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The paranormal

Has anyone actually seen a ghost

318 replies

twiddlingthumbs69 · 09/02/2026 20:37

Not, caught something out the corner of your eye or felt a presence, I mean actually seen one, spoken to one etc?

im aware this sounds woo. I don’t think I do believe in them, never seen one but ppl I have spoken to say they have.

maybe some ppl are more receptive to these things or maybe it’s a trick of the mind?

just be interested in anyones experience really

OP posts:
climbintheback · 10/02/2026 22:35

Yes hung around for weeks all the family neighbours came in to see it even the dog saw it - it disappeared when we mentioned bringing in the local rag to report on it

Laiste · 10/02/2026 22:36

Wrt: why are they all in old fashioned dress ...

One of mine was in navy blue waterproofs! (a couple actually, both wearing aforesaid navy blue)

Bubblewrap22 · 10/02/2026 22:40

Thankfully I haven’t (it would terrify me) but my friend showed me her dog monitor. Her dog was barking at nothing in the middle of the night and a very weird white thing flashed past that could not be explained by anything else. Very eerie

ELCismyspiritnana · 10/02/2026 22:40

Fernticket · 10/02/2026 22:20

@ELCismyspiritnana . Sorry this particular ghost is no where near a bridge. It crosses a road and disappears before reaching the other side. I haven't seen it personally and I hope I never do... Come to think of it I haven't heard of any ghosts in the Wye Valley. It might be worth googling it to see if there is anything

Thank you for replying. I will have a google and see. I would love to know if anyone had actually encountered him, and a bit sad.

notjaneausten · 10/02/2026 23:01

I'd half forgotten this, but when my children were primary age, I knew one of the other school mothers, because she and her mum lived down my road.
I'd spoken to her, and she had been to my house.
I met the daughter one day, and asked if she was ok, she said no, her mum had died suddenly that week.
This shook me, as I'd just seen her mum, maybe an hour previously,though not to chat to, I was crossing the road, and we passed by. She used to wear a black and white check coat, she was wearing that. I saw her as clear as day! Obviously I couldn't tell her daughter that, what should I have said? I think I posted this at the time.

WildLeader · 10/02/2026 23:08

ImPamDoove · 09/02/2026 20:41

No. They don’t exist.

People that have seen them
a. Believe in them
b. Imagine them.

Wrong on both counts

PippaToryFripp · 10/02/2026 23:10

ithinkilikethislittlelife · 09/02/2026 21:56

I was in a hotel with my youngest son and was just settling to sleep when I had the urge to open my eyes. I did and leaning over me, all glammed up was a woman. She said “you” and was looking right at me. I closed my eyes tight and was aware I didn’t scream as I didn’t want to wake my son but I opened my eyes again and she was gone. It was heart stopping my scary at the time

where did this happen?

Arlanymor · 10/02/2026 23:21

notjaneausten · 10/02/2026 23:01

I'd half forgotten this, but when my children were primary age, I knew one of the other school mothers, because she and her mum lived down my road.
I'd spoken to her, and she had been to my house.
I met the daughter one day, and asked if she was ok, she said no, her mum had died suddenly that week.
This shook me, as I'd just seen her mum, maybe an hour previously,though not to chat to, I was crossing the road, and we passed by. She used to wear a black and white check coat, she was wearing that. I saw her as clear as day! Obviously I couldn't tell her daughter that, what should I have said? I think I posted this at the time.

Oh you've reminded me of something else - goodness this thread is dredging my memory. We used to have a lovely woman (even though as a primary school age kid I was scared of her!) called Edith who worked in the local Post Office - tiny village, everyone knew her. She died when I was 8 and it wasn't mentioned because she'd been off work for a while and the illness had taken her really quickly. I remember coming home one day after school (we all walked home by ourselves from primary school back then!) and I saw her outside the little village museum and I just stammered (because she was quite a character!)

"Hello Edith!" and she looked at me and nodded. Fairly standard for Edith. I got home and my mum had just got back from her part time cleaning job. She made me some crackers and cheese and asked me how my day was... I vaguely remember wittering on about lessons and then I said: "Oh and I saw Edith on the way home outside the museum - maybe she'll be in the Post Office again soon?" My mum said: "Oh no I don't think so... it wouldn't have been her." She'd died that morning and it had gone all around the village and my mum had heard during her cleaning job at the church. Hmmmm. Anyway Edith, although you put the fear of god into me every time I spent my 20p pocket money on sweets on a Friday and you made me count them all out on the counter TWICE (!) I realise now that you were teaching me numeracy and you were a lovely woman.

Spybot · 10/02/2026 23:24

I have seen a ghost of a cat and a ghost of a dog. Both when
I was a teen. The cat I saw sitting on the floor of my friend’s bedroom. The vision of a white cat came and faded away quickly. When I told my friend and pointed, she said that’s where her deceased cat liked to sit as there were some warm pipes under the floor
in that spot. The dog was at my boyfriend’s. I was sitting on the edge of his bed and sort of zoning out. Under his desk I saw a collie dog peeling out at me and then it faded away. Again he confirmed that was one of his old
dog’s favourite spots to sit. I would hear that ghost dog coming up his stairs too. Animals tend to like me so maybe that is why they revealed themselves.

Mumtobabyhavoc · 10/02/2026 23:33

Arlanymor · 10/02/2026 22:21

What about the cases in hospitals where clinical staff have seen the spirits of recently departed patients - they weren't cos-playing as vikings, they were in the clothes they wore on the ward.

Yes, several years ago while in ICU with a family member I was chatting to a nurse who told me about sighting of deceased patients.

Arlanymor · 10/02/2026 23:38

Mumtobabyhavoc · 10/02/2026 23:33

Yes, several years ago while in ICU with a family member I was chatting to a nurse who told me about sighting of deceased patients.

I worked in the NHS for about decade and a half - not clinical but worked closely with certain teams. There were always so many stories and even when I moved 8,000 miles away I had some friends working in a tiny field hospital - very similar stories, plus they still had the tradition of opening a window to let the soul of a deceased patient go. This was 2017. I am sure they still do it now.

climbintheback · 10/02/2026 23:53

There was a place on the ward where we used to often trip when there was nothing there - not all the time just now and again it was weird!

Clafoutie · 11/02/2026 00:08

Ballycastle · 10/02/2026 00:11

I don't believe in them but I've had a couple of strange experiences. My mum died when I was 13 and the next summer myself and my siblings went to stay with her parents (our GPs) and I went upstairs to grab something and got a strong whiff of a perfume my mum used to wear. No one else in the house had or wore this perfume. Another occasion when I was 17 I went up to my friends bedroom to get my bag after a sleepover and I could see her older brother stood in the doorway, so I said " what are you doing? Move out the way please". And reached forward to move him out the way then the silhouette disappeared. It fucking terrified me!

On the scent thing, I think I read about this somewhere once. Something about how the brain can literally, in certain circumstances where strong emotions are involved, ‘conjure’ a scent. I think I’ve experienced this too. Fascinating really. (PS not meaning to ‘explain away’ your own experience though. I think we basically don’t know, so I would never want to deny anyone else’s beliefs)

MaidOfSteel · 11/02/2026 00:12

I haven’t seen a ghost but my Mam did. She was 10 or so, I believe, and woke up to find an elderly man sat on the end of the bed. She shared the bed with her sister, but she didn’t wake up. He apparently just smiled at her, nodded and then disappeared. When Mam described the man to her mother, it turned out to be her mother’s father, who’d died when Mam was a baby.

I won’t write off believing that ghosts exist. I’d love an ancestor to pay me a visit. Especially as I do my family history and have so many people I’d love to see, and talk to.

AmplePlayer · 11/02/2026 00:14

Yes once, it was an elderly lady who used to own the house that I rented - I panicked and didn't see her again.

GrimDamnFanjo · 11/02/2026 00:28

I don’t believe in ghosts but I do think that there may be parts of our brains that summon up sightings, that maybe energy creates images. Before night terrors were recognised they must have accounted for many supernatural experiences too.

MoonWoman69 · 11/02/2026 01:11

@Wolverine23 This happened to me and a friend on the road from Pontefract to Ackworth! Except the carriage passed diagonally across the front of the car from the drivers side. It was hurtling along and the carriage drivers coat tails were flapping about. Then it vanished! It was so fast, my friend braked and we were amazed we'd seen it.

ithinkilikethislittlelife · 11/02/2026 07:46

@PippaToryFripp in a hotel in Milton Keynes I think. I was with my youngest son and it was about 18 odd years ago. We were touring with an opera production and my son was about 5/6 at the time. He was oblivious. I did ask the staff about it in the morning but they didn’t know of anyone else seeing strange things.

PlayingDevilsAdvocateisinteresting · 11/02/2026 08:09

Sorry @twiddlingthumbs69, I have only read your two posts so far.

I haven't seen one, or touched one, but...

I will try to set the scene: My DH and I were at a holiday resort in the West Country (England), one that we had been to many times before, and have been to many times since. It has most things available that can be expected on a resort situation, except for a golf course - it is a very hilly area.

My DH does not believe in an afterlife, well maybe I should say, he didn't believe in one, but is now rather confused!

I have always been a spiritual person, even as a child, in fact my Mum used to genuinely be able to start the 'old fashioned, wind-up' type of watches by holding them - one at a time - in her hands for a while, but I am sure there will be some Mumsnetters who can explain why that worked scientifically - I would have understood more if they were battery and or Quartz watches, as some batteries can revive for a while if gently warmed (as in a hand), and as Quartz is a natural mineral I can believe that they could be affected by warmth and possibly human resonances (7.84Hz?). Actually thinking about it, maybe clockwork watches could be affected by that same resonance, which has just reminded me of that little saying "and the clock stopped, never to go again, when the old man died". Maybe he lived alone, and when he died, and his resonance presumably stopped, the poor clock also stopped as it had been so use to his resonance? By the way, most of the watches thst had stopped carried on for at least months, if not years. My DM had some other powers, but I won't share them here.

I am so sorry OP, I feel as though I have derailed your thread, which was not my intention at all, but I think that what I said is still a bit woo woo, so may be of some interest?

Anyway, back to that holiday, the resort also held things like quizzes and nature walks, etc and we - DH and I - would often chat for a while with the host or hosts, at the end of the evening. Well, in that particular year the hosts were a couple, and they were staying in one of the older staff buildings on the site, one evening they told us that they were sure there was a ghost, in their little flat. They heard strange noises, and a couple of their personal photos kept on being turned around, or actually moved to a different shelf. They made it quite clear at that time that they felt very uncomfortable in their rooms, and just wished that whatever it was, would disappear.

Of course I realised that one of them could have just been tricking the other one, or both of them could have been trying to trick me, but until we had had that conversation, they had no idea that I had any sort of interest in spiritual and paranormal phenomenona - I tend to keep my thoughts on such things to myself, unless I feel comfortable at a moot, or some such. Having asked them some more questions about their experiences, and a little about their background, I offered to try and see if I could encourage their 'flat mate' to move on, of course making sure that they realised that I had not had any previous experience in doing so. They said yes please, so I can now get to the whole point of me posting this!

On the following day, I went to the closest town that was likely to have an item that I particularly wanted to have as a hopefully useful cleansing tool for that afternoon's mission. I was looking for either a ready-made smudging stick, or the ingredients to make one myself, unfortunately I couldn't find anything at all suitable, so I had to make do with bottled water that had been left out in the moonlight, as there was no, easy to access, running.water, nearby, and some salt!

My DH accompanied me to their flat, which was up a flight of stairs, as I got to the top of the stairs I turned around to thank him for doing so, but my 'totally non believing in anything at all esoteric' DH, was stood completely still, a few steps dowm from the top, and he had a very puzzled look on his face. When I asked him if anything was wrong, he said that he had just felt a hand press on his shoulder, and he had a very strong feeling that he wasn't to go any further. He hadn't been going to go into their flat anyway as I didn't want any negative energy around me while I was trying to contact a possibly scared or unhappy spirit. My DH turned around, and left!

I will not go into the full details of what happened, but as I walked into the kitchen of their flat, I walked into something. I didn't see anything, or hear anything, but I felt something that I had never felt before, and I haven't felt since. Unfortunately, it is very hard to describe, but I will do my best:
I suddenly went from walking through the room with no hindrance, to stepping into a pocket of 'something else' It was like the air had become thicker, and maybe like some unexplained substance, but it wasn't sticky, or wet, or cold, or hot, it was just different - sorry, but I can't give any better description than that. I tried moving on, and after maybe about half a metre, maybe a bit more, I walked "out" of it again. I moved into the lounge, and the same thing happened again, but it maybe felt like a slightly larger area of thicker air, and/or an indescribable substance. But this time it made me give a little laugh, as I had a strong feeling that I had stepped into the spirit of a man, maybe aged in his 70's, and from a long time ago. Unfortunately, my knowledge of that type of history is not great, but he might have been from Victorian times?

Anyway, he was having a good old moan about the windows in the property, which was certainly not what I was expecting! I was not aware of having noticed the windows myself, but maybe I had unconsciously? I laughed because his Aura - for want of a better word - just like that of the "grumpy old men," comedy scenarios that you sometimes see on the TV. He also didn't seem to be taking himself too seriously, but he kept on about how much he had liked the original windows, but at some point they had been changed for a material he wasn't familiar with, and he didn't like the new ones at all! I then looked at the windows, and they were those white PVC types. I apologised to him that someone had done that to his home without asking for his permission, but I also explained to him why the people who authorised it might not realise that he still lived there. He seemed to pause and think about that.

By the way, all the communication I was getting from him seemed to come straight into my head - sorry if this sounds too much like a science fiction type of program, but please believe me that I dont have the type of imagination that could make any of this up on purpose, even though it would only be a flop at the cinema 🤭 However, I replied to him by using my voice, I don't think that I even considered at the time that I might have been able to communicate with him just using my mind to. As he seemed to be receptive of what I was saying to him, I tried as kindly and gently as possible to say that he might like to widen his horizons (I didn't use that terminogy) a little - a lot - and move on to join his ancestors, who must have been waiting for him for a long time now - not that I believe time in any type of afterlife passes in the same way that it does here, on Earth - I think that I might also have suggested ways that he could move on without too much upheaval, and discussed with him the probable benefits from doing so. He certainly seemed to be giving it some serious thought.

What happened next? I'm really sorry, but I don't know. The chances of him moving on became less than I had hoped for, as when I chatted with the couple before leaving, and whilst still in their flat, they told me that actually they quite liked having him there! WTF! I was, of course, nice and polite to them, but I had expended - and admittedly enjoyed - a lot of my energy on trying to help the old, and actually, very likeable spirit character, move on. I did have to explain to the couple that if the spirit had heard what they had just said, or even sensed it, then he might feel more inclined to stay 'at home' after all...
I was not just trying to make an excuse in case they were still being "haunted" after all my efforts, they knew that the chances of me being able to achieve a successful 'cleansing' was always going to have low odds.

If you have managed to read all of this OP, I can only Thank You, and if you haven't, and have just popped to the end of it, then I don't blame you! The same apologies and thanks also go to any Mumsnetters who might have given this a chance 😊

AnnaQuayInTheUk · 11/02/2026 08:11

No, because they don't exist.

There's some sort of reward, can't remember what but significant amount of money, if anyone can prove the existence of ghosts. No one has ever claimed it.

XxTigerlilyxx · 11/02/2026 09:33

MoonWoman69 · 11/02/2026 01:11

@Wolverine23 This happened to me and a friend on the road from Pontefract to Ackworth! Except the carriage passed diagonally across the front of the car from the drivers side. It was hurtling along and the carriage drivers coat tails were flapping about. Then it vanished! It was so fast, my friend braked and we were amazed we'd seen it.

This!! I haven't seen it but have had family members see this and other ghostly figures on this stretch of road. Was it more towards Pontefract or Ackworth?

samlovesdilys · 11/02/2026 10:10

@ELCismyspiritnanaif you look up little Dean house there are lots of reports of ghosts, and the hotel in the village. We stayed there on a school trip in the 1980s and absolutely petrified ourselves!
I do think that sometimes the ghost is an imprint of a strong emotion, hence the ‘feeling’ is often stronger than the ‘seeing’. We stayed in a cottage in France where the old occupants felt like they were still there and confused by this young English family there!!

TheSleepingGiant · 11/02/2026 10:47

TofuTuesday · 10/02/2026 19:26

@Fernticketno Kent, I was visiting family so heard tales all the time!

Bluebell Hill in Maidstone? That's famous for the ghost of a lady who died in a collision the night before her wedding in the 60's. I live nearby and have heard the stories, although none are recent. She reportedly either hitch-hikes, chats to the driver then vanishes or is hit by a car but no body is found.

MoonWoman69 · 11/02/2026 11:08

XxTigerlilyxx · 11/02/2026 09:33

This!! I haven't seen it but have had family members see this and other ghostly figures on this stretch of road. Was it more towards Pontefract or Ackworth?

More towards Ackworth. Quite near the line of trees that all lean the same way and none of the others do?! I always found that odd too!

Snakebite61 · 11/02/2026 11:22

twiddlingthumbs69 · 09/02/2026 20:37

Not, caught something out the corner of your eye or felt a presence, I mean actually seen one, spoken to one etc?

im aware this sounds woo. I don’t think I do believe in them, never seen one but ppl I have spoken to say they have.

maybe some ppl are more receptive to these things or maybe it’s a trick of the mind?

just be interested in anyones experience really

It's the ghost hunters on TV that make me laugh. I've tried watching a few and it's just garbage. Reform voters probably believe in ghosts.

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