Have you ever seen a Ghost

I have another!

In the week after my mum died I was in her back bedroom, which she'd used as a study, looking for photos to use in the Order of Service at her funeral. The room suddenly filled with the smell of fresh cigarette smoke. Mum loved a cigarette so I found it very comforting. The window was closed and I was alone in the house, so I can't think of a reasonable explanation.

I didn't tell anyone about it for fear of spooking, or upsetting them. The next day I walked into the house to find my dad and brother sitting, looking very shocked. They had been sitting chatting about mum and suddenly the air had been filled with the cigarette smell!

I know some people are sceptical but when these things happen to you they seem so real - and when others experience the exact same thing it's so hard to just dismiss them, however much you want to.

My granny told my mum that an old lady in a black bonneted visited her and sat in the corner for a long while, gran died a week or so later. I also had an imaginary friend but I always understood that wasn't unusual in eldest or only children.

We moved to our current house when my daughter was 5. We bought it from the estate of the very old lady who lived here before us.

One day, my daughter told me that she had been talking to an old lady in her bedroom. The lady had asked her who she was, and was generally chatting to her from what we could gather. I told her to tell the old lady that it was fine, we would look after her house and that she could leave now. We heard no more about it, but my daughter remembered the incident a few years later (she doesn't now).

Maggiemaybe, dd said that both her first and second babies at 8 - 10 months - so having recently learned to wave - would smile and wave at someone who wasn’t there, and there was no mirror or anything else where they could have seen a reflection. It only ever happened in a particular place.
The 3rd hasn’t done it, at least not that I’ve heard.

The wife of the chap who’d lived there previously had died not long before the sale. Dd was slightly spooked, but the house has had always had a lovely warm atmosphere - you could tell it had been a happy family home - so she’s sure that than any presence, if there is one, is entirely benign.

Witzend, although I don't believe in ghosts - I do think that there is much we don't understand. All things in nature are recycled, so maybe souls are too. Tiny babies are so 'knowing' with an inborn personality.

I've often been to places that seemed strangely familiar - or met people I appear to instantly recognise and know well.

We live in a modest 300 year old house. We've been here for over 20 years. I have never ever felt or experienced anything in the house, nor has any of my family. But the couple who used to own it lived just across the road from us and the old lady told me one or two stories of seeing a ghost in the house.

Mind you, she was a bit 'fey' and I am not...

My grandmother also experienced various unexplained things over her lifetime; she was 'fey' too...

We had a friend who used to scoff at anything other-worldly, and other people’s fevered imaginations. Until he and his wife spent a week in an old, isolated cottage in Scotland. They were washing up together one evening when they both heard a noise behind them and turned round to see an old lady just standing watching them from the kitchen doorway. As they looked at her she slowly faded. He hasn’t been quite so cynical since.

I’ve never seen anything, but DD1 as a baby used to suddenly beam, say “asta”, which was her word for “there it is” and point firmly towards absolutely nothing as we carried her round the house. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end every time, but whatever she saw obviously made her happy. We moved days after her first birthday and she never did it again (thank goodness!).

When I was 17 my parents went on holiday leaving me at home alone for a week for the first time. We lived in a new house which had been built on fields so I wasn't scared of being alone. We also had a dog which made me feel a bit better.

Anyway, One night I woke up feeling like someone was shaking me awake. I opened my eyes and my mum was sitting on the side of my bed. She wasn't dead, she was on holiday. It must have been a dream but I certainly felt like I was awake.

Also, like Hetty58 when I was first married we lived in an old Victorian house. The back bedroom always felt cold, unlike the rest of the house. I slept in the room occasionally when my children were ill or couldn't sleep. I regularly felt a presence in the room and had also very vivid unpleasant dreams when I slept in there. I have spoken to my son about it when he was older and he also said he had some strange experiences - feeling that someone else was in the room

MerylStreep

Pammiel
That must have been very comforting ?

My granddaughter has definitely been here before. When she was about 4? she asked my daughter if she would be her mummy next time she came here

I know of two cases of ‘been here before’ in small children. Have probably posted before but here goes anyway.

A dd was pushing a Singaporean niece of 3 on a swing, when she started saying very alarming things about her daddy, my Brit BiL, who is the most chilled bloke imaginable.

Dd (shocked!) of course said she was sure her daddy would never behave like that.
In entirely matter of fact tones, niece said, ‘No, I mean my other daddy, before.’
Singaporean SiL said there had been similar incidents.

Other - very spooky! - was told to me by a close friend. The whole extended family was visiting a site of Greek or Roman ruins in Cyprus, where none of them had ever been before. Her little grandson, , who was still pre school so could not have read anything about it, said immediately on arrival, ‘I used to live here!’

And went on, very happily, to point out the remains of his house, and his friend’s house (he even gave a slightly garbled but appropriate name for him) and the cave where they used to hide, etc.
The whole family was seriously spooked!
When they left he said, ‘Thank you for bringing me home.’
I don’t know whether it’s relevant that his heritage includes both Greek Cypriot and Italian!

In both cases, though, any such ‘memories’ were completely forgotten after they were about 5.

When my son was little, he had an 'imaginary friend' and I'd often hear him chattering away.
One day I asked him what his friends name was and he told me, the name was the same as my grandfather (my grandfather died when I was 10 and I adored him - we were extremely close), I put it down to coincidence and thought nothing more of it.
A few weeks later, he was telling me about his friends sore hand and also that his friend had told him about his fire engine.

My grandfather was a fireman and had driven a fire engine during the war, on one occasion during the blitz, he'd injured his hand quite badly and when I used to ask about it he'd always say 'ah, my sore hand'.

At this stage, I dug out some old photographs which he'd never seen and as soon as he saw a picture of my grandfather, he immediately pointed and said 'that's my friend".

I have no explanation for it and once he reached 6/7 he never mentioned it again.
I like to think it was my grandfather but who knows!

Of course not - neither have I seen Father Christmas or the Tooth Fairy.

So easy to conjure up such images in your mind. My eldest daughter was in hospital when she was in her early 20's having a spleenectomy. She was, by far, the favourite g.child of my father who had lived close to that hospital. Sadly, he had died just a few months earlier. When I went to visit her, she told me that when she was coming round from the anaesthetic, she could 'almost' see Grandad, sitting in the chair next to her bed. She knew it was not real, nor a ghost, just her own mind expecting him to be there,as he would have done if he was still alive.

I don't believe in them at all - yet saw one. It was the 'ghost' (spitting image) of my sister (who was, and is, alive) hovering a few feet above the staircase in our home. it was semi-transparent, as I could see the panelled wall behind. I was petrified.

I can only explain it as something 'projected' from my own imagination, during my semi-awake wanderings. It took the exact form that I'd expect of a ghost, so logical.

At our last (Victorian) home, I saw nothing - but there was a very strong feeling of a presence in the back bedroom, where our sons slept. Nothing sinister, just a happy little soul watching and accompanying when in that room.

I'd often turn around, expecting to see the dog, a cat or small child - but nothing/nobody there. My husband noticed nothing - so I put it down to imagination (again).

Then, one day, my three-year-old son said he'd been playing with the teddies - with 'The little boy in my bed'. I have no explanation.

Pammiel
That must have been very comforting ?

My granddaughter has definitely been here before. When she was about 4? she asked my daughter if she would be her mummy next time she came here

I haven’t seen one and certainly don’t believe all that rubbish in the programme where film crews descend on a house waiting for ghosts, the woman verges on hysterical most of the time. However I do think some people have seen them. There’s more than just this world I’m sure. My late husbands uncle a very down to earth man, in the First World War marching in France, knew the village they were going to, knew it well, it was familiar to him, he had never before the war travelled beyond a couple of miles radius of his home. He wouldn’t make things up, he didn’t talk about the war, man of very few words, just fortunate he got home.

We lived in a house once, where we could hear children running from room to room upstairs, we all heard it regularly, and our own little ones were fast asleep in bed.

Haven’t seen a ghost exactly but I had some kind of experience a few days after my husband died. It was in the early hours and I was sitting up in bed having a weep. The end of the bed moved, as though someone was sitting down on it. I put my hand out to touch where the mattress had depressed and couldn’t feel anything, but I could feel a presence in the room and felt calmed by it. It couldn’t have been more than a minute or so later, I felt the bed move again as though someone had stood up and then it had gone. I know this wasn’t a dream because although the lights were off, the TV was on in the corner of the bedroom - went through a phase of having to turn it on for company. It was a very odd experience and there was no fear. I like to think it was my husband visiting me one last time and trying to comfort me.

I’m writing this having slept in my haunted childhood home for the past few nights. It’s an old five story town house in the middle of the town.

In the attic the temperature drops and things are thrown as witnessed by my brother who lives here still . I am happy to believe him, he is a reasonable level headed man. When he slept in the main bedroom he did have episodes where he was physically thrown from his bed across the room. In this same room my DF has on many occasions heard a small child crying, and I as a child saw a long haired girl floating above the ground in this same room, a rope from her neck to the ceiling.

I have one more night to sleep here on this visit, it’s easy to get paranoid but the ghosts do not disturb us very often.

I had a peaceful sleep last night and I hope to do so tonight as well. But there is definitely some sort of phenomena going on here.

We live in a very old building which was originally a corn mill and we certainly have a presence in part of the house. Nothing menacing but I have felt on occasions something brush past me and on our back stairs there's very often a very flowery perfume smell - like I would remember my nanna wearing when I was a little girl. Often things go missing and turn up in really strange places too. We also have had issues with lights and taps turning themselves on. Before he retired Mr BA used to travel quite a lot so I was often on my own and have never felt afraid. Believe or don't believe but these things happen and can't be explained

No but I've heard two or at least, two atmospheric auditory disturbances.

Once I walked from a side chapel into the main body of the church to see what all the chatter was about, and there was no-one there. The church door was locked, no one had beaten a hasty retreat.
And
Once I was coming up the church path (different church) and heard the organ playing, so decided to go in to chat to the organist. I unlocked the "staff " entrance but when I got in, the church and the organ were silent. No other way out of that building either.

Such amazing stories again goosebumps Was a bit worried about reading late at night because I live on my own now as some may know but I was fine I don't really scare easily and they are all nice stories about families coming back to see us

Hope there is more to come so so interesting

I vividly remember when I was 4 years old I saw a rosy cheeked old lady sitting on our stairs. Possibly my Great Grandmother. In my Fifties, about 6 months after my FIL had passed - he appeared in the corner of the lounge. Only stayed for seconds then faded away. Since my Mum passed 20 years ago I haven't seen her but often smell her perfume and wake up feeling that she is sitting on the bottom of my bed. Always comforting.

As a bairn there were certain shadowy areas of the house that I was scared of. It was all too much for my imagination and I would run as fast as I could past those spaces. One winters night my older brother came into the bedroom to tell us to watch out for the ghost with one hand. The curtains were open throwing shadows on our bedroom wall from the tree blowing around in the wind outside. We fell silent, watching and watching... then we saw it, a gloved hand wafting in front of the window. We pulled the covers over our heads. Never saw it again.

Shortly after this it was my turn to get a shovel of coal from the coalhouse at the bottom of the garden. I headed out into the pitch black, down the long, long garden path (I had short legs) and quickly pushed the shovel into the depths of the coal house; at which point a large black cat jumped off the coalhouse shelf onto my head. I didn't see a ghost but my life passed before me, scared the living daylights out of me.

Not seen but I've never believed in such rubbish, until... When first married in 1970, we lived in a lovely newly built flat. Lots of odd things happened. My husband worked nights and one night our baby was tucked up in bed and I was alone in the living room and I heard a loud bang behind me. I looked around to see a heavy glass ashtray in pieces on the table.
Another night, we were in bed and I woke up to feel someone trying to pull the blankets off me with force and a light zooming around the room. I tried to turn around to see who was pulling the blanket but I couldn't move.
Toilet rolls would be removed from their holders, the immersion heater kept going on and off.
We had a pvc sofa which made sort of a 'phff' sound when you sat on it. My brother babysat one night. When we got back he said he went into the kitchen and heard the sound so went in and there was a dent in the sofa as though someone had sat there. If someone had told me these stories I would have laughed but it happened.

A couple of years later, our daughter said to me 'I don't like that man who is in the bathroom.' Our upstairs neighbours said one of their bedrooms was like an icebox.

My aunt had a heart attack and was taken to hospital. She told us that her long dead dad appeared at the end of her bed and said, 'You're going to be fine Lucy'. Easily explained through drugs, dreams, stress etc except that the next day a nurse asked her, 'Who was that doctor in the brown suit, talking to you last night? I've never seen him before.' Her dad always wore a brown suit. She lived for many years after that.

No