Ghost Stories

[Indiana]

Over the years I have found that some of the most effective horror films are derived from ghost stories. Done well they can be far scarier than the traditional shock/gore horror.

 

More than that, I like to hear stories of personal supernatural experiences, so has anyone here had anything ghostly happen to them that they'd like to share?

[Matthewman]

Last Christmas my daughter (who was 3 at the time) went through a phase of talking to a little old lady in her room at night. The year before my Aunt had passed away and at Christmas before, had bought these singing battery operated Christmas teddy bears which get stored away after Christmas along with all the other decorations. The talking started one night a few days after the decorations were up and one of the bears was sitting on top of the unit in the living room. My wife was still at work that night and I was in the kitchen making dinner when I heard my daughter talking away. I thought to myself that it sounded kinda cute and popped my head round the door to ask what she was doing and who she was talking too. She replied that she was talking to the nice old lady on the couch. This freaked me out a little as she pointed at the empty couch and just kept talking to her, even sung her a song.

 

This went on for about 2 weeks, mostly at bedtime when she was alone. My gran told me right away that it was my aunt watching over her. Not really a ghost story as such but It still freaked me out a little bit.

[GoldenGreen]

I've got quite a few , some happened to me, others to people I know:

 

The first one happened to my sister many years ago when she was at school (I guess she would have been 7/8), the school we had both gone to had an upper and lower playing field and she had been sent to the upper field with a friend to do litter duty on a cold winter afternoon I think and it was a bit misty. I've never quite got to the bottom of what happened , as she doesn't really like to talk about it, but apparently both her and her friend came running back down the hill to their classroom in a state saying they had seen a ghost. The ghost apparently was a man in victorian style dark long suit, with a hat and a beard. My Mum went in to see the teacher shortly after and mentioned it , and the teacher replied something like, Oh yes, a number of the teachers have seen him as well !

 

I work in a fairly old building, it dates back to the late 16th Century and many people have had strange occurences here over the years. We often get really strong, sickly sweet smells that come out of nowhere, which is really bizarre and sometimes they are so strong you feel you can hardly breathe.

My old boss used to actually quite like having a ghost around, in fact, she used to talk to her of an evening, she felt it was quite a comfortin presence.

 

The only time I've actually seen anything at work was a few years ago and it was one of those out of the corner of your eye moments, I saw a Gentleman dressed in a grey suit passing walking through the wall, the space he passed through many years ago had actually been an adjoining room , which had a secret door. It didn't really scare me as it was such a fleeting moment , but I've certainly never been able to come up with an explanation for what I saw.

[Indiana]

I have a few personal ghost experiences/stories including a Star Wars ghost story! I don't have a lot of time at the moment as I'm off to see my webmaster, but I will add some as soon as I can.

[TerraHawk]

I used to work with a no nonsense lady who told me a seance story with no obvious explanation. They asked how one of them would die, and was told by their 4th Child. Except she only had 3, and couldn't have anymore. She later died due to an extopic pregnancy.

 

Not ghost stories as such but I had a dream once where someone whispered in my ear 'she's pregnant' which woke me up with quite a shock. The only 'she' it could have meant was a friend who I worked with, so I told her about the dream the next day. She confirmed she was, and only found out herself the day before.

 

But the weirdest thing i've experienced was December 26th, 2004. I never (and I mean never) go for a walk early in the morning, but we actually had a White Christmas for once so I wanted to make the most of the snow before it melted, so went out for a walk about 7am. I live not a minute's walk from a cementary so went there (26/12 is the date my nan died so it felt slighty appropriate as well). It was so peaceful and quiet, I'd not seen another person or heard any news. I geniuinely honest to God thought to myself 'there could have been a disaster on the other side of the world and I'd know nothing about it.' It was only hours later I found out about the Tsunami, and even then not the scale of the disaster. So I'll never forget that walk or having that thought

 

Also a few years later, due to a hotel flooding my room before I got there I had to stay in a different part of London to those I knew as that was all that was left at the last minute. As soon as I got out the station it just seemed really familar. I was certain I'd never been there though. I walked past a cementary and thought I could have relatives in there for all I know. So anyway the next day I get home and tell my parents where I stayed. It was the town where they met, and I probably did have relatives in that graveyard!

Edited November 12, 2013 by TerraHawk

[Indiana]

Okay, the Star Wars ghost story.

 

In my old house we had a resident spirit, which I believed was a little boy. I was at Uni at the time and it was winter, the evenings were dark. My then fiancé wouldn't get in from work until around 7pm, so I was often there alone.

 

I was working on an assignment one evening when I coud feel something watching me from two stairs up on the stairwell. I knew it was male and young, and had a feeling it was either a blonde haired little boy or a Labrador dog. It was of small height either way.

 

Now going up the stairwell, taking a turn to the left, was the room in which I stored and displayed my Star Wars collection. On a 7ft talll wardrobe was stood an Applause vinyl Han Solo in Stormtrooper gear. One evening I was downstairs and heard a bang from this room. I was alone in the house. I went upstairs and there inside the door, right by the door itself, was this figure. Now, I admit that doesn't sound unusual. It fell off. What was unusual was the distance that it travelled. It was too far for a simple fall. I tried a few experiments to find out how it had gotten that far - including giving it a good smack off the top of the wardrobe. It always landed a couple of feet short.

 

Now anyone who knows Star Wars figure collecting will know what I'm talking about when I say that the 3 3/4" figures are hard to stand up on their own without a base. I had lined my vintage figures up along the edge of the small clothes cabinet which was about 3 foot long by 2.5ft deep. Behind them was stood a 12" Hasbro Hoth Han Solo mounted on his Tauntaun.

 

Another evening, another bang from this room. The 12" Han Solo figure was in the middle of the room, off of the Tauntaun, the figures lined up in front of it completely undisturbed. Now these smaller figures would fall over if you walked past them, and the Han Solo was pretty heavy. How it got over their heads to the centre of the room, I have no idea.

 

What's weird is that both figures were Han Solo.

 

One last tale to round this room off. One of my actors came round in 1998 to discuss a film that we were due to shoot that October. He requested to use the bathroom, which was situated upstairs. A few minutes later he came down absolutely petrified saying that someone was watching him as he washed his hands in the sink. The mirror in that bathroom looked out on the room where I kept my Star Wars collection. He knew nothing of what had happened to the toys in that room.

 

That house had a lot going on, which I will tell more of later,

 

 

[TerraHawk]

I used to dream of toy Stormtroopers in all different colours, but of course they were only ever white, Yet I later got into Doctor Who, and toy Daleks were all different colours 14 years before I was born. Maybe I was a Doctor Who fan in a previous life, there was no escape.

[GoldenGreen]

The story about the toys reminds me of another experience my sister had a few years ago.

 

She used to work at the weekend in an old mill that had been converted into small retail outlets and a restaurant, she started in the restaurant but then moved into the small shops area where there was a toy section with dolls, teddy bears etc. Even right from the start she was a little uncomfortable working in there, and a few weeks in she came in on a Sunday morning I think to find that the toys were everywhere. She figured it must have been not tidied from the day before , so she started to tidy them up and as she was doing it her boss had come in. She said to her, Oh, the children have been playing again ! What children my sister said ? The children that come in the night ! Apparently it happened on a fairly regular basis that they would tidy up at night and come the morning many of the toys would be on the floor again.

 

A slightly different thing happened to me a few years ago , I was walking back from work in the evening so it was fairly dark, didn't really tend to see anyone as it was fairly late in the evening (and no I had't been drinking !). As I came to the top of a hill, I initially thought I saw what I thought was a dog ahead of me on the other side standing there fairly still but being illuminated by a near by streetlight. As I walked nearer, I started to get a clearer view and then probably felt more scared that I ever had, because what I could see was not a dog, but what looked like a black puma, all the hairs competely stood up on my back and my heart started racing. I just stood for a moment completely glued to the spot, really not knowing quite what to do. I didn't know whether to run or just stay still. I gradually moved as slowly and quietly as I could backwards to where there was a fork in the road and as I moved round the bend and out of the view of the puma I think you can safetly say I ran as fast as I've ever ran and just kept running all the way home. I mentioned it to quite a few people over the next few days, some just looked amused but a friends Dad said to me, Oh You've seen the Surrey Puma, apparenly it has been sighted on quite a few occassions over the years, by various indivudals including police and no one quite knows why it is there or where is has come from.

[Indiana]

One of the scariest things that happened to me in the same house is an incident of Old Hag Syndrome or as some have termed it Sleep Paralysis.

 

I was laying in bed, face up, asleep, when I was woken by a sudden weight on my legs. I lifted my head and saw an old woman kneeling on my in what I can only describe as a psychiatric patient type robe. Although some describe these as hags, this woman want ugly, she must have been attractive when she was younger, but what was disturbing is that she had the thousand yard stare. She was looking right through me. I immediately tried to jump up, but could not move at all, except my head. I also had no voice.

 

The woman kept leaning in close to me and I could smell her bad breath. I also found it hard to take full breathes. She stayed there about 5 minutes, and then backed off me, and, this will sound comical, but she rocked back and fell off the bed to her left.

 

I was then able to breathe, taking in a deep breath. But I stayed awake and in one position in the bed until the sun came up. Only then did I dare look over the side of the bed to see if she was truly gone.

 

I didn't mention this to anyone for years, for fear she may return. Then my wife and I moved to this house in 1999. A couple of years later there was a programme on ITV about night terrors, one of the stories concerned Old Hag Syndrome. I was shocked in that this was almost exactly what happened to me. (Most described their night visitor as ugly, mine wasn't).

 

Over the years Doctors have tried to explain this away as a dreamlike state between asleep and awake. Fair enough. However, I was fully awake, and what none can explain is how so many of the reported cases feature an old woman.

 

I still have one more story to share about this house...but that's for next time.

[TerraHawk]

I used to get typical sleep paralysis symptoms a fair bit, but ever since I found out it was called that it all but stopped, which is slightly disappointing really! I never saw anything, but have certainly felt the sensation of being pushed around my bed with some force.

 

There were times I sort of get into the state of knowing I was nodding off and it starting to happen but just being conscious enough to snap awake again. Its hard to explain though.

[GoldenGreen]

I've had sleep paralysis on a number of occassions as well, one was an old hag, and believe me she wasn't pleasant , fulfilled all the criteria that "old hag" that you would expect.

 

But in a slightly bizarre twist, I also had almost the same experience but instead of an Old Hag, it was a guy dressed like a mafia mobster.

 

Both times very similar, I felt fully awake, but could not speak or call out despite trying and was pinned down by both the charcters who were staring right through me.

 

In a similar sort of event I suspect that goes back to my childhood, my parents had taken down my curtains to be cleaned and I woke up in the night to see an old witch on a broomstick hovering by my bedroom window , beckoning towards me with a gnarly and boney old finger.

 

On all occassions I was completely awake, aware of my surroundings, but literally paralysed so unable to move or call out.

 

Very scary and actually even when it finished still left me with a sense of fear. Even now typing about it all three times my memories are very vivid and I can actually feel some of the fear that I felt at the time.

[Indiana]

I remember us discussing the sleep paralysis a while back Jon.