• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Anyone Seen A Ghost?

Never underestimate the vagaries of the human memory. For several years I was moving around a lot and had my things in storage. Today I opened a little notebook that had been boxed up with everything else and found this entry from 2009, when I was working in a retail store:

"I thought I saw a bit of the [store name] 'ghost' today. First I couldn't find a peg I'd been working with, then I found it in a spot I didn't recall passing by until then. Later, for an instant, I thought I saw the top of her [the 'ghost's'] head, from above the eyebrows. She had dark brown hair that was parted on the left side. I don't really care if there ghosts exist or not. I enjoy suspending my disbelief, and besides, everything deserves acknowledgement and respect, even figments of the imagination."

Today, I'm surprised that I'd completely forgotten about this incident. I think I was very tired at the time. I was also soon to be overwhelmed with full time graduate school, which pushed a lot of other things out of my head.
 
The human brain, sadly, is incredibly fallible. I've written elsewhere on my 'UFO' experience, but will put it again here because I can't remember where I wrote it before or even if it was on this forum, on account of my fallible brain.

I was driving with my kids across countryside. Suddenly ahead in the sky, almost overhead, was a black object. Flat, like a piece of black paper, not quite solid black but very dark, hanging in the sky ('in the same way as bricks don't', to quote the late great DA).

I slowed the car, but the object stayed. Kids looked at me quizzically. I said 'what the hell is that thing?'

Eldest looked at me pityingly and said 'it's birds, mum.' The others all nodded.

And then, when I looked back up, my view had changed, and of course it was birds, a flock that had just risen, presumably, from a nearby field, circling round waiting for whatever had startled them up to pass. But for those few fleeting seconds my brain had misperceived them as a solid object.

Things glimpsed in the heat of the moment are often not what they appear to be. I've seen a few 'inexplicable' things though, ghosts, whatever you want to call them, but I'm wary of jumping on the 'every shadow is a ghost' bandwagon.
 
The human brain, sadly, is incredibly fallible. I've written elsewhere on my 'UFO' experience, but will put it again here because I can't remember where I wrote it before or even if it was on this forum, on account of my fallible brain.

I was driving with my kids across countryside. Suddenly ahead in the sky, almost overhead, was a black object. Flat, like a piece of black paper, not quite solid black but very dark, hanging in the sky ('in the same way as bricks don't', to quote the late great DA).

I slowed the car, but the object stayed. Kids looked at me quizzically. I said 'what the hell is that thing?'

Eldest looked at me pityingly and said 'it's birds, mum.' The others all nodded.

And then, when I looked back up, my view had changed, and of course it was birds, a flock that had just risen, presumably, from a nearby field, circling round waiting for whatever had startled them up to pass. But for those few fleeting seconds my brain had misperceived them as a solid object.

Things glimpsed in the heat of the moment are often not what they appear to be. I've seen a few 'inexplicable' things though, ghosts, whatever you want to call them, but I'm wary of jumping on the 'every shadow is a ghost' bandwagon.

I suspect this is where the camera now plays a part. People mis-percieve in the way that you did. They take a picture. It turns out (a) mundane, as you describe or (b) some blurry thing a long way off.

We only ever get shown the blurry things in pictures. The camera owner insists it's clearly bigfoot/Nessie/UFO, but their perception of the picture is skewed by their memory of the original mis-perception.
 
On the subject of ghosts, I understand the issue of how grief haunts a person. It is that feeling when you instinctively rush to shut the gate quickly so your dog won't run out into the street, only to realise that your dear dog is dead, or when you arrive home and expect someone to be there in their favorite chair, but they aren't there, and while they are still every bit alive in one's memory, they are gone in reality, and you momentarily forget that fact, then you remember, and the grief hits you. I can well understand how this would be seen as the action of a spirit in a more poetic, less scientific culture. On the other hand, apart from seeing dead people and pets pop up in dreams occasionally, I have never seen a ghost, more's the pity.
 
There is a basic truth that for someone to believe in "ghosts", they must see one. That was true in my case and in the experiences of several friends. As far as seeing things in the sky. I was driving one evening when a was certain I was seeing a flying disk. It was large, it was moving and circling in the sky. It even changed shades as it circled, from mid-gray to a silvery white. It was definitely disk shaped. As I drove closer I disc
+overed it was actually a large flock of birds. Their maintaing the saucer shape was uncanny. Beautiful to behold.
 
I am glad I'm not the only one to misperceive birds, Brig! I wonder, if the kids hadn't been in the car with me, tolerantly pointing out their mother's daft error, would I *still* be telling the tale of the big flat black UFO that I saw, hanging over the fields of Yorkshire?
 
On the subject of ghosts, I understand the issue of how grief haunts a person. It is that feeling when you instinctively rush to shut the gate quickly so your dog won't run out into the street, only to realise that your dear dog is dead, or when you arrive home and expect someone to be there in their favorite chair, but they aren't there, and while they are still every bit alive in one's memory, they are gone in reality, and you momentarily forget that fact, then you remember, and the grief hits you. I can well understand how this would be seen as the action of a spirit in a more poetic, less scientific culture. On the other hand, apart from seeing dead people and pets pop up in dreams occasionally, I have never seen a ghost, more's the pity.
That's a good point - there are smells that so strongly evoke my paternal grandfather it would be easy to be haunted by such a thing.

I read a paper a few years back about the effect of grief on a family - from memory it was a mother, two boys and the father had died suddenly. The paper was a discussion paper, but it centred on the way the family dynamic which existed before the father died had been 'broken' by his death, but that remnants of it ran on, like a clockwork engine running down.

This manifested itself as a strong belief that he was 'still with them', especially in the wife/mother who's behaviour continued to try to follow the pre-death family dynamic. She was, in effect, being 'haunted' by her husband.
 
Sometimes it is difficult to know whether and experience is a ghost or just a very realistic dream.
 
Sometimes it is difficult to know whether and experience is a ghost or just a very realistic dream.

True. Every time I read or hear a term like 'It was 3am but I was wide awake' or 'I know I was awake because I could see the light from the bedroom window' I think yeeeaaah...

There's no clear line between sleep and waking up, especially for children, so dreams can sometimes seem real.
 
I have seen two that I am sure, in my own mind at least, were ghosts.

The first was one of my dogs that had died a few years previously. It was in 2009 when I had first moved out of my parent's house, I remember waking up during the night and he was sat next to the bed, resting his head next to me. I remember that I wasn't scared, or surprised at all, and just thought "oh it's Toby" to myself and went straight back to sleep. He wasn't "ghostlike", he seemed quite solid as if I could have touched him. I woke up feeling relaxed and like he wanted me to know that even though I had moved out, he could still find me for visits!!

The second was at the Best Western Hotel in Fulford, York in about 2010. I woke in the middle of night and I clearly saw the figure of a man at the end of the bed wearing an odd hat. The hat was very much like that worn by David Bamber when he played Mr Collins in the BBC Pride & Prejudice, wide brimmed with a small dome. This one did make me feel scared and I immediately put my head under the covers! I couldn't see any details other than the outline, he appeared very black, like a dense shadow.
 

Attachments

  • collins.png
    collins.png
    110.4 KB · Views: 10
The hat was very much like that worn by David Bamber when he played Mr Collins in the BBC Pride & Prejudice, wide brimmed with a small dome. This one did make me feel scared and I immediately put my head under the covers! I couldn't see any details other than the outline, he appeared very black, like a dense shadow.
Another shadow-man-with-a-hat sighting - thanks for sharing your accounts, @mrs_mose . I confess, I didn't set much stock in these when I first heard about them, but there's a steady drip of accounts which mention them. I am increasingly intrigued. There's a dedicated thread on here, but also numerous mentions dotted here and there in other threads, too.
 
Another shadow-man-with-a-hat sighting - thanks for sharing your accounts, @mrs_mose . I confess, I didn't set much stock in these when I first heard about them, but there's a steady drip of accounts which mention them. I am increasingly intrigued. There's a dedicated thread on here, but also numerous mentions dotted here and there in other threads, too.

Oh good grief, I had no idea the hat man was a thing!!
 
Even though I have always been interested in Fortean things including ghosts, up until very recently I'd not heard of the "Hat Man" phenomenon and just saw a reference to it by chance. Probably 40 years ago now, a close family member and his wife and toddler lived in an ex council house in the next street to us. He began getting woken during the night with a sense of foboding and a low rumbling noise, he described it as if a helicopter was hovering low over the roof, but his wife didn't wake. Around the same time, their toddler was telling them about a man that came to visit in the night. Then one morning my relation looked to the top of the stairs was shocked to see a man standing there who was wearing a bowler hat. This happened a few days later and obviously unnerved him and he told my mum and me but said he daren't tell his wife about it. However, soon afterwards his wife came round to see us. She said she had been seeing a figure of a man in a bowler hat at the top of the stairs but didn't want to scare her husband so hadn't told him! The house had been previously occupied by only one other family who had not lost anyone and nobody had ever died in that house - so how could it have been a ghost? Now we know - it was The Hat Man....
 
The second was at the Best Western Hotel in Fulford, York in about 2010. I woke in the middle of night and I clearly saw the figure of a man at the end of the bed wearing an odd hat. The hat was very much like that worn by David Bamber when he played Mr Collins in the BBC Pride & Prejudice, wide brimmed with a small dome. This one did make me feel scared and I immediately put my head under the covers! I couldn't see any details other than the outline, he appeared very black, like a dense shadow.

Would you describe the density of the blackness being as dense as the synthetic paint material Vantablack? .. the moving shadow woman type figure I saw at The Red Lion hotel was that dense. I've just found this video of a person who's painted themselves with this nano technology material for a comparison .. this is a comedy type video so skip to 3:00 for the painting

edit: don't watch this video, I've decided it's crap .. a better vantablack video is below

 
Last edited:
Would you describe the density of the blackness being as dense as the synthetic paint material Vantablack? .. the moving shadow woman type figure I saw at The Red Lion hotel was that dense. I've just found this video of a person who's painted themselves with this nano technology material for a comparison ..


... his WHOLE body?
 
Whenever anyone asks me that question, I say…yes 100%, there is no doubt in my mind that I saw the apparition of a young Girl, in my friends parents’ house - this was about 20 odd years ago

I didn’t say anything at the time as I didn’t believe that I had seen it, thought it was a figment of my Imagination etc ,but my mates sister saw the same thing a few minutes later.

If anyone far more intelligent than I, can give me a non fortean logical explanation then fine, but explain away how two people saw the same thing a few minutes apart !!!
 
a non fortean logical explanation
There you have it in a nutshell. I would dearly love to have such an explanation for some of the experiences I have had. Never forthcoming. Where's the evidence for experiences like yours, mine and those of others? By their very nature there can't be any. And saying they are not true/your mistaken/ you're lying are not explanations are they? The search continues. :)
 
There you have it in a nutshell. I would dearly love to have such an explanation for some of the experiences I have had. Never forthcoming. Where's the evidence for experiences like yours, mine and those of others? By their very nature there can't be any. And saying they are not true/your mistaken/ you're lying are not explanations are they? The search continues. :)


100% agree with you Pete. Thousands of people see things every day that doesn’t have a (as yet) scientific explanation, and we can’t all be mistaken, liars, or insane.
 
One of my ghost stories is unusual. I was about 8 years. Brother/sister in living room. Mum in kitchen doing washing. Father in toilet upstairs. I came round to face the stairs and was astounded to see, facing me, at the top of the stairs, an old-fashioned ''ghost'' standing at the top. Thinking it must be my dad I slowly took steps towards it. This ''ghost'' was very tall with which looked like a white sheet from top to bottom. It did not step down the stairs it glided!!! There was no bending of the knee as it descended. It was about a third of the way down and I was about a third of the way up. That's when my legs gave way. I crawled and clawed my way down as fast as I could. Panic had set in. Regaining my legs in the lobby and without looking back, I kicked and pushed at the living room door to get in but my brother had blocked it. I bust into the kitchen to receive a rebuke from mum. She calmed me down and told me it was my dad. I knew it wasn't. He denied it was him later. This was a strange house and as I've stated in another post, I've no psychic powers that I know of. This was the second of some very weird happenings in this dwelling. I've no idea what it was but still can't understand why a ''ghost'' would appear in that form - like a panto spirit. Oh there was two dark holes for eyes, no mouth. Yes I know - madness. Thanks
 
Back
Top