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Halloween is here. Any first person supernatural/ghost/etc... experiences?

T thecabernetofdoctorcaligariMember
I have had a few weird things happen here and there.

One of my favorites, and I am being truthful about the events:

I have had a few weird things happen here and there.

One of my favorites:

When I was 17 I was driving LATE one night from Reno to Las Vegas with some friends.

Stone cold sober, I might add.

I was driving my buddy's purple GTO Judge and going as fast as it would go, which was reasonably fast.

Toodling down a two lane highway, middle of BF Nevada, all of a sudden a man in blue jeans and a red and black plaid shirt leaped out onto the road waving his arms in sort of a 'I’m gonna grab you' posture.

I swerved to the other lane and, as I got real close, I saw he had no mouth or eyes, just black pits where those parts should have been.

I can still get chills and goose bumps thinking about it – it seemed 100% bonafide real. The other guys were asleep, but awoke to my terrified "Yaaaaaghhhhh," which, of course, scared the bejeebers out of them. (I mean, one minute you're snoozing, and the next you're being awakened by the sound of the driver of the car swerving and screaming at the top of his lungs. Yeah, you could say the ghost scared them, too!)

We went blazing past him and I admit I had a hard time keeping the car steady and my brain together as I slowed down and tried to explain what happened.

After a bit, I got myself re-assembled and we back-tracked to see what we could see.

There was clean desert sand on both sides of the road, with a lone set of fresh footprints coming to the edge of the road, but no set going away from the road.

This was middle of nowhere, too. Back then, pitch black and no civilization for miles.

We got out the flashlight and followed the tracks away from the road. After about 30 feet, the prints just stopped. The prints were boot prints, with that standard Vibram cleat pattern, and were as fresh as our own prints as we made them.

Anyway, my buddies got spooked, so we didn't dig or hunt around the spot where the tracks started, but I really wanted to see if the prints had started over something even more interesting.

We left the scene, end of story.

_

About 18 months later, I was driving my girlfriend and her mom from Reno to L.A. and we were going down Highway 395 late one night, somewhere in the foresty party of the Sierras.

I was sober again, and driving about 65 mph. My girlfriend was asleep in the back, her mom was asleep in the front passenger seat.

All of a sudden, coming onto the roadway, appeared a figure in blue jeans and a red and black plaid shirt. I had barely enough time to swerve and saw HIM, again!

No eyes or mouth, just black pits, with his arms raised, like he was going to try to grab the car. The same dang guy!

I yelled (screamed) again and woke up my girlfriend's mom, who also yelled…. 'cause my yelling woke her up, which then startled me further, so I yelled again. It was a sonorous moment.

This time, I could see him as we drove past, and he made like to run and grab the car. I had to break for a turn and I was sure in that moment that he would be able to catch the car, my leg actually started to shake on the brake pedal. I saw him in the rearview mirror as the red rear lights illuminated him. No eyes, but I was sure he was looking straight at me.

I hit the gas and left him behind, but my girlfriend and her mom refused to go back and look for footprints.

After that, I had a reputation for hallucinating if left to drive late at night with other passengers asleep.



Many years have gone by, I still ponder that apparition's intentions, and I perpetually wonder when he might pop up again, on some lonesome road, late at night.

I mean, I know he's out there, and he seems to know me...
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glennkglennkMember
My old roommate had lots of ghost like stories that he absolutely believed were real growing up. He is very religious (more god guilt than belief in my opinion) so we were a strange pair because I’m not a believer. Anyway, a lot of what he said he saw when he was a kid had a strange godish thing about it so I just chalked it up to his upbringing and his parents making him think he was going to catch fire for stepping out of line. One night after him telling me a weird story of seeing someone in his bedroom when he was a kid, we both woke up to the TV blaring really load in the front room and the front door wide open. I can out of my room and then him out of his and I asked him if he left the TV on or opened the door. He said he had been sleeping for hours. It was weird and I was a little freaked out, but I just figured we forgot to lock the door and the tv was just on. Of course he thought the ghosts were back and went and prayed in his room. I opened a beer and watched sportscenter. Smile
board-oboard-oMember
Actually, I do have a serious experience which I haven't thought of in years. My paternal grandfather died when I was ten. A few months after he died, I walked past the doorway to the den and could have sworn I saw him sitting in a chair in front of the TV. I did a quick double take and turned around and went into the den. No one was there, but the TV was on.
purplehazepurplehazeMember
Our last large family house was haunted. Eek Eek Some of you have offlined there!

Prior to moving there, I was skeptical (to say the very least) about the existence of spirits. It was a very benign poltergeist or whatever you want to call him. Nothing too spectacular ever happened, but enough stuff for me to be totally convinced that something was going on.

The original owner of the house was seriously injured in the basement one evening, inspecting a noisy oil heater that subsequently exploded while he was kneeling next to it. The story we were told by the realtor who sold us the house was that he was injured in the explosion and died at the hospital later on. As we found out subsequently, he had actually died almost immediately after the explosion while in the basement. Must have been him.

Most of the little "events" occurred at night, with the most frequent sign being the ceiling fan/light over the bed in the master bedroom coming on while we were in bed. Sometimes the light. Sometimes the fan. Sometimes both. There were separate switches for each, so there was no logical electrical explanation for this. After a few times, and a random door closing or a window being discovered open that NO ONE opened, we concurred that it had to be a ghost. I was concerned enough about the light/fan switch that I had an electrician come out to inspect it. He gave it a clean bill of health, and was a little surprised when I asked him to replace it anyway. He did. The phenomena continued.

There was one other weird thing. Every morning during the season, my morning routine would have me grabbing a mug of joe and heading to the back yard to do a little pool maintenance. There was a curving path that would pass a grape arbor on the way down the hill to the pool. One morning, just off to the right of the path near the arbor was a freshly dug pile of dirt. Our soil in this part of MD is hardpan clay. This pile of dirt was the consistency and approximate size of an ant hill. Very loose and grainy. It was not an ant hill. Sticking out of the edge of the mound was a silver chain. I extracted it from the pile of dirt and it turned out to be a necklace with a fish pendant attached. Just a cheap thing. The fish was one of those "jointed" things with each component attached to the next so that the fish had some range of motion. It was covered in dirt, with dirt in the links of the chains and in between the fish parts. I showed it to my wife and one daughter who was home at the time. My wife still has the necklace. We just laughed about it. We were used to little strange things occurring by this time.

PH
V vinobevoMember
You could attribute this to spirits, or the fact sometimes dogs have a different level of sense or connection than we do...

When I was a kid we lived in San Antonio and I had an uncle in Austin, which is about 90 miles north. My uncle had a German Shephard named Buddy that he'd had for years and who was his constant companion. My uncle was diagnosed with cancer and toward the end as things got pretty bad my aunt brought Buddy down to stay with us while she was with my uncle 24-7 at the hospital. On the night he died, at pretty much the exact moment if our timelines were accurate, Buddy started howling and did so throughout the night.

I've always been convinced he knew before we did.
M mrcabernetMember
quote:
Originally posted by Vino Bevo:
You could attribute this to spirits, or the fact sometimes dogs have a different level of sense or connection than we do...

Yeah, that's a "fact." Dogs have great psychic ability. They've shown mind reading, ESP and also run great seances. However, I've also seen paintings of dogs cheating at poker (passing cards with their paws.) But it is a fact that most dogs do not cheat at cards.
purplehazepurplehazeMember
quote:
Originally posted by Vino Bevo:
Was that supposed to be funny?


VB, you've gotta learn to ignore this guy. I think he's probaby a decent chap but he really has almost no ability to write a post without being condescending, irritating or pompous. I'm pretty sure he got beat up a lot in elementary school. He just has that profile, I'm afraid. Sorry about your uncle. Frown

PH
M mrcabernetMember
quote:
Originally posted by PurpleHaze:
quote:
Originally posted by Vino Bevo:
Was that supposed to be funny?


VB, you've gotta learn to ignore this guy. I think he's probably a decent chap but he really has almost no ability to write a post without being condescending, irritating or pompous. I'm pretty sure he got beat up a lot in elementary school. He just has that profile, I'm afraid. Sorry about your uncle. Frown

PH

I don't mind being written about as you just did, but I don't think it's condescending, irritating or pompous to make fun of anyone who believes a dog has psychic ability. We live in a scientifically ignorant time, during which we've seen a rise in pseudo-science and mystic belief. There are a number of examples of magic thinking already in this short thread.

PS., I got beat up twice from 5th grade through high school.
A azcatMember
When I was in college I worked at a dorm that the freshman football players had to live at before they were allowed to move off campus as sophomores. The dorm, which was co-ed, housed a number of non-athlete students as well. When I started working there I was told we might get an occassional visit from detectives who were still trying to solve a case from a few years earlier - a female resident had been killed (body found in the desert) and her boyfriend had disappeared, and once in awhile the detectives would stop by to review some old records, etc.

Anyway, one night the football team was on a road trip and I was "doing the rounds" with a co-worker of mine. We noticed that the door to one of the players' rooms was open. We looked inside to confirm that no one was inside, then we closed the door behind us as we left (all of the doors were self-locking when they were closed). Our rounds took us by the room again a few minutes later and the door was once again open. We closed it again, this time pulling on it to confirm that it was in fact closed tightly and locked, which it was. We took about five steps when were heard a slight creak - looking back at the door we saw with some surprise that it was once again open!

We went to the office to complete the paperwork to have Maintenance come out and repair what was obviously a faulty door handle. Our boss happened to come through the office while we were there and asked what we were doing. When we told him that were were putting in a request to have the door to room "x" repaired, and why, he started looking pretty nervous and told us that that was the room that had been occupied by the girl who had been murdered.

A little spooky for sure, but even after that I was a bit of a cynic when it came to this sort of thing. However a few years ago I also had an experience with a haunted house that has made me much less skeptical about ghosts, spirits, etc.

PS - billhike, no he won't. Wink
M mrcabernetMember
quote:
Originally posted by billhike:
I understood correctly. My point is that you were likely getting beaten up by kids much younger than yourself. One day you'll shock us all by making a post that isn't negative, condescending or asinine. At least we can dream.

I changed my response when I realized that's what you meant. I do believe that I can point out a number of non-negative, condescending or asinine posts (though I think asinine is kind of subjective.)
T thecabernetofdoctorcaligariMember
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Cabernet:
Just to be clear here, we all know there are no ghosts, spirits, heavens, hells or gods, don't we?


Well, I am a bigger atheist than any of y'all, but I like the mystery of a good ghost "experience."

After all, any of us are only one or twenty solid supernatural experiences away from being believers.

I like George Eliot's take from Silas Marner...

In a conversation between townsfolk regarding seeing the goings on at a supposedly haunted house:

"There's folks, i' my opinion, they can't see ghos'es, not if they stood as plain as a pike-staff before 'em. And there's reason i' that.
For there's my wife, now, can't smell, not if she'd the strongest o' cheese under her nose. I never see'd a ghost myself; but then I says to myself, 'Very like I haven't got the smell for 'em.' I mean, putting a ghost for a smell, or else contrairiways. And so, I'm for holding with both sides; for, as I say, the truth lies between 'em."
M mrcabernetMember
quote:
Originally posted by The Cabernet of Doctor Caligari:
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Cabernet:
Just to be clear here, we all know there are no ghosts, spirits, heavens, hells or gods, don't we?


Well, I am a bigger atheist than any of y'all, but I like the mystery of a good ghost "experience."

I'm sorry, no you're not. Not if you believe that any mystic experiences cannot be explained by natural means. For example, in our psychic dog story, that night hundreds of thousands of people died who owned dogs and they didn't howl. On that same night hundreds of thousands of dogs howled (my mom's is one of them) and no one died.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
purplehazepurplehazeMember
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Cabernet:
I don't mind being written about as you just did, but I don't think it's condescending, irritating or pompous to make fun of anyone who believes a dog has psychic ability. We live in a scientifically ignorant time, during which we've seen a rise in pseudo-science and mystic belief. There are a number of examples of magic thinking already in this short thread.

PS., I got beat up twice from 5th grade through high school.


Given that Vino Bevo was making his post in reference to the death of an obviously cared for relative, your tone was glaringly insensitive and certainly irritated the shit out of me. I can't speak for VB.

That said, science is always in flux. Today's certainty is tomorrows obsolete factoid. We're always finding "new" things that support old wisdoms.

PH
M mrcabernetMember
quote:
Originally posted by PurpleHaze:
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Cabernet:
I don't mind being written about as you just did, but I don't think it's condescending, irritating or pompous to make fun of anyone who believes a dog has psychic ability. We live in a scientifically ignorant time, during which we've seen a rise in pseudo-science and mystic belief. There are a number of examples of magic thinking already in this short thread.

PS., I got beat up twice from 5th grade through high school.


Given that Vino Bevo was making his post in reference to the death of an obviously cared for relative, your tone was glaringly insensitive and certainly irritated the shit out of me. I can't speak for VB.


PH

Oh please, someone claims a dog is psychic in any context and you can't say it's dumb because it involved a dead relative?

quote:
That said, science is always in flux. Today's certainty is tomorrows obsolete factoid.


See above comment on extraordinary claims.

quote:
We're always finding "new" things that support old wisdoms.

No we're not.
M mrcabernetMember
quote:
Originally posted by Board-O:
quote:
Originally posted by PurpleHaze:
Given that Vino Bevo was making his post in reference to the death of an obviously cared for relative, your tone was glaringly insensitive and certainly irritated the shit out of me.


PH, you're obviously a bright guy.


No, not really.
quote:
Our last large family house was haunted. Some of you have offlined there!

Prior to moving there, I was skeptical (to say the very least) about the existence of spirits. It was a very benign poltergeist or whatever you want to call him. Nothing too spectacular ever happened, but enough stuff for me to be totally convinced that something was going on
V vinobevoMember
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Cabernet:
Just to be clear here, we all know there are no ghosts, spirits, heavens, hells or gods, don't we?


Folks like you crack me up. You have your beliefs and I have mine, but while I respect your position while disagreeing with it, you clearly don't take the same approach. You don't have to believe in the things science can't prove, but until you can prove those things don't ridicule those that do. It's sad to go through life that angry.

One of us is wrong here and if it's me, then everything stops once I die and you can argue I wasted a lot of time in church. However if you're wrong...

That's enough on this - sorry for hijacking the thread.
T thecabernetofdoctorcaligariMember
quote:

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.


Definitely a bigger atheist than you, no affront intended.

I think language is important, and rather than "get all atheist up in someone's face" I prefer to consider that plenty of extraordinary experiences occur, and I enjoy that aspect of human nature.

Judging from this thread and others' posts, I will even declare YOU extraordinary.

Going back 10,000 years, before the Universe was even created, somewhere out there were YOUR ancestors.

What do you suppose the odds were if I had said, "If you two Darwinian Apes hook up right now, today, and make some junior Darwinian Ape, in 500 generations, Mr. Grape will shoot 300 million sperm into Mrs. Grape's vagina and the result will be exactly one Mr. Cabernet, who will grow up to hang at a wine lovers' forum and argue about spirituality?"

Those odds are maybe several gazillion to one, yet here you are.

An extraordinary result achieved by entirely ordinary means.

Same goes for (pardon me for any presumption, I am talking in generalities) you meeting your spouse - odds at birth of you meeting and falling in love with your significant other are pretty long when considered in the specific sense, but totally 'ordinary' in the sense that you had to meet and fall in love with somebody, it just happened to be your spouse.

I agree, extraordinary claims requires extraordinary proof, but not extraordinary experiences.

Therein lies the fun!

Once again, totally a bigger atheist than you, just to make that clear.

Bigger.

More sincerely atheist.

Maybe not as evangelical an atheist as you, but no doubt a more true athiest.

Cool

(By the way, this is all in good fun, no flame is intended, inferred, implied...)
purplehazepurplehazeMember
quote:
Originally posted by Board-O:
quote:
Originally posted by PurpleHaze:
Given that Vino Bevo was making his post in reference to the death of an obviously cared for relative, your tone was glaringly insensitive and certainly irritated the shit out of me.


PH, you're obviously a bright guy. Don't let anything posted here irritate you.


Thanks, Board-O. It's not serious irritation. More like a little itch on my tuchus.

As far this:

quote:
Originally posted by Mr. Cabernet:
quote:
We're always finding "new" things that support old wisdoms.


No we're not.


From the days of Hippocrates until the mid-1800s A.D., there were suggestions that chewing the bark of the willow tree yielded "miraculous" pain relieving results. The supposition was looked upon by the scientific community as superstition, junk science and the result of the power of suggestion. Then scientists isloated salicin from the bark of the willow tree, and one of the first "miracle drugs" was discovered. There are countless examples of this type of thing over the centuries. We're finding new things every day that tie back to accepted wisdoms of the ancients. If someone chooses to ignore them, then that is their right. It doesn't mean it isn't happening.

PH
T thecabernetofdoctorcaligariMember
Agian, I'm a bigger atheist than anyone, just to be clear.

I saw a cave drawing from an early Cro Magnon cave once that was interpreted as representing a caveman telling his peers that ever since his primitive dentist installed an amalgam filling, he was getting the sound of the ocean from his mouth!

He was worshipped as a shaman and got laid alot, leaving many descendents.

It wasn't until this last century with the invention of the radio that the sound of the ocean coming from the mouths of his dentally challenged descendants evolved into the local AM radio station and we realized it was radio waves, not the Sun God that was behind the phenomenon.

_

Perhaps someone describing faith to you is like Marconi describing radio waves to a Cro Magnon cave dweller. Is Marconi wrong because no one gets it and he has no way to demo his notion at the moment, or is the cave dweller wrong because he's too slow to pick up the signal?
Last edited by thecabernetofdoctorcaligari
T thecabernetofdoctorcaligariMember
Next example.

I know a guy who has protanopia: he can't "see"/perceive red light/color.

He jokes about being a "color red" atheist and says we're all making up this stuff about the existence of red, and we are deluded in our shared 'belief' in redness.

Maybe - like my red-skeptic pal - there are some people who lack the gene for faith, and simply can't perceive what others readily (get it, red-ily?) do.

Maybe I'm the defective one in that I am unable to perceive 'faith.'

Just like I can show my buddy all the red trucks, lipsticks, and stop signs in the world and not make him see red; the same may be my problem with faith.

On the other hand, I think it more likely people with faith are applying a soothing balm to simply assuage their existential angst, but I wouldn't want to begrudge anyone their faith experience...so long as they don't insist I have to share the delusion or live by the rules of their mythology. Then, I get more like you seem to be.
A adam10Member
quote:
Originally posted by PurpleHaze:
Our last large family house was haunted. Eek Eek Some of you have offlined there!

Prior to moving there, I was skeptical (to say the very least) about the existence of spirits. It was a very benign poltergeist or whatever you want to call him. Nothing too spectacular ever happened, but enough stuff for me to be totally convinced that something was going on.

The original owner of the house was seriously injured in the basement one evening, inspecting a noisy oil heater that subsequently exploded while he was kneeling next to it. The story we were told by the realtor who sold us the house was that he was injured in the explosion and died at the hospital later on. As we found out subsequently, he had actually died almost immediately after the explosion while in the basement. Must have been him.

Most of the little "events" occurred at night, with the most frequent sign being the ceiling fan/light over the bed in the master bedroom coming on while we were in bed. Sometimes the light. Sometimes the fan. Sometimes both. There were separate switches for each, so there was no logical electrical explanation for this. After a few times, and a random door closing or a window being discovered open that NO ONE opened, we concurred that it had to be a ghost. I was concerned enough about the light/fan switch that I had an electrician come out to inspect it. He gave it a clean bill of health, and was a little surprised when I asked him to replace it anyway. He did. The phenomena continued.

There was one other weird thing. Every morning during the season, my morning routine would have me grabbing a mug of joe and heading to the back yard to do a little pool maintenance. There was a curving path that would pass a grape arbor on the way down the hill to the pool. One morning, just off to the right of the path near the arbor was a freshly dug pile of dirt. Our soil in this part of MD is hardpan clay. This pile of dirt was the consistency and approximate size of an ant hill. Very loose and grainy. It was not an ant hill. Sticking out of the edge of the mound was a silver chain. I extracted it from the pile of dirt and it turned out to be a necklace with a fish pendant attached. Just a cheap thing. The fish was one of those "jointed" things with each component attached to the next so that the fish had some range of motion. It was covered in dirt, with dirt in the links of the chains and in between the fish parts. I showed it to my wife and one daughter who was home at the time. My wife still has the necklace. We just laughed about it. We were used to little strange things occurring by this time.

PH


I dont get the last bit, but based on the other stuff...I'd have moved.
purplehazepurplehazeMember
I don't get it either. That said, we never for a moment ever felt afraid or concerned. Can't say why, because this stuff was not explainable in any way we could figure. I can't for sure say it was supernatural, but it was happening. 12-15 times with the light/fan thing and more than a handful of doors and windows over a 10 year period. Every time we thought it was not going to happen again, something would pop up. It stopped completely about 2 years before we moved.

PH
T thecabernetofdoctorcaligariMember
quote:
Originally posted by PurpleHaze:
I don't get it either. That said, we never for a moment ever felt afraid or concerned. Can't say why, because this stuff was not explainable in any way we could figure. I can't for sure say it was supernatural, but it was happening. 12-15 times with the light/fan thing and more than a handful of doors and windows over a 10 year period. Every time we thought it was not going to happen again, something would pop up. It stopped completely about 2 years before we moved.

PH


Did ya ever wonder why he had the fan fetish?

Way too many ghosts seem to learn one or two stupid tricks and then suffer some sort of arrested "spiritual" development.

Maybe he stopped 'cause you just weren't getting it.

Big Grin
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