3 Knocks?

On June 19, 2011 at approximately 4:05 AM I heard 3 knocks at my front door. At least, that’s what I think it was. My wife and I had a really bad fight that night and we were talking it out before we went to sleep and I think this was a bad spirit trying to come in.

I always take a glass of water to the room with me and set it on the dresser, so at first I thought it was my son that picked up the glass and then set it back down, thus causing the “knocking” sound. When I asked my Wife if he did that, she said that he had not gotten up at all. Is this possible? What do you think?

Asked by J.Ruiz

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43 Comments
  1. I can’t really offer anything but an experience of my own. I was up until near dawn recently…, near 4:00 AM. My bed is very close to a window that holds an air-conditioner. There was quite clearly a knocking sound, which happened as three knocks, then a period of silence, like it was waiting on me to open the window.

    The knocking and silence cycled about 3 or 4 times. Frankly I was not comfortable. I got out of bed, but could see nothing at the window. I got out of bed and answered the front door. Nothing. No cars parked in my drive way, I have one son who would sometimes do things like this just for laughs.

    I went back to bed, said a short prayer expressing my thanks, and immediately fell asleep. Incidentally, I sleep with the TV on, very low volume, and sometimes when I’m nearly awake, any knocking on TV jerks me wide awake, and greatly annoyed.

    jeff

    • three knocks you hear & no one at door is of a good spirit to which you may open up to BUT if you hear 4 knocks it’s of the bad spirit, evil wanting you to obey it’s command & will go as far as killing someone. When this happens you want to drop on your knees in fear, call out jesus name & pray to him asking for strength to over come the bad spirit. If you dont ask jesus to help you, most likely you will go through with obeying the bad spirits command to do wrong.
      Three knocks is of a good spirit trying to communicate with you, perhaps a family member close to death or a recent past relative, friend. The good spirit is of peace, & may let you know you are safe

      • What happend was,I. Was home alone and said..knock three times if your here…later on it did knock three times

  2. Okay J. Ruiz,
    First question: Did you actually go to the door to see if anyone was, infact, there? You didn’t seem to mention it. Because, if you hadn’t, you can’t rule out that maybe, there was actually someone at your door. (it happens! People show up at 4am! :) ) But at any rate, if you did do this and failed to mention it, it could be a spirit, but not neccessarily a bad one. There’s no real way of knowing. It could have been a deceased family member stepping in to remind you not to fight, you never know; depends on how heated your discussion was at the time of the knock. They could have done it to break up the argument. Also, did you check on your son in his room at the time of the knock? I know you mentioned that he didn’t get out of bed, but do you think that, maybe he made the knocking sound from his room? Just trying to rule out all logical possibilities before assuming the paranormal. Good luck and i await your answers! ;)

  3. if heard it said that when anyone hears a knocking it means someone is going to die im not totally sure of this though.

  4. There is a whole forum dedicated to this type of occurence. I tried to post the link, but it was blocked.

  5. @Caretaker
    Tried that link; came up as that that particular forum made have been deleted due some violation of terms or something related to that. Do you by chance know of another link. I am interested to learn about this! Thank you very much!

    • I just double checked and it worked fine for me

  6. Here are some links I found:

    This one is just someone’s story but he mentions the legend:
    http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=3868

    This is another man’s story, but his testimony seems very interesting and has me intrigued!:
    http://phantomsandmonsters.wetpaint.com/thread/1975404/3+death+knocks

    If anyone has any others, I would love to read them or hear your experience!!! :D

  7. Hi J.Ruiz,

    Three knocks – my first thought was a message about someone dying in your family. They can come and say goodbye. If it had been that, you might have suddenly been thinking about that particular person, right after the knocks. I also like Luna’s thought about asking you to stop fighting, but I think you guys were sorting things out by then. Perhaps a visiting spirit was emphasising a point one of you were making when the knocking happened. Can you remember what you were discussing right at the time?

    If it happens again, take note of the time, thoughts and actions you are experiencing. In the meantime, its a very interesting spooky event.

    Love & Peace
    Ama Nazra

  8. Thanks Caretaker,
    Maybe I entered it into the URL wrong; I’ll try again! ;)

  9. 3knocks! I thought I was the only one. :( I was living in this haunted house ( i posted a story on here about it but I forgot the title.) lol lame. .. I heard three knocks under my bed. I freaked out !I then told my mom.I heard 3knocks on my window thinking it was a joke I looked around(wtf!) i saw an old man and he quickly dissapeared!His eyes were evil. He would knock on the ceiling, bed,my door,my window or whatever(but only 3times).I went to sleep with my mom because I was terrified.(I was 16) then we heard 3knocks right next to us.She began to pray and it stopped.. We moved out.

  10. The three knocks phenomenon. I have read many tales about this baffling event, but most of the tales were folklore. Old people believe this phenomenon was caused by playful elemental spirits, it’s like a game of “ding dong ditch”. Some recounts say that spirits do this to catch a person’s attention, or mock the person being knocked at. Harmless as it may seem, some believes this is caused by evil spirits (commonly demons) trying to gain entry to the house or building. One interesting folk lore related to this is from South East Asia, it tells of an entity called an “Oil Child”. It is a malevolent creature often described with child-like features covered with black oily substance, thus the name Oil Child. According to the folklore, this entity is known to knock three times in the dead of night. If the male husband answers the door, the oil child will gain entry to the house, then it will rape and impregnate the wife. Although the wife is being raped, the husband will never take notice of the malicious act going on. The only time that this will be known to the husband is when his wife bares the offspring of the Oil Child.
    There are some traditional ways to fend off the demons causing the knocking, one is pouring salt in the surrounding area of the door where the knocking occurs, or hanging garlic on the door post or windows. You can also pain a cross on the door or hang a crucifix, one exotic repellant is a dried tail of a Sting ray.

    • Sorry to disappoint you however the truth be known. Any cross or cruxiftion is of evil not of good. This is why it doesnt work with anyone who is pocessed of evil, also jesus never wanted us to remember him on the cross representing death, he wanted us to remember him as being alive, his LOVE

      • Right on! In most cases I believe the crucifix has become almost an idol or graven image, people look at it as though it were a good luck charm or something. I am confident and convinced that Jesus would NOT approve

        • Hi CT,

          No, the graven image is the photograph in every church, usually its in some unlikely spot, like behind everyone watching what they are doing during the service. The first time I turned around, in what then had been my favourite Catholic Church, I flinched. Can’t do the current pope. Supposedly he’s the 2nd last one. Have to wonder what the next one will be like? Eeeeek!

          And then there are all the ‘different’ statutes of what Jesus and Mary looked like?

          Love & Peace
          Ama

          • Yes I agree, but when you have a crucifix with Jesus hanging on it and you rub it thinking it will give you luck or you pray to it – it becomes a graven image

          • I agree, CT. I wonder how many people actually realise what they are doing? I also think it depends on what the person believes when they are doing the rubbing, or just holding onto the cross around their neck. There was that lady in the bible who reached out and just ‘touched’ Jesus’ cloak, and was healed, or so its written. Perhaps the action stems from there, or the item helps them focus better? (Is it a bad thing that I want to see good in people??) LOL

            Hmmm ..The luck thing always makes me laugh – “Luck” it turns out, is a Babylonian Demon .. learned that at a Victorious Ministry Training Camp I went to, to learn about spiritual warfare. (Oh the weird things I have done in my life. LOL) .. and we are not supposed to wish ‘it’ on anyone.

            So what defines a graven image – some churches seem full of it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idolatry

            Love & Peace
            Ama

        • I think believing in those stuff has some sort of ‘placebo effect’ on some people, because it gives them confidence and somehow they unknowingly muster up positive vibes within themselves that is enough to counter the negative entity that is haunting them.
          I believe that humans have the capability to repel evil entities as a God given ability, but not many people are even aware that they are capable of doing it.

          • I agree with the placebo effect, Buddy.

            But .. most people should not go anywhere near demons, nor assume they can ‘repel them’, because, even now, we can really only speculate on why demons are attracted to certain types of people – not just Christians, but athiests cop it too (great way to change their minds about the existence of the unseen), as do other groups of ‘believers’.

            Learning to claim your ‘authority’ is not automatic, and not everyone should do this work. It can be mind destroying.

            Love & Peace
            Ama Nazra (demonologist)

      • Hi Karen,

        Could you please explain more of what you mean? How is the cross an evil symbol?

        I agree Jesus never wanted to be remembered for being hung up, I think he wants to be remembered for having been resurrected.

        Love & Peace
        Ama

        • Ah! I think I’ve heard of this philosophy somewhere about the sign of the cross being the symbol for punishment and death. Because back in the great Roman era, crucifixion is the capital punishment for heinous crimes. They sort of represent the electric chair or the lethal injection table in our day and you wouldn’t want to hang a symbol for the electric chair or lethal injection table on your property. Thus, putting up a crucifix simply implies that you are into death penalty of some sort.
          Not sure if that is the whole point of it, I just happen to overhear it from a religious TV show on cable.

          • Right, Buddy, its a Christian belief. Jesus was punished for OUR sins, and so we should feel incredibly guilty about it and follow God and Jesus’ teachings slavishly – because the church says so, and they provide all the ‘teachings’. Very convenient. (Do I sound sarcastic?)

            Crucifixion was a nasty cruel way of killing people, and so is the electric chair and the needle .. but … and here I am in two minds. Some people just need to be stopped. If they cannot stop themselves from killing others .. how many gaols (jails) can a country hold? Or do we bring back the lions, and all those nasty spectators ‘enjoying’ other people’s gory deaths? What is a suitable ‘punishment’ for those who choose to harm others?

            What has this got to do with Jesus? He taught ‘love one another’. So ‘we’ killed him for it .. and we are still killing people for it .. that they cannot ‘love’ anyone, even themselves.

            Love & Peace
            Ama

  11. before we found out that my uncle drowned, there was three knocks on my grandma’s kitchen door, very loud knocks, woke up everyone in the house. the next day fishermen found him dead floating down the river.

  12. Hi Buddy,

    I did some research on the net about the ‘oil child’ .. not much to be seen. What I could find mentioned ‘knocking’ but not specifically three knocks, and nothing about babies. Can you give me a link or two to do more reading please. The information is very sketchy.

    Thanks
    Love & Peace
    Ama

  13. There are several articles about the oil child, but the site that originally contained the articles have closed down years ago. I believe it was the first SFogs site from Singapore. I did a little digging on this matter and it appears that the Oil Child belief stretches around neighboring countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. As I’ve mentioned, they were mostly folklores and I haven’t seen any modern reports relating to the fabled Oil Child.

  14. I have been experiencing the knocking phenomena for many years. I’ve never heard that there was such a following or that so many others experience the same thing. I was quite surprised!.
    Normally, I’m sleeping when the knocks occur and I awaken and realize it was the knocking again and just go back to sleep. However, sometimes it’s 5 knocks and sometimes it happens repeatedly during the same night.
    Sometimes I am home alone and other times my adult son is there and he has never heard it.
    When it first started happening I would always jump up and look out the window and check the door but of course nobody is ever there, I finally stopped checking because I can pretty much tell the difference by now anyway.
    Just a few days ago, the knocking was on my bedside table, just inches from my head.
    It wasn’t extremely loud, but it was the 5 knocks, instead of the 3 knocks. That’s the first time it happened so close to my head, though.
    As a Medium, I know better than to give it any energy, so I go right back to sleep if possible and if I can’t then I turn on the TV for a little noise and light and eventually fall back to sleep.
    I agree with Ama – surrounding myself with the protective white light is always the best solution when spirits won’t leave you alone. Works like a charm.
    Love and LIght
    Medium-Dreamer

  15. Hi Phil,

    That might have been your uncle coming to say goodbye. I have read many stories of much the same experience.

    Love & Peace
    Ama

  16. I’ve had this happen to me as well. Every time it has happened, someone in my family or close to me has died.

  17. Wow I thought me and my friend were the only ones that have had that happen. It stopped for me though. It happend every day.

  18. I have been looking for more information on others who have experienced this. Several years ago I heard 3 sets of 3 very loud, very clear, very evenly spaced and consistent knocks, like a hand knocking on a wood door. It was startling. I was getting out of the shower (water off) when I heard the first set. I thought “Oh my gosh, there is someone in the house”. While I was throwing on my robe I heard the 2nd set. While exiting the bathroom door into the bedroom I heard the last set. It sounded like it came from somewhere near the ceiling of my 2-story house, but was difficult to locate. i checked the attic and the roof, looking all around the house. It was very mysterious and I told several people about it at the time. A Native American friend told me a (dead) relative was visiting me. Since it was daytime I was not frightened, but had this happened at night I would have moved.

    The other night I picked up a book I’ve had for several years, “Transformation” by Whitley Streiber. Streiber had accounts of his experiences of 3 sets of 3 knocks. He also claims that many residents of the town of Glenrock, Wyoming heard 3 sets of 3 knocks all at the same time a number of years ago- but he is a fiction writer. On the other hand, 3 is a number with spiritual significance. Would appreciate hearing from others.

  19. I don’t know if anyone is checking this thread, but for some reason this topic has been brought back to me and I have been thinking seriously about these events. There seems to be a duality and a strong element of choice in these experiences. It could be that our interpretation of them impacts the reality, rather than the other way around.

    This morning I was listening to Dr. Charles Stanley on his Christian radio program, “In Touch”. He spoke about the scripture saying “Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.” In the same lecture Dr. Stanley talked about the truth of God’s presence in our lives past, present, and future. Some of us have experienced 3 knocks, or 5 or 3 sets of 3 knocks. My experience was 12 years ago and it is still compelling. I look back and in reflection believe the 3 sets of 3 knocks, in my life, are indicative of God encouraging me to ask, seek, and knock. I think there is a common underlying reality to all of these experiences, whether attributable to our understanding of ghosts, UFOs, or spiritual beings – or God. Our responses and beliefs may clarify or define the nature of the reality – does that make sense to anyone? i hope someone sees this.

    • I agree. This is God waking you up to pray and spend time in his presence

  20. Hello Jane,

    Yes, people are seeing this. I agree with you that three knocks can be a message from God, if that is what you believe it means. There will be other things that happened around the time to confirm this. Spirit/God always speaks to us in a way that we can understand.

    I love the quote ‘knock and the door will be opened to you’. (Matthew 7:7) :-)

    Love & Peace
    Ama

  21. Wow! I just want to start by saying “Thanks” to all that have provided their opinions on this subject.

    I understand that I was not very clear in describing the incident, so here goes another try:

    Shortly after my wife and I had the argument, we began “talking it out”. My Son sleeps in the same room as we do due to the fact that we live in a one bedroom apartment (his bed is in there, too). Anyways, I was brushing my teeth and had the restroom door open, all the while, talking to my wife. Suddenly, I heared the 3 knocks. At first, I only heared two, but maybe like a few seconds later, I heared the 3rd.

    As I mentioned in my very first post, I usually take a glass of water with me to the room and set in on the dresser. So, naturally, I thought that’s what made the sound. I asked my wife if she or my son had gotten some water, to which she replied, “No”. I asked if she heared the knocks, but she said she did not. Now, I know a little bit about spiritual things and such, so I did not want to answer because I thought that it may be something “evil” trying to gain entry into my apartment. I don’t know why , but that is the first thing I thought. I did feel a little spooked…

    Again, I want to say thanks to all who replied! I am suprised to learn that others have so much material to porived on this matter. I am bad at explaining these things, by the way LOL….I have read everyones comment and I look forward to continuing this discussion. It is very interesting!

  22. In 1974 I was living alone and I was awakened at about 5am. It sounded like boulders were being dropped onto the roof of the house. I immediately envisioned a truck doing this, although that is patently absurd. I went outside into the street, fully expecting to see a truck. Nothing; street completely empty, apart from parked cars. I went back inside and the noise re-commenced as it had been silent whilst I was outside.
    I told my aunties a out it and they were very skeptical and virtually told me I had made it up. I had gone to see a Priest and told him about it and asked for a mass to be said for my family. Even though I was a lapsed Catholic, lol. I was estranged from my mother and so I didn’t know she was visiting relatives in Ireland. (We are Aussies).
    Months later my aunts told me they’d mentioned this to mum and she checked the time difference and at that exact time she found out one of my Irish distant relatives had died.

    Mum always told us that the Knocks and the Banshee followed our family. She heard the Knocks as a teenager, describing them as very loud, unsettling, scarey and like a literal doorknock. Others with her at the time hadn’t heard them. Therefore, when I heard them, I did not realise what they were because the sound I heard was like falling boulders.

    • Thanks for sharing your experience with us Treay Co. Banshees and Black Shuck are two of the elemental energies I find very interesting.

      And its lovely to see another Aussie on the group,
      Love & Peace
      Ama (Melbourne)

  23. Hi it was good to see all the different ideas about what the 3 knocks means just tonight i have heard 3 or 4 knocks that sounded like it was on my wooden door ,am alittle bit scared as i have seen a few things in my life and am going through some problems with not very nice peoople who have or might reappear in my life again so with the 3 knocks i was just wondering what it means.

  24. Some people associate the three knock as something that is connected to what they are going through in life. Some say the three knocks is a reminder from unseen entities or from God. Some rational people would just brush it off and say that it is just the house settling. According to folk tales and legends, the three knocks are caused by malevolent entities trying to gain entry in their victim’s houses.

    And after all this knocking, has anybody tried knocking back?

    This reminds me of “knock on wood” an idiom that is often used to wish for good luck or wish for something good to come true. Another variant for the knock on wood is to wish something bad will not happen or reverse a bad omen, or something like that. If I remember correctly some variations of knock on wood requires at leas 3 knocks to make the warding effective or reversing of bad omens to work and the person has to knock on real wood.

    It’s pretty intriguing to see how these two things seem so similar.

  25. I have heard 3 knocks…I am very spiritual person..it did wake me up and scare me…I pray that its not because a family member will die..or something evil..everyone has these tales..I don’t know which one to believe…

  26. And it just happened 20 mins ago feb 13 2012..the knocks and it did wake me up.

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