Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Ghost Stories

Hello friends,
I want to start with a big congratulations to the Splash into Summer winner, Leah Miller! She is starting a new book blog, http://leahraemiller.blogspot.com. Stop by and check her out!

Next I want to talk about ghost stories. Not the ones you read, but the ones you have experienced or know someone who has experienced a ghostly encounter. I am a big fan staying in "haunted" hotels and bed and breakfasts. I consider myself an open-minded skeptic when it comes to all things ghostly. I don't believe ghosts are likely, but I am willing to believe there are things that cannot be explained. I am a proof sort of girl, and I have never had any experience I couldn't suss out. However, my mother has had her share of ghostly encounters in her life, some of which I use in my book DARK CORNERS.

The one I am going to tell you about today is not in the book. Mom and dad were in a hotel in Kansas, it is the middle of the night, doors are locked, snoring piercing the quiet, and something unexplainable is about to happen. My mom opens her eyes to see a woman in sixties clothes and a bouffant hair style leaning over her bed reaching towards her. Mom yells to get out of here, and the woman slowly fades into nothing as my dad wakes up. The room is searched and nothing is found. Mom is told it was a dream and the encounter is dismissed. Months later she is watching Unsolved Mysteries and swears she recognizes a girl who went missing from Texas in the sixties who was never found as the girl in her hotel room. Is it the same girl? Was it a ghostly encounter or a dream? No one can say for certain.

So tell me about your ghostly experiences? What still gives you the creeps when you think about it?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am a firm believer of ghosts. I have had so many encounters when I was young, which is what makes me a firm believer. Great story about your Mom! Love you new background I have the same one. We are so cool!
And apparently I am not cool enough to leave a comment as me Blogger wins again...so this is Jennifer from Serendipity's Library

Anonymous said...

OK, here's one:

In 2003 my wife and I moved into a home in Evansville, IN. Wife started having dreams about man named "Tom," who smoked cigars. He'd just sort of bug her while she was trying to sleep. Finally, she "asked" Tom to leave her alone and he did.

Some months later, a previous owner of the home dropped by and asked if she could see house. It'd been extensively remodeled since she'd been there and was curious to have a look around.

She mentioned her grandfather had passed away there and home had sentimental value. His name was Tom, and he used to smoke cigars. Tom loved classical music. My wife and I both play cello.

We're not "true believers" but it was a fun experience. (Once wife started sleeping well again, that is.)

Andrew said...

This one freaks my friends out, although given what I know of both my medical past and of Biology in general I don't think of it as a paranormal experience, more just a quirk of the brain and the fact that I had so many ear problems as a kid (although, that is debatable since it's only happened twice and never again since.)

The first time I was walking through a Wal-Mart, minding my own business. It was a slow day and I was near the housewares, where it's usually pretty thin anyway. That day nobody at all was around. Even so I heard a voice stage whisper "ANDREW!" in my right ear. It was as if the person put their mouth directly to my ear! I could almost even feel their breath! I wasn't frightened; I just cast about but no one was there.

The second time I was laying in bed early one morning, about to wake up, when I heard it again. Same voice, same sensation. Haven't heard it since.

I don't really have an explanation, although there are some plausible Biological ones (namely an auditory hallucination, but those are usually associated with delusional disorders, and I don't have any such disorder.)

So I leave it to you to decide ;)

Anonymous said...

For some reason my computer is being jenky, and it won't show my name...but this is Andra from Unabridged Andra and I have a really creepy story to share. It isn't so much ghosts, as it is Black dogs or Hellhounds, or ghost dogs or whatever you call them.

Now, when I was little (as in tiny...like 4 years old) We moved into a new house, and I couldn't sleep in my new room. Though I was fine playing in it during the day, I was absolutely terrified of it at night. My parents would find me in all sorts of places all over the house...laundry baskets, closets, under couches, and the only thing I would say about my room was that there were "wolves" there... Now, remembering back, late at night, these big dogs or wolves would swarm into my room and scare me. I wouldn't sleep with my hand over the side of the bed because when I did, the dogs would bite me.(I'm not kidding, I could literally feel them nipping on my fingers) And there would always be one big huge black one that would just sit in the doorway, looking at me with his big red eyes.

Not knowing what else to do, my parents decided to let me move into the room down the hall, so that maybe I could get some sleep. That night, before I even moved all of my things into the new room, our neighbor's house caught on fire. The side of our house that was facing the deighbor's was completely distroyed, including the bedroom that I used to sleep in. And ever since the fire, I haven't seen the wolves ever again...

Stephanie Nelson said...

For some reason i've always had weird things happen to me. When i first got married i was sitting at our kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal before work. My husband had already left for work so i was alone in our apartment. I don't know what made me turn around but when i did all of the kitchen cabinets were wide open. I don't have an answer for it and thought it was pretty creepy, until...
A few years ago i was alone once again, my husband was working a second job. I woke up because i heard scratching on our bedroom door. I jumped out of bed and stared at our closed bedroom door, just listening to the scratching that was coming from the other side. I thought someone was in our house so i turned around to unlock the sliding glass doors that are in our bedroom and when i turned around i saw a man sitting Indian-style in front of my door. He was dark gray and had his head hung. I thought my heart would instantly stop! My feet were frozen and all i could do was stare! Like i said, i've had weird things happen to me but this took the cake! I'd never seen a ghost before in my life! After watching it for a few seconds, that felt like hours, i ran out of the sliding glass doors and crawled into our garage through a doggy door, that's how scared i was! I thought if anything tried to hurt me then my dog could protect me, obviously i wasn't thinking clearly lol. My dog, who is usually very needy and never leaves your side, did not follow me into the garage, instead standing on the deck and staring into my bedroom! Did i mention this was in January and all i had on was a t-shirt and thin pj pants? I didn't leave the garage until my husband came home, around 5am. It's something i'll never forget!

Anonymous said...

I think I've told you my stories, but if you ever want to stay at my house, Liz, you are more than welcome! We have several 'ghosts' here. We have an old man named Mr. Somebody. He scared the beejebus out of our plumber one freezing January evening. We ran out of oil and our pipes froze. Bernie, our plumber, came over to help us thaw the pipes and while my husband and I were upstairs trying to get the kids to bed, Bernie was downstairs in the basement alone. When we returned to help him, his face was pale and he looked ill. He asked who the 'old man was' and we looked at him like he had 3 heads. There was no 'old man' living in our house. He said that was impossible because an old man had come downstairs and told him to hurry up and fix the heat, because there were children upstairs.

Our youngest DS is 3 years old. He cannot and will not sleep in his room without a lot of coaxing. He sees a 'witch' throughout the house and she likes to stand by his doorway. I've sat in my rocking chair and out of the corner of my eye I've seen something white flash past the boys room into the hallway toward the kitchen, but I've never seen a full apparition.

We also have a prankster ghost. This one enjoys setting off toys in the middle of the night. For example, my 3 year old had a musical potty chair. The potty would be bone dry, in the bathroom and for no reason would start playing. My son has a Thomas the Train toy that moves when you shake it (no batteries). One night while I was on the computer it kept going off. I thought it was one of my children playing with it, but it wasn't. When I sought out what was going on, I saw the Thomas the Train rolling across the boys' floor and the boys were sound asleep. Lastly my youngest has a little pre-school laptop. If you push a button something happens. When it's closed, it's supposed to be 'off'. Well, it was closed on the kitchen table and as I passed by it, it told me I had an e-mail. Freaky!

We've had lights turn off and on, cabinets open and close, and other electronic's turned on inexplicably. Every night isn't crazy, but when it happens it always stands the hair on my arms straight up!

Elizabeth Sharp said...

My mom and I shared the attic as our rooms. there was a wall that seperated the rooms and on my mom's side of that was the stairs. I was standing at the top where her sewing machine and my cat's food bowl were and I felt a hand firmly grab my ankle. I had enough time to look down and see that there was nothing there. The longest moment of my life passed while I waited for what was going to happen. Then suddenly my ankle was yanked, quite hard, out from underneath me and I was sent tumbling head over heels down the stairs with such force it put my head through the wall at the bottom. I was ok, but I never stood at the top of those stairs again.

Mary McFarland said...

I live at Mucky Manor, so I can't imagine NOT living in a haunted house. There used to be a one-room school house on the property back in the day, and every now and then, late at night when the house is at rest, I see a sad young lady. I imagine she was a school teacher and had her heart broken by one of the young guys who lived around here, maybe with a name like "Sugar." They tend to be muscular (work outside at lot) and have deep southern accents, so they're easy to fall in love with and get your heartbroken by. So I see her--my schoolmarm--every now and then. The other night, there was a slow swishing--her dress?--on my balcony and, when I looked, up she was standing there, not really sobbing but with her head bowed. I think she wants to tell me something and that--sonn--she will.

Myndi Shafer said...

Ack! Shivers! I'm a total chicken, and I live in KS, so I need to know EXACTLY what hotel they were staying at so I can tell people I don't like to stay there. *insert evil laugh here*

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