Preternatural
I'm going to share with you some of my own preternatural experiences in this post. I'll begin with giving you a bit of background and an introduction. I am going to share with you some unbelievable but real events & an account of a poltergeist haunting. One which reveals some interesting aspects to the phenomena of haunting, why it happens and especially if you knew the disembodied persona which lingers, what their motivations are.
My mum is what you might call a sensitive and I inherited her mixed blessing of a gift. We both have very acute hearing, a sensitivity to UV light and excellent BS detectors. You cannot lie to my Mum. We also feel disturbances in the force and so for obvious reasons my brothers and I share the nickname Jed.
When I was a young boy I could feel people's intentions and I was sensitive to the good & bad vibes of other people. I was often puzzled at the disparity between what I felt and what was said. That's the lie detector, which I believe everyone can harness. I thought it was quite normal and it took me a long time to fully understand that not everyone nurtures their ability. It wasn't exactly telepathy but it was in the same area. I became precognitive too. I guessed the outcome of events with an accuracy which often left me to be both surprised and sometimes sad.
Negative energy is a little easier to pick up on, like a bad smell, we're tuned for it. It sometimes made me feel quite lonely and as I reached adolescence I learned switched it off. I went to secondary school and was picked on for being different. I wasn't that different but some of the other kids instinctively knew. I just wanted to fit in so I became a bit of a rebel. Smoking & drinking, anything that would fit with the peer group pressure.
My natural inclination for subtle energy was to serve me later in life and over my life I have had numerous brushes with the supernatural. Mostly positive I must add with perhaps only the odd fright here and there. I decided that for this story I will tell you a significant paranormal story and also an experience which happened very recently. I will explain some of my very own findings too. From an early age I began to be interested in all things different and I had a fascination for myth, legends, monsters, aliens, vampires and werewolves. I began to be interested in out of body experiences, ghosts and hauntings, later delving into meditation. This story is recounted lucidly partly because of my interest in the subject and my own analysis of it at the time.
Alice
I found my Grandad's photo albums recently. In there was a photo of Alice. That's her in the patchwork jacket at the top. My Grandma looking at the camera, me on this side of the table, My Mum and brothers and my Stepdad.
A Suburban Poltergeist
My Mums house was haunted by a poltergeist for over a year when I was 20. I wouldn't stay at the house during that time. There was a really bad atmosphere there and some incredible goings on. I lived about a mile away with my Dad and would have usually stayed over in the holidays, or maybe at weekend. Of course I was well and truly open and sensitive to the experience. I also later received a spooky warning from the grave.
Alice
My Stepdad's Mum, Alice came to live with them in a granny extension to the house. He is a retired architect and built her a granny flat at the corner of the house. Over the years her and my mum began to dislike each other for no particular reason other than perhaps a shared relationship with my Stepdad. Classic mother in law - daughter in law relationship. They all lived together for about 10 years. I was only a part time visitor. An observer or sorts.
As she aged, she retreated into her little living room and would sneak out into the kitchen when nobody was around. She died aged 84 in a nursing home nearby. I don't think she was really aware of her passing which is a classic start to a haunting episode. She didn't know she was dead and she wasn't exactly pleased that her home had suddenly been requisitioned. I think she felt like she was being ignored. I genuinely think she just came home unaware of what had happened.
She Saw a ghost
The first incident was with my Mum's neighbour Jean. A couple of days after Alice died, Jean saw her from her kitchen window, walking up the road towards the house. A familiar sight, until she remembered that Alice had just died. She went into shock and later told my my Mum that it was so disturbing that she wet her pants on the spot. Alice had simply come home from where she died without realising it from the nursing home on foot. This was a woman in her 80's who would routinely walk 2 or 3 miles there and back, just to go shopping.
Me and Al
She was patently not happy. There was the kind of atmosphere in the house when two people have had an argument in a room. It was palpable and it was to last until a sad but fortuitous event a year later. My first experience of her was a couple of weeks after she died, when I heard her mumbling through the wall one evening at the bottom of the stairs. It was the wall next to her flatlet. It was a kind of angry grumble. It wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. Her storage cupboard became off limits to us all as if there was dark energy lingering there.
Doors would slam in the middle of the night, but not open. Bangs and bumps in the night. Footsteps on the stairs when there was nobody home. Her Granny flat was duly re-decorated and re-integrated into the house. Her living room became a separate family dining room and her bedroom became my Mum's work room. My Mum was not afraid of Alice, but the experience caused her quite a lot of grief. We all felt like Alice had attached herself to my little Brother. She had always been fond of him and he was the only member of the family to remain completely unaffected by the experience throughout.
The Radio
One evening a couple of weeks later, my Mum and Stepdad sat down to eat dinner in their new dining room.* They both got a shock when, as they sat down the radio suddenly and briefly turned on at full volume. My Mum, sensitive as she was, nearly jumped out of her skin. It was the first time my Stepdad had experienced anything supernatural and it shifted his perspective quite markedly. The radio was of course, not plugged in.
I Had a Dream
Although I wouldn't stay in the house during that time one night, I had a quite frightening dream of being there. In the dream I was at house in the living room when Alice just walked in. She just looked at me, I tried to scream but nothing came out. It was such a shock to see her standing there. She just laughed. I awoke, still in sleep paralysis trying to scream but just emanating a half throated whimper and thankful I was in my own bed in another house.
The Shelf
A few weeks later again, my Mum was in her work room. Her overlocking sewing machine was on the shelf above her as she sat embroidering a lace applique for a wedding dress she was making for a client. Without warning (in her own words) the screws of the shelf just came out of the wall and the sewing machine & shelf came crashing down on to her table. She literally escaped being hit over the head with 25 kilos of machine by inches. The workroom was Alice's old bedroom. My Mum's prize machine was destroyed. Luckily it was insured against accident. I'm not sure she told the insurance company it was a poltergeist. They probably would have had a clause against that. The haunting continued. One night not long after this event, my Mum and Stepdad awoke to the sound of their bedroom door being slammed in the middle of the night, except it was still slightly ajar when they looked. My Mum always kept it a little bit open to hear my Brother next door. He didn't hear the slam of course. My Stepdad actually shouted at Alice this time. He went to the top of the stairs and shouted Be quiet Mother. It was then my Mum knew she wasn't going mad.
The Birthday Party
This was perhaps one of the weirdest things that has ever happened. It's question I often ask people. What's the weirdest thing that's ever happened to you? Although people often draw a blank at first, they usually come back with something bizarre a bit later. Strange experiences tend to get buried in the subconscious. I remember this quite vividly. It was my Stepdad's 50th Birthday. (He'll be 80 this year). Quite a few of his and my Mum's friends came over to celebrate and as you'd expect it was all very civilised. I was in the front room with the next door neighbour, Phil. He was a Detective with the Criminal Investigation Department and a very nice guy. it was his wife Jean who saw Alice through the window. We were listening to the Beatles on the record player and being from Penny Lane in Liverpool, the Beatles were never far away in those days. (Alice never liked Pop Music)
Without any warning, one of my Mum's (expensive) cut crystal glasses took a long walk from the back of the sideboard and knocked a pile of records onto the floor with the glass following. I looked at Phil. I said "did you just see what I saw" and he just said "Alice". It was like a scene from The Invisible Man. As if an unseen hand had guided the glass, quickly and deliberately at the records with the intent of knocking the whole lot off.
I've never seen anything like that before or since, except perhaps what happened a few days ago, which I'll tell you at the end of this story. A bit later on that evening, I went into the Dining Room. There was nobody there and in the middle of the floor exactly where Alice's Rocking Chair would have sat was another one of my Mum's crystal cut whiskey tumblers in about 6 pieces. Just like the one that got knocked off the sideboard. I thought Alice doesn't like that we're having a party. She's not invited. It's not like any of my Mum's friends to drop a glass in the middle of the floor and walk off. There was no spilled drink in it. It's exactly where the chair was. I felt like a supernatural investigator at this point. I wish I had one of those magnetic field gizmos'. It was fascinating, intriguing and interesting to observe.
A Warning from Beyond the Grave
Not long after, I had another dream and this puts the haunting into perspective. Alice didn't mean any harm and I was to find out that actually, she was on my side. It was one of those horror dreams which starts with you waking up in your own bed. (I just got a massive chill down my spine as I write this).. ughhh, So, I wake up (in the dream) it's dark. I'm in my own bed. (another chill just went down my back). I hear stones on my window. I think what ungodly hour is this for Neil (my best mate) to be knocking on the window. He would usually throw small stones at my window instead of ringing the door bell, especially if it was late. I go to the window, open the curtains. To my immense shock and surprise, (it's still dark outside) Alice is standing there shaking her stick. She says "you best go and see about that pain, pointing to her side, or you'll end up like me"... end of dream.
I had a grumbling appendix. It was bothering me. I went to the doctor. He said it was fine. A few weeks later I picked up a Dysentery infection from a colleague at work. Within hours I was home alone and I was in bed literally vomiting from both ends. My Dad got back from holiday, called the Doctor, next day I was in hospital where I would stay for 30 days nil by mouth on endless drips of saline, glucose and antibiotics. During this time I lost a lot of weight and the doctors couldn't operate for fear of spreading the infection and here's another odd turn in this mundane haunting story.
Nil by Mouth
After 30 days in the hospital with not much improvement, a strange and beautiful blonde haired woman came to my room. (I was in the room at the end of the ward reserved for the terminally ill and although I wasn't quite dying, I was in isolation.) You get to know the staff and who's on shift. She just sauntered in as if from nowhere. She bent over the end of my bed in a cinematically provocative way with her low cut top, smiled at me and read my notes. She wore ordinary civilian clothes, quite stylish. White jumper, beige trousers, not medical garb. I had that fall in love at first sight moment. She said "you haven't been responding to the antibiotics" (I'd had a months worth intravenously). Then she said "I want you to take one of these pills now and in 8 hours". 2 massive white pills... and she left with a smile. Sure enough within 24 hours the pain had subsided, I stopped excreting green pond life and they opened me up and took out my appendix. I recovered quickly and within a week, I was back to normal.
Angels ?
I always wondered who she was. It wasn't until nearly 20 years later I saw her again. I had contracted a rather nasty food poisoning bug and had been in bed for a couple of weeks. really sick, in fact as sick as I had been since the appendix episode. My eyes started to sink into my sockets and I eventually went to the local hospital. (I now lived over 200 miles away from my home town of Liverpool in the UK capital, London.) I was dehydrated and spent the day there while they pumped me back up with fluids and antibiotics. When I left, feeling quite drained, bleary eyed and weak but on the mend, who should I see sitting at the desk on the way out attending to some notes. It was her. She hadn't aged a day. She looked at me as I passed. As I walked through the doors at the exit, it slapped me right in the middle of my mind. I knew right there and then, that she was what you might call an angel. My Guardian angel. I could pick her out of a police line up today. She looked a bit like the actor, Joely Richardson. It's been a long time since then and I haven't seen her again. Alice warned me from beyond the grave during her haunting and who are what this woman was, I'll never really know.
Joely Richardson source
A Strange thing Happened
A year passed and my maternal Grandmother died. Quite suddenly but unlike Alice, she knew she was going. The very next day the photograph of Grandma as a little girl that hung on the wall in her and my Grandad's house fell off the wall, smashing the glass. It had hung there all my life. It was a potent symbol of her passing. Within a week my Mum's house was no longer haunted. It was as if My Grandma had taken Alice with her. I could almost imagine her coming to the house and saying come on Alice, you shouldn't be here. They're not ignoring you, you're dead.. and just like that she was gone. A peaceful air returned to the house. No more funny goings on, no noises, bumps in the night or grumbling through the walls. I was pleased. I stayed at my Mum's house that summer. It was just like the old days. My older Brother said he instantly felt her disappear, like a bad smell had left the house.
The Last Chapter
My Wife's Grandmother died a few weeks ago. She was 95 and she went peacefully. She knew she was on her way out and the last I saw of her, she was up in bed smiling. A very nice lady, full of life and had lived a full life, we introduced her to my youngest daughter recently aged just a few months old. 4 generations in the one room. Mother and her daughter... and her daughter with her daughter. I took a photograph knowing that it might be the last opportunity to do so.
My Wife was close to her (Ba)Nana) as she was fondly known. Straight after she dies, she came to see us last weekend. We both felt her in our home. My Wife felt she was being watched. I saw Nana's face in my daughters eyes. There was a slightly magical air in our home. We agreed that it was quite nice. It was if she came to see us one last time, before she went on. There was no fear or malice. I almost heard her in my mind talking. I went to check on my youngest daughter in the evening on the Saturday night as I often do in the evening. It was dark in the room but there was a full moon so there was a soft light behind the curtains. I opened the door, closed it behind me. I bent over the cot to see which position she was lying in (as you do) and as I did, I saw for the very first time ever in my life.. an ORB. It was as if I had disturbed Nana's visit. It gently crossed my daughters face and poof it was gone. It was not scary. It's movement was very smooth, it gently lit my daughters face up as it passed over here and she did not flinch. I instantly knew it was her. It was like she had attached herself to the youngest most magical energy in our home. She was gone by the Monday. My Wife remarked that she's gone hasn't she? I said yeah, I think she just wanted to see the girls one last time before she went on her way. She only met them a couple of times.
Do you want to know the really weird end to this story? I said to my Mum not long after my first daughter was born.. I think that she's Grandma, come back to be with us. When my second daughter was born, I thought her sister, Auntie Min, had came to join her and be with us. They were very close to us as kids and to each other. I'm still fairly convinced that it's them. I sent my mum a photo of the girl and said look It's Grandma and Auntie Min. They really do look very similar. Th
Auntie Min, me Brothers, Adam and Al and My Grandma on holiday in Whitby, Yorkshire in the 1980's.
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