Astral Travel

Many years ago, when I was a crazy teenager I broke up with my boyfriend and, much to my horror, he quickly found himself a new girlfriend. To cut a long story short, we had gone through some tough times together and his ability to move on so quickly knocked me for six.

At the height of my emotional turmoil,  I had a really vivid dream that I walked three miles to his house, from my home, and entered his bedroom. It looked different. The bed had been moved to the opposite side of the room, and there was an ashtray that I had never seen before. In my 'dream' my ex and his girlfriend were lying together in bed whilst I sat next to a large laundry basket at the end of the bed. Some time later, the girlfriend got out of bed and looked straight at me before exiting the room.

Months later, when chatting to my ex about this dream he looked genuinely shocked. He had, indeed moved his furniture round, there was a new ashtray (his girlfriend had stolen it from a pub) and there had been one night when his girlfriend became agitated and left because she couldn't get me out of here head.

Astral travel? Who knows.

Ghost Lady in the Window

I was looking up at our attic window from the front garden this week and remembered an experience I had about 3 years ago.

My husband and I were viewing a vacant property near Guildford with a view to buying it. On this occasion we were not able to access the inside of the cottage but that didn't stop us peering through all the windows and exploring the 100 foot garden.

My husband left the garden and when I turned to follow him I momentarily saw an old lady standing in an upstairs window, waving her arms as if shooing us away.

She did not look happy and I was secretly pleased that we didn't buy the house, especially since the house had been vacant for a while and there was no one living there.

Footsteps at the School

A colleague shared her own spooky encounter, during the After School Club, at the school where I work.

She was using the staff loo early one evening when she heard footsteps pacing outside the door. Incidentally, the door opens out onto the same corridor where I saw the little boy apparition. She described them as persistent as though someone was waiting desperately.

She opened the door expecting to see someone there, but the corridor was empty.

Toddler Sees Late Nanny ...

Here is a lovely story from my cousin's Facebook page. It describes how his toddler daughter, Rosie, possibly had a friendly interaction with her long-deceased 'nan'.

Ghost Child Behind a Door

One of my favourite kinds of experiences ... an apparition.

I was walking down a corridor in the school where I work. The 8 year old boy that I teach 1:1 had raced on ahead. As I neared a set of doors (I guess they're fire doors as they serve no purpose other than to break the corridor up) I saw a little face peering at me from behind one of the glass windows in the door on my right. The door was open, meaning there was just a small space between the door and the wall with pretty much nowhere to go. My initial thought was, "Ah, little J is playing hide and seek with me" so I pretended not to have seen him. I passed through the doors and snapped my head back to catch him out ... but there was nobody there. A quick investigation confirmed that J was, in fact, in a room at the end of the corridor already with his shoes off ready for our daily sensory session. There is no way that the little face could have been J's.

Pic: alamy.com

Motorway Ghost Car

This incident happened around two years ago.

I was driving in the middle lane of the motorway late one evening with my two young boys. We had just driven past a slip road when a large black sporty looking car appeared out of nowhere on my left. It didn't have its lights on, despite it being a dark evening, and was driving at speed.  A fraction of a second later it swung out into my lane forcing me to swerve so violently I almost lost control of my car. The next thing I knew there was no sign of the car anywhere, either behind me or in front of me. It had simply vanished.

Parallel Universe?

Chatting to a friend the other day I was reminded of an experience I'd had several years prior with my husband. It's not spooky per se but definitely defies logic.

Shopping alone in Guildford one day I suddenly remembered we needed a lightbulb. I couldn't remember which fitting we required so I resolved to ask my husband when he got home from work.

That evening, out of the blue, my husband said: "Did you figure out which lightbulb we needed?"

Shocked, I asked him how he knew.

"You sent me a text!" he replied, and proceeded to show me the text which he'd received from me.

I knew that I hadn't sent him a text and showed him my phone, which confirmed there was no record of the message having been written or sent.

Disembodied Voice

My six year old son, Elliot, had a ghostly experience the other day. He was walking through our entrance hall when  he heard a disembodied voice calling out his name. This is pretty similar to the experiences I've also had in that part of the house. He was pretty shaken up by the experience and went as far as to tell me he nearly had a heart-shock when he heard it!

I hope this link takes you to the video ... https://youtube.com/shorts/tXV22afcaOk?feature=share

  

Ghostly Toys

Another experience today. It could be put down to coincidence but my gut says otherwise.

My three year old son and I spent half an hour putting together the wooden train track in his bedroom. During this time nothing out of the ordinary happened. After we'd finished building the track my son started role playing with the trains and some little figures. He placed one of the figures on the track and said:

"Oh no mummy, look, someone is on the track. Quick, quick we need help."

At that very moment the sound of a police siren came from a toy box on the far side of the room. It was my son's toy police car.

Coincidence? Maybe. But what are the odds of that happening spontaneously when it did?

Bean Bag Trouble - Poltergeists

I just remembered something that happened last week ...

My three year old was watching TV in the living room. He was sitting on one of two beanbags, the second being some distance away.

At lunchtime I called him through to the kitchen. We sat together whilst he ate after which he went back into the lounge.

Moments later he called for me. When I arrived in the living room I saw the second bean bag neatly plonked on top of the first and Brody was asking a) why it was there and b) if he could move it.

Incredulous I asked him to promise me he hadn't put the bean bag there. His confused little face, however, said it all ...

Christmas Guest in Westbere

My family and I moved into a 17th century cottage in April 2015. I had been a little anxious about potential activity but so far so good. We've had a few small experiences, but nothing I'm particularly worried about.

The first incident was during the night when I got up to go to the loo. As I went through the doorway into the porch (where another door leads off to the lavatory) a black shadow rushed past me at speed. I got the feeling it was a residual thing.

The main activity is a sort of voice phenomena. If I am in the kitchen and my two young sons (3 and 6) are in the living (two rooms away) I will hear one of them shout 'mum' but on investigation they haven't called for me. Likewise they will sometimes run into the kitchen and ask why I called for them. One time, we were ALL in the lounge and I heard my oldest son shouting 'mum' from the kitchen yet he was sitting right in front of me on the living room floor.

The most exciting and dramatic experience occurred on Christmas morning 2015. I was watching the boys in their bedroom (via the video monitor) opening their Christmas stockings which I'd placed at the ends of their beds. Using the monitor I called for them to come downstairs (my own bedroom is on the ground floor) and as they jumped out of their beds and raced downstairs, a small white childlike figure appeared between the monitor and their bed. I stared at the image for several seconds, trying to work out what I was seeing, and then the figure vanished. The figure had no details. It was like an overexposed photo, except I could see the room around it.

Giant Ghostly Orb in Final House Photo

My mum and dad recently put our old family home on the market. After clearing all the furniture out I suggested to my sister that we take some photos of the 'spooky room' where most of the ghostly activity had taken place over the years. I was hoping we would capture an orb, like the one my dad and I had seen on the baby monitor a few years prior. However, nothing unusual showed up on our photos. A week or so later, the Estate Agents came and took their own professional photos which were uploaded to their website. Lo and behold, the ONLY anomaly on any of their photos (around 12 in total) was not only in the spooky room but in the very same corner that my dad and I had seen the orb in Brody's cot.

An Orb - Holiday Inn Express, Cardiff. Room 110.

The night before my granddad's funeral I was sharing a hotel family-room with my sister and brother in law who was keeping me awake with his snoring. At around 3.30am I decided to record him snoring so I could embarrass him in the morning and I caught these two light anomalies. I think they're orbs but my husband thinks they could be dust. I didn't see anything with the naked eye. And there was no draught in the room. I find it interesting that both light anomalies come from the same place and zoom off in the same direction. They're definitely not insects.

Incidentally, before I started filming I heard some odd banging from within the room and later in the night I had a nightmare about a poltergeist in the room. I generally don't suffer from nightmares but I woke from this one in a terrible panic.

Note, the first light anomaly occurs within the first second.

Oakwell Hall Paranormal Investigation - Little Girl Ghost

I recently joined Angelic Paranormal on an investigation at Oakwell Hall in West Yorkshire.

During the investigation I took a number of photos. The following sequence is my favourite. I feel the photo shows the manifestation of a small child sitting on an original 16th century settle. Incidentally, the psychic we were with had picked up on the presence of a young girl.

The first photo shows a clear image of just the 16th century settle.

 

 This second photo, taken seconds after the first, appears quite misty and shows a faint discolouration of the mist near the centre.

The third photo, taken seconds later, shows a weird light anomaly where the shadow

figure had just been sitting.

 

In this final photo I tried to alter the levels in order to show up the pink mist (centre-right) more clearly. In the image below I've outlined the mist. To me it looks like someone sitting there.

 

Dark Shadow - Ghost on the Street

My latest ghostly experience took place last weekend whilst packing up the car to return home from a trip to my parents' house. It was dark outside and cold and rainy. As I was arranging the bags behind the driver seat I suddenly became aware of a large male shadow standing about three feet behind me. I quickly spun around, expecting to see a drunken man, but there was no one there.

Just as I was about to put it down to a figment on my imagination I caught the strongest whiff of beer. It was like someone who'd been drinking heavily was breathing in my face.

I don't know who this shadow figure was, but I have a hunch it was someone who sadly took his own life a few doors down from my parents' house. He enjoyed a beer and often wore a dark, heavy overcoat. I wonder if he saw me and thought he'd pop over and say hello.

Jean, the Psychic

Okay, so strictly speaking this isn't a 'ghost story' but it was such an interesting paranormal experience that I will include it in my blog.

In the village where I grew up in Yorkshire lived a woman called Jean who was quite frankly the best medium/spiritualist I have ever encountered. She was just totally spot on with everything. I am a sceptic when it comes to these things, so this is high praise indeed coming from me.

Anyhoo, when I was in my late teens she told me that my late grandmother (who had only recently died) wished for me to see her. Initially I refused. But Jean persisted, telling me that my grandmother thought it important that I see her. After a little more persuasion I relented.

Jean told me to close my eyes and relax, then told me to open my eyes when I was ready. I did this and WOW, there in a grey mist covering Jean's face was my own grandmother's face.

I couldn't see Jean's face at all behind the mist and I couldn't smell anything so it wasn't smoke. And, strangely, the image of my grandmother appeared from the mist like a photographic negative. I have yet to find a photo that comes anywhere close to what I witnessed that day. I hate to call it etoplasm as this word has such negative connotations, but I'm guessing that's what it was.

Shocked, I blinked and shook my head and the image disappeared. We tried again and there, once again, in a mist covering Jean's face, was my grandmother's beautiful face smiling out at me.

My lovely grandmother.

To this day I have no idea HOW Jean did this. But it was a turning point for me. I have absolute faith in the existence of an afterlife. My grandmother, by the way, lived in South Wales so there was no link between her and Jean at all.

Ghostly Dog

From 1996 to 2000 I lived in Johannesburg, South Africa. During my time there I inherited a little dog called Sebastian. Too old and frail to make the 11,000km flight to England with his owners when they emigrated, I took him in. Some time later I found him floating in the swimming pool. He had drowned. I was distraught and riddled with guilt. In the following months I had two seperate experiences which told me Sebastian was okay. The first happened whilst I was in bed. I woke up and distincly felt him climb onto my bed and circle (the way he used to) before plonking himself down. The second was also whilst I was lying in bed. It was morning; the sun was shining in through the patio windows and I clearly saw, if only for a brief moment, Sebastian lying there enjoying the sun's rays. Both experiences left me feeling comforted and certainly helped me overcome my guilt and grief.

Voice Phenomena

I heard voice phenomena twice whilst growing up at 21 Kings Drive. Once, whilst lying in bed I heard someone sigh or breathe deeply in my ear. Another time someone blew a raspberry in my ear. Never heard anything else, thankfully, that I can recall.

Flying Clock - Poltergeist Activity

I suddenly remembered a couple of spooky things (circa 1988) that happened at 21 Kings Drive when I was a teenager.

One evening me, my mum and two sisters were sitting in the lounge watching TV when we heard a loud thud from my mum's bedroom directly above us. We all crept up the stairs feeling quite frightened. Upon entering the bedroom we found a large picture (which featured a real working clock) lying on my mum's bed. The picture had literally flown off the wall, approximately 5 feet in order to achieve this. Between the wall and the bed was a desk covered with tubs of pens, staples and paper clips etc -- none of which had been disturbed.

Orb in Baby's Cot

The latest spooky goings on at my parents' house! I now have two children, both boys, one aged 3 (Elliot) and the other aged 6 months (Brody). On a recent visit, my folks and I were downstairs in the living room watching TV and the boys were upstairs in bed when my dad and I both caught sight of something on the video monitor: an orb! It flew up out of Brody's travel cot then dropped suddenly before shooting off up to the left of camera. I have to admit I was terrified that night and barely slept a wink, bearing in mind that most of my ghostly experiences in the house aren't particularly nice. We've been using the monitor for several months and this is the one and only time we've ever seen anything like this. It wasn't dust or an insect as it was way too big given the distance of the cot from the monitor.

3 Richards Road

As an army child, my sisters and I lived in many different houses. I estimate I've lived in around 37 or 38 houses during my lifetime. Most of those houses haven't been in the least bit spooky or scary, but one house really stands out in my memory as down-right evil:

3 Richards Road.

From the outside it was an unassuming army barrack style house but on the inside it was cold, unwelcoming and down-right malevolent. I saw things and heard things in that house that still send shivers up my spine. Suffice it to say they were more demonic than ghostly.

When things got a little too scary I would climb into bed with my mum and dad. One night I woke up in my mum and dad's room floating face up, around an inch from the ceiling. I was terrified but completely unable to close my eyes. Then an elderly man with a long white beard walked into the room. He gently placed his arms under my body and carried me back into my own bed.

Another night, I was sitting halfway down the stairs (when I should have been in bed) listening to my parents talking in the living room. Suddenly I had an overwhelming feeling that someone or something was standing behind me. The next thing I recall is being shoved from behind and landing at the bottom of the stairs with quite a thump. I remember struggling to breathe where I was winded from the force.

3 Richards Road was one of those houses where something bad was always happening (including an accident which crippled my father for life). We lived there for around a year (possibly less) before we moved into a house where absolutely nothing out-of-the-ordinary happened. In fact I don't think we lived in a 'haunted' house again until we moved to Yorkshire which is where I spent the best part of my teens.

Friendly 'Hello' Ghosts

When we first bought our house which was once part of an old Victorian Prison, it needed a lot of 'cosmetic' work doing to it. I decided to take two weeks off work and commuted the 30-odd miles every day to make a start on some of the more labour intensive stuff.

On the first or second day I was up a ladder in the spare bedroom scraping artex off the ceiling when I distinctly heard a man say 'hello'. It was so clear and loud that my first thought was 'crikey, the postman has let himself in'. I scrambled down the ladder and raced downstairs but the house was empty. In retrospect the 'hello' definitely seemed to come from the doorway of the spare room and was the kind of hello that would preceed an introduction of sorts.

In any case I put the incident to the back of my mind and carried on with my work.

About a week later my dad came down from Yorkshire to help out with some of the joinery that needed doing. Whereas I was still commuting between the house and our flat in London, my dad decided to camp out at the house.

One morning when I arrived my dad had something interesting to tell me.

"I was in the kitchen washing my breakfast dishes this morning," he said, "when I heard a woman's voice say hello. It was so clear she could have been standing in the kitchen with me."

Needless to say I was a little freaked out. Having said that, everyone that comes to visit tells us how friendly and welcoming the house is. And for that we have our hello ghosts to thank, I believe.

The Coal Miner Ghost

At the nursing home in Batley where I used to work, there was a lovely staircase which overlooked the entrance hall. Once, when I was making my way up these stairs I saw a man in the lobby dressed all in black. Even his hands and face were black. After speaking to a few of the nurses, it transpired that there had once been an active coal mining industry in the area, and that the nursing home had once been a hospital.

Again, I only saw the figure for a fraction of a moment but my recollection of the man is that he looked lost ... as though anxiously waiting to hear some news. I felt sad for him.

Male Intruder - Ghost in My Bed

My boyfriend thinks this one is a bit weird but it did happen to me so here goes ...

One of the most embarrassing things that ever happened to me was when I was visiting my mum and dad's house years after I left home. At that time I was in my mid to late twenties and single.

That particular night I slept in the box room on a single bed and when I woke in the morning - facing the wall - I felt a large figure in bed with me, behind me in a classic 'spoons' position. It, whatever 'it' was, was awake and touching my body.

I wasn't asleep and I wasn't in one of those semi paralyzed dream states; this was a real sensation and although I felt sort of 'violated' - and of course frightened - I was tired enough to allow myself to drop back off to sleep.

Poltergeist Activity with the Goldfish

One of THE weirdest occurrences at my mum and dad's house involved my sister's goldfish, Kellogs.

One night, whilst lying in bed, I heard a really weird tapping noise outside my bedroom door. Upon investigation I discovered my sister's goldfish flapping around on the hallway floor.

It was only when I picked the goldfish up that I noticed my sister's bedroom door was closed. Furthermore, when I went into her bedroom I discovered the trap door on top of the fish tank was also closed. My sister was fast asleep on her bunk bed, so I have no idea how the fish found its way onto the landing.

Needless to say, after popping the fish back in its tank I spent the night safely tucked up in my sister's bed.

Oh, and poor Kellogs never made it through the night. We found him floating at the top of his tank the following morning.

Duvet thief

Some really strange things used to happen to me when I was a teenager living at home.

One night whilst trying to fall asleep, I felt my duvet moving down my body as though someone was standing at the foot of my bed slowly pulling it off. I can't remember how far I let the duvet go before I bolted - heart pounding - into my sister's bedroom.

Over the years people have offered various explanations, but the bed was completely level and most importantly, there was a footboard, so it would have been impossible for the duvet to simply slide off the end!!

Man in the Orange Suit - Ghostly Figure

My mum and dad's house in West Yorkshire is a post war build and isn't particularly spooky to look at, but some of my most profound ghostly experiences took place there.

As a night owl, I am usually the last one to go to bed, which means it's usually me who has to switch all the lights off downstairs - one of my least favourite jobs.

One night, in my early twenties, I was standing in the doorway to the living room looking in when I switched the light off - and there, standing inches in front of me in the darkness was a middle aged man wearing an orangey brown coloured suit. If I could put an era to him it would be the 1960s or 70s. He was there for a moment and then he was gone - but he was as clear as anything.

I raced up the stairs in super quick time.

Nursing Home Patient

When I was in my late teens and early twenties I regularly worked night shifts at our local nursing home for the elderly. The building was pretty spooky as it had once been a Victorian hospital. If you were looking down on it from above it would have resembled the letter H, with four wings.

One of the wings was refered to as the operating wing, and was by far the spookiest and coldest section of the nursing home, particularly in the early hours when we were doing our hourly rounds.

Luckily, this part of the nursing home is where the relatively self sufficient residents were housed.

One night, at around 3am, I was doing my rounds in this part of the home, when I noticed something odd at the far end of the corridor. I saw the door handle on one of the doors on the left of the corridor move down and then up as though someone on the inside was trying to get out. I knew for a fact that this room was unoccupied and immediately assumed one of the senile residents from one of the other wings had wandered into the room.

I hurried down the corridor and entered the room only to find it empty. However I noticed the rocking chair (an orthopedic one) under the window rocking slightly and thought the old dear might have wandered into the bathroom, which was situated to the right of the chair.

I can't tell you how frightened I was to discover the bathroom was empty too. The door handle and rocking chair had clearly been moving, which is exactly what I did - at top speed - out of the room and back to the nurse's station.

 

Carlinghow Nursing Home, the former Batley Hospital

Thank You from Beyond the Grave

West Yorkshire, 1995

When my best friend's father died suddenly in 1995, I found myself helping the family out by runnning errands, answering the door to visitors, making cups of tea, preparing snacks and generally being a shoulder to cry on. For three days I made myself available to help them come to terms with their loss. It was the least I could do for a family that meant so much to me. Resembling Norman Wisdom in both looks and personality, Dennis was a warm, hardworking family man; the life and soul of family gatherings. His death came as a great shock to everyone.

After three days it was time for me to say my goodbyes. But no sooner had I shut the car door and put the key in the ignition than I broke down. After three days of being strong, I found myself sobbing uncontrollably into the steering wheel.

A few minutes later, I felt someone put their hand on my shoulder and squeeze. Sobbing away I assumed my best friend had seen me crying from the living room window and slipped into the passenger side of the car to console me. After a few more moments, I lifted my head to acknowledge whoever it was who'd gotten into my car ... only to discover that the car was empty apart from me.

To this day I believe it was Dennis saying thank you and letting me know that he was okay and that I would be too.

Friendly WW1 Nurse

East Finchley - circa 2004

I was sharing a house with two guys and a girl in East Finchley. The house was an old Victorian terrace although it wasn't particularly spooky. In fact the huge spiders that appeared out of nowhere frightened me more than the house itself.

One evening after finishing in the bathroom on the first floor I was walking down the stairs and, for a fleeting moment, saw a young woman wearing a WW1 nurses uniform identical to the one shown in the picture. She remained at the bottom of the stairs long enough for me to do a double take, then she was gone. She didn't say or do anything. She was simply looking up at me with a friendly expression on her face.

Not the most exciting encounter with a ghost but definitely one of my favourites.