What Keeps You Up At Night?: Our Paranormal Experiences Or Insomniac Stories

ari333 · March 5, 2017

2 hours ago, emma675 said:

ari333, yep, atenolol is a beta blocker (I was on propranolol and they had to switch me to a different one because the dreams were so nuts) and that could explain your dreams.

May I ask what they switched you to and did it help stop the bad dreams? TIA

emma675 · March 6, 2017

Toprol XL and yes, they stopped. Back to boring, dreamless sleep. But no more black eyes, lol!

Sandman87 · March 8, 2017

My mom and step-father rented a haunted townhouse for a few years after I left home for college. I never experienced anything there myself when I visited, but both of them reported:

Footprints spontaneously appeared on freshly vacuumed carpeting.
Things sometimes fell off of shelves with no apparent cause, especially in the bedroom closets.
Occasionally someone could be heard walking around upstairs when there was no one else there. This was verified on one occasion by my great uncle and grandmother, who were visiting for dinner.

riley702 · March 8, 2017

Spooky! And they stayed there for a few years?

MrSmith · March 8, 2017

The house my wife grew up in was haunted by two ghosts. My wife is the oldest of five, and her four siblings were born in this order: sister, brother, brother, sister.

One of the ghosts was unpleasant and the other was not. The unpleasant one generally stayed in the basement. The basement stairs were at the back of the house. It generally stayed in the basement at the front of the house, but it claimed the front half of the basement as its own. If you went into that section of the basement, you would feel someone watching you intently and kind of bristling menacingly at you. And when you would leave the basement, it would make you feel like it was trying to grab your ankles through solid stone stairs. It semi-materialized once in front of my wife's oldest sister, looking like a black cloud, which was enough to send her scrambling back up the stairs. While the house was up for sale, it would often menace my wife's aunts by walking up the stairs and materializing its legs (no feet) and standing at the basement door. There was about a 2 and 1/2 inch gap between the floor and the basement door; it would turn the basement lights on so you could see it standing there. Her aunts only went into the basement one time each and after that they were too afraid to go down there ever again. My wife's bedroom was in the basement in the rear half and while she was living there it wouldn't bother her; she thinks the fact there was a wall there helped make it feel isolated from her. As kids, they would play in the basement because it was wide open (her bedroom wasn't built until she was about 14), but if any toys went in that area of the basement they were considered lost. Only her father seemed to be immune to it, but he wasn't very sensitive and always denied the house was haunted.

The other ghost was more friendly and wanted to be noticed. It would walk around the house, take things, bring them back (generally only if you left a note asking for it back), open and close the half door that separated the kitchen/dining room from the living room, and it would turn tv's and radios on and off and run the volume up and down. My mother-in-law generally went to bed before my father-in-law did and she remembers there were times where she could feel someone sit on the bed, but she'd be alone in the room. It once stole the key for my wife's ferret cage out of her locked bedroom and when she left a note asking for the key back, it was there on the note the next day when she got home from school. At the time I started dating my wife, she was an insomniac and almost never slept. However, there were times I would spend the night; she would sleep against the wall and I would sleep on the side of the bed adjacent to the route out of the bedroom, on the other side of which was her tv and radio. The tv and/or radio would come on at night, generally to static or to a very poorly tuned station, and this would wake me up just enough to be aware of it. Thinking it was my wife being unable to sleep, I would tell her to turn off the tv or radio - and they would promptly turn off. It took a few times of this happening before it dawned on me that: 1) my wife couldn't have gotten out of bed without crawling over me, and 2) there was nowhere for her to sit and watch tv or listen to the radio. Other times when we would be out late, her radio would get turned on and turned all the way up (and tuned to a Country station, which was the giveaway), and when my wife would see her sister the next morning, her sister would complain about how loud she was playing the radio and would ask why she was listening to Country (my wife has never listened to Country).

While the house was for sale, my mother-in-law would come by to clean it and keep it ready for showings. Sometimes she'd have to go in the basement or to the second story and, while she was in those places, she would hear footsteps on the first floor. At that time, my wife, her oldest sister and her sister's husband still lived there. So, my mother-in-law would think it was my brother-in-law who'd come home from work and would call his name when she went back upstairs. Of course, she got no response. Later, she would hear someone walking around the second story and would call up the stairs to see if anyone was home; again, no response. Sometimes, you could feel it watching you from the closet between the master bedroom and one of the children's rooms. It would turn lights on and off when my wife's aunts would come by to make sure the house was ready for a showing. They got to the point where they wouldn't go upstairs at night, either. In fact, one of her aunts refused to come by unless it were daylight out. Eventually, my wife moved her bedroom into the master bedroom since it was vacant. There was a bathroom adjacent to the master bedroom, which also served as the hall way used to access that bedroom. One day when my wife was getting out of the shower and had left the water in the tub running, she went into the master bedroom and saw the ghost standing there holding a picture of us. It had no legs and a poorly defined face, but she could tell it was a man. When she gasped because she wasn't expecting to see it, it turned to face her and then dematerialized, dropping the picture frame and cracking the glass. This ghost would also stack soda and beer cans in the sink or on the counter (my parents-in-law and my wife's aunts and uncles would sometimes get together at the house, drink beer, and reminisce). Also, at one point, my mother-in-law was listening to a cassette tape on her stereo while she was working in the house. She paused it to go to the bathroom. When she came back, it was still paused, but when she resumed playing the cassette, it was the Trans-Siberian Orchestra playing - and this was a cassette that she had "lost" many years before. My wife even remembers when that cassette was taken by the ghost and told her mother to leave a note asking for it back. I can't recall what tape was in the stereo, but I know my mother-in-law never got it back.

The house was sold twenty years ago this year and there have been four owners in that time. Two of whom were run out of the house by the ghosts (confirmed by the busy-body lady that still lives next door). I'm not sure whether the ghosts actively chased them off or they simply decided they couldn't stand living in a haunted house. I doubt the ghosts actively chased them off, though, because my wife's parents owned that house for nearly twenty years and in all that time the ghosts never did anything more than what I've described here. So, I can't imagine that the activity increased enough to be actually dangerous. The people my parents-in-law bought the house from had crucifixes plastered on the walls in just about every available space, which my mother-in-law thought a little strange but never took it as a sign of anything at the time. It was only after they sold it and my mother-in-law had irrefutable proof the house was haunted that it dawned on her why the previous owners did that.

ari333 · March 8, 2017

6 hours ago, MrSmith said:

The house my wife grew up in was haunted by two ghosts. My wife is the oldest of five, and her four siblings were born in this order: sister, brother, brother, sister.

One of the ghosts was unpleasant and the other was not. The unpleasant one generally stayed in the basement. The basement stairs were at the back of the house. It generally stayed in the basement at the front of the house, but it claimed the front half of the basement as its own. If you went into that section of the basement, you would feel someone watching you intently and kind of bristling menacingly at you. And when you would leave the basement, it would make you feel like it was trying to grab your ankles through solid stone stairs. It semi-materialized once in front of my wife's oldest sister, looking like a black cloud, which was enough to send her scrambling back up the stairs. While the house was up for sale, it would often menace my wife's aunts by walking up the stairs and materializing its legs (no feet) and standing at the basement door. There was about a 2 and 1/2 inch gap between the floor and the basement door; it would turn the basement lights on so you could see it standing there. Her aunts only went into the basement one time each and after that they were too afraid to go down there ever again. My wife's bedroom was in the basement in the rear half and while she was living there it wouldn't bother her; she thinks the fact there was a wall there helped make it feel isolated from her. As kids, they would play in the basement because it was wide open (her bedroom wasn't built until she was about 14), but if any toys went in that area of the basement they were considered lost. Only her father seemed to be immune to it, but he wasn't very sensitive and always denied the house was haunted.

The other ghost was more friendly and wanted to be noticed. It would walk around the house, take things, bring them back (generally only if you left a note asking for it back), open and close the half door that separated the kitchen/dining room from the living room, and it would turn tv's and radios on and off and run the volume up and down. My mother-in-law generally went to bed before my father-in-law did and she remembers there were times where she could feel someone sit on the bed, but she'd be alone in the room. It once stole the key for my wife's ferret cage out of her locked bedroom and when she left a note asking for the key back, it was there on the note the next day when she got home from school. At the time I started dating my wife, she was an insomniac and almost never slept. However, there were times I would spend the night; she would sleep against the wall and I would sleep on the side of the bed adjacent to the route out of the bedroom, on the other side of which was her tv and radio. The tv and/or radio would come on at night, generally to static or to a very poorly tuned station, and this would wake me up just enough to be aware of it. Thinking it was my wife being unable to sleep, I would tell her to turn off the tv or radio - and they would promptly turn off. It took a few times of this happening before it dawned on me that: 1) my wife couldn't have gotten out of bed without crawling over me, and 2) there was nowhere for her to sit and watch tv or listen to the radio. Other times when we would be out late, her radio would get turned on and turned all the way up (and tuned to a Country station, which was the giveaway), and when my wife would see her sister the next morning, her sister would complain about how loud she was playing the radio and would ask why she was listening to Country (my wife has never listened to Country).

While the house was for sale, my mother-in-law would come by to clean it and keep it ready for showings. Sometimes she'd have to go in the basement or to the second story and, while she was in those places, she would hear footsteps on the first floor. At that time, my wife, her oldest sister and her sister's husband still lived there. So, my mother-in-law would think it was my brother-in-law who'd come home from work and would call his name when she went back upstairs. Of course, she got no response. Later, she would hear someone walking around the second story and would call up the stairs to see if anyone was home; again, no response. Sometimes, you could feel it watching you from the closet between the master bedroom and one of the children's rooms. It would turn lights on and off when my wife's aunts would come by to make sure the house was ready for a showing. They got to the point where they wouldn't go upstairs at night, either. In fact, one of her aunts refused to come by unless it were daylight out. Eventually, my wife moved her bedroom into the master bedroom since it was vacant. There was a bathroom adjacent to the master bedroom, which also served as the hall way used to access that bedroom. One day when my wife was getting out of the shower and had left the water in the tub running, she went into the master bedroom and saw the ghost standing there holding a picture of us. It had no legs and a poorly defined face, but she could tell it was a man. When she gasped because she wasn't expecting to see it, it turned to face her and then dematerialized, dropping the picture frame and cracking the glass. This ghost would also stack soda and beer cans in the sink or on the counter (my parents-in-law and my wife's aunts and uncles would sometimes get together at the house, drink beer, and reminisce). Also, at one point, my mother-in-law was listening to a cassette tape on her stereo while she was working in the house. She paused it to go to the bathroom. When she came back, it was still paused, but when she resumed playing the cassette, it was the Trans-Siberian Orchestra playing - and this was a cassette that she had "lost" many years before. My wife even remembers when that cassette was taken by the ghost and told her mother to leave a note asking for it back. I can't recall what tape was in the stereo, but I know my mother-in-law never got it back.

The house was sold twenty years ago this year and there have been four owners in that time. Two of whom were run out of the house by the ghosts (confirmed by the busy-body lady that still lives next door). I'm not sure whether the ghosts actively chased them off or they simply decided they couldn't stand living in a haunted house. I doubt the ghosts actively chased them off, though, because my wife's parents owned that house for nearly twenty years and in all that time the ghosts never did anything more than what I've described here. So, I can't imagine that the activity increased enough to be actually dangerous. The people my parents-in-law bought the house from had crucifixes plastered on the walls in just about every available space, which my mother-in-law thought a little strange but never took it as a sign of anything at the time. It was only after they sold it and my mother-in-law had irrefutable proof the house was haunted that it dawned on her why the previous owners did that.

Wow. That was interesting and creepy. I can see why the later owners were not chased out per se from danger, but just probably got so spooked and uncomfortable and scared that they couldn't take it.

In our former condo that I've mentioned, we had TVs going on and off. We rationalized that maybe a neighbor had the same remote. Lights would go on and off and flicker. We rationalized that it was bad wiring.

When the stove went on by itself I couldn't explain that one and it scared me. I already mentioned the turned over lamp on the sofa with the lampshade off (how?) and bare bulb that almost started a fire.

Sometimes my ex (hubby at the time) and I would fight over stupid stuff while we were in that place and then when we'd leave , we were fine with each other. It was just so strange. It felt like there was a bad energy in there, but I couldn't prove it.

I told few people about any of this. The few I did tell seemed to believe me and suggested getting professional paranormal help. I didn't want to know what was there until I had a firm plan to move. If I had known "for sure" something was there, I couldn't have stayed. when we left I told the realtor that maybe she should get someone to check it out or at least tell the new buyers.

There were 4 condos in that building. The neighbors were not really chatty and there seemed to be a huge, fast turnover of people moving in and not staying long. (Many rented instead of buying.) There was one dude who would chat sometimes who lived in the other first floor condo, but he was rarely there. (Stayed mostly with his boyfriend at his place) He wasn't there enough to have anything weird happen I suppose. He never mentioned anything, but he didn't stay long either.

It was weird all over the condo, but especially weird in the back guest room. One time I was hanging curtains. I was alone and on a stepladder. Somehow the string got wrapped around my neck. It freaked me out so badly I left the condo until my husband came home later that day.

One time there were two or three glasses left over from breakfast, all side by side on the counter - some juice, water, whatever. It was still early morning, I was at the dining table on the computer (which was next to the counter. ) One glass with the water in it was shaking. The others were not. I tried to tell myself that maybe a heavy truck was rolling by (rationalize) But wouldn't that shake all the glasses and not just one? It creeped me out.

We had things disappear and then reappear in places that I KNOW I had already looked. My ex called me scatterbrained and blamed me for "misplacing" things, (keys, etc)

Edited March 8, 2017 by ari333

MrSmith · March 8, 2017

@ari333 Very interesting and scary experiences there! Definitely something there that didn't like people. And you and your ex got stuck in that all-too-familiar cycle where one (you, in this case) believes (or has enough proof to know) something else is going on, while their spouse or significant other doesn't believe. This causes fights just because it would naturally do so, but I'm sure the energy of whatever was there prompted fights, too. You hear about it all the time from people featured on shows like A Haunting. It's good that you got out of there.

The ghosts at my wife's childhood home weren't that scary to me. I could feel the animosity from the one that stayed in the basement and it would get pretty thick if you went far enough toward the front of the house. Also, the large windows in the basement at the front end of the house never seemed to let any light in. It was always dark in one corner of the basement. Their dad knew that all the kids were afraid of that area of the basement and so he would store Christmas presents there, secure in the knowledge none of the children were brave enough. I do remember the sensation of someone trying to grab my ankles and trip me, but that only happened a few times. At one point, I was like "WTF is the problem here?" and I don't remember it happening again after that.

Personally, I'm fascinated by haunted places and want to experience it. At the same time, I couldn't live with it every day if it's taking my stuff and causing me problems by messing with me. I'm cool with co-existing and was able to co-exist with the two ghosts in her parents' house. But if it's going to cause problems, then I'm going to find a way to kick it out.

MrSmith · March 8, 2017

@ari333 For what it's worth, I don't think your original post about your condo sounds nuts at all. It's entirely possible that whatever those orbs represented were there specifically to protect you. "There is more that exists between Heaven and Earth than you or I can dream." Words to live by, I tell you what; and they help me keep my mind open to the possibilities.

Here's some more weird stuff that my wife, her family, and I have experienced. First, the setup: In April 1997, I moved to Sun Prairie WI to be with my wife (then-girlfriend) and her family, and work for her father. My wife had moved there in March. Her father had left the HVAC industry to run his own business doing, initially, pallet repair and fabrication. It was mind-numbingly boring work, as evidenced by the fact I nearly fell asleep standing up several times. However, by July of that year he shifted the focus to making quality crates for shipping medical equipment. (This was actually much more interesting work, since none of us knew how to do this best/most efficiently and so we were free to develop our own processes. I ended up creating a form that sped up nailing the end-caps together by reducing it to a single person operation and enabling one person to do it faster than two people could previously. I created another form that reduced creating the side walls to a one person operation, as well.) So, that's the main background.

Anyway, in May of that year, my mother-in-law called one of those psychich hotlines that were all the rage in the 90's. The psychic guy told her that my father-in-law was going to change the focus of his business, told her that he needs to keep it in the family and not take on a partner because the partner would steal the company from him, and told her that my wife was pregnant (and that we would end up having a miscarriage). Now, at the time, not even my father-in-law knew that he was going to have to change the focus of the business because at the time there was plenty of work and no reason to make such a change. It wasn't until about mid-June that work slowed down and he had to scramble to find work for us (my brother-in-law, my wife, and I worked for him). I'm not even sure how he found out about the need for quality crates for medical equipment shipping. Obviously, he pivoted and things started going well again. However, by September, he needed a partner. I'm not entirely sure why, but I know money was an issue. (We were manufacturing crates three to four times faster than he had expected we would be able to, but we'd gotten it down to a science.) So, he took on the partner in September and, by early November, the guy had gone behind my father-in-law's back and incorporated the business as an LLC or S-corp and my father-in-law wasn't on any of the papers. Business stolen. (If it makes anyone feel better, he didn't get to keep it long because of the UPS strike in mid-November that year and because he lost all of us employees who knew how to make the crates. The business ended up declaring bankruptcy a year or so later.)

My wife and I did, indeed, have a miscarriage in the summer of 1997.

In February of 2003, my father-in-law was snowmobiling on Lake Delton near Wisconsin Dells. It was dusk and he ended up gunning the motor toward a section of ice that had buckled and been thrust upward, but he couldn't see it because of the angle of the sun. He hit it going about 60 mph and the impact split his helmet in half. He was in hospital for 6 days and died on the 7th day, which happened to be Valentine's Day. That night, he came to my mother-in-law in her dreams to say goodbye, tell her how much he loved her, and told her to tell Carrie (my wife) that her baby was all right.

Anyway, that's all I have the emotional fortitude to share right now. I've got a couple of other things that I'll try to share later when I'm not struggling to maintain my composure.

ari333 · March 8, 2017

Well dammit I just typed out a huge creepy post in response to Mr Smith and it disappeared. Damn. I don't know if I have the finger fortitude to retype it all. Dangit. Maybe later.

ari333 · March 8, 2017

48 minutes ago, MrSmith said:

@ari333 For what it's worth, I don't think your original post about your condo sounds nuts at all. It's entirely possible that whatever those orbs represented were there specifically to protect you. "There is more that exists between Heaven and Earth than you or I can dream." Words to live by, I tell you what; and they help me keep my mind open to the possibilities.

Here's some more weird stuff that my wife, her family, and I have experienced. First, the setup: In April 1997, I moved to Sun Prairie WI to be with my wife (then-girlfriend) and her family, and work for her father. My wife had moved there in March. Her father had left the HVAC industry to run his own business doing, initially, pallet repair and fabrication. It was mind-numbingly boring work, as evidenced by the fact I nearly fell asleep standing up several times. However, by July of that year he shifted the focus to making quality crates for shipping medical equipment. (This was actually much more interesting work, since none of us knew how to do this best/most efficiently and so we were free to develop our own processes. I ended up creating a form that sped up nailing the end-caps together by reducing it to a single person operation and enabling one person to do it faster than two people could previously. I created another form that reduced creating the side walls to a one person operation, as well.) So, that's the main background.

Anyway, in May of that year, my mother-in-law called one of those psychich hotlines that were all the rage in the 90's. The psychic guy told her that my father-in-law was going to change the focus of his business, told her that he needs to keep it in the family and not take on a partner because the partner would steal the company from him, and told her that my wife was pregnant (and that we would end up having a miscarriage). Now, at the time, not even my father-in-law knew that he was going to have to change the focus of the business because at the time there was plenty of work and no reason to make such a change. It wasn't until about mid-June that work slowed down and he had to scramble to find work for us (my brother-in-law, my wife, and I worked for him). I'm not even sure how he found out about the need for quality crates for medical equipment shipping. Obviously, he pivoted and things started going well again. However, by September, he needed a partner. I'm not entirely sure why, but I know money was an issue. (We were manufacturing crates three to four times faster than he had expected we would be able to, but we'd gotten it down to a science.) So, he took on the partner in September and, by early November, the guy had gone behind my father-in-law's back and incorporated the business as an LLC or S-corp and my father-in-law wasn't on any of the papers. Business stolen. (If it makes anyone feel better, he didn't get to keep it long because of the UPS strike in mid-November that year and because he lost all of us employees who knew how to make the crates. The business ended up declaring bankruptcy a year or so later.)

My wife and I did, indeed, have a miscarriage in the summer of 1997.

In February of 2003, my father-in-law was snowmobiling on Lake Delton near Wisconsin Dells. It was dusk and he ended up gunning the motor toward a section of ice that had buckled and been thrust upward, but he couldn't see it because of the angle of the sun. He hit it going about 60 mph and the impact split his helmet in half. He was in hospital for 6 days and died on the 7th day, which happened to be Valentine's Day. That night, he came to my mother-in-law in her dreams to say goodbye, tell her how much he loved her, and told her to tell Carrie (my wife) that her baby was all right.

Anyway, that's all I have the emotional fortitude to share right now. I've got a couple of other things that I'll try to share later when I'm not struggling to maintain my composure.

Oh, bless your heart .That is so emotional. HUGS.

And for what it's worth I totally believe you.

I am very open minded, but I tend to try to rationalize things if I'm in a place (the condo sitch above) that I cant leave immediately.

My ex and I had weird arguments that seemed to start over nothing and it was always in the condo. One time I was crying and lying on the bed in the guestroom praying. I felt a breath on my ear and thought it was my then hubby. But no, he was in our master bedroom, angry.

It wasn't him.

Then I heard, "Leave him now. Get a knife." I have never been violent and never will be. The voice sounded right beside my ear, evil and frightening (yes, like in the movies). I thought I was having auditory hallucinations, but it only happened twice in my life that I can recall and only in that condo.

Edited March 8, 2017 by ari333

ari333 · March 8, 2017

My husband , after seeing the thing, a black misty thing, decided to participate with me in a cleansing. I held the sage and he read some prayers as we went from room to room with the front door opened. (as instructed , apparently so the thing could get out?)

After the final prayer at the front door we heard clonking footsteps like those 70s clog platform shoes. We went to the door and looked both ways and all around. There was no one. We could see the whole parking lot. No one was there; But we still heard the steps... right there close . Things settled down for awhile, but then things started up again.

I think the whole building of 4 condos was wonky and weird. One time I heard a voice in the condo above us (that was vacant) . The weird part is I only heard one part of the conversation. I heard a very loud nd distinct, "I'm going to kill you"

Then there was a pause as if someone had responded, then another response as if there were two in the conversation; but I only heard one. I thought about calling the police, but I thought." what do I say?" The place is vacant and I heard no footsteps.

From what I found out later, there was a lot of tragedy and sadness associated with that building f 4 condos. Accidents, people ending up in wheelchairs, foreclosures, financial ruin, divorce, domestic violence (not me but others) and people moved in who rented (as opposed to buying) and shortly moved out. IDK why, but I can guess. At times of the 4, we were the only residents there. Iow, three were empty most of the time.. Creepy. Glad I'm gone.

And just to clarify, when I told a couple of friends (who believed me ) about this stuff and they suggested professional help (as I mentioned above). They meant professional paranormal help. They didn't think I was bonkers.

Edited March 8, 2017 by ari333

ari333 · March 8, 2017

MrSmith I am totally fascinated by haunted places too after what I've seen. I like to see how others deal with their issues and how they resolve - if they do. I like those shows that you mentioned. I am with a dear bf now (we are in another state far away) who hates that I watch those shows. He says that watching those shows will bring on some weird stuff. Like it's inviting ... something. I cant stop watching them though. It feels like, yeah someone gets me.

As for the orbs, I was totally awake for sure. They were purple-ish white and very comforting I felt no fear at all. We are in a different state now, but I actually wish they'd come back. Now I sound cray. :-)

Has anyone here ever heard of purple white orbs?

Edited March 8, 2017 by ari333

MrSmith · March 9, 2017

@ari333 I have never heard of orbs in purple, but I have heard of orbs displaying blue, yellow, and green colors. So, I don't think it's so outlandish to think they could display purple. And just because you don't see them doesn't mean they're gone. As for watching shows about other people's paranormal experiences ... that's not going to have any effect on whether you have paranormal experiences. It certainly won't invite it into your home. Now, if you were going ghost hunting, then that's a different story because you're potentially interacting with something that could very well follow you home. But watching shows about it is harmless, even if they're showing actual footage. Of course, definitely don't use a ouija board or have a seance.

When it comes to smudging with sage, it's usually not permanent. It's kind of like mosquito spray: You put it on, it works for a while, and then you have to re-apply it. My wife smudges our house regularly and has ... well, now that I think about it, she has done so for the 20 years we've been together. I don't know a lot about it, but I think that you're supposed to do in the corners of each room to give it no place to hide and work your way toward a door to force it out. Putting salt at points of egress, like windows and doorways, is supposed to help. I know my wife has also done this. The reasoning being that salt is representative of good ("salt of the earth") and repels evil. I know that sounds like something out of "Supernatural", but it's supposed to work. I don't know if it does because we have not lived in a place that has been haunted since she moved from her childhood home.

As for calling the police, you just tell them you're hearing people talking in the condo upstairs from yours and it's supposed to be vacant. Just tell the truth. I say it's better to call the cops on the off-chance it's actually people and have the cops confirm the unit is actually empty. It sounds like that building was haunted by some evil spirit. Perhaps there had been Satanists practicing there at one time. Hard to say, but I can't subscribe to the theory that all those bad outcomes and events were coincidental.

I think trying to rationalize things is perfectly natural. I mean, it took me some time to realize it was not my wife turning the tv and radio on in her bedroom at night, even though it should have been perfectly obvious from the outset. It even took me a while to get to the point where I asked her about it. And her father never believed the house was haunted. He rationalized everything away by saying the house was settling (even though it was already almost 150 years old!) or saying that it was an old house and had creaks. Of course, it was easier for him to rationalize it because there were 7 people living there and a rotating menagerie of pets. Plus, he simply didn't believe in ghosts, which makes it even easier to rationalize. And it took her sister and her sister's husband many, many times of my wife being out, the ghost turning the radio on loud, and then accosting my wife in the morning about the racket for them to believe that it really was not her turning her radio on like that. That's in spite of the fact that they knew she never listens to Country music and yet the radio was always tuned to a Country station when this happened. So, plenty of things that indicated it wasn't her, but it took them a long time to accept that.

MrSmith · March 9, 2017

I've had two near death experiences. One was when I was about 10, I think (circa 1982). We were traveling to Denver, mom was driving, and my younger brother and I were in the car with her. We were in one of those little 1979-ish Honda Civics (pretty sure it was a 2nd generation Civic because my parents wouldn't have purchased a 1st generation due to the corrosion issues those faced). Ours looked a lot like this one ( https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/b2/12/02/b21202160b5a99e5f8b4a0555631a98e.jpg ), but it was red-orange.

She decided to pass this lady in a Lincoln with a Continental kit (I think she was a Mary Kay lady because it was that shade of pink and she had a little purse dog - a chihuahua I think) while we were going up a hill and were already in the "no passing" zone. At that same moment, the drunk guy behind us in a pick-up truck decided to pass both us and the lady in the Lincoln! I was sitting behind my mom and the pick-up truck rear-ended us in that corner of the car. I remember floating back down the road a ways by this farmhouse with a huge (probably 30 foot) pine tree. It was kind of cloudy and I met this beautiful blonde lady who offered me a choice: I could leave and that would be fine; the plan allowed for me leaving at that time. However, there was a cost to my leaving at that time, and that is that I would never get to meet the beautiful blonde lady. I know that the lady loved me; I remember that feeling very distinctly. And I also remember that I loved her. Naturally, I was obsessed with blondes for a long time, but eventually I concluded that the person the blonde lady represented may not actually be blonde.

I'm not sure whether I'll share my other NDE. It's kind of involved and complicated because it occurred over the course of a night and the following morning and because I was in two places at once.

ari333 · March 9, 2017

MrSmith, did the animals in your wife's house ever act weird?

MrSmith · March 9, 2017

@ari333 The dogs did a few times, where they'd whine or bark at nothing. I do remember my wife's yellow lab would paw and bark at the door to the stairs going up (to the second story) sometimes. I started dating her not long before her parents and the three youngest children moved to Sun Prairie. The pets went with them, except for two cats (to help keep mice out of the house). And my wife's cat was an orange tabby; so, it was insane from the day it was born. LOL. Her sister's cat I hardly ever saw. So, I didn't get to watch the pets too much.

Edited to add: Her orange tabby cat loved running around the basement. It would climb the wall that the head of her bed was against, then slide down the wall at night landing on our heads.

Edited March 9, 2017 by MrSmith

harrie · March 11, 2017

The house in which I grew up had a strange-feeling basement too. I hated the corner where the oil tank was, but my brother got uncomfortable in a different area of it. The house was about three years old when we moved in, and I don't think anything bad happened to the original owners.

I also had weird experiences when my older sister moved out, and I took her room. The door to the attic was in that room, and it would open at random times. It didn't lock, but I would close it, make sure it was latched and even hang with all my weight on the door, and it would not open for anything. Leave it alone, do a couple things, turn around -- and the attic door's open. I've always been a bad sleeper, but living in that room brought my insomnia to a whole new level. A few years ago I asked my sister if she experienced anything similar in that bedroom but she wouldn't say either way, which made me feel like a real-life Carrie, making external things happen with inner turmoil.

Wings · March 12, 2017

1 hour ago, harrie said:

The house in which I grew up had a strange-feeling basement too. I hated the corner where the oil tank was, but my brother got uncomfortable in a different area of it. The house was about three years old when we moved in, and I don't think anything bad happened to the original owners.

I also had weird experiences when my older sister moved out, and I took her room. The door to the attic was in that room, and it would open at random times. It didn't lock, but I would close it, make sure it was latched and even hang with all my weight on the door, and it would not open for anything. Leave it alone, do a couple things, turn around -- and the attic door's open. I've always been a bad sleeper, but living in that room brought my insomnia to a whole new level. A few years ago I asked my sister if she experienced anything similar in that bedroom but she wouldn't say either way, which made me feel like a real-life Carrie, making external things happen with inner turmoil.

This is creepy. Why wouldn't she say, yes, no or I never noticed! She is your sister and this is long after the fact. Did you press her on that or know why she wouldn't give you a straight answer. That is very weird.

Wings · March 12, 2017

On 3/9/2017 at 6:36 AM, MrSmith said:

I'm not sure whether I'll share my other NDE. It's kind of involved and complicated because it occurred over the course of a night and the following morning and because I was in two places at once.

OH now look at what you have done. I want to know!

harrie · March 12, 2017

16 minutes ago, wings707 said:

This is creepy. Why wouldn't she say, yes, no or I never noticed! She is your sister and this is long after the fact. Did you press her on that or know why she wouldn't give you a straight answer. That is very weird.

We haven't always gotten along well; and when I asked her, it was at a family memorial with lots of cross talk among about seven people. Sis was a little evasive, and I didn't want to push her at that particular time. Upon reflection, I decided not to push her in private either, because if I didn't want to talk about something, I wouldn't want someone keeping after me.

And this reminds me --- didn't keep me up at night, but a funny thing -- that memorial was at my parents' house. The practice there is, when you walk in, you put your cell phone in a certain place. There's this one tray on a table with a bunch of cell phones sitting on it. The memorial was for my dad, who had been trying unsuccessfully to get the whole family together "one last time" for years; usually I was the lone holdout, partly because that one sister and I didn't speak for about 15 years, and my father and I were constantly at each other's throats.

So -- we're all together at the house, and a cell phone rings. My other sister - the one with whom I've never had a falling out - goes to see which phone it is. My dad's phone is ringing. Sis picks it up, and there's no one there. She hangs up and says "Hmm, that was weird - it was Dad's phone but no one was there." I say "Don't you get it? He's letting us know he's here, we're all finally together in one place again." The entire family's response: "Oh harrie, you and that crazy imagination....."

26 minutes ago, wings707 said:

OH now look at what you have done. I want to know!

I, also, am intrigued!

MrSmith · March 12, 2017

1 hour ago, wings707 said:

OH now look at what you have done. I want to know!

1 hour ago, harrie said:

I, also, am intrigued!

OK. I'll work on writing it up tomorrow morning. Just fair advance warning: It involves my only serious suicide attempt. In the end, I think it's actually pretty uplifting, overall. I was in a dark place, but it really helped change who I was.

1 hour ago, harrie said:

that one sister and I didn't speak for about 15 years

I and my younger brother are like this. We fought too much and too well as children; so, never really got along. In fact, the first time my wife found out I had a brother was while we were dating. We were at the mall near my parents house and bumped into him and his girlfriend at the time. We greeted each other like acquaintances from high school: "Hey, how are you? Good, you? Good. Well, good to see you. Yeah, you too. Take care." And neither he nor I introduced their respective girlfriends. After we walked away, my wife was like "Who was that? A friend from high school?" and I replied "Oh, no. That's my brother." LOL. And that was 1996. We didn't speak again until 1999, and then it was 2006.

Wings · March 12, 2017

@MrSmith you have one hell of a story! And I only see a sliver of it.

MrSmith · March 12, 2017

@wings707 Well, if you want the full back story about my brother and I, I can write it down.

Wings · March 12, 2017

9 minutes ago, MrSmith said:

@wings707 Well, if you want the full back story about my brother and I, I can write it down.

Oh, yes please. :^)

MrSmith · March 12, 2017

36 minutes ago, wings707 said:

Oh, yes please. :^)

LOL! This is one reason I keep following you: You make me laugh so hard! And you introduce me to interesting threads.

I have an older, adopted brother and a younger, biological brother. My parents adopted my older brother when he was 7, and I was born about a year after that. We get along very well, even though he has a PhD in Political Science. :D My younger brother and I have always been like oil and water. He takes after our mother, where everything has to be "just so" and it has to be perfect. And if you fail to live up to those standards, then woe be to you. I take after our father, where I'm generally pretty relaxed about things and "good enough" is generall, well ... good enough. Round about when I was in 6th grade or so, we got into bad enough fights that we'd start drawing the cutlery on one another. He always started it, and grabbed the butcher knife first. That left me with the carving knife and, I think, the paring knife. I'll never understand why he didn't just start out with the butcher and carving knives. LOL. We never actually so much as scratched each other with them.

When we were in 8th grade, we lived in Plainfield, WI. (Infamous home of infamous murderer Ed Gein.) Our mother had moved to Sullivan, WI to work at the state maximum security prison for juvenile delinquent males. (The maximum security prison for juvenile delinquent females was elsewhere, and I'm not sure where that is.) Our father worked in Oshkosh and never got home before 8pm. So, that left us to (try not to) fight too badly while doing our homework. I aggravated him enough one night that he took the dictionary and threw it down on the dining room table (trying to frighten me with it). Well, it bounced just right that one end of the spine hit me in the sternum and the other end popped up and hit me in the mouth, knocking my left incisor and the tooth to the left of that out. Braces saved them. Needless to say, my father wasn't too happy when he finally got home because my orthodontist was in .... Oshkosh.

High school was pretty uneventful, surprisingly. But fast-forward to 1998.... I was working for what was then GTE (later Verizon, and now Frontier) and had been bugging my supervisor for certain training for 6 months. My boss finally schedules that training for the second week of November that year, when my brother calls me up two weeks beforehand and says "I'm getting married [at the courthouse] in two weeks and I'd like you to be the best man." Now, mind you that the place I worked at was a call center and you have to request time off at least three weeks in advance of when you need it, unless someone dies. (And if someone died, then you had to bring the program-thingy from the funeral to prove you were there. No, really. That's serious.) He got all upset that I couldn't come to the wedding (and in the back of my mind, I was like "Me? Best man? WHY? We haven't talked in two years or the four before that"). So, he and his wife had a quick ceremony in November 1998 and they put the reception off until May 1999.

So, we get to April 1999 and my wife and I are just eking out a living. I think I was making 11 dollars an hour at that time, which was top pay or near to as a call center minion. My wife was working at Pick N Save in the deli. So, maybe 8 or 9 an hour there? Anyway, I had gotten a credit card with a $150 limit and my mother insisted that my wife and I come dressed up. Of course, we didn't have any dress clothes because we hadn't needed them since before we both moved to Sun Prairie, WI (near Madison), and we had just moved house so we didn't have any reserves. On the card go the dress clothes and then we're off to the reception, which was in my parents' backyard (they'd gotten a pig roast for the occasion). We get there and my parents' friends are there (of course), my brother and his ~~succubus~~ wife (sadly), and who's dressed up? If you guessed "my parents and us", then you get a cookie! Not even my brother and his ~~hellspawn~~ wife were dressed up.

What you need to know real quick is that my parents' house sits on a half acre lot. So, their backyard is goddamned enormous. You could fit a whole other house in the backyard and still meet fire codes. The food is all set up about half way across the backyard from the house, and his ~~angel of death~~ wife is "supervising" the arrangement of the food. My brother is standing at the back patio, about 6 feet from the back door, and so he's the first one we approach. First words out of his mouth are"We're going to see The Phantom Menace tomorrow. Heard of it?" (as sarcastically as possible). I responded that, yes, I'd heard of it and was interested to see it. (Star Wars Episode 1 was in its opening weekend that weekend.) So, that brought the tension level right up. Then he turns back to us and says, "Did you bring a gift? Where's my gift?", and I point to Carrie and myself and say "You're looking at it". My parents live in Greenfield, WI, a suburb of Milwaukee and you can see Southridge Mall from their backyard. So, it was an hour to 90 minutes to get there, depending on traffic and gasoline seemed to cost a fortune at the time. (Funny to think it was around $1.09 then, which would cause deafening levels of rejoicing nowadays.) At which point he turns to his wife and shouts across the backyard that we didn't bring a gift - right in front of all of my parents' friends. If my father hadn't been right there to intervene, I would have cold-cocked my brother on the spot. As it was, my dad physically got between us. So, I told my wife that we were leaving and we got as far as the car before my father got me to change my mind for his and my mother's sakes. We pretty much avoided my brother and my ~~demon~~sister-in-law the rest of that day (a Saturday, if I recall correctly).

The next day we go to see the movie and then return to my parents' house. My mom has a bunch of stuff boxed up and sitting on the floor in the dining room, and she asks my dad to take it to my brother's car. This is all in earshot of the kitchen, which is where my sister-in-law was because she was bagging up/divvying up the ~~spoils~~ food to take some home. My wife was sitting just a short distance away. So, I told my dad that I would carry it because it was on the floor, was an unknown weight (turned out very light), and my dad was 61 at the time and I didn't see any reason he should have to do it when I was only 27 and perfectly capable. So, my wife, my mother, and my sister-in-law heard that entire exchange, and then I picked up the box and my dad and I walked out to my brother's car. Once we were out of the room, my psycho sister-in-law turns to my mom and says "Where is he going with my stuff?" My mother re-explained the situation and then my sister-in-law says "Yeah, but where is he going with my stuff?" Once again, my mother explained what was happening, to which my sister-in-law responded with yet another query about the situation. At that point, my mother went crazy herself. She just exploded and yelled at Serra, explaining the situation, then started pulling baggies of vegetables and other food out of the fridge and lobbing them at my sister-in-law, yelling at her the entire time.

Serra goes in the garage (where my brother was) and gets him, telling him "Your mother is throwing my food at me." My brother had been bagging up garbage and had taken a three-quarters full garbage bag in the house with him. My father and I hear all this yelling in the house and we're like "Now what's going on?" When we get in there, my brother has my mother by her lapel and both him and his wife are screaming at my mother, who's screaming back at them, and my wife is still sitting where she was not getting involved and not sure whether she should be aghast or amused. My dad gets my brother to let go of my mother and, just as he lets go, he also lets go with the garbage bag - hurling trash all over the kitchen. Once again, I would have kicked the shit out of my brother, but my dad put his arms around me and kept me away from him. So, my brother and his wife leave with their stuff, and I end up having a heated phone call with them that night after we got back to Sun Prairie. I can't recall the contents of that call, but it was bad enough that we didn't speak again until 2006 when I decided I should call him and wish him happy Father's Day. At that point, he told me that everyone in our family was dead to him, he'd changed his last name to his wife's last name (and changed his oldest son's last name to her last name), and to never call him again.

We occasionally see each other in passing at my parents' house and the conversation is always thin and to the point. I think I'll contact him about doing something special for our parents' birthdays next year because my dad will be 80 and my mom will be 75. Makes me nervous to think about that, though. Anyway, that's the best-worst parts of my relationship and interactions with my brother, really. Hope it made you laugh (because I find it very funny nowadays!).

annzeepark914 · March 12, 2017

Gosh, Mr. Smith...if it were me, it would just be my spouse and me taking mom and dad out on their birthdays. Life's too short & unpredictable for inviting brother and sister-in-law along.

I noticed a while back that people were talking about seeing a black form. This past Christmas, my husband and I were staying at his mom's house (she's in an assisted living place). One afternoon I walked to the guest room, plopped down on the bed to take a nap and looked out the window. Right then a large black thing floated past the window. It looked like a square that had two sides cured inward. Could that have been a spirit? If so, I bet it was his deceased older brother who used to sleep in that room when he'd visit. He had a lot of mental issues all during his life. I've never seen anything like that before & at first figured it was smoke from a neighbor's chimney. But it was that odd shape that made me think it wasn't smoke.

MrSmith · March 12, 2017

@annzeepark914 Good point about life being too short. Probably would make my wife happy to do it that way, and it would certainly decrease my stress.

I don't know for sure if what you saw was a spirit, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. Especially if it were moving horizontally. The shape of it certainly points in that direction, too. If/when you go back to visit his mother, you could try talking to his brother ... well, if you think that you wouldn't likely get a negative reaction from him, if it is him.

Wings · March 12, 2017

@MrSmith, your life was like reality TV! I agree, do not include your brother in your plans to celebrate their birthadys. It would be as stressful for them just as it would for you.

MrSmith · March 12, 2017

OK. So, my other NDE. I need to warn you that this is going to be really strange. And I'll confess that I'm not sure - to this day - how much of it might have been an hallucination. It's entirely possible the whole thing was an hallucination, but it still feels very real and like it actually happened. I'm interested in finding a hypno-therapist who might be able to help me determine how much of this was real; it just hasn't been enough of a priority, yet.

Now, I'll have to tell you a little bit more about me at that time first. When I was 18, I wasn't doing well in college and my parents wanted me to join the Air Force on active duty. Since I didn't realize that what I really needed was to get away from my parents, then of course I didn't listen to them and instead joined the Navy Reserve and washed out of college. Now, fast-forward two years and my mother has kicked me out of the house and I'm staying with a friend from high school and her family, just 15 or so blocks away. I was living in the greater Milwaukee area at that time. So, the Reserve Center is down at the lakefront and my crash pad was in Greenfield.

It was September because this was a Reserve weekend, I was required to wear the dress blues, and dawn still broke before 6:30am. The dress blues are the black and white "Cracker Jack" uniform. So, that Saturday evening, I went to the store and picked up some 10 or so boxes of sleeping pills. This was my choice as the instrument of my death in part because I was a coward and in part because I wanted to be "aware" of dying. (I was trying to see if I could pass through things and prove to myself that I was incorporeal.) So, I took them all with some water and then got on a route 76 city bus that ran from Southridge Mall to Northridge Mall (it was still open in those days), past Capital Court mall. I got on the bus about 6pm and rode that bus until the driver kicked me off ... at Northridge.

The seat on the bus that I chose was on the driver's side, about 3 seats forward of the rear door. There weren't many people on the bus, and most of them on there when I boarded were forward of my position. The few that were behind me all got off at some point and no one else sat back there. Plus, that route wasn't very busy on a Saturday night. Anyway, I sat there for a while, periodically checking if I was dead yet. Eventually, I started hearing people behind me and to my right discussing me and my situation. Every time I turned to look back there, no one was sitting there. And every time I turned to look, the conversation would be replaced with a buzzing sound. The impression I got was that there were five individuals standing in a circle and it seemed that they were actually outside the bus. As long as I didn't focus my attention too firmly on their conversation, I could eavesdrop on it; and every time they sensed I was listening, they'd screen me with that buzzing sound. One of the five was clearly in charge of the group because he (felt like a male presence) eventually exerted authority and ended the discussion and debate. It seemed like since they had time on their hands, they decided to discuss and debate whether to help me or not. I can't remember exactly what was said during most of the discussion that I was able to hear, and every time they sensed me listening one of them would remark that I was listening again. What I do remember is that two of the group were firmly against helping me and felt I should be left to my fate; the leader and his lieutenant (one of them seemed to be second in the group's hierarchy) understood the others' position, while the last one was on the fence. The leader seemed to agree with that position, but would reiterate that their instructions were to help and protect me. The lieutenant was definitely "pro-Clem" and I suspect that if we have guardian angels, then that one was mine. Not long before the driver finally kicked me off the bus, the leader exerted his authority and ended the discussion by saying that it doesn't matter what they thought because their instructions were to help and protect me and they were out of time for discussing it anyway.

The bus arrived at Northridge for the last time and the driver had to boot me off the bus because he had no other stops to make between there and the garage. When I got up from the seat, though, the driver went white like he'd seen a ghost. I exited through the rear door of the bus and I remember going through the seats to do so. Otherwise, I would have had to take about 10 steps down the aisle, then make a left to exit the bus. But I remember taking a straight path to the door and I don't remember going down the steps to the street; I was just suddenly outside the bus. I could see a darkened strip mall from where I was in the Northridge parking lot. Having nowhere else to go, I headed in that direction and my intention was to just sit down and give up when I got there. I'm not sure why I needed to get over there in order to do this since I could very well have just sat down anywhere and done that. When I got to the strip mall, I sat down for what felt like a very short time because someone urged me to get up and not to just give up. When I stood up, I could see a (free-standing; in its own building, that is) Denny's restaurant in the distance and that was the only thing open for miles around at 11pm. It could have been a security guard that got me to stand up, but I don't remember seeing anyone from the time I exited the bus until I got to the Denny's. I also am not sure why I didn't see the Denny's when I first sat down, either.

And this is the point where the weirdness starts to really kick in. Some of the time, I could see the Denny's. Other times, it would suddenly be very dark and I would be in the middle of a bunch of trees in what looked like a park. When I could see the Denny's, I would head in that direction. When I couldn't, it seems like I wandered mostly aimlessly. I spent quite a while enduring this split consciousness, and the part of me that was in the park-like environment eventually wandered over to Southridge Mall. Eventually the part of me that could see Denny's got to Denny's, and the other patrons looked at me really strange. (Probably because who expects a sailor to walk into Denny's at 11pm in Milwaukee.) When I got to Denny's, that seemed to anchor my consciousness until I left. I ordered a root beer and something to eat, but I don't think I ever ate anything. I drank some of the root beer, which is almost certainly what is directly responsible for my continued existence. The carbonation eventually made me feel sick and I headed for the men's room. There was one person in there when I came in and he left almost immediately after ... at which point I proceeded to Exorcist-style puke all over the men's room. And I do mean all over: sinks, urinals, and eventually the only toilet. I still feel badly for whatever employee was eventually assigned the task of cleaning that up. Whatever money they made that night, they earned. At some point, I paid the bill and called a taxi, but I don't know what time that was.

After I called the taxi, the split consciousness resumed again and I was at Southridge Mall. I could tell the difference for a couple of reasons. First, the malls themselves looked distinctly different from the outside, even though they were owned by the same company and had similar names. Second, there is a strip mall on the southwest side of the mall where the lights never went out - probably because of the nearby bank and the fact there was a laundromat/launderette in that strip mall. Third, there has never been a Denny's (free-standing or not) in proximity to Southridge Mall; the closest one was and is on 27th Street at Coldspring Road, while Southridge is miles away bordered by 68th Street on the East and 76th Street on the West. I wandered around the outside of Southridge for a while and kept wanting to go in (again to test if I was incorporeal). Every time I considered it, a powerful someone would intervene, telling me that he couldn't allow me to do that, and - while I could choose to attempt it - he would be forced to kill me if I did. I remember feeling like this person was taller than I am by a foot or 18 inches (I am five feet, ten inches tall) and his weapon was a sword. Again, this could have been me hallucinating because Southridge certainly had and has mobile security who patrol the parking lot. So, I could have imagined some of this and construed security's likely threat of arrest as a threat of death. And maybe both things actually happened and happened concurrently. I just remember knowing that the threat of death was something considerably more dire than the threat of physically being killed; like that I would cease to exist or something like that.

I was eventually escorted off the mall's property and was given a ride over to my friend's house, where I was staying. It seemed like this was a taxi that took me there, but it is possible that mall security took me since it was only about 6 blocks from there. I think it was a taxi, though, because I remember riding in the front seat and I remember trying to pay the driver. I also remember the driver looking like he was afraid of me and, when I woke up the next morning, I still had the last $20 I possessed after leaving Denny's. Anyway, the car dropped me off out front of my friend's house and I went in through the front door. I was sleeping in their living room on their sofa sleeper at the time. So, when I laid down at night (or woke up in the middle of the night), I could see the VCR clock. And when I laid down that night it read 1:17am.

The next morning, I snapped awake at 6:30am and I remember walking toward the kitchen, which was at the back of the house and where the back door was. The back door had a different lock on it than the front door and I only had the key for the back door. So, I could go out the front door, but I could only come in the back door. I got to the threshold of the kitchen and said to someone "There you are! Where were you? I was worried I would never find you again." and then my perspective changed to me being in the kitchen merely steps from the back door. At that point, I realized I had to be back at the Reserve Center right away and so I jumped in the shower and then headed out the front door. When I got back from the Reserve Center that evening, my friend's parents were pissed off at me because I was out all night, came in the back door at 6:30am, got in the shower, then left out the front door again. I am positive that I got home at 1:17am because it was still dark, I laid down on the couch to get some sleep, I remember looking at the VCR at noting the time, and (as previously noted) dawn still broke before 6:30am at that time of the year . But my friend's dad was always a light sleeper and so I know that what he said happened did actually happen, too.

After this experience, I knew for certain that God - or whatever you want to call it/him/her - exists and that we aren't here by accident. And I promised that, since I had survived the previous night, I would never again try to kill myself. I've managed to keep that promise in spite of there being other low points of that magnitude since. It's funny how your brain gets trained to think certain ways, though, because I occasionally still think about it and then I catch myself thinking about it and admonish myself for such stupid thoughts. As I mentioned at the start, much of this could be hallucination. I took a lot of sleeping pills that night and I have no idea how polluted my system still was after puking at Denny's. So, the chronology of memories could be off and things could be jumbled up/out of order. It felt very real, though, and I can still experience that feeling even today, more than 20 years later. The whole thing proved to me that we're here for a purpose, and that purpose does not include suicide (though it's possible that someone's life map/plan includes that alternative).

Wings · March 12, 2017

Interesting story, @MrSmith. If you haven't already, read the book Dying To Be Me by Anita Moorjani.

I think you had one foot in and one foot out and were not able to be clear on that, due to the drug in your brain, maybe. One theory of several all related.

Edited March 12, 2017 by wings707

annzeepark914 · March 12, 2017

Glad you made it through the night, Mr. Smith. I have no idea what was going on because if those were spirit guides having that discussion, some of them were not very kind (the ones that didn't care what happened to you). But I know one thing: you were/are needed here on planet Earth for some reason(s) and so here you are :>)

riley702 · March 12, 2017

Wow, that story gave me goosebumps! I lean toward both happening simultaneously, maybe in some spirit world and reality. Glad you're still here and glad your guardian angel was such a good advocate. Although, maybe it was your own doubts about your worth arguing with the guardian angels? Like maybe your thoughts took form in some way. And the spirits convinced you to live.

In my late teens, I was seriously depressed and actively thinking about suicide, but it seemed like every time I'd think of a way to do it, I'd read some story (about some guy blowing half his face off and still surviving, about pills being painful, about someone surviving a suicide attempt completely paralyzed and unable to finish it, etc.) and decide not to try that. And then my Dad's cousin committed suicide after being diagnosed with lung cancer. He blew his head off while his wife was at the grocery store and she came home to find him. I remember my Dad ranting about how completely selfish he was, to subject his wife to that, and how she would always torment herself wondering if she could have helped him, and he could have died comfortably. That stuck with me and the thought of hurting my parents was enough to keep me from doing it until I got some counseling and antidepressants in my early-to-mid 20s. And realized that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I quit taking the antidepressants, but probably shouldn't have. When I was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer in 2010, they diagnosed me with generalized anxiety disorder and put me on Cymbalta, which has been a life-saver, literally. It has made such a huge difference. I did the 23andme DNA test and while browsing thru my raw data, found I have 2 copies of a genetic variant and each copy makes me twice as likely to have depression and anxiety. Makes more sense now. It's a medical issue and no different from taking high blood pressure medicine.

And I just remembered a dream from my teens. I dreamed I was flying a lot at the time, and one time, I ended up at our church, but at the "old" church behind the new one, and beside the church cemetery. There were several (2, 3, 4?) beings telling me I could come with them, and I was mightily tempted, but was deterred because they also told me that if I did, I couldn't change my mind and come back.

Edited March 12, 2017 by riley702

ari333 · March 19, 2017

Quote

Dang quote box.

In a home where I used to live I kept having recurring dreams about falling off a balcony. Same dream/nightmare over and over. Finally, one day I went outside to check the deck/balcony. Sure enough there were some loose rails. If someone had leaned on it, they would have fallen at least 20 or more feet. Weird. My bf said that maybe something in my brain noticed the loose rails subconsciously. Iow, I knew, but didn't know that I knew - If that makes sense.

ari333 · March 19, 2017

Glad you are still with us, MrSmith. That was a chilling recollection. I believe you.

MrSmith · March 20, 2017

Thanks, everyone. I was just talking with my wife about this over the weekend and that reminded me to ask her if she still has dreams about Anubis. She said she does and that every time he enters her dreams it's terrifying. She's been having dreams about him since she was a child. It sucks for me because I don't know how to help her.

ari333 · March 20, 2017

4 hours ago, MrSmith said:

Thanks, everyone. I was just talking with my wife about this over the weekend and that reminded me to ask her if she still has dreams about Anubis. She said she does and that every time he enters her dreams it's terrifying. She's been having dreams about him since she was a child. It sucks for me because I don't know how to help her.

If she takes melatonin, that's been said to make dreams more vivid and memorable. So in her case, that's bad.

MrSmith · March 20, 2017

@ari333 Thanks. She doesn't take any medication, but that's good information to have in case she should ever be prescribed that.

Anela · May 6, 2017

I was going to post here the other night, but I can't remember what I was going to say. I've had some spooky experiences, but I'm too tired to go into them now.

I've had something silly happening for a few months, though, that's just bugging me. I will be looking for something, an everyday object or food item that has its place. I'll look in the correct place, and nothing. Move things around, still nothing. Walk out of the room, check somewhere else, and when I come back, it's right where it was supposed to be. It happened again earlier on. I was looking for a can of refried beans - checked the cupboard several times, the counter, the hallway (in case it was in a bag down there), cupboard again. I moved things around, even from the back of the cupboard, and suddenly, it was there right in front of me, right at the front of the shelf. Just one of those WTF? moments. How am I missing something so obvious?

bilgistic · May 6, 2017

Fittingly, I'm awake at almost 5:00. Here's another personal paranormal stories thread that's a companion to the Syfy series "Paranormal Witness".

Anela · May 6, 2017

I went through this thread, on another site. Mostly the same kind of stories, but it still gave me the creeps at times.

http://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/whats-your-best-108202.html

MrSmith · May 6, 2017

2 hours ago, Anela said:

I went through this thread, on another site. Mostly the same kind of stories, but it still gave me the creeps at times.

http://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/whats-your-best-108202.html

This is pretty awesome. Thanks for that link!

Wings · May 6, 2017

I love these stories. I wish there was just one thread though.

Thank you for that link @Anela. Fascinating stories! I love stories about incidents that happen at the moment or close to death. The black cloud mentioned in two of the stories, up through page 4 anyway, sounds like evil but from what I have read, most think it is the expression of fear from those who cannot transition easily. Not everyone dies like Steve Jobs, saying, "Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow!" Though the reports of people dying at peace with a smile far outnumber the others.

My favorite so far is the nurse who yelled into the empty room to tell the man who had just died to move on and stop ringing the call button. You have died! Move on toward the light. LOL, good job, I would have done the same thing. I get that.

Edited May 6, 2017 by wings707

riley702 · May 8, 2017

We had a long-time child patient die last year. She'd had liver issues, a failed transplant. She was frequently in room 42 on the transplant unit. A few weeks after she died, another child was in the room. His parents woke up to see a girl (description dead-on) sitting in the chair beside their child's bed. The dad started to ask her what she was doing, and the girl got up and went into the bathroom. He followed her, flipping on the light and the bathroom was empty. At that point he flipped out, called the nurse in, and in the ensuing discussion, his son pipes up that he saw the girl sitting in the chair looking mad (she was frequently cranky with all of us). They got a new room ASAP and one of the nurses went into the room after everything had calmed down and even though she saw nothing, had a discussion with her anyway. She told the girl that she couldn't stay because she was scaring other patients and that she needed to look for a bright light and head that direction. And... no further sightings.

I once had a young patient I was doing oxygen checks on back when I worked nights. She woke up as I was in the room and I explained I was just checking things and she seemed fine with that explanation. Casually, she asked me who the "shiny lady" was who would sit on her bed at night. Every hair on my body went up as I looked around, but I saw nothing. I asked her if she was there now and she said no like I was the silliest thing ever. So I just told her it was her guardian angel. She said OK and laid back down like it was nothing.

Edited May 8, 2017 by riley702

Petunia13 · May 27, 2017

On 5/6/2017 at 2:31 AM, Anela said:

I was going to post here the other night, but I can't remember what I was going to say. I've had some spooky experiences, but I'm too tired to go into them now.

I've had something silly happening for a few months, though, that's just bugging me. I will be looking for something, an everyday object or food item that has its place. I'll look in the correct place, and nothing. Move things around, still nothing. Walk out of the room, check somewhere else, and when I come back, it's right where it was supposed to be. It happened again earlier on. I was looking for a can of refried beans - checked the cupboard several times, the counter, the hallway (in case it was in a bag down there), cupboard again. I moved things around, even from the back of the cupboard, and suddenly, it was there right in front of me, right at the front of the shelf. Just one of those WTF? moments. How am I missing something so obvious?

This is not unusual. And many attribute to ghosts or paranormal activity (even graveyard girl has talked about it in her videos saying it's a ghost in her old/parents house) but it can also happen from curses, which not many people know about or talk about. Natives and people who practice witchcraft or voodoo are familiar it. I have both in my heritage.

Anela · May 27, 2017

7 minutes ago, Petunia13 said:

This is not unusual. And many attribute to ghosts or paranormal activity (even graveyard girl has talked about it in her videos saying it's a ghost in her old/parents house) but it can also happen from curses, which not many people know about or talk about. Natives and people who practice witchcraft or voodoo are familiar it. I have both in my heritage.

So I'm cursed? :/

I once asked on another board, if it was possible for a house or something to be cursed. When we moved in here in 1998, we had bad luck until my parents threw out a really creepy picture that was in the basement, and a bunch of mirrors or mirrored tiles - can't remember which. We've also had our share of good luck though, too, like my managing to put out a fire (a rapidly spreading one on a bed), and things like that - that fire was four years ago. I'm normally scared of it, but guts took over for a change, and fear or anyone dying.

I didn't really think it was ghostly activity. Just wondered why I was missing things that were right there. Unless my mother is screwing with me, from the other side.

Zola · July 23, 2017

I was born in South Africa in 1993, but by the age of 10 or 11 we all moved to England to live permanently. However during my early school years in SA I remember a couple of spooky incidents that left an impression not just with me, but my teacher and 10 or 12 other kids in the class.

The school was built in the late 1980s, replacing a row of old shops that had remained vacant for years. I can't remember specific days but I do recall having a music lesson in one of the classrooms. I was about 8 or 9 I think (2001/2). And in the classroom was my music teacher and about 14 other kids, all of us trying to play music either using a flute, triangle, tambourine, recorder, and a single drum.

Half the class had these musical instruments, while the rest of us, (myself included), had to sing out loud. I can't recall the song, but about half way through we all heard 4 or 5 notes being played on the piano. Now the piano was on the far side of the classroom, no one was near it, and there was no need to use it for this particular lesson. Moreover the lid was closed, yet all of us - including our teacher - heard those 4 or 5 distinctive piano-sounding notes. They weren't just randomly played either, but seemed to flow with our song.

Our classroom was the only musical classroom in the school, and so no other pianos other than here. And it could not have been from a car radio because the main road was on the other side of the school grounds.

We were all stunned. And after a few moments my teacher suggested we start the song from the beginning again, but listening intently for the piano. However, nothing happened. We tried a third time but nothing. And then the class had ended and that was that. None of us were sure what to say or what to do, even though ALL of us heard it.

Anyway, about a month later, I had another music lesson, same kids, same tutor, same classroom. We'd had other music lessons in the intervening weeks but nothing to report, but then again we didn't play that song then either. However, on this occasion we did.... and guess what?

Those 5 piano notes played at exactly the same point as last time, We all heard it, and again the piano lid was closed and no one was near it.

We sang the song again, but nothing.

The following week we tried the song again but nothing. In fact it never happened again during my remaining few weeks with the school. And I didn't think more of it until years later when I raised those two incidents to a couple of former school friends who were there with me. They told me that before the school was built a row of old shops were demolished, including a musical store, which was owned by an oldish guy who used to tune and repair pianos there. And that there was every chance his store was built where the musical classroom is now, and that from time to time his spirit can be be heard playing a piano!

That's the only time I have bore witness to any sort of ghostly residual afterlife. Not particularly scary because both incidents happened during the day and in the company of other people. But it certainly sends a shiver down my spine every time I think about it now.

Edited July 23, 2017 by Only Zola

Petunia13 · August 8, 2017

Rich Lux posted a YouTube video last night discussing the ABH Subculture palette drama and the change to Sephora points system. His taping background is wall build-in shelving units for display w/ Louis Vuitton stuff, "bottled Drama Water", his fans or a fake Birkin, and some kitschy dolls. Anyhow one of his dolls was moving on its own more than once throughout the video behind him. He didn't know until people messaged him.

He's not a paranormal channel he's a luxury goods unboxing channel and makeup gossip Vlogger. One of my friends is friends with one of his close friends, so this was not faked and there was nothing behind the doll. Creepy.

bilgistic · August 11, 2017

Adam Ellis, a (hilarious) cartoonist in NYC, thinks the place he just moved into being haunted by the ghost of a young boy named David. The Twitter thread explaining the situation is here:

The follow-up tweets are creepy, too. In his photos, there's definitely something on the stairs outside his doorway, and one or both of his cats become very interested in something on the other side of the door every night within minutes of midnight. It's happened six nights in a row so far.

riley702 · August 12, 2017

I just read his tweets. Creepy!

auntlada · August 12, 2017

I did, too, @riley702, and should not have. That is a large part of what kept me awake in the middle of the night last night. I kept thinking, "I just want someone else to be awake," but I was being nice and didn't wake up my husband. I settled for the cat, who was not staring at anything and only wanted to be patted.

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