I saw a ghost last night!

[This Guy]

So, OK, it wasn't really a ghost. But it looked like it coulda been one!

It was actually a large clear plastic sheet (like a trash bag torn in half or something) that had blown aginst a bush (not GW, a planted one). Two of the corners were up at the top, and the wind was causing them to flap in such a way as to appear like two arms reaching out. Was really strange looking.

For about a second, I thought WTH! Then the headlights hit it more directly and I could actually tell what I was looking at, and I went "crap!", and kinda chuckled to myself :)

Just thought I'd share that ;)

[sat556]

Lol that's fab. I had a similar experience myself years ago. I remember my whole world view shuddering violently, and the awful thought of 'how the hell am I going to tell anybody about this? I'm going to be a woo!" :D

[Orangutan]

I have had similar experiences. It's a testament to how well our brains can fill in the extra details we cannot see, And how utterly real those filled in details are until our brain goes "Oh!" and takes another stab at trying to understand what we are looking at.

[Apathia]

I don't have a count of the number of times I've seen a cat turn into a paper bag or some other bit of trash.

[The Kilted Yaksman]

You mean GW isn't a plant?:confused:

[Cuddles]

I don't have a count of the number of times I've seen a cat turn into a paper bag or some other bit of trash.

Is that like the magic tractor that was driving down a road and turned into a field.

[zooloo]

I found a dead baby ghost once.

But now I think about it maybe it was a handkerchief.

[This Guy]

I've seen other things that made me go Huh! But this was just so striking.

At first I thought it was a coyote, I'd seen on in the area a few nights ago. But as I got closer, it was obvious it wasn't an animal, but for a second I couldn't tell what it was. Then in about half light, it was Whoa! What is that! It looked just like arms reaching out. And the way it was wrapped around the bush made it look like a short person standing there with the left side toward me, reaching out for something, or like the classic picture of a ghost walking from right to left.

Then the headlights hit it, and I felt so stupid lol :covereyes

[baron]

I once saw a hunched, dark, hairy shape in the car headlights at the side of the road, which was quite a shock. Obviously a bush, I thought, but imagine my embarrassment when I got closer and realised it was a yeti.

[Tanja]

My husband and I were looking out of the window yesterday evening (we live on the fourth floor of an apartment block in central London) and we both spotted what looked like a UFO (actually a USO as the object was completely still in the air some distance from us). It looked like a tiny half-crescent moon, it was quite beautiful, actually. We just could not figure out what it was. Then we figured it was an object hanging from a huge crane at a building site nearby - we knew that there was a crane there, but it was rendered completely invisible by the dark, and it was really difficult to judge the distance of the object.

(I know my post has nothing to do with ghosts, but it is about explaining a weird phenomenon).

Luckily, we both reacted with "let's try and figure out what it is" rather than "oh my god, aliens are coming".

[Deetee]

So, OK, it wasn't really a ghost. But it looked like it coulda been one!

It was actually a large clear plastic sheet (like a trash bag torn in half or something) that had blown aginst a bush (not GW, a planted one). Two of the corners were up at the top, and the wind was causing them to flap in such a way as to appear like two arms reaching out. Was really strange looking.

For about a second, I thought WTH! Then the headlights hit it more directly and I could actually tell what I was looking at, and I went "crap!", and kinda chuckled to myself :)

Just thought I'd share that ;)

And your evidence that this was a plastic sheet???
Don't you know ectoplasm appears identical to some modern-day synthetic materials?

I would have thought that rather to make unwarranted assumptions with a mind full of preconceptions that ghosts do not exist that you might have shown a bit of scepticism to your final conclusion (or delusion?) and introduced an element of rational scientific enquiry by stopping the car and obtaining some of the substance for direct examination and independent laboratory corroborration.
;)

[This Guy]

My husband and I were looking out of the window yesterday evening (we live on the fourth floor of an apartment block in central London) and we both spotted what looked like a UFO (actually a USO as the object was completely still in the air some distance from us). It looked like a tiny half-crescent moon, it was quite beautiful, actually. We just could not figure out what it was. Then we figured it was an object hanging from a huge crane at a building site nearby - we knew that there was a crane there, but it was rendered completely invisible by the dark, and it was really difficult to judge the distance of the object.

(I know my post has nothing to do with ghosts, but it is about explaining a weird phenomenon).

Luckily, we both reacted with "let's try and figure out what it is" rather than "oh my god, aliens are coming".

Nope, not a ghost story, but fits right in!

Thanks for adding to the thread! :)

[This Guy]

And your evidence that this was a plastic sheet???
Don't you know ectoplasm appears identical to some modern-day synthetic materials?

I would have thought that rather to make unwarranted assumptions with a mind full of preconceptions that ghosts do not exist that you might have shown a bit of scepticism to your final conclusion (or delusion?) and introduced an element of rational scientific enquiry by stopping the car and obtaining some of the substance for direct examination and independent laboratory corroborration.
;)

Well, I was gonna take a sample, but I didn't have my Positron handy, and I was afraid that if anything happened, I'd be defensless. :D

[wolfgirl]

Several years ago, my husband and I were visiting his mother in England. It was our first night there, and I woke up in the middle of the night. I suppose I was somewhat disoriented at being in an unfamiliar place and probably jetlagged as well. When I first opened my eyes, I saw a humongous hooded figure standing over me, and my mind made it out to be the grim reaper.

For just a second, I was absolutely terrified. Also sad that I was going to be dying so far from home. Also curious as to what I was dying from, as I am quite healthy. Also angry that I was dying so relatively young. Also surprised that there was actually such a thing as the Grim Reaper that comes for you when you die. And all of this really went through my mind in just a couple of seconds.

Before I realized that it was simply my mother-in-law's tall dresser next to the bed, with an overnight bag on top that looked a bit like a head and a robe hanging on it. Once I was fully awake and aware, it seemed quite ridiculous, and I was embarrassed when I told my husband about it later, since I don't believe in any sort of supernatural entities. But just for a couple of seconds there, I was truly convinced that an embodied Death had come for me, and that I was about to die.

That has made me realize how easy it is to be fooled accidentally. So I know it must be even easier to be fooled by someone who knows what they're doing.

[DavidS]

Is that like the magic tractor that was driving down a road and turned into a field.

Driving down TX 6 to the Gulf of Mexico to go fishing with three buddies at ~04:00 one morning of July 2004, I found myself wearing one of four pairs of soiled britches when a dark semi-tractor-trailer rig materialized from nowhere on collision course with my pickup. The oncoming rig was distinct, and detailed, right down to the mirrors projecting from the sides of the cab: obviously real. Towing a boat at 50+mph, I had absolutely no chance to avoid the horrific collision that would certainly kill us all and scuff the lovely gold anodized finish on my favorite Shimano reels. All aboard were certain we'd bought the proverbial farm, and none had the agricultural expertise to capitalize upon the aquisition. Golf vocabulary was employed to its usual efficacy. Fortunately ectoplasm isn't nearly as solid as good old steel; we passed through the juggernaut without a scratch.

A bit of reflection (while changing shorts) led my (limited) intellect to conclude that what we'd "hit" was merely the shadow of a rig some distance ahead, cast suddenly by the headlights of a further vehicle rounding a curve onto a cloud of dust left by a tractor that had just crossed the highway at an intersection with an unpaved road.

Understanding that still doesn't relieve the confusion and fear of the seconds after the non-impact any more than it does the terror of the few seconds before. It's still scary to remember; I know because its memory has occaisionally awakened me in a cold sweat.

I know it wasn't a ghost truck. I know and knew at the time that there are no ghost trucks. However, all my sensory input at the time was consistent with what I'd expect to experience had it been a ghost truck. More precisely, all my sensory input up the point of anticipated impact was consistent with what I'd expect to experience had it been a real truck; I think my mind performed admirably by jumping to that (erroneous) conclusion in the limited time available. I think my mind performed well by accepting the real-truck interpretation as fact and moving on to the (unsuccessful) evaluation of potential countermeasures. The subsequent absence of loud crunching noises followed by oblivion was merely a complicating detail; having already accepted that it was a truck, the most straightforward incorporation of these unexpected survival data was attributing it with some ghostly nature.

I can see how a less rational person (there must be one somewhere), or one who hadn't seen the tractor or the dirt road, or who didn't consider the shadow explanation, might cling to the ghostly explanation. The coincidences required were unlikely -- the tractor crossing between us and the truck to place a nice cloud just so, the car rounding the bend at just the right time to project the shadow onto the cloud. "Common sense" might suggest it just couldn't happen that way.

[This Guy]

I love these stories!

Of course, if we actually had any brains, we'd be writing them up in books with some fabrications, as ghost stories, and get rich and retire ;)

[Minarvia]

My brother and I were playing in one of the barns at my grandma's farm many years ago and it was getting dark. We left the barn and saw what we thought was a huge dark man coming around the corner at us. Being kids we thought "ghost" right away. Then we thought better of it and stood still and looked again. It was just a huge garbage bin. Then it fell over and we heard the sound of nails clicking on the pavement and a skunk came at us. Needless to say, that scared us more than any ghost would have and we ran faster than we knew how! Thank goodness we got away...

This thread is hilarious. I needed a good laugh today!

[Ysidro]

You mean GW isn't a plant?:confused:

He's an Illuminati plant, but that's a thread for the Conspiracy forum.

Anyway, I once saw a dark hooded figure on the side of the road. Late night, long drive, and a roadside tree all contributed to this interesting apparition.

However, my favorite personal ghost story involves what was most likely a dream. I was quite young and sleeping in my bed when I opened my eyes and a blue-white figure looking much like a cartoon character was standing before me. I told it to go bother my mother instead (yeah, what brave and loyal child I was) and it flashed into a skeleton. I shut my eyes and when I opened them it was gone and I was most assuredly awake.

Easily explained of course, but it is my earliest rememberence of a dream. It was also probably my first known case of sleep paralysis though later occurances didn't have any visual hallucinations involved.

[Spektator]

Driving through Greenville, SC, late one night, I saw the weirdest phenomenon: At the top of the hill ahead of me there was a kind of billowing luminous mist, and at its core was the dark figure of a human being, but at times the mist wavered and dissolved and there was nothing there. When my headlights hit it, the dark figure vanished, but the mist became a thick boil of white steam.

Then I got toward the top of the hill and saw that a manhole was open, with a guard around it, and steam was billowing out. Some guys were working on the far side of the hill, and their work lights were casting the shadow of one of them (foreman, I guess, he just seemed to be leaning on a long pole) onto the billow of steam.

[Elizabeth I]

I've posted this in another thread, but:

I was walking my dogs one evening (after dark) when I saw two huge lights hanging in the sky, motionless. There was no noise. Needless to say, I stopped and looked. They seemed to get closer. I was going through that "Oh, my God, and I don't have a camera" thing when suddenly the angle changed, and I realized...

I live near the airport and what I saw was a plane coming in to land that at the moment I saw it happened to be pointed straight at me so that there was no apparent motion, and it was just too far away for me to hear the engines.

[Azrael 5]

This one time at band camp.....

Best leave that story there..:D

[tube]

[QUOTE=This Guy;2258974]

It was actually a large clear plastic sheet (like a trash bag torn in half or something) that had blown aginst a bush (not GW, a planted one). Two of the corners were up at the top, and the wind was causing them to flap in such a way as to appear like two arms reaching out. Was really strange looking.

QUOTE]

Yes, there is a great deal of plastic in the world. While driving, I've experienced at least once something I couldn't immediately identify which turned out to be plastic.

I have to wonder if this might be the prosaic explanation for the exotic cryptid known as the "Fence Fiend"

http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/fence-fiend/

[This Guy]

Guess I could add a couple tales from a summer visit to my Aunts when I was young. Guess I was around 8-10 at that time, but not positive. My sister and I went down for a couple weeks one summer (she lived in a neighboring state, about 250 miles or so away).

I suspect the actual "inspiration" for these "visitations" was my having watched the Twilight Zone (which I still love).

First one was as I was walking down the hall, past the Living room. With my peripheral vision, I saw what appeared to be a ghost sitting in a rocking chair. I stopped and backed up to look in again, this time with both eyes, and saw the rocking chair, but no sign of anyone/anything. I chalked it up to imagination and brushed it aside.

Then while showering, I glanced up at the little window in the shower, and would have sworn I saw one of the pig faced people from that night's episode of the TZ. The face was practically filling the little window up, and looking down at me. A blink later, it was gone, and I suspect it was an active imagination and perhaps some steam on the window that was actually at work.

My problem when I was young, was my love for horror movies. I was watching the old black and whites, when the only TV we had only had black and white :)

Bele Lugosi, Boris Karloff. Wolfman, Frankenstein, Vampires! I loved them all, and they all scared the crap outa me lol

I can recall watching our local Friday/Saturday night horror shows, with all the lights out, Shock, then later Shock Jr. As they were the last shows before the National anthem (sometimes they would have that poem (http://www.prazen.com/cori/highflit.html) that was always accompanied by the video of a jet fighter in flight) and the test pattern, being too scared to get off the couch to turn the TV off, I'd wake up to the white noise from the TV. I'd get up somewhere around the Farm Digest show, as the sun was coming up, and turn off the set and get in bed :blush:

Used to drive my Mom crazy, but of course, I never told her I was scared, or she woulda made me stop watching them.

I have most those old movies on DVD now, and still watch them from time to time. I just leave the lights on ;)

[CLD]

I suspect the actual "inspiration" for these "visitations" was my having watched the Twilight Zone (which I still love).


My creepy fave was "One Step Beyond" with John Newland, said to be based on "true events".

[kittynh]

I was once doing the laundry in my VERY old colonial basement (dirt floor) in Connecticut. Kitten was just 2. She was chattering away and I joked, "who are you talking to honey?" She said, "the pretty white lady."

Oh yeah, the hairs stood up on my arms. I SO DID NOT want to turn around to see the "white lady". Meanwhile she kept prattling along...

I finally turned to see...

a little white china angel that the previous owner had left.

But for a moment there I knew if I ever saw a ghost I would just walk OUT of the house and NEVER return. How these people continue to live in a place with dripping blood and evil ghosts is beyond me. If you saw a REAL ghost, and you knew it was a REAL ghost, you would be so OUT of there.

[CLD]

Old joke:

I was in a book shop one day. Except for me and a young clerk, the place was empty.

A book suddenly fell off a shelf at the opposite end of the shop.

I asked the clerk, 'Have you got poltergeists?'

She replied, 'No, but we do have a book on black magic.'

[skullerello]

My wife's grandparents purchased the house we now occupy for her a few years before I came on the scene. Previously, it was the home of a little old lady who died here. My wife has a couple of annecdotes concerning the unbelievably cold spots she's experienced in the creepy (uninsulated) back breeze-way that connects the garage to the house, as well as the mysterious fused thermostat that somehow saved her life; both of which she attributes to "Velma". I was not present, so I really can't comment on any of these spooky occurrances, however, I do know that there was a gas leak (which, thanks to me, was investigated and subsequently repaired::boggled: ) It could've been devistating. The house could've blown up.
Yet, I have, after a few beers, and while sitting here at her computer in the wee hours after everyone else has gone to bed, seen some very strange things out of the corner of my eye. Once, a tall blonde gentleman walked right past me, and into the kitchen. I didn't see him in the conventional sense as much as I imagined seeing him. And there have been others, but, as the television is always on, the lighting is terrible, and I'm always tired... in a near hypnogogic trance. I conclude that it's all me. I should stop huffing fabric softener sheets downstairs in our ultra-creepy, rough-hewn, stone and timber rat-hole that we call a basement while running laundry.





BOO!!!!!!

[jmontecillo01]

I had a lot of things happened to me which I don't have an answer.

At the age of 3 or 4, we lived in a pastoral church which was adjacent to the church where my grampa was a minister. I was about to sleep when I heard a voice coming from the church calling my name 3 times. I asked my mother if she heard it but she said no.

When I was in the University, I was asleep when I was awoken by the sound of dogs barking. When I opened my eyes, I saw a white figure standing at the end of my bed. Then I saw it go out of the door. A few minutes after it left, the dogs stopped barking.

Way back 1979, I know that I fell asleep in the lounge with the television on. I woke up to some noise and when I opened my eyes, I saw the grim reaper walking towards me. As he came nearer, he changed into an old man. What happened next was he was trying to take me but I got away. After that I suddenly awoke in my room. The first thing I did the next morning was to call home. I was then informed that my father had a heart attack and died during the night.