Although I come from a family who overall tend to be of a spiritual nature I have not really experienced much myself. I say much because of late I have certainly begun to experience the spiritual world first hand.
My Great Grandmother was a spiritualist, my grandmother a firm believer and my mother has had countless experiences throughout her life. Some friendly, positive and uplifting, others are more negative to the point where she has been injured, pushed down stairs by invisible forces and scared into moving from the home we resided at the time. This happened when I was 10 years old and ever since has opened my eyes to the spiritual world, or at least my belief in it. Things would happen in that house that I could not comprehend at the time, but upon reflection all make sense; I was living in a haunted farm house.
Although, I have always been very interested in the phenomenon and indeed open to it, I had never really experienced anything myself. When I say this, I mean I have not seen anything. I have often sensed the presence of something around me. In the past I have thought it may be my Grandfather, who passed away before I was even born. It may sound a little strange but despite never meeting him I still feel rather connected to him in some way. I have found solace in the thought that he may be watching over me when times are tough which they have been of late.
I have been very lucky in my life and up until a few years ago have never been close to anyone who has passed. I'm 27 now and lost my grandmother to heart disease 2 years ago. This was a hard time for me but I smile at the thought she is now with my Grandfather and both are smiling upon my family, from wherever they may be.
Ok so there's some history for you. A quick snap shot. However my belief in the spirit world has been solidified over the last few weeks.
On November 1st 2009 I moved house. I moved in with a good friend of mine who has recently separated from his wife. When I moved in the house it was in disarray. Minimal furniture due to the split, it was dark, smelt mouldy and generally was an uncomfortable house to be in. To me the house seemed sad. My flat mate hated the house so much he had been staying with another friend for a few weeks before I moved in. So I moved my furnishings in, cleaned up and felt like I bought some life into the house again. My new flat mate commented that I turned it from a dark, frightening, negative environment and shed some light in to the place. The change was obvious. I am sad to say the house feels dark again and here is why.
When I'm alone in the house I start to feel very uneasy. I was never sure why and put it down to a new house I was unfamiliar with expecting this to pass. My flat mate is a fireman so will often work nights leaving me home alone. I quite liked having the house to myself, until now. About two weeks after moving in I was settling to bed, I had turned off the TV and closed me eyes when I heard footsteps (very heavy) running down the hall towards my room, when it appeared to be at my door the noise stopped. I was scared! I happen to have an old Spanish sword in my room, long story. I grabbed it and pushed my ear against my door to see what I could hear nothing. I slowly opened my door, there was nothing there. I jumped back into bed and after a few minutes heard the sliding window in my flat mate's room open and then slam shut! The house was built around 100 years ago, which is an old house in New Zealand which is a particularly young country. So the windows were the ones that slide up on a rail. The sound of it slamming was deafening. I grabbed the sword and ran into my flat mate's room which is directly opposite mine, there was no one in there and the window was locked. It can't have moved at all. Slightly perplexed I checked other windows and doors, when satisfied I went back to bed and slept with the sword in my hand all night. This is an old house so I would expect to hear various noises and creaking, but these sounds of footsteps and windows slamming were easily recognizable. The noises seemed to echo in my head.
From that night I never felt quite right in the house and the nights have seemed to be getting stranger by the day. I now wake up every morning at 5.00am on the dot! Sometimes I can swear I wake up to something calling my name. I feel like its right beside the bed but when I open my eyes I see nothing. Usually this is just as day is starting to break so there is enough light in the room to see clearly. We also inherited a cat in the last 3 weeks, he will spend long periods of time staring at nothing but in that attack crouch mode that cats get into when threatened. It also runs up and down the hall as if chasing something, or being chased. Sometimes it will just stare at me in fear and will then run away as if it is afraid of me. It's strange because this is a very affectionate cat. It will run away in fear just moments after sitting on my knee purring.
I also want to mention that some of my possessions in the house seemed to be moving throughout the night and I would find them in the strangest places. I am not a religious person, but I do follow Buddhist practices. I have various Buddhist objects in my house, candles, statues etc. One particular item of interest is my prayer flags which I hang in the hall. These have been moved in the night on several occasions. I would wake in the morning to find them gone. I would find them outside in my back yard, or on the driveway, usually very close to my car. Naturally I would blame the cat so after a few occurrences I tied them very strongly in the hall, I pulled them hard to make sure the cat could not pull them down and was satisfied that would be the end of it.
Everything got very real on January 2nd 2010. I had been up north for New Years celebrations and had returned home at about 10. 30pm on the 2nd after a delayed flight home. When I got home the house was very dark, it was a very still night and all was quiet. My flat mate was away in Hokitika for New Years and I was expecting him home on the 4th. I let myself inside. I felt uneasy. The house didn't feel right, I couldn't find the cat and when I walked in it felt hot. Like a heater had been left on all day, I checked the heat pump which was off. I wandered into the hallway to put my bag in my room. The hallway felt very cold, it was strange because the hallway door was open and the heat from the lounge should have transferred through. I threw my bag in my room and went back to the lounge to hit some TV, the cat on my knee. At around 12. 30am I decided to watch TV in bed. I had my lamp on and admit to feeling uneasy that night. As I was watching it happened again. I heard very large footsteps running from my lounge, down the hallway and into my flat mate's room across from mine. I got up and had a look around his room and the hall etc, nothing there. I thought maybe it was the cat so had a look around the house, he was still in the lounge. It could well have been him but the noise I heard was heavy, like a man running. The cat simply isn't that big. I thought I would shut the door so the cat did not have access to the hall. I went back to bed.
About 5 minutes passed and it happened again. The running started in the lounge. I heard the steps approach the hall, run straight down the hall and again into my flat mate's room (the master bedroom). Now I was concerned, I had closed all the doors so whatever it was was passing straight through them. I stayed in bed this time there was no way was I getting up. About 2 or 3 minutes later it happened again. I did not sleep well that night. In the morning I got up and made myself a coffee, I was tired from lack of sleep. Going through my usual morning routine I had a shower and wandered back to my room to get dressed. As I passed through the hallway I saw the prayer flags were gone. Now it could not have been the cat, for one my cat can not untie knots, and two, I had shut the door so the cat did not have access to the hallway that night. I have never seen them again, despite searching high and low.
Now after hearing these footsteps, banging windows, voices calling me, the disappearing flags and I forgot to mention flickering lights in my room I was ready to investigate.
My first step was to search my house address on google.com. I typed in "__ Perth Street, Richmond, Christchurch" (number suppressed). The second link on the results page was titled William James Clutterbuck. Upon further reading I was shocked to see that William lived in the house with his family but passed away in the house of major heart failure on October 1939 in his 40's. I researched further to find some family members of his who were still alive and living in Christchurch. I emailed one in particular and told him of my experience, I also asked if he could give me any more information on William and his life. I was at this stage now convinced that it was William making himself known to me in the house. My contact was William's great nephew. He was able to confirm that William did in fact die in the house, and was found in the hallway. I presume he was heading for the front door to find help before he passed. This put some context into the running footsteps down my hallway. William's great nephew told me that William was known as being a very mild mannered and kind man which put me at ease a little.
Upon further discussion I was also told that William had a grandson of the same name (William James Clutterbuck) who committed suicide in 1997. He was 27, the same age as I am now. I have not yet mentioned that I moved into the house to one, help out my friend who had been through a breakup. But also because my past flat mate and very good friend had become suicidal over the last few months and had moved out of my old flat to get professional help, he has moved to Auckland and is doing better. This is probably just coincidence but I found the whole thing very tough to deal with at the time. And as a result I had decided to get out of my old home and start afresh in a more positive environment. Or so I thought. I have still been very down about it, as I was dealing with my suicidal best friend I was also in the process of breaking up with my girlfriend who struggles with alcoholism. Both these relationships have taken there toll on me lately.
My questions are. Do the footsteps belong to William? Why does he call my name at night? Why does he play with the lights? Has he taken my prayer flags? Do I somehow remind him of his grandson? Does he know that I have been down, and is he trying to comfort me? I do not feel like he wants to frighten me, or hurt me. And I have never seen him. I do however always feel him (or something) around me, watching. There are still noises, although not running. The cat still freaks out. And there are sometimes cold patches in the house. My hairs often stand on end when I walk down the hallway to my room.
This is the first time I have written about these experiences, which is probably why this is so long. Although I have always believed in the paranormal, and had a sense, this is my first experience with anything physical like the prayer flags and the lights etc. The whole thing really has me baffled. I just hope my grandmother and grandfather are looking after me, just a few nights ago a lamp which I inherited when my grandmother passed away began to flicker and turned off while I was reading in my room. Strangely I felt comforted.
As you can tell I am a little confused, I don't know what to do. Am I really experiencing paranormal occurrences? Should I bless the house? Should I replace my prayer flags? I feel vulnerable without them. Any thoughts or help will be greatly appreciated. I should also mention my flat mate has never seen, heard, or felt anything unusual in the house. Although he has lived his life blissfully unaware that the spiritual world even exists, he is a believer now.
If you have read this far I thank you, and invite you to comment. I would love to have some light shed on this situation. I am very open to the spirit world, and would like to know if I can do more to further open my third eye. Thanks again.
Tommo.
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