My great grandmother was young during the spiritualist movement that swept Europe and the United States; she however passed down many stories to my mum regarding things that she had witnessed during her youth and young adulthood. I will share a few stories that my mum has shared with me. I am interested if there are others whose great grandparents were also active in the spiritualist movement and what sorts of stories they have inherited.

My great grandmother was born in Italy and didn’t immigrate until her later years. The house she grew up in had three floors. Her bedroom was on the second floor. As Italians will do, many people lived in this house, immediate family and many extended family members as well. The room directly above my grandmothers shared room was a room that was used as storage. The room previously belonged to my great great grandfather’s brother who had drowned in his early 20’s. My great grandmother loved to tell the story of how she would be awakened every night like clockwork to booted feet walking past her door and up the small staircase leading to the third floor. The footsteps would then walk across the upper floor and suddenly stop. My great grandmother always said that the footsteps stopped at the closet where the deceased relatives clothing and shoes were kept.

Another story has to do with a séance my great grandmother held when my mother was just a child. My mother said that the table levitated and the Ouija board my great grandmother used scooted right off the table. My mother was a devout catholic growing up and says she spent the next few months going to mass to prevent possession. My great grandmother however, was completely unfazed by the events as that sort of thing was status quo.

All my grandparents and great grandparents are dead, so I can't share any stories. But that was an interesting one!

My grandparents are dead also, so no stories.

My grandfather used to go on and on with the stories.

Mostly stories about the house that his mother moved into when him and his 2 brothers were already on their own. Apparently that house was haunted to the point where after she moved, several other families moved in there over and over... and it was eventually torn down after about the 3rd or 4the family moved and insisted it be removed.

His most told story goes something like this. You have to imagine him telling it though. lol:

I kept getting calls from my mother at night saying she thought someone was breaking in. This wasn't too unusual. She did it all the time. But once she called and said she saw "people" in the kitchen. I thought she was being robbed so I went over right away but nobody was there. So I asked her what happened and she told me.

She said that the kitchen was filled with people dressed in robes with hoods. All of them were talking loudly and eating food that was placed on the table. She was so frightened she ran upstairs and called. By the time I got there... they were gone and no food was removed. But one of the windows was open.

I figured it was someone trying to break in but my mother swore that she knew they were ghosts. And when I locked up and told her I would stay the night she insisted I salted all the windows ( I don't know if this is an old Italian thing or what, but i've heard salt keeps ghosts and vampires from passing a point. They have to count each grain or something before entering and by sun-up they have to leave. Anyway...). So I salted the windows like she asked, and did several other things. After she went to bed upstairs I went down and figured I would catch the burglar in the act, so I took a long rope I had from outside and I began to tie it around the room, the doorknobs, a lamp, and other objects in the room leading to the couch I was sleeping on. So it was basically a spiderweb that would set off a nice chain reaction of things falling if somebody came in the dark. Then I went to sleep on the tied couch.

I wasn't ready for what I saw in the morning though. I woke up in a totally different spot... but still on the couch. All the furniture un the room was pushed outward against the walls, and the center of the room was completely naked. Even the rug was pushed against the wall. And smack dab in the center of the room was the long rope I used the night before.... in a perfect coil as if someone rolled it up neatly and put it down. I didn't even wake up during the night when it happened.

Shortly after that incident she moved. And other families moved in there. One had no problem, and then moved a few years to relocate for work. Then another claimed plates flew from the shelves hitting them in the faces. They moved. The next family moved and I think another. Then it got to the point where it couldn't be sold and was plowed down for a parking lot later.

That was it. They never knew why the house had a problem in the 1st place. Nobody ever really talked about it but him. Both of his brothers died and never really spoke about it much if at all (one did a few times). I brought this up recently with him and the only thing he said was "jesus christ, that was horrible. It gives me the willies."

My grandparents died when I was very young, so I didn't get to hear any stories
about their youths. I wish I did though. That story from CosmosTheMouse was
very interesting.

Excellent story!!

I enjoyed that very much!

Id completely forgotten about this. I remember my great grandmother and my grandmother salting the thresholds of the doors of the house. It was for protection because no one who wished you ill will could pass through the door. Its been years since I thought of that!

I also remember a story that my grandmother would tell. I dont remember all the details but it consisted of her seeing people in a mirror seated at the dining table eating and drinking and there being no one in the room actually seated at the table.

I wished I had paid attention more to their stories now that they are both gone. *sigh* you know kids.

My Gran never said much about anything like that, but my mother told me she would go to a spiritualist church of which she oddly called "the club" LOL ominous hey?

Mother has told many a story regarding her experiences though, stemming back quite a way as she had me when she was in her mid 30's. Much regarding poltergiest activity in her uncles house when she was 14, house that used to belong to Dukle of Sussex, big old place with a steeple and bell that was rusted solid. Needless to say they awoke one night to the sound of this apparently immoveable bell clanging away as though someone was pulling the ropes.
She also saw the dog being picked up by its tail off the floor, plates flying down the stairs after an innocent visitor had been scared stupid off the toilet when the seat started pushing down so hard on his back he ran with his trousers round his ankles..All manner of chaotic events.

She would also tell me of robed figures she would sight down the seafront, altar boys in churches that would walk through a closed door, etc etc.

Pity my mother had such a high degree of "sight" she eventually chose to close off.