You first.

I've never seen a ghost, but I've felt their presence many, many times. A quick story, because I'm busy at work:

In college, at a friend's apartment late at night. The topic turns to ghosts, etc., because that's sometimes the case with late-night talks. Turns out my friend can see ghosts -- a friend who committed suicide visited him in his room a week later, and he'd seen a couple others at various times. We continue talking, and all of a sudden he gets quiet. I ask what's up, and he says that there's a group of Native Americans in the room ...but it's OK, because their mine. Over the next couple hours, I'm introduced to several of my guardian spirits, including a small N.A. hunting party from the Carolina Coast, and an old woman who stayed in the hallway because she didn't want to freak me out. (As if that was an issue at that point.)

Good rule of thumb: talking about the spirit world invites it to manifest itself.

I don't have this... My grandmother did, my sister does. She sees dead people. But not all the time, thank goodness! And she sees things before they happen. I believe her; she's a levelheaded, busy, devoted mother of two who doesn't tell wild stories or try to grab attention. (Between us, I would be much more the zany, wacky one.)

I have recollectiions of certain things as a child, but I don't deem those memories reliable.

I've seen ghost stories. They're usually collected in books.

/bad joke

Sorry. Not a believer.

I've never seen a ghost or observed paranormal activity. But, a trusted older colleague once told me a story of an encounter in which he and some friends (when they were in high school) were parked alongside a road at night in a suburban area of Connecticut. His friend and the friend's girlfriend were talking in the back seat. The two became silent, and this colleague, who was driving, looked in the rearview mirror and saw that the girl looked horrified and had tears streaming down her face. He then observed, in front of the vehicle, on the passenger side, what he described as an apparition bathed in light with a shadowy appearance. He said that as he looked at it, he was paralyzed with terror, and that the presence eminated malevolence. Finally, he was able to gain his composure enough to drive off.

...and this colleague is a very level-headed, somewhat conservative person who I think wouldn't be likely to believe such a story had it come from someone else.

I have ghost cats. There's an orange cat I'll see in in various rooms, and a black and white cat that harasses my (living) cat.

I walked up to the bedroom one day to see my cat in the typical "fraidy cat" pose looking not at me but ahead of me down a short hallway. I looked in the hallway and see a black and white cat sauntering away, but then I blinked and it was gone.

I am not opposed to the idea that this vision was induced partly through the sleep deprevation that affects those with children.

I'm very skeptical about the supernatural, but I always like hearing about these sorts of experiences.

I believe it unwise to speak of some things.

In the mid '80s my Mum and I were visiting middle brother and his then wife in Chula Vista, CA. The morning after we got there, sis-in-law and I were the only two up at about 7am. We were sitting in the dining area chit-chatting about nothing much. For some reason I turned and looked into the living room. I saw Mum in her nightgown walking towards us. I said good morning and turned back to continue the chat with SIL. SIL was looking at me strangely and I asked her what was wrong. She said there's no one there. Who are you talking to? I, at that point, had realized Mum hadn't joined us. I turned around and no one was there. I'll admit the living room was rather dimly lit, but I know what I saw. SIL proceeded to tell me about the things she would occasionally see and hear in the kitchen - pots and pans clanking, cupboards and drawers opening, etc. She said she hadn't said anything to anyone about it before because she thought she wouldn't be believed.

Call it a ghost, a vision or a figment of my imagination. All I know is that there is more out there than we'll ever understand.

I don't believe in the supernatural but I also don't believe it's neccessary to be fucking around with a Ouija board in a dark and empty house, nowhattmean?

I'm glad to hear about your ghost cats, frecklefaerie. I used to see ghost dogs when I was a kid, but I just assumed it was some brain thing of mapping the unexplained bits of sudden movement into something familiar. (^_^)

One time I heard the sound of my grandfather walking across the kitchen tile with his cane and sitting in the chair he always sat in. He wasn't there, and he wasn't dead. I thought I was going crazy, but the dog ran out there and sat as she always did and looked like her head was being patted they way he would do. She continued looking up into the seated (non)figure, and I did my best to pretend I wasn't totally freaked out, and avoided going into the kitchen until other people came home.

Never saw one, but they have spoken to me... favorite time was I was working in the hospital and one of our brandy- new nurses got panicky because her patient was dying right there and then and it was that nurse's first time and she didn't know what to do or how to help (the patient did not want resuscitation, by the way). So I went into her room which was filled with terrified family members and I did what you do when you know what to do and so as she died she was being touched by the people who loved her who were thanking her and telling her that they loved her and it was a big group hug/ send off thing, and was very beautiful.

On my way home that night, driving down the highway, I hear a very very very VERY loud "THANK YOU!". It was so loud that it actually hurt and I swerved the car and had to pull over, laughing because it was so loud and she certainly wanted to be sure I heard the message.

I told another nurse about it the next day and said that she must have been hard of hearing to yell at me so loudly from the next life and the other nurse said that maybe she had to yell because I just wasn't listening. That really cracked me up.

I eventually became a Hospice nurse and a lot more stuff happened like that. It makes a believer out of you- I'm not sure what kind of a believer, but a believer, nonetheless.

I've had two experiences. One was ghostly, the other was just fucking weird. Maybe it was a ghost, maybe not. Who knows.

Predictable caveat: I don't really believe in ghosts.

So anyway, the ghost sighting. The ex and I were traveling through northern Mass and found a great old B&B in the middle of nowhere. (Well, here, if you happen to be in the neighborhood.) The inn is a big, old white clapboard tavern building -- you know, in the old sense. A tavern on a stagecoach stop doubled as an inn, etc. Built in the 18th century, I think.

Anyway, I woke up in the middle of the night and there was a woman standing next to the bed, looking out the window. She was wearing the requisite white Victorian gown and big hat. I knew at the time that I might be dreaming, but I also knew that my eyes were very definitely open. I tried to wake the ex, but she couldn't be roused. I stared at the woman for a while, and that was it.

This was about 8 years ago. I've always wanted to call that place back and ask if anyone has ever told them a story like that.

Anyway, the second experience. (Involving another ex. Hmmm....) Ex and I were headed to San Antonio to visit a friend of hers, a high school kid who'd lived with her once. We got to town and called the kid to figure out where we'd meet him. I'm standing there, listening to the ex's end of the conversation. "Oh my god. Oh my god. Are you serious? Oh my god."

This kid, Peter, his parents had been out of town for a while (they were rich; they traveled a lot). This was a Monday; on Saturday night, Peter had gone to a party with his best friend, John. At some point, the best friend left the party, leaving Peter there without a ride home. Peter was pissed, and crashed on the couch after the party. At 2 a.m., the phone rings in the house where Peter's crashing -- it's his best friend. Peter proceeds to ream John for ditching him at the party, asks him where he is. John says, "Well, I'm in your house." Peter asks John what he's doing there, John says, "Just get over here."

Peter doesn't have a ride -- John ditched him -- so he jogs the few miles home. When he gets there, John tells him to go up to his bedroom. He does. There's a dead girl in his bed, blood everywhere.

When John left the party, he drove home (he lived with his girlfriend's family) and picked up his girlfriend's 11-year-old sister. He took the sister to Peter's house -- which he knew was empty, since the parents were traveling. Assaulted her, beat her to death with a baseball bat. In his best friend's bed.

Peter is telling this story to the ex on the phone, and he's understandably freaked. We pick him up to take him to lunch, but he wants to show us his bedroom. The parents -- from out of town -- had already called in contractors to repaint and install new carpet. So, Peter takes us upstairs to show us his bedroom. It's spic-and-span, sort of like a furniture showroom. As I'm standing there in the doorway, I felt what I can only describe as the feeling of cold skin up against my arm. At the time, I was sure the girl was there with us, touching me.

Still makes my blood run cold.



Boo. Or something.

Holy fucking shit, mudpuppie.

now, I can't bring myself to believe in ghosts, cos I'm just not a believer in things, but I don't need to believe in them to say that puddinghead, that was a lovely story. I bet you're a great hospice nurse

Divine_Wino - that's perfectly put. Thank you.

...It was at that moment, that James Dean realised the pink fuzzy sweater belonged to...

...Old Hookhand. And when Old Hookhand attempted to don the sweater...

...His hook fell on the floor and rolled away.

When i was about 10 I watched a storm come in overland from the ocean. I was fascinated; i love storms so i stayed up and watched the darkening clouds and the lightening.

The storm moved closer, right over the neighbourhood. Lightening everywhere. Thunder cracking right overhead.

Then utter silence. As i peered out of the window a huge ball of lightning moved slowly and gently down the road in front of my house. There was still no sound and i was going to run to my folks' room to wake them up but i was transfixed and couldnt move.

The ball lightning moved out of my line-of-sight and the sounds of the storm slowly returned. Gobsmacked, i went to bed.

--

A few years ago, when Id just found some work and i university and my living at my folks' place was a distant memory i was working, cooking in the kitchen of my new pad. Around this time i wore my keys around my neck on a piece of thin leather, the type you use for friendship bands and the like.

So im chopping up the tomatoes and onions for the spag bol when i hear a *chink* on the floor below me. It my keys. Im bothered now because it's going to take me ages to fix the leather strip because its fiddly work and ive got recalcitrant fingers, and i stoop to pick the keys up only to notice that the strip was intact. The only way for the keys to have fallen was if the leather strip had passed through my neck...

---

A couple of years before that me and 2 friends of mine saw a UFO. We were driving from my mate's house to Canterbury (south of England) in my mum's car. I think we were going to pick up some weed for the weekend.

We hadnt driven 10 minutes before my friend pointed at something in the sky, something shining, glinting in the sun, something round and that appeared to be stationary about 300 feet off the ground, hovering over a field.

I pulled the car over. For the next 20 minutes we watched this thing. It didnt move. But something else remarkable happened. Something pulled away and down from the main craft, down to the ground. It too was shiny, obviously made of the same material as the "mothership". After a couple of minutes it rose back and merged with the main craft.

At this point we left; i had the craft in my rear-view mirror until we passed some hills and the the view was obscured.

The local paper ran a story about the UFO. The local airfield said there was nothing in the air at the time to explain what it was. Over 30 people had seen this UFO and written in to the paper to explain their experience.

----

A couple of months later I saw an alien in the same friend's front room. Scared the shit out of me. I dont know if the dope we'd been smoking made me make it up, or allowed me to see it more "clearly".

When I was at school in New Zealand, I went on a history trip and, one night, we slept in the Marae (meeting house) of a Maori village, on the floor in sleeping bags. One of the taboos about Maraes was that you should, under no circumstances, wear shoes inside them. One of the girls in the group walked into the Marae with her shoes on, to the absolute horror of the locals.

Later that night, when everyone had gone to bed and was settling down for the night (most of us were still awake, chatting in the dark), the huge sliding door that was the main entrance to the Marae silently fell down, directly where the girl who had worn shoes inside was lying, as well as several others. They all saw it coming and pulled their legs back just in time to avoid being crushed. if it had happened 10 minutes later, they probably would have been asleep.

The door was inspected thoroughly, but there was no way physically possible for it to drop off its tracks like that and the tracks had to be pulled apart to get the door back in place.

No matter what you think of native beliefs, it is better to observe them.

you guys are scaring me....more please!

Seen? No. I've had maybe 3 explained-with-difficulty events that aren't particularly ghostly and so will tell another time.

But something happening right now (the last few weeks -- and hasn't happened since last fall) is that our microwave is acting strange. It comes on by itself. It's not due to a temporary power outage which turns the microwave on when power returns. And when it happens, it doesn't just go on. You hear these painstaking beeps as if the digits are being punched in -- "2 - 2 - 2" and then the power comes on, dish rotates, etc. So if you're quick, you can hear the beeping and get the door open so it doesn't actually power up. We've started putting a cup of water in there and last fall ended up just unplugging it when we weren't around. It's electronic, so this is easily in the realm of explanation, but in a certain mood it still unnerves me and the SO a bit, especially when it happens several times across a night.

The other stuff involved being able to perceive (confirmable) things that I really shouldn't have been able to perceive, so like I said, not really ghostly. Mmm, and there was that other thing, but I'm not finished sorting that one out.