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[Closed] Sceptics & spooky experiences?

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I had quite a strange 'spooky' experience a couple of weeks ago and just wondered if anyone else on here has had similar experiences - particularly any fellow ghost/haunted house sceptics.

I was staying in a self catering cottage in the Welsh countryside for couple of nights and, because it was a quiet warm and still evening, I left the bedroom window open before going to bed. I was woken up a couple of hours later by the curtains blowing in a gale and rattling on the curtain pole. As soon as I woke up, I put the light on to go and shut the window - as soon as I put the light on the wind instantly dropped and the curtains fell back down to hang normally. I just thought the wind must have got up in the night and a gust caught the curtains - but I popped my head out of the window, and there wasn't a breath of wind. Just thought it was a bit odd and went back to bed. Then, about an hour later, I was woken up by a loud shout - just like a kid shouting 'HA!' about 6 inches away from my ear. I was so knackered, I just went back to sleep, but the next day, it did strike me as a bit odd, and I was glad to be heading off home.

Im in my mid 50's and have been around a bit (so to speak;)), but this was a first for me. Many years ago, I used to occasionally house sit for my sister when she was working overseas, and my dad (who didn't believe in ghosts) thought there was an 'odd' atmosphere in her house, and wasn't keen on staying overnight there. Turned out the house was built on the site of an old Civil War scrap - but I never noticed a strange atmosphere in the house......apart from after a veggie chilli:)


 
Posted : 04/07/2017 10:17 pm
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Veggie chilli & sleep interupting mysterious wind , I dont think the answer is super natural.


 
Posted : 04/07/2017 10:24 pm
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Posted : 04/07/2017 10:29 pm
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The night at the Welsh cottage, I was wind free for a change.


 
Posted : 04/07/2017 10:52 pm
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we have all experienced something weird

I once saw the mysteron lights whilst out riding with no obvious source for them

NO idea of the cause


 
Posted : 04/07/2017 10:58 pm
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I once had an experience after eating a huge 5 course meal staying in the annexe of an old French farmhouse.

Certain that I felt a presence pass through me, was proper scared

Closer to gout than the supernatural I suspect


 
Posted : 04/07/2017 11:31 pm
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Bowglie, where was the cottage? Could be worth an overnight stay!


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 1:19 am
 Drac
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Yeah it was a gust of wind and probably heard a sheep coughing.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 1:34 am
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It looks like:

1. A coincidence. A gust of wind would normally does that.

2. The kid shouting. Yes, you did hear that. There is a spirit there playing with you. I bet if you ask the landlord about the history of the house or location, you will find something very interesting.

Then, about an hour later, I was woken up by a loud shout - just like a kid shouting 'HA!' about 6 inches away from my ear.
I bet that's the moment when you were just about drifting into deep sleep again or sometimes just about to wake up from deep sleep. It looks like the spirit is not letting you sleep. ๐Ÿ˜›

I used to occasionally house sit for my sister when she was working overseas, and my dad (who didn't believe in ghosts) thought there was an 'odd' atmosphere in her house, and wasn't keen on staying overnight there. Turned out the house was built on the site of an old Civil War scrap
You should ask your sister about her experience of her house. I bet there will be some interesting stories to tell ...

๐Ÿ˜›


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 1:43 am
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I bet that's the moment when you were just about drifting into deep sleep again or sometimes just about to wake up from deep sleep.

i.e. the time when you are most likely to experience an auditory hallucination?

Wonder why it doesn't happen when you are bright and awake? ๐Ÿ™„


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 9:27 am
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probably heard a sheep coughing.

The house is haunted by a ghost sheep with a cold? Sounds a bit far fetched. Occam's razors suggests it's more likely just to be a normal ghost.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 9:40 am
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My grandad was driving to see his sick brother in hospital when a person walked out into the road in front of him. As he slammed on the brakes, he drove through 'his brother'.
Got out of the car, no body, no damage. Arrived at hospital about 20 mins later to find his brother had died......20 minutes ago


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 9:49 am
 irc
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My mother once woke up very upset after having a vivid dream. It was about her aunt who she was very close to having lived with her in her teenage years (wartime evacuation to the isle of Lewis). She dreamt her aunt was on the other side of a ravine calling out to her. She told my dad the contents of the dream because she had woken him up.

The next morning my grandfather walked over the field from the nearby farmhouse (no phone in their cottage) with the news her aunt had died during the night.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 10:10 am
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theres only one solution

you need to call in a professional


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 1:08 pm
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My nan passed away when I was 9 or 10. I used to see her in the hallway for a few weeks after she passed, I never told anyone as I put it down to my imagination. My mother told me the other week that she used to see her mum (my nan) on the stairs.

Lived for a couple of years in a Haunted house. I would get woken up at 3am most mornings, it felt like someone poked me, girlfriends also had the same experience... Well they thought it was the ghost. ๐Ÿ˜†

It had a spiral staircase and quite often late evening, early morning I would see a shadow moving across the hall. Once I walked through it, and that felt damn horrible, like someone walking over your grave, but a million times worse.

A friends mum is well into her spiritual stuff and she offered to take a look, she did and things just got worse after that. We moved out soon after that.

I still prefer not to believe in this stuff as it means I get a good nights sleep and rarely have visions, when I did embrace it most nights I would get woken up or start seeing things.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 1:41 pm
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Somewhere, there's a forum dedicated to landlords who have set up pranks on their tenants, pi$$ing themselves laughing about the last tenant who "said they were too scared to live there"...


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 1:44 pm
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You need Del;


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 1:47 pm
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I tend towards the sceptical.

We rented a house that dated back to the 1200's in parts. Our eldest was about a year old - she used to talk very animatedly to someone who wasn't there. And would mention the 'dark man' to myself and my wife. Her toys would start ringing etc in the night. We found out much later that it used to be a cloister for Abyssian monks way back when. Our neighbour used to have a monk who'd regularly be seen at the breakfast table!

I never felt anything other than perfectly happy there but my wife refused to stay there by herself. We left after 6 months - though she wouldn't have any discussion about us leaving whilst we were in the house.

In hindsight, that it backed up to a graveyard might have been a clue (the ground floor was below the ground level of the graveyard - you used to look out the window at the sink and face a brick wall, on top of which were gravestones!)


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 5:04 pm
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We found out much later that it used to be a cloister for Abyssian monks way back when. Our neighbour used to have a monk who'd regularly be seen at the breakfast table!

There is such a thing as an Abyssinian monk, but you'll find they are from Africa, and that it is impossible that there was any such figures in Britain in the 12th century.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 5:11 pm
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There is such a thing as an Abyssinian monk, but you'll find they are from Africa, and that it is impossible that there was any such figures in Britain in the 12th century.

didn't say they were here in the 12th century!!! Just that parts of the house were that old. It was a real mackled together place - the roof was some special construction that was listed explicitly. Parts had been been rebuilt folllowing a plane crash in the 1950s...


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 5:18 pm
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Quantum innit. But most times hallucinations/coincidences.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 5:23 pm
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GrahamS - Member
I bet that's the moment when you were just about drifting into deep sleep again or sometimes just about to wake up from deep sleep

i.e. the time when you are most likely to experience an auditory hallucination?

That's the scientific explanation because that's the best alternative explanation available for scientific perspective.


Wonder why it doesn't happen when you are bright and awake?
Your mind is distracted by millions of events at every seconds. Your mind is constantly work and not at rest at all ... ๐Ÿ˜›

edit: my experience - a while back I used to get "people" shouting me up to go to work, which I am still thankful as I was about to oversleep. Most of the shouting happened during the weekdays, but on one or two occasions they happened during the weekend too but I simply told them I needed more sleep during the weekend ... so no weekend shouting anymore. ๐Ÿ˜›


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 5:28 pm
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There is such a thing as an Abyssinian monk, but you'll find they are from Africa, and that it is impossible that there was any such figures in Britain in the 12th century.

I love it that you discount the claim that live Abyssinian monks could travel to woffles house fomr Africa wheras you have no quarrel with the claim that dead ones can! ๐Ÿ˜€

Her toys would start ringing etc in the night.

We have two baby toys that randomly go off in the night, I've never identified the specific ones. Scares the bejesus out of me, there's no more eerie noise.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 5:43 pm
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outofbreath - Member
We have two baby toys that randomly go off in the night, I've never identified the specific ones. Scares the bejesus out of me, there's no more eerie noise.

Could be child spirit(s) trying to play with toys ...

Check the history of the house or the surrounding areas. i.e. neighbours or nearby. Sometimes, it could just be wondering spirit(s) that come to stay for whatever reasons. As long as they don't do harm you are fine but if they do then you need to ask them to leave. ๐Ÿ™‚


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 6:18 pm
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Could be child spirit(s) trying to play with toys ...

Possibilities:

1) Live Abyssinian monks.
2) Dodgy switches in the cheap Chinese tatt.
3) Ghost Children.

1 is clearly impossible so it must be 2 or 3.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 6:24 pm
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outofbreath - Member
1 is clearly impossible so it must be 2 or 3.

For 2 it is very simple just check the switches.

For 3 the best way to confirm is to have a log to find out if it happens at the similar time. i.e. at night at certain time.

If 2 is fixed and the toys still go off at night then you have a child spirit(s) wanting to play the toy. If your child start to cry all the time then you need to take action, coz they are disturbing your child. Some can be nasty. ๐Ÿ™‚


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 6:31 pm
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For 2 it is very simple just check the switches.
For 3 the best way to confirm is to have a log to find out if it happens at the similar time. i.e. at night at certain time.
If 2 is fixed and the toys still go off at night then you have a child spirit(s) wanting to play the toy. If your child start to cry all the time then you need to take action, coz they are disturbing your child. Some can be nasty.

Without checking I know it's 2.

However (and this is 100pc true) before we had kids when we moved in we clearly heard a child's laughter in the lounge. We both joked at the time that it was a ghost child.

However, there's no such thing as ghosts, so there will be an innocent explanation.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 6:59 pm
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As far as the history of the place I was staying at - I got chatting to the owner, as he'd had the place restored and had done some research into its history. The cottage was an annex to a large house that'd been built by a rich businessman in the second half of the 19th century. The cottage was used to accommodate the servants from he main house, but it was older than the main house - probably by at least 200 years, which would put it around 1750's.

The owner had found old maps and documents that suggest that the cottage was originally a small farmhouse with land that was bought up by the Victorian gent and redeveloped. The architecture of the cottage seemed to fit with a 1700's date.

Whilst I reckon my experience in the place might not be 'supernatural' (or whatever you want to call it), some of the stuff other people have mention suggests to me that there's plenty of scientific discoveries that have yet to be made. Or, as one of my colleagues once noted - "The Universe eh?, theres some weird sh*t out there man."


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 7:13 pm
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outofbreath - Member
However, there's no such thing as ghosts, so there will be an innocent explanation.

Whether there is or is not, is not that important.

The most important thing is if you are happy with your explanation that's good enough after it is your life.

As long as everyone is happy in your family so be it, whatever ghosts, monsters or aliens etc are residing in your house whatever they are all irrelevant.

As we have a saying in the far east, so long as you happy that is good enough.

I am merely providing alternative perspective that is to some might be of interest to know.

๐Ÿ˜›

edit: everyone can live together so long as there is respect. Living or dead. The dead is not a problem in our life, it is the living that is a pain in the backside.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 7:20 pm
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bowglie - Member
... some of the stuff other people have mention suggests to me that there's plenty of scientific discoveries that have yet to be made.

No funding for such stuff because it is not important to many. This is because there is no profit or money to be made, besides who cares about the death when the living is struggling to make ends meet.

Or, as one of my colleagues once noted - "The Universe eh?, theres some weird sh*t out there man."
We are rather irrelevant in the grand scheme of things in the universe.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 7:27 pm
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The dead is not a problem in our life, it is the living that is a pain in the backside.

That reminds me of something that my grandfather used to say - he'd was a regular soldier at the outbreak of WW1 and was in a lot of the major battles. He'd seen a lot of killing and bodies/bits of bodies lying around unburied. When my mum and her brothers used to go on about the ghost on the stairs he used to say 'it ain't the dead uns you've gotta worry about!'


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 7:36 pm
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my experience - a while back I used to get "people" shouting me up to go to work

chewkw hears voices.

Why does this not surprise me? ๐Ÿ˜†

So presumably since this was happening every day to you, you were able to record these spectral shouts on your phone or even a tape?


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 8:03 pm
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'it ain't the dead uns you've gotta worry about!'

That's good, I'm gonna remember that.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 8:07 pm
 Drac
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We have two baby toys that randomly go off in the night, I've never identified the specific ones. Scares the bejesus out of me, there's no more eerie noise.

Yeah my kids toys did that too, as did mine when I was young. The mysteriously stopped when new batteries were put in, I guess ghost kids don't like charged batteries.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 8:15 pm
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The mysteriously stopped when new batteries were put in, I guess ghost kids don't like charged batteries.

Once they're on fresh batteries if they go off you know it must be a gay burglar, which also scares the bejesus out of me.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 8:22 pm
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I've never had a spooky experience beyond the night ride style imagining things are lurking in the shadows. If there was something lurking in the shadows on a night ride it's more likely to be a badger than an Abyssinian monk though.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 8:23 pm
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chewkw - Member
bowglie - Member

No funding for such stuff because it is not important to many.


Nonsense, it fascinates everyone, even those of us who don't believe it.
There have been innumerable tests done with people who claim to have ESP etc.
If it existed, it would be very easy to prove.
๐Ÿ˜€

We are rather irrelevant in the grand scheme of things in the universe.

How do you know?
๐Ÿ™‚


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 8:25 pm
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For 3 the best way to confirm is to have a log to find out if it happens at the similar time. i.e. at night at certain time.

On it
[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 8:29 pm
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No funding for such stuff because it is not important to many.

The thousands of people that turn up to speak to the dead via the 'gifted' would suggest otherwise. Also if someone were able to definitively prove the existence of an afterlife it would go down in history as one of the greatest discoveries ever made. Any lack of funding is due to it being hokum and not a lack of interest


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 8:34 pm
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As the saying goes ...

[b]"If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." (Arthur Conan Doyle) [/b]

Rusty Spanner - Member
We are rather irrelevant in the grand scheme of things in the universe.
How do you know?
Common sense is it not? ๐Ÿ˜›

muppetWrangler - Member
No funding for such stuff because it is not important to many.
The thousands of people that turn up to speak to the dead via the 'gifted' would suggest otherwise.
Why? Why can' the people let them go? Is there unfinished business while alive? If there is unfinished business I can understand the attachment otherwise let them go.

Also if someone were able to definitively prove the existence of an afterlife it would go down in history as one of the greatest discoveries ever made.

Why? Why give importance to such event? What is the purpose of being greatest discoveries? What for? Pride? Self-worth? If you are not strong enough to be willing to understand why force yourself? Nobel peace price? What is the point? They are dead.

Any lack of funding is due to it being hokum and not a lack of interest.
Basically, it is not important as it does not bring profit.

However, in the event of murder and trying to trace the murderer(s) it might be useful ... something to ponder. ๐Ÿ˜›

funkmasterp - Member
For 3 the best way to confirm is to have a log to find out if it happens at the similar time. i.e. at night at certain time.

On it

๐Ÿ˜† That's good. That's funny. I like. Looking at the log I thought " ... give wood ... " Whatever that means. ๐Ÿ˜†


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 8:44 pm
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Rusty Spanner - Member
Nonsense, it fascinates everyone, even those of us who don't believe it.
Nobody force anyone to believe. ๐Ÿ˜›
There have been innumerable tests done with people who claim to have ESP etc.
Meaningless. If we have all the knowledge then we would live longer ...
If it existed, it would be very easy to prove.
Do we posses all the knowledge?


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 9:02 pm
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I guess the whole monk flaming is to be expected ๐Ÿ™‚

TBH sceptical of the whole thing but that's what we were told - chatting to the neighbour who kindly neglected to tell us any of this, their breakfasting ghost included, until long after we'd moved out. They'd done extensive research apparently. But there we go - the house supposedly used to be part of a cloisters complex around the church, which in turn linked to the local abbey just down the road...


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 9:25 pm
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I guess the whole monk flaming is to be expected

All good natured bantz.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 9:29 pm
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Lots of times.

Exploring a derelict factory, in a large room with a suspended ceiling, and suddenly there was a scratching sound above me. then another from a different direction. Then loud scratching sounds from all over. All I could think about was that scene in Aliens where they're above the ceiling. It was pigeons.

Exploring places at night, often see human shapes. Get closer and they turn into trees or pillars or something.

Walked into a room in an abandoned hotel, and didn't realise there was a full-length mirror behind the door - damn near gave myself a heart attack.

Basically, what I'm saying is that I've had lots of experiences which could be considered spooky if I hadn't stayed to investigate and work out they're tricks of the mind.


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 9:52 pm
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GrahamS - Member
my experience - a while back I used to get "people" shouting me up to go to work

chewkw hears voices.
Why does this not surprise me?

The difference between mine and the other type is that I explained to them that I didn't have to work weekend so they stopped waking me up on weekends. ๐Ÿ˜†

So presumably since this was happening every day to you, you were able to record these spectral shouts on your phone or even a tape?
It did not happen everyday but for sometimes. I doubt you can tape it because it sounds like someone is shouting beside your ear. ๐Ÿ˜›

woffle - Member
I guess the whole monk flaming is to be expected
Yes from them but not from me. ๐Ÿ˜€

bencooper - Member
Basically, what I'm saying is that I've had lots of experiences which could be considered spooky if I hadn't stayed to investigate and work out they're tricks of the mind.

The question is why are you spooked if you don't believe in such thing? ๐Ÿ˜ฏ

I mean common sense suggests that if you don't believe in such thing, no amount of sounds etc would spook you. Unless you are expecting someone trying to do you harm. ๐Ÿ˜ฎ

For example, if when I entered a jungle I am normally spooked by the plants or leafs that I brushed pass, not because I am afraid of the vegetation but what awaits me on the vegetation .... Tiger leech ... ๐Ÿ˜†


 
Posted : 05/07/2017 10:04 pm
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