My Lifetime Experiences

Most of my experiences occurred over a span of 11 years from 1996 to 2007. The most significant occurred in December of 2007 and was my last. This is all true but I remain unsure to this day due to the skeptic in me. There was no alcohol or drugs involved in any of this. If not for someone else sharing my last experience, I'm not sure what I would believe, but I have always been open minded.

Prior to 1996 my family had the following experiences at my grandparent's house. At age 5 I had come down stairs and asked who that man in grandma's room was. My family checked the house and nobody was there. Childhood imagination? These have been told to me so I can't vouch for the truthfulness. When in high school, my mother was awoken in the night to her bedroom door opening and a shadow of a man in the doorway. She asked "dad is that you" with no answer. Her sister in the next bed, same room, screamed and "it" disappeared. My grandfather checked the house and nobody had broken in, nor could he find anyone. One time my grandmother was doing dishes and a box on the kitchen table moved by itself. They described it as moving "back and forth." My great grandmother was walking down the upstairs hallway where she encountered a yellow glow?

Finally, when I was older, senior in high school, my grandparents went on vacation. My mother would stop by and get the mail and take it into the house. My grandmother was very meticulous about checking everything before she leaves, so my mom was a little surprised to find a bedroom window open. The next day she went to get the mail, she was talking in the yard with the neighbor, with whom they were very close, and he asked her why there was an open window (curtain blowing). It was the same one she had closed the previous time. I had been alone in the house many times and I personally, with the exception of when I was 5, never experienced anything.

My only experience before 1996 was a weird night with a Ouija board. I take this night with a grain of salt. It only "worked" with two people in our group, one of which was my girlfriend. I believe her when she said she wasn't moving it and we would make them not look down at the board. I don't know why nobody thought of blindfolds. It moved over a period of hours which included a lamp in the center of the table going on and off. Nothing else was affected (no brown out) and I was next to the plug. Also, a glass bell on a shelf "near" us just fell off. This was 1985.

I can only guess I did something that made me more susceptible in 1996, but I never seen things clearly. I was depressed from a break-up and looking for answers. I went to psychics and I had a New Age friend that had me use a crystal on a string which somehow moves on its own in a circular pattern. You ask questions over writing (yes/no/maybe) and it switches to back and forth over an answer. I don't know what I think about it but I can't explain it. Anyway, did I do something that "opened doors?" I don't know.

I am a renter who moves around and so I was never living in a haunted location. My following week experiences followed me wherever I lived, so I questioned the validity. Also, my dog never reacted to what I was seeing, so I would just assume, most of the time, it was my eyes playing tricks on me or something with my imagination as I was usually coming out of a sleep. So most of these experiences I don't know for sure if what I saw was real.

One was pretty creepy. I was having a nightmare where I was being strangled. When I woke up about 15 feet from me in the upper corner of the room were just two eyes looking at me. I didn't move and was kind of in shock. The remained for 5 to 10 seconds after I awoke.

Another time in a different location I woke up to my bed shaking and no it was not an earthquake. At first I figured it was my dog even though he doesn't sleep on my bed. I reached around for him, with the bed still shaking, and he was on the floor not touching the bed. He also wasn't reacting to it so I don't know what to think. I didn't go back to bed that night though.

All these other experiences, with the exception of my last, I am unsure what to make of it. I would always be awoken in the night with all the hair sticking up on my neck and arms and my heart racing. Many times I wouldn't even open my eyes because I didn't want to see anything. Usually what I saw was a shadow similar to in the Grunge 2 movie. Other times it was just a distortion. Best way I can describe it was like the alien in the predator movie with the camouflage. One time, at the foot of my bed, was a short red "thing". I don't know what it was. It didn't look like a person but wasn't clear. I sat up in bed, rubbed my eyes, and it was still there. As I slowly started moving towards it, it disappeared.

All my shadow figures occurred in the middle of the night, when I was awoken from sleep, in an already dark room, with a dog that didn't seem to notice, with one exception. I was briefly working 3rd shift and so I would sleep morning to afternoon. One time I woke up to a shadow in the shape of a person over my bed. For a split second, I thought my cousin was standing over me. When I realized it was just a shadow, I screamed "like a little girl" and it just disappeared. This was around 11 am and was clearly a very dark figure.

I probably just imagined the following but in 2004 my dog died of cancer. At the end he had a strong distinct smell to him. Twice, within a few months of his passing, I could swear when I came home and walked into my room that smell was briefly there. Also one time I thought it felt like he was walking across my bed. I probably just imagined this due to my missing him.

The last event occurred at an apartment in Oak Park, Illinois. I was visiting the girl I was seeing and we were lying on the couch watching a movie. To the left of the television, maybe 2 to 3 feet away, I saw a white head come out of the wall as if looking through a window into the room, and then go back into the wall. I just "shook it off" as if to convince myself I did not just see that. When I did this shaking my head, the girl said "you saw that to?" I asked her what she saw and she said a white face come out of the wall. I couldn't believe it. I got so excited because someone else finally saw what I saw. It was very distinctly a white head, but not necessarily human. So I don't know what it was.

Now I am into the show Ghost Hunters, though I am very skeptical about paranormal whenever money is involved, but I got brave and started asking "it" to appear. The girl was scared since she lived there and was not too thrilled. Over a period of 10 to 15 minutes I was repeatedly asking it to show it self or do something to reveal itself. Make a knocking sound, turn the lights on and off, appear, move something, etc. One thing that I had mentioned a few times was to knock over a half full water bottle that was in the center of a coffee table over. The third time (I think) I said this, the bottle slammed over very hard. The two of us just stood in disbelief. She put an end to anymore trying to communicate with whatever, turned on all the lights, and made me spend the night, which I was anyway. She moved out of her apartment about a month later, though she said it wasn't because of the "ghost."

After years of frequently being woken in the night to something, I have not had any experiences since the white head, my best. I don't know why. Did I lose an ability to see these things? I don't know. I am currently living in a house in which at least two people have died, and I have not had any experiences.

Has anyone gone on one of these overnight ghost hunt/tour things? Are they worth it? I would love to join a group who investigates haunted locations.