painting an outside window when the bedroom light started going on and off randomly. Turns out it was a dodgy switch.

The human memory is fascinating. Myself and a friend did some pretty amazing and memorable things as teenagers including meeting some very famous musicians - events for which I have physical proof that they happened including photographs. She has absolutely no recollection of any of these events and was gobsmacked when I brought the photographs around to have a trip down memory lane. Not as gobsmacked as I was that she really had no recollection of any of our teenage adventures.

Foosa she locked her bedroom door with the only key we knew about - it was her parents house but she liked her privacy whilst still living with them. We were in our late teens so she was trusted with the key not to lose it.

But I suppose it is possible that her parents did have a key and her mum went in to put some clothes in there, or something, though I'm sure we'd have noticed anything added to the room.

I wonder what my foster mother's memory was of her hitting my on the top of my head with a pan then dumping me in the shower in a panicked state so she could wash the blood out of my hair? Believe me, my memory is razor sharp and some things just can't be interpreted any other way.

I saw the girl next door in her garden around the time she died in hospital.I have absolutely no explanation.I was standing at a window chatting to dh about a George Eliot novel when I saw her.
I said casually to dh,"Gosh that was quick xxxx was in a coma a few days ago and now she is home.2
dh didnt get up from his desk though we often wished he had.