A Spirit That Perfectly Takes On The Image Of The Living?

Devyxx, I agree with Augusta. Seek out local pa 🙄 paranormal groups. At least you can get some income. And, perhaps, more information specifically identifying what is going on.

devxxx

I have seen family members (living) walking around in my home a few times over several decades and none of them have had any recollection of leaving their bodies?... So it may be possible your family members are seeing the residual energy of yourself along with other paranormal activity relating to a different type of intelligent haunting? Throw in sleep paralysis for icing and you have your own Amityville horror cake.

Thank you for sharing your account.

My only question, have you ever experienced any sort of major personal trauma during the time you lived in this home, just yes or no is enough?

Regards Daz

Ok - my views here may not be entirely popular...but...I often lean more towards curiosity than caution. And I think cautious investigation of the paranormal is absolutely possible. In terms of taking with the spirits - it seems as though when you have spoken at them in the past, the results have been at very least benign; I also talk at the spirits in my home to maintain the peace and it works beautifully. So speaking "at" vs speaking "with" are different but I think the latter can be done as cautiously as the former. I think a lot hinges on your confidence in yourself and your own lack of fear while doing so. To that end, perhaps an EVP session might be attempted.

In terms of "powering up" the spirits, you may not have to but there are some theories on this. Some believe that human presence is enough to do the trick - so spending a weekend there might help. Some hold that spirits can take energy from appliances that put off EMFs (TVs, microwaves, etc). If your parents are correct, then having a few folks over to talk on the subject would work as well.

Has your family ever considered turning the house into a sort of educational center? If it truly is as haunted as your experiences seem to indicate, it could be used as a training facility for paranormal investigative teams - and, that way, your parents could at least get something out of it financially while feeling secure in knowing that everyone knew what they were getting into. You may even consider reaching out to one such group in your area to join you when you attempt to communicate - their expertise can only help you.

Whatever you do, go into it with equal measures self confidence and respect for the unknown. Keep your wits about you and keep us posted!

To anyone as well;
Do you believe it would be dangerous to speak to this spirit? I have never attempted to speak in a conversational form to it or any of the spirits, but I have always wanted to. A part of me is rather nervous to out of fear I've been naive this whole time and it actually is 'evil.' Is there a way to create a "barrier" per se in our conversation? Where I can speak to it, but not be harmed in the event of it attempting to? Or should I simply go in with a "I will not be harmed" mindset? I don't want to get out of my league. I feel as if these spirits have watched me specifically before I could even talk

I've never been afraid of the spirits although at the same time I think it's wise to be wary and respect them because I genuinely do not know their strength or nature.

My thoughts recently have led me to the idea of this being a powerful trickster who has a group of spirits that follow it. It would make sense of how one is so powerful and is seen alone while the others seem to usually come in pairs & feel weaker. So if I attempted to speak to the spirit imitating me is there a way to without bringing forth all of the spirits attached to it? If this is the case.

In addition before I move again I want to set up a trail cam in our old home for a few nights. Is there a way to give the spirits some sort of energy to feed off of? So that if there are any in the home still they could have the energy to show themselves, if wanted?

This might be naive thinking, but pointers are welcome.

Also also thank you for sharing the house blessing Maria!

And I meant to say in my earlier comment that when we brought the girl over in CO she 'cleansed' the house not blessed it.

As for the year I was talking about when things got chaotic here are some of the experiences.

My sister:

Once her and I were laying on the couches in the living room. From my point of view I was woken up by her shaking me asking me "if I hear that." I then told her no and to 'shut up and go back to sleep.' I instantly went back to sleep and was woken up shortly by my dad stomping down the hall with his gun asking "WHO THE F* IS HERE."
From her POV she was asleep on the couch when she felt something weigh down her feet, thinking it was the cat she called for it. When the cat never came to her face as he would she looked down and saw nothing at first, but then looked further behind her and saw a shadow of a dog growing in size against the wall. She then tried to wake me up, but I didn't. Once I didn't wake up she reverted back to her childhood go to and began praying Christian prayers. When she began to pray she said a loud growling grew in decibels from beneath the couch and instantaneously something began pulling at the covers from the side of the couch. Trying to ignore it she began to pray louder and when she did a chorus of voices talking began to also grow louder. In a panicked state she shot up looking for the origin of the voices and saw the light on in her room. She went into the kitchen peering down the hall and saw shadows of multiple feet walking around in her room & then heard the growing once again from behind her in the kitchen. Now absolutely freaking out thinking someone had broken into the house she ran into my parents room. My dad genuinely believed someone had broken into the house and searched the entire thing including the attic, gun drawn.
When I woke to my dad walking down the hall I ran to figure out what was happening and simply went to sleep again when I heard what had happened.

- She often had things grabbing at her feet with the most vivid memory being of something grabbing her big toe and literally shaking it as if a "this little piggy" skit gone wrong
-She would hear people calling for her angrily
-One time while in her room something began rattling her closet door, fast & hard
- lots and lots of talking, yelling, shadows

Dreams
This was one of the absolute weirdest things that had happened during our time here. We began to have dreams that started to sync with our other family members. This mainly occurred between my little sister and little brother and only once between me and my mom. The first dream began with my siblings. I feel it's important to add they were absolute mommas kids, but they began having dreams of murdering my mom in the same fashion.
In the dream they both "awake" out of their sleep. My sister goes down the hall to my mother as my brother waits in the kitchen. She then begins to smother my mom as my brother comes down the hall with a knife & begins to stab her until she ceases to breathe. My siblings both told my mom the same dream, but from their perspectives (stabbing v.s. Smothering) and my mom went on to tell me. I'm still not sure if they know that they both had this reoccurring dream. My mom was very freaked out by it.
As for my mother and I we had a dream of setting the house on fire? Both of our dreams begin with us walking up the back steps of the house into the kitchen as we begin pouring gasoline around the house. I remember vividly walking from room to room laughing as I covered everything and setting the blaze once I reached the living room. The dream always ends with me walking towards the end of the house with the flames heating my back as I look up to something? But then wake up instead.

My mom
-Would wake up with bruises on her that she did not have the night before (but she sleeps perfectly still)
- things would grab her feet, yank the covers off of her
-she heard noises one night and saw what she described as a tiger (more like a cougar) in the front yard after peering out. It began walking to her window and disappeared as she prayed for it to go away.
-Once while sleeping she fully felt someone crawl into the bed with her and lay next to her. She described to me the weight moving from the foot of the bed as if someone crawled in, scowling shifting to right beside her. As she laid there silently she began to hear a slight breath & felt the feeling of the breath hitting her face. This absolutely terrified her and she fell asleep during it, from fear (I honestly think she passed out rather than willing herself to sleep.)
--Once while sitting in her room something fell off the shelf alerting the dog. When she got up to pick up the knick-nac the dog yelped from behind her as if something had startled or slightly hurt him
--she often heard my voice or one of my siblings clearly calling for her when no one was there
--she said the stove would randomly cut on even after we got a new one (gas stove) to the extent where she began to take the nozzles off thinking we were messing with it. Although it continued and she made precautions with monoxide detectors.
--There is a photo of her on her old digital camera that she discovered one morning. It was taken around 230 am of her while she was sleeping and in the photo she is clearly there and absolutely asleep but there is this huge white thing blurring the image of the space above her. It had no real form, but was clearly a thing. We still have no clue as to of who or what took the photo or when it was taken since the date was programmed incorrectly. The time although was programmed correctly
--she would often hear a growling coming from her closet at this point in time

My dad

My dad would rarely share his experiences out of fear of "expanding the hype" as he saw it. He absolutely hated speaking of anything he saw or heard and would usually only do so once before never talking of it again. During this time my mom said he often saw "Men in the living room walking around." And "That they lacked many details in their outlines, but their voices were deep and their steps were heavy."
In addition she said he had friends over one night to watch a football game previously recorded in the day and during the game something began hitting on the window behind them. Thinking it was an intruder one of his friends looked out the back as another went out the front. My dad then went to make sure we were all still ok and asleep. While checking on us all he said every single one of our doors were locked, which we never did in case of a fire. (We have the simple little clothes hanger in the hole & wallah it's open doors.) So he went around opening the doors to not scare us, but check on us. In doing so as he pushed open the doors he heard laughter 3 separate times.

He also mentioned at one point that a child's spirit mimicked something he often said to my brother. He never went into detail the specifics but essentially he claims that a young child said to him "Who's the best daddy in the world."
From the confines of my brothers room while my dad was home alone. This specific thing scared the crap out of him. It made him realize the spirits are aware

I wish I could remember more at this moment, but with it being 4 am my brain is truly tired from typing. I hope this comment was typed out in an understandable fashion. Thanks for reading x

Lady Glow, what I meant by that paragraph is that my father saw the spirit at a house that wasn't ours. We were at my moms Mothers house when that situation happened & my fathers mother is the one who saw the spirit in our home! Sorry for the scrambled typing.

Interesting enough after leaving our home & me moving around a lot I've actually been the only one to have continued experiences. No one in my family has mentioned a single experience to me. For me personally when I first moved out I didn't experience anything for over a year or so. Everything seemed to seize momentarily. In all honestly I thought these experiences were all behind me until this past year. While living in another state my whole house hold began experiencing things. These were roommates I had not known prior to our living arrangements so they knew nothing of my previous experiences. Things got so weird at one point after a "game of knocking" we brought a woman over to bless our house.

That night specifically we were all in one of the bedrooms watching tv together slightly drinking when we heard a loud knocking coming from what sounded like the hall. I jokingly got up after my Roomate Abby asked if anyone else heard the sound and stated "I bet it won't knock back though." Knocking twice in response, curious if it was the neighbors messing with us.
Although it was not the neighbors and after I knocked twice, almost instantaneously afterwards the sound was mimicked back to us. This riled up everyone in the house. Abby ran next door to ask the neighbors in the conjoined unit if they were messing with us, Megan went to her room, and Abigail encouraged me to knock again. So I did. I knocked back after about 5 or so minutes of girls freaking out because I was curious. After knocking three times this time the sound once again mimicked the exact rhythm and harshness of my knocking until the third knock which turned into a bang absolutely shaking the floor under my feet. We brought a woman over within the hour to bless the house and when she came over the knocking migrated from beneath us to the closet as we were explaining to her our issues. She silenced me when the knocking began (as we were the only ones to hear it that time) and blessed the home. Ever since this incident I have had experiences everywhere I move and I move very frequently with experiences always peaking the weeks leading up to my move.

Back to my dad though, he actually typed it out on the computer at her house! I'm sorry I realize how jumbled I typed that now. My family is so weird when it comes to spiritual things they think everything is either inherently good or evil. They think the spirits in the house are evil and that when you speak on "the evil" it calls it to you. No one in my family will talk about the spirit that imitates me specifically without going as far as praying a prayer of protection on our conversations. I think this immense level of fear has fueled the spirits through some points. I don't tend to follow the same belief by any means. I believe that there are evil spirits and there are good spirits, but there is also an array in between. Which plays a part of my searching for understanding in this.

Thank you for the recommendation on the property archives! I didn't think of that. I forgot to mention that we also know Marcy had activity in the home during her time there. She was one time at the car shop with her daughter & her daughter began telling stories of "dolls that talked with no batteries" and "little boys playing" although no young boys were ever at the house. Marcy explained to my dad that these were just her "ghost stories that she came up with while living on Rhomboid." And brushed the conversation off quickly. This is as far as that lead goes though, sadly.

As for the house being calm with me there I don't think it was ever necessarily calm. I think it's like a friend? If you are in a house with strangers and a familiar face comes you tend to feel less agitated. I think this is what my family members were experiencing maybe at a surface level, but maybe further into the actual sprits feeling such. I'm not sure!

There's a period of time though when I was a teenager that I left the house and moved in with my grandmother for a year, when I moved back the house was absolutely chaotic spiritually. It was mad and I'm not sure if the experiences I'm going to share will even explain the extent, but it was angry and having a blast with being such. Once I moved back in though slowly over time they began to dwindle to nonchalant occurrences once again. This was also the last year I lived with my family.

I've often wondered as I was the only baby to only live in the home if the spirits for that reason built an attachment to me at a young age and I simply don't remember experiences from my young years? I don't often get the chance to talk with people about my experiences as once I tried to explain to a friend and they said I sounded schizophrenic and suggested Mental Health outlets. Although I have seen a therapist for different reasons, I am not insane. This though did stray me away from searching for understanding sooner.

On that note Thank you & everyone for your comments. I know you are all simply replying to the post, but being able to talk openly without judgement or having to prove to you all is genuinely nice.

I was leaning doppelganger but there is definitely more here. I can't put my finger on it quite right now but these old stories I grew up with are going through my head. Have you ever head that coyotes are really good at perfectly imitating a baby cry? They can also smile human grins. So I've been told. So these ideas go through my head. The thing is, coyotes prey on the weak. I think the idea of Doppelgangers is that they steal identity in order to blend. Whereas coyotes simply mimic in order to get access to food. But reading these accounts, it sounds to me there is some spirit that just... Wants someone to open the dang window. Like seriously it's hanging out there practically begging. I'm also someone with frequent cabin fever so maybe I'm projecting. But I'm also thinking of my cat that lived 20+ years who, despite being an indoor cat afraid of other cats, in her senility she meowed and begged and scratched and scraped and pleaded to PLEASE be let outside on the porch. I sat there with her. It was so weird, she /hated/ being outside, but there we were. The actions of this doppelganger or whatever remind me of that moment. The desire for escape, freedom, or something. I'm not seeing malice here, just a lot of confusion. I'd crack open some windows and instead of trying to banish, I'd say hey, please feel free to wander around outside of here. Might restore everyone's sanity, ya know? How would you feel if you were a spirit locked in a box? I don't know the rules of their world but I can imagine feeling haunted, as a spirit, sitting by a window hoping some creeped out teen would take a damn hint and OPEN it for freaking once. Just a thought.

Thanks for the extra information.

I'm having trouble understanding this paragraph:

"My father also saw the spirit that looked like me a year after my grandmothers experience. In his experience (we were at my other grandmothers house spending the night and he was in a dirty guest room) ((I was asleep on the couch outside of the room)) "

By this do you mean that the mimicking spirit followed your family to your other grandmother's house, or are you suggesting that your other grandmother's house is haunted too and the resident ghost also decided to mimic your appearance?

If the former is the case, are you aware of any other instances in which the ghost followed you/your family to some other place? If the latter, I wonder why he would feel the need to wait until the family got home to type the message on the desktop. Do you think he was worried that the ghost could have been in the car too?

Considering the fact that the activity was already present even before you were born, makes me think that you are not dealing with a doppelganger; whatever brought this ghost to the house must have happened during or before the time Marcy was living there. Perhaps researching the property archives could provide some information about a significant event taking place there before the house became your family's.

I'm curious about something, you have established that the house seemed to be calmer when you were around, nevertheless, it looks like the disturbances didn't diminish with/after your birth (1996), if anything it sounds like they became stronger:

"In 98' my Mom said she started being able to feel the house more. She said it's energy was always off and due to this she had a priest come in and bless the house"

Did the blessing help?

You did pretty well asking the spirit/s to stop bothering your family, specially since you were still a child; it seems like you could be competition for Zac Bagans.;)

Devin,

While I think that telling the spirits in the house that it is "your house" might be effective in calming down the activity, I think that it matters how you say it.

Did your parents not try this themselves? Are you the only one who tries to set boundaries? I'm hardly an expert but I believe that your mother's participation would be most helpful since she is the one who owns the property.

There are a number of different avenues you could take to cleanse the property and yourself of negative energies.

It seems like a shame to me that your mother owns a property that she can neither live at nor make any money off of. Abandoned properties also tend to drag down the attitude in a neighborhood.

A respected and long time member of this community has developed a cleansing and shielding method that can be used without interfering with your religious beliefs, if you have any. I have used it myself and found it to be effective.

Https://www.yourghoststories.com/user-profile.php?user=8155

It was developed by rookdygin and you will find it halfway down the page of the link that I provided.

I know you said that you would rather have your toes cut off than return to the house but I think it will be okay. You said that you were never very afraid in the first place; maybe a show of backbone will work to your advantage.

You don't seem to have a problem getting people within your family to believe that there's a problem so it's likely that you might have the support of at least one of them. Someone could go with you. Nothing is ever hopeless; not even at the very end.

- Maria

I'm visiting my family today and I am going to type out some of their experiences from the "bad times" in the home. This was a period of time when things started getting physical, angry, and felt as if they were going to harm us at points. I feel as if the stories would interest people.

I wanted to add though. The only huge difference I can truly see between me and my family is that I was never afraid of the spirits in the home. Even as a child when my family would be visibly shaken by things (and I believed they were there) I was never scared of them. I knew at times the spirits were angry, sad, etc as I could feel it, but I never extended fear.

Two examples of me being a dumb child explain this well.

The first is in the other comment previous to this. Essentially my brother sister and I all felt a feeling of unease without previously mentioning it to each other and I walked through the house telling the spirit it wasn't welcome, that it was my house.

The other is this:

One time essentially the whole day there had been non stop activity. My mother tried to nap and something got in the bed with her, a voice yelled at my dad, my little brother saw someone in his room, etc
Minuscule things happened throughout the whole day. By the end of the day my father and mother got in some ridiculous argument and he went to go on a drive. When he got in the car he instantly called my mom telling her "he can't explain why, but we need to leave the house" he essentially ordered us to spend the night somewhere else. I thought this was ridiculous, so as my family packed the car with their night bags I walked through the house speaking out loud to the spirits. I could feel them, but not see or hear anything. I walked throughout our house room for room telling it that I was not afraid of it, that I was tired of its shiat, that either they need to live peacefully with us or leave. Essentially in the form of "This is my house. I do not care if you are here. I am not afraid of you, But you are not going to continue to scare my family or you will not be welcome here." I kept repeating over and over that it was my house. Looking back- this was dumb and someone should have simply told me to shut up faster. I would never challenge a spirit in such a way nowadays

Oddly though after this night we had a grace period of absolutely no activity in the home. No feelings, no shadows, no crashing or voices.

I wonder if me being like "This is MY House" was simple enough to trigger it to mimic me? In a "oh it's youuur house, ok" way?

Of course! I love being able to speak about the house openly. My family is from from different religious backgrounds, but the one thing that is uniform throughout the family is that no one wants to go in the house, talk about it, and such.
But my curiosity is bigger than their fear of the home.

What's been weird to me about this spirit is although it's walk was off and such it looked so close to me in the face. The eyes weren't Mis-aligned, the body looked normal, it had legs and feet when my grandmother saw it. (Shoes on). I always thought it was a doppelgänger when I was younger due to only having two experiences in the home myself. The rest were all experienced by others and due to this it fit the profile. But something tells me it's not so simple.

These were my two experiences in the home specifically. Everything else is other people's stories:
One time I was babysitting my siblings and felt a strong "I'm not supposed to be here. Something does not want me here." Coming from our extra bedroom that we called "the computer room."
I walked out not mentioning anything to my siblings and was met by my sister in the hall saying that "something was wrong." She pointed at the room and I ushered her to my room. We sat in my room trying to Ignore the feeling, when my brother came in crying saying "they want him to leave." Also mentioning the room without us having said a single word to him. I then, being a dumb kid. Walked through the house saying that "they weren't welcome." That it was "my house." (I really did it for the comfort of my siblings not thinking of angering anything). We then sat outside of our home for 1/2 an hour waiting for my parents to come home because my brother wanted to leave, that terribly.

When they come home they said that we were overreacting and "giving it energy." & they made us come inside.

Another time I was babysitting my younger cousin Megan, laying on the couch. When I looked up from the couch to my left down the hall I saw a person creeping around the bathroom. They were tall and lean and lacked more detail than they contained. Looking more of a shadow person than anything they peered around the corner down the hall towards me. I looked directly at it and it moved quickly to get out of view when I stared at it.

My experiences began more so when I left the house. This is another part to the story- I'm a seasonal worker and I move every 6 months or so. Every time I am about to move my home gets angry and the weeks approaching there are always experiences. My family has no experiences anymore so I believe that these spirits are attached to me and get angry of the energy that has to be used when moving. Something in the way it feels when they present themselves feels as if it's the same.

I just don't believe it's a doppelgänger, I think that it goes further than that. I haven't explained yet the malice behind it's actions during the few years, but will for the full pictures sake.

As for the house goes it sits absolutely vacant. We didn't want to live in it for many reasons, no family members want to rent it, and we genuinely do not want to rent it out at this point to strangers. The fullest extent I am ever at the house is to check on the property but I never go in. The attic still has some of our childhood belongings, but that's about it other than the keepsakes it's fully vacant. Sitting in the middle of the suburbs completely abandoned. I rather cut my toes off then go in the house alone. I have always had feelings more so then I have ever seen anything and that house feels dark.

I feel as if this thing has some sort of attachment to me for sure, but I just don't think it's a Doppelgänger in my gut. I was simply having conversation with a friend of mine who is a medium (but we were both rather intoxicated) who mentioned to me the idea of a trickster as well actually. We just never got to fully converse on it again before I moved.

As for my dad he has moved hours away and his condition has definitely improved, but he has severe memory loss from that year. He doesn't remember any of his off the wall behavior (such as literally driving a car into the river). He is now a 'devout Christian' and refuses to talk about 'the demons in the house.' But he very clearly remembers the house.

To Maria: I agree fully the story of the child's laughter followed by an angry male voice sounds so eery & discontent.

To Lucia: Thank you so much, the house in itself has been a huge burden in our lives over the years and it has been wild and rough! I've always wondered the same thing. Why me? I gave the spirits in the house the least attention. I rarely saw things and as a child I was the one who told everyone to not speak about things. (As I felt like talking about the spirits in the house only enticed them more and gave them fear and energy to feed off of.) I essentially took all of their channeled attention away, so why me? It's also been unnerving to know that more than one person has felt the house is only "calm" when I am there. I'm not the most interesting person in the world, I don't have any spiritual gifts, and I can't speak to them. Maybe it simply liked my looks/attitude? I thought it was strange how it's looks aged with me. When it first showed itself it looked as I did at that age. Same with the second and third time (My cousin won't tell me what happened when she saw it mimicking me only that she did, she believes it to be a demon) I don't believe it is though. I need to do more research on Tricksters!

This is very unsettling. My heart goes out to you. I've been through similar situations. I feel so bad for your dad. Especially after reading the comments about him. Sounds like he was traumatized by it all.

As far as you saying it looks exactly like you... Yes it does, but there is always something off. Like the expression in your face, or the fact that it glid across the floor, you see, it's like you but not you completely. Something is different. That's why I don't feel it's a benign doppelganger but a true entity that is a trickster. If it's "you" only all the time... That is scary! Why you? Does it want to get inside your soul? Your mind? Does it want YOU after all these years?

Kind of odd the way so many renters moved in and out over the years. That's not a good sign. All of those families effected so much they want to move. Makes you wonder? I'd look into who this Marcy is who once owned it. Is she alive? Is she Google-able?

So basically, the house is major bad juju.

Are you selling it? Or keeping it in the family? Might of missed that detail. I'd not go there again. I mean it's only happy when it has you... That sounds really creepy. Don't let it own you in any way.

Well Oscar Wilde did say "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."!

Hello devxxx,

Thank you for coming back so quickly with extra information!

My first question is: What happened to your father? You said that he suffered a psychotic break after a year of living alone in the house, which would have been in 2017.

Has his condition improved since then?

- Maria

PS I don't like the feeling I get from this detail in your comment:
"Her dad one time heard laughter (thinking the kids were home) asked it to be quiet. When a voice replied "You're not my daddy" angry, yelling. (Adult voice not a child's) "

That sounds unnerving.

As for the history of the house as far as I have been told this is it;

It was built in the 50s and
My mom/ her first husband bought it from a woman named Marcy. In 1992'

My mom said that her ex husband would hear little things in the house often, but that was the extent of his stories

Though my older sister at this point in time would often cry about "a person" standing at the door of her bed as she slept. When she got older she started telling more detailed descriptions of a tall man 6'3 ish standing at the foot of her bed in all black, watching her sleep.

My dad moved in 1995 after my mom got divorced.
He said that in the first few years things were simple. One time he heard plates crashing behind his head, he would hear people walking, someone shook his chair.

Though he mentioned how at that point there were a lot of shadows. That you would see "dark places where people should be."

We moved out in 97 but returned shortly after not being able to find someone to rent. (At this point it was just due to my parents not really trying to find a renter.)

In 98' my Mom said she started being able to feel the house more. She said it's energy was always off and due to this she had a priest come in and bless the house. (My dad thought him coming was a crock of shiat)

She said she began hearing crashing sounds more often that were loud enough to startle the animals. Once during this period of time she was standing on a stool and the stool began to "shake roughly"

Fast forward to 2006
We moved due to my dads station getting changed. We got a couple in their 30s Donna & Jay to move in/ rent. & have a pastor bless the house before leaving.
They stayed in the house for 7 months before making complaints to us about "possible intruders" and "neighborhood kids playing pranks." Which consisted of loud sounds, banging on the windows, laughter, and talking. They stayed for a year before moving out.
In the end they asked to break their lease because they 'saw someone in the bathroom.'
My parents let them without trouble.
The house then sat vacant until mid 2007.

We came back and tended to all of the damaged from it sitting for a little while and rented the house out to my dads cousins family
They consisted of a mom and dad & girl around 11 and a boy around 5

This is my cousin I spoke about in my previous comment. They told my dad straight up that it was haunted and they didn't want to rent it any longer. They stayed until 2008 ish
Which is when we moved back into the house & my grandmother had her experience.

2010-12 was another time we didn't live in it. We rented it to a family of 3 a single mother and her kids. She rented the house for 2 years and did not leave suddenly, but spoke with us about hearing voices, people shouting, shadows, and her child having a friend named "jimmy"

2013 is when the experiences in the house began getting angry, more malicious, more physical, and such. I'll detail some of these in another comment to make it more organized.

2016 my mom and dad got a divorce, my dad decided to live in the house and my mom let him (it's hers) he suffered a psychotic break after living in it alone for a year. We don't know if the spirits or the house had anything to do with it, but he spoke about people in the house like they were real. Swore that a man lived in the attic, etc. After the divorce we left the house

The house has been sitting empty for a while now and we have no plans of reoccupying it

Hi all! Thank you for your feedback. I couldn't fit the full story in the initial post.

As for the previous tenants before us there was only one family! Before that it was simply land. We have owned the house since I was child and while we moved away we let people move in. The people that moved in ALWAYS moved out with the same complaints, but we never informed them that at that point my family had heard and seen things in the home. (None had been violent or worrisome at this point)

My cousin was actually one of these family's and I asked her today about her experience in the house. She said her little brother had a 'friend' who was also a little boy that they often heard him talking to. Her dad one time heard laughter (thinking the kids were home) asked it to be quiet. When a voice replied "You're not my daddy" angry, yelling. (Adult voice not a child's)
They often saw appropriations at the foot of their bed & she said their mom thought the house was only calm "When Devin came to visit."

Now aside from talking normally this is weird as shiat to me, because my Aunt stayed with us for a few weeks one time when she was in a car crash and said the same thing. She mentioned that the house was agitated and was only 'nice' when I was there.

My father also saw the spirit that looked like me a year after my grandmothers experience. In his experience (we were at my other grandmothers house spending the night and he was in a dirty guest room) ((I was asleep on the couch outside of the room))

He was asleep in the bed when "I" opened the door. When It opened the door It didn't look at him and stared straight ahead mumbling ever so slightly in the sense of the spirit was simply moving it's lips. It moved forward towards the window not stopping until reaching it and stayed there for a minute or so.

My dad as this was going on realized it was not me when he noticed the swiftness in its gate & remembered the fact the floor was absolutely cluttered hoarder style & I wouldn't be able to walk as such. So he laid down silently watching it. In the end it simply ceased to appear after standing in the window for minutes. The next day he wouldn't speak to me out loud of what happened. I only knew because he typed it out on our desktop and motioned me to read it. Afterwards he told me he never wanted to talk about it again. He didn't look me in the face for weeks.
I couldn't have been but 14 years old this was 2010

You can certainly research Doppelgangers on the world wide web. Your case is not singular and there are actually many reported cases of this phenomena. In your case, I would certainly be on my guard to anything that mimics your person. Once actual sounds start manifesting along with visual sightings then I personally would get a spiritual healer. But that is just me. I hope your doppelganger does not start mimicking your voice as well as your appearance.

I know that the answer to this question won't be very relevant before I ask it; here it is anyway:

How did the discussions with the previous tenants and the subsequent renters go down?

Actually, Lea, I think the answer to the question will end up being very relevant.

Hi, Dev. Interesting experience. Was this the first time the entity mimicked you, that you know? Something about the "Long long long story short" makes me believe there is much more going on.

Hello devxxx,

I know that the answer to this question won't be very relevant before I ask it; here it is anyway:

How did the discussions with the previous tenants and the subsequent renters go down? Did the previous tenants say something like: "We're getting a new house because there are ghosts in this one." Or was the paranormal activity something that you heard of through word of mouth?

I understand growing up with a Southern Baptist grandmother. My mother's mother was strict and she was "Hell on Wheels" when something wasn't right in her neck of the woods... Or anyone else's neck of the woods, for that matter.

I think your grandmother was possibly being foolish when she demanded that this being show itself to her. I think of this action as picking a fight with this thing. From how you have described it's reaction to her, I would think that it sees what happened as a challenge.

Whatever it is, I believe that it chooses to look like you because she challenged it and it wants to mess with your family further. That's just my opinion.

I agree with Lady-glow; that place needs a good cleansing but more information would be helpful. I would like to know what your father and cousin have seen of this being.

Thank you for sharing your story.

- Maria

Welcome to YGS.

Devxxx.

In my opinion, more information about your experience would help not only to paint a better picture about what is going on at your house, but to give you the best advice possible.

It seems like the house has a long history of paranormal activity but, do you know if it is only limited to the ghost mimicking only one specific person of the family living there at any given time or are you aware of any other kind of disturbances?

Do you know what was the use of the land before the house was built or any other important history of the area?

It's hard to say who or what is mimicking your appearance but, perhaps is time to bless/cleanse the house according to your personal beliefs or ask for religious help.

Another thing you can do is to acknowledge the presence of the spirit and ask it to stop scaring the living ones, making a deal allowing it to share your space with it but it has to respect the fact that this is your house and any disturbances are not welcome.

Looking forward to read more of your experiences.