Supernatural experiences - do you believe?

I didn’t believe until.....we live in an old house and there was always a strong smell of old fashioned lavender polish. We joked we had a ghost that liked cleaning more than I did and obviously my standards weren’t good enough. Then one day I was speaking to my son in the dining room and a figure in old fashioned clothes walked clean behind him and vanished into the wall. I stopped speaking mid sentence and my son said what did you see and turned round to see nothing. Nothing since, although I have entreated her to come back and carry on cleaning, she really is welcome!

Don’t feel at all frightened or scared but get the strong feeling that she lived here. Never feel or see her in the new part of the house.

I am not at all airy fairy and very pragmatic but some things just cannot be explained can they?

Alexa, absolutely, coincidences are coincidental and very frequent.

My mother always says, "If you see a ghost, say either 'What do you want?' or 'How can I help you?'" She once saw her grandmother (who had lately died in the house after much suffering) standing at the top of the stairs. My mum had been about to bolt up the stairs in the pitch dark in the days when the black-out was still in force post-war. She was too hysterical to ask either of the above questions!

I find it odd that there are those who think these discussions of the paranormal are Satan's work. I think so often they provide much needed comfort that there just might be something more than what we can understand with out basic senses. To have a split idea of what is good and what is bad seems to me much more sinister. Obviously some experiences might be very dark and frightening but the vast majority recounted here seem to be about hope and reassurance and how can that in any religion be a bad thing?

@endlessstrife I don't think the OP is delving into anything, she's just saying what happened to her

I had a strange experience not long after my dear Dad died. I'd just come back from his funeral and was having a massage with aromatherapy oils. The therapist always discussed how her client was feeling and I told her about my dad. She used specific oils and we started. Towards the end of the massage I was aware of a presence, a shape really but 'knew' from the colour and shape that it was my Dad. I was very relaxed and not at all worried by it.

A couple of months later I visited my Mum (we were living overseas) and she told me she'd had a similar experience at about the same time. Dad letting us know he was watching over us? I don't know

Too much to write, but in a nutshell, there is a spiritual world of good and evil. Satan is called “the father of lies” and “the great deceiver” for a reason. Whatever he can do to misdirect people away from truth and God, he will do. Demons see everything that happens like hearing code words, seeing items put in a casket, etc. God is very clear that we stay away from psychics and soothsayers. They are not from Him. You may pursue it, but please know you are opening yourself up to the dark side.

My daughter had an experience, in the night, where a man was standing next to her bed, and touched her forehead with his “ice cold hand”. She was going into 5 th grade at the time. My husband and I awoke, and felt the evil presence in our home. Our collie/German shepherd got up and started growling outside her bedroom door that led to her barking all the way to the front door as she chased out the spirit. I told my husband to pray and then my daughter knocked on the wall, as we had told her to do if she was ever frightened. I went into her room. She had been under the covers crying hysterically and was all sweaty. She told me what had happened. A few months earlier, my daughter had been at bible camp and won the award for most verses memorized. And that is what the devil does: as you try to grow closer to God, he sends out his attacks dogs to hamper your journey, but he can misguide and distract you before that point by getting you to believe in psychics and such. That way, he doesn’t have to worry so much about you finding truth and God. Yes, I believe there are many supernatural occurrences that happen. One just needs to be sure who it’s coming from. Knowing God’s truth is the only way one can discern that.

I went to see a male medium after going to see him doing a show at Bedford town centre, some years ago. Because it cost a lot to see him privately I was determined not to give anything away, to make it easy to for him to guess things about me. During the time I sat there, his eyes went really funny as though he was in a trance, very eerie indeed. He told me there was a man standing behind me from across the sea and he couldn't pronounce his name because it was foreign. He said he is watching over me. Then he said likewise there was another man the other side of me, also looking after me. I remembered a day or two later that I had never known my Italian father or his family. So I wondered could this have been my father and maybe grand father? I had no way of knowing if they had died or not. The medium couldn't possibly have known anything about me. It did make me shiver a bit when I realised the implications though.

I don't think the bible forbids it, more like it warns against it for the sake of not being taken in by charlatans. It doesn't seem to say it's a sin that God would punish. Don't forget some psychic experiences come in the form of seeing angels, for some people, such as the shepherds in the field as well as maybe some of us alive now. And Christ's own disciples saw him after death. So the bible obviously doesn't completely put a blanket ban on the whole concept.

Magrithea, appreciate what you’re saying, but sometimes you can be on the outside, just ‘ window shopping’, the next thing you know, you’ve become involved in something from which you can’t be freed. This is how Satan works, he slowly entices people in.
Alexa I wasn’t joking, the Bible talks about a great wailing and gnashing of teeth, for non believers after death in this life. Of course, if you don’t believe, then there is no reason why this would worry you.

Endless, yes I am sure in some cases getting involved in the occult can pull people a long way astray. You need to keep your full wits, morals, and emotional stability while interpreting any paranormal encounter

Some of these experiences could be put down to telepathy. I believe electrical impulses in the brain can transmit to other people's minds. Wilfred Owen ( the poet) appeared to his brother who was in his cabin on a boat going to South Africa during WW1 after his death. The account is so convincing you have to believe it.

I don't really believe in the supernatural, although I have had a couple of strange occurrences.

I wish I did, because I might find some comfort.

Oooh some of these replies, have literally sent shivers!

I guess we just don't know do we? I didn't start it trying to persuade anyone one way or other but I guess as someone says, you have to experience it...... and yes, some could be coincidence but when more than one 'coincidences' do seem to appear (as of for instance the 4.a.m relevance in my case) You do start to wonder........

My mum died this year too and although she was a firm believer of an afterlife and asked me to look out for signs - I have so far not seen or recognised anything! I feel slightly disappointed if that makes sense? Maybe it has something to do with the fact I was with my mum when she died, we said our goodbyes and it wasn't a shock to anyone whereas my husband died suddenly at a young...ish age and now I am wondering if he had to come to say 'goodbye'?

All subject to ridicule am sure but I still can't help wondering.......

I like to think I am a pretty rational person and did strive to look for possible explanations but couldn't. I don't think I am getting obsessed or anything and only went to a Spiritualist Church with my daughter out of curiosity - I even warned her that it was all a sham! And yes whilst I take on board the point about cards and matches - it was what followed that left us speechless - his name, the name of the place we lived, other things nobody could possibly have known other than us two and neither of us knew anyone there or been there before! (or since)

When I was a teenager, my parents (well, Mum mostly ) decided that they would like to move house.

We visited many houses together, but all were ruled out for one reason or another.
There was one that gave me the creeps, but fortunately my parents weren't taken with it either. What they didn't tell me until recent years was that after the visit, they had both admitted to each other their real reason for not liking it - they had both felt a horrible, cold feeling on the stairs. Some time after that, they had discovered that a man had taken his life in that exact spot.

I've had quite a few unexplainable experiences or coincidences over the years, and as a child, said things that my mum in recent years has commented were weird (apparently, there was a relative who was a medium, and she has her suspicions about me, or would, if we weren't so down-to-earth)! They usually involve me knowing that something is about to happen just before it does, or 'hearing' what someone is silently thinking.

No doubt some experiences are wishful thinking - my dad died two years ago, and on a visit to Mum's a short time after his funeral, I sat in the chair that I guess he used the most, and suddenly felt this wonderfully warm, comforting feeling, as if someone was giving me a big hug. It was like nothing I have ever felt before.
My logic tells me that it was just my imagination - and my dad would have said the same - but the memory of it still makes me smile.

I really think there are some things that cannot be explained. I have Christian beliefs as well endlesstrife so agree with you but the oddest thing happened to me the afternoon my lovely MIL died. I went to the bathroom in my house and there was the strongest smell ever of "Tweed" perfume. This was the scent she had used all her life and I hadn't got any in the house or bought any back with me from her home. It was very odd but in a way a bit comforting as if she was trying to tell me she was OK. It was a very sudden and unexpected death and I was awfully upset as she had been lovely with me as her DIL and welcoming.

We had had a lovely neighbour who was getting on in years but took the youth group at our church I will call him Mr. R ..He decided to move to be nearer his son in England and we had not thought of him for some time though I did wish I could have told him how well my daughter had done in her exams getting into a good university.
Mr. R died and quite some time later I had the most terrible night tossing and turning in bed . All I could think of was how much I wished we had had something to remember him by . We went off shopping the next day leaving my daughter behind . When we came home there was a box of little ornaments in the hall . I asked my daughter where it had come from and she said my friend I. had handed them in as my DD was to pick something out of the box to remember Mr. R . I later asked I. about the box and she said she had had it for ages and had just got round to passing it around the group .This really shook me up after the night I had had.

Readymeals in the Bible, God does actually forbid us to look elsewhere. He instructs us to have no other gods before Him. The disciples saw the resurrected Jesus, not the spirit of a dead man. Don’t forget, Satan is an angel, in fact ,the first. There are many bad spirits, some of them fallen angels.

In May 2011, my eldest DD and I were in Salem. Visited Eric, a Wizard for tarot. Who is Charlie, you will come into money next year and you will be alright. My DD was asked the same about Charlie and that she was close to her Dad x Two months later she found her Dad dead in his chair and Charlie would be the name of her first born except her friend pinched it. Born with massive heart problems, she survived for 3 months.
Me, I was executor and it took 8 months to finalise his will. Eric was so right ?

endlessstrife I get what you are saying... I really do. Can I just ask if you have ever experienced anything from beyond that you cannot explain, make sense of or shrug off as pure coincidence?

I seem to have had quite a few instances that I could pass off as coincidence....one was similar to another posters about walking in a cemetery. A massive cemetery, I was just out walking on a cold, bleak, Sunday afternoon, not looking for anybody, didn't have anyone buried in this cemetery but at the time my life was in a total mess! I was renting a house from a friend. The house had been in his family for years

(need to cut this brief before everyone falls asleep lol) Well as I was walking - nobody about - nobody to hear me etc I just threw my hands up in the air and said "WELL, IF there is anything out there God please give me a sign NOW" (quite dramatic I know)

A few seconds later I spotted a grave amongst many old and dilapidated graves that had fresh flowers and wreaths on! (bearing in mind I hadn't stopped to look at any other graves) I wondered why this one grave amongst all the forgotten ones had fresh flowers on? (bearing in mind this cemetery there were thousands of graves with different roads leading different places) I went up to it and started reading the labels and all the names on the label sounded familiar then it dawned....ALL the people in the grave had lived in the house I was currently living in!!! There were actually 4 or 5 which is unusual ..I think? Maybe some were ashes? Realising this gave me an instant 'lift'....BUT it was an occasion that I put it down to sheer coincidence! Not anything I thought was supernatural.

Somebody mentioned mediums not being able to predict lottery numbers. Actually, I know someone who went to a fortune teller who gave her the lottery numbers. She won 2.5 million pounds that week. This was in the 1990's when that was a hell of a lot more than it is now.

We were walking past an old deserted hospital which has now been pulled down. The building was deserted and quite ruinous. We went to look in a ground floor window and saw what looked like a nurse in old fashioned uniform. We thought we must be imagining things when the figure ran up the ward chased by a very large rat. The rat was the guardian of the old place and obviously knew the nurse spirit was Satanic.

PS we should have obeyed God who tells us not to go peering into places where Satan lurks

Endlessstrife, most people who believe in ghosts do not actually worship them, they still worship God. Some religions don't like portraits as they worry that people might use the paintings as Gods to pray to. I think most of us can tell the difference though. I wonder if there is a bit of a mixup between the concept of satanism and just observing that dead people can still visit. I wouldn't worship my Aunty Vera any more now she's a ghost than I would when she was alive for instance

Alexa I wasn’t joking, the Bible talks about a great wailing and gnashing of teeth, for non believers after death in this life. Of course, if you don’t believe, then there is no reason why this would worry you.

I do worry about present evil not supernatural evil . Do you know the word 'personification'?

Seriously though, I am interested quite a few reports here feature mysterious smells. Smells evoke feelings and memories more than any other of our senses.