Paranormal or Unexplained Experiences?

[sillysally]

Do you believe in the paranormal? Have you ever had any experiences you would classify as paranormal or otherwise unexplained?

I've only really had one. I used to work at a boarding barn years ago. It happened on a fall morning when I was working by myself. The turnout paddocks were arranged so that one paddock was all the way in front of the barn and the rest were in the back. I had just taken a horse out to the front paddock and was in the back of the barn when I heard shod hoof beats coming down the aisle at a walk, but didn't see a horse when I looks towards the sound. I figured a horse had gotten loose somehow and ducked into one of the empty stalls, so I walked up the aisle checking. All horses were where they should have been. I then went and checked the front paddock, thinking they'd broken out. The gate was latched and all front paddock horses were accounted for. At this point I was getting annoyed. I went through that barn twice--to every stall and every paddock and every horse was locked up where they should have been. At that I point I called DH, as I was actually wondering if I was hearing things (I'm not given to hearing things, but I wasn't sure what else to think). The sound was very clear.

I mentioned it to my manager the next day and she told me she had heard the same thing before, as had a couple of other employees over the years.

 

[milos_mommy]

Are their other horses on other farms nearby? Even a mile or so away? If so, it's possible the sound from a horse at a distance echoes in a way it sounds really close.

I've never had a paranormal experience, and I've never heard one I believed. That said, I do believe that paranormal happenings could exist, I've just yet to come across one I don't think has other explanations.

 

[amberdyan]

When I was a kid (about 12 years old) I was hanging out at my Dad's house (he lives on about 20 acres) and looked over into the field and "saw" my grandpa who had passed away the week before. He raised his hand up and waved, I smiled and looked away before remembering he had died and flipping back around and he was gone. I'm sure it was a mixture of wishful thinking/imagination/ and routine (as he was out there frequently, he lived there too) but for a long time I was 100% sure he had come back, lol.

Also, when I was around 10 years old my grandpa's sister past away. We were very close as a family and she was young, only 45. That aunt used to be barred from sitting next to the touch lamp down stairs because she would absentmindedly tap it making it dim, medium, bright, off, over and over again. It drove everyone NUTS. A couple of months after she passed away the lamp started going dim, medium, bright, off over and over with no one touching it. We were all over at the house and her adult said laughed and said "mom?" and the lights stopped. We were all totally shocked and the lamp never worked again. My grandpa absolutely believes she was there messing with us all and my grandma thinks there's a short in the lamp. Regardless, it remains in their house, unplugged, because they can't imagine getting rid of it, lol.

ETA: I don't believe these are really paranormal experiences, just wishful thinking and coincidence, but both were oddly comforting.

 

[PerformanceDog]

I do not believe in paranormal/ghosts/etc. Probably because I don't believe that people continue on after death in any way, don't believe in heaven/hell.

So I guess it's probably my religious beliefs. But I have several friends who are all about paranormal stuff and going to haunted hotels and such, I have been to them, and still do not believe.

However, I am a person that if science were to prove it as a reality, I would have no problem changing my beliefs.

 

[Paviche]

I'm a big believer in the paranormal. I've had a handful of very specific dreams that came true but writing about all of those would probably be boring to everyone else.

The one experience that really freaked me out happened either last year or the year before... fairly recently. Rowan is pretty laid back. He'll alert back if he really knows something or someone is out there, but when he does it's like... half alerting, half excitement. He's not a guard dog by any means.

It was late in the evening, 10 or 11, and out of no where he stared hard at the corner of my room, where a wall connects to the door of my closet. There's nothing there, no window or anything, just wall. He was dead focused like I've never seen him at a spot pretty high up, not quite to the ceiling but getting close. His hackles were fully up and he was barking without any of the usual excitement he has. It was absolutely serious and he was growling, too, which is practically unheard of for him when he alerts, again because he usually lacks any sort of serious warning or threat behind it. He was going off at this spot that to my eye had nothing out of the ordinary going on. It started with him barking at it but then turned into just growling... I can't emphasize enough, it was a really serious warning growl that I had never heard from him and have never heard again since. The dog is a wuss.

This went on for a scary amount of time, probably about 2 or 3 minutes which doesn't seem like long on paper but was an agonizingly long time to listen to and watch him turn on a GUARD DOG! mode that isn't normal for him. It really shook me up because he was so focused on one (seemingly benign) spot, like he was honed in on something specific. Normally when he alerts I can pat him and tell him "it's okay" and he'll settle but he was having none of that. Just totally freaking out at an empty corner.

It still creeps me out to think about.

 

[milos_mommy]

I definitely believe in clairvoyance! Not so much medium-stuff or tarot cards or whatever, but I definitely believe in prophetic dreams (I've had a few too random to otherwise explain) and people who have a sixth sense to know about someone's past, etc.

 

[Dogdragoness]

I havent had any animal experiences, but I did have my hair pulled at the Gunter Hotel in San antonio (which is reported to be famously haunted) on the stair case on the way up to a symposium before we hopped on over to the Majestic to see the Nutcracker at Christmas.

My hair was as long as it is now (to my waist) and it was done up in a high pony, half way up the stairs I felt a distinct hard tug, enough to kind of pull my head back, it startled me and I thought it was my friend, so I turned around really quick, only to find that she was ten steps or so down from me and there was no one else around me.

At my childhood house, things would move, lights would turn on or off, and the ghosts seem to have this affinity for this ceramic dragon statue I had (and still have), it was sitting high up on my bookshelf, and it would always move around, I would always find it in a different position when I came home from school LOL.

 

[CharlieDog]

Too many to count, some of them too weird to believe, even though they happened to me/around me.

 

[MinPinOwner]

I've seen weird things over the years but I doubt it's anything more than tricks of my own mind.

 

[teacuptiger]

So many things have happened at the house I grew up in... Used to wake up feeling like someone was poking or hitting me, really weird nightmares all the time- one was so bad I wanted my parents to call the pastor at our church because I was so terrified.... I've been pushed down the stairs in that house, and the bathroom door slammed shut on my sister.

When we moved, everything freaky stopped. I mean, aside from this one time when Roxie got freaked out and wouldn't go in my bedroom for like a month at the new house. Of course, now we live somewhere else and so far it's been alright.

I don't know if it was ghosts or whatever, and I don't really care as long as it doesn't bother me.

Either way, I've seen Constantine (the tv show) and Supernatural. I'm good if stuff gets weird, lol.

 

[Dogdragoness]

Since I was old enough to listen to the radio, I have found that if I found myself thinking about a specific song, THAT SONG will be the next song that plays on the radio, even if it is one that they usually never play.

To prove it, during I trip, I turned to OH and said randomly to him "I hope they play [insert song here], I havent heard that one in a while." and it will LITERALLY be the next song that plays.

 

[frostfell]

No, never. Not once, not even a hint. Which is so sad for me because I believe

 

[Snark]

Does a dream where my mother was emphatically insisting that I had to let Patch out to pee, and waking up to find Patch about a foot away from my bed, pretty much eyeball to eyeball, count? That's the extent of my experiences, although I do believe...

My dad tells a story about when his mother passed and everyone was at his dad's house after the funeral, reminiscing about her. How she loved to cook, loved to sing with the church choir, etc., when her guitar in the corner of the living room sounded a single note. Everyone was sitting around the dining room table at the time and my grandfather didn't have any house pets...

 

[milos_mommy]

Since I was old enough to listen to the radio, I have found that if I found myself thinking about a specific song, THAT SONG will be the next song that plays on the radio, even if it is one that they usually never play.

To prove it, during I trip, I turned to OH and said randomly to him "I hope they play [insert song here], I havent heard that one in a while." and it will LITERALLY be the next song that plays.

This happens to me frequently. I always wondered if there was some way your brain can pick up on radio frequency and identify it before you actually here the sound.

 

[GipsyQueen]

I've always believed in ghosts - I'm still certian theres something "more" out there than the living. When I was child, I had more expierences than today, I'm pretty sure though thats just children being more open to the paranormal than adult.

When we living in the US our house (between the ages of 5 and 14) I used to randomly get a feel of someone being in the room with me and watching me. This happened ALOT - and I'm convinced it wasn't just my mind playing games on me. Even my mom remembers me running out of my room at random times because I felt watched. This completly stopped when we moved back to Germany into our new house. Which is weird, because the US house was new (as in, we built it) - but we were in the middle of the woods - who knows what happened there.

Also while living the US I woke up at more than one time to see a face in my window (I was on the first floor - pretty impossible). It was so vivid and clear that I remember that face to this day.

One of the creepiest things I've witnissed though was my friends little sister talking to someone on the graveyard. They live on the this huge property that included a graveyard from the 18th/19th century and her little sister, then 2,5 would randomly sit infront of one specific grave and talk to someone. She was able to discribe who she was talking to pretty clearly. At one point she pointed at everyone in the room and said their names - including someone who wasn't actually there.

More recently though - my great-grandpa passed away in March, as did my great-grandma and both times around the time they passed I randomly had to think of them. I'd like to believe it was their spirit passing everyone they loved?

And just last week I woke up to and hand on my back - like as if someone was sitting on my bedside and putting their arm over me. Which as extremly weird.

 

[PennyD]

I've seen weird things over the years but I doubt it's anything more than tricks of my own mind.

I often go back and forth wondering if the strange things I've experienced over the years were just tricks on my mind or real.. Makes you wonder!

-Penny D

 

[sassafras]

I am open to the idea of the paranormal, but I've never had an experience that in retrospect couldn't be explained.

 

[Laurelin]

We had a weird instance in college where weird handprints showed up on our walls. It was really strange- they were black and randomly in places. Edge of the door frame, one was about a foot from the ceiling and pointing downwards? They did not fit my hand, or my room mate's hand and showed up three separate times. I honestly do not believe either of my room mates put them there. I can't figure out an explanation to this day.

We always joked it was 'the ghost' in the apartment and we blamed him whenever something would randomly fall or the tv would short out, etc. But none of us believed it was a ghost and none of us believed in ghosts. I still don't believe it was a ghost but I have no real explanation unless some weird person was breaking in and trying to freak us out.

Freakiest thing I've ever experienced is sleep paralysis though. Holycrap that is terrifying. I even knew what it was from psychology class and it was still the scariest thing ever. If I hadn't known about sleep paralysis prior to experiencing it I would have sworn there was a demon in my room. I haven't had it happen in a long time, thank god. There was one period of time where I had sleep paralysis on a weekly basis. The mind can do weird stuff.

 

[milos_mommy]

My favorite ghost story is one my dad swears to be true, although my belief was just that as a child it's easy to mix up memories, a time frame, etc:

My dad had an elderly woman who lived next door when he was a young child. She had no grandchildren, so would frequently visit, help his mom out, bring him and his siblings candy or small toys, and play with them.

When he was 5, he was walking home from kindergarten, and saw Alice standing in the field between their houses. She hadn't been well so he hadn't seen her, so he ran up to her excitedly. She didn't notice, just stared into the distance. He started talking to her, but she ignored him, and when he tugged on her dress, she just started walking back to her house. Upset, my dad ran home and asked his mom why Alice might be mad at him. His mother looked upset and asked why he thought she was mad, so he said he had just seen her and she wouldn't speak to him.

His mother told him she had died early that morning.

 

[GoingNowhere]

I had a bad feeling the night that Boo went missing last year. I don't know how to explain it, but I was just really really missing her. It wasn't an obvious "something is wrong, my dog is missing" feeling, but just an unusually strong "I really wish my dog was here right now, I miss her" feeling. I started to watch old Boo videos and then it almost got to the point that I wanted to call my mom and just double check that everything was okay. It was late, so I didn't make the call. I found out the next day that Boo had gone missing the night before and hadn't returned. I can't say that I'd ever had that feeling before, nor have I had it since. I now wish that I had actually made the phone call - not because it would have changed anything, but it would have made it harder for my rational hindsight to try to negate the sensation I had.

My friend had a similar experience when she was riding alone in a field and the horse slipped, landed on her leg, and crushed the bone. Her mom got "that feeling" and headed down to the field to make sure all was okay. Lo and behold, it was not. According to the friend, the fact that her mom came to check on her was quite out of the ordinary.

My family also tells stories of my aunt who is the youngest of her siblings. Her dad (so my grandpa) died before she was born. When she was about two years old, she said that she had seen a man in her room dressed in a suit. The family was understandably a bit concerned, but nothing ele seemed awry, so they now conclude that it was either her imagination or her dad coming down to see the daughter that he had never met. We like to go with the latter.

Also - check out this video - it's long, but fascinating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgOBfCrxS3U

My personal take is that it would be quite naive and egocentric of me to assume that if I don't understand something, it must not exist. In fact, I tend to err on the side of "there has got to be so much more about this world than we as humans have even begun to understand." With that said, I am not a die-hard believer. I'm kind of the "wait and see" type, but I find all of this fascinating.