re: Who here believes in ghosts?

(no message)

This is sound advice, but I’m curious what led you to these beliefs?

I never believed in ghosts or spirits of the dead growing up. It wasn't even a passing interest of mine. That would all change.

When my wife and I got married we rented a small house from an older coworker. The house was perfect size for us and the price was right. The only negative was that the house had sort of a mothball smell. I didn't think a whole lot about it, and it wasn't horrible, so I assumed it would fade over time.

When we were moving in, I noticed a small attic trapdoor in the ceiling of the bedroom closet. For some reason that trapdoor stuck in my mind, but we didn't have enough stuff to need the attic, so I never opened it. More on that later.

Well as the weeks went on, problems started to arise in our new marriage. My wife seemed to be disenchanted with our relationship. After two months we separated and she moved out. She really couldn't explain what was wrong, other than to say she just wasn't happy. I stayed in the little house, hoping for a good outcome but feeling pretty helpless to fix something that had no obvious cause.

As the weeks passed I started to get the weird feeling that something just wasn't right in that house. I never saw any apparitions or ghosts, but couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss. I also felt that whatever it was, it was something dark. I confided in one of my new sister-in-laws, who belonged to a full gospel church. She said she was friends with a woman in the church who had delved into demonic possession and so forth, and I somewhat reluctantly agreed to let her come to the house for a visit. Again, feeling kind of stupid for even buying into the idea of a spirit haunting the house.

The next day she showed up with her friend and I immediately liked the woman. Very sweet older woman. Very intelligent and talkative. Seemed to be well grounded and not the kook I expected at all. She had not been in the house long when she turned to me and said she had just seen the spirit of a woman in the living room. She quoted some scriptures that deal with how you go about exorcising or eliminating a spirit from an abode or building and went to work anointing the windows and doors. Once that was complete, they sat down and started to pray, telling the woman she must leave. After several minutes of praying, she looked at me and said the woman wouldn't leave. That there was something holding her here. She asked me if there was anything that may have belonged to her in the house. I replied no. That the house was clean as a whistle when we we moved in. Then the attic trapdoor popped into my mind. So I got a chair and opened it up and stuck my head into the attic. The attic was empty with the exception of a small box. The box contained a man's belt, a comb, and a man's certificate of honorable discharge from the Navy. Box and all went out on the curb and they sat down to pray again. They had barely lowered their heads and started praying when she looked up at me and said, "She's gone".

A short time later, my wife returned and we have been happily married now for 40 years. After this was all over I asked the old guy I was renting from about the previous tenant. He said it was a woman who wrote romance novels and that she died in the house. He went on to say that they discovered her dead body two weeks after her death, and that the mothball smell was from fumigating the house. I never told him what went on for fear of the story getting around work and looking like a nut case. But I can't deny how genuine it all felt. The house no longer had the same weird feeling, but I moved us to an apartment. More to put the past behind us than anything else.

You asked. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Something I've seen many times over the years:

LINK


A few years ago, a retired dentist took me to look at his log cabin that he had dissembled near Chattanooga, transported and reassembled in Alabama. as we were viewing the interior, a loud sound on the tin roof reminded of either a rock or very green pine cone.

He told me it may be time to leave since the sound was the old soldier (I forget the soldiers rank) telling us it was time to go. He then shared a story that the past Chattanooga family cabin owner had told him about a Confederate soldier that died there during the Civil War. My friend had purchased the cabin knowing it was "haunted".

On our way out I admired the rustic craftsmanship of the screened in back porch when another loud noise came from the tin roof. As we exited, I noted there wasn't a tree taller than the roofline within 150' of the house. No pines, heavy nut trees or broken limbs within 200' of the roof. I don't believe in all ghosts. But I do believe in the two above.

quote:

---

I’ve been doing some reading about this and there’s a pretty popular theory that children are more susceptible to the paranormal because they’ve not been conditioned to believe they don’t exist

---

Or maybe their minds are more easily tricked into thinking they saw a ghost because they haven't been told they don't exist

What is the best way to share it?

My cousin had a lamp knocked over a few weeks back. A couple of incidents had happened already. One being a light bulb exploding. She checks the camera and u can see a shadow knock it over. She’d kill me if I posted it.

Sorry to bust your balls, but Sasquatch is real.

I do.

I was around 15 and my buddy and I met up with two girls, one of which had access to her older sister’s car. The girls had been drinking and wanted to go to a particular cemetery in the next town over. Being 15 with raging hormones, we reluctantly agreed and I volunteered to drive the sister’s car because I guess that made me feel even more badass.

The car was pretty new and drove like a champ. After about 20 minutes of shitty music being blasted by the girls in the backseat, we arrived at the cemetery. It was one of those cemeteries with the long driveway up and the arching iron entrance. I parked the car at the entrance, shut off the car and lights. After about 10 minutes of walking around, we all looked at each other knowing we had seen enough and went back to the car.

We all got in and I turned the ignition. The car wouldn’t start. I tried turning the key again and it honest to God felt like something was gripping the ignition and wouldn’t let me break through. Everyone then starts freaking out, yelling at me as if I’m doing this on purpose, to where I’m insisting that something is definitely keeping the car from starting.

I took a deep breath and tried one more time, and after a brief struggle, there was finally a breakthrough. It was as if you were pulling a rope against somebody else and they just all of a sudden let go.

I quickly drove off and then checked to see if I had pissed myself.

I will forever believe.

Just the other night I was lying in bed and felt a sharp pain on my side near my hip as if someone was poking me with a needle. As I reached down to attempt to relieve the pain by swiping at it, my left side seized and it felt as if something demonic was exiting my body. Turns out I was sleeping on a lego, my rib cage cramped up and I let out a huge fart. But it felt haunting.