A piece of me has died today

[black francis]

While watching the Vikings/Cardinals game today I decided I no longer believe in the Loch Ness Monster. For 23 years I've believed, but I couldn't think of any compelling reason to do so today. I hate getting older.

Things I still believe in

1. George Mallory first to summit Everest in 1924
2. Ghosts (proven to my own satisfaction)
3. Bigfoot
4. UFO's
5. Brett Favre

[fat cherry]

tell us your ghost story then bf. when I was 18 and on holiday with my mates i woke up in the middle of the night to see some woman walking about the room, as if going about her everyday business - apart from she'd sjust walked thourgh a locked door. I know it couldn't be any of my mates pulled, it was a bit a of a barren week in that regard but there she was clea as day - but in the middle of the night. obviously my mates took the piss for the rest of the week, and there may be logical reasons but i know what i saw.

[black francis]

I neglected to mention I had also been drinking when making this decision and posting about it. Sorry.

fc, the running theory on what you saw is that it's basically a recording. When you see a ghost or spirit that doesn't react to it's surroundings (people, etc) I believe it to be a recording of an event that took place in the past. My personal theory on the matter is that these recordings can only be viewed by people in tune with that sort of thing or basically more open minded than your average person. In those cases you can approach the spirit (image probably more appropriate description) and it will not react to you. Just carry on in the same manner as it will every night. Just some people will see it and others will not. That would be my best guess for your situation but it's far from the only explanation. My son would consider you very lucky for having that experience.

My first experience (and yes Jack I know I posted this before, no link necessary) was when I was a teen and I house sat my uncle's home while he and his wife were away. I was laying in the bed in the master bedroom reading when I felt like I was no longer alone. I looked up and there was a black figure of a man with a hood on. I couldn't see any features but he was standing next to the bed looking at me. I felt like I couldn't move and I literally felt my blood turn cold. Not sure how long it lasted but we were looking at each other and he started moving backwards, not walking floating and went into the closet. That was probably the worst part. It would have been less frightening if he would have turned around and gone into the closet. When I could finally move I grabbed a blanket and a pillow and slept in my car for the rest of the night and thankfully that was the last night I had to house sit.

I never told ANYONE of this and tried to put it out of my mind but I was asked to housesit again. Half believing I made the whole thing up I went back but made my brother come with me and since it was the only bed which we could both fit (no way in hell was I sleeping alone) we were in the master bedroom again. The week went by and nothing happened and I was feeling more confident that I had imagined the incident. Another brother house sat the place but he never reported anything strange and our uncle and his wife left the place years later.

I hadn't given it another thought till a few years ago my brothers and I got together and were having dinner and a few drinks when one of them brought up our uncle's home. The one who housesat with me said he never mentioned this as he didn't want to worry me but one of the nights we were in the house sleeping he awoke to ofind a black figure standing over me while I slept and that when the figure saw him looking went into the closet in a similar manner as I saw. He also didn't want to say anything for fear of ridicule. Hearing this brought back the memory of what I saw and it was a pretty ugly feeling. My brother who watched the house alone then told us he saw the same figure watching him. It was a weird feeling to finally share this info and realize we had been keeping this from each other for over a decade.

[black francis]

There's also the always good for a laugh "cold thumbs" story. This is more recent and also proved to myself that some people really do see and interract with spirits.

I actually joined up with some friends with similar ideas on the paranormal and stuff and we went out to a cemetery one day. You know the local cemetery with the ghostly legends and stuff. It was a warm night and while walking around my thumbs became ice cold and started going numb. I absolutely was not going to tell anyone about it as it seemed really silly. Hey gang take pictures of my thumbs! They've gone cold! Someone brought a long one their friends who was a "medium" (I thought at the time it meant daddy didn't love her and she became a medium for attention like the rest). I never met her nor new nothing of her except she seemed nice enoguh and didn't put on a show like most "mediums" I've met. She tells me "you're really good with children. They really like you" which had always been true. When I was a teen I was always the neighborhood babysitter and for whatever reason very watchful of kids in our area. I never thought it out of the ordinary just felt protective of younger kids since my parents divorced and I had to watch out for my younger brothers after my dad left (a-ha Daddy didn't love me either) and for whatever reason kids just like me. I was a bit skeptical of what she was telling me. I figured John Edwards could have guessed the same so I asked how do you know? And she answered because they're with you right now. She said there were children holding onto my thumbs and they felt safe with me. I had just become a father so it was pretty emotional to hear that.

[fat cherry]

yeah mediums. never too sure that they're just good at reading people. I definitely think theres stuff we're not generally aware of but what it is, i dunno. at the end of the same week one of my mates stayed in the flat, claiming he had no money for one last night out binge drinking. i went back to pick something up, just as he was rushing out saying the same thing had happened to him, oonly it was a bit different. he's fallen asleep to wake with a weight on his chest and unable to move with hot breath on his face. after a few moments it passed and he couldn't get out quick enough - figuring he'd manage a couple of pints after all. I've since found out this is a known phenomenon - sleep paralysis (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/ ... paralysis/)
my bro is one for seeing things and once lived in digs where he woke qa few times to see some kid looking at him. spooky. did i say spooky? oh no.....

[black francis]

I've only met that one person who I believed was truly a "medium". The rest walked around with their arms in the air making these spectacles and never producing anything verifiable. We were at an old local cemetery and she became startled and fell over. She said a little boy had jumped out at her playfully. I went over with a recorder and I was thinking to myself how sad a little boy could possibly he here. It was at the moment I recorded a child's voice saying "what's wrong?" There other incidents that further made me believe her.

I've heard about that sleep paralysis, I think that also accounts for a number of alien abduction incidents as well. I do believe there is more than we'll ever know and to my own satisfaction I've proven to myself there is life after death but not everything is a paranormal experience.

I've lost so much of my voice recordings through multiple hard drives finally giving out but I have one DVD from a haunted home and it has three occurrences I caught. I'll see if I can get it online somehow and show you guys. What makes this kind of cool is a lot of people take a picture of floating dust and the flash produces "orbs". Why anyone thinks they're spirits is beyond me but you only see them after the fact due to the flash. In this home I have on DVD three lights moving from underneath the chair I was sitting and moving away from me. This was done with no lights and I was able to see it with my naked eye as well which means they generated their own light.

In my friend's old bedroom where she grew up, a young girl had died named Sarah. My friend's room is creepy. It has on the door one of those moving little peepholes so people could see in and she said she was always afraid of the closet. So I waited in there alone in the dark with the recorder and I saw with my own eye and caught on tape a faint ball of light leaving the closet and making a right turn out the bedroom door. I called everyone in and someone said "are you here Sarah?" and a ballerina lamp turned on and nobody was near it. I caught that one too.

I'll see about getting it online.

[JackT]

I've only met that one person who I believed was truly a "medium".

Would you say mediums are rare?

[kook]

I think I already told you about the nun who "visited" my sister in my parents' first flat, which they had taken over from my aunt and uncle. My dad saw her bending over the cot regularly.
They never mentioned anything to my aunt and uncle - again for fear of ridicule. A few years ago, my uncle told how in the same flat, a nun used to look in on my cousin, but he never wanted to mention it for fear that my parents wouldn't rent the flat allowing them to emigrate. This was all thirty-odd years after the fact. I never saw my dad looking so pale!

[kook]

I've heard a load of codswallop medium stories, but also a few where the medium gave such detail about a dead person that they convinced me.
one was able to tell exactly what a person died of. I'm flummoxed as to how that can be read from the relatives face, information or body language.

Also, on a slightly different (maybe kitschy-sounding) note. A three-year-old kid died recently in an accident near where a friend lives.
The undertaker set off two doves (homing pigeons) at the burial three weeks ago. one of the pigeons never returned. He's been living in the garage of the boy's parents since the day after the funeral.

[fat cherry]

I've heard a load of codswallop medium stories, but also a few where the medium gave such detail about a dead person that they convinced me.
one was able to tell exactly what a person died of.

well yes it depends on the level of detail but i heard one trick is that they read all the obituaries for the area they are in, knowing that a few people are bound to turn up. and then theres the trick of they dont actually say that much themselves but with smartly placed questions and a few near misses get the person to reveal what it all is. my grandma used to go to meetings all the time. but not had direct experiencve myself.

[black francis]

The "mediums" who I came in contact with always threw out stuff that could never be verified. Like we went to Suicide Bridge (where me and a friend recorded a voice saying "help me") and this "medium" knew we had and she was like there's a man hanging onto the bridge right now saying "help me". Thanks lady, I could have made that one up. Most of them were middle aged Goths and Vampires looking for attention. Like I said only one ever convinced me she was the real deal. And she was so nonchalant about it and didn't make these productions.

I don't know if the show is still on but I think it was psychic detectives and they had these cases where they turned to psychics for help and it was so dramatic and impressive until the end of the show where you read the case is still on going. I looked into it further and not a single case presented to these psychics during the series was resolved.

[Dr Cheese]

Mediums eh!

http://www.funny-videos.co.uk/videofake ... brown.html

[black francis]

I thought it was funny this bit on Derek Acorah

Acorah's credibility has been questioned following his work on Most Haunted. On numerous investigations for the programme, Acorah would appear to become possessed by spirits or an evil entity or would appear lost and confused. On one such occasion, Acorah claimed to be possessed by the spirit of a man called Kreed Kafer. In a later interview the programme's parapsychologist, Ciaran O' Keeffe claimed that the character was completely fictional. O' Keeffe claims that he fabricated the "Kreed Kafer" character (an anagram of "Derek faker"), and misfed the information to Acorah who subsequently presented it as fact.[6] In a separate interview, the show's presenter and executive producer Yvette Fielding said that she believes it was a "fake possession".


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objecti ... _page.html

[Dr Cheese]

Derek Acorah is such a shameless charlatan you've really got to admire the man's cheek!
The wife dragged me along to see John Edward last year and although I went as a sceptic I was secretly rather impressed by the time we left.

[black francis]

That is saying something about John Edward then as I always believed it must be editing that makes him look impressive on TV. If you saw it live and were impressed that's a whole different story.

I LOVED that episode of Most Haunted when some crew member was supposedly getting his ass kicked by a spirit and this ass whooping goes on for quite a while then Derek is all it's okay Sam (his Ethiopian boy spirit guide) is protecting us. I'd be like where was Sam this whole time I was getting the shit kicked out of me?