The other side

I do believe in ghosts but I also believe in guardian angels. I believe they take human form at times. I shall never forget when the children were small and a I had a little old mini. I had recently passed my driving test and wasn't feeling the most confident.

After visiting my parents, I approached a large busy roundabout, and was hesitating as to whether to go forward, when a jag rammed into the back of the car, causing the boot to cave in. I don't remember much after it except I was hugely shaken, and couldn't get back into the car and drive on. The children were unharmed thank goodness.

Suddenly as if out of nowhere, a young man in leathers on a motorbike drove up beside me. He told me to follow him around the roundabout and onto the motorway. I was shaking with fear, but did as he told me.

I was able to drive behind him and use the slip road onto the motorway. Then, he revved up, put his arm up as if to gesture goodbye and good luck, and disappeared. I often think about him and how he helped me. Similar things have happened during my life, to myself and my mother. I truly believe in guardian angels.

My DD and SinL rented a farmhouse in the countryside. It was next to all that remained of a castle which Walter Scott wrote a narrative poem about. There was a legend about a servant boy who had been sent on an errand from the castle on a cold winter day. The guards did not know, or had forgotten that the boy was out, and locked up the castle for the night. He was found frozen to death on the doorstep the next morning.
Anyway, my DGD's bedroom window overlooked the garden. She was 5 years old at the time. She got up very early one morning and looked out of the window and was surprised to see a boy sitting on the lawn. She described him as being about 12 and wearing really old fashioned clothes, with trousers that came down to his knees, and a leather jacket. He had blonde hair in a Bob. She went back to bed, realising it was too early to get up, and when she related the story to her mum and dad she was unsure whether it was a dream. When they were alone, my SiL told my DD that he had also seen that boy and DGD couldn't have been dreaming.
It was only after my DD told the story to the landlord that she was told of the legend!

Yes I believe in ghosts I have seen ghosts and have felt the presence of ghosts I don't disrespect people who don't believe and expect them to treat me the same my experiences with the other side (so to speak ) have always been positive

When I was a child our family went to stay with a cousin who lived in an old Manor House in Suffolk. The bedroom my parents slept in had two doors opposite one another. Mum said that during the night one door opened and closed and a few minutes later the other door opened and closed. Her cousin said that the room was haunted. A few years later I went to stay there and was put in the same bedroom and the same thing happened
I believe that when we die some sort of electrical impulses can be left behind.

I've enjoyed all of your experiences.
I have a friend who has always seen "images"....both at his home and in a local pub. I believe him 100%.
I've experienced visits from relatives who have passed, when in the company of someone with the psychic gift. They've given me a relevant message each time.
I found them all to be very comforting.

After leaving school, I worked as a GPO telephone operator at Rochdale Exchange. One week, when I was about 17, I was relieving at Todmorden exchange, which was housed upstairs in the post office, which was a very old, beamed building with dark wood panelled walls. On the Saturday afternoon I was all on my own, as was usual there, and my colleagues at Rochdale rang through to ask if I`d seen Charlie yet, Charlie being the legendary resident ghost there. I told them not to be daft, then suddenly the door to the exchange, which had been wide open all day, slammed shut, scared the living daylights out of me! How I got through till the night man came on at 6pm I don`t know, and it was really scary going down the stairs and through the empty building, I could hardly wait to get outside!

What a fantastic response to my post. Thank you everyone. I have a few more myself to write, but at the moment I am exhausted, been painting the sitting room most of the day :-(. I want to read through all of these slowly

The village I live in has been described as the most haunted in the county. The house next to us, 200 years old, is supposed to have the ghost of a manservant who hung himself there. An isolated farmhouse, about 500 years old, is lived in by a retired lady on her own and when she's lying in bed she can often hear a group of string players playing Georgian sounding music in the room below. There are other ghosts there too, but she doesn't mind---says they are all friendly. A modern house round the corner had an active poltergeist who threw potted plants around the living room. The local pub has an icy -cold spot behind the bar. I've never seen a ghost myself but I believe that people leave some of their essence behind when they die.

It's a small thing but, after my mother died, we went to live in her house. A lot of her things were still around including a little blue egyptian hippo which lived on the mantlepiece several times I found the hippo in a different position when there was no one in the house to move it.

Yes
They exist
No

I have always believed in ghosts and that belief was strengthened when I saw a ghost in my bedroom in the middle of the night about 15 years ago. I was asleep and I suddenly woke up and saw an old lady standing by the side of the bed, fortunately the side furthest away from me! I propped myself up on my elbows and looked at her. I was very scared and my heart was beating very fast and I thought I wouldn't be surprised if I have a heart attack. She was looking at me with an angry face as if to say what are you doing in my house? I can remember exactly what she looked like and what she was wearing. I was staring at her face so was not aware of what she might have been wearing below her waist, but I remember she had a dress/top of navy and white small print, and grey hair and very baggy eyes. After a few seconds that seemed like ages, she gradually faded and disappeared. If anyone had told me this had happened to them I would have said I would have got up and run out of the room, but I could not move. I felt like I was frozen to the bed. I laid there until it got light and then I got up and went downstairs. I have never slept alone in that room again since that day. I believe it must have been the old lady who lived in my house before I bought it. Maybe she died in that room. I have always been scared of the dark and sleep with a dim light on. I'm not sure what would have happened if the room had been in total darkness. I had a touchlight on the bedside cabinet and as soon as she had disappeared I put it on the brightest setting until daylight came. I did not sleep any more that night after I had seen her. I got a priest at a local church to come and talk to me about it and she said a prayer in every room and did the sign of the cross in holy water on the door frame in each room. That room had always felt colder than the other rooms, but after she had done all the rooms we went back into that room and it was definitely warmer.
Other things have happened since then. I have heard tapping low down on the wall in the bedroom I now sleep in. It was making me really anxious and scared to go to bed. I ended up trying all sorts of things, saying prayers every night, especially the St Michael archangel prayer, and saying the Lord's Prayer over a bowl of water as water is supposed to retain memory. After a few months I decided to ring a spiritualist church and they gave me the number of someone who went to that church who could help. I had 4 people come round and two of them were mediums and they went round the house and were drawn to two rooms in particular. They were able to tell me I had two spirits, the one of the old lady who was still there despite the priest sending her on her way, and a little boy of about 8. We had to turn the light out which was scary, and had a candle and they talked to the spirits (one at a time) and asked them to go through the door to the light to be with their departed loved ones. Spirits can become trapped on the earth as they do not know they have died and need help to move on to where they should be. I could give a lot more detail but this is long enough!

Peaseblossom I'd love to know more!! Did it work? Was the lady in victorian dress or modern?

Chicken - where is your village? It sounds very active!! I often think I should write a book of ghost stories!

Short answer is NO! However I know people who I trust nad respect and who would also have answered no but have had some experiences that make them doubt their certainty. Because of that I would actually say not really but.....

Maccyt1955

I believe in Guardian Angels too. This could be a whole new post

No!

DH was walking back from work along the towpath from Rye House to Ware one wintry evening. He could see a couple approaching him from the other direction, and as they passed, he wished them "good evening". There was no reply, and he glanced up to see that the male figure had no face. There was an overwhelming scent of violets. It was only after they had passed by that he realised that there had been no sound of crunching gravel from their footsteps.

Interesting thread! My DD went to a session with a medium once. A girls night sort of thing. She was very taken aback to be given highly specific information about herself but mainly the extremely detailed description of my late Dad. He was accompanied by my sister's late dog who he'd always loved. He told my DD that although he was very pleased to see her, she shouldn't be doing this sort of thing! That's exactly what he would have said. I've never been tempted to go to see a medium myself. I've had enough telling offs from Dad as it is without one from beyond the grave. I sincerely hope I'll see him again when I go to join him. No rush though!

Maybe. When I was a child we lived in Hong Kong. I was playing in an old shack with my friends when they got called in for tea. It was in the middle of a big open space of land with no plants or anything else around. I heard a noise and turned to see a very old Chinese man looking at me through the window cut out (no actual window).
He was just standing there. I decided it was time to go home but looked for him as I left. Although I went all the way round ( it was only small shed size) and there was no time or nowhere for him to go to, there was nobody there!
Also one evening my youngest daughter, then teenage, came home very distressed. She told me she had seen a person in a long dark coat walk out in front of an approaching car and then just vanish. She really thought they were going to be run over!! She was so upset I don't believe she made it up.

No she wasn't in Victorian costume. I thought what the lady vicar had done had worked, but when the mediums came to my house they said she was still there and that priests can't get rid of spirits, it needs a medium to get them to pass to the afterlife. I'm not sure I agree with that as you hear of stories of priests being called for this reason and for exorcisms. Anyway one of the mediums, Eileen a lady in her 70s, took on the spirit of the old lady and was speaking in a different voice, her own but saying what the old lady wanted to say. She said "this is not my bed" and "they're all scared of me". Then she started bending over and clutching her chest. Eileen's husband Charlie was telling the spirit to go through to the light, through the door to where her loved ones were waiting for her. It seemed to work and Eileen then became her true self again. Eileen said she thought the old lady had had a heart attack or stroke. After I saw the ghost, at least 10 years ago, I was too scared to sleep upstairs at all and slept on the sofa downstairs for 6 months, but it was making my back ache, so I had to eventually sleep upstairs again in another room. In that room I also felt that someone walked across the floor and along the floor by the side of my bed, as I felt as if the floorboards had slightly "given" under the pressure of someone's weight. I also felt like something had jumped on the bed at the bottom left hand corner and think it might have been one of my two cats that I had lost, one had got run over and the other went out one night and never came back, so she may also have been run over. (A friend of mine once told me she saw footprint indentations of a cat/dog on her duvet!)
I got chatting to an American guy on the internet and he has several ghosts in his house, one of them bad, but that's another story! Anyway I told him about what had happened and he said take photos in the dark in the room where you saw the ghost. I thought no way, but then realised I could take photos with my phone on a 10 second delay, so I put my phone in various positions and took several photos. They came out very dark, but with a glowing oval shape of light in the position where I had seen the old lady and where her head would have been! This American guy Matt said he could see features which I couldn't and he showed a friend who doesn't believe in that sort of thing and asked him what he could see and he also could see features and hair! Matt's sister has seen the spirit of her husband who died in a motorbike crash so she believes in that sort of thing and she told Matt to keep looking at the photos I sent him (he had printed them out) and a name of Lucille came to him. He said how is Lucille? I said who? It made my back go all shivery when he said it was her name! But he said it wasn't an old lady, it was someone probably in their 50s. I mentioned this to Eileen the medium and she said there may be a vortex in that position in the bedroom where spirits can come down! YIKES!!! I have since taken photos in that bedroom again but nothing else has showed up.
When I asked the mediums to come to my house (by the way they did it for nothing so it's not as if they got anything out of it. They just like to help trapped spirits on their way to where they should be as it is sad that they do not know they have died and are not with their loved ones) it was because I kept hearing tapping on the wall of the bedroom where I now sleep. Dan one of the other mediums said he could feel that it was a little boy of about 8 and he also plays under the dining table downstairs in my dining room. It took a lot longer to help him on his way. Dan sat crouched on the floor of the bedroom where I had seen the old lady as he said he thinks he the little boy sits there cross legged as he is scared of the old lady. The old lady never moves from the spot where I saw her. Dan had trouble trying to get the little boy to come into the bedroom where we were all gathered with the candle as he was scared. He kept coming up to the landing and then going down again. Eileen and Charlie's daughter said maybe if we all sit down instead of standing it will be better as he is a little boy and five adults standing up may be a bit overwhelming for him. So we all sat on the floor and Charlie was trying to coax him into the room. Eventually Dan said he's here. Dan then started talking in a childish voice and Charlie was trying to persuade the boy to go towards the light where his family were. Dan was saying, I want my doggy and Charlie said he is there with your family if you go through the door to the light. Dan said years ago the little boy used to take his dog for a walk near where my house is before there were many houses in this area. He also kept coughing and he thinks the boy may have been sent up chimneys like they used to do years ago.
Anyway, they said I have nothing to worry about as they are not bad spirits and my house has a lovely friendly feel about it. Since the mediums came I haven't had the same tapping noises, but I have heard a few noises, but I think they are just the normal house sounds you get when the floorboards contract when they cool at night, especially after central heating has been on and then the pipes cool down. Charlie rang me a week or two after they had been and asked how things were and I told him I was still hearing a few noises, but not the same as before and he assured me there were no longer any spirits in the house and it was just normal house noises. I have never liked living alone since my daughter moved out and this sort of thing doesn't help matters!

We have lived for the last 10 years in a 1950s semi inherited from my parents, I grew up in this house and it was normal for odd occurrences and 60 years later nothing much has changed. Household objects move places and on several occasions have disappeared completely. A few weeks ago we were discussing my late mother and I said that she could be a bit of a snob. Immediately a large pot plant which had lived happily on the top of our dresser for five years, shot off and landed on the carpet five feet away. It made a right mess. Neither of us were surprised. We just laughed that mum was still buzzing around and I find that quite comforting. She would never have harmed me in life so why would she in death? I could catalogue an inventory of inexplicable events in this house but I have never experienced any malevolent feelings living here. It's just a normal for us.

I lost my husband in a motorway accident when he was thirty eight. The following morning as I sat up in bed I definitely felt someone putting their arms around me giving me a strong loving hug. I did not imagine it.
My husband's mother, my mother in-law, was told of his death by a telephone call, the previous evening, from her other son( wrongly I know).
She later told me that she obviously was so shocked she felt herself going very unsteady. She then felt someone holding her up, otherwise she would have fallen.
These instances were felt at different times by two different people in two different places. I never told her of my experience.I say it was my husband, she said it was the Lord.(coming from a Christian through and through.)
Believe what you will. Neither of us imagined it.

Fascinating reading your experiences. I've never had any encounters from the spirit world but I'm open minded about it.

I think that's the only way to be Bellasnana. Its fascinating too.