"True" ghost stories

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I don’t believe in ghosts. I’d like to, as I think it would make the world an even more interesting place; but I don’t. For one thing, does clothing have spirits? If not, then why are ghosts often described as wearing clothes? If clothing does not have spirits, then the ghosts should be naked, eh? Nevertheless, here is a “ghost” story that is purported to be “true”.

My best fiend was living in New Orleans in the early-1990s and shared a large house with several other people. One of them was a girl who went by the name of “Shrew”. Shrew was passing by one of the awesome cemetaries thay have down in the Crescent City and she saw an angel statue standing near a grave. She liked it and made off with it.

That night, she heard a noise. The house she and my friend, et al were living in was an old stucture. It was typical of up-town Masonic construction with its 13 stairs and wide hallways. The main hallway is about eight feet wide and had double doors up front with etched-glass inserts. Beyond the doors were wroght-iron gates, the porch, and the 13 stairs.

Shrew claims she saw a “shadow” coming up the stairs. This “shadow” came through the gates and the doors without opening them and rushed at her, knocking her back. IIRC, her boyfriend witnessed this. The next day she hung a chicken foot over the door (the chicken foot being a voodoo talisman meant to keep angry/evil spirits at bay) and was not troubled again.

I don’t recall meeting Shrew, but I might have once. When I visited, she had either moved out or we were too busy working on my friend’s film to notice the comings and goings of the other people living there. The angel was still there, though. We used it in the film. I spent my last night in New Orleans that trip sleeping in the room with the angel. I was not troubled in any way. (But I did make a point of not putting my futon directly underneath the large and heavy crystal chandelier. :wink: )

2

I used to as a kid to believe everything ‘supernatural’ or of the sort. Now i’m more skeptical…but i still would love to have that *maybe it’s true * feeling.

I was at my cousin’s house one night. Her room and the hallway were lit. There is a mirror on her wall that enables you to look straight to the other end of the corridor. We were alone.
when we both looked in the mirror, we both saw the same thing: a black sihouette (spl?) leaning back to the wall, arms crossed, one leg bent.
We both looked at each other to say something like:“did you see that?” only to realize we wanted to say the same thing.

We looked back but ‘he’ was gone.

That was the only ‘ghost’ experience i’ve had with another eye-witness. Otherwise i’ve had 2 or three more but i was laone and i could have been dreaming/imagening.

cool huh?

3

that is, i was alone not laone

makes a nice name actually :wink:

4

My mother and sister insist that the house we lived in during the '80s was haunted. I don’t recall the particulars - they explained them to me when I was like 12 and now refuse to tell me again because they told me once.

5

When I was 6, my friend and I went inside an interior walk-in closet, closed the door, and turned out the lights, plunging us into blackness. About 30 seconds later, I saw a pair of glowing red eyes floating in the air. I turned on the lights, but they were gone. I searched the closet and couldn’t find any material that would explain the eyes.

6

When we moved into the house my parents had just built, I woke up early one Sunday morning to a woman sitting on the edge of my bed. She had dark hair and was wearing a blue dress or nightgown. Being drowsy, and just glancing at her, I assumed it was my mother. (Mom has dark hair and had a nightgown just that shade of blue.) I sat up to ask what she wanted, and there was no one there. Nobody else was even awake, much less roaming the house and invading my room.

Sometimes when I was alone at night, I’d hear the floorboards creaking upstairs. Specifically, the ones in my room (the other floorboards up there have never squeaked, but the guy who nailed down the flooring wasn’t paying attention when he did my room.) The squeaks and creaks would move across my room and back, then fall silent for about enough time for someone to pace the rest of the upstairs, then start again in the same pattern. It sounded for all the world like someone was pacing back and forth, back and forth through my and my brother’s rooms.

Creepy. Especially since there’s a Civil War-era graveyard on the next property.

7

Well, there’s always the infamous Ghost in a Jar from eBay. Of course, the popularity of that auction has spawned hundreds of copycats, such as “Toast in a Jar”, “Ghost Poop in a Jar”, “Ghost in a Jar-Jar”, and of course, “Ghost Jar in a Jar”. Not to mention the organizer racks for storing your ghost jar collection, the backpack for safely transporting your ghost jars, and a vacation home for your ghost jars.

If it’s on eBay, it must be true!

8

Careful, the Board don’t look kindly on ghost posts.

9

Well, look. I don’t believe in ghosts. I wish I did; I wish I had some proof that ghosts were real. It would make that whole dying thing less scary. (Or maybe even scarier, but I digress.)

Arguing about whether or not ghosts are real is like arguing about the existence of a supreme being. There is no evidence either way. In both cases, historical events may be examined; may be touted as proof or debunked as hoaxes. Personal experience is revealed, and just as quickly dismissed. Appeals to reason are made on both sides. The argument continues; velocity is high, while displacement remains at zero. In other words, nothing is accomplsihed, because in the absence of repeatedly testable and independently verifiable evidence, it all comes down to human choice- to believe or disbelieve as an individual sees fit.

Therefore I see no difference in being able to discuss ghosts freely and being able to discuss religion freely. After the obligatory “see a doctor” comments are made, (and I feel they should be, in both cases) I’d like to be able to get on with the discussion.

“But ratty”, I hear you saying, “We’re here to fight ignorance! Belief in ghosts is foolish and harmful! Even entertaining such ideas can lead to a serious loss of critical thinking skills and a blind acceptance of unverifiable claims!” Yeah, well. So can going to church.

And I’m truly not trying to offend anyone here- I’m simply pointing out there’s a major double-standard at work. Claiming to have a deeply satisfying personal relationship with God is no different than claiming your house is haunted. And if we’re going to give full respect and air-time to one, then we have to give the same to the other.

I don’t believe in ghosts, and I don’t believe in God. But far be it from me to tell someone they’re stupid and crazy just because I can’t see my way clear to buying their belief system. Until we get solid proof, we’re free to choose what we believe without being told we’re nuts. And I for one like a good ghost story.

I read the linked thread, and I’d be very interested to hear more, Mr. B. Although if you’re still uncomfortable, but would like to talk, feel free to e-mail me, it’s in my profile.

10

Absolutely! I’m glad you said that ratty, because I was going to offer something of the same. I don’t, BTW, agree that believe in God is at all the same as belief in ghosts (in terms of spiritual and intellectual food, I mean – ghosts are cool, but God is far more than that), but I applaud everything else you say.

The SDMB is wonderful, lovely, mostly tolerant and fascinating, without the blockheadness of other message boards which meet any discussion on religion with ‘well, God doesn’t exist, so there’s no point even talking about it.’ However, IMHO I think it could do with more circumspection with regard to considering supernatural gubbins.

For example, I don’t believe in ghosts. But it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy discussing them at length – why people imagine they exist, the different types, what meaning they can have to us, why they’re scary – and so on. In short, the cultural as well as the scientific side.

Let’s remember we’re fighting ALL kinds of ignorance here, and the best way to do that is to be as openminded (not gullible) as possible.

Okay, rant over.

11

I’d rather not have this thread turn into a debate over the existence of ghosts. I intended it to be along the lines of sitting around a camp fire telling tales – except that they were to come from more-or-less personal experience. It doesn’t matter if you believe in ghosts or not. I don’t, but I like a good story.

So if you believe in ghosts and can tell of an experience you or a friend has had with them, or if you don’t believe in them but would like to share a believing friend’s experience, post away. But if you want to argue their existence (and I only posted my non-belief to make it clear that I don’t believe the “true” story I posted was really a supernatural experience), then such arguments might be better posted in another thread.

12

I do beleive in ghosts. Please, I beg you, don’t stone me.

13

That’s exactly the point.

14

I am a skeptic at heart, but I’ve seen and heard (mostly heard) things firsthand that have convinced me there’s more to this life than we really know.
My parents’ house is “haunted”. Now, whether or not that haunting can be contributed to “ghosts” I can’t say for sure. Who really could say for sure?
All I know is that for years my entire family has witnessed things that seem to have no rational explanation. I’ve witnessed several occurences first-hand. I’ve heard footsteps walk across the entire length of the house when there was no one home but me, I’ve seen objects fly off of bookshelves for no apparent reason, seen lights go on and off by themselves, etc.
My mother has been even been tapped on the shoulder a few times when she was completely alone in the house.
There may be perfectly rational explanations for what happens in my parents’ home, but when it’s 2 AM in the morning and eveyone is asleep but you and the bedroom light turns itself on or you hear footsteps coming down the hall and into the room with you and there’s no one there, it’s pretty hard to think of “rational explanations”.

15

Well I have participated in many a dig where relics were found to either entice or protect one from ghosts. Those who say I wish I believed in Ghosts need to really look back at what their idea of a ghost really is. Some say it is a residual self image, other’s say it is the soul awaiting the line in purgatory etc…etc… the list goes on and on.
While I can not claim to have ever seen a ghost, I have, as I said, been to many places in the world, a lot older than the United States written history, where ghosts play a very large role in society. China for instance embraces the existence of ghosts, in some form or another. Japan, Korea as well…
My best wager is that there is something out there that has through the millennia made mankind think about ghosts, and the ever after.

16

Well, I believe in ghosts. In fact, I spend a lot of time with one in particular. I saw this man’s body very close to when he died, and began to see him in another form almost two nights later. We have arranged a sort of detente – he only comes now when called – and it’s the weirdest thing, with Beatles music. I even sing a Wings tune and he’ll come. “Imagine” pisses him off.

Please go here should you feel inclined to post about my sanity.

This being takes on no mortal physical form anymore – I believe that was MY personal filter that was lifted, not on his part. Now he looks kind of like a heat mirage. He can come and go as he pleases. He is not violent, but he is urgent about me performing some as yet unspecified task.

I have seen other ghosts in my life, some good experiences, some real fright-fests. I felt a very bad tidal-wave feeling in Notre Dame, for example, that forced my wife and me out onto the sidewalk post-haste.

17

When I was a child, my foster mother, Doris, died suddenly of a heart attack. HER mother had died of a stroke a week or so before. I was in a very bizarre emotional state at the time, which may account for what happened. I’d been unable to sleep for days, but three days after her death, I was laying in bed. Suddenly, for some inexplicable reason, I looked to the bedroom door, only to see both Doris and her mother standing in the doorway. Doris said, “Everything’s ok, it’s going to be alright.” Repeated it twice, then told me to go to sleep. I woke up in the morning, unsure whether I’d really seen them or dreamt the entire thing. To this day, I’m unsure, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. The reassurance that everything was going to be alright ws what I needed to hear, and whether it came from an external source or my own subconscious, it did help me tremendously in the grieving process.