My Paranormal Experiences In The Past

I have not been a member of Your Ghost Stories for a long period of time. In fact, I've only found this site 2 days ago! It was out of complete randomness. I have read many of the stories submitted here and, to be honest, my experiences are not as, how should I put this? Scary? However, I shall proceed to describe my experiences of the past, which definitely makes me a believer of the paranormal.

1st experience:

This experience takes place in London, United Kingdom. I was around 5 years of age and it's 1998. I was living with my parents in quite a large house in an area called Broadwater Farm. And with no siblings, I was quite lonely, I must add. My father was at work, while my mother was looking after me. We were in the living room just watching TV. It was like any other night.

My mother and I were playing and laughing when I suddenly froze, stopped what I was doing, and ran out of the living room. Now, as soon as you come out of the living room and turn right, you are faced with the huge main stairs. I had stopped at the bottom of the stairs, looked straight up to the top of the stairs and said, "Hello!" and smiled. (Remember that I have no siblings and it was just me and my mother at home.) At the same time, my mother had run out after me to see where I was going. She witnessed everything and was, of course, frightened and pulled me back into the living room! After that night, I do not remember anything else happening.

2nd experience:

Once again, this experience takes place in the same house; however, I was around the age of 7 or 8, 2000/2001. My parents had divorced when I was 6 and every weekend I would sleep at my father's house.

It was late at night and I was sleeping in my bed, when I suddenly had some sort of dream which took place in my own room on the top floor. In this dream, I saw a woman dressed in all black carrying something that I was unable to make out. She was standing at the foot of my bed, just staring at me. The feeling was neither evil nor good, yet it still made me uncomfortable. However, I quickly realized my bedroom was not my own, but it felt like mine. My bed was usually placed at the far right side of the corner of the room where it's the first thing you see when you walk in. And there was a huge some sort of black book shelf, but no books, just tools, directly opposite the bed. The woman in black, still standing there staring, not moving. That was it from that night. I didn't wake up, the dream had just ended and I woke up the next morning. I thought it was just a bad nightmare and that was the end of it. Although...

A couple nights later, I had the same exact dream. The only difference was my father was putting me to bed. He said goodnight to me and as soon as he closed the door, the lady dressed in black came out from hiding behind the door and ATTACKED me; literally jumping on me. She had also thrown something at me that hit me in the ribs. I struggled in this dream, trying to get this thing off of me. When I did this person, or thing, disappeared. I ran out of my door and the feeling of death just surrounded me. That's all I could feel... Death... Nothing more, just surrounding the whole top floor. Being 7 or 8, I was obviously scared. I entered the master bedroom where my father sleeps, which is right beside mine. I saw someone, or something, again. A shadow, it was just standing there beside my father's bed. It seemed to have turned its head towards me and stared. I was frightened, so frightened that I was almost paralyzed; however, I managed to run downstairs and the dream ended. Unlike the last dream, I woke up, out of breath. But as soon as I opened my eyes, I noticed a dark outline of a person from the corner of my eye, but as quickly as I had opened my eyes, it had disappeared.

Beside where I had saw the what I thought to be a shadow, is a large and old mahogany wardrobe which is locked with a key. This was left behind from the previous owners as I had been told by my mother. At that moment, I had laid in bed, staring at this wardrobe as I had an ill feeling about it, as if something was going to jump out.

Due to me being involved in a car crash in 2008, I haven't had the best memory; however, I do know that I've been pondering about the scar below my right eye for a very long time now, many years in fact. It's as if someone had scratched me with so much force that they intended to leave a mark. I know for sure I haven't had any circumstances such as being abused by my parents or gotten into fights where I've had my eyes scratched out! So could it be from that night where I had seen this shadow and had dreamed of it attacking me? Or is it one of those self-inflicted injuries that I've heard so much about? Or a completely different circumstance I may have forgotten? Not even my own mother knows how I got this scar and I live with her mainly.

From then on, I have never liked the stairs. It's always the stairs. I would never feel at ease when approaching them, especially if I am walking up them. It feels as if someone is staring down at me from the top of the stairs. This always frightened me. I wasn't the only one. My mother and friend felt the same too. My friend and I would argue about who was going to go up the stairs first. Quite funny if I look back on it now!

3rd experience:

This is not a story of horror or one of a bad experience. More of an experience that does show that spirits or ghosts of loved ones do watch over us even after death.

Fast forwarding to May 2010, I was 17. I am in the Philippines attending my auntie's funeral who had just passed away.

After we had buried her, most of the family gathered together and went out to eat at a restaurant, to "celebrate" a week of my auntie, whose name was Liza, being dead. It's not considered an actual celebration because the person is dead; it's more or less to show the person that you are able to cope with the death by having the family all together.

Anyway, we were all at the tables, I was sitting in the middle of the table, with my aunties on the right and my cousin (same age as me) on the left. Everyone was eating and I suddenly felt the feeling of the back of my hair being played with, someone running their fingers through my hair and quite softly. I was shocked. I was thinking, "What's going on?!?!" So, due to automatic reaction, I touched the back of my head and the feeling of my hair being played with had passed. I looked around, thinking it was one of my younger cousins playing a trick, but they were all at the table eating. I turned round to my auntie, asked if it was her who was playing with my hair, she said no. I then turned to my cousin, asked if she played with my hair, she also said no. At this point, I was completely baffled. Bear in mind, there is no air conditioning unit or fan behind me and it certainly was not a draft or gust of wind, as the feeling was more of a gentle play of the hair, for example if you were to be petting a dog, and the fact that there's no wind in the Philippines.

Not until the end of the night, my auntie whom I had asked if she was playing with my hair, experienced the same feeling as me and had told my mother, who then told me about it, which shocked the both of us as and made us think my auntie Liza dropped by to say hello after I've not seen her for such a long time. It brought me to tears, but I know she was happy. It's that feeling of a gentle touch that tells you that the person is calm and happy.

Thank you for reading this! I know it was pretty long, but I do find myself to be quite interested in the paranormal.

Any ideas or comments about my experiences? How did I get the unexplained scar? Was my auntie Liza really playing with my hair, or is there a logical explanation?