Paranormal experience? Tell me about it!

One of my favorite paranormal hunts was about 17 years ago at WV Moundsville Prison. It is a well known haunted prison that ghost hunters flock to for experiences. I went on the overnight hunt and did not go home disappointed. It was spooky for sure but 2 a.m. rolled around and I had not had an experience yet so was figuring I was going to go home with a fun time but no stores to tell and that was ok...fun either way. My ex-husband and I were alone in the infirmary, lost in the exploring of all of the old medical equipment with only the occasional bat flying by overhead. Suddenly I got one of those 'someone is behind me' kind of feelings. It was pitch black and all we had was our personal flashlights. I thought I felt someone breathing on the back of my neck..I quickly turned around to see if it was my husband but then heard his voice from about 10 feet in FRONT of me...still talking about the old medical equipment we had found. I jumped then stood perfectly still...waiting to see if I felt it again. All of a sudden I felt a chunk of my hair slowly being raised up in the air, I could even see it out of the corner of my eye! My hair lingered mid-air for a few seconds then dropped. This time I was definitely startled enough to lunge forward towards my husband while swatting at the air around me as if I was actually fighting off an actual person...scared the crap out of me for sure! Someone had reached out and taken a handful of hair and raised it up, held it for a few seconds then let it drop! Talk about getting goosebumps on the back of your neck! Whew what a startle that was. It always seems to happen that way, when you are deep in conversation and not paying attention around you..then it happens! Regardless, it is the only time a spirit has actually touched me. I have lived in an actual Haunted House though (I am planning on having a story swap for that too so please check it out) and have heard and seen things move...stories for another time though. Hope you all enjoy this swap!

17 years ago I was caring for a 34 year old cousin whom we all loved and enjoyed deeply. He had a brain tumor and had difficulty communicating with most people but my husband and young adult children had a sixth sense with him. We could almost read his thoughts and eyes. We live in a secluded wooded area and he loved it here. We would help him get outside to enjoy bonfires, watching the deer and birds, or just relaxing. Towards the end of his battle he would just listen to his favorite music. About a week after he crossed over I was started awake around 1 am by blaring music coming from the living room stereo. My husband got up and turned it off. The next night but not on the same hour it happened again. This time my husband turned it off and turned the volume down. A couple of nights went by without it happening but then it started again. This went on for a couple of months. We started saying things like,” we miss you too.” . “ You’re welcome to stay here if you’re happy with us.” One day I thought I saw a clear image of him stepping into the hallway heading into the room where he had occupied. I would smell his bodywash. One day I was on the cellphone talking to my youngest son who had moved out of town (he had stayed and helped me care for our cousin during the last few weeks of his life) and we were chatting about his new job. Then suddenly I hear a deeper voice on the phone saying I’m here, I’m here. I said to my son, “ did you hear that!” He hadn’t. Then it happened again and the phone crackled. My son explained that it was common for spirits to use electronic devices to make their presence known. It was around 3 years after he passed that things stopped happening. All throughout these events I would say things like thank you for checking on us, we’re doing fine. I tried telling another family member about it but they freaked out and said we needed to get help. Ughhh… I’m not a great storyteller but this actually happened to us as a family and it’s wonderful memories for us.

Thanks for the story Mimosagirl, Wow what a story and excellent job telling it. Like a good book I actually pictured it happening in my mind as I was reading. I believe in spirits and how they communicate with us. I am writing my ghost story right now that happened years ago but is still super fresh in my mind. The house I lived in at the time was built in 1843 so tons of history. Anyway I plan on hosting a ghost story swap soon if you are interested and want to share this story or a different one. Thanks again

@dcp0112 yes, please let me know when you get ready to host it. Message me or tag me either one. Thanks so much! Thank you for the compliment on my story post😊👍🏼🎃

I was snowshoeing in the forest. There are several hundred acres of conservation land which border the back of my property. There are many trails and several lead to trails on other properties where hikers and snowshoers are welcome. I have lived here for 37 years and spend a lot of time hiking and snowshoeing in that area. I am familiar enough with it that I don’t mind being out there well after dark. My wife doesn’t even start to worry unless I’m not in by 9:00 or 9:30pm. Well… not unless she hears the coyotes yipping like they just made a kill.

With me that evening was my neighbor’s Labrador retriever, Maya. She and I had been hiking and snowshoeing together for several years. She always seemed to love being in the woods, running all about, investigating. She was very good, never getting more than about 40 feet away and returning to me instantly upon my calling her name.

On this particular evening, it was about 7:00pm (about two-and-a-half hours after sunset) and a lovely, brightly moonlit evening. We were about 2.1 miles from home and at least that from any other house or plowed road. Heading toward home, on a trail I use frequently, we were approaching a familiar clearing. Maya was ahead of me and, when she got to the edge of the clearing, she stopped and sat. I started walking a bit slower, to be quiet, thinking I was going to see some deer or a moose. When I got to the clearing’s edge, I looked for what Maya had seen. She must still see something because she remained siting. I looked in the direction she was facing but didn’t see anything at first.

When I finally did, I forgave myself not seeing it sooner. It looked like a person, of small stature, who blended very well with the large corpse of bushes they were in front of. I started slowly walking again, Maya healing at my side, until I had closed about half the distance between us. Now just about 25 feet away, I saw what appeared to be a nine or ten-year-old girl. I didn’t have my head-lamp turned on but the moonlight was so bright that I saw her pretty clearly. I say “girl” because that was my impression (especially when she took off at a run). Only her face was visible to me. It could have been a boy but, as I said, my impression at the time was that it was a girl, so that’s what I’m going with.

She seemed to be dressed in animal skins or some other dark colored, fuzzy, heavy clothing. We seemed to have surprised her as she crouched beside and pressed into the large bush, about ten feet from the trail. She was as still as a stone. I stopped and said “Hello”. At that, she bolted, running around and behind the large bush. I never heard a sound but the five inches or so of powdery snow, on top of a heaver base, would account for that.

I called to her, asking if she was lost or if I could help her. There was no response. I went toward the bush and could see a pattern of tracks in the powdery snow. I saw no tracks going to the bush, only those going away. It had not been snowing for over 20 hours so she must have been there that whole time? I followed her tracks around the bush and for five meters across the clearing, where they ended. They ended close enough to a tree that I supposed she could have leapt to it and climbed it but the trees on that side of the clearing were all bare and I couldn’t see anyone or anything above. I made a circle about a 10 foot radius from where her tracks ended and saw no others.

I called to her again. I went back to near where her tracks ended and left the two granola bars I had with me and headed home. I didn’t know what to do. I considered calling the authorities but what would I tell them? “There’s a little girl, alone, in the snow, in the woods, two miles from anything and who just disappeared when I called to her”? By the time I got home, I was almost thinking I had imagined the whole thing, though I am not inclined to such. I have a good, active imagination but I know when I’m using it. Besides that, Maya had seen something.

I decided to let it go, at least for the time. She had appeared to be healthy, when she ran, and well dressed. She didn’t seem to be in any danger.

It was not until I went back there, in daylight, the following afternoon that it occurred to me that she couldn’t have been there for more than an about three hours or we would have seen her on our way into the forest. Maya would have almost certainly seen, heard, or smelled her, had she been within 50 feet and we had come a lot closer to that bush. In the daylight, I could better see her tracks around the bush and my snowshoe tracks, leading off from the trail. They were filled in with the powdery snow now but the patterns were still quite clear.

There were, as I had thought the evening before, tracks around where I had first seen her, though I still saw no tracks leading to the area and no sign that she had emerged from within the 20 foot diameter bushes. Her tracks went around the bush, to a point where I wouldn’t have been able to see her from where I had been standing at the time, and they ended in full stride. I looked again at the tree and decided that she couldn’t have jumped to it. First, she wasn’t running directly toward it when her tracks ended and, now in daylight, I judged the distance from there to the tree to be more like 30 feet.

The granola bars had been eaten but obviously by small creatures. The wrappers had been all nibbled into pieces and the snow disturbed around them with tiny trails. I made three wider circles – the last at about a 45 foot radius -- around where she had disappeared, looking for other tracks without finding them. I hung clothing, I had brought with me, on the bushes. (I retrieved them a month or so later as they were untouched and I didn’t want it to be litter.)

It is a spot where I have often sat for a few minutes, especially in the early morning or late evening, as one side is open to a stream and I often see wildlife come there to drink. I have, even well before this incident, sometimes felt like I was being watched or not alone there. It was never an uneasy or creepy feeling, just a feeling that would often cause me to look around to see who may be coming up the trail. This has persisted since. Not often, maybe an average of once in every ten or so times I pause there.

Maya often looked like she saw or heard something as we sat there. When I scanned the area in the direction she is looking, I would see nothing. Sometimes her doing this coincided with my ‘being watched’ feeling, more often it did not.

Am I crazy? Perhaps. I have been accused of that, but not for things I’ve done, not seen. Did she really vanish in thin air? Was there a space ship or something akin to Dr. Who’s TARDIS hovering behind the bush? My mind didn’t put the tracks in the snow that were still there the next day.

This happened in the winter of 2014. To this day I don’t know what to think about it but, whenever I hike or snowshoe through that area, which is often, or sit beneath the trees there, I both look for her and talk to her. I have seen or heard no sign and the ‘being watched’ feeling has become very infrequent and it has been a few years since I had Maya to bring my attention to things I may not have seen or heard.

My most recent experience happened only a few days ago. My 92 year old great grandma was moved to a nursing home this week, and as soon as she was moved into her room, she began to talk with a chair. No one was sitting there, but she was adamant that a nice female wearing a bright hat was sitting there. She is very confused and no one else could see the woman, so we all thought that she was just hallucinating. But, a member of staff walked in whilst she was talking with this 'person' and was spooked out - apparently one of the residents who lived there a few years ago wore a colourful hat at all times.

i have had a couple of paranormal experiences, the first was when i was about 17 (20 years ago now) i was lay in bed at night and i could see a little blue light through the curtains, within seconds around 30 odd blue and orange orbs came through my window into my room. They hovered on the ceiling above me for a few seconds and then left. The next thing to happen is when i moved into my current home, i was asleep in bed and woke up around 2am, i lay there and could feel pressure on the bed behind me and then felt something hug me. I've seen many shadows out the corner of my eye here and seen a figure walk from my room through the wall into the next room. when i first moved in here and i was decorating behind the paper on the wall it said ,,, the previous owner hung himself here !!! so maybe its him thats here, But he is a nice spirit. No harm has been caused. Few years back, the night before a family member passed away, i was awoken with a very demonic groan, grunting sound. I could feel a presence in the room, i did not dare look. I kept my eyes closed.

I actually have a lot of ghost stories. My mom has a weird group of friends, and I don't mean that in a negative way. But they are paranormal, can read cards, that kind of stuff. So more than one of them told me I have the ability to see in the ghost world, but I close myself off from it.

Once late at night I was watching The walking dead, and we all know that is about zombies. So I was watching on my laptop and my mom was still downstairs. Suddenly I heard a heartbeat next to my ear, and I was like: okay, I am watching a show. It is just a sound from the show. I paused to grab something to drink, and it kept going. So I asked my mom if she heard it to and every time she wanted to listen to it, it disappeared. After a while a smell appeared. Like a deadly rotten smell of meat. I asked my mom to come and smell, and once again it disappeared. One hour later, she finally heard and smelled it.

A lot of times it happened that I was home alone with the dog and that both of us reacted to hearing people walking upstairs. Up the stairs, down the stairs. So sometimes my mom uses sage to clean the home.

Years ago, I was at a concentration outside of Prague. Soldiers were buried outside, hundreds of them. Nothing happened. I put one foot inside the camp itself, and it felt like more than one person tried to push me down. So much pressure was put on my shoulders. I didn't see or hear anything besides that, but it was very weird. That is why I am scared of going to Auschwitz one day.

When I was a child, I used to talk to people at night. My mom always used to yell I had to shut up and go to sleep because I had so many conversations.

Also, one time my phone was in my room and I came up, looked at my phone and saw that there were pictures taken. I looked at one and saw a girl with long black hair. After that, nothing happened.

Sometimes when I walk in a store or just outside, I can hear voices. It can be a scream, or they call my name. Nothing special.

And the last one. More than one person told me, and they didn't know each other, and also it was years apart, that there is always a little girl by my side. She is protecting me from harm. She never let them know who she is. Sometimes it can be a child from a miscarriage, but I have never been pregnant. I still think it is my twin sister, which my mom lost when she was pregnant of us.

I have dropped from this swap

I love your story NRGordon, wow where did the girl go? Why was she only around that bush? I just have tons of questions and really enjoyed reading about your experience,that was definitely a great one. Hard to deny the existence of spirits after experiencing that right? Thanks for joining the swap!

Love this story Manonroberts , I believe that she DID see someone there and (for me anyway) I would have found that comforting knowing that a sweet little lady was keeping your Grandma company right?! Thanks for the story, I hope your Grandma is doing well. Happy Halloween!

alittlebitgypsy 23, wow I would have freaked out at the hug and demonic groan both!! How old is your house? I lived in one that was built in 1843 and it too was very very haunted but it was a pleasant spirit like yours (except for the growl of course!). I am glad you have a great attitutude and welcoming to the spirit, I am sure it is watching over you. Have a great Halloween! Thanks for joining the swap!

I have a lot of "little stories" that for me are pretty ordinary, but I think for others, it would be spooky. Mostly because 1) I'm very used to it, the way city folks are used to annoying car sounds outside and 2) I was much more worried about the living humans than I ever was about the dead + those who never lived (according to human sense.)

TL;DR: my stepdad was criminally violent but cops were always blaming the kids (we were all under 10) for just not obeying him enough so it was okay that sometimes he almost killed us. What a dick, yeah? So I know what I saw but believe/don't believe it. And someone else a few years later meeting the not-person that fixed me up didn't help. I love her to death but this person would be the FIRST female in a horror movie to die... by tripping over her own shoes. ::facepalm:: y'all. all y'all. jfc.

So from what I can guess, when I was maybe... 9? It's been a few decades. Even then, things were kind of hazy. This not-person (who was trying very, very hard to look human) brought me back after I might have died or been nearly dead? I'm not exactly sure. Lots of head injuries. But I think there was an accident since I had this stretched sense of time where a planet is an atom and a galaxy? I don't remember exactly but he seemed upset at that. Something about us burning from knowing too much? Like how a battery breaks open. We just can't handle it. So I needed to forget.

At some point, I think he asked me what I'd want. Like a wish. I'd read a lot of fairy tales but was raised suuuper cult-y Southern Baptist, so anyone who's really odd and shows up out of nowhere is definitely a wizard of some kind. And if he wasn't a wizard, I was in a house surrounded on three sides by woods. In a room where the window faced one of those sides only maybe 20-30 feet away. This weird guy could have broken into the bedroom for some reason and is asking me if I have a wish. The window wasn't broken, though? But I can't remember if I thought anyone was home. I don't recall thinking of anything, really. I had the idea that something about "stranger danger" might be important but I really did not care at all. I'd already figured that these people were going to kill me eventually, and I'm not getting out, so I might as well do what I like.

I wanted to know everything.

If a very tall human could look like a large bird, like a hawk of some kind, ruffling it's feathers, that was him. He was taller than my stepfather, who I knew was already very tall. Tallest person I'd ever seen but apparently not the tallest person in the world, or else he'd be in the Guinness Book. I didn't know how tall a person was SUPPOSED to be though, so a bit over 7ft was very, very tall, but I didn't have a good idea of how unusual that was. And when he talked it was like watching a youtube video or something, where the sound is out of sync with the video, or maybe if you watched a dub of a film where the mouth doesn't match the words you hear at all? That was probably the really bad headache and the vision problems. Gold eyes, with a deep brown ring. Well, there's people on TV with really light brown eyes. Maybe gold is like amber? Do people have amber eyes? I didn't know. I wondered about it for a couple years. I heard about this famous actress lady with violet eyes, so probably gold is more likely than purple. I was jealous of his big, fluffy, curly hair. That's what made him really look bird-like, I thought.

I think he wanted me to explain what I wanted. I think I tried to tell him about how my parents believe in Hell where we're all going to burn, and they're just really mean people, and why are we like this? And if there's a God and he's a person who created us then who created him? I want to know everything. That's my wish. It can't be done, I know it can't already, but I don't care about much of anything anymore and if you can't tell yet, these people are going to kill me for good soon.

He seemed very upset at that. The kind of look a grown man gets when he's surprised, angry, and will not show it much? Crossing his arms and shuffling and looking very quietly mad made him somehow look even more like a big, black bird.

People being this way, he knew about. He needed Hell explained and why it was so important to torture someone to "save" them. Being raised evangelical baptist I didn't know that there were options, just that there MUST be because I'd seen shows like Batman and X-men and they never talked about Church. So there must be people out there that don't live like this. The idea that we go around telling each other that there's a pit where we will be tormented for all eternity made him even more still.

I don't know exactly what he'd said, other than it was never supposed to be like this. He'd never heard of such a story but the idea of Hell was abhorrent and these people were lost, corrupt. All people need to be... something without words? The idea of purification through fire. Like metal being made stronger. But it wasn't anything like torment, and what is the point of forever? For a species that dies in moments?

I don't remember what else went on, except that he vanished. Less 'poof' and more like dissolving into shadows and being gone.

Obviously I lived. A relative found out what was happening and moved us to another city when I was 11 or so. I'd mostly forgotten about birdman, and definitely don't TALK about him because I'd very much like to not be locked up in a psychiatric institution, please.

When I was ~13, I finally made a tenuous friend who'd come over for some hours. It was just us in the house, hanging out in my room for a bit.

She went to the kitchen for something and when she came back, she told me there was this weird guy in my house. .... what. ..................... no? What did he look like? (I was thinking it was maybe my uncle, who lived down the road and owned the house, while I went for my knives. I didn't sleep without them for years.)

She told me that he was really tall and had nice flippy hair. Not my uncle. And we're both short, especially her, so anyone 5'10" ish or more is "really tall." Cool, cool, SO A GUY BROKE INTO THE HOUSE- WHICH DURING THE DAY IS MORE LIKELY BECAUSE MOST PEOPLE AREN'T HOME - AND SHE GOES DIRECTLY BACK TO ME LIKE NOTHING IS WRONG - IN AN EMPTY. HOUSE. WHERE HE COULD HEAR EEVVVEEERRRYTTTHING ... and those doors are super cheap lightweight doors... and OH YEAH this is an era before cellphones, so the only two phones are either the kitchen she'd just come from or my mom's room on the other end of the house... and oh yeah there is no exit from this room except the hallway. and I'm the only one who can fight. if I gave her a knife it would be taken off her and used against us in a half second. jfc.

that thing I said about how she'd be the first person dead in the horror movie? i'm not sure that's changed.

i left her in the middle of the room and got behind the door. kept her talking. i needed her to describe the person who broke in so that maybe ONE of us would get out and be able to tell someone. and here this dumb b---ch is, prattling on about how HooOoTtt this guy is. ::rolls eyes::

...... wait. his eyes look like topaz? Or citrine? Topaz was her favourite stone. It's fucking amber-coloured.

... (friend) ... how tall would you say is "really tall?" almost as tall as the armoire? so... a bit over... 7 feet?

fucking christ. i know that guy. it's fine. did he say anything?

She told me that he just looked at her and said that "everything would be okay."

No one had tried to get in the door. More than 10 seconds was more than enough time. But it had been a few minutes and nothing had happened. I went to look. There was no one around. No sound. No open doors or windows.

Cool. I still don't know what to say about all that. If it had just been post-major head injuries, I'd be with the argument that this was clearly a conversation with some... idk what's the term. Like a representative of myself or a belief? Or a rationale? But then someone else had seen them, too. And now I don't know. I... got lucky... I guess?

October 2023 – A Paranormal Experience Hi, all, I would like to tell you about a recent paranormal experience that I had. This is about a lady named Bertha Zermeno DeLara. I didn’t know Bertha personally, but she lived here in Fillmore, and this being a small town, I thought of her as a ‘neighbor.’ This happened in October of 2020. Bertha had dementia, and she wandered away from home one day. Her family noticed she was gone, and a plea for assistance in finding her went out. As I said, this is a small town, and I think everyone in town was looking for her. At 73 we didn’t think she could have gone far, but there was the possibility she might have got on the local bus and gone to Santa Paula or Piru. There was also the possibility she might have been picked up by a stranger. But we didn’t know for sure. So we looked and looked. The local law enforcement had search dogs out and an all effort to find her ensued. Sadly she was found a week later in a ditch under a tree. She had died from exposure. But for me, the story of Bertha did not end there. I go to my sister’s house to watch TV, and often come home around 10 or 11 PM. For months, I would come home, and I would sense Bertha’s presence in my yard. And, quite frankly, she scared me. I don’t know why, because I knew she wouldn’t hurt me. Finally, I talked to my sister about this. Rachel took me and showed me where she had been found. I thought it was in a different location. Then we talked to Bertha. I told her we were sorry about what had happened. We told her it was okay to go. I guess she found what she needed, as she left and I haven’t seen her since. I love you dear Bertha. Rest in Peace my friend.