LH wrote:

I grew up and lived most of my life in a very small town in Ohio. The house I grew up in is where I had the scariest event of my life. I am not one to believe in paranormal things nor do I totally discount them. I simply do not know. I remember hearing footsteps coming up the stairs many nights in the house. These I discounted as noises made by an old house. However, one night when I was probably a pre-teen I was in bed for the night and after hearing the footsteps (my room was at the top of the stairs), suddenly I heard small items such as makeup and bottles of perfume, on my dresser start to fall over one by one. Then I heard looseleaf papers I had on a stool begin to scatter on the floor. I froze and immediately tried to think of an explanation. We had no animals, the windows were closed, their was not air circulating. I could not explain it. Just as I lay there long enough to convince myself I imagined it, it sounded like something began tapping on the metal bed frame I was laying on. It was on the opposite side of where I was laying. Again I froze. I don’t know how long I laid there before I fell asleep. I just remember waking up in the morning and seeing that in fact all of the small items on my dresser had been knocked over and the looseleaf papers were scattered all over the floor. I tried to tell my parents and they just laughed at me and made a joke of it. This is something that has bothered me all of my life because I have not been able to explain it. 

I am now almost 40 years old. There were other odd things that happened in the house on a regular basis, such as pictures falling off the walls and odd noises. It is amazing what you can get used to as normal. I just would like to have some kind of explanation for these things.

Such experiences when one is a child are far more widespread than you might imagine. Many adults can recall similar experiences to your from an early age, either pre-teen or when transitioning into an adult.

There exists a thin line between what we hear and what our minds conjour and embellish, particularly over time. This in no way suggests you did not experience what you describe, however. But it is our interpretation of the events that colours the details from the original source.

Footsteps on the stairs, for example, can merely be the wood or stairs construction easing after a day’s use. Other sounds, being so specific, are less straightforward to explain, however, each might have a strong origin in the corporeal world.

I have frequently investigated knocking and tapping, and few have remained puzzling in their origin. All buildings make noise, particularly those with wood construction, and it is often the situation and our minds that extend an every day noise into a realms of mystery and paranormal.

I am quite convinced you experienced some form of phenomenon, but there is nothing to suggest it was any form of external entity injecting itself into your environment. I believe these are a combination of amplified sensory experiences combined with fear distorted perceptions. Though this may give you the impression they remain unexplained, the frequency of similar events goes some way to assure you that little out what I consider to be ordinary actually occurred.

M. Keynes

GW wrote:
I used to live in a house with two other room mates and weird things kept happening. Location of the house is 119 Ward Street in Seattle. The three of us got along so well that we thought it would be fun to share a house.

David had a cat that got so spooked on entering the house that she jumped out the third story window. My dog wouldn’t enter past the doorway so I took him to my parents house for care. We consistantly heard the sound of boot steps on the stairwell, so often, that we would count them. It was always seven. Lincoln was heading down the stairwell one night and swears that someone grabbed his ankle and tripped him. I asked where and he pointed, we counted the steps from the bottom and it was the seventh step.

David’s aunt and uncle came for a visit in August and wanted the window open to let some air in. It took two of us to open the window and when we stepped away the window slammed shut all on its own and we couldn’t re-open it.

Davids aunt claimed that someone was trying to pull her covers off all night and she thought it was one of us.

In the basement there were two wooden platforms that rose above the floor about 2 1/2 to three inches that didn’t make sense for their purpose but were about the perfect size of coffin lids. All three of us began to argue and not get along then I had the worst dream of my life.

Asleep in bed, dark hooded figures rose all around me bed, one had my left arm pinned out to the side and one had my right arm pinned out to the side. The plaster walls turned to stone and two flaming torches appeared on the wall.

One figure had me by the neck with one hand and in his other hand was a jeweled handled dagger with a crescent shaped curved blade. That figure said in a deep gravelly voice “who is your master now.” I squeaked out in a forced whisper “Jesus is my master” Then said it a second time and all the dark hooded figures sunk back into the floor the flaming torches faded away, the walls turned back to plaster.

I jumped out of bed and turned on the light and where my body had been laying was the image of a body sized cross. I moved out!!!

It seems from your account that your response to the hooded figure in your dream was a most appropriate one. Though I have little doubt your dream was merely a psychological response to your increasingly troublesome environment, such things can be almost as disturbing as a genuine, physical event.

One frequently finds the utterance of religious words and names to be useful, practical tools to banish the negativity of an event or experience. The banishment occurs naturally and generally immediately. 

I have undertaken a number of investigation where other parties amongst my associates have used religious passages to aid banishing the terror that might grasp them within the heat of the investigation. 

Did you at any time attempt to investigate the history of this particular property? 
It might be intriguing to discover whether there have been any other reports of activity there, or whether the ground beneath the property itself had a history.

One finds historical events, particularly those of a macabre nature, leave some form of lasting footprint, or echo that can affect more sensitive individuals in a manner which we have yet to understand.    

M.Keynes

D wrote:

I had an experience some years ago that I still find very interesting. On a whim I decided to visit Lilydale, New York, one of the worlds centers for the spiritualist religion. On arriving I found an old museum on the grounds with material that went back to the 1800’s. When I entered, the curator and a women were busily taking notes and examining a display case. They said that just a moment ago an old book had jumped up and down (in a closed case) and they always took notes of such things. On examination I was surprised to find the book was a scrap book. It belonged to the Grandfather of an old friend of mine, who were magicians, escape artists, spiritualists and contemporaries of Harry Houdini. Maybe they were still around and knew I was a friend of the family? Not very horrific but Lilydale is more Ray Bradbury than E.A. Poe.

I find it frustrating that curators of antiquities, particularly those allegedly associated with a paranormal past, become obsessed with the notion that these inanimate objects are in some way infused with energies to the extent they might react with their surroundings. Not once have I witnessed such an occurrence myself, despite many hours of study under the assurances of regular activity.

Once such case involved a child’s toy that was said to have continued connections with the child since his untimely death of tuberculosis some years previously. The child’s parents preserved his bedroom as it was at the moment of his death and would report all manner of playful activities taking place within, accompanied by audible giggling. The events continued following the ultimate release of the toy to Mr. Misteriouso’s Museum of Magical Particulars – by whom I was requested to attend and report.

Over a period of two weeks I boarded with this fellow and not once was there anything of note that was above normal, rational explanation. This despite the curator’s insistence – supported by his “Diary of Strange Doings” – that the toy would find itself in a different location each morning.It did not move an inch on two weeks.

Proof! That is what we need, proof! And yet so much relies upon the word of those with much to gain from the reporting of such paranormal events. Houdini, now that you mention the sensationalist blaggard, is one and the same. Perhaps one day I shall recount my personal experience of the man and what I discovered regarding his methods of investgation!

M.Keynes

GK Writes:

My story is about an experience that my Mom and Aunt had.They were temporarily living with my Grandmother, taking care of her while she succumbed to cancer.

My Mom and Aunt were sleeping on the couch next to my Grandmother’s hospital bed in the front room when my Aunt woke up and saw my Grandmother standing next to her just looking at her, then she just disappeared.

My Mom said when my Aunt woke her up she was pale and shaking and and she said that their Mom was dead. They checked on her and yes she had passed away. My Aunt preceded to tell my mom how she knew, and about a year later my Mom told me the story.

When sickness is about us our minds can feed upon the heightened emotional energy and create a number of apparitions and visions that cannot be effectively determined as being corporeal or otherwise.

This does not suggest that the experience of your Aunt was anything other than true. When shifting between sleep and awake, in either direction, the mind can pass through a state of extreme heightened awareness in which the dream state and the waking state are intermixed, their boundaries merged into a complex state of blended perception.

Your Aunt likely perceived unconsciously that your Grandmother had passed away, perhaps due to a lack of movement, or more likely her breathing as those near death can often breath in a specific broken rhythm for a number of hours prior to passing away entirely. The subconscious knowledge of the death manifested itself as an image of the Grandmother.

Alternatively, there is the possibility that your Aunt had the momentary sensitivity to perceive the actual passing of the Grandmother’s spirit as she made her way from her corporeal form.

Whatever is the truth in this, it is a most fascinating event and I have recorded a number of similar reports during my years of investigation.

M. Keynes