While not my first 'bump' into the dead, my first (known or remembered) meeting a ghost happened when I was in high school. My parents bought the house and it was in the first week of being there that IT happened. I was in my room, was not all that late and I was not home alone but I suddenly got this really creepy feeling. The overall feeling is a bit difficult to explain. Most of us are probably familiar with the feeling that someone is watching you, and you find that someone actually is. And then there is that feeling when someone is standing next you, sneaking up on you, and you feel it even when you don't see them. It is a mix of that and more.
It freaked me out a bit, not scary, more uneasy as it was just new to me.
My first thought was, "It's a Ghost", and I was not really afraid.
I have an innate fascination with spirits and knowing there is more to this world than what we can see and touch, so I was already open to these sorts of things. But, Boy did it catch me off-guard!
I could feel this energy hovering over me as I was in bed. I thought about, 'oh it's your imagination; remember scaring yourself with imagining the two creepy guys living under the bed when you where little? Regardless of the cause for the feeling, I had to do something. Assuming it was a ghost, or assuming it was my imagination, I proceeded to tell 'the ghost' that it was making me uneasy and I was not here to push him out. I told him that I respected his 'space' and asked him to respect mine. The feeling stayed there for a little while longer and then 'exited' by way of the closet. I say 'he' because I did get the feeling that it was a man.Again, one could say it was imagination, or whatever, and that I talked myself out of it. And I would go with that theory all the way... BUT.... as time would have it, the ghost made his presence known to others in the house. My mom had her experiences and I had mine. My step dad he was skeptical.
Both my mother and I would see him sitting on the couch looking out the big windows of the front room. It was a beautiful view, who wouldn't?. I would see him there often. At first I thought it was 'eye trickery'.
My real dad was a scientist and taught me to first seek a rational and logical explanation. Just like my bedroom experience, and just like my step-dad, I was skeptical but more of a believer. Too much was adding up that could not be explained any other way. So at first, I had two thoughts, ghost or eye trickery until one morning when I was having breakfast at the 'bar' and saw my mom do the exact same thing that I had done the first time I saw him sitting on the couch... go back and forth, look, don't look... as you could only see him out of the corner of your eye. She paced back and forth and kept turning her head.
She did not know I was there until I giggled. I startled her and when she looked at me I said, "You see him don't you", more as a statement than a question. She replied "YES!" That's when both mom and I knew each other really knew. Mom had talked about 'weird' stuff happening in the house, but never anything that specifically pointed the "it was a ghost" finger.
What sealed the deal in the ghost hypothesis came from the experience from the #1 skeptic in the house, my step-dad.
In the garage there was several doors that would lead to different places and things. One of those doors went into a little room about the size of a small walk-in closet. Now, this door had no door knob. The only way the door would stay closed is by turning the key in the deadbolt.
Let me repeat that (and provide a visual) because this is important.
THIS DOOR ONLY FULLY CLOSED BY TURNING THE KEY IN THE DEAD BOLT LOCK.
From the picture you can see this would not be able to just 'pop' open.
And then there was another door!
In that room was a door that was a submarine-bank vault-like thing. Spinning wheel to turn all the hooks around the door, a round thick glass window. Beyond that door was another 'room' about half the size of the previous one. This is where the previous house owner kept his gun and sword collection.
All the time, again, all the time, this first door with the deadbolt lock would be open. Because both my mom and I stored stuff in those rooms, we would get 'scolded' by my step-dad about leaving the door open. Now mom and I can both be a bit spacey at times and it would be something that we would do. Go down and get something and then forget to close the door. We teasingly even blamed it on the ghost. We accepted the reminding of our forgetful ways and would try and not forget to shut the door when we went down there.
But then it got to be too much, and at times when we had not gone into the room. Now we were getting a little irritated with the blaming and that's were we, my mother and I really started to point the finger at the ghost. Getting my step-dad to believe that, not happening.... until one day... well, more like a week.
You could say thieves, but that house was broken into twice and neither time did they go into the garage. Now before you think OMG, what sort of hell did you live in that your house was broken into twice. It was on the edge of a super rich neighborhood and both areas got cased by thieves A LOT, so it is not like we were in the crappy part of town, quite the opposite.
So once my mom and I were both back from our trips. We got told the story about the door and we got an apology as well. At this point, we all agreed, hands down, there IS a ghost in this house. My step-dad then went on to learn more about the previous owner.
It turned out that the owner was the only owner of the house and he was the one that designed the house and had it built. It was his dream house. So it stands to reason that the guy really did not want to leave his home. I can't say that I blame him. This was one of my favorite houses that I have lived in.
