Encounters with the paranormal

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HalloweenJack
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Encounters with the paranormal

Post by HalloweenJack »

Just figured this may be an interesting topic.

What are some things that have happened to you in your life that may connect to the paranormal or supernatural?

Generally, I'm skeptical. My wife hates that about me. She's very into ghosts and the like and I don't believe in them. Though even I have to admit there have been a few things in my life, three in total, that I can't quite explain away.

I mean other than the occasional bout of hypnogognia.

Two of these were more negative experiences, while the third was a pretty positive one.


The first must have happened around the fall of 1998 or so. My best friend was a girl who lived across the street from me. We'd always be hanging out at night, usually on her front porch, but since it had gotten cooler lately we started chilling out in her bedroom. We started playing this game with a normal deck of cards. In a nutshell, you'd shuffle the deck and then talk to 'the spirits' and ask them a yes or no question. Then you'd pull a card from the deck. If the card was red, that was yes. Black meant no. We must have done that for an hour or two that night. Then being king shit and all as we were doing that I made the comment that I didn't believe there were any spirits and that if there were then they needed to prove they were real.

Literally as soon as I said that there was a sound that almost sounded like the wings of a flock of birds, but no squawks or chirps or what not, that were traveling up and down the outside of her wall. They went up and down and passed around the corner the house and down that wall as well. We both sat there frozen. I ran home when I gathered up the strength to leave that night.

I never heard or saw anything else, but my friend claimed she saw and heard things in that house ever since that night. Two years later she and her mother moved out. Her sister lived there for a few years after, but she and her family moved out too. That place has been abandoned ever since.

A few years ago, my parents moved so me, my wife, and my stepson moved back into the house I grew up in. The funny thing is my stepson, who's 18, came in from work a few months ago freaking out. He said as he pulled into the driveway in his truck and got out, he looked over at that house and saw what looked like a little girl in a white dress wandering around the yard. He saw it again a few weeks later. I went out that time and took a look. I didn't see anything but I have to admit I had that fight or flight feeling going on as soon as I stepped outside. Probably because I knew something he didn't. The things my friend claimed to have seen in her house all those years ago? One of them was a small figure in white.




The second one also took place around my home (in fact all three did now that I think of it). This one was two years after the first. I had just started my freshman year of college and I was home for the weekend. It was late but I was wide awake and had my windows open because it was still pretty warm outside even at night and that was something we usually did in the summer rather than run up an electric bill with the AC. Now my room had two windows...one in my actual bedroom and a small one in my bathroom. The bathroom window didn't have a screen in it, and was probably a seven or eight foot drop to the ground. So I was in my bathroom, sitting and.....and...thinking........*cough* and all I could think of later was that Simpsons joke "Well let's just say I'm sitting in the right seat", because of what I heard.

This was like something you'd see or hear in a horror movie. Keep in mind its two or three in the morning and suddenly, starting really low but picking up in volume I hear what sounds like a little girl directly under that window going "La la la la la...la la la la la laaaaaaaa". This went on for ten or fifteen seconds and I just froze the instant I heard it. Then I shot up and slammed that window shut and slept with the lights on, the door locked, and my Louisville Slugger in the bed with me...when I got to sleep.




The third was more like a religious experience. I had a nephew (I say had because he was unfortunately shot and killed back in 2015, though is is waaaay before that) who was a bit of hellraiser as a kid. You'd say 'no' he took that as 'yes'. He got into alot of trouble growing up. I don't really recall what he had gotten into this time, but it looked like something that could get him sent to juvie. I guess this would have been when I was still in college and either home on a weekend or break, but I don't recall. I know it was very warm outside and the sun was starting to set. Anywho, I consider myself a fairly spiritual person when it comes to God. I don't really believe in ghosts or bigfoot or things like that, but I do God. So when I found all this out about my nephew I was outside and I started to pray for him. You know, kneeling, head bowed, eyes closed praying, that sort of thing.

When I finished, I opened my eyes and looked up and I kid you not, I saw a beam of light kinda jutting down out of the sky. Like you see in The Sword and the Stone when Arthur touches the sword. It wasn't really illuminating me, but it was at an angle where it was pointing right at me and was retreating backwards into the sky till it disappeared. It was in the east too, because I was outside on the driveway which was right next to my bedroom, and I used to have to hang up a oversized beach towel to keep the rising sun's light from creeping into my room in the mornings.

So a single beam of light coming out of the east while the sun's setting in the west, while I was praying.

Unlike the other things I mentioned, I didn't feel fear in this case but I did have a sensation of awe.


Anywho, those are mine. Anybody else got anything?
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Ken
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Re: Encounters with the paranormal

Post by Ken »

In June of 1989, my father had a heart attack. In July of 1989, my mother had a something. I don't remember what it was, but she was hospitalised for it. I was prepared to jettison my plans to do a semester abroad, in London, come that fall. My family wouldn't hear of it. In late August, I left for the U.K.

There had also been a fair amount of drama within my circle of friends back in the Spring, and well, I wasn't expecting anything to really change when they all got back to school. In fact, in July, same weekend Mom went into hospital, a new wrinkle was added to the mix.

On 10 October (it was a Tuesday), I got this sick feeling that there was something wrong back in Illinois. It makes no sense, but I could feel it. I bought a prepaid phone card (this was 1989, and I'm not sure they'd been introduced in the U.S. yet), and I called my family. Everything was fine. I called Doug, my once and future roommate (see the "Real World roll-call" in my thread in the Character Sheets forum). Everything was fine. Eventually, I went to bed, and chocked the whole thing up to nerves.

A month or so later, Doug mentioned in passing that a particular girl from some of our classes had seemed to have dropped out. Doug had had a crush on her early on at school. My crush on her had come somewhat later - that past spring.

Time passes.

November of 1990, there had been a suicide on campus. It was a small school, and so the whole school was in shock. I was talking with this girl. She'd come back to school in the Spring of 1990. First time we'd talked in a while actually. I found out that early in the second week of October of 1989 her mother had attempted suicide, and that had led to her dropping out that semester.

It wasn't just nerves. I just didn't look hard enough at the time.
_____________________________________

It has happened other times. People I know about being in great distress, and I somehow know before anyone tells me.

22 June 2018. I woke up feeling vaguely sick. Nothing I can put my finger on, but I can just tell something's wrong. That afternoon, I found out that the father of my friend Doug (same Doug as above), had died during the night. Which meant that the family started finding out that morning.
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Ken
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Re: Encounters with the paranormal

Post by Ken »

I was a Teacher's Kid. Both my parents were in the education field. Throughout my life, it wouldn't be uncommon for someone, whom I'd just met, to hear my last name, and then ask me if my father teaches English and/or Speech at DeKalb High School. It's just a normal part of life. Usually.

During the Fall of 1989, I was having a semester abroad. I was attending Regent's College, which was in Regent's Park, London. The credits would transfer back to Rockford College. I regularly (about once a fortnight) went to Debenham's on Oxford Street. It was a department store, and it had an American Express office inside of it. It's where I went to exchange my traveller's checks for cash, since, they were American Express checks, and anywhere else there'd be a check cashing fee. Towards the end of November, I found it was time to replenish my cash. So late one afternoon, I went down, per usual.

It was late November, so the Christmas stuff was now up. And, finishing at the AmEx booth, I wandered down to the toy department, curious. I'd been in the store a while, so my coat was open. I was wearing one of my college T-shirts. All of a sudden, a store clerk stops me and asks where Rockford is.

"In this case, about 70 miles west of Chicago," I reply.
"Have you ever heard of a town called DeKalb?"
"I'm from Sycamore." (The two towns are adjacent.)

Eventually, I share my name. And, the conversation took a familiar turn. He'd had my father for Speech.

I was 4000 miles from home, in another country, another continent, another hemisphere. I was in a city with 8 million people in it. That's about 80 times the population of all DeKalb County.

I'm not sure if it counts as 'paranormal', but it sure to heck ain't normal either.
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HalloweenJack
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Re: Encounters with the paranormal

Post by HalloweenJack »

I had something really similar like that happen to me, at least in scope.


I was in a chatroom on the old MSN chatrooms back in the day. I was in college and it was probably around Christmas break and I randomly started talking to this chick. We chatted for like 3 hours and gradually got know one another to the point where it started getting really weird. Like there was major coincidences.

Turns out it was a friend from high school that I hadn't seen since high school had ended. When we found out who we were it was like "say whaaaat?!" for us.

We talked on the phone after that and laughed about it.

Not really supernatural but a MAJOR coincidence
kirinke
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Re: Encounters with the paranormal

Post by kirinke »

My mom grew up in Charleston South Carolina, which btw is a very old city with a rich history of hauntings and whatnot. When she was working for the local phone company she'd crash at a friend's place, which had a lady ghost that'd walk up the outside staircase. They also stayed at a couple of bread and breakfast places that were haunted and both my parents swore they could hear ghosts talking outside their door. That sort of thing.

For me, the only thing that came close was when I was back in college. A family friend had taken ill and he was rushed to the hospital. I took my mom to the hospital to be with the family and went to college. Around the same time he died, I had a weird thought that he had passed over. Dunno if that was paranormal, but it was strange coincidence.

We even went to the Myrtle's plantation on a vacation once (day trip from New Orleans). Pretty place, but I never saw anything. Come to think of it, I've been to a number of haunted places, but again, never saw anything remotely supernatural.
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Jabroniville
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Re: Encounters with the paranormal

Post by Jabroniville »

Ken wrote: Sun Jul 15, 2018 6:15 pm I was a Teacher's Kid. Both my parents were in the education field. Throughout my life, it wouldn't be uncommon for someone, whom I'd just met, to hear my last name, and then ask me if my father teaches English and/or Speech at DeKalb High School. It's just a normal part of life. Usually.

Eventually, I share my name. And, the conversation took a familiar turn. He'd had my father for Speech.

I was 4000 miles from home, in another country, another continent, another hemisphere. I was in a city with 8 million people in it. That's about 80 times the population of all DeKalb County.

I'm not sure if it counts as 'paranormal', but it sure to heck ain't normal either.
Reminds me of the time my sister and I were vacationing in Seattle, and got tickets to a Mariners game. The people in the seats next to us? From Red Deer, Alberta. Our hometown (and where my sister still lives). I mean, it's a city of 600,000 people, in a totally different country. What are the odds?
pathfinderq1
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Re: Encounters with the paranormal

Post by pathfinderq1 »

Have definitely seen a ghost, when I was about 5. My wife and I have also both had some maybe ghostly encounters involving her godfather's ghost (we joke that he is checking in on his chairs, which she inherited).

And on the other tack, we were on vacation a few weeks back, all the way across the country, riding on a random city bus route. And the guy sitting next to us was from two towns over, while the people a few rows back (who were talking to this guy about his dog) were from another town nearby). Much joking was made about this being the regular Boston to San Francisco bus route.
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Ken
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Re: Encounters with the paranormal

Post by Ken »

Speaking of ghosts...
Ken wrote: Sun Jul 15, 2018 5:52 pm November of 1990, there had been a suicide on campus. It was a small school, and so the whole school was in shock.
They say Toby is still wandering around his old dorm. Never encountered him though, at least not after he died.
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When the most powerful super hero on Earth marries an ordinary man, hilarity ensues.
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