Oct 30, 2011

True ghost stories

So I had a post on overwriting scheduled and then realized that, in fact, I'd rather write about ghosts. Because of Halloween and all. Since popular fiction includes those based on a true story (why do we love The Blind Side? And Sound of Music? And all those animal-in-peril-until-dramatic-rescue movies? Because they're true...mostly) I had to share one of my own creepy paranormal encounters.

When I was in second grade, my parents divorced so my brother and I moved to Lawrence, KS, with my mom. The only place she could afford to rent was this seedy little duplex that smelled bad and had ratty carpet. But it had three bedrooms and was in walking distance of an elementary school. My bedroom was in the back, next to the bathroom. We'd been there about a month when, late one night, I was awoken by something jumping on my bed. I thought it was our cat and sat up. Nothing was there. So I tried to fall asleep and it happened again. And again. I got up to tell my mother, who was taking a bath in the bathroom that shared a wall with my room. She told me I'd been dreaming. So I went back to bed and fell asleep. Mom told me later that she started to hear this banging against the wall. She yelled at me to be quiet. It kept up, literally shaking the whole wall. Mom assumed I was jumping on the bed and got out of the tub to tell me to knock it off. She opened the door to my room to see the bed jumping 1-2 feet off the floor while I snoozed, oblivious, in the middle of the mattress. My mom - an Ivy League grad who holds a PhD in biology -  was a brand-new baby Christian at the time and believed in the supernatural. She commanded whatever it was to be gone in Jesus name, and it stopped. We weren't bothered again. And the smell in the duplex went away. We found out later that the duplex had come up for rent after a huge drug/prostition ring bust on the previous renters. (Comforting news, no?) 
That's the least shocking of my two paranormals. The second tale involved an exorcism.  Both have shaped my view on evil/demons/ghosts. Do I think they're real? Yup.

So do you have any favorite true scary stories? Have they shaped your belief in the supernatural? Or, like the photo below, in the impossible?




9 comments:

Stephsco said...

OK, that's freaky. Super freaky.

I know the cat jumping up feeling is often referred to in people's description of sleep paralysis. I've also experienced this; it felt like my cat hopped up and walked on my legs while I slept, only this happened to me in my apartment and my cat lived with my mom in her house. My consciousness woke up but my body stayed asleep. A lot of old documentation on this stuff refers to demons and the supernatural. Interesting stuff to read about if you're curious!

Botanist said...

That is creepy. Like Stephsco said, waking up with that sort of feeling could have a reasonable internal explanation (like feeling you're stepping off a ledge when you're dozing off and wake suddenly), but dunno about jumping beds!

Anonymous said...

Oh man that is terrifying! I think I may have thought - just some weird body thing jolting you in your sleep until your mum saw the bed off the ground! AH!

Love the photos by the way.

Life is soooo creepy. I'm a bit too sensitive about places that don't feel right so I don't hang around long enough to see anything happen. My dad told me of a time he lived in a house, where for some reason he never stayed in this one room. He'd hadn't picked up on it until one day, whilst wondering in and out again, he saw a severed head above the settee- rolling. Like your mum, this was quite a shocker to hear my dad say - he's far to rational.

Deana said...

That is the craziest, scariest crap I have EVER heard. I don't know what I'd do if I walked into my little girls room and the bed was bouncing up and down with her in it. Makes me think of Poltergeist. That movie took the cake! Good for your mom to know what to do!

Sarah Tokeley said...

Yes, it's official. This story freaks me out :-)

Carrie Butler said...

Aww, man! Why did I read your post at 2:00 AM? If you need me, I'll be sleeping with the covers over my face... ;)

Emily R. King said...

My home was haunted when I first moved into it. The light in the kitchen would turn on without anyone's help, and it's a turn knob, which makes it creepier because it would turn on slowly. Also, my husband's alarm clock would turn off and on independently. Finally I had enough and I cast it out in similar fashion as your mother did. We haven't had a problem since.
I'm a total believer in the supernatural, but I don't believe in ghosts. I believe in evil spirits. They're much creepier than the dead.

Nancy Thompson said...

That is too weird!

I used to see a ghost pretty regularly in a house I lived in as a teenager. It was always the same: a floating white diamond-shaped thing in the hallway. I only saw it out of the corner of my eye, but it was at different times of the day and year so it wasn't the light. I must have seen it 30 times at least.

That's about as weird as it gets for me.

Jolene Perry said...

That is so cool :D