There is an archway between my living room and dining room. In one corner of the LR, behind the small portion of the wall with the arch, is a chair. Next to that a small table, with another chair next it it. That second chair sits in front of the opening to the archway and directly across from where my chair was. One night I could see someone standing behind the chair in the archway. He was just standing there, looking at me. I would see him periodically over the next 2-3 years. During that time, we found out the person who sat in the chair in the corner was ill. Throughout his illness, I continued to see the guy standing behind the chair. Since his death, I have never seen the 'ghost' again.
I had never told anyone about it, and am not really sure what finally prompted me to do so, though I recall prefacing it with "You are going to think I am crazy..." I was talking to the previous owner of my house, who had lived next door and only bought it as an investment, immediately renting it to me. I was asked to describe the person I saw, and I did, in some detail as he had a distinctive build. My description was a perfect fit for a young man who had lived here and died shortly before his family sold the house and I rented it.
Anything outside of our comfortable, known, scientifically explainable realm is ridiculed out of our belief as to what is possible pretty early on. If science cannot explain it, it simply didn't happen to many people's way of thinking. They fail to take into consideration the things science couldn't explain 100 years ago, or 50, or 25, or even one. DNA did not suddenly come into existence in 1984, I believe it was, when it was first used to solve a crime. It had always existed. The study of it has explained many things we did not understand in the years since.
I believe that young children are much more open to such experiences, but the adults they tell chalk it up to a child's imagination. Perhaps I am more childlike than most, or perhaps I simply think differently, or perhaps there is a perfectly logical explanation that someday science will be able to explain why...but I have had many 'unexplainable' experiences over the years. I treasure them all, in some strange way, even the ones attached to tragedy are comforting.
Attached to tragedy? Been there, had the experience. I won't post it on an open forum on the pearls-before-swine basis, buit it was very real and was, in one instance, validated.
And back to your "young children" comment. A friend was killed in a hang gliding accident in 2000. At the funeral service his priest said that he'd gone to the home to try to comfort the family. He told their little boy, 4 years old, "Your daddy has gone to heaven to be with Jesus." And the kid said, "NO he hasn't. He's standing over there," and pointed across the room. The priest thought it was cute. I thought it was significant.
As have I, and had you not asked, I would not have explained this experience. There was a time, I may not have even answered at all.
I have had at least four of my experiences validated. Even before that, but to a greater extent since probably, I knew I had actually experienced the things I had, even though I could not explain them. I have come to a point in my life where I do more freely discuss such things when the subject arises. If someone doesn't believe me or thinks I am crazy, that is fine.
I have, on another site, had long discussions with someone who presented every skeptic's argument out there to explain to me why things I experienced didn't really happen. His arguments could never make me "unexperience" the things I have personally experienced.
I'm a sceptic myself. I dismiss far more than I accept. But I have enough experience to know when something has the feel of truth. Yours does. I appreciate you posting it. I think others who read it will be grateful too.
I'm just putting the finishing touches on a blog post about an experience which seemed very ghostly at the time but had a perfectly natural explanation. I'd much rather opt for the natural when it's possible. Sometimes you just gotta admit that paranormal experiences do occur.
It was Aldous Huxley who wrote that dismissing odd experiences just because they don't fit into our accepted paradigm is "methodological ineptitude". I think he was right.
I know there are many scammers who claim to be psychic and there have been many false claims made by people. I do not automatically accept what is claimed as the absolute truth. I have questioned my own experiences. And yes, sometimes things may appear to be paranormal at first blush, but actually have a currently explainable reason for what happened. I look forward to reading your blog.
I've seen shadow figures and heard strange sounds. I've always assumed it was just my mind playing tricks, but apparently my mother has seen them too and she always thought her mind was playing tricks. Who knows, maybe we're both just bonkers.
Some of my best friends are bonkers, Patchouli, but you're not.
Yes, the mind does play tricks and most of the things we think we see don't exist outside our imagination, or perhaps as tricks of fluid bubbles on our eyes. But just sometimes they can be real and those are worth remembering.
No. But knowing some who did. Although it's very much against what i believe possible I do believe their story, and was talking to them while it went on. Hmm.
Benedict Arnold 