The other day I saw this article that said nearly 1 in 4 people polled believed in ghosts. At the bottom of the article was this explanation of the poll: The poll, conducted Oct. 16-18, involved telephone interviews with 1,013 adults and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points -- so, I don't know how representative it is of the American public or how scientific a survey it is, but it got me thinking.
Do I believe in ghosts? I'm not sure. There is a family story -- which, unfortunately, I can't remember right now -- that details an encounter with a ghost. The person to whom the ghost appeared was one of the most credible and no-nonsense people I've ever known so I tend to think she wasn't being hysterical or given to vapors or anything like that.
When Fred died I had a couple of very realistic dreams about him in which we had conversations. In one of them Fred kept telling me how sorry he was. How he would take it back if he could. When I woke the next morning I realized that the previous day had been Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. Fred was Jewish. So that was kind of weird.
For a while after he died I was always seeing something in my peripheral vision. Some movement. Something. But of course when I would turn to look, there would be nothing there.
Linda, the leader of the SOS group I attended for a while at Nuci's Space told me about a dream she had about her son Nuci. She felt that it was absolutely a visit from him. My dreams about Fred might simply have been my subconscious working through my grief, but I choose to believe that they were visits from Fred.
The only other experience I've ever had was at my mom's house. She married my step-dad about 10 years ago and his family has always joked about George, their resident ghost. When Punkin was small my mom kept a crib upstairs so we could put the kids down for a nap or put them to bed if we were staying over late. Bubba always slept up there with no problems, but Punkin never would. We always had a baby monitor up there so that I could listen and make sure she wasn't getting too upset, but usually I had to go up and get her.
One night I put her down and turned out the light. She fussed for a few minutes and then was quiet. Woo hoo! When we got ready to go home I went up to get her and the light was on in the bedroom. I am quite certain that I turned it off when I left the room and no one else had been up there. Hmmmm.
So I'm curious. What do you guys believe? Have any of you ever had an experience? Or know someone who has. Share! It's Halloween -- I could use a good spooky story!
Do I believe in ghosts? I'm not sure. There is a family story -- which, unfortunately, I can't remember right now -- that details an encounter with a ghost. The person to whom the ghost appeared was one of the most credible and no-nonsense people I've ever known so I tend to think she wasn't being hysterical or given to vapors or anything like that.
When Fred died I had a couple of very realistic dreams about him in which we had conversations. In one of them Fred kept telling me how sorry he was. How he would take it back if he could. When I woke the next morning I realized that the previous day had been Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. Fred was Jewish. So that was kind of weird.
For a while after he died I was always seeing something in my peripheral vision. Some movement. Something. But of course when I would turn to look, there would be nothing there.
Linda, the leader of the SOS group I attended for a while at Nuci's Space told me about a dream she had about her son Nuci. She felt that it was absolutely a visit from him. My dreams about Fred might simply have been my subconscious working through my grief, but I choose to believe that they were visits from Fred.
The only other experience I've ever had was at my mom's house. She married my step-dad about 10 years ago and his family has always joked about George, their resident ghost. When Punkin was small my mom kept a crib upstairs so we could put the kids down for a nap or put them to bed if we were staying over late. Bubba always slept up there with no problems, but Punkin never would. We always had a baby monitor up there so that I could listen and make sure she wasn't getting too upset, but usually I had to go up and get her.
One night I put her down and turned out the light. She fussed for a few minutes and then was quiet. Woo hoo! When we got ready to go home I went up to get her and the light was on in the bedroom. I am quite certain that I turned it off when I left the room and no one else had been up there. Hmmmm.
So I'm curious. What do you guys believe? Have any of you ever had an experience? Or know someone who has. Share! It's Halloween -- I could use a good spooky story!
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7 comments:
I've personally never SEEN a ghost, but there used to be one that lived in my grandmother's house. It was either a ghost or a poltergeist...we're not sure. I'll try to make this short...
My biological grandfather died when my mother was 9 years old. Many years later, when my mom was 16, my grandmother remarried and my step-grandfather moved into their house (which had also been the home of my bio-grandfather). After he moved in, strange things started occuring in the house that went on until the day my step-grandfather died 18 years later---things such as unusual knocking at the back door, a screen door that always slammed open and shut even though it was locked, and other smaller things.
The morning that my step-grandfather died, a wooden shelf in the bathroom closet fell to the floor. Due to the 1950s design, there is no way that this shelf could have fallen unless someone were to physically pick it up from the frame on which it was resting and drop it. After he died, there were no more strange occurences in the house.
Okay - one more quickie. When my mother and aunt were teenagers, they both saw a ghost in the same house while sleeping in different bedrooms. A cousin of their's had recently died in a car accident, and they both believe that she visited them that night (they were sleeping in her house). My mother and aunt both say that they felt and saw a presence hovering over them, and they were unable to breathe.
Spooky stuff, huh?
Lulu's story made me remember this one time when I was in college, I woke up and was CERTAIN that someone was in my room-dunno who (we lived in a very very old Charleston house), and when I tried to get up I swear I couldn't-there was this enormous pressure on my chest preventing me from moving at all-I was so freaked out!! It totally could have been my imagination but I don't know-
One of my roommates mothers claimed to have a 6th sense (ok, she was a little wacky...) and felt certain that the house was definitely haunted...needless to say there were many sleepless nights after she told us that! Happy Halloween!!
sorry--nothing comes to mind. I do believe in things we cannot see, however.
I want to believe. Oh how I want to believe.
By the way, I just added you to my blogroll. I couldn't believe I had not already done it! I thought I had.
Thanks for adding me to yours. You're sweet.
Sometimes I smell things that remind me of people who have passed -- their cologne, a cigar, a certain kind of food. I don't mean that I smell it and think of them, I mean that I'm in a place -- like the car -- and suddenly I can smell my grandfather's cologne, or I'm in my mom's very non-smoking house and the room smells heavy with cigar smoke... I've always thought that it was people I love or am connected to just "checking in," and it's never made me feel fearfull, only comforted...
Madame! I just saw this and thought of you... some of the stories are good and spoooooky!
http://www.defectiveyeti.com/archives/002314.html
Happy Halloween!
Back in the late forties, my mom and dad lived in Little Five Points (Atlanta). They both heard someone walking up the stairs one night - of course, no one was there. My father was a very staunch, no-nonsense Methodist, so he admitted to nothing while they lived there. My mother often saw a ghostly woman in Civil War era clothing. Years later, my father did admit that he had seen the ghost, but kept it to himself so as not to upset my mother.
I've never seen a ghost, but this is as close as I want to get!
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