This is my first time writing on this site. I've been reading for almost a year since I had a few paranormal experiences after my dad passed away almost a year ago. I'll save those for later though. I'm going to start with an earlier experience, one that happened 20 years ago when I was was 22. I've always wanted to ask experts about this. It possibly involves a known ghost- The Santa Barbara Community College "Lady in white". Google it, I don't know if I'm allowed to put links in here. This happened a few miles north of where she is usually sighted though.
I was a normal working class guy, taking a break from college, being a beach bum at the time, staying in a small park just off Arroyo Burro beach at the north end of Santa Barbara, California. I would work and surf during the day, then hide my board in the bushes on a hillside before dark. I was having a great time and loved sleeping in my 1-person tent in the grassy park just behind the bluff. I felt super relaxed and at peace with everything. Well, until the night I decided that it would be fun to sleep on the beach instead.
After dark, I took my sleeping bag and headed a quarter of a mile or so north away from the beach parking lot and the Rusty Pelican Restaurant at the south side of the park, which was the only building in the area. I laid down and watched the ocean for a good while. It was late and the moon was fairly bright. There was no one on the beach in any direction as far as my eyes could see and I could see at least 100 yards in every direction. I was laying 20 or so yards from the edge of the ocean and the cliffs were about 50 yards away.
It was a very quiet night and I was alone with my thoughts when suddenly I heard a woman humming directly in my ear, even though no one was there! It was a pretty and young voice softly humming a slow, random tune. I froze and listened kind of in a daze for a few seconds, not knowing what to think or feel. So I reflexively looked in all directions (still laying down) - no one in sight. I would have seen a person 100 yards away (I was 22 at the time and had great eyesight) I call out a loud friendly "Hello?"- no answer.
As the humming continued for another half minute or so, feeling exactly like a woman had her mouth a couple inches or less from my ear, my brain feverishly searched for a rational, scientific explanation. It must be some odd acoustic effect, a woman is on the cliffs above humming and its being funneled directly into my ear by some freak air temperature inversion lens right?!?
At the time, I was deeply into Tibetan Buddhist meditation and prided myself on my "deep understanding of the nature of reality and perception" or something like that.
Well, as the humming continued and my mind couldn't explain it or just be at peace with it, I began to feel a quickly increasing fear. It was just too real, too close and too weird. Before gibbering mindless panic had a chance to set in, I told myself I would count to 3, then jump up and run as fast as I could. I got out of my bag PDQ and tore down the beach back to my old campsite.
A few days later, my brother came and we hung out there a couple days more. Then we left to another beach far down south. When I told him about what happened that night, he told me that he had felt an inexplicable, creepy discomfort on the beach at nighttime, and that's why he had talked me into leaving.
No drugs or alcohol were involved, I know that's one of the standard jokes or criticisms of skeptics. I didn't use alcohol or drugs at all during that time of my life.
After this happened to me, when I hear people mocking paranormal experiences, I just think they haven't been through it yet.
Thanks for giving me a chance to write about this!
If anyone knows anything about the Santa Barbara Community College "Lady in White" or anything else this could be related to let me know!
Loading comments....
