[Sage]

It's never too early to start thinking about All Hallow's Eve and The Day Of The Dead (the Mexican holiday, not the movie), so please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions, and anecdotes about your experiences with the restless souls of the dear departed. Of course, really good ghost stories are welcome here as well.

ScottMate

[Captain Blondebeard]

Haints?

[SakSquash]

Oh god Scott. We've walked onto a ground that scares me so bad, that this is ALL that i'm having to do with this thread.

[Sage]

Originally Posted by Captain Blondebeard

Haints?

Oops! "Haint" is the Southern version of "Haunt", the archaic noun usage of that word which describes spirits, usually malevolent ones, e.g. "That house is haunted, it's just full of haints".

ScottMate

[lumi]

If I were a ghost, I know that I wouldn't be haunting Earth. I'd be off searching the universe.

[Fairygdmther]

A few years ago, my niece moved into the second floor of a house in northern Massachusetts, where a friend of hers had grown up. He had to move to California for a school year to take some course he needed, and he didn't want to leave the house empty. Normally he lived downstairs, where his grandmother had lived when he was a kid. He and his family lived upstairs where my niece was living then.

My niece had the family over for a family birthday, and we were all looking around. She kept watching me, waiting for something. I started to walk in one empty bedroom and immediately backed right out again. The closet door was closed, but there was terrible fear and terror coming from it. She went in and opened the door. What I saw was a little boy, crouched down hugging his knees. His eyes were wide open and he was shaking. She explained to me that her friend, as a kid had often been locked in that closet by his alcoholic father while his mother was working. His fears had been so great, that even though he was still alive, they had caused an emanation to be created of him in the closet. Her cat wailed at this closet.

In another bedroom there was a closed door that couldn't be opened. She assumed that it went to the attic, but wasn't sure. Her friend had just told her to stay out of there. He had piled wallboard in front of the door. There were some very strange sounds coming from behind that door. They weren't loud, but they were very eerie. Her cat wouldn't even enter this room.

My niece stayed till he returned from California, then moved out. It was waaaay too haunted for her.

Lynsie

[Sage]

Originally Posted by temporaryscars

Oh god Scott. We've walked onto a ground that scares me so bad, that this is ALL that i'm having to do with this thread.

Really? They're just ghosts, and they can't hurt you. It's the live ones you've got to watch out for.
Then again I used to live in Savannah Georgia, a city so thick with ghosts that you have to elbow them out of the way just to walk down the street, so my perspective might be a little bit skewed from the norm.

ScottMate

[Captain Blondebeard]

Sounds like you have a little more experiance than most Scott.

[simpson_yellow]

I don't buy into it, myself. Still, didn't stop my recent Thief gaming scaring the absolute hell out of me.

And although I don't believe, I'm interested to hear other's haunting tales. Sounds like you have a few, Scott. Care to share?

Edit: Just noticed Lynsie's post. Wow! That's some really creepy stuff.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Fairygdmther

The closet door was closed, but there was terrible fear and terror coming from it. She went in and opened the door. What I saw was a little boy, crouched down hugging his knees. His eyes were wide open and he was shaking. She explained to me that her friend, as a kid had often been locked in that closet by his alcoholic father while his mother was working. His fears had been so great, that even though he was still alive, they had caused an emanation to be created of him in the closet.

Was the father ever punished for child abuse? Was anything done about this?

[Fairygdmther]

I don't really know Trep, but I know they got divorced when my niece's friend was still quite young, maybe 6-7 yrs old, and he died a few years later of alcoholism.

Lynsie

[Jeysie]

I've not seen a speck of anything remotely ghostly, demonic, spirit-like, etc. ever in my life. Guess they just don't like me.

Now, ESP and other supernatural abilities, *that* I wonder about sometimes. And I believe that aliens exist too, just not that they've visited Earth. I mean, you'd think anyone that's developed FTL travel would have better things to do than buzz the planet abducting hillbillies.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[lumi]

The Skeptic's Dictionary basically says what I think. If people report seeing paranormal activity, I think they're lieing or seeing things (most likely the latter). Is there a possibility such things exist? Sure. I'm not inherently against such things; I think it would be cool if I saw ghost. But I don't have any reason to believe in them right now. Some things don't make much sense when you exam them.

[lumi]

Originally Posted by Jeysie

Now, ESP and other supernatural abilities, *that* I wonder about sometimes.

There are some episodes of Penn & Teller: Bullshit you should watch.

And I believe that aliens exist too, just not that they've visited Earth. I mean, you'd think anyone that's developed FTL travel would have better things to do than buzz the planet abducting hillbillies.

Unless they're punk, teenage aliens.

[Aj_]

I see things all the time, but that's probably different kind of spirits acting. I'm a skeptic, and I don't believe all that, but I love to be scared witless. My mother is a nurse and she believes in alternative remedies, ghosts, spirits, forces that don't involve physics, and lots of other stuff I don't understand.

[Fairygdmther]

As I mentioned in the other thread, I have a small cat ghost and a medium sized dog ghost who visit me here. A friend of mine has also seen the cat ghost. What would be the point of making it up? Animals see them or at least react to them. Often children can see them too.

Just as with ESP, many adults have lost the ability to sense things that they used to have as children. Denying their presence doesn't invalidate it.

Lynsie

[SakSquash]

Originally Posted by Thrift Store Scott

Really? They're just ghosts, and they can't hurt you. It's the live ones you've got to watch out for.
Then again I used to live in Savannah Georgia, a city so thick with ghosts that you have to elbow them out of the way just to walk down the street, so my perspective might be a little bit skewed from the norm.

ScottMate

Are you serious? I don't even want to talk about this, because I fear that if I talk about them, they'll know it, and come mess with me.

[lumi]

Originally Posted by Fairygdmther

Just as with ESP, many adults have lost the ability to sense things that they used to have as children.

We should send kids to win a million dollars. I'd love to see it happen.

[Sage]

For a while I lived in a house with three other guys that had a spirit.
My two rooms were upstairs at the end of a long hall. One night I was in the house by myself, lying in bed reading a book, when I heard what sounded like someone walking around in the other upstairs room. I put down my book and listened closely for a minute or two, then I went back to reading. In a little while I heard the same sound across the hall, so I picked up my baseball bat and went to check things out.
The room across the hall was just as I'd left it last, and there was no-one there, but the closet door was left open. Behind the clothes in that closet was the entrance to the attic, so I eased over to the closet door, shut it, and bolted the latch on the outside of the door.
When I told my roommates about this the next day, they had a marvelous time making fun of me and didn't believe me at all.
Some time after that, I walked in the front door after work and was greeted by the strangest looks on my roommate's faces as they sat in the living room. One of them asked "How did you get outside?" Puzzled, I had no idea what he was talking about, and he went on to explain that they had heard what they thought was me walking around upstairs (my rooms were above the living room), and that they didn't know I'd been at work all evening. We went upstairs to investigate, and found the room the same as always with the closet door still closed and locked.
For a while, we kept tabs on our uninvited guest. The footsteps always happened between 12:30 and 1:00 am, but didn't happen every night. After a while we ceased to notice them, but any guests we had were quite creeped out...a fact we took great delight in.

ScottMate

[Sage]

Originally Posted by temporaryscars

Are you serious? I don't even want to talk about this, because I fear that if I talk about them, they'll know it, and come mess with me.

I've never heard of an unrelated ghost seeking someone out. As far as I know, they tend to stay in certain areas and don't roam around all that much outside their given area.
However, start messing with their stuff, and they'll let you know they're displeased. People who do home remodeling on old houses usually have tons of stories about ghosts who hate a room's new color or don't appreciate modernized interiors or additions.
Then again, at one place I lived in Savannah there was a ghost who'd wake me up by kicking the bed while I slept.

ScottMate