Paranormal encounters

[Malte279]

One thing that one should take into account when seeing or hearing something "paranormal" is that hallucinations are a relatively common occurence. Hallucinations do not mean that a person is "going crazy" or something, but can be triggered by actual physical functions of the human body. The result is that visual or audible signals are physically perceived even though the perceived source of the sound or view does not physically exist.
Many people have one or a few actual hallucinations in their lives. I myself had occasional hallucinations that triggered the sensation of falling (an outpour of adrenaline included) shortly before falling asleep. Especially in case of repeated hallucinations of similar nature (which can be fed by the subconsciousness) the interpretation of them being caused by some paranormal forces is sometimes applied a bit hasty. Do not allow for yourself to be too scared about this (fear gives a strong boost to perception of audible or visual signals that do not really exist).

[DarkHououmon]

This is something that I've learned in psychology class a few years back. All your senses are governed by electrical signals. Touch, sight, smell, etc. And when they misfire, the result is detecting something that isn't really there.

Schizophrenia is a condition in where these electrical signals repeatedly misfire, causing the person to hallucinate and detect things that aren't there. Of course, hallucinating once in a while doesn't mean you're schizophrenic.

I don't think you had a paranormal encounter, Flipper. I think all that happened was that your brain misfired a signal and you only thought you heard your mom's voice. It was never there to begin with. I mishear things myself and I always attribute them to just an error of the mind. The brain is prone to making mistakes.

[Cancerian Tiger]

From what I've read of your post, FBS, that sounds more like a brain misfire to me.  It's only happened once so far, and since you describe your mom as being impatient, perhaps you get anxious that you may not hear her call the first time.  Since you forgot you were by yourself, maybe your mind thought she was home and you were subconsciously anticipating her to call for you.  I'm not sure if I made much sense, but as others said, that is common and even happens to me at times.  There are other things that have happened to me that I will never doubt to be paranormal activity, but something like this is too common.

Something I should add is that, if it were to be a demonic entity, it would become more aggressive regardless of whether or not you ignore it.  In fact, ignoring it only pisses it off even more.  If this were what you initially suspected it to be, it would've become a much bigger issue by now .  Hope this helps.

[FlipperBoidSkua]

*gives a HUUUGE sigh of relief* Thank you, Malte, DarkHououmon, and Tiger. A brain misfire is certainly a very comforting notion, especially when it doesn't always mean I'm crazy. In fact, I think I'd rather be crazy than thinking something evil was present.

Reading your posts on occasional hallucinations or misfires definitely eases my nerves. You wouldn't believe how distressed I was today, trying to get my mind off the incident. I guess I'm still paranoid about being in this house and jumped to conclusions. I'm glad there's members here to help me out. *group hug!!*

In fact, I don't think I've heard of this misfire thing before now. If it was a hallucination or something, I'm amazed how 'real' it was.   I never knew the human mind can pull something like that off. It's very interesting to learn and I thank you guys for sharing that too. Like my Mama always said, "You learn something new everyday!"

Something I should add is that, if it were to be a demonic entity, it would become more aggressive regardless of whether or not you ignore it. In fact, ignoring it only pisses it off even more.

Really?  :blink: I always read that responding to a demon gives it more power over you and that ignoring it will make it go away.   Wow, this is a confusing subject.

[Chomper98]

I met one, although I was very young at that time, maybe 3 or 4, and according to my mom, I was simply talking to the air, and my aunt told her I had made a friend with a ghost.

I honestly don't know if its true or not, but I just think that was an encounter.

[LBTLover1]

I was about 18 at the time, my mom and dad went to work and left me home alone.  So what does a guy of 18 do home alone with a computer in front of him?  That's right...video games!  I logged on and began playing AVA.  I was enjoying my time, my dog was a happy camper...life was good.  When a match was over I headed upstairs to use the bathroom.  As I walked out, I noticed my bedroom door open.  I closed, so my dog doesn't eat anything in it and went back to playing my game.  

The match was over again and I went upstairs to get a coke from my room.  Little did I realize that my room was open...again.  I looked around for robbers and grabbed my dad's shotgun.  I was so scared.  I turned a few corners and heard nothing...so I grabbed my coke, closed the door, and went downstairs to play my game.

I got back down and the computer was shut off.  I got tingles in my nerves and spine and hid behind my couch with the shotgun to see if anyone was there.  No one. Nothing.  I turned back on my computer and played my game again, looking periodically at my TV since it creates a reflection toward the other room.  I shivered and did horrible cause I was playing in fear.  I decided to calm my nerves by taking a nap.  When I got in my room, the door was open...again.  I slept with the shotgun in my blanket with me and hid my face.  

Later, I woke up hearing my dog barking.  I walked downstairs to see him barking at a door leading to my basement.  I aimed the shotgun at the door and nobody was there.  The dog stopped barking and whimpered.  I followed him to the couch and sat there watching TV.  I switched to Hallmark channel to watch some Little House on the Prairie when I heard a loud thud in my room.  I ran upstairs quietly with the gun and aimed it at my room.  Nothing changed.  Everything as normal...nothin fell.

To this day...I'm still scared about that and shiver every time I get to be home alone.

[FlipperBoidSkua]

Just the other night, my sister claimed to have seen a ghost. My mom and I were upstairs doing our own thing, and my sister was literally running around downstairs (it's something both she and I do alot, especially when listening to music or daydreaming).

Suddenly, my sister gave one of her startled screams and ran upstairs. Of course, Mom and I stopped what we were doing to see what the problem was. Sis told us that she was listening to her ipod when she saw something bright and misty beside her. I asked if it was just possibly lights from the window and she told me that she was in the living room, where the window had curtains closed 24/7 (it get veeeerrrrry hot in that room if we don't keep it closed).

Mom, whom I'm not sure believes in this stuff or not, merely went back into her room and Sis calmly said that she believes it's a friendly ghost since it hasn't harmed anyone. I go back to my room, saying that I typically don't mind ghosts so long as they're harmless (and leaves me alone....). She then lightened the mood even more by saying that she's gonna name the ghost Joe.

If Joe exists and is the one responsible for some of the stuff happening here (the high uneasiness in the guest room, my Goblin toy moving on its own, etc), then I don't think we have anything to worry about. Though it doesn't help that the same night, I had a very vivid and terrifying (to me) dream.

You know how in dreams, it has this certain feel to it. Like some things are where they should be, but you still notice other things that are off and it constantly gives you hints that what you're experiencing isn't real. I always have those types of dreams, and this one didn't feel fake at all. I was in bed in my room and everything looked and felt like I just woke up in the middle of the night (something I regrettably do all the time; apparently my body doesn't like having a full night's sleep and will interrupt even the best of dreams just to annoy me : ). But this time I couldn't move, like at all. I automatically think that I'm finally experiencing this sleep paralysis thing (which I'm very fascinated in). Having calmed down upon learning that, I made some observations of it, wanting the full experience of how it felt. Suddenly, I feel something grab my ankle and the paralysis broke instantly. I thrash about and scream for my mother as whatever-it-was started to drag me off the bed. Whatever-It-Was told me that my mom can't hear me and I look over towards the voice to see a very tall dark mass with glowing red eyes that I was having trouble focusing on.

But luckily, I woke up. Waking up was very confusing as it felt like I was just starting the dream all over again. At the time, I wasn't too sure if everything beforehand has been real or not; or if what I was experiencing now was a dream too. I decided that I was fully awake and just had a simple nightmare (or night-terror, whichever you prefer) and tried to go back to sleep, still trying to convince myself of my conclusion. Only thing for certain, I couldn't get back to sleep at all.

That dream was very strange and didn't fit with my usual types of dreams (I usually dream that I'm a bat trying to find a place to belong and avoiding capture from my enemies or of being in the place of a favorite character and trying to defeat those enemies; or, for the nightmare variety, trying to survive in the presence of a psycho serial killer or trying to escape a force of nature, mostly a tsunami or a tornado), but I'm not jumping to conclusions at all, and is leaving the reveal of 'Joe' and the subsequent dream to interpretation.

[trulyfantasticme]

Okay, I was laying in my bed with my eyes closed and I heard a snap from right by my bedroom door. It was slightly open. It was as though someone had reached their arm in and snapped their fingers. It gave a bit of a fright, but it was awesome. XD

[bushwacked]

Okay, I was laying in my bed with my eyes closed and I heard a snap from right by my bedroom door. It was slightly open. It was as though someone had reached their arm in and snapped their fingers. It gave a bit of a fright, but it was awesome. XD

It was obviously Harry Potter apparating into your house  

[Barroth the Blue Mage]

I am not very sure about all the science’s hallucinations happen to everyone, though. I am born with second sight and I see spirits/ghosts(not human’s souls, really) frequently. However, four years ago, which was the last year of my high school, I took a part-time job in a food court inside a mall named City Mall. The mall isn’t famous amongst tourists but it is famous amongst the local people. But seriously, guys, that mall is very haunted. Many people beside me, especially the workers and shops owners there, including those who claim to have never seen a ghost before, frequently saw those ethereal entities flying and floating around both outside and inside the building when the sun started to set in the west horizon. The truth is there is a graveyard in the vicinity.

Eventually, I and the people there get used to seeing those things around us all the time. But then this thing happened. A thing I can never forget ëtill now. One evening, a young lady worker, who I was acquainted to, was washing dishes alone in the utility room at the back of the food court and she was being possessed by two evil spirits. She was yelling and screaming horribly. Many workers, which included me, rushed to the utility room to see what happened. She was thrusting and rolling on the floor while screaming with two creepy disembodied voices beside hers that sent chills running up and down my spine. One of the voices sounded like a male’s and the other sounded like a female’s, but both were other-worldly and non-human. Three strong full grown men tried to hold her down, two grabbed her arms and the other grabbed her legs, only to be pulled around by her as she tried to break free from their hold. And this young lady is an Austronesian lady with the usual petite built of the majority South-East Asian women I am talking about; her strength by then was astonishing. The men had no choice but to sit on her back with her face facing down the floor while waiting for some exorcists to come to our aids. The young lady still yelled and thrust around and the men were nearly bucked off her back. Then some exorcists came and they requested most of us to leave the place while they performed exorcism. Because they feared the spirits might try to possess other weak-minded people’s body when they are forced out of her. I left. When the exorcism was done, we returned to her and asked her what happened. She was crying and told us that when she was washing dishes alone in the utility room, she felt being watched and when she tried to exit the room out of fear, she was being possessed. The exorcists, who were some Islamic religious clerics, told us that fear is what make us vulnerable to possession of evil spirits.

I stopped working in that mall afterward because of the upcoming final exam and even after I graduated from high school, I don’t take part-time job there anymore because the mall owners are a terrible people. They are irresponsible and they always cover up some infamous cases that happened there like sexual harassment and snatch-thefts. But still, every time when I think back on that event, especially how the young lady screamed with disembodied voices, it sends chills running up and down my spine.

[Nahla]

This happened back in April.

It was bout 8pm on a Saturday night and I was on here RPing with somerandomfangirl,Ducky123 and Zimba..normal right? Well I was laying in bed when suddenly I heard giggling,thinking I was hearing things I kept going on with what I was doing. Then it became louder which was followed by chanting "Die mortal being,die" then I DID notice. I looked behind me and I swear I saw a misty form of a person walk through my CLOSED door.


Still can't figure that one out....

[Ptyra]

The most for me pretty much happened solely during my visit in Minnesota last summer. I was having a conversation with my friend and her mother and they brought up the fact that one of their cats had stuck around as a ghost after death and would come around every so often.

And I sort of tucked it into the back of my mind until later in the week when I saw a cat galumph outside the room I was in, right out the corner of my eye. But there was no cat, but it looked like the one they had described. So I pretty much said "Hey um, I think I saw your ghost cat". A day or two later, I thought I felt a cat rub on my leg, but once again, no cats.

Jeez, is my cat magnet so intense it draws in ones from beyond the mortal coil!? Someone turn off my cat signal!