Skeptic

[Rising Dead Man]

I think paranormal experiences can be explained with peoples imaginations, natural phenomenon, etc. But I'm not completely sure what I believe about this stuff. So I thought I'd make this thread where people post their experiences that they can't explain and talk about what they think.

I don't know what exactly makes something a paranormal experience, so this probably isn't actually one. It's nothing big. I was talking with a friend on this road at night. In the area we were at there are three cemeteries very close to each other. I saw a guy walking down the sidewalk across from us. He got my attention because I thought he was my brother for a minute. I turned away for a second to say something to my friend. I looked back to the sidewalk the guy was on but he was gone. In that tiny amount of time I can only think of a few places he could have gone. I think he probably quickly went to some place I couldn't see him, like behind the trees next to him where one of the cemeteries is. Or I could have looked away longer than I remember and gave him plenty of time to walk out of my sight. Now that I think about it, it seems way less ghostly than it seemed before. I never believed the guy was a ghost anyways, I just thought it would make sort of an interesting story.

What's yours?

[Midnight Witch]

I haven't had many paranormal experiences within my life, but I wish to. One particular prolonged period of time that I could consider strange would have to be when I was very young. As a young child, I was rather different from the rest. Yes, I enjoyed some of the activities other children did, but I spent a lot of time basking in my thoughts, ones that would've been considered unusual for my age. They'd concern success, failure, even ignorance, or death. I would have random moments where a scene would fall into my head, one that depicted my family and usually myself. Only a few days later, the scene would somehow...how could I say this? Come to life. This may sound rather strange, but it does have a bit to do with deja vu, though I am sure that I had been thinking of the event many days before, clearly. It was as if the future was being told to me.

I suppose this could be considered paranormal.

[Murfreesboro]

Not sure what to make of this one I had in the late '90s:

One night, as I was lying in bed with my husband, I was awakened by the smell of cigarette smoke. Very powerful scent, and I woke my husband, but he said he didn't smell it. I continued to do so, however. No one in my family smokes, and it was a rainy night, so it is unlikely that I was smelling anything from outside the house. I fell back asleep.

The next day, while my husband was at work, I was rummaging through some drawers and storage spaces, looking for some cash I thought I had put by. I ran across a box of letters my father had written to my mother during WWII. One in particular caught my eye. Its date was the same date in late November. It had been written 50-something years to the day on the day I found it.

I was excited, because my father had died of lung cancer when I was 7, so I never knew him well. The letter was several pages long and told my mother a great deal about his experiences in England, France and Germany. They were newlyweds, and he had written as entertainingly as he could to amuse his bride. I forgot all about looking for the money and waited eagerly to share this letter with my husband when he came home from work.

When I shared my find with him, however, he got really quiet and gave me a long, strange look. I said, "What's wrong?" And he said, "Don't you know?" I was dumbfounded, couldn't imagine what he meant. He said, "Don't you remember what happened last night?" I thought for a long moment, and then I said, "Oh, the cigarette smoke!" My father had been a heavy smoker, a five-pack-a-day-man. My husband said to me, "You can stop that now."

[Midnight Witch]

Not sure what to make of this one I had in the late '90s:

One night, as I was lying in bed with my husband, I was awakened by the smell of cigarette smoke. Very powerful scent, and I woke my husband, but he said he didn't smell it. I continued to do so, however. No one in my family smokes, and it was a rainy night, so it is unlikely that I was smelling anything from outside the house. I fell back asleep.

The next day, while my husband was at work, I was rummaging through some drawers and storage spaces, looking for some cash I thought I had put by. I ran across a box of letters my father had written to my mother during WWII. One in particular caught my eye. Its date was the same date in late November. It had been written 50-something years to the day on the day I found it.

I was excited, because my father had died of lung cancer when I was 7, so I never knew him well. The letter was several pages long and told my mother a great deal about his experiences in England, France and Germany. They were newlyweds, and he had written as entertainingly as he could to amuse his bride. I forgot all about looking for the money and waited eagerly to share this letter with my husband when he came home from work.

When I shared my find with him, however, he got really quiet and gave me a long, strange look. I said, "What's wrong?" And he said, "Don't you know?" I was dumbfounded, couldn't imagine what he meant. He said, "Don't you remember what happened last night?" I thought for a long moment, and then I said, "Oh, the cigarette smoke!" My father had been a heavy smoker, a five-pack-a-day-man. My husband said to me, "You can stop that now."

Interesting.

[jadewik]

I've written a few strange experiences I've had up and posted them here and there... I'll post links to the stories and write a brief summary.

Fort Lowell- Tucson, Arizona
Half-asleep at the time, I saw a man in my apartment when I lived alone... Later, I discovered the nearby adobe fort ruins had a popular ghost who was written about in local newspapers from around 1900.

The Devil's Den- Gettysburg Battlefield, Gettysburg, PA
While vacationing with my parents in Gettysburg, PA in 1999, we had our camera break. I also thought I saw a reinactor... who was, apparently only seen by me...

Granted, there are perfectly logical things that could possibly explain my "ghosts"... I still think they're fun stories to tell.

I do have a few stories from my husband and his friends, but only one of those stories is typed up at this time...

The Ambulance Ghost- Phoenix, Arizona
A skeptical friend of mine has an unusual, hair-raising story to tell about a haunted ambulance... the story has made him think there might be something to all those ghost stories after all.

Enjoy!

[zoltan hound dracula]

HI ALL,WELL I HAVE ONE,10 YEARS AGO A OLD HOSPITAL GOT KNOCKED DOWN AND THEY BUILT FLATS ON IT,WELL I BOUGHT ONE,WEIRD THINGS HAS BEEN HAPPENING THERE,I COULD SENSE THAT SOMEONE WAS WATCHING ME AND I COULD HEAR FOOTSTEPS PACING UP AND DOWN,I WOKE ONE NIGHT AND I SEEN SOMEONE SITTING AT THE END OF THE BED,IT WAS AN OLD LADY,SHE WAS IN A WHITE NIGHTDRESS,I WAS NOT SCARED SHE JUST SMILED AT ME THEN WHEN I RUBBED MY EYE"S SHE WAS GONE, I THEN REALISED THAT WHERE MY FLAT WAS BUILT IT WAS WHERE THE INTENSIVE CARE WARD WAS,I NO LONGER LIVE THERE

[Midnight Witch]

HI ALL,WELL I HAVE ONE,10 YEARS AGO A OLD HOSPITAL GOT KNOCKED DOWN AND THEY BUILT FLATS ON IT,WELL I BOUGHT ONE,WEIRD THINGS HAS BEEN HAPPENING THERE,I COULD SENSE THAT SOMEONE WAS WATCHING ME AND I COULD HEAR FOOTSTEPS PACING UP AND DOWN,I WOKE ONE NIGHT AND I SEEN SOMEONE SITTING AT THE END OF THE BED,IT WAS AN OLD LADY,SHE WAS IN A WHITE NIGHTDRESS,I WAS NOT SCARED SHE JUST SMILED AT ME THEN WHEN I RUBBED MY EYE"S SHE WAS GONE, I THEN REALISED THAT WHERE MY FLAT WAS BUILT IT WAS WHERE THE INTENSIVE CARE WARD WAS,I NO LONGER LIVE THERE

Could've simply been a hallucination, but who knows?

[Pumpkin56]

There was one time when I was a teenager and I had just come in from a my soccer game. It was an early game and we had played in the rain and I was totally beat. I remember coming in and just throwing my wet jersey on the floor and flopping onto my bed. I hadn't been there too long but I was exhausted and I was kind of in that half-sleep state where you feel like your asleep or almost there, but still half-way aware of what's going on around you. But then I felt something brush across my back which made me jump about a mile. There was nothing in my bedroom and I had been laying on top of the covers with my arms hanging off the edge of the bed so I don't know what touched me but I know I felt something.

[VanHelsingStandIn]

All good stories!

I had been working for a police department in the Atlanta Metro area for about 9 months and was working the 11pm-7am morning watch shift. One night I got a call about several men trying to break into a house and an elderly woman lived there alone and was frantic.

So I take off and get there in less than 3 minutes, and as I get out of the car I see the lady on the porch screaming that it was 4 of them and they had run around the back of her house. I'm on the radio giving out the information/telling the woman to get back in the house and lock the door/I've got my gun and flashlight out as I go looking for these 4 bad guys.(Note: You NEVER go looking for 4 felons by your lonesome. It was stupid and dangerous. I was a rookie and I'm an ex-army airborne ranger and thought I was bullet proof)

I get in the backyard and it is very clear after a minute, nobody is there. I walk back to the front of the house and I see my supervisor and another officer up by their cars and they are laughing at me.

I get mad and go up and ask whats so funny?

My supervisor said follow me, and we go up to the front door and the lady comes out and it is also clear my supervisor knows who she is. He looks at me and says, take a report.

So I start asking questions about the 4 guys who tried to break into the womans house.
She tells me they were aliens, from Centari and they have tried to kidnap her many times over the years. She goes on to say they are 9 feet 4 inches tall, a bright shade of green, have glowing blue eyes, long fingernails that can slice through iron and they have very, very large.....You Know!!!! She really seemed to enjoy talking about their You Know!!

For some reason, the aliens would show up whenever she was short on her medications and then she had to use the aluminum foil to block the "Z" waves they would send into her house. She had foil on the windows, doors, ceiling and even on her 25 gallon aquarium, which had water, plants and a filter, but no fish!

She went into detail how her house was also haunted and the garbage disposal would turn on/off by itself and her remote control would go from the den into the bathroom. Her car would start up by itself and sometimes drive off with nobody in it.(She didn't have a car)

At night the ghost would try and get in bed with her, and he was "gifted" as well. She was pretty sure the ghost was Steve, but I have no idea who Steve was. She acted as if we should all know Steve. She said her dog would act up if Steve were around. Problem was she didn't own a dog. I'm thankful because she may have wanted to show us how "gifted" he was too!

I got a few calls to her house over the next couple of years until she was no longer able to take care of herself and her daughter had to put her in a home. I left that police department and went to work for another one, but its not uncommon to find people like that everywhere you go.

[Pumpkin_Man]

With all the haunted places I visited, the closest I ever came to actualy experiencing anything "para normal" was Desavu. And that was when I was a kid. It pretty much stopped happening around my mid teens.

Mike

[Tee]

I guess I'm still open-minded. First, doesn't science say that energy can't be destroyed - it only changes form? So, it makes perfect sense to me that when someone passes on, if their energy was very strong, it may linger in certain locations. We also live in a very old house. One night when I know I was alone in the house, I heard an unfamiliar voice say my name out loud. Never saw anything, but it kind of creeped me out.

I caught a picture of something weird one year. It was broad daylight and I was taking pics of cheesey decorations in my front yard. It wasn't rainy, nor foggy, and no one was in the yard with me, much less smoking near me. But in one of the shots, there's a definite floating, misty, smokey substance moving across the bushes and the tree where my fake ghost was hanging. I sent it off to a couple paranormal sites to see what they thought, and no one could figure out what it was. But none of them wrote it off as fake. *shrug*

"There are more strange things in heaven and earth, Horatio..." =P

[NeverMore]

I've actually thought along the same lines Tee. Since energy cannot be destroyed, the essence that comprises a human, some would call it a soul, has to go somewhere upon death. Maybe the bond that holds that essence together is so weak that the only way it can interact with the physical world is through some kind of container, like our bodies. It's possible that when the person still has business in the physical world they would seek out a new container, whether it be in the form of an electrical field, or a dream? If that person is strong willed enough they could throw a projection, or inhabit another body? Maybe some day, when computers are complicated enough, we'll be able to continue our existence electronically?

[Murfreesboro]

The English writer and raconteur Samuel Johnson believed in ghosts. He said it was unreasonable not to do so, since every culture on earth has ghost stories.

[Tee]

Exactly, Nevermore. The energy has to go (or be?) somewhere. And, for me, it feels really natural to extend that whole theory to reincarnation. If, when you die, your energy actually goes somewhere (as opposed to remaining in a comfortable or familiar location), who's to say it all goes in one piece. Maybe particles of energy go all over and some end up in trees or earthworms, but some ends up in new people. That could possibly explain some of the "past life" memories people claim to experience.

I agree with Samuel Johnson as well. It's a lot like religion. Almost all religions share certain core elements. Belief in ghosts and the supernatural is the same. It's just the cultural differences we attach to the stories that change.

[Rising Dead Man]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=V6dgozJxj34