Spooked And Confused

I am the owner of a Bed and Breakfast that was built in 1860. My family and I moved here in December, 2008, after the untimely death of the previous owner, a young man who committed suicide. He did not do this on the property, yet his wife and family felt compelled to leave immediately.

We knew the history of the house, yet this did not disturb me in the least. I don't believe in paranormal things, as a Christian I feel that out of body, immediately present in the presence of God, so ghosts to me were not possible. So, despite the somewhat sad history of the house, we were very much nonplussed by it, and excited for the new opportunity.

For several months, I discounted what my teenagers told me... Strange and odd little occurrences I chalked up to overactive young adult imaginations. Even my 21 year old daughter! I thought she was feeding into the silliness when she told me about the strange sensation and smell of "eggs" at the top of the front foyer stairs that had sent shivers down her spine. Heck, it's an old home, beautifully restored, and fertile ground for such stories... So I discounted them.

About a year ago, my little dog began acting bizarrely. She would wake up at about three a.m. Or so, and go charging into the kitchen and bark at the basement door. This scared the heck out of me, because I thought someone might be burglarizing the property. After a few episodes of this happening, I became annoyed with her, and began putting her in her crate at night so I could get a night's rest... So that ended that problem, or so it seemed.

One night about six months ago, my 18 year old son confided to me some weird occurrences. He wasn't particularly scared, just somewhat disturbed by them. He had come to the top of the stairs, his hands full with a dish of food and a glass of soda. As he walked down the upstairs hall to his room, his cat suddenly became spooked, hissed, and ran away. He thought she was just acting weird and continued down the hall. When he reached his room, the door, which was fully opened, suddenly slammed shut in his face, requiring him to put everything down on the floor, and open it. He said there were no other windows open, etc., to cause a draft to do that. He said his room smelled strongly like sulphur, and the windows were "steamed" up like there had been a crowd of people in it or something. He thought this was extremely odd, so he opened his windows and searched for a source of the smell, maybe something burning or shorted, but found none.

Another night, he heard rustling in his room, and could swear he saw a figure standing by his door... When he called out and turned on his light it was gone. Again, the smell was there.

Recently, my 15 year old daughter had become seriously and chronically ill. Through the sadness of the illness and the fear of what would come, I was exhausted with many visits to the doctors and hospitals, etc. One night, at around 2 a.m., my daughter burst into my room, hysterical crying. She swore something kept turning on her lights in her room, and "whispering in her ear." She was terrified to the point of begging me to allow her to sleep at her older sister's house, or even on the porch. I was horrified, thinking she was having some kind of nervous breakdown due to the stress of her illness, and called the doctor. He told me to get her calm, give her a sedative if I had one, and just stay with her, and if it continued, to bring her in to his office. I got her calm, but the next morning she told me the full extent of what was happening.

Earlier in the week, she had been awakened at about 2:30 in the morning, by her laptop suddenly turning on and blasting music. Disoriented, she woke up, went across her room, turned on the light, and shut the program down. She also turned off the laptop, and shut it closed. She then lay in her bed for a while, and eventually drifted off to sleep. About an hour later, she was again awakened by the laptop, blaring music again, on, and the laptop itself was opened. She was horrified, and she didn't know what to do... She turned it off, unplugged it, and packed it away into its case. As she was walking back to her bed, she heard laughter in the corner of her room by her closet. She became so frightened, she ran downstairs and sat in the living room with all the lights on and the TV on until dawn. She was afraid to say anything about the incident for fear of sounding "crazy."

I felt very bad about her confession of this incident, because in all honesty, I did question her sanity after hearing it. I feared perhaps she was having a psychological crisis brought on by her illness, and I felt absolutely terrible for her. I talked to her paediatrician, and he told me to just monitor the situation, which I was doing, and then came the incidences of this week.

The few nights before last, I had a terrible dream, about a spectre standing by me in my bedroom, and all of a sudden things were flying in every direction off the walls. When I reached for my husband, he turned and looked at me, his blue eyes black, seemingly possessed by some spirit. I woke literally in a pool of sweat, and chalked it up to eating too late, and having an upset stomach.

Then, last night, after working late in my office, I went to bed at about 12 midnight. My husband was working the night shift, and wasn't due home until 8 a.m. At around 4:30 in the morning, in the pitch black, all of a sudden my TV. Went on, blaring at top volume, and snapping on and off over and over again. I was completely disoriented, and sat up, searching for the switch to the light on my nightstand. When I got the light on, the T.V. Was on, still playing, top volume. I grabbed my remote, and turned the volume down, and turned it off. All of a sudden, it turned back on again, over and over and over, it would turn on and off. I began to become both and incredulous and alarmed at what the heck was going on. I immediately took the batteries out of the remote in case it was some kind of short in the remote, but that did not stop the TV. From shutting on and off.

I stood up, and walked to the T.V. And physically shut the TV. Off. It immediately turned back on, over and over. As my finger was against the power button, I could actually feel it shutting on and off against my finger, on its own. I felt anger and horror all at the same time and instinctively yelled, "Stop that!" but it only shut off and on faster, as I stepped back and saw the flashes on the screen. I ran over and pulled the plug on the unit, still in shock as to what was happening. I sat on the edge of my bed, trying to process the whole episode. What? What? What? That was all I could think.

I washed my face, and went back to bed, but was tossing and turning, feeling very uneasy. I grabbed my Bible, and slept with it like a child sleeps with a toy. I kept waking up, feeling like the breath was being sucked out of my body, and the covers were pulled off of me twice. I finally gave up at 8 am, and went into my kitchen to make heads or tails of the whole thing, and a pot of coffee. I saw the TV. Unplugged, and the batteries laying on my nightstand, so I could absolutely confirm it was not some bizarre dream.

As I walked into the kitchen, I noticed the dog was missing. She always greeted me as soon as I stepped out of my bedroom, but she was nowhere to be found. As I walked by the basement door, I noticed it was wide open, lights on, and there was a trail of dog faeces, not diarrhoea, just normal faeces, leading away from the door through the hallway. I followed it, and found my dog cowering in the furthest part of her crate, almost to the point where she couldn't be seen. The door to the crate had been unsecured, so she could've gotten out easily. Apparently, she saw something that scared her so bad; she literally defecated as she was running from it... And this is a dog that is normally very well trained.

I was completely baffled by the whole incident, and after cleaning up the "mess," I washed up and made a cup of coffee. As I was looking at the window into the rain, I noticed the barn door to my art studio, right across the lawn, was wide open, and so were all of the windows, and the lights were all on. I know for a fact everything was secure the night before, and again, fearing some kind of break in, which is very unlikely due to the rural area we live in, I ran out to make sure nothing was stolen or disturbed. Everything was undisturbed, just all the doors and windows were wide open, and the lights were all on.

So, at this point, I really don't know how to proceed, or what we should do or not do. I am a Christian, and I don't believe in seers and mediums to contact the "dead," and I love my home, and don't want to yield it to some "force" or possibly a demon? I am fearful for my 15 year old daughter since she is very vulnerable right now with being ill and I guess I'm just here for some advice and feedback...

Any thoughts from anyone who has experienced anything similar? Thanks...