Spooky moments

A number of years ago we bought a framed Pharmaceutical Certificate from a carboot sale which we hung on our downstairs cloakroom wall to complement all the medicine bottles and eye baths we have on display.

We were watching television one winters evening when we heard a loud bang from within the cloakroom. I discovered the certificate on the floor.The floor has ceramic tiles and the picture had fallen from a height of approx 6ft. It appeared that the hanging cord had broken but the frame and the glass were suprisingly undamaged.

As I checked it over shivers ran down my spine. The certificate was dated January 8th 1938 and the date was.........January 8th 2006.

Spooky?

In the weeks after my mother died, my teenage daughter woke me early one morning to describe to me a vivid dream she had - she dreamt she was in our house and looked through the window to see my mom in a rose garden, she seemed happy and peaceful, content, and looked up at my daughter and came towards the window with a smile. My daughter was so happy to see her, and reached her hand out, as did my mother, as they were about to clasp hands the picture vanished. What makes it a spooky moment, is that when my daughter described it to me, she described my mother in detail as she was when she very young (not as my daughter would ever have known her) - but she had no doubt it was her gran the moment she saw the woman in the garden.

yes i most definately have smelt smoke in my house and i have never smoked it goes away for weeks and then suddenly its around me agin and even my freinds visiting have smelt it...spooky.Lillian

My brother was just one year old when our greatgrandmother died.About two years after whenever he went to my gradmother's house he would always go into the back bedroom to see his nana who was in bed there.We called our greatgrandma nana and she had died in that bedroom.He would tell my mother and grandma that nana talks to him. When nana died my brother could not talk, so was unaware we called her nana.
My DIL said her niece used to talk about the lady with the blue hair who lives at her grandma's.My DIL's mother and stepfather now live in her stepfather's parent's house.Her stepfather's mother always had a blue rinse on her hair.She died many years before DIL's niece was born.
I once heard that as young children we can all see spirits but that ability leaves us when we pass out of early childhood.When I hear these stories I can belive it.

My granddaughter who must have been just over 2 at the time and I were playing in the sitting room and she looked towards the stairs in the hall and asked who the man was coming down the stairs. I heard the stairs creaking but couldn't see anyone! I asked her to describe him but she didn't have the language. After a while she told me he'd gone. This has happened more than once but I haven't seen anything. I did find it rather spooky. When we first moved into our current house many years ago now both my daughter and I heard a child laughing from time to time though this hasn't happened for many years now.
I've never seen a ghost but I do believe that strong feelings of someone can be absorbed into their surroundings; perhaps this weakens over time. Whether that constitutes a ghost or not I don't know.

I once woke up in a hotel to see a woman in a hat and coat holding a shopping bag standing by the bed. I screamed and pulled the duvet over my head. My husband assured me I was just dreaming and I happily went back to sleep. Telling a friend later, she said did I remember that it had been a chest hospital before being converted. Had I seen a hospital visitor from the 50s or 60s ? her hat and coat suggested she might have been.

I've never seen a ghost, but one weekend we went away in the caravan for a weekend without the children. We stayed in a small enclosure near a ruined tower at the edge of a cliff in Fife. out of sight of any houses. In the middle of the night I woke with the strongest sense of being willed to leave, we were definitely not wanted there. I spent a fairly sleepless night. Over breakfast my DH asked "shall we stay here again tonight or move on?" He too had felt the same sensation.

When we walked down the path to the shore, we noticed a blocked tunnel entrance just below where we were parked. It had once been used by smugglers - and I am sure their spirits were still on watch for intruders.

My daughter and sil went on a boat trip with my granddaughters who were aged four and one. Later they stopped at an old pub to have lunch. My eldest granddaughter climbed up the stairs to an unused part of the hotel. She came down very white faced and frightened and told her mother she had seen a ghost. My daughter said 'that's wonderful, was it white like Casper.' My granddaughter said 'no, it was grey.' Later my daughter went and spoke to the publican and told him about my granddaughter seeing a ghost. He said 'you mean the grey lady!'

Angelwispa, I do so agree about different smells being a sign that loved ones who have passed over are around. It happens to me a lot, especially in my own room. It is strange how often cigar/cigarette smoke are a sign.

My mother in law came to visit us recently and she had an accident and fell against the garage door quite heavily. She is a large woman, and we rushed to help her. Just then a very tall man came down our drive and said he was 'a medic' and easily helped her up, checked her over in the living room and told her to rest and go to hospital if she started to feel faint. His name was Peter and he was full of kindness and very gentle. He left immediately afterwards. It was a very cold night, but he had no coat on.

I asked around the neighbours - we live in a small cul-de-sac, off a quiet road - but no-one had a visitor like that or knew whom he could be. I think he was an angel. We certainly wouldn't have let a stranger into our house in that way normally!

I'll try to condense my story as its quite long.This happened about 25 years ago.I taught in the local comp and one of my pupils was also my next door neighbour-a girl of 16[J].One day her mum told me that J had taken an overdose as she had been 'dumprd' by her boyfriend.J was very ill in hospital for ages and I always asked after her.One day her mum told me that she thought J was coming out of the coma as she had squeezed her mum's hand.The family were just off to visit.Much later that evening I was standing on our landing chatting to my husband who was working in his study wth the door open.I glanced out of the window and to my amazement saw J standing in their garden looking out over the fields.I told my husband who asked how she looked but didnt get up [he had MS].I explained that she looked fine but was wearing too much make-up-you could see the line where it ended on her jaw.
The next day I went to work and told my colleagues that J was home.To my horror I was told that J had died the previous evening!
Later I asked my neighbour if they had a relative who looked very like J who could have been visiting.She said not and I described my experience-she told me that just before J died the jaundice on her face became much more pronounced and there was a visible line on her jaw.
She found my story very comforting.
I cant explain it at all.

I am a book and ephemera dealer and years ago, I bought a box of old documents at a Wiltshire auction, purely because there was a pencilled inscription 'Sandringham Estate' on the box. Imagine my disappointment when the papers turned out to come from a small Scottish village near Fife, rather than from the Queen's estate... I put them to one side and made some overdue phone calls, one of which was to an American professor who had recently written a book I was interested in. We got talking - we got on very well, and as we chatted, she mentioned she lived in Scotland. Yes, it turned out that she did indeed live in that very village: her husband was the curator of the local museum - and he had just been given some old papers from an old solicitor's office - and I had the other half! The hairs on the back of my neck still prickle - especially as the subject of the book was concerned with what I consider the tragically early death of my father. I sent the documents to the museum with my compliments, but I'm sure my dear old Dad had a hand in my purchase...

I have been wondering why my mum who died over 20 years ago and my sister who died 6 years ago have never tried to get in touch with me as we were all interesred in the afterlife and if it exists
I am always looking for some sort of sign but have not seen any ime hoping thsat I will.

Hi Glassortwo it does sound like it could be your mother in law is visiting in 'spirit'. Sometimes our spirit family visit when there are family occasions such as birthdays or get togethers going on, or maybe it's the anniversary of her passing.

I would say that she's just letting you know that she's popping by just to say hello and let you know that she's ok. In my opinion you can talk to her at anytime, just send out your thoughts to her, I believe that she will hear them. )

Over 30 years ago, when we were still living in Lancashire (or Greater Manchester as they like to call it now), and our kids were still small, my husband and I went up to bed one night to find that the lightbulb in our bedroom was kaput, so we got undressed by the light from the landing. I was last to be ready for bed, he was already in there, and I went out to the landing to put the light off. Returning to our bedroom door, I could see hubby in bed by the light from the streetlamp outside, but for some reason I just couldn`t go through the doorway, it was as though there was an invisible screen stopping me, and I couldn`t get through it! Hubby said "Are you coming in or not?", but I just wasn`t able to go through the door. Then after a couple of minutes of real terror, it was as if the screen had been removed, and I was able to go through, actually I RAN through and into bed! It never happened again, but it certainly put the wind up me!

My elder son was living in Canada. Unknown to him my younger son, who lived on the south coast, came for the weekend to our family home in the Midlands. He went out drinking with his old friends. Returning in the pitch black night he decided to hop over a high garden wall instead of coming up the drive. The pile of bricks that he used to land on had, unknown to him, been removed by his dad. The next morning, before he was awake, his brother rang from Canada and said he'd had a horrible dream in which his brother was lying dead in the back garden. When the little sot awoke I told him and he said he'd knocked himself out when he climbed over the wall and lay there for some time wondering what had happened. Telepathy?

I hope my last night's dream does not come true, I dreamt my husband led an animal into the house and it was half lion and had the head of a puma. The dreadful part of the dream was that the grandchildren would keep petting the animal and I was exhausted from trying to keep them apart.

Many years ago I woke from a very vivid dream with an image of the front page of a newspaper before my eyes. Th headline said that a world leader had been assassinated. No name, but a photograph showed someone with dark hair and a large bright-red bloodstain across half their face. My conscious mind, remembering it, though that it looked like Ronald Reagan, so I checked the newspaper next morning to see if he was OK.

No - I had not seen Ronald Reagan, but Indira Gandhi had been killed!

I have always had prophetic dreams: this one was perhaps the strangest of all. During my first pregnancy I dreamt that the baby - a boy - had been born and was lying on my bed. I saw him very clearly; he was a chubby baby with dark eyes and a mass of long dark hair. When my first son was born a few months later, he was in fact very small, fair, and quite bald. Some two and a half years later, my second son was born - and he was the child whose image I had seen in that dream!

My DIL once asked me if I was wearing Samsara perfume.I said no and asked her why.She replied there was a strong smell of it just now.
Samsara was the favourite perfume of my niece who died in tragic circumstances just a few months before.My DIL did not know about that perfume being my niece's favourite.I mentioned this to my sister,( niece's mother) and she said she often got a whiff of it, she knew that it was a sign her daughter had visited her.
I used to get a strong scent of my grandmother's favourite perfume after she died.
I always know when my late mother has visited me.I get the smell of the nursing home she died in.
I am never frightened by these scents.I consider myself a person who does not believe in ghosts but have had strange things which I cant explain happen.

Since Christmas I have been looking after my elderly mother. One night I said goodnight and left her sitting in her bed in her nightie before going off to bed myself in the next bedroom. I was laying in bed watching television when there she was in my bedroom, my first thought was that she must have needed me and came looking for me. She was walking really slowly along the side of my bed towards me. She was looking down and I could see that her face was screwed up, which she had been doing a lot as she had been in pain. I could see quite clearly that she was wearing the clothes that she had been wearing that day, I could see each flower on her blouse in detail. I glanced over to the door and it was shut and I thought to myself that I hadn't heard her come in. Then I realised she was walking through the antique day bed which is next to the window. There is enough room to walk between the day bed and the double bed but Mum was walking through the day bed. Next second she wasn't there.

I didn't go and check on her as I have to admit I was a bit scared. She was fine the next morning and I haven't ever told her. I have had lots of unexplainable experiences but that was really weird. I believe she may have been astral travelling and I just happened to see her.

I believe that our loved ones do find a way to let us know that they are ok and some of the things that you have mentioned here e.g. fragrances have been experienced by many people, including myself.

I have a particular interest in angels and I believe that they have also intervened on more than one occasion and helped to prevent me and my family from being involved in an accident.

Yes harrrigran, I remember a group of us holding a séance. Just with alphabet cards strewn around the table. We asked for the order in which we would get married. I came behind Anne, who was plain and not popular. But the dictated order was shown to be correct and we five girls all got married eventually and Anne before me.

My husband always said he'd find a way of letting me know he was ok after his death. He died 8 years ago and for the first year or so I was constantly waiting for 'signs' from him, but there was nothing. Then about 6 years ago there was a very strong smell in the house of the pipe tobacco he used to smoke. No other smokers in the house. The smell arrived suddenly and went suddenly and this has happened now about twice a year ever since. I guess he's ok.

About a thousand years ago, my 93 year old grandfather died on Christmas Day. He was a perfectly horrible old man, vicious and domineering, living in our house and demanding complete silence. I was glad.

Exactly a year later, I was standing in front of my wardrobe mirror thinking how very different Christmas was without the emminence gris in the house. The wardrobe was Victorian with a sort of well in the top full of bits and pieces. Suddenly something large fell past the mirror and landed painfully on my foot. Staring up at me from an 18 x 24 inch frame was my grandfather in his prime with dog collar and handle-bar moustache. No-one could work out how it could have fallen or even how it came to be there in the first place. I still have an inch wide scar. Woooooooooooo!

When I lived in the nurses home (compulsory for first year) we used to gather in one room and play cards or just talk. One night everyone was in my room and some bright spark thought it would be fun to use a ouija board. For half an hour it was fun and we were getting daft answers then the glass spun out of control and my bedroom window flew open, nurses in pyjamas exited my room like scalded cats and left me. I never closed my eyes that night and lay with my head under the covers, I still get goosebumps talking about it.