Ghost Stories & Paranormal Encounters

This is the true story of my dad’s experience of a very different kind of ghost.

I am sure that there are different types of ghost; going from the accounts of people’s experiences, there seem to be ghosts of people, animals and inanimate objects which appear to be just shadows or reflections of something or someone who was once there. There is normally no apparent reason for them to appear. Perhaps they are something like a mirage? Or “time-slip”? (I am thinking of the famous case of the Edwardian ladies who found themselves spectators in the 18th-century for a time during a visit to the palace of Versailles.) There are also similar phantoms from the past, but this time with perhaps a reason for their appearance, such as strong emotions or a tragedy. They are often said to appear on the anniversary of a particular event but, like the other sort, do not appear to have any kind of awareness – at least no awareness of the here and now. There are so many old stories of phantom coaches and horses or ghosts repeating the same actions in many folklore of the world. I have even heard of a modern occurrence of this phenomenon in the “ghost” of a plane crash (in Florida I think; but I’m not sure). Maybe these ghosts are spirits stuck in some kind of loop that don’t even know they are dead? Some ghosts are more obviously spirits of the departed and communicate with the living, often causing fear, either deliberately or coincidentally. This site is full of stories about these. They may or may not be aware that they are dead. A classic example, of this, albeit fictitious, are the characters of the mother and her children in the movie “The Others”. Other ghosts may be beings from another planet or dimension, or even “angels” or “demons”. Poltergeists could also be these supernatural creatures, spirits trying to get attention, or the result of some kind of psychic energy emanating from the living. As you can tell, I do think about these things and try to make sense of them as I have seen ghosts from time to time.

I am proposing that there is also a very different kind of ghost; that living people can have a visible ghost too. What this ghost could actually be or what makes it possible I don’t claim to know, although I have a few ideas, which I will briefly set out later.

Here is the occurrence which brought me to this conclusion:  please bear with me while I give the background to this; the paranormal bit comes later on.

I was about 14 years old. It was the early 1980s. For a few weeks I had been suffering on and off (depending on what I had eaten and when) with extremely painful acid indigestion in my stomach. My doctor did treat it successfully after a while but until then I was from time to time woken up at night by severe burning pain in my stomach. Sometimes sipping hot water or peppermint tea would help, and sometimes I would throw up and the pain would eventually calm down. It mostly seemed to happen at night, so I would often be awake while my mum and dad were asleep. This was one such night. I began to feel nauseous and went to the bathroom. But this time, being sick didn’t take the pain away. Instead, it flared up worse than ever and although I was not afraid because I knew it wasn’t a serious illness, I felt really desperate because of the awful pain. I was literally squirming around in my bed with it. By this time I didn’t feel I could even walk to the kitchen to get hot water, the pain was so overwhelming. I vividly remember starting to sob in utter frustration. Then I discovered, while squirming around, that if I sort of crouched forward on my knees and leaned on my pillow I got some relief. I stayed as still as I could, and the pain did eventually subside. I even dozed off or maybe passed out in that position and awoke who knows when (minutes or hours?) later. I carefully stretched out and pulled the duvet over me and went to sleep very thankful it was over. I have no idea how long the pain had lasted, but I woke up fine around 7am and went to school as usual. (We are so resilient as teenagers- that kind of thing would have me off work for a day now that I am older!) I’m giving these details in case you have any ideas about the cause of the paranormal event that also happened that night.

I was completely unaware of what had happened while I had been in such pain until I saw my dad at breakfast. He looked a bit tired and worried, and asked me if I was okay. I told him that I had had that pain again in the night, but that I was okay now. I asked him how he knew I had been feeling ill; if I had woken him up with my crying or going to the bathroom. He said no, he hadn’t even known I had been awake ill that night and paused as if not sure whether he should keep talking or not. This was unusual for my dad, so I paid extra attention. I think I had to encourage him to speak further. I guess he may not have wanted my mum to hear in case it freaked her out too much. (Of course, I told her later anyway!)

Dad told me that he had woken up suddenly in the early hours, around 1:00am. This was no surprise as my dad was something of an insomniac anyway. As he lay there awake in the dark he saw a white figure in a knee-length nightshirt with long fair hair appear in the open doorway of the bedroom where he and Mum were sleeping. It moved to the foot of the bed. It did strike him at the time that it was odd how he could see these details in the dark. He immediately recognized it as me, and I could confirm that I was wearing that same white nightshirt that night, as I usually did. Concerned that there was something really wrong, and wondering why “I” didn’t say anything, Dad quietly asked “me” what was the matter. “I” didn’t reply, just smiled at him. I definitely didn’t visit my parents’ room that night; I only went to the bathroom once and back to my own room. There was nothing they could have done for me, and I would not have wanted to wake them up anyway. In case you think I may have been sleepwalking, read on: my dad then noticed that my feet were several inches off the ground! I don’t know exactly how long “I” was there, but Dad said that after a short time the figure just faded away. He was 100% sure that he was awake, but was so scared that I had died or something that he tried to convince himself it was just a nightmare and attempted to go back to sleep (which he eventually did).

Was he dreaming about me because as a parent he instinctively knew I was suffering? Or was the “ghost” actually there? And if so, was it “my” ghost or the ghost of a dead girl who just happened to look like me? He always maintained that he was wide awake and it was no dream. Or is it possible that extreme pain can push you out of your material body to travel astrally in a visible form? Did I have a Near-Death Experience unknowingly? Did I really die, and is my whole life since then merely an illusion? (Not likely!) I wish I had been aware of what was happening, but perhaps I was asleep at the time. I do believe that the soul which inhabits our body has nothing to do with our material form, but that there is an etheric form of our material body. Kind of like the Ancient Egyptian belief in the “Ka” and “Ba”, two “souls” which inhabit the body; one is the real immortal soul, and the other the astral body which, like a bird, can fly in and out of the body. Maybe some people can even do this at will. That would explain the stories of the apparent bilocation (seeming to be in two places at once) of some powerful yogis.

Do you have any ideas? My father, although a practical joker at times, was also a great skeptic of the supernatural and not given to wild imaginings, and I believe his story because I could tell he was genuinely shaken up. Has anybody else had someone see a “ghost” of them? Do you think it is possible for a living person to project their own “ghost” even if not about to die? I do.

Sent in by Sarah, Copyright 2010 TrueGhostTales.com