Anyone here ever have any "paranormal" experiences?

[Elessar Zappa]

I’m generally a skeptic but also open-minded about the spiritual world. About five years ago, I was staying in a hotel in Gallup, New Mexico and I had gone to sleep for the night. All of the sudden, I woke and there was a lady standing in front of my bed, clear as day. I initially thought she had broken in or went to the wrong room or something. But after about ten seconds, she vanished into thin air! I don’t know if it was sleep paralysis or a waking dream or a genuine spirit but I was freaked out for the rest of the night.

Any of you have any experiences?

[Moostache]

1. I will be far more ammenable to "paranormal" events when they happen at noon instead of midnight...

There is simply too much happening in dark, hard to see locations and situations and so very little happening at 2 PM or in crowded places like stadiums, concerts or malls.

If ghosts and signs and spirits are restricted only to situations where our visual sense is compromised to make others fill in blanks and compensate, then the only thing weird about it is that people believe first in ghosts, angels and spirits and never in compromised visual feedback being acted on my by a mind trying to bring in ANY inputs to make sense of what can not be seen as normal conditions.

[Elessar Zappa]

2. My mom's a believer

and says stuff happens in the middle of the day all the time at her house. I’m skeptical but I don’t dismiss the possibility.

[multigraincracker]

3. If they happen late at night,

try to recall what you ate for dinner.

[Hekate]

26. Scrooge thought the Ghost of Christmas Past was a bit of undigested gristle

[Betty88]

39. We moved

New very little about the former owners. One day my partner heard someone say. Dead,dead,dead. This happened several times. A few weeks after moving in we were chatting with a neighbor who knew the last two sets of owners. One was an old lady who used to say dead,dead,dead when she spoke of people who were past. He’s dead, dead dead dead. After awhile she stopped and we settled in.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

4. "open-minded about the spiritual world"

Why would someone be 'open-minded' about something that is clearly made-up nonsense?

Spirits, i.e. ghosts ... aren't real.

There's no need to grant other people's fantastical ideas about supernatural shit ... any imprimatur whatsoever.

Occam's Razor says ... you didn't actually wake up.

[Elessar Zappa]

5. I've hear too much to dismiss it entirely.

I’m an agnostic, not an atheist. We’re going to have to agree to disagree.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

7. Do you have any evidence you were actually awake?

Did a partner confirm they spoke to you at that time, and you were lucid?

I'm quite confident that the vast majority of people's proclaimed 'witnessing' of supernatural stuff is a function of the fact that people's brains are not 100% reliable in terms of realizing 'dreams' from 'reality', and/or that people's night vision is pretty sub-par.

All throughout history, humans have perceived things they didn't understand as being 'supernatural', i.e. Trees grew because there was a 'God of The Trees' that made them grow.

In 100% of cases, it has ALWAYS turned out that there's a scientific, non-supernatural explanation. Everything adheres to laws of chemistry and physics and such.

Thus, my presumption/deduction is that there's no magical shit going on, anywhere. There's no Gods, Devils, Angels, Afterlives, Heaven, Hell, Luck, Psychics, Time Travel, Ghosts, Spirits, Souls, Witches, Warlocks, Leprechauns, or 'magic' of any kind.

It's ALL nonsense in my book, because all these things are contrary to known laws of physical reality.

People should stop acting like this is in any real question AFAIC, but like you say ... I'll agree to disagree

[Disaffected]

42. Another factor at play here is

that some folks just like to tell tall tales (with a little oneupmanship sometimes tossed in for greater effect).

The world is steeped in nonsense, one reason being, the human brain is well adapted to pattern recognition, it being a vital evolutionary driver. Trouble is, this ability is sometimes too pronounced and can provide exaggerated but sometimes believable feelings and observations. Think of cloud pattern recognition for example (I tend to see predator animals and birds).

[50 Shades Of Blue]

6. Yes. I've never seen an apparition, but I totally believe you did.

I know too many people who have seen them to discount them.

[NJCher]

8. I have these experiences all the time

Day in, day out. It's just part of my world. Been going on as long as I can remember.

I'm not alone with these experiences. Many of my friends have them, too.

People who have these experiences don't feel the need to proselytize, which is why it's not so easy to find out about.

[Ocelot II]

9. I have cat ghosts, if that counts.

[MadScot]

10. It does, for me at least

About 50 or so years ago I had a wonderful tuxedo cat named Boots. The cat was never far from our newborn daughter, faithfully guarding access to her. On the rare occasions Boots was disapproving, she let us know in no uncertain terms. Boots unexpectedly passed away when our daughter was 18 months. After that I could hear Boots at various times, day and night, vocalizations, distinctive noises (galloping down the hallway, etc.) But never saw anything. Our 18 month old could, however. We would watch her following our invisible cat with her eyes, frequently pointing and saying "Boo' daddy". Once her mother tried to tell her there was nothing there, to which my daughter pointed to the spot again while slowly shaking her head and said "No, momma. Boo'." If I hadn't experienced it personally, I wouldn't have believed it.

[Ocelot II]

11. Interesting, especially that the baby saw something.

I lost my two old cats during the summer of 2020. Ever since then I occasionally see a quick catlike movement out of the corner of my eye, in exactly the place where a cat would walk to get from the upstairs or the kitchen to the living room, and I think it's my remaining cat coming into the room - but then I see her sleeping on the couch. I turn around to look and I don't see anything, but this keeps happening, sometimes during the day and sometimes in the evening, and not when I'm dozing off. The motion is often accompanied by a slight creak of the floor boards. I don't have an explanation for this.

My mom, who was one of the most rational people I've ever known, was also convinced their house was being haunted by their late cat.

[NJCher]

13. Mine appeared in photographs

and it was someone right here at DU who saw them first. I posted the photos and someone posted back that "there's a cat in that picture." I thought I was just posting pics of the nor'easter that was going through. Nope, upon closer examination, there were images of my cat, who had just crossed over two weeks prior. Quite a number of other posters saw the images and commented on them. This was about 15-16 years ago.

I'm forever grateful to that DU-er who noticed it and posted back to me. There were a number of photos: probably about a dozen.

It is one thing to think you know there are ghosts or spirits, but it is another entirely to have photographic evidence, and especially evidence that says something unique, which mine did. One of the photos contained a message about something shared between my cat and me, something that I'd never shared with anyone else. It was very funny and showed me the wonderful sense of humor that beings on the other side have.

I remember I stayed up until all hours of the night for months studying those photographs. It is really hard to accept it, even for people like me who have a positive attitude toward it. There is some type of engrained attitude that works against believing this, so I understand why it's difficult for so many people.

Even today, after literally hundreds and hundreds of experiences, I want to deny it, but I can't. There's just too much there saying otherwise.

[MadScot]

14. Any chance you could repost one or two?

I'd love to see them.

[NJCher]

15. first, welcome to the board, madscot

Second, give me some time to think about linking to where these photos were originally posted.

Also, I have to think about where I stored them in CD form.

My mind will eventually sift through all this but it might take a little time. Six days would not be unusual for my overloaded mental hard drive!

[MadScot]

18. Thank you for the welcome

Didn't intend to put you to extra trouble, but I will be very much looking forward to seeing them. Thanks in advance, by the way

[Hekate]

27. I love that story. Welcome to DU, by the way.

[MadScot]

47. My daughter rembers seeing Boots...

until she was five or so. And thanks for the welcome. I'm excited about participating.

[frogmarch]

12. During a sleep paralysis episode,

I hallucinated that the Jesus in religious art had come to steal my brain.

Not paranormal. Even then I knew it, and I made myself go back to sleep so I could wake up right.

[Hekate]

28. Gah.All I want to do after a sleep paralysis episode is stay awake until I can shake out the cobwebs

Although I have to say that ever since I had a sleep study done and got a CPAP, that kind of thing is much better.

[Marthe48]

16. My last dog visited often

after she was gone. She was a little dog, and would sleep on the bed between our feet. I was lying down in the late afternoon a few weeks after she died, reading. I was on my side, facing the wall, holding the book. I felt something jump in the bed and lay down, right in the spot my little dog would lay. I thought it was one of the cats, but when I looked, nothing was there. I'm not sure if I told my husband right away, or after I felt her presence a couple more times. When I told him, he was skeptical, but one morning after that, he came out of our room in the morning, and said, "I felt it, too." He had the strangest look on his face. Our little dog visited us quite often the first couple of years after she died, but she gradually stopped coming by.

I see movement out of the corner of my eye that looks like my cat who passed away 2 years ago. I have a vision impairment, so I don't count it entirely. He was my favorite cat of many and he had a great sense of humor.

The last odd thing happened in May, just last month. I woke up in the night. A clinking noise woke me.I looked at the clock, as I do when I wake in the night, and made a trip to the bathroom, as I usually do. I got back to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, I couldn't find my glasses. I take them off last thing and put them on my night stand. I looked at the bedstand, then on the floor, because I remembered that clink in the night. I couldn't find them, so I got the spare pair out of the secretary just to get through my morning routine. As I checked my messages, I learned that my husband's last uncle had passed away in the night. He was so kind to me after my husband passed away 5 years ago, and made a point to stay in touch with me. He had a jokey sense of humor and was a nice man. In the message, his son posted the exact time of death, which struck me as an odd detail to send in a text message. I finished my coffee and decided to look for my glasses with a flashlight and wearing the spare pair. I looked under the bed, under the nightstand, under the dresser, on the dresser and had no luck. I knew they had to be in the room. I very carefully started stripping the bed. I moved my pillows, then took the quilt off. When I started pulling the top sheet off, I heard a clink. My glasses were tangled in the sheet at the foot of the bed. I take sleeping medicine before I go to bed, so I will freely admit that I could have skipped a routine I've followed since I was 10 and don't remember. But the zinger here is that the clink woke me about 4 minutes after the time of death listed in the message. I felt and still feel that Uncle stopped on his way to say goodbye.

I believe we go on in a spirit form, but don't embrace the idea of Heaven and Hell. I think we become energy that continues. Some of us hang around, others embrace their transformation and don't look back. I knew a psychic reader, and witnessed several of her readings. She was really accurate. She read for my brother-in-law, just the two of them in a room, and when she finished he said he told her, "No offense, but I'm never going to do that again." I could tell you so many stories about this lady, but the last thing I will say is that she believed there were spirits and she was able to move back and forth across the veil, She told me all of us had the ability, if we wanted it. I don't, but her opinion influenced me to stay open-minded.

[highplainsdem]

17. I have, and I've met quite a few people who have, from all walks of life and

with different (and most often with no) religious beliefs. The people I've seen most often resistant to any possibility of the paranormal are religious fundamentalists for whom any paranormal experiences are a threat to their particular dogma, and dogmatic skeptics who are essentially fundamentalist non-believers.

I'm not going to post about my own experiences here or those I heard about from friends and relatives because this isn't the right forum, because of the skeptics. Who can be amusing when they make straw-leprechaun arguments, as if everyone who believes there's probably something to the paranormal falls or would fall for every tidbit of archaic mythology (which is foolish, just like believing every single ancient theory of science that turned out to be wrong or at least incomplete).

I've seen skeptics changed by their own experiences. I've also suspected that some of the loudest skeptics might have had at least one paranormal experience themselves, one which they could NOT explain, that rattled them so much they'll keep building the biggest rhetorical platform they can against it to try to bury it under, in the hope that sort of experience never happens again.

If you're particularly curious about how common experiences of the paranormal are, talk to people who work or have worked in hospice, or grief support. Or to nurses, even the ones who haven't worked in hospice. You're likely to hear some interesting stories.

Most such experiences tend to involve a loved one, typically a recently deceased loved one.

I don't have much familiarity with the haunted house type of story, and I've never been very interested in TV shows about ghost hunters. Though I do have relatives who thought their house, where the builder and original owner's wife had died, was haunted. The husband, wife and their child all had some odd experiences there, and so did the man who bought the house from them years later. Lovely modern house, not at all the sort of place you might expect such stories.

[NJCher]

29. Ehhh

I don’t let skeptics affect anything I do in regard to expressing experiences with the other side.

They are just people who lack experience and awareness, so why would that pose a problem? Their opinions mean nothing because they lack experience and are uninformed. Anyone can find out about this stuff and anyone can cultivate their abilities to communicate with loved ones in another dimension. I don’t feel sorry for them because they are ignorant, just like I don’t feel sorry for racists or misogynists.

We just happen to live in a very dysfunctional culture that fails us in terms of determining what the important values are.

Anyway, that’s a long-winded way of saying I wish you didn’t feel that way. I’ll bet you have some pretty interesting experiences.

[highplainsdem]

33. I'd much rather read about other people's experiences than post about my own.

Some people on this board have really interesting stories to tell, and I enjoy their sharing them.

The skeptics don't worry me because I wonder if they might be right. I know they're not, at least not in general, though they can always be right about some specific incidents.

What I don't like is any ridicule, by skeptics, of people who've had such experiences. Ridicule meant to silence them, to make them feel stupid.

You're thick-skinned about their comments. So am I. Others aren't, and it would be unfortunate if any of the people sharing their experiences here might later be afraid to bring them up in a more appropriate setting -- especially when dealing with someone who's recently lost a loved one -- for fear of being ridiculed again.

I've been a skeptic myself. I went from being raised Catholic in an extended family that included clergy to being agnostic/atheist for years.

But when you have experiences of your own that happen when you're wide awake, not under the influence of any substance that might cloud your thinking, you can either tell yourself you must be delusional, or accept that science still hasn't figured out everything about our universe (though the most arrogant scientists in every generation tend to think they have).

I've known a lot of people who've had similar experiences, though few of them will talk of them very openly.

There is a lot of info online about NDEs (near death experiences) and ADCs (after death communications, direct ones rather than via a medium). Info on deathbed visions. Research done at the University of Virginia on children's memories of past lives.

As I said, nurses often have interesting stories to tell. So do people working in hospice or grief support.

If the skeptics are truly open-minded, they'll ask people they know who are in those professions. And they'll listen to them. Though if those skeptics have made their skepticism clear in the past, with whomever they're questioning, the person being questioned might not waste time relating any stories to them.

[Niagara]

19. I have only had a few experiences in my life.

I'm not going to recollect my experiences here but they were distinct enough that I truly paid attention while these specific events were happening.

[orleans]

20. oh yes. when i was a kid i was playing in the basement, riding my trike, and as i was getting off it

i saw my grandma's sister sitting over in the corner of the basement. and she was very nice, and spoke to me, and still she scared the shit out of me and i ran upstairs, screaming.

[LeftInTX]

21. Never...Nothing exciting happens to me.

[Totally Tunsie]

22. Yes. My darling aunt has spoken out loud to me on two occasions.

The most incredible one was on Christmas Eve after everyone had gone to bed. I was sitting on the couch, staring at the lighted tree in the otherwise dark room, and was thinking of Christmases as I was growing up. I was feeling very melancholy and missing my favorite aunt who had always hosted Christmas Eve and made it so wondrous. Clear as a bell, my aunt's voice spoke from the tree, saying "I'm OK, Honey. I'm here with Baci (my name for my g-ma), and the two of us are watching over you. We love you." Yes, I was 100% sober...and totally floored!

The second time wasn't as dramatic, but startling just the same. Standing at the sink, rinsing dishes, I felt light pressure on my back for no apparent reason - until the voice again, "Checking in to let you know we're still by your side. Love you." and *+*Whoosh*+*, she was gone.

Both of these were many years ago, and she has not *spoken* with me since, but I definitely feel her presence on many occasions.

"When the one you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a treasure." (unknown)

[NJCher]

30. That's very sweet

I particularly loved the Christmas one. Love is forever.

It’s a parallel universe. They exist in the same space we do. You can communicate with them at any time once you learn how. They want to hear from us.

Thanks for sharing those special stories.

[chowmama]

23. My mother dreamed about her brother at Iwo Jima

He was hit and crying out for his momma. She discounted it, as he was a rather macho type.

Until he came home and told about his experience. It was exactly as she described.

She also told my father what cards he'd drawn from a deck, being accurate until he threw down the cards and left the room.

[ailsagirl]

24. I believe that weird things happen but...

I’m always reading that there is absolutely no scientific proof that ghosts exist.

I read the following awhile back and found it interesting—what do you guys think of its premise that ghosts (and all other concomitant beliefs) are not real?

https://www.livescience.com/26697-are-ghosts-real.html

I’m on the fence.

[Hekate]

25. My grandmother and her mother used to have precognitive dreams...

A skeptic could reasonably dismiss some of them as a mother’s intuition based on behavioral clues or the like, but not the dream about my great grandmother’s daughter drowning from a train wreck off a bridge.

G’gma woke up in a panic, unable to breathe, felt like her lungs were full if water. Calmed herself, laid back down, boom, back in the nightmare. Woke up again, then same thing when she laid back down. Soon enough someone came pounding on the door with news of what became known as the Eden Train Wreck, in which many were lost.

[NJCher]

32. I think these abilities run in families

Maybe there’s a genetic predisposition.

My mother told me she was able to levitate a table. I think it scared her and she went flying back into establishment, conventional religion. Anyway, she didn’t like it much when she found my tarot card deck nor did she like my stash of paranormal magazines.

My girlfriend’s mother also exhibited psychic abilities and my friend, too, has an incredible intuitive sense.

[GReedDiamond]

31. It is late June, 1969. I am travelling from the Chicago area with Aunt Mary, and we are visiting

another aunt of mine, her husband/my uncle and their daughter/my cousin in upstate NY...

...we're in some really small and old village with a 1700s church, along with the house that I was in, right next door, with a small but scary graveyard behind them both.

The graveyard had grave markers dating from the late 1700s to around 1928, as I recall.

This had been the Pastor's house, back in the day.

My female cousin, 4 years older than me, had a collection of books about "the occult" and a Ouija Board which we both used in the afternoon.

The planchette (the thing you place your fingers on) was literally moving by itself, answering questions neither of us could have known.

It was time for bed.

It was a warm summer night.

I was flat on my back on a roll-out cot with a thin mattress and a sheet covering me.

Suddeny the sheet was being tugged, inch by inch, until it was down to my ankles, at which point I got up and went into the adjoining room, a guest room where Aunt Mary was fast asleep in a bed.

I spent the rest of the night on the floor with no more disturbances.

[scarletlib]

34. Yes. Back in the 60's

We were at a friends house visiting & having some fun.
At one point both of the sisters (our friends) asked my husband if he would take a picture of them with their very elderly grandmother. Of course he said yes. We all went into the bedroom where the grandmother was in bed. One sister sat on either side of the grandmother.

My husband took the Polaroid picture. When it developed both sisters were perfectly clear and visible in the picture. The grandmother was just a blur.
So, he took the picture again. Same thing happened.

We all left the room after 2 failures. Bear in mind my husband took pictures before and after this event. Everyone came out okay.

Could have been a fluke of 2 bad ones side by side in the camera roll.
It freaked him out.

The grandmother died within the week of this event.

[Ohio Joe]

35. Nope

Not even anything I could remotely call paranormal.

[NNadir]

36. Yes, one morning I woke up and a cheap, uneducated, unintelligent, carny barker...

...had managed to squeeze into the office of President of the United States despite being rejected by the majority of Americans. The carny barker who was described as having everything he touches die, nearly completely destroyed one of of the world's oldest democracies, led by deranged thugs who despite trying to change everything and anything called themselves "conservatives."

This was certainly not a normal thing, so I guess it qualifies as "paranormal."

I'd like to believe that there's a rational explanation for it, but every effort to identify one has failed.

[Iggo]

37. Nope. Only real stuff.

[Delmette2.0]

38. This is my experience.

My oldest son died almost 5 years ago from respiratory failure brought on by muscular dystrophy. He was 39 years old.

I was numb for several days. His younger brother had to make all the arrangements. I just could not think or make decisions.

The day after he died I sat at the end of my bed trying to think of what to do to get through another 12 hours. Suddenly I felt him give me a hug. About 6 months earlier he started insisting on a hug every time he left to visit his friend. I really felt his chest and arms around me.

This never happened again. I know he was saying goodbye.

[2naSalit]

40. From my experiences...

I have had many such occurrences but only freaked about the paralysis part twice. Otherwise, I just see it as an indication that my body is not ready to get up so I give it a little more time and go back to wherever I was before.

I have had out of body experiences, at will since I was very young, though I don't do it often anymore. I've seen many a ghost and communicated with them, and numerous other nonphysical adventures. The two that were of concern happened in the same city a decade apart, different houses but the exact same thing happened both times. I recall awaking but in a mild convulsive state while watching a pair of legs & feet dance around the room like some ritual was being performed and I felt terrified. I couldn't control my body and I knew I needed to tell it to leave me alone to send it away but I couldn't utter a sound for what seemed like a long time. Once I was able to will myself into a physical scream of "NO! GET OUT!" it was over and I was fully awake. Other people were in the room the first time and had no idea that anything was happening until I let out a garbled scream. It was hard to tell them what I just went through. As far as they knew, I crashed on the couch while we were watching a movie.

[Kali]

41. no

[mopinko]

43. a couple of times i sensed my kids were in danger before they actually were.

was at my niece's wedding many years ago when i only had 3 kids. the family had rented out most of the hotel, so we took over.
after the reception, all the kids jumped in the pool, no lifeguard, while the adults continued to drink and hang out. at least 25 kids, smallish pool.
my son was about 5. very shy, but enjoying so many kids that he knew. hadnt done a lot of swimming, but had some lessons. he was paddling around hanging onto a soccer ball.

something walked up my neck, and asked me- where's nick?
i picked him out of the crowd, in the middle of the pool, just as he lost hold of the ball. went right under.
i jumped in, fully clothed, and pulled him out. the other adults were so enmeshed, that we walked out to go get dry clothes, and no.one.noticed.
there's about 4 ppl who could tell you this story. none of them heard about the voice.

i also had a bad head injury as a kid, and had hallucinations for a decade. carl sagan says 10% of ppl have them. my youngest also had a head injury, and had them. i think this accounts for a lot of such experiences.
but quantum mechanics is showing that some of these things are, scientifically, possible.
more open minded than i used to be.

[underpants]

44. Yes. One at OBX and my wife saw a ghost on our honeymoon

We got married and stayed in what was an oooold hotel (now condos) In Roanoke. My wife woke up the morning after our wedding and saw a ghost in our room.

My experience was at a rental on the Outer Banks of NC. Something passed behind me. The other 3 people in the house were all on the deck playing cards. One of them saw me react and asked what was going on. I was sure one of them had passed behind me going to the bathroom or something.

[Rhiannon12866]

45. I don't know if this counts, but it certainly stuck with me

My Dad died on November 30th, his birthday is January 22nd. And on the night of his birthday, late at night, smoke alarms kept going off in the house though no one was smoking or baking or cooking. Then the horn on his car which was parked in the driveway started blasting and wouldn't stop. That had never happened before, either. I'd like to think that my father dropped in - it certainly seemed coincidental.

[onethatcares]

46. not sure if this is paranormal but

three yrs ago we bought this house we're living in. In conversation with the neighbors I found the previous owner raised dogs for fighting and at one time had 18 of them in cages. One evening I was watching the teevee machine and thought I saw a dog walk through the hallway and into our bedroom. No noise, just a shadow. I got up to look and there was nothing there. A while later, a few days at least, while waiting to fall asleep, I felt the weight of something climb onto the bed and lay down near my feet. I could feel whatever it was relax like a dog would prior to drifting off. Ya'll know that feeling? I sat up, nothing there. A few weeks later it seemed like I felt the snout of a dog lift my hand for petting. I again sat up and looked, nothing there. Anyway, I've gotten a mental image of this "thing" to be a boxer/pitty mix in black with a white fur patch from it's eyes to the nostrils. Hasn't caused me any problems and I don't have to walk or feed it so it gets to stay.

Next strange.

Same house.Three bedroom/two bath. Master bath is in the master bedroom, 2nd bath is off a hallway. I get out of bed before my wife does and usually use the hallway bathroom for my wake up call and the lid to the commode is always closed.Two weeks ago the toilet seat in that bath was fully up. both the ring and the lid. when I went in to use it. My wife did not use the bathroom that night and neither did I. We assured each other we weren't the ones that left it up. Three days ago, it happened again. other days I wake up to the smell of burnt toast in the hallway, no one in the kitchen, the toaster is not on but the smell is distinctive just like someone is making breakfast. Other days, it's the smell of cigarette smoke in the master bedroom and neither my wife or I smoke cigarettes, especially at 6 a.m.

I can't find anywhere these things might be generated from.

I wonder how much stranger it's going to get.