Have you ever seen a ghost?

[Bibblybumblebee]

I had a really weird experience

Last year we booked a weekend away in a cottage in Devon.

I fell asleep on the sofa and woke up to an old lady in a green cardigan going over to the fire place.
Then she just disappeared.
I was really spooked but husband said I must have been half dreaming.

The owner of the cottage was in the local pub one night and came over and asked how we were getting on. My husband made a joke saying my wife thought she saw a ghost.
He looked at me and said ‘ah you seen Polly, the lady with the green cardigan’
He said he’d also seen her and another guest had mentioned it!
He told us she was a previous owner.

Ive got no other explanation other than Polly being a ghost.

Have you ever seen one?

I arrived at work early one summer morning. It was to be a scorcher of a day. I used my skeleton key to go into the different offices to open the windows and let the cooler air circulate for a bit before the heat hit

I walked into the boss' office. I jumped and said "oh shit John you scared me, I didn't know you were already in". The man was wearing long black robes, he looked up at me then disappeared.

I just stood there for a minute trying to figure out what was going on. I walked over and realised that where I saw him sitting wasn't aligned to where the desk was iykwim.

The building where it happened was a college back in the early Victorian era.

Perhaps he was shocked by your improper, unladylike language and disappeared to tell all his ghost colleagues how simply scandalous you were! I hope you didn't have your ankles showing

Out of interest, how did he disappear? Blink of an eye, like a light being switched off? Or did he fade away? I've always pictured ghosts fading when disturbed, but I've just realised I've been making assumptions this whole time!

He faded away, he was gone by the time I finished speaking. Then I just stood there stunned for a bit. Then went about my day as usual 🤣

That office was at the top and you could walk down 5 stairs to get to the main office where I sat. Sometimes we would hear people walk down the steps, we'd look up expecting someone to be there but noone ever was. Doors would open and close on their own. I always put it down to it being an old building but perhaps something more woo was causing it.

I’m a very pragmatic, down to earth sort of person. The last person you would expect to see a ghost really. But I did and there’s no doubt what it was.

We were living in a rented house at the time. It was an old house, but not like hundreds of years old - probably from the early 1900s. My kids were very small at the time and we were using one of the rooms downstairs as a playroom. One afternoon, the kids ran into the playroom from the kitchen and started to play with a toy that was on a chair. They were all huddled around this chair and all of a sudden, I realised there was an extra child.

My sister was there and she noticed this extra child as well. Just as she commented on it, the child looked up, straight at us, smiled then turned away from the chair and disappeared. It was exactly like the blink of an eye, I’m not kidding.

My sister and I looked at each other, shrugged and carried on. What else could we do? LOL. It wasn’t scary, or even particularly unexpected because it was a strange house and you could sense a presence. But yeah, that’s how it disappeared - one minute it was there, the next it had gone. The kids were completely nonplussed, by the way. I’m not even sure they noticed, even though this child (toddler) was in the middle of them. It was very strange.

User8646 how strange, I stayed in a b&b once where they said they had a child ghost and explained it almost exactly like this. The owners were an older couple with grown children so no kids living there but they said when they had a party or event where children were present, an extra child would be seen playing.

I've seen two. They were both children, when I was a child. Both were transparent and grey

Hi everyone. I and several people I know have definitely seen ghosts. I find it interesting that none of these apparitions, and none of the ghosts described by others in this thread threaten anyone or give any reason to think they intend to harm us. So why are people so afraid?

I've not but my then step-sister did - she was older than me and visiting her Dad at our home which was 60 odd miles from where she'd lived all her life. Anyways she had a stinking cold and told us she was visited in the night by a Dr wearing cricket whites. Sometime later my Mum was at a neighbours do and mentioned this - turns out a previous resident had been a Dr who was on a local cricket team.

I love threads like this, if only just for the woo effect.
Not sure if I believe in ghosts or not, but what always surprises me is when people say they saw some sort of apparition and then just shrugged and carried on with their day.
How is that possible? Aren’t they freaked out?

New one from the other day.

I was visiting Nunney Castle with a couple of friends just as the light was going. For those who don't know it, it's a ruined fortified manor house surrounded by a moat full of water. There is one entrance by the main gate but no other way in. It's also not very big and there was no one else around.

I was a couple of minutes behind my friends and they had crossed the moat and were waiting for me at the entrance to the house. As we peered in, all 3 of us saw the man in a hooded cloak. He was walking past the window outside the house but on the inside of the moat. There was no way an actual human could have got there without walking past us and climbing over the barriers designed to stop people doing exactly what he was doing and we certainly hadn't seen anyone.

I stayed at the entrance (the only way out) whilst the other two walked around the outside of the moat in different directions. As we fully expected, there was no one else around.

Yes, very similar. It’s strange - I always imagined that seeing a ghost would be like crossing paths with someone from a different dimension, but it wasn’t like that at all. This ghost was present in this dimension and aware of its surroundings and the people who were there. I think it just wanted to play with the other kids.

It wasn’t scary at all. It was strange, but it only became apparent that something out of the ordinary was happening just before it disappeared. There wasn’t really time to be freaked out by it, and then afterwards there were the kids to see to. Everything just carried on as normal.

I remember my sister said, “Let’s not talk about it.” And we didn’t really - there wasn’t that much to say.

I was at the start. But by the time others arrived in the office it all seemed dreamlike rather than scary.

User8646 yes that's what they said, they thought he wanted to play with the children. But his appearance was more ephemeral than your ghost. He'd be in the group of kids as they were running around so it'd all be a bit blurry and you might not realise until they'd run past and you'd think, hang on.

They'd seen him as had various visitors, eg a relative at a party had come to them and asked whose child that was.

I sure have! For context, the reason I believe this ghost was able to visit me, I was so stressed/obsessed/unable to think of anything else but work.... I believe that left me "open" & my guard down.

Buckle in. Long story ish.

Normally, I'm a side/belly sleeper & I always sleep with my door closed. Bed faces the door. One night, I was unusually sleeping on my back & I unusually left my bedroom door open a few inches.

I awoke to see this red, evil face peering at me through the open door. Next minute, it was above me, holding me down. I felt like 100 elephants were sitting on my chest & I felt like hands were on my shoulders, forcing me to lay down.

Throughout this. I was paralyzed. I couldn't move & I couldn't scream! I'm not sure if it was pure terror or the ghost that rendered me paralyzed. It felt like hours, but it could have been seconds or minutes, I don't actually know. All I wanted to do was scream & roll over onto my side, away from this ghost but I couldn't do anything.

Finally, I literally choked out "what". Of all things. It didn't actually sound like the proper word "what" because I couldn't speak, it was more like this forced 'ot'. But that broke the "spell" & I could move & speak.

The following morning, on my neck & shoulder, I had these nasty, red hand marks, consistent with where I felt i was being forcibly held down.

Without a doubt, the scariest moment of my entire life. I slept with a light on for weeks after. I was afraid of the dark, afraid to sleep.

Bless you that sounds ghastly. I had a similar experience with a “visit” from an old man whose mouth was stuffed with rags. If you were to google Sleep Paralysis I think it would make a lot of sense to you - whether these experiences are ghosts or not is moot but interesting to note that sleeping on your back can constrict the vena cava and that can affect the oxygen supply to the brain.

That sounds like sleep paralysis. It causes you to hallucinate so you see things. The pressure on your chest is the giveaway here. It’s because you are paralysed in REM, but you’ve become aware/conscious.
I’m a fellow sufferer.

I also agree that sounds like sleep paralysis about the evil red face and not being able to scream.

Here's mine, which is similar in many ways. I also wonder if it was because I was at a particular point in my life with a lot of stress (just opened my own business, working 7 days a week, recession hit and my marriage ended)

Newly single, I bought a beautiful victorian flat with a cellar. I loved the place, but it was rather cold and spooked me a little, so I never used the cellar.

Night after night, I'd 'wake' to feel a breath on the back of my neck and feel paralysed. It ramped up a bit and there would then be a 'snickering' in my ear and pressing against my head. For some reason I believed this to be an older man, and I also felt aware of a dog. Sure enough, one night I left my arm hanging out of the bed and 'woke' to the sensation of something slobbering on it and a low growling sound.

I lay there and I swear I was awake but couldn't move. All of a sudden, my door bell went crazy (like someone was ringing it over and over) I jumped out of bed and looked out of the bay window. Nobody at the door, the street was empty, it was 2am. Lay awake with the light on for the rest of the night. Was afraid to go to sleep for months after that, even though I was exhausted and slept with the lights on.

Like I say, maybe it was stress related. I moved out after a couple of years and I've never had anything similar happen in any of my other properties - I've lived in eight - and I've had other vert stressful periods in my life.

DPs passed away recently and we've been clearing their home to put it on the market. Twice I've seen movement in the hallway out of the corner of my eye and the floorboards creak - but I'm alone in the house. I'm sure it's my DPs checking up on what I'm chucking out! 👻🥰

It sounds remarkably similar actually. My ghost was also a bit blurry. Definitely not transparent or grey as someone above described, but at the same time, not quite solid. That’s what drew my attention to it. And it wasn’t immediate because my sister’s children were there as well, so there were a number of kids, all in a huddle, and I noticed this extra one out of the corner of my eye.

It makes you wonder if ghosts go unnoticed in crowds of people and just sort of blend in.

User8646 do you know if the children were aware at all?

That sounds like sleep paralysis, including the hallucinations. I used to get these frequently but haven't experienced them for the past two years now.

@trainedopossum - I’m not sure actually. The ghost child was right in the middle of them, but they didn’t ask who he was or what he was doing there - it was just as if his presence was completely normal, like he was one of them. They were toddlers at the time though, so didn’t really have the language skills to talk about it.

@secular37

But it doesn't explain the marks

When I was a small child, I saw a transparent man in a brown leather jacket walk across the landing and through my parents’ bedroom wall. I have also been ‘stabbed’ by a hard finger.