The Paranormal, 'Odd Happenings' & Religion Thread

[MA]

it was suggested that it be made into a thread as it seems to interest quite a few people, including me. and the topic is quite broad, anyway.

in other words, any paranormal experiences, apparent ghost incidents, strange sleep disorders or just simply random things that happen that you have no explanation for, post here. but lets not exaggerate things, as you can spot it when you read something that's been exaggerated, and then the whole thing becomes less believable anyway.

my experience was in the blog. no point reposting it.

[Pilot]

I sometimes hear others thoughts with unmistakable clarity. More frequently do I not say anything when I hear a foreign thought enter my mind but on the occasions I've actually come out and asked the person I was with, or responded instantaneously to the thought as if it were spoken to me, I've gotten a gaping maw in return.

It's quite spurious.

[Wings of Fire]

I felt really sick, sweaty, worried, tired and anxious the day before Valentines last year and I only got two hours sleep because of this.

If you don't get why this is an odd happening I'm not going to explan myself.

[Havoc]

Can't say I ever had an encounter of any ghostly sort. Had some things happen in my old house, where my mother died, that were kinda weird but was small enough to shrug off.

I've had a while where friends and me were completely into Monopoly, playing it a few times a week at least, deep into the night to completely finish the match. During this we sat at a table, not 2 meter away from the exact spot where I found my mom on some hellish morning. During the game we had on some music and lit the candles on the fireplace (which had pictures of both my mom and dad as a sort of shrine).

At a certain point, we remember rolling a double 6, feeling a very short and calm breeze and when we looked up a second later we noticed that the my mother's candle had gone out. I re-lit it and from that point on, for the 20 or so games we played after that night, double 6's appeared everywhere. You could have rolled something completely different, be distracted with a chat or whatever, look at the dice again and they'd be at double 6's.

At first you think it's you, must have been mistaking. But as it happens more you start to backtrack and you are sure that you didn't role a 12 on your last turn. That's when it got creepy, that's also when we stopped lighting the candles during the matches. Oddly enough, the double 6's seemed to stop after that.

Freaky shit.

[OddjobAbe]

Apparantly, I used to babble on in Russian or something if I sleepwalked when I was a child. That's the closest I have ever experienced to something "supernatural".

[Wil]

I think I would shit myself if I saw someone sleepwalking.

There's nothing ghostly about this tiny anecdote, but it felt slightly creepy at the time. This is a house where I spent many dark nights being terrified of ghosts, monsters and aliens that I knew weren't there, never saw or 'felt', and never heard any "it happened to me" stories about. Nonetheless, the idea of them lurking at the far end of the hall or in the garden looking in through the windows, or ready to grab my ankles as I jumped into bed terrified me.

Anyway, as I've mentioned, my dad died on his bed in that house, and as I was clearing stuff out of the place one evening, it came to switching on the light in his bedroom. Which, of course, fliiiiickeeereeed. Thankfully I recalled that the wiring in that fitting had been dodgy for a couple of years or I swear I'd have outright legged it out of the house, instead of just getting what I wanted and locking up petrified, but calmly.

[Strike Witch]

I've seen about 8 or 9 ghosts, UFOs, or other strange things in my lifetime.

[Splat]

I haven't had any 'ghostly' experiences. I do have some pretty weird deja vu from time to time. Like I'll suddenly get the image of a specific scene matched with a specific feeling, like when I'm day dreaming. Then a few weeks or even months later I'll be in a situation that exactly matches that scene and feeling. It's not happened for a long time now, but there was a while were it was happening loads. I used to be quite sceptical about it, thinking my mind was making up memories when the 'scene' took place. But there was one time one of these images lodged into my head really firmly and I was thinking about it a lot before it actually happened. Then when it started happening a lot, I got really good at spotting the day dreams that were going to become deja vu, if that makes sense.

It was never anything meaningful or significant. Just weird.

[Wings of Fire]

I haven't had any 'ghostly' experiences. I do have some pretty weird deja vu from time to time.

Same, usually once I've just made friends with somebody I can almost predict what they're going to be like at first as if I'd met them before. This happened to me twice recently.

[MA]

I haven't had any 'ghostly' experiences. I do have some pretty weird deja vu from time to time. Like I'll suddenly get the image of a specific scene matched with a specific feeling, like when I'm day dreaming. Then a few weeks or even months later I'll be in a situation that exactly matches that scene and feeling. It's not happened for a long time now, but there was a while were it was happening loads. I used to be quite sceptical about it, thinking my mind was making up memories when the 'scene' took place. But there was one time one of these images lodged into my head really firmly and I was thinking about it a lot before it actually happened. Then when it started happening a lot, I got really good at spotting the day dreams that were going to become deja vu, if that makes sense.

It was never anything meaningful or significant. Just weird.

i get 'double' deja vu sometimes, or more. at times i can work out were the deja vu came from, as in remember when i thought of the scene exactly how its going right at that moment.

its odd, because a couple of relatives on my mothers side have apparently had dreams about simple things like meeting someone in the street, vividly, and then it will happen in a month or so. exactly the same. usually about someone they haven't seen in ages, therefore less believable.

[Splat]

It's weird, isn't it? Would it be less weird if the 'premonitions' (for lack of a better word) were actually of something significant, instead of just a random, insignificant snap of time?

[moxco]

Well. I had a lucid dream last night. I woke up (in my dream) and I was like "Shit, I'm dreaming!" and then the floor caved in and I awoke with a short spasm.

Actually does, that ever happen to anyone else? Dream you are falling and then have like a miniature spasm?

[Splat]

Yeah. Or I'll suddenly have to move in my dream and then jerk myself awake. It tends to happen when I'm just falling asleep I think, rather than when I'm deeply asleep.

I actually really love that feeling In a strange kind of way.

[MA]

i sometimes dream i'm going to trip whilst walking and kick my legs out, thus waking myself up.

i have very exciting dreams.

[Taco]

The only thing I would consider paranormal (and I've mentioned this in the blog but I'll go into detail) is my grandfather's house which is over 150 years old and has had 2 people die in it in the same room (of old age). It's infamous for loud heavy footsteps being heard through the night right next to your bed which is something I'd gotten used to in the short periods of time I spent there as a child. It was an alright place while my grandfather took care of it, but he passed away in 2004. I went back to europe in 2007 to visit relatives etc, and spent 2 nights in that house, and it was absolutely horrifying.

The place itself was absolutely infested with hungry spiders (both mornings I woke up with bites and small cuts all over my body) but that's not even the bad part. The entire house and yard and shed and everything had this incredible feeling of a void in life. The air was heavy to breathe and there was a constant feeling of being compressed and drained of life. And if that wasn't bad enough, once I went to bed at around 12AM the first night, I heard the heavy footsteps on the floorboard even though it was just me, my dad, and uncle and I could see them sleeping. I decided to shrug that off, but the next night wasn't so easy. At around 1 pm I heard a strange noise and looked behind my bed to see a wooden drawer opening itself slowly, then closing itself to say. Needless to say, I froze on the spot thinking FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK and eventually fell asleep. The next morning we all woke up with more bites and cuts all over our bodies and decided to GTFO in the afternoon. But no, it didn't end there. as I was sitting at the breakfast table in the cellar (this is an old european house), an empty mug started sliding towards me in a very disturbing fashion (no there wasn't anyone under the table with a magnet). Luckily, after that we decided to GTFO early.

God damn it I never want to go back there again.

[Splat]

It's a very interesting question isn't it, what power the human mind has over itself and its environment. If we feel oppressed or lonely in a place, will the place feel lonely? Did being there make your Grandfather's absence more apparent, so you felt more lonely, more lifeless, when you were there? And if so, was it just an emotional thing effecting your senses or something more? Did you somehow subconsciously make the drawer and the cup move? Or was there some other force?

I do believe there are supernatural forces, being a Christian (as I said in the blog) I'd attribute these to God or Satan, depending on the effect the experience has on you. Like I would say a negative experience like fear or pain would have been caused by Satan or a demon, as an attack on the person having the experience.

But I do also wonder sometimes if humans have some sort of subconscious power over the environment, without getting too blasphemous. Do our desires or expectations shape what we see? And is it an illusionary thing, something we imagine, or some actual force that really does move things? A lot of the stuff happens at night; is it caused by dreams you haven't woken from properly, dreams prompted by stress or fear? Or is there more at work?

(Though I would also say illusions, dreams, things that science can give a definite, scientific cause for, can still be prompted by supernatural forces, God and Satan, angels and demons.)

[Havoc]

Deja Vu's are awesome and freaky. I have them all the time but for some reason I never know about the scenes until I'm actually there, so I can never pinpoint exactly when I saw it before. My last big one was last week when I went to work at a large event. The backstage entrance was surrounded by scaffolding and I met my supervisor infront of the backstage door. 100% positive I had seen it before.

Has anyone ever managed to identify an upcoming deja vu, write it down and look it up after it happens? Or is a deja vu just a mind fuck, convincing you that you've seen it before?

Also, lucid dreams are awesome and I abuse them whenever I have one to do the stuff I will never get to do in real life .

[Sekto Springs]

I've had several unexplainable paranormal things happen to me in my lifetime. I won't list all of them, as some of them are so outrageous that I doubt you would believe me.

When asked, I usually go with this one anecdote that happened a few years ago. It involves a Ouija board, so you know it's good.

The short version is this.
My friends and I busted out a Ouija board we found in the basement, it was one of those old wooden ones and not those crappy printed cardboard ones you get nowadays. We putzed around with it for over an hour and nothing interesting happened. My friend being the impatient twat he is threw it across the room in frustration.
Later that night we were outside shootin' hoops at 2 AM in my friend's driveway. The air got unusually chilly (this was in the summer), and we all remarked on how cold it got so suddenly. Then the streetlights began to flicker, and they all shut off. At this point we were pretty weirded out, and we noticed that one streetlight at the end of the street was still on. We assumed that they were on a separate circuit or something and went to have a look. We didn't get half way to the light before we saw several shadowy figures appearing around us, one of which was standing directly under the lamp. I wish I could describe them in greater detail, but that's all they really were, just shadows (at the time we thought they were muggers, but it wasn't until we realized how they seem to come out of nowhere so quickly that we determined they must have been something otherworldly).
We ran home, unsure of what to do. Other strange things happened that night, though they aren't necessarily unexplainable, just very odd. Frosting on the cake I guess.

I've also gone on a few "ghost hunts" with cameras and tape recorders at an asylum that used to be around here (It was torn down to make way for a Wal-Mart, but it was never built due to the poor integrity of the land) that yielded some interesting results. You can read about said asylum here.

I'm a huge skeptic, and I'm not the type to photograph a speck of dust and immediately call "ghost". I never believed in ghosts or anything of the sort until I had several firsthand experiences.

[skillya_glowi]

Holy shit, I'd never be able to go to sleep after seeing a drawer open by itself.

I've never been through anything blatantly paranormal like that, even though I think it would be an interesting experience. I've heard plenty of weird stories from friends, and I don't think they're lying or anything, but I tend to be a bit of an empiricist, and I personally have never, regrettably, witnessed anything that was obviously supernatural.

I've had some interesting experiences with dreams, though. Nothing really creepy, but just odd to think about, like killing two people I know in real life by slitting their throats with a knife (in two consecutive dreams). I lucid dream all the time, even if I don't consciously think "Ohwait, this is a dream" --- which is very often the case --- I'm somehow subconsciously aware of the fact that what I'm doing or seeing isn't real. I rather enjoy it, really, I often end up waking up wishing I could see that dream over again. Doesn't necessarily apply to the killing ones.

I'm a sceptic, too, which means I neither "believe" nor "disbelieve" in stuff like ghosts. The only thing I can really speak for is my own experiences, and they've been rather lacking of the ghostly influence so far, which is, believe it or not, a bit disappointing.

[Splat]

My personal opinion is that using Ouiji Boards and doing other things to 'call up' ghosts can have an effect on the spiritual world, and you can call up things. I think stories like yours, Chris, prove something is going on. However, I do not believe that the dead can be raised. So I would attribute the experiences people have as a result of these things to demons, especially as they so often seem to be characterised by fear and panic. I would say that if you mess around with spiritual stuff, you're going to call up things that are bad for you. It's like opening your door to a complete stranger; you're inviting in something you know nothing about, and my personal belief is that bad things will take advantage of that.

Not to condemn you or anything, Chris. This is just my personal ideas. The Bible strictly warns against seances and such, and my faith means that I believe it has a good reason for doing so. So I wouldn't get involved in anything like that.

I have had spiritual experiences that I attribute to God. There was a time when i was a teenager that something was really worrying me, that was upsetting my life, causing me loads of stress, and one day the answer just appeared before me perfectly, in he most natural circumstances, and I believe it was provided by God. Other similar things have happened at other times with smaller issues.
Another time I was having a really hard time believing in God, a 'crisis of faith' and I didn't understand why it was happening, and then one evening I felt myself inspired to look at a part of the Bible that I had never really looked at before, and through it I came back to God. I believe he was involved in those situations, guiding me and helping me.

[Pilot]

Well. I had a lucid dream last night. I woke up (in my dream) and I was like "Shit, I'm dreaming!" and then the floor caved in and I awoke with a short spasm.

Actually does, that ever happen to anyone else? Dream you are falling and then have like a miniature spasm?

I do, it feels to me like I'm being dropped then wake up the instant I hit the bed. The sensation is very real.

[Strike Witch]

I believe in all that spirit stuff, but I don't think they're all bad. Most of them are harmless or just doing things for shits and giggles.

[Sekto Springs]

I do, it feels to me like I'm being dropped then wake up the instant I hit the bed. The sensation is very real.

This has happened to me at least four times in my lifetime. In that one moment you feel a primal fear like no other, as if you were actually in danger of falling to your death. It's an incredible thing.

My personal opinion is that using Ouija Boards and doing other things to 'call up' ghosts can have an effect on the spiritual world, and you can call up things. I think stories like yours, Chris, prove something is going on. However, I do not believe that the dead can be raised. So I would attribute the experiences people have as a result of these things to demons, especially as they so often seem to be characterized by fear and panic.

The opinion Ouija boards varies greatly from person to person, even in circles of paranormal investigation. Alot of people think of it as nothing more than a simple divination tool, and that it doesn't actually have any powers or open any "doors". Its merely a way for unseen entities to communicate using your energy for fuel to manifest themselves. This is essentially the theory I subscribe to, though I don't like to make any assumptions. I'm almost positive the events of that night were connected to my friend mistreating the Ouija board, so I remain up in the air on that matter.
Stories I've heard about teenage girls summoning "the devil" through a Ouija board seem pretty far-fetched to me. I don't believe a piece of cardboard and a plastic planchette boxed and distributed by Parker Brothers has any supernatural powers. Ouija boards only work if whatever you're trying to talk to is already there.

I also don't believe in demons or devils, at least not as they're described in Judeo lore. I do, however, believe in inhuman spirits. Inhuman spirits being entities that were born as spirits as opposed to the wandering souls of departed people. That isn't to say I'm not fascinated by demonology. I studied pretty much anything relating to ghosts, ghouls, demons, the dark arts and the occult most of my teen life.

[Wings of Fire]

Believing in any sort of supernatural occurance presupposes a belief in the metaphysical which in turn presupposes a belief in God.

I'm not going to let navel gazing get in the way of the arguments here. I'm a skeptic and a scientist by nature and I want something a bit more substantial before I make any assertations about the metaphysical.

But man, the deja vu stuff is weird, although hearing that everyone else gets it actually decreases the likelihood of it being any kind of supernatural occurance in my mind.

[Havoc]

That would kind of depend on what a deja vu actually is. If it is, in fact, a premonition of an exact event you're going to experience later, I'd say it's pretty supernatural. If it's just a mindfuck, well not so much.

[Sekto Springs]

Believing in any sort of supernatural occurance presupposes a belief in the metaphysical which in turn presupposes a belief in God.

I believe in the metaphysical and I don't believe in God. Of course I don't assume "ghosts" are the disembodied spirits of dead folks either.

Belief in the metaphysical does not necessarily lead to belief in God. That's a dismissive, strawman way of putting it imo. There are many factors that we simply don't understand because we're not technologically advanced enough to measure/document the cause and effect of such events.

[skillya_glowi]

Believing in any sort of supernatural occurance presupposes a belief in the metaphysical which in turn presupposes a belief in God.

Not necessarily. Inductive reasoning like that is very often faulty. Personally, I do not believe nor disbelieve in the metaphysical, just as I don't believe nor disbelieve in God. I simply don't know. And believing (or not believing) in God in turn does not necessarily involve following that God in any way.
Science is, at the bottom of it, much like faith --- except it places faith in our observations instead of our instincts, or what we think are instincts; as one famous sceptic once said, science is just substituting one unknown for another. Besides, I never really liked the idea of such dry rationality. I would much rather agree with flexible, open scepticism, which has room both for reason and for our instincts.


I've always wanted to try using an Ouija board. "Curiosity killed the cat" never got through to me, I suppose. I doubt it would be able to summon up demons or anything of that sort, but it would be interesting if it did.

I have a unique outlook on the "spiritual world", call it what you will, the "evil" side of the spiritual world, specifically. The "demons" that many people talk of could be suppressed aspects of our own souls, perhaps, aspects that we try to hide or obliterate --- but we can't, of course, because they are part of our nature, and the most we end up being able to do is call them evil and run away from them.

I don't think I am part of that majority, and for that reason I am not afraid of evil or of the Devil, however you might define him; so I'm naturally curious as to what effect this Ouija board business could have on me.

[Wings of Fire]

Belief in the metaphysical does not necessarily lead to belief in God.

Not a christian God or even a monotheistic God, you have no idea how much I want to believe in the existence of a pantheistic God and a metareality.

The punchline is that if the universe is not wholly made of matter then something non-material must be the cause. That non-material thing, whatever it is, can best be expressed as 'God'. I'm not being skeptical because I outright refuse to believe in anything beyond matter, I'm being skeptical on principle.

[Sekto Springs]

I see.
I don't mean to get up in arms. Too many times has that kind of argument been used against me when someone tries to "convert" me is all.

I also like the theory that alot of "ghosts" are simply emotions/actions captured and recorded on some unseen natural device that "replay" when the atmospheric conditions are the same as they were at the time of the recording. Many legit scientists have subscribed to this theory and have been funding research on this topic for about a decade now.
This theory of course does not take into account the many "intelligent" hauntings and focuses exclusively on residual ones.

[skillya_glowi]

The punchline is that if the universe is not wholly made of matter then something non-material must be the cause. That non-material thing, whatever it is, can best be expressed as 'God'. I'm not being skeptical because I outright refuse to believe in anything beyond matter, I'm being skeptical on principle.

That's a very simplistic way of viewing God, isn't it? Usually, God is supposed to be --- at the very least --- a sentient creative power, we don't exactly know that is true of anything beyond matter.