It has been several months since I posted a story about our shed. At the time I wasn't exactly what you would call a believer of the paranormal, but we were rattled to say the least and I was willing to try anything. I performed the cleansing rituals that were suggested for our home and shed. I hope they worked, but only time will tell. I would like to thank all those who offered the helpful suggestions.
Ever since then I have been reading up ALOT about the paranormal. It has almost become an obsession. I have been conscious to always keep an open mind, and so I researched and read articles/stories from both believers and skeptics. I spoke to friends and "experts" on the subject and watched many video clips and TV shows. I must add that from my perspective, both sides have very convincing arguments. I don't claim to know a lot about the paranormal, but I certainly have a much healthier respect for the topic now.
Since I opened the door so to speak to the paranormal world, I now wonder if I may have experienced some things which could be classed as paranormal. Is it this new interest in the paranormal that has sparked these experiences or I am subconsciously creating these things in my head? They are just small things, but things nonetheless. I have tried as best to debunk these experiences but in some cases just cannot come up with a logical solution.
The first of these experiences happened while I was visiting a friend one night. My wife Claire and I used to joke about his house being haunted. We didn't actually believe that it was, but it did tick all the right boxes for traditionally being a haunted house. It was old, made strange sounds, had an eerie feeling to it, some rooms were colder than others etc. However all these things are quite easily explained away.
It was late one night and my good friend and I stayed up enjoying a few drinks and talking about fishing (this is our passion). I would have been over the limit to drive home so he offered me his downstairs spare room and I gladly accepted. When I was ready for bed I made my way downstairs to sleep. As I was about to enter the room something compelled me to stop in my tracks. I wasn't scared, but for an unknown reason I did not want to go into that room. I know it sounds irrational, but I just did not have the will to step through the threshold.
As I stood at the doorway, I heard a distant whisper in my head hissing over and over "Get out, get out". I promptly decided that that was indeed excellent advice and backed away from the doorway. The whisper stopped as soon as I reached the bottom of the stairs. With no other alternative, I went back upstairs and ended up sleeping on the couch in the living room that night.
The next morning my friend was a little surprised to see me on the couch. I didn't really make a big deal about it, and just blamed it on the booze. I didn't want to tell him about what happened as I wasn't really sure myself and didn't want him to think that I was a crackpot.
On another more recent occasion, I was popping in to drop off an angle grinder that I had borrowed. My friend wasn't home but one of his garage doors was open so I decided to leave it on the workbench for him. His is a fairly safe neighborhood so I deemed it appropriate to do so.
My friend has a small gym set-up in his garage. It's really just a bench-press with some weights and dumbbells. He has a double garage and the gym is set-up on one side, and he normally parks his car on the other side. After placing the angle grinder on the workbench I turned to leave, and on my way out I looked over in the direction of his bench-press. I was curious to see how much he was lifting. There was a 20kg weight (What a wuss! Just jokes!) at each end of the bar, and the bar was resting on the stand.
Just as my eyes were about to move from the direction of the weights, I noticed a slight movement from the weight closest to me. It looked like it started to rotate on the bar. I took a second look and sure enough it was rotating ever so slowly. I can remember seeing the words on the weight slowly turning round. I took two steps towards it to take a closer look and the movement stopped. Although it wasn't spinning fast to start with, it was an abrupt stop. At the time I shrugged off with little thought and continued on my way.
Just the other day, my friend revealed to Claire and I that he suspected his house may be occupied by something other than the living. He describes moving shadows, lights turning on in the night, unmanned footsteps and voices. It wasn't until he brought this up that I told him about my experiences.
He admitted that he has also felt the presence of something in the downstairs room, and so wasn't surprised to find me sleeping in his living room. My experience only served as a confirmation for his suspicion.
I find myself constantly wondering whether there really is something in that house. I'd like to think that I am a rational person, but just can't get my head around it. I can still remember the whisper and how it sounded in my head. It was not a noise that I was hearing with my ears, but inside my head. So did I imagine it? Was the spinning weight just a gravitational anomaly? Is it because I have started reading about this subject that my imagination is running wild on me? Or have these things always happened and it's just now that I've taken notice and know what to look for? By showing an interest in this subject have I opened a door which I now will never be able to close again?
What do you think?
Loading comments....
(First, I'm going to apologize for using asterisks, but there is no "underline" or "italics" option when commenting on a YGS narrative.)
I think that the key issue here is that you thought something was strange about your friend's house *before* you began to question your assumptions of the paranormal. Yes, you made jokes, but that's what people do when there is something which does not fit with their schemata for how reality functions; jokes relieve tension by turning the awkward situation into harmless, sociable conversation. This would indicate that, on a subconscious level, you were aware of *something* just beyond your normal perceptions.
It's a bit like being lost in a strange city and thinking, "if I take a right at this next traffic light, I'll be headed toward the hotel, because it's south of this street." You have no way of confirming that without checking your GPS while driving, but your brain has processed information, such as your memory of the map, time of day, the location & angle of the sun, distance you've driven on this street, etc., and has put together a reasonable broad analysis while acknowledging that it lacks all the details. You might make a joke of the inconvenient hints at the paranormal which you had been trying to ignore on a rational level, just as taking the right at the junction may reveal the hotel; in each case, you let out a light laugh: "that was funny" or "that was lucky." Certainly it doesn't add up, so your brain finds it amusing instead.
Do NOT be alarmed by the idea that you're now finding more experiences (or jumping to irrational conclusions), because it seems to me that you aren't; you're just not dismissing the inexplicable events as you had in the past.
Being aware of paranormal events or evidence does NOT automatically mean you're slipping into senility or going 'round the bend; as a rational person, you need to look at each event and ask, "is there a logical explanation for this?" Some cold spots in old houses are caused by poorly-insulated window frames, chinks in the siding due to settling, or a complete lack of direct sunlight in one corner of the room. If your shed door is acting up, check the forecast for strong breezes or see if local rodentia have been attacking the hinges. When you CAN'T discredit what you see/hear/feel, just trust your instincts: we didn't evolve this far by completely ignoring the autonomic nervous system's "fight or flight" response to peculiar stimuli.
Not every surprise should evoke terror, nor should everything inexplicable be considered dangerous. (I'll admit that I'd have called an exorcist in to visit your shed, then burned it to the ground and removed the ashes; however, it is not my shed.) A majority of "haunting" activities and "paranormal" events which are not explained by rational means are still harmless: annoyingly irrational, but harmless.
As an agnostic, I don't always have a comfortable time reconciling my past experiences with my worldview, but just because an event is out of the ordinary, it doesn't mean that demonic gremlins are hiding under every shrub around the patio. "Paranormal" simply means "close to, near, contrary to, or against" + "normal."
I do hope that my rambling has been somewhat reassuring.
Best,
-Biblio