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Nearly Thirty Years of Unusual Activity


lalaladybird

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Hello,

I wanted to share details of regular unexplained and paranormal activity that has been occurring at our family home for nearly 30 years. The activity ranges from cold spots and noises, to moving shadows and full apparitions. In turn, each family member has heard or witnessed something, but some more than others. I'm interested to read what other people's thoughts are on the matter and if anyone else has experienced such activity over a prolonged period of time.

I grew up in Salford, near Manchester in the UK, and we moved into what is a two up/two down council house in around 1990/1991. During that period of time it was myself, my parents and my younger brother. I'm not sure when the activity first started precisely, but I'm aware that it was within a couple of years of us moving in. 

My brother, from an early age, complained of being disturbed at night by an 'old man', and on several occasions would wake up and inform my grandmother, who would babysit of an evening whilst my parents were out, that the man had told him to wake up for school. As far as I knew, this was chalked up to bad dreams, or a vivid imagination.

However, the instances of my brother seeing this old man became more frequent and started to occur during the day time. My mum recalls a particular day when my brother dashed downstairs, visibly upset, telling her that the man was following him and was walking down the stairs. She checked the staircase, but no one was there. It was around this time that she had her initial encounter with the 'old man'.

When vacuuming the living room, she described seeing a pair of legs in pressed, pinstripe trousers, and a knitted tank top on the torso. She says that from the bottom, the apparition was almost like a living person was stood in the room, but that it started to fade towards the top of the body, with the head and face barely visible. She remembers throwing the vacuum in the direction of the figure, and running through to the back of the house and outside. A few days later she told our neighbour about what she had seen. The neighbour was a little disturbed and told her that who she had described was the previous occupier, an elderly man called Fred. He had passed away in the house, a couple of years after his wife.

Fred was seen on several occasions shortly after, again by my mum and brother, but also my grandmother. My grandmother told me years later of her experience; that she was helping my mum do some work in our garden when she saw an elderly man walk out of our back door and across the garden, vanishing as he walked. She told my mum of what she had seen who in turn told her about the elderly man who seemed to be haunting the house. Although he didn't seem threatening, it really unsettled my grandmother, and coupled with my brothers encounters, she refused to take care of us at the house, and instead we spent a lot of our time at hers. To this day, she isn't particularly fond of visiting my parent's home.

From then on, sounds of walking around in the bedrooms or on the stairs when no one was in or on them increased, and items disappearing or being moved around became part of the norm, particularly for my mum. We did notice that the activity was more persistent around summertime. My mum was, and still is, the person who witnessed the most activity out of all of us. Whether this was because she was in the house more, or she is particularly sensitive, I'm not sure. But I believe a lot of the activity can be explained logically. What is interesting however, is that when our parents decided to move my brother and I into a different of bedroom, my brother seemingly stopped being disturbed by Fred, but my mum experienced more.

I personally didn't experience anything until I was 14/15 years old, when in the early hours of the morning I heard continuous, almost deliberate footsteps around on the stairs and landing area. I remember waking up, quite annoyed, believing it to be my dad having a restless night, and that all I wanted was enough sleep for school the next day. I called out for him to shut up and go to bed. The noise suddenly stopped. No noise of feet returning to the bedroom, or going downstairs, just complete silence. Around a minute or two later my bedroom door flung open and hit the wall. I remember jolting up and seeing nothing in the doorway, but the sound footsteps started moving around my room. I yelled out to my parents and dived under my duvet. My dad rushed down the landing and the footsteps stopped just as he came into the room. I told him what had happened and that I was frightened. He didn't laugh it off or tell me it was nothing to worry about, but instead told me to get in bed with my mum and that he would stay in my room for the rest of the night. I found out a few years later that this was a regular occurrence for my parents; constantly being woken up by footsteps on the landing and stairs as well as around the perimeter of their bed. My parents seemed unnerved that something had started to disturb another one of their children.

I'm aware that this post is becoming very lengthy, but there is so much more to tell you guys, especially as we now have a younger sister who is having her own unusual experiences. I live in my own home with my little family, and it seems to be spirit free. But even to this day, I find I am having conversations with my parents about the unusual activity happening in their home.

The most concerning so far has been of a dark figure sat in the corner of my brother's room around 4/5 years ago. He says that he felt like it watched him for an extended length of time, and that when he tried to ignore it, he could feel and hear tapping on the headboard of his bed. Eventually it became too much and he vaulted out of bed, past the figure that was still sat in the corner, and out of the room and vomited in the bathroom with fright. However, as a show of true masculinity, and the obvious need to get some sleep for an early start, he went back to bed, endured the tappings again and told whatever it was to '**** off' because he had work in the morning. 

Updates/additional events *

* For the past few years, my 11 year old sister has experienced a lot of knocking noise around her headboard, similar to the ones my brother experienced the night he saw the dark figure. It's important to point out that these are occurring in different rooms and on different types of headboard. My brother's leather and wood, my sister's iron frame. Since a youngster, she has preferred to stay in my parents room, but from the age of 7/8, they knew they needed to get her out of that habit. Nowadays my sister has is initially okay with going to bed in her room, but she gets disturbed around the same time every other night by knocking sounds on her bed and finds her way back to my parent's bedroom. As far as I'm aware, she hasn't seen anything unusual, but she definitely isn't keen on being alone in her room for long periods of time and has complained to me in private that she thinks something watches her. My parents are reluctant to talk to her about what might be happening and the family's past experiences as my sister gets easily spooked, and they have asked myself and my brother not to elaborate on what she may be experiencing. My belief is that it could be attributed to the telekinesis theory of young children, especially those nearing or going through puberty, which can make things happen around them without realising. But my mum is of the firm understanding that my sister may be encountering a spirit.

* My mum has recalled the following story a couple of times to me. I'm not sure I believe it to be what she thinks it is, but I find it fascinating nonetheless. On the night my grandfather was dying, which was a little over 10 years ago, my dad had been told to come to the hospital with his siblings. My mum was heavily pregnant at the time, and chose to stay at home and await news. She remembers sitting in the living room watching television, when she could hear knocking on the front window and in the front door. It was a familiar noise because it is something that members of our family would do when visiting our house. My mum assumed a relative had come over regarding my grandad, and looked out of the window to see who it was. No one was there. She thought it unusual, but brushed it off and went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea. Again the noise of tapping on the window and the front door start led again, but as she was about to see what it was, the noise of running came from across the landing, and down the stairs, stopping at the front door. Thinking it was my brother and something was wrong, she went to investigate. Nothing. She said she had the most uneasiest feeling at this point, want that was different from any other times activity had occurred. Shortly after my mum received a call from my dad informing her that my grandfather had passed away and when. She realised he had passed around the same time the knocking had happened. To this day, my mum believes that my grandfather may have been trying to visit his son, and Fred wasn't happy about another spirit entering the home. I think it is possible that with my grandfather's death imminent, tension and emotion would have been high, and that it could be psychological on my mum's part. That said, I don't think she has made it up. It genuinely unnerves her even now, and I think she experienced something, but it may have been her mind playing tricks rather than paranormal. However, this is one of my favourite stories of unusual activity at our home, and it does make others feel uneasy when we tell anyone.

I still hear of new occurrences and even old ones that have been kept secret even now, so if the readers are happy for me to do so, I will keep updating you on them. I look forward to reading your comments.

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I don't personally, as I haven't lived there since  I I was 16, but parents may have some recording of the noises. I'm planning on talking about it more with my mum, and see what her thoughts are on having a camera put in somewhere. My parents are very sensitive, particularly my mum, of disturbing/upsetting what is in the house.

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Welcome to the forum.  :st

You may come to realise that UM favours scientifically provable experiences which, when it comes to the realm of psychic phenomenon is inherently problematic!  

I hope you get helpful and respectful feedback here but you may find it more beneficial to seek out psychic forums (if you have not done so already).

Edited by sees
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Welcome to UM ladylalabird.

Thank you for sharing your story.

I hope you have the oportunity to both enjoy our site and learn from it while you are here.

 

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14 hours ago, XenoFish said:

Got any video of this activity?

What good would that do. There are four kinds of paranormal videos on the internet. 1) to grainy to be useful, 2) those that stimulate pareidolia , 3) true fakes, 3) those where the skeptics beg the question and claim a true fake.

Independent of the veracity of the paranormal the end result is that there does not exist a video which would convince a skeptic.

 

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Then it is best to take every claim as nothing more than a story. Regardless if truth of the events exist. Just a tale to be told around the campfire. Or the product of a fractured mind. 

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You should seriously consider 2 things either buying or renting security cams and second just to be sure getting a mental examination for your whole family, it might be that your family might be having hallucination or some form of schizophrenia. I hope it's not the later. 

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27 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

Then it is best to take every claim as nothing more than a story. Regardless if truth of the events exist. Just a tale to be told around the campfire. Or the product of a fractured mind. 

Your point? Are you saying there is no sense in asking for videos?

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39 minutes ago, kartikg said:

You should seriously consider 2 things either buying or renting security cams and second just to be sure getting a mental examination for your whole family, it might be that your family might be having hallucination or some form of schizophrenia. I hope it's not the later. 

What exactly makes you think this is a multi-year disjoint group hallucination. Honestly, what evidence extraneous to this case do you have that this is the case?

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In response the comments so far:

I have placed this post under a ghosts and hauntings thread, so I thought it pretty obvious, considering the majority of other posts I have seen discuss ghosts and hauntings etc. I'm not sure where this would be suitable for the psychic thread, unless we discuss the 'sensitivity' of the persons involved.

 

With regards to some of the comments about videotaping, I'm inclined to agree that CCTV would be very useful in documenting and possibly catching something. It is important to remember though, it isn't my home anymore and not up to me to do, but I will certainly press my parents more into considering. As previously commented, my mum is very fearful that she may upset something in the home, but also, a lot of the activity, including the visuals aren't expected. Though many people are inclined to 'roll' the tape' when encountering something frightening/amazing, a lot of people don't respond that way, and, as is often the case, flee rather than investigate. It's perfectly normal behaviour, especially when faced with what we don't understand.

 

Also, I'm more of a realist with regards to a lot of the events that have happened. I may have had my own experience but I still try and logically pick it apart and believe that science plays the biggest role in most paranormal activity. But I agree with OrdinaryClay, I think a multi year group hallucination would be more far fetched in this instance than Casper The Friendly Ghost.

 

The reason for this story is that it has been with us for a long time, and I don't think I have yet to come across something so consistent over such a long period of time. The same apparition has been seen by three separate people, at various times. One of these a child who meticulously described the apparition and had no idea that anyone else had seen it. Also, the one person who has mental health issues, is the one person who has had very little to happen to him, which I find fascinating.

 

All in all, I take it all with a pinch of salt. But I would genuinely appreciate any constructive feedback, or for users to point me to any material that could clarify these events.

 

 

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1 hour ago, OrdinaryClay said:

What exactly makes you think t? his is a multi-year disjoint gro? up hallucination. Honestly, what evidence extraneous to this case do you have that this is the case?

I have no evidence, don't you think it's one of the things that should be done instead of jumping to their are ghosts in my house? if you are seeing apiration or dark beings it might be your mind playing tricks on you . Do you totally don't want to get a check up just to be sure? 

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37 minutes ago, kartikg said:

I have no evidence, don't you think it's one of the things that should be done instead of jumping to their are ghosts in my house? if you are seeing apiration or dark beings it might be your mind playing tricks on you . Do you totally don't want to get a check up just to be sure? 

My emphasis, okay good to know you have no evidence. I don't think any conclusion should be jumped to.

I can't speak for the mental well being of anyone on the internet nor am I qualified to suggest medical care. I was just wondering if there was any evidence outside this case of multi-year disjoint group hallucination. Simple.

 

 

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*Pushes way through imovable posters* :rolleyes:

Lalaladybird, 

You may find this thread interesting The no explanation required thread.  It's a great little thread where people, like myself, have posted other experiences of the unexplained..

I do hope you enjoy your time here.. :)

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9 hours ago, Kismit said:

*Pushes way through imovable posters* :rolleyes:

Lalaladybird, 

You may find this thread interesting The no explanation required thread.  It's a great little thread where people, like myself, have posted other experiences of the unexplained..

I do hope you enjoy your time here.. :)

Thanks Kismet,

I will post there too :)

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