GovtThug, you realize this "thing" is watching you and your wife have sex, right?[:D]

Most "real" parapsychologists do not advertise and are hard to find.  They're known by reputaion only.  Also, a real parapsychologist will do everything he can to find a more mundane cause of the events you describe.

Assuming these events are unexplainable (and therefore assumed to be otherworldly) the next step is to figure out if it's a classic haunting (which is usually attached to a specific area and not targeted at anyone in particular), a poltergeist "intrusion," or attempt at possession.  

Hauntings aren't much to worry about.  Mostly the spirit is human and just wants to make its presence known.  

An intrusion is much worse.  Poltergeists are malevolent and mischievous inhuman spirits who look to make things difficult for the people they target (like the movie of the same name).  Eventually, the spirit tires or gets bored and leaves.  A more tenacious poltergeist will follow his target around for quite awhile--attacking outside or away from the target's home.  

A possession can look like a poltergeist.  In the early stages, poltergeist-type activities occur as an attempt to wear away at the resolve of the target.  When the target is sufficiently weakened, the spirit will make an attempt to posses its human target.  Once possession is complete the spirit works to destroy the life of, and eventually kill, the human target.  Most targets of possession can point to an earlier event in their life where they "opened the door" to spiritual intrusion.

Read the book "Satan's Harvest" by Michael Lasalandra for a detailed account of spiritual possession and subsequent excorcism.

 

 

Don't know if this counts, but I'm STILL convinced something lives in my washer and dryer that feeds on socks. [:D]

Actually, I've had something similar to the car stories happen to me, except in my case it was a sudden feeling to GO.  I the only car at a light, very little traffic at all out.  All of a sudden I felt a very sudden urge to move myself (and the car) very quickly -- I went flying through the red light, looking in the mirror (not worried about flashing lights -- they were all tied up in a rather large accident) and watched the unoccupied semi parked in the lot roll fowards, hop the curb, and plow through the space I'd just been, stopping when it hit a power pole on the other side of the road.

Like the others, it wasn't a voice, or anything I could really identify, just a feeling that I needed to get the hell out of there, and fast.

-FOTBR

Swamp gas.

[rolleyes]
[:D]

That's not uncommon.  

Question: were there other people around who might have seen the truck when it started to move towards you?  

Some speculate that if enough people think the same thought at once (such as, 'get the hell outta' there!') then it somehow gets "received" by others who are not witnessing the events.  

[img]www.x-plane.org/users/agro/skullsmoke2.jpg[/img]

My friend read this thread, saw the picture; drew numbers and made comments.

"1. This smoke is coming from too far to the left to be coming from the flames.

2. Again you can see it is comming from an area too far to the left.

3. Where the hell is this smoke going? The rest of it seems to be going up, why is this one going right??

Flame near number two seems to be getting blown to the left! Why is the smoke near it going up instead of to the left!?"

I admit that he has a point. I'm not doubting you. I see the skull. And I admit this is all very creepy. But he has a point.

Something like that happened to me.  I was about to pull through an intersection behind the car in front of me.  I looked left and a blue Cadillac ran the light and missed my front bumper by about 3 feet with the driver on his cell phone [rolleyes].  If I followed the car through without looking left I would have been hit right in my door at 60mph.

Once my mom and her friend were out in her 1988 toyota corolla 5 spd. Friend was driving. They were stopped at a light. When it turned green, the friend hesitated, my mom was like "well come on go!". the friend went....

The were hit by a red light runner....

but at the last second the friend pulled hard to the left and put the left most corner of the cars bumper into the side ot the opposing car. The toyota rode the side of the impacting car like a rail, it got spun like six times, the friend got knocked out. What made her pause so that the whole length of the car was not in the path, and what made her turn hard left? She does not remember anything. Her head hit the inside door support.

No ghost stories here but something weird... My Mom told me about a day when I was around 4 yrs old; I came running up crying and holding my right arm and telling her to "call Grandma." She could get no answer as to what was wrong with my arm and could see no injury at all. I was hysterical about her calling Grandma.

I guess she though I was just being a "Grandma's Boy" or whatever and did not call... I finally calmed down.

Several hours later my Grandfather called and told mom that Grandma had burned her right arm badly with hot grease and had to go to the ER.

Mom also said I would freak her out by mentioning people out of the blue just before they would call or show up.

I guess as kids we are more open to... stuff, psychic energy, The Force, WTF ever... IDUNNO.

Wacky, crazy stuff...

I rented an apartment which made up 1/3 of a decent sized ranch. The other 2/3 was rented by three sisters [;)] and was completely separate.  They all left for a vacation so I was the sole occupant of the house.
One afternoon I started to hear noises in the basement,which I had no access to.  I checked for vehicles outside, none. I telephone the girls, no answer.  I ring the bell and pound on the door. The noises would stop but return soon after. Some hours pass and the noises are getting louder so I grab the 870 and a big flashlight and do a perimeter scanning the yard while shining the light into the windows of the basement and main floor. The only funny thing I see is myself shining a light in windows with a shotgun at ready.  I'm really freaked out. I go back into my apartment and now hear noises on the main floor.  I don't know why but I said aloud, "I have a gun, but I cannot hurt you because you are a ghost. You cannot hurt me because you are a ghost. We both have to live here. I will try not to piss you off and in return please try not to freak me out." The noises stopped.
Two days later when the sisters returned I went out to greet them and share my experience with them. I was nervous as one of them was a LEO and she knew about my hobby and I didn't want her to think of me as a flake.  I relayed the story and they said, "We never told you?" It turns out years prior a young man barricaded himself in the home and committed suicide using a gun ending a Police stand off.  They told me how things get moved all the time.  The noises I heard was the ghost rearranging some clutter in the basement and moving the coffee table and kitchen set on the main floor. The sisters did find it all creepy but it never really bothered them.  After my pact with the ghost I never experienced anything odd for the next 1.5 years I lived there.
I never tried to research the "story".  That was one of the strangest things I have ever experienced. I didn't consider myself a believer until I experienced it first hand.

Hate to tell you after all these years Sport, but that was just me and your Mom goofing on you.  If I remember it was just after you ran your bicycle into the light pole at full pedal..



Hehehe... seriously, as long as as your on my health insurance, perhaps you want to fork up the $20 copay and speak to a professional [:D]

Paul said it for all of us - Somehwere in Romans - Stay away from all thing that even have the appearance of evil - I ain't videotaping nothin'!

Maybe one or two people, three at most.  I've heard that theory before about things, and it makes as much sense as anything else.

Another interesting thing - ever notice how animals ALSO seem to pick up on odd things?  I've noticed my cats would often perk up - suddenly nervous, sometimes scurrying off completely terrified.  Now, I know they don't like my music, but what I lack in taste, I make up for in volume [:D] -- so I doubt they "just heard something".  Typically when that happens, there's a pretty bad storm in the next 48 hours.

FOTBR

Hmm....I haven't seen pics of GovtThug's wife, but perhaps it might be worth it for someone to buy this *thing* a video camera and some tapes? [;D]

FOTBR

GovtThug, try this for some EVP's

[url]www.ghostpix.com[/url]

It's neat! and will make you think.

Crap now i cant sleep......

No $#it AZcop. I'm somewhat convinced that the kinetic energy from a round would actually f*ck up any sort of electro-mag entity pretty good.

Here's my question- how in the hell do people let themselves get posessed? I'm sorry, first time I see the boogey man, and I'm outta there like a bat out of hell (no pun intended). What the hell is with this "lets stay and butt heads with an invisible force of undermined size and capabilities". Sorry, take off, nuke the site from orbit, its the only way to be sure.

Look back far enough and you all can read my demon story. Got another two tonight though, both of them are the warm and fuzzy kind tho.

My grandmother's left ventricle collapsed in January of 1986 and we flew back to Pennsylvania to see her. She was sick but in good spirits and very tough, even after a lifetime of smoking cigarettes. She was a wonderful woman who most closely resembeled Yoda with short ears (all 4'11" of her). In her youth she had been model-quality gorgeous, until smoking took its tool. Anyhow, the doctors told her that she could live another ten years but she'd be unable to do any traveling or undertake any streniouious activity. That night she was able to get up, eat in the cafeteria, and take a shower. She called everyone in around her and said her goodbyes. Said that if she couldnt be up and around to see the grandchildren and do what she loved, she'd rathar go to her home in heaven and watch us and wait for us there. That night in her sleep she died. Upon returning to Washington I was sleeping in my stepbrothers room because my room wasnt done yet. The night we returned I was half asleep when the door opened and a beautiful young woman came in and sat down next to me and ran her fingers through my hair and told me that she was going to miss me but not to ever be affraid because she would be watching over me. She actually talked (or communicated at any rate) for about half and hour, told me things about my life to come, and about my grandfather that had passed on years before, and then got up, tucked me in, and walked out through the door. The next morning I woke up and found a peice of paper in my hand, it turned out to be an old photograph of the young woman I had seen. I showed it to my father and told him the story. Being a very religious person he was not surprised or shocked at all, he simply told me that it was his mother (my nana) when she was in her late teens or early 20s. It was the first time I had ever seen the photo, and the only time my father had ever seen it as well.

The other story involves the first girl I really fell head over heals in love with. She was the daughter of a lady from Arkansas who had moved to South Africa and married an Afrikaaner buisnessman down there. She was boyishly built with a slim figure and not a lot of curves, but very 'cute' none the less. She had curly auburn hair and a pug nose with cutting blue eyes and a very fair complexion with a heavy dusting of freckles. She played sports, but more often than not hung out with my clique of "hawks" (military geeks) and even was in the Young Republicans at our school. She also was the first shooter I ever met, and the one person most responcible for my fascination with military arms (her favourite rifle that she NEVER let anyone else shoot was her dad's Israeli HB FAL). We were inseperable, and even though our personalities were pretty different, everyone always knew we'd end up togather. After High School graduation she went to visit family in South Africa, and invited me to come too. I had to leave on a different day, so I was home for a while, all anxious and excited. We'd never realy been boyfriend-girlfriend but we'd had a few kisses and never dated (or even looked) at anyone else but she'd made it clear that we'd get a lot of quality alone time on this vacation. At five in the morning on the day I was supposed to leave the phone rang, and my dad answered it. It was her father. My dad woke me up after talking to him for a few minutes and put me on the phone. Her dad recounted how Kerri and her older brother Johaan had been out in the countryside up north at their house on the Transvaal to go shooting (remember, this is the South Africa back before Mandela took it over and banned guns) when they were approached by a group of heavily armed blacks (kaffers as Kerri would have said, race politeness was not a strong point) tried to carjack them at gunpoint on a dirt road while they were unloading their gear. From what the carjackers who were later caught said, Johaan had pulled his pistol when they shot him and Kerri was killed right afterwords when she tried to grab one of the rifles from the back of their car (truck, whatever). Knowing the propencity for black thugs in SA to torture their female victims I pray to God it was like they said. Anyhow I cried for a month and went to my Freshman year of college a wreck (probably accounts for my 0.47gpa my first semester). Very occasionaly when I'm going through hard times she'll come to me. It usually only happens when I'm single, but there have been times when I know shes there. In the beginning when I was a wreck she'd come in late at night and put her arms around me until I fell asleep. There have been other times when she's been around during the good times too, shooting matches, sometimes I swear at crowded gunshows I'll see her face for an instant in the fray. Just about every time I've seen her up close since her death Ive found long, curly, auburn hairs afterwords. The last time I saw her was when Erin and I were doing our last semester at school. We were having very difficult financial times and I was on the verge of breaking up with her (Erin). One night I fell asleep at the computer and had a dream that Kerri was telling me not to be an ass and to tough it out with Erin, that it'd get better. The next morning I woke up and found two long auburn hairs on my sweatshirt. Erin gave me crap about it, and for the first time in a long time we laughed togather and things got a little better...and they continue to get better to this day.

Somewhere, deep, deep inside I know that I have a "soulmate" in the universe, and she watches over me from wherever she is now and waits for me. I'd never admit that to anyone, least of all Erin who only knows sketchy details about her.

And thats why the movie "Always" always makes me cry....

My story takes place after my Grandma died.

She died when I was young, but my Dad and Grandfather tell me that she made her presence known in my Grandfathers house a for a while after she died.

My Grandfather noticed that furniture would move ever so slightly, but her favorite chair, in particular, would move quite a bit. Almost like somebody was sitting in the chair and had pushed it away from the table to stand up.

The house is a singe level with a large basement, and footsteps could be heard around the house. From what my Dad said the one time he heard the footsteps it also sounded like a vacuum cleaner was being run from far away.

Both my Grandfather and Dad are VERY level headed people. My Grandfather was in the military for years, and was heavily decorated during WW2. My Dad was a police officer for years, and was also heavily decorated. Neither of them would make something up.

Av.

Good observations. I had noticed that to for I have stared at this photo quite a bit. Here is my Mr Spock analysis:
I thought that there was some smoke very close to the camera lens and therefore subject to different winds. The pic was freehand so there is a wide apature setting. Also, notice that the tree branches are MORE, instead of less visible through the smoke?

I was always creeped out by the fact that the skull head seems to be back in the tree.

I am not claiming the photo to be anything. Three rolls of film and my cumbersome knob turning on my SLR always produces some cool effects. This one was just hard to explain!

Youze guys are freakin me out !!!!

you might be schizo. see a psychiatrist.

I don't see or hear ghosts.

One night this past summer I woke up in the middle of the night.  Satan stood in the door of my bedroom, looking at my wife and I in bed.  I told him he couldn't touch me because I was baught by Jesus, and I started quoting Scripture (which came right to me, even tho I've not worked to memorize it).

He left.

I looked at the clock and went back to sleep.  It was 3:35.

Next morning on the news they reported that at 3:40 a car went out of control on a straight 25 mph road through a residential area not three miles from my house.  Driver dead.

I dunno if the incidents are connected, but it was wierd!
Scott

Some dogs are used as 'helper animals' for people with seizure disorders. They can somehow sense when the person is going to have a seizure, and warn them. The person can then lie down to avoid injury. It's obvious that some beings (dogs, children) are attuned to things that most of us miss.

Hey, the picture freaked me out too. But my friend is an animator, and everything has to be logical and make sense to him. I was saying it was the wind. Smoke does weird stuff. Sometimes, even creepy stuff. Like your picture.

I got a story, but mine kinda comforted me.  I was rocking my young son in a chair with his head looking over my left shoulder.  I noticed that he had lifted his head and was staring intently for about 30 seconds at a spot on the ceiling.  I looked up and saw nothing there.  I asked him, "what are you looking at...what do you see?"  He was only a few months old.  I kept turning and looking, but nothing was there.  Not even a mark, just a white ceiling.  I couldn't break his attention from whatever he was looking at.  Suddenly, my son starts laughing hysterically, something he had NEVER done until this point.  He kept staring up and laughing as if someone was playing with him. His laughing and staring continued for about 20 seconds.  Suddenly he stopped and put his head back down on my shoulder.  My Dad called later that night to see how the baby was.  I told him what had happened and before I could finish my story, my Dad said "My father was playing with him".  I never met my grandfather.  He died when when my Dad was 12 yrs old.  My Dad then told me that when he was growing up in Hawaii, his sister had a son that would wake up at night and cry.  No one could calm him down, only "Grandpa Rick".  Grandpa Rick would go to the babies crib when he cried and played with him, making him laugh loudly.  My Dad said one night after his father died, the baby woke up and cried very loudly.  Suddenly, the baby started laughing and playing like he always did when Grandpa Rick would come to him.  My Dad said that no one was at the crib when this happened and everyone in the house was crying because they knew Granpa Rick was there with the baby.  Now, it seemed with my son, Granpa Rick was coming to see his new Great Grandson to play with him.  I've never believed in this kind of stuff before, but I don't know how else to explain what I witnessed with my son.  It was truely amazing.  A few times after that, my son would look to same spot on the ceiling and start laughing.  I knew Granpa Rick was there and it made me feel good.  This only happened a few times and stopped only after a cousin had a baby in Hawaii.  Maybe Grandpa Rick went there??????

All my life, people have told me that my mom was an angel! Back in the mid 1980's, she was on her way home from an auction in Pa. and fell asleep while driving. Her car drifted to the right and was headed directly at a big tree. Luckily, there was a small culvert that caused the car to flip and only glanced the tree. So there she is, way out in the country, upside down, hanging from her seat belt, and very confused as to what had happened. She was pretty much un injured, except a small cut on her head.
Purely by chance, the next car to come up was a Md Trooper (this is my one and only story of good about Md Troopers, though). He got help on the way, and stayed there with her, talking to her and keeping her company. She was extracted and taken to the hospital, and released only a couple of hours later.

5 years later: It's 1990 and I'm going too fast as I realize I just passed a state cop. He turns around and finds me pulled over, waiting for him. I gave him my license, etc., and as he walked back to his car he stopped and turned around. "Was your mother in a car accident a few years back? Fell asleep while driving?"  
me: "Yeah that was a while ago. She was OK".
The cop hands my license, etc., back and tells me he was tha cop that happened upon her, and that she "is an angel"! He was really struck by her, and remembered her and even her kid's names all those years. Then he told me to slow the hell down, please, and tell her he said Hi.

And at her funeral, I don't know how many people told me that she was an "Angel on Earth".


I think I'm gonna go see my dad tonight.

Okay, here's a couple:

One night when I was off duty back in the 80's, I had a dream of me and 2 of my buddies chasing a guy through an apartment complex.
When we caught up with the guy, he raised a gun at us. My buddy Mike shot him in the head.
I woke up then and looked at the clock for some reason. IIRC it was like 12:30am. The next day I get to work and find out that Mike had shot this guy in the neck at 12:30am, at the same complex I had dreamed about.
When I told the Sgt. about being freaked by this, he told me it was the same dream he had had.

Last one (not actually but I would like to be able to sleep tonight):

One night (in 2000) I'm sound asleep when I get a feeling that someone is in the room. I wake up and I am facing the back wall of the bedroom. I slowly turn over to face the bedroom door.
When I do I look up at the corner of room and see the DEVIL. This is no shite. He's perched up there staring at me and my wife. I get this vibe that he wants me. The only way I can describe him is he looks like an angel with the wings and sheet, yet the wings are all torn and his clothing is all dirty like a fallen angles would be.
All of sudden his left hand starts to unfold like he's going to point at me. At which time I start praying to the LORD and JESUS. As soon as I finish my prayer he vanishes.
I get my wife woken up and tell her what has happened. Needless to say I did not get any more sleep that night and for a couple weeks after that got very little.

ED

Govthug,

Just hope you don't find this in the closet.


[url]www.geocities.com/lord_visionary/demon_large.jpg[/url]

Before we had such advanced earthquake sensor equipment cats and dogs were better than the equipment at sensing a earthquake before it hit. they would usually run and hide. if i remember right there was a some sort of research on this many years ago. but now the equipment is better than the animals.

even still, it does prove animals are more tuned in to the environment then we humans like to think we are.

Do what movie did that come from?

We should start calling you "Hollywood."

[:)]

When I was kid, our family, parents & three brothers, would take summer trips to Northern Ireland to visit my grandparents and other relatives, we would stay at my grandparents house. The house was built in 1852, my grandparents bought the house in 1910. After the first year, we were petrified to go the following year. I have had so many "experiences" in this house.

One time I was laying in bed sleeping. I woke to the sound of the bedroom door opening. I asked who was there, no one answered. Then I hear the door shut. A couple of seconds later, I feel the corner of my bed sink, as if someone sat down. I ran my foot over the area and it was sunken in!  I dove for the light switch, in the pitch dark, fracturing my finger in the process. As I'm getting up my grandfather hits me in the head with the door as he's swinging it open!
I told my grandfather and he told me what he always will tell after an incident, "don't fret laddy, they won't hurtcha atall, now get back to sleep will ya"............ummmmm, okay?!

Art Bell, Coast to Coast

Aside from the ESP that I "used to" have, I have only experienced one odd situation.
When I was a kid (probably 14) I was watching my younger brother as my parents were out for the night.
I'm in bed, my brother already asleep.  I heard the click of the hall light being turned on.  I freeze in feer for a few minuets.  I finally get up and turn off the light. within a min. CLICK the light turns on again. There are 2 switches on this light, one down the stairs and one on the top of the stairs, but only the upstairs switch goes CLICK, the one downstairs is quiet.
The light turns on "by itself" 4-5 times before finally staying off...
My parents house dates to around the Civil War.

Besides that I have had a Ghost Cat following me for about 10years.  
I used to see a black cat out of the corner of my eye, but see nothing when I look.
This has turned into the "cat" actually rubbing up against me, but when I got to pat the cat, its no where to be seen, this has happened 3-4 times.  the cat has rubbed against my leg while I was on the computer, once during the day while I sat on the front steps of my apartment while waiting for a taxi.
I feel the REAL hard hitting feeling of a cat hit his head and back against my leg or back, but when I go to pat the animal nothing is there, or anywhere around.


BISHOP

Humans are very good in finding patterns in things, even when the patterns don't exist.  Keep that in mind when thinking about things that you know don't make sense.  There has to be a reason.  Changing your view of reality to fit what happened is the easy way out.

I built my own house over 50 years ago, so it has had some major problems.  I didn't quite know what I was doing, and I was cheap on materials.  Before I redid the wiring, I had lots of problems that would freak my wife out.  After replacing the wiring, most of the light fixtures, and main breaker box, those type of problems have disappeared completely.  After finally breaking down and buying house jacks so I could replace the concrete footings under the eight brick columns under my house, almost all of the creaking and groaning has quit.  I had closed doors that would suddenly open, and doors previously worked well, suddenly wouldn't close at all.  On nights that were much cooler than the day, you could hear what you would swear was someone walking across my attic.  A couple of times on hot, clear days I had windows suddenly shatter.  I had patches of plaster that would fly off of the wall.  The first time that happened, I really started believe in something supernatural.  There were a lot of other weird things like that happen, but they all [b]stopped[/b] about 7 years ago when I did the work.  If there are strange things happening in your house, you need to talk to your builder, not your priest.z

Most all of my experiences with the paranormal weren't connected to a structure. I've seen enough (And done enough) by now to convince me that there is something more to the world than meets the eye.