The other side

Before I miscarried what would have been our first child, I had a scan and was told to go home for a week to see what happened.
I was sitting down stairs one night unable to sleep. I glanced up and my Dad and Stepmother, both passed over, we're standing on the bottom stairs.
My step Mum had died quite young of cancer, she had never had a child, although she had longed for one.
Both of them looked young and happy and my step Mum was holding a baby wrapped in a shawl.
The next day, I miscarried.
Ghosts? Imagination? I'm not sure, but the thought that our baby was being looked after helped me so much at the time and still does. X

I'd have to say yes to the first question just because of the experiences of people I trust, but I haven't had any encounters myself (thank goodness). For instance....

A couple we know - very sensible, down to earth, sceptical - were washing up together at the sink of their very old holiday cottage when they heard the kitchen door open behind them. They turned to see an old lady dressed in Victorian clothes, just staring at them as she slowly faded away. The convincing thing about this for me is that they both saw her.

And when I was a child, we lived just for a few weeks, for obvious reasons, in a house where our dog refused to go upstairs, but would sit at the bottom of the staircase staring up, and occasionally howling. My mother was on her own at home during the day and completely unnerved. When we moved to another house the dog resumed his normal behaviour. Of course this might well have a sensible explanation, but what would it be?

Jinglbellsfrocks, that must have been a very clever ghost to be able to call out your name, lol.

I know, now I'm being silly.

Re ghosts, I've slept at a relative's house who bought after the elderly lady owner was found dead on the kitchen floor. I hadn't known this fact until after I mentioned that it felt like someone was trying to shake me from my sleep in the night, gently. It happened on more than one occasion. I didn't feel worried at the time but it did make me wonder.

We lived in a very old farmhouse in Portugal, X could not bring himself to enter one of the bedroom, DDs' actually, he said there was an old man standing in the corner wearing really old-fashioned clothes.
DDs' cat also would not enter through the bedroom door, he would jump from the window sill on to her bed and not move all night, then out the same way in the morning.
I never noticed anything nor did DS1 or 2.
I have never mentioned it to DD as she seems a bit fey at times, is convinced there is something in their house upstairs.
Never noticed anything myself nor has her husband and he has lived here for 29 years.

All cultures seem to believe in them so must be something to it. If all life is energy why wouldn't some of it just linger on, rather like the grooves in an old style vinyl record, can replay the day the recording was made. Didn't someone experiment with ancient vases and retrieve the sounds in the workshops the day they were made from the grooves on the vase? Either this is from Super nature or similar book or I am having 'one of me turns' which in itself is a manifestation of sorts.............all those under fives with imaginary friends can't be wrong........

I believe in spirits - whisky, gin, rum, vodka.......................

Wow, what an experience that must have been.

I believe in spirits, the spirit world if that's meant by ghosts. Last night I was sat here, in my living room, my water jug first on the floor and then on the table later. It caught my eye the first time as, with nothing else touching it, the water inside started moving, creating a mini wave. It lasted seconds but was very weird. The second one, on the table, did a similar thing an hour or so later. Nothing touching the jug, nothing put on the table to make it move, it just moved about.

This is the true tale of a meeting , if one could call it that, which happened to me forty five years ago. It has stayed with me throughout the years. I don't think there is a day passes by when I don't think about that day so long ago.
I was living and working in Ireland at the time, about twelve miles from the City of Waterford. As a young girl I had always been crazy about horses. I was now working at a small breeding and racing yard. I was living my dream. Or so it seemed at the time( But that is another story).
This particular day I was riding out alone in the mountains. It was a cold, but sunny and clear day. I had been out about an hour and was riding along a track just about wide enough to take a car. The road underfoot was a rough stone track. To my left was dense mixed woodland. On my right was a dry stone wall about three feet in height. Beyond the wall a beautiful vista as the land unfolded into a sweeping valley as far as the eye could see, until in the distance it blended again to join the foot of another mountain.
Suddenly a large fox appeared about three feet in front of us. It sat in the middle of the road and just looked at me and the horse. We looked back. The horse slightly startled and me totally amazed to see a fox at such close quarters and seemingly not at all bothered by our presence.As quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared into the woodland. I was left wondering if I had imagined the whole episode, yet I felt honoured to have had such a close encounter with one of natures wild creatures.
My horse seemed to be rooted to the spot and I could feel her heart thudding against my legs. She was also beginning to break out in a sweat, white flakes along her neck and onto the reins. I nudged her gently with my heels to walk on, but she didn't want to move in any direction. I glanced to my right, thinking to enjoy the view before trying once again to carry on with the ride. I was startled by what I saw.
Approaching the wall at a fast canter was a huntsman in full uniform, he carried a whip and a horn. He had about half a dozen hounds with him, but no other people following. It crossed my mind that he was simply excercising hounds for the day. He and the hounds cleared the stone wall right in front of us. He can not have been any more than four feet from where I sat mesmerised.
He looked at me as his horse landed. I said " Good morning". He just stared as he passed in front of us, his eyes glassy and his face void of any expression. He seemed to be looking not at me, but through me. Then he and his horse and the hounds disappeared into the woodland on my left.
My first thought was " How rude". It was also a very strange reaction for that part of the country as most of the people there were incredibly friendly. Always ready for a chat, or at least happy to pass the time of day. My next thought, perhaps I should say my realisation, was that they had made no sound at all. No sound of the horseman approaching. No sound of his horses shod hooves landing on the stoney road. The wood was dense...too dense for a man on horseback to ride into at speed. Not a leaf rustled and not a twig cracked. All I could hear was the thudding of my horses heart, and that of my own.
I realised then that what I had witnessed was not of this world, but of some other time and place...perhaps a re enactment, who knows? I only know that my horse was now ready, in fact anxious to move once more. I had no argument with that and I spun her around and we headed for home...quickly.
I never rode that route again.

I might have told this story before, but I'm happy to tell it again.
I used to work in a large Nursing Home on permanent night shift. One night, while doing our rounds, we were standing in the corridor beside the large bathroom. There was a wooden cut out of a bath with shower over stuck to the door to let the residents know what the room was. It had BATHROOM written above. As we stood, the woodcut shot off the door, narrowly missing my head and landed several feet along the corridor, as if taken from the door and thrown. We reckoned that if the glue had given way the woodcut would just have slid down and landed beside the door. It was a very strange occurrence.

No, I didn't actually see it. I was sitting in an armchair literally right next to the front window. The curtains were drawn, but they were a very loosely woven, white fabric and the headlights of the car were clearly visible through them as the car drove through the gate and swung round to stop in front of the front door. The front of the car would have been about 7or 8 feet from where I was sitting, and it stopped a couple of feet away from the front door (which was just a couple of feet from the door to the living room). But even if the curtains were open, I wouldn't have seen any more than that, because it was very dark outside, so it would only have been the lights. And then when they were turned off it would have been too dark to really make out the car.

Oh. That's weird. Did you actually see the car? Did you recognise it?

...scared now....

OK, here we go (deep breath). Not long after my dad died I was at my mum's one Saturday evening with the two little ones while my DH was at work. My mum's house had a gravel drive - a drive in/drive out which swept around in front of the house. I was sitting by the front window in the living room and a car pulled in through the far gate, drove up to the front door (just a few feet from where I was sitting) and stopped. I saw the car's headlights through the curtains, which were very light, both in weight and colour, and I heard the engine and the crunch of the gravel as it drove over it. I saw the headlights dim and heard the engine turn off. Then I heard the car door open and slam shut, and footsteps on the gravel, just enough steps to take the driver to the front door. Then...... nothing.
And before anyone jumps to the conclusion that I'd imagined all this, my mother, who was in the kitchen, heard all this too. And her dog, out in the garden at the time, was racing round from one side of the house to the other barking her head off (there was a gate on one side of the house and a mesh fence on the other, so she could see through to the gravel drive).
All this happened in a short time, just a matter of a minute or so. I went to the front door to see who it was and there was no-one there, and no car either. Now, I'd seen and heard the car come in. It definitely hadn't left because I would have heard the engine start up and the crunch of the tyres on gravel as it drove out, and anyway, there hadn't been time for it to leave!
Until I'd opened the door I'd assumed it was my husband arriving back to pick me up. But then I looked at my watch and realised it was too early. However, it was about the time my father used to come home from his local on a Saturday evening.
Ghost? You tell me. But it definitely wasn't imagination - not mine, not my mother's, nor her dog's!!

I don`t believe in ghosts, but still can`t explain something which happened about 45 years ago, in our house in Lancashire. We`d gone up to bed, found the bulb had gone in the bedroom, so undressed with the light from the landing. Hubby got into bed, I went to switch off the light, when I came back to the bedroom, the door was wide open, I could just about make out hubby in the bed, but for some reason I couldn`t go through the door, it was as if there was a solid invisible barrier stopping me. I was scared stiff, and hubby just lay there saying "are you coming to bed or not?" After about 30 seconds the "barrier" disappeared and I practically flew into bed! It never happened again. My MIL`s explanation was that when she was a child, attending the primary school opposite our house, a little boy was playing on top of a sandpit which had been under where our house was, and it caved in and he died.

I know, it`s a load of bull, lol!!

I once worked in a place which had a ghost in the beer cellar. We never saw him, but from time to time the barrels would be turned off when no one had been down there. One night my friend took some photos at a dance we were serving drinks for and one photo had a white human like shape in it. The chap who developed the photos (it was that long ago!) couldn't explain how the shape had got there.

No to all those questions

No I dont believe in ghosts
No never seen anything that could resemble a ghost
I believe they are totally a figment of our imagination,now I ll whooooooooo off

I don't really believe in ghosts - but there are more things in heaven and earth Horatio etc.

Not within my experience.

I once thought I heard someone call my name. I expect it was down to hysteria. I was frightened, and ran away. I wish I'd stayed and, perhaps, listened.

PS I expect the plumber just thought we were bonkers.

In answer to your three questions, llrina:

1. no
2. I only have taking the piss thoughts about ghosts
3. no

However, it doesn't bother me in the slightest if someone else believes in ghosts, has thoughts about them, or claims to have met any.

A plumber who was working in our cellar once came up in a hurry. He thought he had 'seen' (experienced) a ghostly presence. We told him it was the ghost of Willy McGruer who used to live here and that in our previous house, Henry the ghost lived in the loft.

Get ready for some blunt replies!! I've been there.