Paranormal stories

[nap470]

I posted what happened to me in the previous Paranormal Thread 3 years ago. It was the first time I had ever spoken (or written) about it. The incident bothered me a lot, and I still think about it. I copied and pasted below. I swear I am mostly a sane person.

About 10 years ago I was driving my MIL home after she spent Thanksgiving Day at our house. She lived about 40 minutes away. After dropping her off, I was returning home along a road that travels through the outskirts of an IL town. It was about 10PM and it was a bitter cold night. As I came over a small hill, my headlights shined on a small boy (8-10 years old) slowly crossing the road. I slowed down to a stop as he walked 15 ft. in front of my vehicle never paying any attention to me. It was about -5 degrees and he was wearing a short-sleeved baseball uniform. A woman in a car stopped from the other direction and also witnessed it. I heard her call out her window to the boy but no response. When the boy reached the other side of the road, he literally faded and vanished. He never acknowledged either of us being there. I slowly rolled my car forward with my window rolled down and looked at the woman. She had the same look on her face as I'm sure I had. She was crying. She then said "if you plan on reporting this, leave me out of it. I won't back up your story. I do not want people to think I am crazy. We saw what we saw and that is it." I just said "ok" and we drove off. Something I will never forget.

I have been open to the possibilities of paranormal since.

 

[Koolau]

And again, if a thought like that came to someone, and nothing happened, they forget about it. Nothing weird going on.

I actually had one of these feelings once. We had moved into a new (to us) home, and I ended up being worried about some problems that showed up, and wondered if I had made a huge mistake, and I was stressed out over the move, and work. As I walk down the hall, I get a chill, I mean a really strange feeling, and I'm wondering if someone died in the house, or something spooky.

I guess because I've heard people talk about these things I remembered it. But we got to know the long term neighbors, nothing weird, no 'ghosts' after that. I can't explain the feeling, other than 'stuff happens'. But if I were the type that believed in this stuff, I'm sure I would have tied some significance to it. But there was none.

-ERD50

I only report the news. I don't tell you what to believe.

 

[Koolau]

When we were young teens my sister and I began "playing" with a Ouija board one summer. Had quite a few experiences with it. The planchette would nearly move by itself. Our family pastor found out sometime later and told us to stop and get rid of the thing. We did eventually. There was one time when we asked "the entity" its name and it spelled our Captain Howdy. Years later, the movie The Exorcist came out and the Regan character mentioned communicating with Captain Howdy thru her Ouija board. That gave me the the chills. Rah Roh

Yeah, wouldn't have one of those in my house, but that's just me so YMMV.

 

[Koolau]

Might be that you just notice more. Kind of like the situation when you are looking for a new car. A certain make and model. Suddenly as you walk around you see them appearing often. Didn't seem that way before you were car hunting. Could be the mind playing tricks on you.

When people pass away, some say to look for signs of the one who has departed. If you then drive and see a rainbow in the sky some may say "See, that's a sign!". It really might be a sign. But to another driver, that may just be a rainbow from chance alone.

Or in Hawaii, it's just Thursday.

 

[Andre1969]

I don't know if this qualifies as paranormal, a harbinger of things to come, or what. But just a moment ago, I was walking up the stairs with my coffee. Suddenly the cat runs past, close enough that he could have tripped me up if I wasn't paying attention.

I get upstairs, and one of those "I've fallen and I can't get up" commercials is playing on the tv!

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

So if it was found upstream from the bridge, it didn't enter the water near the bridge, it happened even further upstream, drifted downstream closer (but still upstream) from the bridge.

-ERD50

I mention upstream to address the possibility that I saw a body floating by in my peripheral vision but didn't take note of it consciously.

-BB

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

Yes, and they may or may not investigate it. And if they do investigate and something awful had happened, you might become a suspect.

I really don't see any way to act on something like what happened to you.

What if one other person reported something similar? Then they might have some motivation for investigating a bit. Or, perhaps they performed a welfare check on a depressed man at home the evening before who mentioned that jumping in the river might fix his problems. You never know.

The idea of becoming a suspect did occur to me. That would be a major worry!

-BB

 

[Stormy Kromer]

When I was on the Fire Dept. about 30 years ago I had the task of notifying a lady that her husband had died in an auto accident. When we knocked on her door she said "Oscar was killed in an accident". She hadn't talked to anyone yet before we arrived.

 

[ERD50]

When I was on the Fire Dept. about 30 years ago I had the task of notifying a lady that her husband had died in an auto accident. When we knocked on her door she said "Oscar was killed in an accident". She hadn't talked to anyone yet before we arrived.

Maybe Oscar was accident prone? When you show up to her door, and you aren't screaming "Fire! Get out!", it's probably bad news.

More sadly, maybe she new Oscar was suicidal? The car 'accident' may not have been.

-ERD50

 

[Koolau]

Maybe Oscar was accident prone? When you show up to her door, and you aren't screaming "Fire! Get out!", it's probably bad news.

More sadly, maybe she new Oscar was suicidal? The car 'accident' may not have been.

-ERD50

Yeah, it just keeps getting more convoluted to figure out how such things might be explained, but if you reject the premise, you can always find some way to explain it away. Like a 7th grade homeroom teacher explained (and demonstrated) everything ends up in dead cats.

Police showed up at our door one evening and my first (and only thought was) our boy had gotten into some kind of trouble. (Years before he did - and as far as we know he never did again - so bad guess on my part.) Turns out DW's brother had died - and it was the same day his (and DW's) mom died. Paranormal? I don't think so. But it sure was spooky.

To me, paranormal would have been that we knew why the officer arrived at the door. In this case - we didn't have a clue and were shocked by the coincidence.

But on the "spooky" scale, this one rates pretty high IMHO.

 

[Koolau]

But, on the paranormal scale, this one does rate pretty high. I mentioned it in that last thread (3 years ago someone said.) To "explain" it away, you essentially have to call me a liar. And, if you want to do that, it's okay because we're discussing something that (SWAG) half the people believe in and half the people do not. Kinda simple, really (and no amount of examples will convince an unbeliever and no amount of 'splainin' will convince believers otherwise.)

With all that in mind:

I had been "asked" to run the lab on the night shift. This was after a full day shift (so I had 8 hours to go home, shower, "sleep" and return at midnight.) The night shift was eventful as there was a huge water fight among the techs which could have shorted out our huge lab computer and ended my c@reer.

So, by 8AM I was tired. I was so tired I remember leaving the parking lot but nothing else until I pulled into my drive way 20+ minutes later.

I parked in the drive and got out of my car. I was so sleepy I could barely walk. As I headed for the walk way to the door, I almost ran into a guy who was coming from the house. I recognized him immediately as someone I had known since he was born (IIRC I would have been maybe 12 years older.) I had not seen this guy for perhaps 10 years as our paths had diverged.

The shock of nearly running into someone in my walk way woke me up. There was no one there and I was now awake enough to get my keys out, open the door, take off my clothes and fall in bed and have a subsequent sound sleep.

Nothing too interesting so far. We've all had day dreams that occurred while we were technically still awake. My favorite movie portrayal of this phenomenon was in "Christmas Story" when Ralphy day dreamed about his Red Rider BB gun several times and was then brought back to reality by some interuption.

So the interesting thing was when an hour after crashing on the bed, the door bell rung. It was "the guy" I had run into on the walk and he was dressed as I had "seen" him.

He was there to ask if he could fish in our pond IIRC. I gave him permission. After that, I don't recall that I ever saw him again. He died in an accident, perhaps 10 years later.

Can't think of too many "coincidences" explaining any of this unless you want it all to end up in dead cats. (Or, I'm a liar.)

 

[Teacher Terry]

I have had a few experiences that couldn’t be explained and lived in a house that was haunted for 2 years. After we sold it the new owners reported similar occupancies and then I heard from prior owners the same things. It was a fairly small town.

The most bizarre thing was visiting a friend in Wisconsin I was upstairs trying to get ready and having a hot flash. The bedroom upstairs always felt creepy and my 2 little dogs didn’t like it either. I decided to blow dry my hair in the unheated part of the attic because I was so hot. My little dog won’t enter and is barking at the doorway.

I finished my hair and picked up my curling iron to plug it in and burn my fingers. I couldn’t believe it so I touched it a few more times with the tip of my finger and it’s hot. I then curled my hair with it. When I tell my friend she said no one likes to sleep up there because the former owner hung herself up there and is still there. I probably wouldn’t believe it if it happened to someone else.

 

[Qs Laptop]

But to make anything of this, you'd need to make a record of every thought like this that occurs to you, and then record if it played out or not. If that were even possible (I suspect these thoughts aren't all that conscious), I'd bet you find that nothing happened, or it was way different than you thought almost all the time.

No, I don't have these thoughts very often. When they happen they are startling, vivid, and detailed. I see something that triggers a feeling of deja vu and then I "remember" what is going to happen next, and when it does my prediction proves true.

Or could your mind be playing some sort of trick on you, where you think it happened in that order, but the after event actually gets stuck back in your 'memory' in such a way that you thought you predicted it, but you didn't?

Again, these things happen spontaneously. I don't have these thoughts and then tuck them away to consider later. I am triggered by a visual cue and then my mind extrapolates the events that will happen in the next 2 to 5 seconds.

It would take a lot of work to isolate it like that, but w/o that, I would mostly chalk it up to an active mind playing out scenes in your head (which can be a good thing to do, to avoid bumping into someone for example, you try to predict where they are going), and then it actually happens. But those thoughts are playing often, the matching action, not so much.
-ERD50

The things that occur are too specific, too detailed to be a generic memory adapted to the situation.

Here's a hypothetical example to illustrate how these things play out for me. Let's say we are sitting in a cafe or a coffee shop at a table next to the front window. The window looks out onto a busy street. While we are talking a black Dodge Charger police car with a low profile light bar on the roof pulls up to the curb right in front of our window and stops. There is a policeman driving and a policewoman with blonde hair in the passenger seat. Suddenly, the light bar is activated and the police car starts to negotiate a U-turn.

BAM! I'm triggered by the visual cue of the police car with lights on pulling a U-turn and leaving. I know what's going to happen next.

I look at you and say, "after the police car has completed the U-turn and is driving away, a bird, a red cardinal, is going to smash into the window right in front of our faces and drop to the ground. While we are looking out the window to see if the bird is OK your phone is going to start ringing."

And sure enough, this is exactly what happens.

 

[easysurfer]

But, on the paranormal scale, this one does rate pretty high. I mentioned it in that last thread (3 years ago someone said.) To "explain" it away, you essentially have to call me a liar. And, if you want to do that, it's okay because we're discussing something that (SWAG) half the people believe in and half the people do not. Kinda simple, really (and no amount of examples will convince an unbeliever and no amount of 'splainin' will convince believers otherwise.)

With all that in mind:

I had been "asked" to run the lab on the night shift. This was after a full day shift (so I had 8 hours to go home, shower, "sleep" and return at midnight.) The night shift was eventful as there was a huge water fight among the techs which could have shorted out our huge lab computer and ended my c@reer.

So, by 8AM I was tired. I was so tired I remember leaving the parking lot but nothing else until I pulled into my drive way 20+ minutes later.

I parked in the drive and got out of my car. I was so sleepy I could barely walk. As I headed for the walk way to the door, I almost ran into a guy who was coming from the house. I recognized him immediately as someone I had known since he was born (IIRC I would have been maybe 12 years older.) I had not seen this guy for perhaps 10 years as our paths had diverged.

The shock of nearly running into someone in my walk way woke me up. There was no one there and I was now awake enough to get my keys out, open the door, take off my clothes and fall in bed and have a subsequent sound sleep.

Nothing too interesting so far. We've all had day dreams that occurred while we were technically still awake. My favorite movie portrayal of this phenomenon was in "Christmas Story" when Ralphy day dreamed about his Red Rider BB gun several times and was then brought back to reality by some interuption.

So the interesting thing was when an hour after crashing on the bed, the door bell rung. It was "the guy" I had run into on the walk and he was dressed as I had "seen" him.

He was there to ask if he could fish in our pond IIRC. I gave him permission. After that, I don't recall that I ever saw him again. He died in an accident, perhaps 10 years later.

Can't think of too many "coincidences" explaining any of this unless you want it all to end up in dead cats. (Or, I'm a liar.)

I wouldn't call you a liar but a tired (and old) mind can play tricks on your perception. You said you were pretty exhausted before going to bed. That's a lean to possible dream state.

I'm not saying that just to challenge but from my own experience, I was with a friend who's dog had passed away shortly. As I was barely awake (as far as I know), I could have sworn I heard the doorbell ring her the sound of her dog bark. I went to answer the door an nobody was there. Surely did feel like I was awake and not asleep. In my mind, I know the difference between drowsy and awake. But am I certain? No.

I put in the old mind mention too as for me with an older mind I misplace stuff all the time now. That's horrible. My mind might plan on doing something. I get distracted and think I've already done that (like take my phone in from my car), only to find out later that I did not.

With all the paranormal or not stories I think the important thing is stick to what you believe. Are after death visits real? Who knows? Or odd coincidences just that? Who knows?

Paranormal and spiritual things are a fun topic to explore. I still remember the time driving with a friend and we were talking about ghosts and things. I asked if she believed in ghosts? She said "nope." Sounds too much fantasy. Then I asked if she belived in God. She pretty much certainly said "Yes". I was thinking, how do folks square the two views? Stick to your beliefs. If real to you, then it's real enough.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Let me add that I'm a skeptic towards paranormal stuff. I believe in the scientific process and observation and data collection. Not being able to explain my own deja vu moments causes me to leave a little bit of wiggle room when it comes to the paranormal. However, like ERD50, I will always look for a logical and rational way to explain so-called paranormal events. Once all those avenues have been exhausted and assuming the evidence presented is accurate, I might consider paranormal activity.

 

[Koolau]

No, I don't have these thoughts very often. When they happen they are startling, vivid, and detailed. I see something that triggers a feeling of deja vu and then I "remember" what is going to happen next, and when it does my prediction proves true.

Again, these things happen spontaneously. I don't have these thoughts and then tuck them away to consider later. I am triggered by a visual cue and then my mind extrapolates the events that will happen in the next 2 to 5 seconds.

The things that occur are too specific, too detailed to be a generic memory adapted to the situation.

Here's a hypothetical example to illustrate how these things play out for me. Let's say we are sitting in a cafe or a coffee shop at a table next to the front window. The window looks out onto a busy street. While we are talking a black Dodge Charger police car with a low profile light bar on the roof pulls up to the curb right in front of our window and stops. There is a policeman driving and a policewoman with blonde hair in the passenger seat. Suddenly, the light bar is activated and the police car starts to negotiate a U-turn.

BAM! I'm triggered by the visual cue of the police car with lights on pulling a U-turn and leaving. I know what's going to happen next.

I look at you and say, "after the police car has completed the U-turn and is driving away, a bird, a red cardinal, is going to smash into the window right in front of our faces and drop to the ground. While we are looking out the window to see if the bird is OK your phone is going to start ringing."

And sure enough, this is exactly what happens.

This is a good explanation and a good example as well. Thanks for the insight.

The times I've experienced this "phenomenon", it's not been as spectacular as your example. It's more like I've been "obsessed" (is too strong a word) with a song. A minute, an hour, a day later and I'll hear that song - no it's never been Stairway to Heaven . It's more like "I Fought the Law and the Law Won." Coincidence? Sure, once, twice, three times, maybe. Not every two or three months for much of my life. Substitute for a song, thinking of a person I haven't seen in months/years. Sure enough, I run into them. Coincidence? Again, it could be, but not when it happens fairly often. And I don't "obsess" on a song or a person and then NOT hear/see them. I think that's the key here.

But seemingly knowing what someone is about to say has really been happening a lot lately. Sure, in context, you could guess what a person is going to say, but not several times in a row in one conversation on TV. I've said those words out loud and DW looks at me like "spooky!" YMMV

 

[ERD50]

Yeah, it just keeps getting more convoluted to figure out how such things might be explained, ....

Well, to me, trying to explain it as paranormal is convoluted. Different viewpoints.

If one wants to just say it was an interesting co-incidence, then one needs to actually figure it out if they can - like that baseball comment, a batter is up 1/18th of the game, not really amazing to tune in while the batter you are thinking of is up to bat.

Been busy, will catch up on the other comments later.

-ERD50

 

[easysurfer]

Let me add that I'm a skeptic towards paranormal stuff. I believe in the scientific process and observation and data collection. Not being able to explain my own deja vu moments causes me to leave a little bit of wiggle room when it comes to the paranormal. However, like ERD50, I will always look for a logical and rational way to explain so-called paranormal events. Once all those avenues have been exhausted and assuming the evidence presented is accurate, I might consider paranormal activity.

I believe in the scientific process too. But also leave wide open that there are plenty of things that may be happening that we just may never understand.

Figure, probably since the start of time there's always been the scientific, spiritual and paranormal. One trying to disprove the other is pretty much a losing battle.

 

[Koolau]

Well, to me, trying to explain it as paranormal is convoluted. Different viewpoints.

If one wants to just say it was an interesting co-incidence, then one needs to actually figure it out if they can - like that baseball comment, a batter is up 1/18th of the game, not really amazing to tune in while the batter you are thinking of is up to bat.

Been busy, will catch up on the other comments later.

-ERD50

Yeah, I'm waiting on your comments on my latest. I'm betting dead cats are in our future - or else 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon (do you smell Bacon?), but YMMV.


ETA it's okay to say I'm full of it. Probably a better explanation than dead cats or Kevin Bacon, but again, YMMV.

 

[ERD50]

I got a minute between tasks - obviously, we won't solve anything here, no one can know what another person is thinking, or if their mind played tricks on them or not (I'll have a good example of that later), or if there is some other unseen rational explanation.

But for now, I will just say: All throughout human history, mankind has attributed the unexplainable to some supreme power or something. Disease, weather events, solar/lunar eclipses, the appearance of a comet, a volcanic eruption, etc. In every case, we eventually learned the real, physical understandable reason behind them.

I've just skimmed the recent posts, but I see plausible explanations. Doesn't mean I'm right, I wasn't there, I can't be inside someone's mind. But I'm not convinced (yet) that it's anything but an explainable event, or just co-incidence.

-ERD50

 

[ERD50]

....

BAM! I'm triggered by the visual cue of the police car with lights on pulling a U-turn and leaving. I know what's going to happen next.

I look at you and say, "after the police car has completed the U-turn and is driving away, a bird, a red cardinal, is going to smash into the window right in front of our faces and drop to the ground. While we are looking out the window to see if the bird is OK your phone is going to start ringing."

And sure enough, this is exactly what happens.

Exactly? Are you saying that something this specific happened to you and you told a 3rd party before the premonition happened? IOW, was that a literal "I look at you and say"? Was there someone there, who you described this to ahead of time, and they saw the red cardinal fly into the window, as you described? Or was that just poetic license?

-ERD50

 

[Koolau]

I got a minute between tasks - obviously, we won't solve anything here, no one can know what another person is thinking, or if their mind played tricks on them or not (I'll have a good example of that later), or if there is some other unseen rational explanation.

But for now, I will just say: All throughout human history, mankind has attributed the unexplainable to some supreme power or something. Disease, weather events, solar/lunar eclipses, the appearance of a comet, etc. In every case, we eventually learned the real, physical understandable reason behind them.

I've just skimmed the recent posts, but I see plausible explanations. Doesn't mean I'm right, I wasn't there, I can't be inside someone's mind. But I'm not convinced (yet) that it's anything but an explainable event, or just co-incidence.

-ERD50

Yeah, once your mind is set, only you having such an experience will change it. It's just too bizarre for a rational world. I get that. I wouldn't have believed such things (I remember NOT believing such things) had they not happened to me.

By the way, I'm not some "medium" or "spiritualist" or palm reader, etc. As mentioned earlier. I don't particularly enjoy experiencing such things. They're a bit disturbing but I've never had a premonition of a death or anything like that. It's just weird stuff that I can't explain and I submit (without data) that things we don't understand exist and this is just one of them.

Can you imagine what people thought of electricity when it was truly "discovered." Radio Waves? Wow! That's "magic."

Maybe there is some connection between people. Telepathy? I don't know. But, why not? After all, what is love? Physical attraction? Oxytocin? Who knows. But there seems to be a connection that we don't fully understand. Why not some connection between people that not everyone has or has noticed. Just spit balling here, so YMMV.

I do understand the skepticism. But if people are telling the truth, there is more than we understand going on in these incidents. YMMV again.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Exactly? Are you saying that something this specific happened to you and you told a 3rd party before the premonition happened? IOW, was that a literal "I look at you and say"? Was there someone there, who you described this to ahead of time, and they saw the red cardinal fly into the window, as you described? Or was that just poetic license?

-ERD50

This situation with the cardinal is a hypothetical example, but yes, I have had situations where I've told my spouse detailed information, like the police car and cardinal example, as to what was about to happen next, before it has happened. She then see exactly what I describe happen just a few seconds later. I've also done this with my kids on at least one occasion. This was over 15 years ago and I can't remember exactly what events transpired.

I've had this happen a handful of times when I've not been able to verbalize the impending events quickly enough to "prove" I knew what was about to happen. A few other times I've been alone.

All told, I suppose I've had these sorts of detailed deja vu episodes less than 10 times. I can't for the life of me figure out how or why this happens. Like dreams, it doesn't amount to anything except it is quite interesting when it happens.

 

[Koolau]

This situation with the cardinal is a hypothetical example, but yes, I have had situations where I've told my spouse detailed information, like the police car and cardinal example, as to what was about to happen next, before it has happened. I've also done this with my kids on at least one occasion. This was over 15 years ago and I can't remember exactly what events transpired.

I've had this happen a handful of times when I've not been able to verbalize the impending events quickly enough to "prove" I knew what was about to happen. A few other times I've been alone.

All told, I suppose I've had these sorts of detailed deja vu episodes less than 10 times. I can't for the life of me figure out how or why this happens. Like dreams, it doesn't amount to anything except it is quite interesting when it happens.

Yeah, and whats worse is it all seems so useless. I mentioned "knowing" what a talking head was gonna say on TV. It was several times in a row. Of what value is that? If I'm gonna have some "psychic" experience, I'd rather it would be a warning not to get myself into an accident or some such. Or maybe what stock to buy or sell.

Being able to talk faster than a talking head will get you a dollar candy bar (if you put the dollar in the machine first.) If I "have" something, I really don't want "it." Maybe if I could turn it on or off, it would be okay, but it usually just happens when my mind is wandering.

I do think such stories are interesting. I'm sure our resident "realists" (You know who you are) don't buy any of this crap. That's what it sounds like to them, just so much crap. And I really do get it. It sound that way to me when I tell it. But it's also true so YMMV.

 

[easysurfer]

From the lively discussion of this thread I have a newfound view of how to approach my own beliefs.

In short, I don't want to be the person during Christmas trying to tell everyone there is no Santa Claus while everyone else is opening presents .