Paul_Exeter
Justified & Ancient
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2012
- Messages
- 3,847
Fascinating postHave I seen a ghost? [Saddle up for the ride]. A good Fortean will always keep an open mind yet still be cautious when examining the 'facts' around phenomena. It would be easy to say "Yes! I have seen a ghost." though I would then find my relating the experience would [and should] come under great scrutiny. With these in mind, I can only say that "I have had some strange experiences concerning perception that may appear to be 'ghost' related." I would then find myself asking such questions as "Can I define what a ghost is?" or "Is my perception of ghosts affected by my cultural background and other factors?" and "Do I want the stigma or celebrity of being 'that bloke who sees ghosts'?". Someone much cleverer than me could probably write a book that would aim to answer those very questions. Who am I kidding? We all know there are many such books.
So I will give some examples of the many different 'ghost' related events that have happened in my family. Believe the examples or not. Come up with explanations or take what I write at face value or, maybe, with a pinch of salt - it's your pick!
My goodness! Talk about writing a book about seeing / experiencing ghostly activity or other phenomenon or answering those questions! I maybe should do just that.
- Aged around nine years with my two younger siblings in tow I walked ahead of our parents [staying well in sight of them] towards our home. We kids would often be in trouble for standing on the low wall of our garden 'rocking' on the low wooden fence. On this occasion my sister was the first onto the wall and 'took off' towards the oldies crying and screaming "whose that man?". When Both of us looked beyond the fence into the house 'living room' my brother and then me saw what appeared to be an old man sitting, looking quite relaxed, in one of the single recliner chairs therein. As one may imagine the events that followed where on the lines of; one very tearful, scared little girl and two little boys excitedly shouting "There's a man in the house." Mother huddling the girl trying to calm her, Father first trying to calm the boys and assure them no one could get in our house as it was secured quite well then going to check. Long story short - there was no man! Of course we kids thought we had seen a ghost.
- Same family home some years later and we find the two parents hosting other adults [from wider family]. The story here is very long so I will give the shortest version. As adults are talking, the children were upstairs playing or sleeping. The adults all had a tea or coffee but non were drinking as they were deep in conversation. Without warning a cup and saucer placed securely on a table rose into the air by a few feet then the cup tipped up it's content onto the saucer then, inevitably, the table, floor and a leg of the nearest person. The man with the soaked leg ran out of the house and refused to enter it ever again.
- There was also and odd, intermittently repeating, scenario in that same house. In short it involved closing curtains at one end of the large living room, moving to and closing the curtains on other side of room then turning [as to leave the room] only to find the first set of curtains fully open!
- In another house [a later home of the family involved] many other strange things happened. Aged around fourteen years, maybe a little younger, the eldest of the children was inconsolable for many hours after walking into his bedroom and seeing, quite clearly, his long dead grandfather seemingly looking at a photo of the children that was on a drawer set in the room. The parents made the situation worse by first taking it as a prank then trying to dismiss it as the boy simply seeing either the photo or his own reflection in its glass fronted frame.
- In the same house the two younger siblings where in the same room as the eldest was in the previous incident. The kids where looking through magazines, chatting and listening to music when an object about the size of a tennis ball, seemingly made of light and described as "You know; like staring at something then closing your eyes and still seeing the object floating and a different colour." suddenly but casually came through the closed, locked window of the room, floated around a while, pulsing all the time, then exited the way it entered.
- Same house, same room on another day. A child shouts at brother to stop playing guitar so loud and opens the door to enter room. Rather surprisingly the brother was not there and no electronic device, vinyl record player, tape deck, radio or TV are switched on or making sound. The din continues as the child turns and looks at the guitar mounted in its usual place [when not in use] on a wall merrily playing itself!
- There was an incident in that same room where the younger brother claimed to have seen a man with an "Egyptian dog head" [maybe Jackal] peering into the living room from the house entrance hallway. Of course the mother found the doors all locked and windows all closed and no person / thing abroad. Maybe that one could be put down to a fever as the child was off school quite ill when the incident happened.
All the examples and many more really have happened within my close and wider family. I could tell the tale* of one of the siblings being in the next family home [their own children, teens at the time, not present ] as an adult visiting the parents when an ornamental 'frame' containing a collection of ornamental spoons mysteriously floated about a foot away from its normal secure wall fixing parallel to the floor then suddenly dropped as if forced or flung onto the poor individual [the fixing was sound when examined and the frame would have had to be lifted off it!]. I think there is enough weirdness in this post already though.
Kind regards all.
* Dang! I did tell the tale.
Edit - minor change to repeated wording, a few spelling corrections and rewording of a fragmented line.
Where is the location of this house...?