I was born in 1970. My Mom and Dad (now divorced for the last 22 years) bought a newly constructed home in a suburb on Salt Lake City. I was 1 at the time of moving from another house in the neighborhood that we were renting from. My parents were excited this was their first home since being married. I was the 3rd of 6 kids... 3 yet to be born.
I had 2 older brothers ages 5 and 6. My mom and dad wanted more kids, but were also spacing them out. Before each pregnancy of my 3 following siblings and before she knew she was pregnant, she would here a baby crying in the back room, and sure enough, she would be pregnant.
When I was about 4 years old I began having extreme nightmares of witches and things coming to life in my house. My mom would have to sit with me to help me go to sleep. (In these years my little sister and baby brother were born).
My mom had had my little brother by then... We were only 13 months apart (some spacing...indeed). And she was pregnant with my little sister. In the same years that I was having these nightmares (from about age 4-9) I was also seeing 'people' in the house. Seeing 'fiery' faces in the windows looking at me (fiery meant bright, lit up, ghostly faces), howling sounds that were not dog like. Faces peering out of the ceiling when I was in bed and probably the most scary for me, before the Man in Black, were the times when I was so scared I had to sleep with my parents, feeling their bed shake and seeing the 'faces' from the ceiling and not being able to wake my parents up.
My parents never felt the bed shake and never (or claim to have never) have seen or felt anything strange, aside from the baby cries and of another small issue explained in paragraphs below.
The sightings of the faces and sounds and bed shaking began to go away around the age of 9. But what replaced it was not any better. I began seeing a 'man' completely dressed in black, with a black hood. I never saw his face. He was almost everywhere in the house that I was. He would be standing in a corner, sitting on a chair or standing in a door frame or hallway. I was scared of him but he never did anything to harm me... Just looked at me... All the time.
I decided to tell my mom and dad about it. And with my past history and other past history in the house with the crying babies and also another occurrence when my Dad's father came to him in his room several days after he had died, left my parents to become alarmed and called in some religious authorities in our town to have an "exorcism'.
My parents didn't call it that. They just referred to it as having people come in and pray for light and for the Sprit of Jesus in the house to get rid of this Man in Black. (Years later upon reflecting of those days... It was truly an exorcism).
The Man in Black went away and I never saw him again.
I am 38 now and several months ago I decided to share my story with my little sister... Who is 34 now. I told her about it and she was dumbfounded. She had seen the Man in Black also as a child, but she claims to not have sensed or felt fear from him. But she was also 4 years younger than I was. She also claims to have seen him after I no longer saw him.
I would like to know if others have ever had this experience in their homes and if this "Man in Black" is fairly common and who or what he may have been.
Since the "man in Black" has left my life I have grown up, got married and had 3 children. I have never seen him again. But I have had many, many other out of the ordinary phenomena happen to me and my oldest daughter (who is now 16). She sees Auras, children in her rooms that disappear, people coming out of walls or doors and then disappearing. She also had a dream in 1996 when my older brother died.
I asked her to draw a picture and it was of three beings floating about 2-3 feet off the ground. 2 were wearing white gowns and my brother was wearing what she saw him in last (he had come to see her and my middle daughter and took them on a walk, played with, talked to them and read them stories 2 weeks before he died, he had never done that before and after he died we believe he knew spiritually or subconsciously he was about to pass over and came to say bye to our family). His passing was quick and unexpected.
The 2 with the white gowns had no faces. I asked my daughter why and she said "because that (pointing) is God and that one (pointing again) is Jesus and I am not supposed to see their faces". My brother was smiling. We were not religious in any way at that time. I had left my church when my eldest child was born and didn't return until 1999 to another faith.
My eldest daughter also sees "lights" around people (this is what she would call them as a child and would constantly 'whoosh' her hands around and feet to see the 'light' follow her on her hands and feet"). As she got older and we became more educated on auras, we believe that is what she sees (mine is always green).
When my last baby was born, my oldest came up to me and said my baby's light was white. She was very very sick at the time and I was very curious to see what the color white meant. On the Internet it said white was sick or ill) I am not sure if that is the truth because I have never really looked in depth to reading and seeing aura's because I don't see them.
Her ability to see them seems to be diminishing and now can only see them when she is tired or concentrates hard.
Anyhow, my family seems to have a past and present of the "weird".