Ghosts and the paranormal

[Veganite]

I'm curious if anyone else has had a paranormal experience? Perhaps one you would like to share?

I must admit, I have been a skeptic most of my life. I really like to see something before believing it. The paranormal experience I had, which I will share, unfortunately, I didn't see anything. However, what made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end was what I heard.

It's now been decades since my mother passed away. The experience I had was within a few weeks of her passing. I was living in the family house all alone after she passed away. It happened one night when I had just gotten home from visiting a friend. My mother's bedroom was at the top of the stairs on the left side of the house. As I entered the house, I immediately heard her voice call out, coming from the top of the stairs, where her room was. She wasn't calling my name though. I have a little sister, but she wasn't living there at the time. The voice called out for her, as if curious as to who just came in the front door.

I know what I heard. I had not been drinking or anything that would've altered my perception. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. As a skeptic, it is not something I expected, or even welcomed, despite the voice being that of my late mother. It literally scared the daylights out of me. Anyhow, to this day I have never experienced anything else like that. I still remain somewhat skeptical, but a little more open minded to unknown possibilities. I still can't explain what I heard that night. I can't even come up with a reasonable explanation that isn't paranormal.

What about you, any ghost stories to share?

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[Lou]

Wow. that gave me goose bumps.

Mine can be easily explained - but at the time it was pretty spooky.
I was a little boy, maybe 5, and I had just fallen down the stairs to the basement. A whole flight. but I was little and bounced.
upon opening my eyes, I saw a large stuffed animal, it was a cat and I think my sister had outgrew it and now it lived in the basement.
it got up on its toes and tiptoed over to me.

 

[Deleted member 3018]

I have had a lot of paranormal experiences. I suppose I'm more open to those as well because many of my friends have also had their own experiences with paranormal and occult.

I could maybe tell about my cat who passed away 1.7.2020. Granted, I was devastated and my mental state at the time could have caused me to have a grief related hallucinations. But long after she was physically gone, I could see her and feel her.

One day I came back home from work and as I opened the door, there she was. I followed her inside the apartment and then she vanished.
I saw glimpses of her every now and then, like she was partially in this realm and partially in some other realm and going back and forth.

I thought that she had left after one night I saw this orb of light next to me. It felt like she was saying goodbye.
But then some while after that I had pain on my leg and just like she would do if she was alive, I felt her purring next to my leg. I didn't see her, but I could feel the vibrations from the purring. And that healed my leg.

Now it has been maybe about a year without her presence.

 

[Deleted member 3018]

Wow. that gave me goose bumps.

Mine can be easily explained - but at the time it was pretty spooky.
I was a little boy, maybe 5, and I had just fallen down the stairs to the basement. A whole flight. but I was little and bounced.
upon opening my eyes, I saw a large stuffed animal, it was a cat and I think my sister had outgrew it and now it lived in the basement.
it got up on its toes and tiptoed over to me.

Oh damn. Large stuffed animals are somewhat creepy. Except Blåhajs. Those are safe. Hopefully.

 

[Kathy Lauren]

I don't believe in anything supernatural. "Nature" is everything that is and everything that happens. So, if something happens, it is natural; if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. Having said which, there is plenty of stuff in nature that we don't understand (yet).

So is "paranormal" natural but just outside of what we consider "normal"? Or is it supernatural, which means (by my definition) that it doesn't happen? I have no idea!

Anyway, I have not had any experiences that I could consider paranormal.

 

[Brian W]

It was 1998 and I had separated from my first wife and moved into a bedsit. The house was quite old and there were three other people living there. I lived downstairs next to a friend of mine. We'll call her "B" One day, B told me she felt very uneasy in the section of the house between our kitchen and the small common room. She felt there was a presence and that it was female. I was so used to new agers and charismatic christians having "feelings" that I was skeptical so I dismissed it in my mind. A few weeks later, B had moved into a Buddhist community and I was alone downstairs. I walked into the kitchen and just as I looked at the window, I saw a white misty shape move along outside. I reasoned that it must be the fire door closing and somehow the light from it was reflecting off walls and into the window but I couldn't work out how this could be at those angles. Then one day I was walking from the kitchen into the common room and I was poked quite strongly in the arm. The room was empty but it felt exactly like a physical person had poked me. A week or so Later my wife came around for dinner and coffee and while we were sitting in the common room she suddenly looked puzzled. I asked her what was up and she said she thought she saw something move between us. I asked "did it look like a white mist?" Very stupid of me - I should have just asked what it looked like but my wife was a very honest person so when she said yes I trusted her.

Another friend of mine suggested it might have been a muscle spasm but I have had those and they feel entirely different. The strangest part of all this was that I wasn't at all scared when it happened.

 

[Brian W]

I've been digging out a few of my posts in another forum. Here is another.

In my new age days, I became very interested in UFOs and my friend (Let's call him J) and I had many experiences of strange lights and sounds but they were too vague to be identified as anything out of the ordinary. The sound we heard mostly for example turned out to be the sound of trains running over the railway track, distorted by distance and wind. One night however, we were walking along by the local stream and we both looked up at the same time to see a perfect hexagon of lights moving slowly at a low altitude in the same direction as us and making no sound at all. Whenever I remember this, I always try to fit the experience to human aircraft but I simply can't.

 

[Brian W]

I couldn't find this one on the forum, so I guess I didn't post it. It was when I moved back from Wales and lived temporarily with my mum. I was asleep in bed and early in the morning, while it was still dark, I woke up. I was lying on my front and could feel my hands under my head but when I opened my eyes, instead of seeing my hands and pillow beneath me, I could see a road with somebody walking along the path beside it. I looked at the distant trees and they appeared almost to be in daylight, even though it was dark. The thought occurred to me that this shouldn't be happening and I panicked and snapped back to my normal reality in bed.

 

[ewomack]

The closest I ever came to something others might consider "paranormal" (though I'm not sure exactly what to make of that word), I was lying on my bed years ago face down. I started hearing people talking and soon more conversations started and it all came to me in surround sound (which didn't exist at the time). A few people spoke to my left, some to my right, some above me, some below me. I couldn't make out what they said, but the conversations intensified, though it never felt dangerous or scary in any way. I really don't think I fell asleep. I listened to the morass intentionally for maybe 5 to 10 minutes and when I lifted my head it all suddenly stopped. I remember feeling so confused that I walked around the house and just found my father quietly reading the paper. No one was talking anywhere. The house didn't make a sound. I found no TVs or radios turned on. I listened outside, but heard nothing. I laid back down on my bed in the same way, but the voices didn't return. I was more confused than freaked out, but after the fact I really wondered what had happened. Maybe I fell asleep and dreamed it all and just didn't realize it? Maybe my imagination just went wild? I don't know, but the whole experience felt very "real." I told a friend about it some years later and she thought I had "tuned into something on some other plane." I don't know. I still remember it very vividly as something that I truly experienced, but I'll never know whether I just imagined it all or not.

I've known more than a few people who claimed to have "paranormal" experiences. A few said they saw blurry apparitions at night. Others felt definite "presences" in the room with them. One even claimed that a seat cushion indented itself right in front of them, as though someone had sat on it, but no one was there. The person said they instantly felt a terrifying presence and they ran out of the room. It never happened again, apparently. A few others said they noticed things missing off of shelves or moved to other locations after leaving and returning to a room after 30 seconds or so. Again, it's very hard to know what to believe, but just about everyone who has told me such stories told them with a fair amount of conviction. All were people who I considered "normal," "sane" people who didn't seem desperate for attention. All of them were also people who I knew fairly well and they told the stories as though they only told them to certain people. Again, I don't know. I find such stories interesting, but it's difficult to know how seriously to take them.

 

[Brian W]

I don't know. I still remember it very vividly as something that I truly experienced, but I'll never know whether I just imagined it all or not.

I feel the same about my "out of the body" experience. I think maybe there is a point where the line between being awake and being asleep is not so distinct. My wife, for example, used to have bad night terrors where she would wake up and see, very clearly, a face in front of hers. I have also had a number of lucid dreams, one of which lasted a good number of minutes, so maybe there is a connection there. Ghosts are a different matter because people experience them while awake and in their right mind. I don't believe that ghosts are spirits of dead people but after my experience I am totally convinced that they exist.

 

[Emma JC]

we listen to Coast to Coast AM so we hear lots of other people's experiences and haven't had a lot of our own

I have tried to have 'out of body' experiences and was in France one time, staying in a hotel, and trying to hard to get out so I could go to the room above where a friend was staying - I was able then to get about 6 inches out and then slammed back in... so sad as I have siblings who fly in their dreams all the time and they way they describe it is it definitely IMO out of body travelling or soul travelling. I am very jealous. I have a friend who also soul travels a lot and he tries not to because it is not always a pleasant experience for him.

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

 

[Veganite]

I have tried to have 'out of body' experiences

I use to fly in my dreams a lot when I was young. I have never had the experience as an adult, unfortunately.

I do remember having pretty good control over my dream state on occasion, but the conditions had to be right. For example, when I was a kid I used to sleep very deeply. So deeply that my mother had difficulty waking me for school. It was when she did wake me up. I would answer her right away, as she called my name, and then instantly turn my head back onto the pillow and go back into the very dream I was having at the time. It was then, because I was sort of semi-awake, that I could literally control my dream and where it went. It was still fresh, right there. All I had to do was close my eyes.

I don't think my experience was the same as astral projection or an out of body experience. My experience as far as I know is called lucid dreaming. I wish I could still do it. I am lucky if I even remember my dreams these days.

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[Allicie]

I don't know if this can be considered paranormal, but it was unusual. When I was 13, my stepfather's mother died. At that age, I did not understand what it was, it seemed to me that she just left our house for a long time. I was ashamed that I could not cry and worry, like my whole family. A couple of years later, I had a dream that she came out to me very beautifully dressed, and said that she saw how I did not fall into despair and that she was very proud of me. I don't know what it was, but I can't forget it

 

[silva]

I use to fly in my dreams a lot when I was young. I have never had the experience as an adult, unfortunately.

I do remember having pretty good control over my dream state on occasion, but the conditions had to be right. For example, when I was a kid I used to sleep very deeply. So deeply that my mother had difficulty waking me for school. It was when she did wake me up. I would answer her right away, as she called my name, and then instantly turn my head back onto the pillow and go back into the very dream I was having at the time. It was then, because I was sort of semi-awake, that I could literally control my dream and where it went. It was still fresh, right there. All I had to do was close my eyes.

I don't think my experience was the same as astral projection or an out of body experience. My experience as far as I know is called lucid dreaming. I wish I could still do it. I am lucky if I even remember my dreams these days.

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I used to be able to do that, get in a half wake state and go back to the dream state and live it. I would even struggle in the deep dream to "come up" so I could be engaged. I hated it when I would be woken in the middle of something,and then would try to remember things from the dream to make sense of it. It's very rare for me to do that anymore. Maybe on a sleep in Sunday,other days I have to be up way too early, and thats not my thing

 

[shyvas]

Digging up a very old thread concerning ghost stories:

https://www.veganforum.org/threads/ghost-stories.6637/

 

[Tom L.]

I haven't had any paranormal experiences, but I think I'd like to. I've never understood why people often fear ghosts. The idea that there is nothing after death is extremely depressing to me sometimes. Not only do I want my loved ones (**see note) who have passed on to live happily forever- I care about the animals I've known too! In fact, I might sometimes worry about the animals more- not because I love them more than humans, but because so few people believe that animals have an afterlife. But a paranormal experience of seeing or contacting a deceased loved one would be wonderful! It would be like seeing them again after being apart for so long... a long-awaited, joyous reunion!... AND evidence that they still exist, instead of just being a buried and decomposing corpse, or cremated ashes. I've had vivid dreams about those I've known who have passed, both human and animal- but although these dreams gave me a wonderful, happy feeling, I don't know that they had any more reality than an LSD trip would have had.

Now, if it was a demonic entity... THAT would be an entirely different experience. I'll pass on the nightmarish apparitions, please...

(**): I care about humans and animals whom I don't know too. But I don't have the same degree of caring for people or animals with whom I don't have a connection. I don't want to be a callous, unfeeling person, but that's just the way my emotions are.