Ghosts and the Paranormal

[PiKA2001]

The other week I had some friends and coworkers help me move out of the house I was renting and into an apartment on the other side of town. I decided to move into something a little smaller because the house was 1800 sq ft and it was just the cat and I living there, so all that extra space unnecessary. Cleaning the damn house could take all day and since the house was almost 90 years old ( somewhat old for El Paso ) it wasn't very energy efficient. When one of my coworkers showed up, he had never been over to my house before, the first thing he asked me was if the house was haunted. I assumed he asked me because it was just an older home, but apparently it was because his mom works in the building/house next to mine and claims it's haunted.

The house next door to mine was converted to a law office but originally it was a private residence and is supposedly quite haunted. The workers hear people walking back and forth in the attic, people will get locked in bathrooms, and books flying off the bookcases in the library. My coworker had gone ghost hunting there a couple of times in the past and had caught EVPs of what sounded like a child crying while there. He said that all of the people who work there are afraid of the house and NO ONE will ever stay late ( after dark ) or work alone there.

Now this is where it get's kind of weird for me. My patio was in between my house and this house and we've spent many a long nights on the patio eating dinner, drinking wine, having a fire, etc. Every now and then while we had been outside on the patio we noticed lights turning on and off in that house, as if someone was going from room to room. Most of the time it was between 8-10 PM but there was a time or two that a light would come on at 1 or 2 AM. I had always assumed it was cleaning crew or maybe a lawyer working late, so when my coworker, who's mom works there, said that NO ONE is ever there after dark it gave me goosebumps.

Here's a pic of the law office
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul_ga...n/photostream/

[AZTheta]

ah, it's a Trost house...very familiar style around here. Henry C. Trost was an architect here in Tucson before moving on to El Paso. Some of our most beautiful old buildings (the Steinfeld mansion, the Owls club) were designed by him.

I'm relieved you bumped this thread. Good to know I'm not the only person who gets visits.

[DrPhil]

I miss this thread. Thanks for bumping it.

[PM_Mama00]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

The other week I had some friends and coworkers help me move out of the house I was renting and into an apartment on the other side of town. I decided to move into something a little smaller because the house was 1800 sq ft and it was just the cat and I living there, so all that extra space unnecessary. Cleaning the damn house could take all day and since the house was almost 90 years old ( somewhat old for El Paso ) it wasn't very energy efficient. When one of my coworkers showed up, he had never been over to my house before, the first thing he asked me was if the house was haunted. I assumed he asked me because it was just an older home, but apparently it was because his mom works in the building/house next to mine and claims it's haunted.

The house next door to mine was converted to a law office but originally it was a private residence and is supposedly quite haunted. The workers hear people walking back and forth in the attic, people will get locked in bathrooms, and books flying off the bookcases in the library. My coworker had gone ghost hunting there a couple of times in the past and had caught EVPs of what sounded like a child crying while there. He said that all of the people who work there are afraid of the house and NO ONE will ever stay late ( after dark ) or work alone there.

Now this is where it get's kind of weird for me. My patio was in between my house and this house and we've spent many a long nights on the patio eating dinner, drinking wine, having a fire, etc. Every now and then while we had been outside on the patio we noticed lights turning on and off in that house, as if someone was going from room to room. Most of the time it was between 8-10 PM but there was a time or two that a light would come on at 1 or 2 AM. I had always assumed it was cleaning crew or maybe a lawyer working late, so when my coworker, who's mom works there, said that NO ONE is ever there after dark it gave me goosebumps.

Here's a pic of the law office
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul_ga...n/photostream/

I can't believe this weirds you out after living in the Pike house and hearing some of those horror stories. Now that is some scary shit.

[littleowl33]

Oooh, this thread creeps me out! Ghost/paranormal stories are the one thing that really freaks me out (so why am I reading this??). Thought I'd share mine...

When I was younger my parents bought a small house in New England that was built in the 1600's. It was definitely ghost story worthy - low ceilings, small windows, even a hidden cellar room that could only be accessed by a disguised trap door in the floor. They built a big addition onto it and we pretty much always lived in the addition since it had everything we needed. The one thing we did go there for regularly was the piano, which was kept in the old parlor area. One morning I remember waking up in my bedroom, which was in the addition, and hearing someone playing the piano in the house. My sister is the only one in the family who plays but when I looked in her room next to mine she was sound asleep. I woke her up and she heard it too, so we very quietly went down the stairs to go investigate. The stairs we were going down were pretty far from the piano so there's no way anyone playing it could have heard us since we were being so quiet, but as soon as my foot touched the ground floor the music stopped. When we went to the piano room there was no one there. It was around 5 or 6 in the the morning, so no one else was up and all the doors to the house were locked. My sister also swears she left the lid over the keys closed after the last time she played, and it was lifted. It never happened again but it really gave me goosebumps.

I used to get creepy feelings in that house a lot, and I never liked to be there by myself, especially after dark. I just felt really uneasy, like there was a presence that didn't appreciate me being there! My friends once talked me into playing Ouija in there and it was terrifying. I'm not sure that I really believe in Ouija boards but we kept getting all these creepy answers, and it kept giving us antiquated names that would have been used 300 years ago but not today. *shudder*

[PiKA2001]

Nothing good can come from a ouija board. Every legitimate paranormal expert advises against using them. I'm also convinced that a friend and I invited a ghost into his house by playing with one when we were about 14 years old. It was after our ouija sessions that "stuff" started happening at his place.

[Wolfman]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

Nothing good can come from a ouija board. Every legitimate paranormal expert advises against using them. I'm also convinced that a friend and I invited a ghost into his house by playing with one when we were about 14 years old. It was after our ouija sessions that "stuff" started happening at his place.

Yes, it is very dangerous playing with Ouija boards. People don't realize that they are unwittingly opening themselves up to evil forces when they do this and dabble in occultic practices. This was my experience as a young person. The real story behind the movie The Exorcist had its origins in a relative of boy who was a spiritualist medium bought one of these Ouija boards as a gift and the boy played with it. After this the manifestations of the demonic possession began to appear.

[PM_Mama00]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

Nothing good can come from a ouija board. Every legitimate paranormal expert advises against using them. I'm also convinced that a friend and I invited a ghost into his house by playing with one when we were about 14 years old. It was after our ouija sessions that "stuff" started happening at his place.

I've had a few bad experiences, all while in junior high and high school. A fellow student in 8th grade had gotten hit by a car and passed right when school started for the year. Towards the end of the year a bunch of us were together at another friend's house. One of the boys with us had been that student's best friend. We asked about the student and it said 666. No one in that room on the board was sick enough to mess with our heads on this. We then heard a pound on the floor, coming from the basement. We decided to put it away. One of my friends had said that usually she's really creeped out with the board, but this time she felt an unusual calm.

Another experience I had was at a friend's birthday party, same year, and in the same townhouse complex as the first time. We were all very into Nirvana and Kurt Cobain had committed suicide months before. My friend had a Nirvana poster on her wall, and we asked the board to give us a sign that Kurt was with us. We kept looking around the room, and saw nothing. I looked up at the poster, and normally Dave Grohl's head was tilted towards Kurt. When I looked up, his head was tilted away making a funny face. I swear on my letters. I never talked about it to anyone because I was SO terrified that I wanted to put the thought out of my mind. I still try to. But years later in high school I brought it up to one of the girls and she said she saw the same thing.

The last experience was in high school after a tennis tournament. We had a sleepover at a teammates house, who's room was in the basement but sectioned off. We didn't end up playing with it and some of us refused to sleep in the room with it. (one of the girls was involved in the Kurt Cobain incident)

[carnation]

bumping this because it's October and because my grown niece has scared us with a story about this little girl in an old-fashioned blue dress who keeps peeking around their bedroom door, then vanishing...

[carnation]

...and bumping it for October 2011!

[clarinette]

So, my house has several ghosts in it. One of them is a woman in her mid-20's.

I was curled up in my bed, ready to go to sleep, when I felt something extremely cold.

I look up, and the ghost is rubbing my back. I have never screamed so loud in my entire life.

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by clarinette

So, my house has several ghosts in it. One of them is a woman in her mid-20's.

I was curled up in my bed, ready to go to sleep, when I felt something extremely cold.

I look up, and the ghost is rubbing my back. I have never screamed so loud in my entire life.

So you actually saw the ghost rubbing your back? Impressive. I'd love to live with a ghost that gave out back rubs.

[carnation]

I did hear a new story this year, come to think of it. Our exterminator grew up on the campus of the college I mentioned early in this thread and we were talking about the also forementioned church. He said that he and a couple of his buddies went out to the church and it was pitch black outside. As they approached the church, the piano inside began to play loudly. A couple of the guys ran off but he ran up to the church to look inside. The piano stopped playing and he couldn't see a thing in there other than the outline of the piano.

As he walked away, the piano began to play again.

Now you might be thinking--was it a player piano? Or was somebody playing it in the dark? Well, he said there was no way someone could have seen to play the piano but when I told my husband about this story last month and wondered if it could be a player piano, he said, "Um, no. Somebody donated that piano to the church and my granddad and I moved it up there years ago. No way is that a player piano."

[clarinette]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

So you actually saw the ghost rubbing your back? Impressive. I'd love to live with a ghost that gave out back rubs.

Yeah, but she looked kinda like a girl all dressed in 1800's clothes, so it was pretty freaky, especially for me when I was 10 or so. She also stood near my bed a lot. She stands near the door now; she won't come near me anymore.

I realize how crazy I must sound, but I swear this is true. We also have a ghost that made my sister's bed jump and grabbed her ankle one night (This one was a guy).

[LikeASista]

Oh no! Not this thread again! Is it October already?! I absolutely canNOT read this thread unless it is sunny and shiny in the middle of the day. If I read it at night, I will HAVE to have a couple of drinks just to calm my nerves a bit.

Okay, my story:

~deep breath~ I worked as the choral director at a local middle school here in my town for three years. The choir room is where I taught and spent most of my time. I brought a little stereo system from home to use in the classroom so that I could play CDs for my students, ... whether they were learning new repertoire, relaxing during a party, or doing their "Do Now" activities, where they would dance to that dreadful Cha Cha. (I'm sure you're familiar with "Right foot ... stomp. Left foot ... stomp. Cha cha with the right, and cha cha on your left. Now turn to the right and move to the left, ... back it up! And JUMP!" Yeah, that one.) Anyway ...

What I found perculiar was that I never had a problem with the CDs used for learning new repertoire, but for some reason, my system would completely stop working whenever I played some of today's music. It would just shut off. I assumed it was nothing, ... maybe it was just the CD itself. Then, one day, two of my students were sitting at the very table the stereo was on, and out of no where, the radio popped on and began playing very loudly. I immediately assumed my students had turned it on, but the looks on their faces convinced me that they were just as shocked as I was. One student said, "We promise we didn't touch it, ... it just popped on out the blue!" I told them to turn it off, and it went off fine, but when I looked at the socket, the freakin' radio wasn't even plugged up!

After asking a few teachers if they were experiencing any strange things happening in their classrooms, they all began to tell me about a boy who'd been decapitated years ago right there at the school. I wasn't sure if I believed the stories, ... after all, that sounded a bit wild for it to happen at a school. Suicides, yes ... but decapitated? Come on.

Well, the story was confirmed by two people. One of the teachers assured me that he himself had been a 7th grade student there at the school when it happened, and that he would never forget it. Then another teacher, who has been at the school for 25 years, said she took the job immediately following the boy's tragedy, ... and was able to get a full account of what happened from the custodial staff who had to "clean up the mess".

The story was that the young man used to skip 3rd or 4th period every Friday with his girlfriend. The two of them would climb into a little crawl space up above the school auditorium to smoke pot together. The day the young man was killed is the same day he and his girlfriend had a fight, because she didn't want to get in trouble. The faculty and the administration had already gotten on her case. They were on to her, and were threatening to discipline her if she didn't comply, so she tried to tell her boyfriend that she no longer wanted to skip class. He became highly upset and decided to skip class on his own and climb up into the little crawl space by himself. He must've assumed that since everyone was on to the girlfriend, they'd be on to him as well. So, instead of stopping at that first crawl space as usual, he decided to go a little further up. And, at that time, the school had very large fans that ran constantly. Well, he underestimated how close he was to those blades, and wouldn't you know it ... CHOP! He didn't know what hit him.

As the day progressed, the boy's mother began to worry, because her son had not come home from school. They searched everywhere. Nothing. They questioned the girlfriend, learning that the two of them had had an argument earlier. Late that night, they decided to go back to the school just in case he was locked in a room somewhere and couldn't get out. Then, one person just HAPPENED to walk into the auditorium, and there on the wall was a mess of a blood trickling down from the top of the auditorium.

Immediately after that incident, the students talked about how they'd seen him in the auditorium whenever there was an assembly going on. And he particularly LOVED to hear the choir sing. Hmmm ... a music lover, eh? I think that explains why my stereo system would shut down whenever I'd play the "hip hop" stuff. LOL!!

[Sorry this was so long ... ]