So what is a ghost, according to traditional belief, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that is able to appear in visible form. According to Sylvia Browne - a ghost is "someone who hasn't made it - in other words, who died, and they don't know they're dead, so they keep walking around and thinking that you are inhabiting their - let's say, their domain. So they are aggravated with you". So the question is.....for me, do I believe in ghosts? That is a hard one for me to answer, mainly because I am a Christian, so technically, ghosts should not exist right? right!, however, I have had a few things happen to me that make me wonder. Actually I don't wonder, I am 100% positive it was something unexplainable, but what it was, and if it would have actually hurt me are questions that I'm not able to answer.
So what exactly has happened....well, here's the deal, the house I grew up in, is definitely haunted...from a very very young age I remember things happening that we couldn't explain. For instance, in the fall, nearly every year, something goes off in the attic that laughs, sounds like a weird doll or something, but we hear it ONCE and only ONCE a year, since I was little, we have cleaned out the attic, never found anything that could make a noise like that. I've also heard the story of my brother sitting on the stairs talking to our great grandfather who was deceased, my brother said, "I'm talking to Pop Hines", and he was too little to know him. My cousin, (whose name I will not mention) was basically attacked as a child by something at night.
My parents house used to be a two family, one door in the front (where we lived) and a side door leading upstairs that was rented to other people. Apparently, a lady whom lived upstairs (before we moved in), fell down the steps in the winter, and froze on the landing at the side of the house, now, is this just a story? Not sure, but everyone seems to know about it...I have tried and tried to find proof of this, but haven't been able to yet, the reason I bring this up is to give an insight on my next "unexplained" happening. My parents used to throw the most awesome Halloween parties, complete with a haunted house, scary food, music, and kids leaving screaming their heads off. During one of our parties, we decided to tell ghost stories, so my mom told the story of the lady and the stairs, my dad, was supposed to drop something down the stairs on cue, to scare the shit out of us at a certain part of the story. Well, something fell down the stairs all right, but my dad hadn't done it, the minute we screamed, my dad comes in from the back door, and says "oh, is it time for the story?, to which my mom replies "we already did it!, my dad then says, "oh sorry babe, I wasn't keeping track of time"...well later I heard them talking and mom asking him what had fallen down the steps then, if he wasn't the one doing it.
The next few happenings are just weird, I used to go to a friends, whose mom we liked to call "mama Siegel" cause she was so awesome. Well every Friday night we went for a teen party, we played all the fun games, spin the bottle, 7 minutes in heaven, followed by a seance and light as a feather. Our seances were top notch. During one of them we decided to bring back mama Siegel's grandfather. I was sitting next to her on the couch, and we called for him, well, it was different than normal because the candle actually went out, in which all of us girls screamed, and grabbed onto the closest boy next to us (hee hee hee), well, I kept feeling my hair being touched, I assumed it was Janet (mama Siegel), so I didn't say anything. A few minutes later, I realized that Janet's hands were covering her face, and she was crying....well, I asked her what was wrong, she said, she thought she saw someone come in the door behind us that resembled her grandfather. I was fine until she said, but I don't think it was him, because I asked him to play with one of my girls hair. At that point I was seriously scared, but didn't tell anyone.
Another seance at my grandparents house, is still kind of funny to me, the girls, my mom, my two aunts, my grandmother, and I were in the kitchen doing a seance to bring back Elvis of course , well my grandfather, and the guys were in the living room playing the guitar and singing (my grandfather was a member of the crowns men quartet) anyway, we called to Elvis, asked for a sign, and my grandfather starts singing...."love me tender"...For real..., we quit after that.
Now on to the strange things, a lady lived in our house when I was little by the name of Mrs. Harris, she seemed really mean, but I think she was just aggravated by my brother and I making noise, she was very old, my brother and I had our bedrooms in the upstairs, she rented a small apartment next to our hallway. One day, she called me in her room to tell me how much she enjoyed watching me play, I decided she was a very nice lady, and I loved her. Well, she became very sick, and was put in a home. One night, while sleeping, I woke up due to a huge bright light coming in my window. I couldn't figure it out, wasn't scared of it, but went downstairs to my mom to tell her I couldn't sleep, when I got to the bottom of the stairs I realized my mom was on the phone, and she was visibly upset. She hung up with whomever she was talking to and told me that Mrs. Harris had just passed away while she was on the phone with her brother....to this day, I think it was her telling me goodbye. When my grandfather passed away, things kept happening at his house, weird things, just a feeling that he was there still, so I asked him to show me a sign that he was around, when I asked that, I opened a Bible of his, opened it to a random page, and found a note written by my grandfather. At that point his watch went off, this watch was hidden in the deepest part of his drawer, and had been missing for quite some time. Now that could be coincidence, but, maybe it wasn't.
Now for the scariest one...I went to Kentucky with some friends of mine, Sandy and Rick Pendleton, and Patsy and Denny Troxell and Carolyn Beatty. Well, we were staying at an old house belonging to Rick's family called the Pappy house. The Pappy house was so old, it didn't have a bathroom, only an outhouse, and a well in the front yard. We had always heard rumors that the Pappy house was haunted, but didn't care, we were teenagers, what was going to hurt us right? Well, our first night there the boys (including some of Rick's adorable cousins, Jimmy and Tracy) were upstairs talking about us girls, we could hear them because we were in the back room listening through the ducts. We were trying not to giggle to loudly. We were in a little huddle cracking up, when a hanger hits me in the back. A hanger? yes a hanger, right out of the closet, well, we couldn't hold in our laughter anymore, and was hysterically laughing when the boys came downstairs because they heard us. We told them, in which their response was "oh it's just the ghost"...whatever!.. The next morning the boys went to town to get a part for Rick's car, the girls were just going to hang out at the house. We were in the living room , in the front of the house, watching television when we heard the kitchen door open, which was in the back of the house. So of course we ask "did you find the parts you needed for the car?", no answer. I walk in the kitchen, and the door is open, I didn't think much of it, closed the door and went back to watch television. A few minutes later, it opens again, Sandy goes in and closes the door, comes back and says, "you must not have closed it all the way, the wind opened it I guess". No big deal, until, it opened again. I decided to lock the door, went back to the living room and said, "here's the thing, It's locked, if it opens again, it's either someone playing a trick on us, or something else". Of course, you know, it opened again. So we decide to sit on the front porch. We are chatting, and someone says something about the stupid ghost bothering us, as soon as that came out, the door behind us, opened with such force it hit the wall, and knocked a picture off, and the screen door pulled open to hit the front of the house. We took off running down the gravel road, only to meet the boys in the car halfway down. The didn't believe us, why would they, we were stupid. Well, I didn't sleep at all the last night there, as a matter of fact, I stayed up with a knife next to me, and haven't been back.
These stories, and others I've heard still give me goose bumps, but, I'm not sure I can honestly say I'm afraid. I'm more curious than anything. My curiosity actually has me to the point where I am planning a stay in two of the most haunted places on earth. The Chillingham Castle in England, and of course the Waverly Sanitarium in Louisville, Kentucky. The castle speaks for itself, that would just be cool to stay in haunted or not. The Waverly Hills Sanitarium, well that is a different story - this is an old abandoned hospital where they kept tuberculosis patients in the early 1900's. I have read so much about Waverly Hills that I could probably host some sort of show on it. I know that more than 6000 people died in the hospital, and doctors were said to do experimental surgeries, and used illegal drugs on the patients. There was a floor for children, and is supposedly haunted still by a little guy named Tommy. A wing was made for patients who had no hope of surviving, which is horrible, because they would have known they were dying when they were moved there. There was also a body chute, which was used of course transport bodies to the outside, so patients couldn't see how many there were, and to cut down on spread of the disease, they say that the bodies were just thrown down and gravity took them to the bottom. Why am I so obsessed with Waverly, well, my great great grandmother Julia Hatter passed away at Waverly, from tuberculosis, and insanity (which is caused by tuberculosis, since it ravages the mind). I am still trying to find out where she was in the hospital, the room number and such, because I would love to see where exactly she was placed.
So the question remains...do I believe in ghosts? I don't know really, I mean, things happen that are unexplained, weird things, and scary things, but are they ghosts, or spirits? John Edwards is a Christian who is also a psychic, he says that people can be in an area where they are able to communicate, and to check on us.
Of course I watch Ghost Hunters (it's my favorite show), and other shows like that, but do I believe those?, not really! I think they do a good job debunking things, and they do a good job trying to make it seem like things are not a set up, but are all the things they find real? I doubt it, I would love to go on the show, and be with them one night to see. So even if someone could provide plausible explanations for poltergeists, or ghosts that show up in a million different places and times, there is always the possibility that one that pops up will be the real thing.
So, for people who believe in poltergeists, ghosts and haunted places, take refuge in the fact that nobody ever has enough information to debunk EVERY ghost story, however, knowing God as I do, I feel secure in knowing where I am going after death. I guess this is something I will just never be able to answer, and why it's called the unknown I suppose. Don't get me wrong, I don't dwell on this stuff, I don't find ways or ask for ghosts to come to me - heck no, I'm not stupid, and I am definitly staying away from any satanic, witchy, voodoo things - I'm not into evil, I guess I'm like the rest of the world...questioning...
So, when I'm asked..."are you afraid of the dark?" I can usually answer, "no, not really, I'm just afraid of what MIGHT be in the dark!."
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