This post deals with the paranormal, just so you know before reading it

[Mishi]

We seem to have gained some pixies recently or Shae (my husband's deceased cousin) has been being cheeky, because things have gone missing and then been found put away, but not exactly where they belong. Example: I had my Hogfather DVD near TV downstairs, intending to watch it with Nanna B. It disappeared, and we turned the house upside down looking for it. A week later it showed up in the DVD cabinet in between the two Harold and Kumar movies. We both checked the cabinet several times, reading through all of the shelves and it was not there. The gap that it belonged in was even there when we were searching, and was no longer there a few days later.

The other thing is that my dad has lucid dreams, so he likes to take walks in imaginary gardens with various family members, especially my two girls because he doesn't get to see them very often. One night when I was putting Bubbles to bed rather late (Dad does to sleep around 8:30, over 600km away) she said goodnight to me, then looked behind me and said "Oh Poppy! Nai-night Poppy, I love you. Sweet dreams!" I asked Dad about it and he didn't realise that he was dreamwalking, he thought it was just his imagination.
She has also tried to play fetch with the dog in the cemetery. Bubbles ran off, when I caught up with her, she grabbed my hand and took me down one of the aisles saying "Look, a big doggy! Hiiii doggy!" I asked what colour it is and she said "Is black doggy, happy black doggy." *picks up stick and throws* "Fetch doggy! Oh, he no play. Aww happy doggy!" Considering that it was standing between her and a sharp drop into a fast river near a weir, I'm taking it as protective apparition rather than a bad omen.

[blas]

There's at least one for sure spirit at my parents' house. I would say there's more, but my parents think my brother and I are full of it.

I've posted about it before, but every night between 12 and 1 am (so it's residual, not necessarily the person themself), there are light footsteps going up the stairs, turning past my old bedroom, going into my brother's old bedroom, and stopping at the window. My brother claims there was occasionally a mist with it.

Believe me, when I lived at home, I slept with that door shut and always fell asleep to a movie and set the TV to sleep after an hour or two just to be sure 1 am was over.

Part of that house was built in the late 1800s, the rest in the 1970s.

I don't think it does any good to speak with a residual spirit, because I don't think that's even really a ghost present. But I have tried as of now.

Although I did lose my marbles in the basement one day because I was sick and tired of hearing my name being whispered and my toes being tugged on as I slept on the couch a few times. I blew up, then realized oh shit, if this is a bad spirit, I'm fucked........but I haven't heard/seen anything creepy downstairs or in the basement since.

However, a few weeks ago, after everyone had left, I did say out loud that I meant no disrespect, but was a little scared of the spirit and its nightly routine (I said this because even though I don't live there right now, I do spend the night occasionally) and I asked if it could be a little more quiet next time.

[Misanthropical]

besides you and your side of the family being sensative,I am wondering if your house has some sort of gateway in or near it?

I have not felt that my home has some sort of gateway in it nor have the children. If there is one near it, that is a different matter. We are close to a huge cemetery and smaller ones in the area. We are also close to a very strange house that gives me and the children the willies. It looks like an old Victorian that has had additions added on to it all willy nilly with no rhyme or reason. You could not pay me enough money to go into that house.

Growing up, one of the houses I lived in did have a vortex, right in the middle of the living room. I would never go back there for love or money. That place freaked the holy hell out of me as a child and even though I live in a completely different state I still get freaked by the thought of that place.

Also, as a child, there is house that I don't remember anything happening in, but I still, to this day get nightmares of that house. The thought of going back into that house gets me so scared that I start shaking and on the verge of tears. I thought of going to a hypnotist to find out why that house scares me more than the house with the vortex in it, but Mr. Mis said there is probably a very good reason my mind blocked it out and I shouldn't try to remember if it was that traumatic that the mind blocked it out. I didn't think of it that way till he that and I had to agree with him.

Another thing, I have noticed is that if I am living close to the man that I share DNA with that my abilities get a whole hell of a lot stronger.

There is one place I lived in after my daughter was born that overwhelmed me and did scare me something fierce. The spirits in the basement were mostly helpful and friendly, but the rest of the house is another story all together. It loved destroying people. I finally broke down and told Mr. Mis we had to move. I couldn't take it anymore, we had to go. I looked up that area long after we moved and found out that place has always had a much higher than average suicide rate.

[Misanthropical]

We seem to have gained some pixies recently or Shae (my husband's deceased cousin) has been being cheeky, because things have gone missing and then been found put away, but not exactly where they belong. Example: I had my Hogfather DVD near TV downstairs, intending to watch it with Nanna B. It disappeared, and we turned the house upside down looking for it. A week later it showed up in the DVD cabinet in between the two Harold and Kumar movies. We both checked the cabinet several times, reading through all of the shelves and it was not there. The gap that it belonged in was even there when we were searching, and was no longer there a few days later.

The other thing is that my dad has lucid dreams, so he likes to take walks in imaginary gardens with various family members, especially my two girls because he doesn't get to see them very often. One night when I was putting Bubbles to bed rather late (Dad does to sleep around 8:30, over 600km away) she said goodnight to me, then looked behind me and said "Oh Poppy! Nai-night Poppy, I love you. Sweet dreams!" I asked Dad about it and he didn't realise that he was dreamwalking, he thought it was just his imagination.

You know, I had to start to wonder why all spirits seem to know how to move things around and put them into plain sight later. The thought of pixies never crossed my mind. It does make sense though.

I also wondered why the ones I have come across whether I am aware of them or not love to play with my hair. It is only when I have my hair on the longer side more than when I have it cut real short. Right now, it's really long and it gets played with a lot when I'm out.

I used to be seen in different parts of the state by boyfriends (the state I grew up in) when I wasn't physically there but had dreamed of being there. It's weird how lucid dreaming works.

It wasn't till we moved here 7 years ago that it really did dawn on me that as a living person I have more power than the dead and came up with a list of rules for hanging around my home. It also helps that we have a protective house spirit (Ethan) now. He absolutely hates it when there is verbal fighting going on (it's never physical) and will loudly pop light bulbs or do the mimicking thing to get it to stop.

The children and I have all heard our names called or yelled and have thought it was another family member (the mimicking thing) or by a voice we didn't recognize (much smaller scale). I have heard Mr. Mis calling my name or screaming it when he hasn't or I hear "mom" or "mommy" by what I think is one of the children or by a child's voice I don't recognize, but I still check on my children. It never used nicknames till just recently. I have also heard "mommy" by a child's voice that I can tell is crying. I never can track it down.

It has just been in the last few weeks that my home has turned into Grand Central Station for the spirit world.

[bhskittykatt]

If you're sensitive, you're going to attract ghosts, vortex or no vortex. Sensitives are like a beacon that draw spirits to them. Sort of like "Hey, check it out, this one can see us!" When a sensitive contacts a paranormal group to try and remove a haunting, you have to explain to them that even though you can cleanse the home and perhaps disperse the current haunting, if they're sensitive they're just going to be more and more in the future, no matter where they live, and that they're going to eventually have to find a way to deal with and accept that.

[Misanthropical]

My children and I all know that as sensitives that spirits are going to be attracted to us. We can walk into a house that has never had a spirit in it and in short order there will be spirits there. I told my children we are like a light in the darkness for them.

We have seen spirits that are so shocked that someone has actually seen them that they run off.

We have no control of our "gift" which we have all thought was more of a curse at one time or another but would feel lost without it. I actually had it blocked by who knows what at one place we lived and I actually broke down and cried because it felt like a part of me was missing. The block stopped when we moved.

[Sapphire Silk]

This may surprise some people who know I'm a strong adherent of the scientific method. I don't claim to be able to prove anything I'm saying here, just what I've observed.

When in college, my roomies and I rented a 1920's era bunglaow that was haunted. I only saw the ghost once; an elderly man who looked about 80ish. He liked to play with my cats, but he avoided me and the roomies and never gave us any trouble. I ignored him; he wasn't malevolent or mischievous in any way, and was more than welcome.

While at summer camp one year, I saw the camp ghost; a girl who'd fallen off a horse in the 50's and died after hitting her head. She was riding through the main camp area of my unit. I remember waking to the clip clop of the hooves, and hearing all the animals and insects in the woods go completely silent, and feeling the temperature drop like a rock. I looked out a window and saw her (she didn't see me). After a few minutes she rode off, and the normal night noises returned, and the temperature became a normal West Virginia night in July.

I can't explain either encounter, and don't try. It's just what I saw and experienced.

I had one encounter that happened in broad daylight, and was experienced by multiple people.

We went to Florida on Spring Break for a 70 mile canoeing trip along the St. Mary's River. The water was very high that year due to flooding, and we were having a hard time finding campsites. The previous night we'd been allowed to camp on private property by the owners. That night, we hadn't seen any signs of human habitation for miles.

We came up on a run down house on the south river bank. I didn't like the look of the house from the start, and didn't want to stop even though it was getting dark. I could feel the malevolence coming from the house. Our counselor insisted on checking it out; it was the first dry ground we'd seen for miles.

We ran the canoes onto the bank, but no one got out except her. She went maybe 5 steps before turning around, getting back in her canoe. We pushed off back onto the river. No one uttered a word. It took us another hour to find a place to camp, and it was after dark by the time we did so. No one talked about the other place or mentioned that "maybe we should have stopped there."

It was the creepiest experience of my life.

A couple of years later, I did the same canoe run on the St. Mary's with another group of friends. That year, the river was very low, and camping spots were easy to find. We actually passed by the place fairly early in the day . . . but I recognized it at once, and still felt the same malevolence coming from it though no where near as intensely.

[Ellain]

Its really neat to "hear" these stories. I have friends who swear up and down they've seen or interacted with paranormal stuff, but I never have. I've always been fascinated by this stuff, though.

[Shpepper]

I miss my spirits. The house I grew up in had them as did a couple of other places that I have lived. I don't have any here where I am and I do miss them. It's possible that they are still here and I have just blocked them due to other life issues. Maybe as those are sorted out, they will return.

[Misanthropical]

My little guy saw a shadow person when we lived in the town before this one. Those things terrify me beyond belief. They feed on fear, anger, hatred and other negative emotions and not much is known about them. I don't think they have ever been human.

After we moved here, I use to fall asleep on the couch watching TV, so one of the cubs or Mr. Mis would turn off the TV and go to bed. They wouldn't wake me up because I have insomnia and they wanted me to get my sleep. I would always have sleep paralysis when this happened and would "see" a shadow person standing in front of my book case less than 6 feet away from the couch. It never moved and I couldn't see any sort of face, but I still had the feeling it was watching me and enjoying the fact that I couldn't move and was scared out of my ever loving mind. I kept trying to tell myself it wasn't real but I couldn't overcome the sheer panic and the crippling fear. If the TV is left on I don't have that happen, so now, Mr. Mis or the cubs will change the channel to the classical music station because they know it soothes me and I'm told I seem to sleep better when it's on.

The big guy saw one with blood red eyes when he was visiting a friend of his that lives not that far from us. He had never seen them before that and now he refuses to go to his friends' house.

I have seen them when I'm outside and I know they are here because of the crime and urban decay that is exploding in our city. Yes, we are seriously considering moving because of the very human problems that are over taking our city and I know it's going to get worse.

[Kogarashi]

I'm not entirely sure where I stand on the idea of ghosts, spirits, etc. I have some of my own ideas and beliefs, but....

But I have had a few creepy moments. I'm sure I've posted these before, too.

For one thing, I have a very overactive imagination, and am pretty sure that's at least the cause of the occasional feeling of being watched I get when I'm the only one up late at night. I like watching scary movies, but I always pay for it at bedtime.

My imagination might be the cause of a set of recurring dreams I had about an old minivan we once had. I had the dreams after the van broke down, and they always started in the same place and ended in the same place with no real resolution. One involved walking through a haunted house with only my baby blanket* between me and something scary. Another involved the van driving down the road with no one in the driver's seat, with one of my sisters and one of my aunts in the van with me. We had to jump out before it got to the end of the road, and my aunt and sister got out, but the dream always ended before I could jump out (and right before it got to the end of the road). I never found out what would've happened, but had the impression it would not be good. I can't remember the third dream in the set, only that there was a third one. The dreams ended when one of the side windows of the van was broken inward with no visible explanation of why it broke.

I'm pretty sure my imagination has nothing to do with a few creepy moments at the old farmhouse I spent most of my formative years in, at least in part because another of my sisters, a friend of ours, and I all experienced it at the same time. The first was when said friend was sleeping over. We were up talking with the lights off in my room when we all heard what sounded like a mountain lion or similar roaring right under the bedroom window. This was in upstate NY on the second story, with no porch roof or anything for whatever made the noise to sit on. Our parents, talking downstairs with the lights on, heard nothing. We were suitably freaked out.

The second was a few years later, when that same friend was over to play for an afternoon. The same sister, friend, and I were playing in my room (which was different from before, as I had moved across the hall), while my mom was out with the youngest sisters. At one point when we shut the door, the hook latch on the outside locked. We were able to pick it with a coat hanger, but attempting to get it to lock again by slamming the door failed, so we were stumped as to how that happened. We also thought at one point that we heard my mom pull into the gravel driveway, but there was no vehicle, and also thought at one point that we heard footsteps in the attic, which was completely inaccessible.

* The baby blanket itself could probably be considered a positive example. My paternal grandmother made it for me when I was born, out of leftover fabric from a wedding blanket she made my parents. I still have it (it belongs to my oldest daughter now), and I still get a happy feeling when I cuddle the blanket. It may be 30 years of conditioning to get that response, since it was my comfort against bad dreams growing up, but that doesn't stop me from joking with my husband that if it were an object in a ghost roleplaying system he has, it would totally be one of the rare positive ghost artifacts (most are negative).

We came up on a run down house on the south river bank. I didn't like the look of the house from the start, and didn't want to stop even though it was getting dark. I could feel the malevolence coming from the house. Our counselor insisted on checking it out; it was the first dry ground we'd seen for miles.

We ran the canoes onto the bank, but no one got out except her. She went maybe 5 steps before turning around, getting back in her canoe. We pushed off back onto the river. No one uttered a word. It took us another hour to find a place to camp, and it was after dark by the time we did so. No one talked about the other place or mentioned that "maybe we should have stopped there."

Panacea, that's seriously freaky. Did the counselor ever explain why she turned around so soon?

[Misanthropical]

When I'm telling my cubs and/or Mr. Mis some of the paranormal things that happened when I was a child I tell them I had a magic blanket (not really, but go with me on this) that if I slept completely covered from head to toe with it the spirits couldn't get me. I never had it pulled off of me, so that gave credence to the fact that it was a magic blanket. Yes, they know it wasn't really a magic blanket.

As a child, I thought everyone could see/hear/sense spirits and how frightened, scared and hurt I felt when I was told that I was making things up or that they were all demons disguising themselves as human spirits so that they could try and tempt people away from God and make sure that person went to hell. I was raised in a fundamentalist pentecostal church and that is what they really believe. I was scared out of my mind most of my childhood. I kept it all to myself and had a hard time dealing with it. I prayed my heart out that God take it all away. I guess the answer was "no".

[firecat88]

For one thing, I have a very overactive imagination, and am pretty sure that's at least the cause of the occasional feeling of being watched I get when I'm the only one up late at night.

If there's one thing I've learned from my own experiences- What people think is just their mind playing tricks on them is, 8 times out of 10, considerably more than that.

As a child, I thought everyone could see/hear/sense spirits and how frightened, scared and hurt I felt when I was told that I was making things up or that they were all demons disguising themselves as human spirits so that they could try and tempt people away from God and make sure that person went to hell. I was raised in a fundamentalist pentecostal church and that is what they really believe. I was scared out of my mind most of my childhood. I kept it all to myself and had a hard time dealing with it. I prayed my heart out that God take it all away. I guess the answer was "no".

TBH, everyone is born with the potential to sense spirits. It starts at a very young age, but a lot of people tend to grow out of it, typically by the 'That's not real' or 'Oh, don't say that. It's evil' influence from peers and society in general.

[Antisocial_Worker]

I've had more paranormal experiences than I can recount in one sitting, and live in the one of the national capitals of weirdness. I haven't noticed an uptick in activity here though, and haven't heard that things are getting noticeably any weirder elsewhere in town, though.

I wonder what could be happening up there in your neck of the woods, Mis, that there would be an increase in activity.

[Misanthropical]

Lvl_9_Gazebo the Wiccan told me why it has picked up but I really didn't pay attention to the why because I was more interested in finding a way to get it to stop so that Ethan would calm down and the house would go back to it's normal weirdness.

We are still experiencing spirits popping up but not with the fervor it was happening before the ritual. I heard knocking above my desk the other night and it went all the way around the dinning room before it stopped.

I bought an odor detecting air freshener that goes off if it detects odors and now it goes off all the time because the spirits that pop up like to play with it.