I've had a few experiences with my mom......it never freaks me out though, I really like it.

Let's see, one was one night not long after she died I was really upset and thinking of her, and I was down in my kitchen in the dark (it was about 1 am.) I have this solar-powered windchime that sits in my kitchen window....when the sun is strong enough it makes the chimes go off. Well obviously it doesn't work in the dark......but I was sitting there in the kitchen and I said out loud something to the effect of "please just let me know if you are out there somewhere, I am having a really hard time right now." Well for some reason I looked over at my chimes and I said "Ok, how about if you can hear me, make my chimes go." I sat there and stared at the chimes for probably a minute, and then very slowly the pendulum began to move.....it swung gently until it went "ping" against one of the chimes very softly, and then it stopped.

Then a few months later I was sitting in my son's room nursing him in the middle of the night. I was kind of nervous about a surgical procedure I had coming up. Well my son had gotten these little bug toys that have light-up antennae.....the antennae only light up when you push them around (they have wheels on them.) I hadn't taken them out of the box yet and they were just sitting on the floor over by his closet. As I sat there, thinking that I wished Mom was around to be support for me for my surgery, a flash of light in the dark caught my eye.....I looked down and there were the little red lights of the bug antennae flashing. I was like "whaaaaaaat?" It stopped and I thought it was a fluke....maybe the vibrations from me rocking the chair made the go off....so I started trying to make them go, banging my feet on the floor, rocking really hard.......they didn't flash. Finally I said "Mom was that you?" and they began to flash again!

Those are just two......but I haven't had any in awhile and I miss it. I really want to go to that John Edward show.

Erika, I love the stories you've posted about your mom, most especially where she helped you find your emerald pendant! From what I've read, it seems like you and she had such a strong bond when she was alive and I firmly believe that things like that don't just end when one of the people passes away.

On a more sinister note, I detest going to visit my husband's parents (and it's not because I can't stand them, although that just happens to be true) because their house is evil! A few of the things that I swear have happened there in my presence are:

They have sliding textured glass doors in their shower and one night I was in there rinsing my hair and I opened my eyes and saw a man standing right outside the door. I figured it was my husband (I wear contacts but didn't have them in so my vision is limited) and I asked him if he needed anything. He didn't answer and I figured he didn't hear me over the water so I figured he could get whatever he needed and continued rinsing my hair. When I got out of the shower he was gone and when I went into the guest room I asked him what he'd needed in the bathroom. He said he had been in bed reading the entire time I'd been in the bathroom.

I lived in their house with for a month after my husband accepted a promotion out of state and we sold our condo. I had some loose ends I needed to tie up at my job so I just stayed with them while I did that. The room I stayed in has a door in it that leads directly to the attic. When I was trying to sleep at night, I would hear feet running around in the attic and childrens' voices and laughter when, obviously, there was no one in the house except for my in-laws and me. The house is 100+ years old and in the early part of the 20th century, the attic was used as a school room for the owner's children.

I was awakened every single day at 5:37 am (I know this because I checked the clock every time it happened) by someone knocking on my door and calling my name. Both of my inlaws were sound asleep at that hour.

They have a front stairway then a long hall upstairs and a back stairway at the far end. Sometimes when I'm walking up the front stairs, I will hear someone walking quickly to the end of the hall and then footsteps walking down the back stairs. This has happened when I know where everyone in the house is and I know they're already downstairs.

That's all I can think of right now, but I really don't like it there!

We have a running "joke" in my sorority that one of the founders (Sallie Michie to be exact, for any other Tri Sigmas out there) haunts our chapter room. I don't think anyone actually believes it. However.... We have a really old grandfather clock in the chapter room that is always stuck on the same time. No one ever moves the hands because the story goes that that's the time the clock stopped on when it was rescued from a huge fire many years ago. But occasionally the hands move. We don't actually SEE them move, we just happen to notice that it's not on the "correct" time sometimes. We also have a glass cabinet with silver on the shelves. Funny how sometimes the cabinet doors fly open and the stuff on the shelves falls out onto the floor. I'm not sure how it was decided that Sallie must be the one haunting us :)

Another story is that when my dad's father was alive, he lived in this old house that my dad had grown up in, and whenever we went to visit him I never wanted to go. The house gave me the creeps. I never actually saw anything, but I always heard strange noises and I was always told that it was just the house settling.

My dad's father died about 7 years ago, so now that we don't have to visit that house anymore, my dad decided to tell my brother and me the truth. He believes that house is haunted too. He says that when he was a kid (in that house) he was taking a shower one day when no one else was home. There was a room right next to the bathroom he was in, which had a door leading to outside that was warped and couldn't be opened. While he was in the shower, he heard a door open but he figured maybe it was his imagination. When he got out of the shower, however, he checked in that adjacent room, and sure enough the door that was impossible to open was standing wide open... and there was still no one else in the house.

a few more stories for you...
 

For those who might not have read my earlier post...

I grew up in a house that looks like there was a false wall in the basement. So...

My brothers are all considerably older than me, and most of their children are 16-18 now, with a couple of exceptions.

When I was a sophomore in high school, I was working on a project for one of my classes. I had a typewriter set up in the basement, and my sister-in-law (at the time) had asked my parents if she could store some band subs in the freezer they have in the basement.

She brought the subs over and asked if I could stay upstairs with my nephew (who was maybe 2 or 3 at the time), and I went upstairs with him. I turned on some cartoons for him, and he climbed into my lap to watch tv. A few minutes later, his mother comes running up the stairs asking what's wrong with my nephew. We both turned to look at her, and that's when she realized he was just dine and hadn't made a sound the whole time.

She told me she'd heard someone crying for "mommy" and just knew there was something wrong with my nephew. I don't think she ever came back to get her subs out of the freezer, and... needless to say... I moved the typewriter out of the basement.


Some other things...
My dad's mother passed away when I was 18. My dad, for what ever reason, had started believing their house was haunted. He claims to have seen a little girl going up and down the stairs that lead to most of the bedrooms from time to time. I never actually saw anything, so I don't know about this. He thinks she will only pass through the original rooms in the house. Here's the relation between his sightings and his mother's death...

The story goes that he was alone in the house a night or two before my grandma died and got up to go to the kitchen. When he went into the kitchen, there were toothpicks, end to end, across the length of the room. He decided he was going to wait on the trip to the kitchen, and when he went back they were gone.

The same week, my dad's brother went to visit their father who was in a nursing home after a car accident and medically induced coma. My uncle told me that my grandpa was staring at a certain spot on the wall, and telling my uncle there was a man standing there trying to shake his hand. He wouldn't stop until my uncle shook hands with this man he couldn't see. So, my uncle shook hands with the air, and grandpa was happy. A couple of days later, my uncle went to visit grandpa again, and while he was sitting in the room, he saw what he describes as a dark cape pass through the wall.

My grandmother died within a few days of all of these unexplained happenings.

Last one... ok, maybe 2...

When I found out I was pregnant with my son, 2 of my grandparents were still living. His father still had most of his grandparents, but he was only close to one of them, so she was the only one I met in the time that we dated and were married. Anyway.... I was thrilled with the possibility of my son having all of these great-grandparents. (Especially because my remaining grandmother was in her mid 90's)

Well, my grandmother had adult onset diabetes, and they found a blood clot in her leg. She went into a coma, and the doctors gave the family a choice to either have her leg amputated, risking death, or to let her go. We didn't think she'd make it through the procedure, plus she had a really full life, so it was only logical to us to skip the amputation. The last time I saw her was Christmas Eve. Two days after Christmas, I was in a church in another state, and when I looked up at the wall above the baptismal pool, I saw her face. The next morning, I got the call that she was gone.
I was 3 months pregnant at that time.

My dad's father passed away less than 3 months later. I was heartbroken that none of my grandparents had lived to see my son, and I guess I felt a little cheated because most of my brothers' children are old enough to remember them.
I brought my son home from the hospital on the Fourth of July, and after I had recovered for a few days, I was washing dishes while he slept. His bassinett was visible if I turned my head, but I had my back turned.

So, I'm standing at the sink looking out the window and thinking about how much I wished my dad's father had been there to see his great-grandson. (I was grandpa's girl and everyone knew it because I was the only granddaughter.)

I heard his voice telling me not to worry, that it was his time to go so he could watch over my son. I turned to look at the bassinett, and I saw my grandpa standing there watching my son sleep.

When my son was two weeks old, we made the trip to visit my mother so my brothers and their families could see the baby. My parents had taken him to sleep in their room so I could try to get some rest that night. When I got up the next morning, my dad was sitting on the couch with my son. There was a glass top for a table that was not in use at the time on the opposite wall from where they were sitting. Dad asked if I had seen my grandpa since the baby was born out of the blue. ( I hadn't mentioned anything because I thought they'd think I was a lil nuts) When I asked why, he pointed to the table top and the empty spot on the couch. He told me that he had looked at the glass and seen my grandpa sitting in the empty spot watching my son. Dad said he looked in the direction of the empty couch cushion and asked if he was doing a good job. When he looked back at the glass, he saw my grandpa nod his head, and then he disappeared.


:) :) :) :)

thought I would bump this thread up just cause I like spooky stuff around Halloween

Re: Okay.
 

I want one!

I saw this on either MTV's Fear or another show (trying desperately to remember the name.. maybe "Scariest Places on Earth") a couple years ago. There were a couple places on that campus that they said were haunted! I used to love both of those shows but I don't think either of them is on anymore.

Dee

bump!

They replayed the Scariest Places on Earth that focused on Athens, Ohio and the Wilson Hall incident in 1981.

Apparently the girl had been in the Asylum and touched the mark of the body of a former patient who had died there (and left a permanent imprint). After touching the mark and going back to her dorm room in Wilson hall, they heard strange noises and doors slamming from the room for 3 or 4 days. Then the room was completely silent. After a couple days, the Resident Advisor went to check on the student. The door of the room looks like there is a demonic face in the wooden door. He opened the door and there were symbols in blood all over the walls and the student had committed suicide. The next year, they put students in that room, but they wouldn't stay because doors kept slamming and drawers were opening and closing, lights going off, etc. They tried to paint over the blood on the walls but it kept "bleeding" through, no matter how many coats of paint they put on the walls. They eventually knocked down that wall and made the room into a boiler room because nobody could live there. During the show, a group of people went in there and heard huge noises of doors slamming and could "feel" her presence.

They also said that Athens is the 13th most haunted place in the world. They discovered that 5 cemeteries around the town of Athens form a pentagram and that Ohio University is in the center of that pentagram. That center was also an Indian burial ground.

Good show! I was glad to watch the Scariest Places marathon tonight!

Dee

My mother grew up in her grandfather's house, very large (14 major rooms) and built around the War between the States. To this day, she will not talk much about it, but the place definitely has *something* wrong with it.

There was a young woman who died there, and if you looked into a mirror, her reflection would often be there, too, brushing her hair. Also, a priest (!) walked up & down the stairs - we're talking a staircase about 4 foot wide, curving into the foyer.

I once talked her into taking me up to the house (I had seen it from afar, but never walked the grounds), and there's just an oppressive feeling about the house. I don't know how else to explain it, but I'm in no hurry to go back there again!

One of the dorms at Pitt is also haunted, Bruce Hall. It had been part of an exclusive apartment complex in the 1920's-1950's, and an adulterous wife jumped from the window when her lover spurned her. I don't know the room number, but I know the window.

Some people will say that the ADPi suite also has a ghost - it's in Amos Hall (the sorority hall), also part of this same complex. I lived in the room that has the ghost, and I think it's just bunk. There was never a problem there the entire time I was in school, but supposedly someone once heard the piano start playing out of the blue. Well, if the ghost is a butler, and there were no butler's quarters, and if he committed suicide in the one closet, what's he doing with a piano? I think it's vivid imaginations.

I think I've already posted these stories in another thread, but what the heck? I'll do it again. :)

I have had two encounters. One happened at my house. I think I should add something first. My family came from Ireland in the early 1900's and built my grandma's house (which is where my second story will take place). When my dad married he moved maybe a half a mile away and built his house. I do know that the house was built on an area where Native Americans used to live (evidence by the arrowheads), so maybe that caused what I saw?

Anyway, I had gone home a few years ago. My house is set up around a long hallway. My room and my mother's is at the end, and at the other is the living room and family room. I had gone to the bathroom to take out my contacts. I was looking in the mirror when I saw a woman in white walk down the dark hallway towards the living room. At the time I thought it was my mom. I remembered that I needed to talk to her, so I followed "her". I checked out the rest of the house, but everything was dark and she was no where. Then, I went to my mom's room. Of course she was in bed fast asleep! I know I saw something because I could see the details of the dress.

What was even freakier is what happened last Thanksgiving. I had kind of forgotten my own story, especially since I knew what I saw was a kind spirit. My bf had come home with me for the holiday, and when's he's at my house he sleeps in the living room. One night he asked me if my mom would try to scare him as a trick. It turns out he was laying awake (and in the dark) in the living room and turned towards the foyer area. He saw what he thought was my mom, who was standing there staring at him. He called out her name but heard no response. Then, what he saw vanished. The odd thing is that I never told him about what I saw, and we both saw this spirit around the same area. To this day I still freak out a bit when I'm at home!

Ok, next story about my grandparent's house. :) My grandfather passed away when I was very young, but I do remember that they cared for him at home. My grandmother ended up moving out the house when I was a sophomore in high school. (She broke her hip and couldn't stay by herself in the huge house.) Well, in high school I had small parties down at the house. One night I had my two best friends stay over. One friend wanted to go to sleep, so she left where we were and went to another part of the house. My friend and I stayed in family room and was up late talking and goofing around. We kept the lights off so our friend wouldn't be kept awake, so we were sitting basically in total darkness. Now this room has two huge windows in it. Well, suddenly we both saw this huge, circular light shining through one of the windows. We live in the country, so we would've heard a car come by. So it wasn't a headlight. Besides, the light was maybe a foot in diameter and was shining brightly enough to eluminate the room. To add to it, our once asleep friend came running into the room after she heard our shrieks. She couldn't see the light! I sat there pointing at it, but she never saw it. She even went outside to check, and there was nothing there. This light stayed where it was for maybe 3 minutes. Definitely odd. I have always thought that house was haunted. It just doesn't feel right. To this day I never go down there alone! Dad used to tell me stories of house a man was hung on the property, but I think he's just teasing...I hope!

they say the new addition at my school is haunted. it's the area where the main gym and the auditorium are. supposedly, a workman fell during consruction and is continually looking for his bulldog late at night.
i have seen film of the ghosts at el paso high. there's a bit of reality there.

Here's another spooky thread for October!

Not sure if I've posted this one before or not, but I'll tell it again because it always scared me and anyone else I've told. Plus as I've gotten older, I've been told more information about everything.

Everything that's happened takes place at my aunt's duplex. She and my uncle divorced when my cousin was a toddler, so my aunt and my cousin were the only two who lived in the house until she remarried about 6 years later. Most of the incidents occured before her second marriage.

My aunt was having a hard time making ends meet and her electricity had been cut off. She was too proud to tell anyone else in our family, so she and my cousin spent several days in the dark. One night it was raining and she got a knock on her front door. She opened it up to a man standing there saying he was from the utility company and her power was back on, even though she had not paid the bill. He left, she called the power company to report it I guess, and they had not sent anyone out to her house.

Another time, my aunt woke up because she heard my cousin crying in his room. By the time she went in to check on him, he had stopped crying, the rocking chair was moving, and she heard a soothing woman's voice singing a song that my grandmother made up and only people in our family know.

One time my aunt had several $20 bills in her drawer and they went missing. As I said, she struggled financially for awhile, so to have this missing money was a big deal. She was upset about it for a couple days, then one day when she came home from work, the money was fanned out across her bed like a deck of cards. No one else had been in the house.

My grandfather was feeding my aunt's cat when she was on vacation one time, so he was by himself in the house. The phone rang and he answered it, but no one was there. He hung up. When he turned around, the phone was off the hook. He hung it up again, turned back around later, and it was off the hook again.

My cousin's changing table was near the kitchen with a view of the basement steps. He remembers seeing the shadow of an old man there all the time, and he'd always point and say "old man, old man" but my aunt never saw anything.

My grandmother was babysitting my cousin when he was in elementary school and she asked him to straighten up his room. She went in his bedroom later and all the clothes were thrown all over the place, including hanging from the ceiling fan. My cousin swears to this day he didn't do it.

One night my cousin was asleep in his mom's bed and he felt himself start to fall out of bed. He remembers feeling strong hands push him back into bed before he could fall out and wonders if maybe the way he would've fallen could have caused a serious injury.

My aunt used to hear children's footsteps running up and down the stairs and also frequently heard a music box playing. She'd sometimes go over to the neighbor's place (since she was in a duplex) to see if it was her neighbor's little girl running or playing with a music box, and it never was.

My aunt ended up having a psychic come in and then the house blessed by a priest. The psychic thinks a woman, her father, and a child lived there (explains the woman singing to my cousin and why she always "watched over" him, the old man my cousin would see in the basement, and the children's footsteps and music box.) The psychic said the spirits weren't evil, but my aunt still had the place blessed. Since then, only a few random incidents have happened, nothing to the extent of what used to take place.

My last post was pretty long, so a quick separate one about one last ghost-related story with my aunt.

My grandfather passed away last spring, and he and my aunt were extremely close. Since she was a single mom for awhile, he was the father figure in my cousin's life. My aunt had a very hard time with his death. Shortly after he died, she and my mom were cleaning out his apartment. My aunt found a piece of paper in his drawer with "when angels take you home" written in my grandfather's handwriting. My aunt had said something to him during his passing along the lines of "let the angels guide you home."

Several months ago, my aunt was in the store looking at cards. She'd been feeling upset about my grandfather since the anniversary of his death was coming up. A man approached her that looked exactly like my grandfather's dead brother. He introduced himself in an Italian accent as Theodore (my grandmother's father, who had come to America from Italy and never spoke great English.) My aunt didn't say anything, but got emotional at the connection to my grandfather's brother and my grandmother's father. She said the man looked directly at her and said "your dad wants you to know he's alright." She looked down because she was very upset, and when she looked up, he was gone. She looked through the entire store and didn't find him, and even asked other people around her if they saw her talking to a man, but no one saw him.