Ghosts, Spirits, Specters, Phantoms, and Apparitions

This is the thread for everything ghosts! Discuss, debate, and share evidence of ghosts and paranormal phenomena.


On March 5th, 2008, Tony (onenitedrive) and myself formed our own paranormal investigation team here in the Chicago area. It was to be a professional team to bring a positive outlook on the ghost hunting community and to collect further evidence to support or disprove, as well as to help bring light to unexplained, paranormal phenomenon in the area. Our old team website can be found here: http://www.ghosthuntersofstartlingtruth.com/

Unfortunately, we eventually had to disband the team, as it became clear that, in order to provide a professional and thorough investigation for our clients - be them private or business - we would need equipment that was just beyond our budgets. We also would require more time on our hands than either of us could lend, Tony being employed full-time and a part-time student, while I am a full-time student. So, ultimately, the decision came to drop GHoST: Ghost Hunters of Startling Truth, but to join up with another local team every so often, the DuPage Paranormal Society, who has been making a huge splash in the paranormal investigation field. We've met and hung out with the guys and gals from the team on a few occasions now, once even just for a few drinks and a barbeque, and we are happy to have been associated with them (back when we had our team) and to know them still. They are even now close with other paranormal teams, both in and out of the country, and will be in the city for a TV shoot with another team for their TV show.

Paranormal in general began to interest me when I was around seventeen years old. I began researching it online, and came across EVPs (electronic voice phenomena - supposed ghost voices that have been recorded). It made me want to try it out for myself. So, I ended up buying a voice recorder off eBay, and I took my best friend from high school (soon to be my Maid of Honor!) with me when she and I were hanging out once to a cemetery down from my parents' house. We didn't expect to get anything, and we only recorded for about 10 minutes or less before heading back to my parents' house. When we played the tape back though, we were both blown out of our minds -- shocked and scared -- because we not only recorded one whispered voice in response, but two! It was rather lucky that I was able to capture something so elusive as an EVP on my first time trying it, because it was that that kept me interested in EVPs and the paranormal ever since.

Since then, I managed to record quite a few amazing EVPs back where I used to live. You can listen to all of them here: http://www.ghosthuntersofstartlingtruth.com/0506evprecordings.htm

Unfortunately (or fortunately), I have never been so lucky as to see a ghost, but it's the EVPs that I am most interested in anyway. I am rather proud of the ones I've captured in the past, as there are a lot, and most of them are pretty obvious and unmistakable. It's this evidence that has me believing for myself that there is truly something out there.

Ah, here we are.

You were a part of a paranormal team? That's awesome! I'd love to do something like that, even if it does frighten me a bit.

Now then, I have a very over-active imagination, so a lot of what I think i experience at certain times is just me. Apparitions I think I see, some of the voices I think I hear, ect, are usually just my mind playing tricks on me. However, there has been one case that I have yet to explain away at all. I know this isn't just my imagination, because I saw it happen.

One night, I was lying in bed, trying to get to sleep. I was tossing and turning, trying to get into a comfortable position. When I rolled over onto my side, I watched as the drawer I was facing slammed shut forcefully.

There was no one else in the room, it wasn't facing a window, and the drawer was rather high up. I still don't have an explanation for it. My dad thinks it was just a nightmare, but I hadn't fallen asleep yet.

Thanks, Orombur! It can be rather scary, especially first starting out. (When I was younger, I was a little paranoid about it! XD)

It would certainly be something if you have seen apparitions. They are usually a rare thing for most people.

That would terrify me, Orombur, if I witnessed my dresser slamming shut! So, you left it open? Perhaps, if it truly was a ghost, they were upset with you for not closing it? Did you ever consider that?

Haha, I hadn't considered that. But if they were, they should be happy now. I've never left it open since then!

Lol well that's good! Maybe they were just looking after yah!

Ghosts exist, 100% in my mind.

As I said in the other thread, I've had experiences with three ghosts (maybe two, I might have been dreaming on one of them) and all of them have been positive. In fact I do wonder where this concept of scary horror ghosts have originated from.

Poltergeists, Agro. That's all where it came from. Of course, there might be some malevolent ghosts out there. But it mainly comes from poltergeists, I'd guess.

I've got mixed feelings about ghosts. I'm a skeptic (in my own opinion) but I've had a handful of experiences in my life that I can't explain logically.
Anyone heard of shadow people? I think that when I was younger, I had a visit from one. I was just getting comfortable in my bed when I heard some disgusting footsteps. They sounded wet, like someone who had just come out of a lake. Between the steps I could hear dripping. When I looked up I saw the very familiar shape of a human blocking the light from my cracked bedroom door. It looked like he/she/it was melting! I called out to it in the most emasculating whimper you could imagine (I was scared, ya know?). Just as I did, it darted back behind the door, but I could still hear the dripping. I sat silently, scared out of my mind for who knows how long. I don't remember if I slept that night or not, or even if the dripping ever went away.

The other one was a much more familiar feeling, and it's made me doubt myself and what I think about everything.
In October last year, my grandfather passed away. He was my father figure though, my parents were unable to care for me when I was a kid, so my grandparents stepped in and filled the void....anyway.

About a month and a half after he passed, I think I got a visit...or something. It was about 5:30 in the morning on a Sunday. The previous night I had pulled an all nighter with some friends, so Saturday evening I went to bed early, thusly waking up early that Sunday. It was too early to do anything, so I just dozed in bed and daydreamed. It didn't take long for my granddad to become the subject of my thoughts. I was still having those regrets you get about not saying everything you wanted to say to someone before they leave you. I covered my face to rub my eyes when I had the encounter. I felt a strong warm hand on my collar. It lasted for a split second, but I knew exactly what it was...

When I was in gradeschool, I had an irregular heartbeat. My grandfather suffered from a similar condition (much later in life), and when I was asleep at night he would check my pulse because it is most stable and easily recordable when you're asleep.

Anyway, that's my experience with what I think are ghosts...I just can't explain them any other way, no matter how hard I try to 'logic' them away.

I listened to those EVP’s, and the only ones I truly understood what was being said were the first one and the eleventh one. I really think the person is saying “Make it stop.” and not “Can’t stop.” in eleven. It doesn’t even sound like “Can’t it stop?”

Ugh... I could never be a paranormal investigator. I mentioned this somewhere else, but I don't like to be around things I can't see, hear, or touch that can touch me and throw things at me and move things physically.

However, I believe in ghosts one hundred percent whether they're aware of me or not and whether they're just recordings of their past lives or not.

Along with paranormal activity, I believe in psychic activity. Sometimes they go hand-in-hand which is why I'm explaining this. I can feel ((but not see)) auras. At least, that's what I think I'm feeling. It's the energy that surrounds each individual living creature. I can feel it much more easily in humans and animals than plant-life, but I can feel it in both despite the obvious differences in how they feel. Ghosts also radiate an aura of sorts that I can certainly feel, but it is a different sort of vibration, too.

In living creatures, I can determine the goodness or badness to them based on my first instinct upon feeling the aura. I cannot tell the difference in spirits. The only thing I know is that I sense something unusual that makes me uncomfortable. I don't know if it's the death radiating from them or if it's just the fact that I can feel it despite not being able to see or touch it or hear it that makes me so uncomfortable. I just know it's unpleasant, and it can be incredibly frightening.

I've never had a personal experience with ghosts other than feeling them around me, but I have plenty of family members who have, even while I've been in the house- just not while I was awake or in that room.

I know not all spirits are malicious, I just can't feel the difference. I'm sure if I had ever felt a family member or something, I would know how the feelings differ.

1. When I was in fifth grade ((10-11 years old)), we were renting this old house in a shitty part of Davenport, Iowa. This house had a history, and I think at least one person died in it. There were three ghosts we encountered while we were there. A little girl whose name was Sarah according to the Ouija board, a middle aged man, and a woman who was probably middle aged or a bit younger.

My olderbrother's room was often vacant because he mostly lived in a rehab center for teens, but he would live with us for a weekend, and eventually more often when he got out of rehab. One day he was really sick with a terrible fever, or the flu, I can't remember. He thought he saw the middle aged man in his open doorway glaring at him. My brother said the man's eyes were bright red with fury. He yelled for Mom, but by the time she got to his room from downstairs the man was gone. My mom had seen the man before, so she knew my brother wasn't lying when he described the way he was well-dressed for a Victorian era with a brown hat.

On another occasion, my step-father punished my little brothers for something they had done ((they're hellions)), and the next morning he awoke with scratches down the side of his face. My little brothers' hands were too small to have made them, and everyone else had too large hands. My mom told me that one day she saw Sarah looking longingly at the overflowing toy box belonging to the boys, and by then the Ouija board had already been enlisted, so my mom thinks Sarah was getting back at Frank for punishing the boys.

Another night, my mother saw an incredible thing while lying in bed, and Frank saw it, too. Through their bedroom door the stairway to the second story could be seen, and my mom thought she saw Sarah continuously sliding down the banister only to climb the stairs again on the outside by clinging to the railing and sliding down again once she was at the top. She also saw the man with the hat standing at the top of the stairs looking down. Both the man and Sarah were full ghosts who were a bit transparent. She saw the woman for the first time floating down the stairs, though. The woman was a lot less visible. She had more of a wispy form.

2. When I was fifteen, we rented a farm house in Packwood, Iowa. My mom said she chose it because she felt a warm, welcoming feeling there, but I immediately felt a differently. There was a door just outside the kitchen that opened to reveal the stairs leading to the second story. At the top of the stairs, there was this big open space with big windows to the left. On the right was the door leading to my room. After the big open space was a hallway. The first door on the left was a mini bathroom with only a toilet and a sink. At the end of the straight path of the hall was the door to my youngest brother’s room. Then the hall sharply turned to the right, and at the end was my other little brother’s room.

I always felt extremely uncomfortable on the stairs. I always ran up them as fast as I could. I also felt uncomfortable in the big open space, the hall, the mini bathroom, and my youngest brother’s room. I felt safe once I was in my own room and Frankie’s ((the other little brother’s)) room. There was also this big storage closet on one end of my room that made me nervous if I stepped inside it.

No where else in that house felt frightening or unsafe, though. =

I have reason to believe the areas that made me nervous made Andy ((my youngest brother)) nervous, too.

One morning we were all getting ready for school, and Frank- my step father- told Andy to go upstairs and go change his underwear and grab some pants and clean shirt. Andy went upstairs, but a little while later I walked into the kitchen, and I heard my little brother whimper, so I opened the stairs door, and I told him to come back downstairs. He had neither grabbed clean clothing nor changed his underwear. I even think he may not have gone much further than the open space upstairs. He often slept in Frankie's room, too.

3. My brother passed away when I was fifteen. After that, he gave my mom and my grandma several signs that he was still around.

My mom often used cruise control in her car, and she always kept her feet flat on the floor in a normal sitting position rather than near the pedals. She used to tell me that her cruise control would just stop working while she was driving, and a few miles later she would see a cop that would have pulled her over. Well, once when I was in the car with her, she goes, “Look, Katie!” ((Off topic note: Only family members r close friends of the family call me Katie. Don’t do it yourselves.)) When I looked, her speed had started to decline, and I knew she had been using cruise control, and her feet hadn’t moved towards the pedals. The cruise control conveniently began working again as soon as the dial went from 70mph to 60mph. A few miles later there was a deer right in the middle of our lane than managed to run to the other side of the road before the car reached it. We would have hit it if the speed had stayed the same.

Another time, we were in the car, and the cruise control actually increased in speed from 60mph to 75mph, and if it hadn’t we would have missed seeing this large animal in our headlights. It had crossed the road, and it looked like it was a cougar or something like that, but it had more fur around it’s head. It was really weird. You really don’t see things like that along the highway in small-town Iowa. She believed my brother saved her from tickets and deer collisions, and she said she thought he wanted us to see that animal.

Another occurrence happened to my grandmother. She had a few cats, but her favorite ((other than her beloved old Spanky)) was the young, lovey Bandit. He was an outdoor cat. Whenever she would bring groceries home, she would keep the sliding van door open to take the few trips to house to bring them all inside. The cats would occasionally jump inside the van and climb around and get back out. My grandma was depressed from her favorite grandson’s death, so she wasn’t paying attention. She said she closed the sliding van door ((which had to be forcibly slammed with a good deal of strength or it wouldn’t close all the way)), but she felt this force shove it the opposite way she slammed it before it could even come close to closing, and when she looked, Bandit was sitting right in the doorway. He would have been either killed or seriously injured if my grandma had succeeded, and she wouldn’t have been able to handle that on top of everything else.

There have been other times when my grandmother and my mother have both been able to talk to my older brother and smelled his familiar scents around them. My mom could smell my grandpa after he passed, too.

I never got any sort of sign from anyone that I could discern, but I still believe they did. I didn’t need a sign or their presences the way my mom and grandma needed them.

DeadEye: It's good that you're a bit of a skeptic though. There is so much out there that is a fraud or there are just things that happen that can usually be explained away as just the normal rather than the paranormal. It's good to keep an open mind -- both to ghosts and to whatever else it could possibly be.

I have most certainly heard of shadow people, and my old ghost hunting friend had stories she used to tell me about them. I've never heard of what you described though with the dripping, and that is so very eerie and creepy. I have no idea what that could have been, but I think anyone could understand why you would have been afraid.

That's really sweet that that was your grandpa visiting you a month after he died. I've heard that when people do get visited by relatives that it is a very instant familiar feeling just like that. He certainly must have loved you very much. (It's also good to hear that your unstable heartbeat returned to normal.)




Kathryn: That's cool that you listened to the EVPs, but sorry you couldn't understand most of them. That's pretty surprising, but I guess I'm used to listening to even worse quality EVPs from online and such that others have caught. The interpretations for some of them were not only what I thought, but were what other people told me they thought they were too.

Kathryn, I never realized that you were so in touch with your senses. My old ghost hunting friend Kristin (who I just happened to meet back at community college -- and this was before Ghost Hunters -- who was into paranormal investigation like I was) was very similar to you in that way. She was working on improving her senses too, and I really honestly believe that she had some sort of hold and grasp on whatever all of that was, because whenever she was around, we were almost guaranteed to capture an EVP or more. I wasn't ever as lucky if I went by myself.

I would love to be able to sense auras like that, both from the living and the dead. I wish I could understand what that felt like. I'm sure it would come in handy too whenever you meet new people. Now, I kind of wonder what my aura and Tony's aura would be like?

Your stories were pretty incredible, and some of them were really quite freaky. I did find the story about your mom with her car's cruise control really fascinating though. It seemed as if your family and not just you could both sense and see these various thing, which is amazing. I don't know if I really would have wanted to see that middle-aged man with the angry red eyes though, like your brother did. I also found it quite frightening what you were explaining about your house in Packwood. I wonder what was there?

All this is incredibly fascinating. I loved reading your stories, so thank you so much for sharing them with us. I just always love to hear other people's experiences. I only wish we could truly understand what all of it is.



Other than my EVPs, I've not had too many experiences with the paranormal. There is one instance though that I firmly remember and still is today the biggest thing that happened to me (which isn't saying much).

I don't remember how old I was, but I'd guess around 10 or so. I woke up sometime overnight, and I realized I had heard our old keyboard playing downstairs. My mom got that for me when I took piano lessons for a summer, but I found that I didn't enjoy it, so the keyboard went unused, and no one else in my family knew how to play. So, I remember running my fingers over the bumps from the paint on my wall just to make sure that I was awake. I kept listening for a few more moments, and whoever was playing our keyboard was really excellent at it. The music was really nice, but scary at the same time, since, like I said, no one in my family knows how to play.

Eventually, I mustered up the courage to open my door, and the stairs to the basement are right there, pretty much. My brother's room was right across from mine, and then diagonal from my room (immediately to the right of his) were the stairs. Directly to the left of my room was my parents' bedroom. So, everything is just right there.

When I opened my door, the music obviously grew louder, since I could hear it better. By then, I was severely confused and freaked out, and I tiptoed to my parent's room next door and knocked on it. It took my mom a minute to get up and come over to the door. The music continued playing right up until my mom came out. I was so confused. I explained her what happened, but she kept insisting that I was dreaming. I was so angry, because I knew that I wasn't, but there wasn't anything I could do. So, I just accepted it and went back to sleep.

You're right that a lot of people in my family are sensitive to ghosts and in other psychic-related ways. My mom claimed she could see ghosts as orbs, and my youngest brother has claimed something similar. My grandmother had a ton of things she could do, but age and society have dimmed her abilities.

Some things can interfere with my ability to sense the presences of ghosts and people. Electronics that are active can often make me feel like someone is around when they're not. It's because they radiate energy from the electricity, and I'm nowhere near sensitive enough to tell the difference. It's part of the reason why I like to have my television or a fan on when I go to bed after talking about/thinking about/watching things about ghosts ((like last night after I got offline after posting here)).

I seriously don't know how to strengthen my ability to sense auras and energies. If I knew how, I would really try to work on it.

I would have been really angry, too. If you had had my mother, she totally would have believed you.

I was wondering when this topic would show up...

My team's web site is not finished, but we do have a few investigation briefs available.
FBN Paranormal Investigations

We have 2 EVP's up in the audio section that might be worth listening to - one in particular even freaks me a little bit. (It is labeled 'Ghostly Humming' - you will probably need headphones or REALLY good speakers to hear it though.)

Holy crap! It's too bad you only serve Southwest Iowa. I'm in the Southeast portion of Iowa. I would have suggested that house in Packwood. I still know how to get there.

I actually hear the humming just fine. It's the word I can't seem to hear. =\

It's a good thing I never have had to put up with ghosts and their crap.

If you don't see me here after tonight, then it's cause the ghosties got us.
We are heading out for a full investigation of a house that we had done a preliminary investigation of earlier this year. (The 'Bloody Wall House' if you have visited our website.)
Wish me luck!

Oh, niiice! Well, the 'Bloody Wall House' at least sounds straightforward. Haha, I mean, at least you know what to expect! xD Good luck, Aesalon, and hope you guys manage to collect some great evidence!

Be sure to post links and stuff to important/interesting finds.

Hopefully I will be forgiven for not reading through all the posts in this thread- there are some very long ones here. ^^; If I repeat anything that's already been said, please slap me with a dead fish and tell me that tl;dr is not an excuse.

Personally, I don't believe ghosts exist. At least, not in the form of spirits of our deceased loved ones. It's just part of my theology (which is mostly Christian). I believe that when a person dies, their spirit rests or sleeps until Judgement. What people see as ghosts are generally malevolent spirits (it's my theory on why ghosts are often associated with hauntings and the like). Being that they are much older than us, it doesn't strike me as something that would be too difficult if they impersonate a passed on loved one.

Thankfully, I've never encountered a really terrifying situation involving ghosts or spirits. The weirdest thing I've come across is someone putting dishes away at my friend's house- everyone was in bed (including us, and we asked everyone in the house the next morning if they'd been doing dishes) and yet someone was putting dishes away downstairs in the kitchen. There is also a possibility of something turning off my friend's stereo in the middle of the night, but there are other, much more plausible explanations for that (for example, her sister used to sleepwalk as a child, or the stereo may have had a timer on it that my friend didn't know about that shut the music off at a certain time).

Oh, don't worry about reading all the posts in a thread if it gets very long. (I like to enforce reading most of it when a thread is newer, but some threads just have a lot in them or go on for lots of pages, and by then, it's just too ridiculous lol.)

That's a really interesting theory. I would find it very creepy if a malevolent spirit had taken on of the form of someone I know to impersonate them.

Hmmm, well that's really interesting (your experience). Whether or not it normal or paranormal, it was slightly out of the ordinary, so that would make me a little uneasy, I think. It really could have just been a timer or her sister in the end. It's good to be open-minding to the possibilities. Sleep walking, by the way, really freaks me out for some reason. xD I just find it really creepy that a person can look and act like they're awake when they're really partially dreaming. I don't know how the mind accomplishes that, but I hope none of my kids someday sleepwalk, lol.

Well, even though it probably is possible for a malevolent spirit to impersonate a loved one, ghosts and spirits radiate an energy that is difficult to ignore. Even people who don't think they have any psychic abilities or don't even believe in them find it difficult not to feel spooked in the presence of something they can't see, hear, or touch.

Malevolent spirits have a different feeling than the spirits of loved ones. In the presence of a loved one, there's a more comfortable, familiar feeling. It's the opposite with the malevolent ones.

At least, that's what I believe.

This thread reminds me of the other login name I was battling between.

It was either Hello Danger, or Giving up the Ghost.

edit- Sorry off topic

I think that's definitely possible, Kathryn. I wouldn't know, as I've yet to ever feel anything myself.

XD Ooh, both are cool, Danger. (Why Giving up the Ghost?)

Kathryn Lacey wrote:Well, even though it probably is possible for a malevolent spirit to impersonate a loved one, ghosts and spirits radiate an energy that is difficult to ignore. Even people who don't think they have any psychic abilities or don't even believe in them find it difficult not to feel spooked in the presence of something they can't see, hear, or touch.

Malevolent spirits have a different feeling than the spirits of loved ones. In the presence of a loved one, there's a more comfortable, familiar feeling. It's the opposite with the malevolent ones.

At least, that's what I believe.

Well, by the same token, I believe there are also benevolent spirits that often show up as well, for protection, for comfort, for whatever. Perhaps the argument for benevolent spirits showing up and helping us out is as compelling as the one for it being passed on loved ones. Generally, after someone close to us dies, depending on how close we were to them, we may need a little looking after. We get depressed, we don't pay attention to things, we perhaps worry about dying from the same thing. One might say it's the spirit of the deceased coming back to tell us it's okay, or one could say it's some other kind benevolent spirit that is showing up in the wake of their death to make sure we don't do something stupid, we don't get hurt, we get the comfort we need. Like I said, equally compelling. :3

I'm not trying to shoot down anyone else's beliefs or anything like that. I wouldn't say that both sides are equally compelling if that were the case. Just sharing my thoughts and opinions. :3

Fate Foretold wrote:XD Ooh, both are cool, Danger. (Why Giving up the Ghost?)

Are you're asking if there's a story behind the name? There is. (That's all you're getting out of me, for now. )

I actually have something on my husbands PS3 that we can't explain. Out here where we live there is this phenomena called the Saratoga Light. The Wiki site is posted below but if I can figure out how to get the video transferred to some media card and then plug it to my computer I'll let you guys see (or rather hear) not only how horrible of a potty mouth I have but something that just boggled my husband and our friend. I hope I can get it up!

Saratoga Light.

Huh. Yeah, where I live, we're surrounded by Civil War battle grounds. We have a million different urban legends and stuff surrounding the area. A little ways down the road from the Manassas campus or our community college is what everyone just calls "The Stone House," which is exactly what it sounds like: a stone house. It was used as a makeshift hospital during the Civil War, and there are some legends that say you can see soldiers walking around inside it at night in the form of mysterious shadows (and you can't inside the house). It's also said that on nights when there is fog low to the ground over the battlefields, it's actually the spirits of the soldiers who died during the Civil War. Not to mention, we have all sorts of back and side roads where suspicious things go on.

Also I know this sounds weird but it's true. When I was in High School I always gave my friend my I-Pod to put music on it and everything because my parents wouldn't ever let us buy music (my brother had given it to me as a Christmas present one year). And him and I were really into anime, and while he loved Trigun I particularly didn't care for it. However if you're familiar with it you're familiar with the character Vash the Stampede. Anyway there was a song...or well a clip in which Vash is singing this song right here:
"Total slaughter, total slaughter. I won't leave a single man alive. La de da de die, genocide. La de da de dud, an ocean of blood. Let's begin the killing time."

Here's what it's sounds like so you can understand the creepiness:


And don't ask me WHY he put that on my I-Pod but he did.

Well anyway one night I was awakened from my sleep by that song playing from under my bed. It wasn't just that either that woke me up. My bed was pressed up against a wall and the washer and dryer were on the other side of that wall, so I was used to my bed shaking when the dryer was on. However, the dryer wasn't on and my bed was seriously shaking like bad! I screamed for my sister and she came running into my room and that song was still playing only louder it seemed and she heard it to. It was coming from under my bed! Only when my sister asked me why my I-Pod was under my bed I didn't say anything, instead I got up and crossed the room and removed my purse from the wall and pulled it out. The battery was dead.

Talk about freaked. I was 16 but I slept with her that night.

Dude .... that is seriously creepy~~~~~ D:

I hated that room. I don't know why but I always saw things. Like for real. Images reflected in the T.V. and one time I could have sworn I saw this man standing behind my couch. He looked freakishly like the Crypt Keeper only he wore this weird hat.

I'm uploading my Saratoga Light video now. It's taking forever though! And I just re-watched it and you guys are going to laugh your asses off but had you of been there it wouldn't have been so funny.