Do you believe in ghosts?

Spooky season is here! In honor of Halloween and the fact that it is my favorite holiday I going to write about my personal experiences with the paranormal. I have been experiencing these things off and on since I was about eight or nine but have not always believed in the paranormal, partly due to my religious upbringing and partly because I was too scared to admit that they may be real. That is until a few years ago. Now I have experienced too many unexplainable things to be a skeptic. I have become someone who is very open to the paranormal world, still a little nervous, and cautious but open. Wether you believe in the paranormal or not I think you will agree some of these stories are unexplainable. Trust me I am not one to rule out plausible explanations but sometimes that just isn’t possible.

So…my very first experience I was eight or nine, we were living in a very old farm house a few miles from town in Wisconsin. This house was in the middle of a cornfield…yes in the middle and when the corn was fully grown you were unable to see above or through it. So, creepy right? Anyway at this time I was still very deep in to religion and knew nothing about ghosts or spirits or shadow figures or anything. I obviously had heard scary stories but never believed them because I was taught ghosts and spirits aren’t real. At this time my dad worked nightshift so it was just my mom, my little sister and my little brother at home during the night. I have never been a fan of living in the country but this house made it worse. This house along with my grandparents house are the reason I REFUSE to even consider living in the country ever again also the fact I am very much a city person. One night I think it was after church we had driven down our long gravel driveway and my mom had parked the van facing the side of the house. Behind us was the yard, one tall yard light and the broken down shed. The light was on behind us and my mom had turned off the car so it was the only light illuminating the yard. Not very well I might add. We were getting ready to get out of the car, I was unbuckled sitting in my seat directly behind the drivers seat. I was facing forward and noticed a shadow of what looked like a man on the back of the drivers seat. I asked my mom nonchalantly, “Mom, who is that guy?” Me being a child was unfazed and just genuinely wanted to know who this man was. My mom of course was terrified, she was alone with three small children in the middle of nowhere and now there was potentially an unknown man behind her. She asked me again, this time with more urgency. I remember still seeing it so I turned around fully expecting to see a man standing behind our car. No one was there. I looked back at the seat…it was still there. I moved my head to see if I was just seeing my shadow…it didn’t move. My mom was of course still asking me where the guy was and since I didn’t see anyone around us I assured her he was gone. I don’t remember if the shadow actually disappeared. That is the only thing I remember experiencing at that specific house. I didn’t really experience anything for a few years, we moved around that town to two or three more houses and nothing happened that I remember.

It wasn’t until we moved into the last house we lived in before moving here to Michigan. This house was built in the 50s I think and had been owned by only two families until we bought it. The old couple that sold it to us would drive by almost everyday to “check” on us or it, I am not sure. That in itself was a little unsettling but considering they lived there for fifty or more years and had raised their children there it was kind of understandable. I don’t remember the very first experience I had but one thing that my sister and I both remember happening every night was the stairs creaking one by one all the way up. Almost like someone was just coming upstairs to go to bed. One night in particular I remember vividly, I was laying in my bed trying unsuccessfully to fall asleep. I heard the stairs creak one by one but was unfazed considering this was a nightly occurrence. But this time it was followed by the sound of the toilet flushing and the faucet turning on. I was pretty sure everyone in the house was asleep so I was confused but still thought someone must’ve just used the bathroom. I had a weird feeling though so I got up to check. I knew it wasn’t my sister because she was still in her bed in our room asleep. I looked into my parents room that was across the hall from ours and they were both asleep as well. I then checked my brothers room. He was also asleep. The bathroom was the last room in the hall before the stairs, the door was open and I could still hear the faucet. I slowly walked in expecting to see the water running. It wasn’t. I freaked out and ran back to my bed and got under the covers trying to forget the incident. Still to this day I can’t explain it.

In that same house, the previous owners I mentioned had built on a large living room with an equally large basement underneath. We learned that one of their sons or son-in-laws had sadly died while it was being constructed. I for many years thought he had died at the house from a construction accident but later found out he had passed away due to a car accident. Well…in the basement of that living room in the far left corner where we stored my mom’s wedding dress, my dad’s military uniforms as well as my great grandpa’s military uniforms, my sister and I always felt a presence. Not a good one. We both refused to be in that room for too long by ourselves. It was just something about that specific corner that made us uneasy. I am not sure what it was but I was not about to find out. I know basements are just creepy in nature but this had an almost evil presence. Like something didn’t really want us down there. I mentioned the previous owners son or son-in-law because after experiencing many things in that house I needed “someone” to blame them on. I know that sounds a little rude but it was for my own sanity. I named the “ghost” of that house. I recently learned that was NOT what I should have done but It helped me and my sister to not be so freaked out.

We lived there for five or six years until we moved here to Michigan. We lived in an apartment and I never really experienced anything. That is when I started to get more into the paranormal and watching ghost hunting videos and things like that. My sister and I lived there with our parents and brother for three years until getting our own apartment a few blocks away. This is when things started happening again and I saw the shadow figure for the first time since the farm house.

We each had our own rooms for the first time and the dark made me claustrophobic so I slept with my door open. My sister slept with her door closed and we had hung a mirror on the back of it. From my room I could not see her door but I could see into the bathroom. I would lay there, trying to fall asleep and see a shadow figure standing in my doorway seeming to just stare at me. It was very tall with his head reaching the top of the doorframe. That happened for a while but I chalked it up to my sleep deprived eyes playing tricks on me. At least that is what I liked to tell myself. Last year my sister went back to Wisconsin for a few months to live with my grandma after my grandpa died so I was in the apartment by myself. This was the first time I lived by myself for an extended period of time. That is when the figure, still silent, started moving back and forth as if pacing the short hallway. One night I saw it I, like usual, decided to ignore it and try to sleep. That is when, just as I was on the brink of sleep, I heard what sounded like a dish fall onto the kitchen floor. The was a door to the outside in our kitchen so I knew I should get up and make sure it was not an intruder, I did what only a sane person would do and I got up grabbed my half full gallon water bottle and wrapped the strap around my wrist and got it ready to swing. I tiptoed into the bathroom, nothing. I continued silently into the living room taking a silent deep breath before quickly bursting into the kitchen. Nothing. No one was there and there was nothing on the floor. I of course was confused and a little scared so I stood silently for a few more minutes listening to see if it was my upstairs neighbor. It wasn’t. I then went back to bed and watched the hallway. Again the figure paced back and forth. At this point I was freaked out so I got up and firmly told whatever it was that they were welcome to be here as long as they did not want to harm me. And asked that they do not bother me so I could finally get some sleep considering it was already morning at I had to work in a few short hours. I walked around the apartment repeating those things until I was satisfied. I laid back in bed and purposely watched the hallway. It must have listened because I didn’t see anything else…at least that night. Not long after that I started sleeping with my door closed and moved my bed so I could no longer see into the hallway because although it had stopped that night it started back up a few nights later. It never again moved or knocked anything over, at least to my knowledge, and I no longer felt scared. Since I started to sleep with my door closed I obviously never saw the figure pacing or standing there again. I did however start feeling a presence. It did not feel evil or like it was a danger to me or my sister so I just left it alone. I felt it until we moved out. I also would randomly smell mens cologne in my room. I don’t own any mens cologne and there was no reason for it to be smelt to strongly in my room. That neighbor that lived above me was a man so I assumed it was his but if I think about it, if it was his, why would I be able to smell to well on a different floor? Me, again just trying to find an explanation.

This past summer before we moved out my cousin came to visit and I was telling her about these things, she does believe in ghosts and spirits like my sister and I so she was a little creeped out. I told her about how I felt a presence and she told me about empathic abilities. I am not saying I have them…but I am not saying I don’t. To be honest I am a little scared to explore them and too fully dive into the paranormal world because I know that not all spirits are kind and I don’t really want to anger the wrong one or attract them. Maybe someday I will test it and find out.

I have since moved back in with my parents and have not really felt anything nor have I seen anything. Aside from one night, maybe a week ago, when I walked out of the bathroom and toward my room and felt something behind me. It scared me and felt like it was going to follow me into my room. I told it, in my head because I didn’t want my family to hear me, that it can not be with me or my family and it needs to leave. It took a little bit until I felt okay again. I don’t know if that was just my anxiety or an actual thing, whatever it was did not feel like the same energy as my old apartment. It was much more dark. I have not felt it since so I am hoping it listened. Or that I imagined it.

You may have read this and now think I am crazy and that is fine. I have told a few different people my experiences and some think it is interesting and some think it is almost a joke. If you don’t believe me or believe in ghosts or the paranormal that is fine. I do believe and just wanted to share these things for those of you out there that also believe and may have experienced similar things or are just interested in hearing the experiences of others.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!