Wednesday 29 August 2007

GHOST CLUSTERS!

David - Authorblog asked the question on his post recently "Do you believe in ghosts"......I find it difficult to give a definitive answer....since Mick passed away many things have happened that have brought us comfort that he is still with us.....coincidence?...maybe...but these are private moments that I'm not inclined to share at the moment.


What I will post about are a few strange occurrences that have happened during my life.



I don't remember a lot of my childhood but one event still stays with me to this day. I must have been about 6 or 7 and we lived in Singapore. One night I awoke to see a tall man in black standing by my bed. In my memory his face was kindly and he had long hair but I must have been frightened as a child as I threw my favourite cuddly toy (a boxer dog) at him and screamed. My parents rushed in but the man had gone...they swore that no one had been there, that all the doors were locked and that it must have been a dream. My boxer dog was over the other side of the room where I'd thrown it though and to this day I KNOW I was awake.



The next occurrence of anything strange was when I was I the house of my first mother in law in Broadstairs. I used to help her with the cleaning and cooking as she ran a B&B. On the stairs leading up to the attic room I often believed I saw a young boy dressed in the style of Gainsborough's Blue Boy...it never worried me...he looked quite happy and I never mentioned it to my mother in law as I knew she was of a nervous disposition. I also thought it must be a trick of the light as it was always out of the corner of my eye and as soon as I turned to look straight at him there was nobody there. The surprise came when Leanne and Manda (young children then) came into her kitchen one day when we were visiting and when I asked them what they'd been doing they said "Playing with the little boy on the stairs".........at the time there were no guests staying or any other people in the house save mother in law, myself and the girls! To this day Manda and Leanne still remember the little boy.



Many years later the girls and I lived at Gestingthorpe Hall;the former home of Captain Oates (many of you will know his name as being one of Scott's party on his journey to the Antartic...Captain Oates' immortal words "I am just going outside and may be some time" are well known). We had the rooms at the top of the house and there were many bumps in the night and whisperings heard despite the fact that the rest of the household were in bed. On one occasion the girls remember clearly a shadow of an unknown person flitting across the light coming in through the doorway from the hall outside their bedroom. Fanny and George who owned Gestingthorpe Hall at the time were quite old and never ventured to the upper landing so we know it couldn't have been them. Leanne remembers another time that really spooked her; she'd woken in the night and gone down to one of the bathrooms two floors below...when she left the bathroom she felt the urge to turn and look behind...there as clear as day was the figure of an elderly woman shrouded in a grey coloured mist...this was when Leanne found she really was capable of running a 4 minute mile.







When I first moved in with Mick (where I live now) I often saw a fleeting shadow of a dog in the hall. I asked Mick about it and he admitted that he used to have a Black Labrador who he loved dearly but had to have put down when she became very ill. He seemed pleased that I seen it (and not been frightened off) as he thought his mind had been playing him tricks whenever he saw her! For a few months there was many a time when we sat in the living room and opened a packet of baskets...the door would mysteriously open and Mick said that his dog always used to hear the rustle of a biscuit wrapper from anywhere in the house when she was alive...and we were convinced it was her. After a while we never saw her again and the door didn't open itself anymore.....Mick always reckoned she was keeping an eye on him to make sure he was OK and that she could tell he was happy now that he'd found me and so had gone wherever good dogs go.







Now to the orbs and St Mary's Church....some of you will have seen the photo I posted a while ago......here are some more.....I promise you that these are untouched unless stated......
this is the above photo cropped to show a better view of one of the orbs......this is another crop to get a close up view of an orb................
On the following photo a few orbs can be seen ............but when I lightened it with the aid of Picasa so many more appear........
I showed this photo in another post........I didn't use a flash at all although it was really dark and have no explanation of the light emanating from the doorway................






Finally this is a photograph I took of Manda....again I was trying to take photos in the dark without a flash and my unsteady hand meant the photos were really blurred....I'd put this double image of a face down to that until I looked at it closely.......Manda was posing head turned to the side....how come there is also a face facing forward????

Also it wasn't until we put the photo on the computer and had a closer look at it that we noticed the shape of a person beyond her right shoulder..........yet there was no other living soul around.

Make of this post what you will......maybe there are scientific or rational reasons behind all of these happenings...but whatever your beliefs



DON'T HAVE NIGHTMARES!




17 comments:

Moggy said...

I wish I had read all this in the morning instead of right before bed ;-( but it was very interesting.

dot said...

I was getting ready to go to bed. Guess I will stay up for a while after reading that! I don't believe in ghosts but that IS some strange stuff.

Mauigirl said...

Very interesting! I do think there are phenomena that can only be explained as ghosts. I don't know what the sightings mean but I believe they happen. I did get a few chills up my spine reading your experiences! And now it's time to turn out the lights...

Ironically, I believe in both ghosts and UFOs but have never experienced either. Although sometimes my husband has sworn he's seen his old cat, who died in 1995, out of the corner of his eye.

Anonymous said...

Wow - what an amazing post - amazing stories and out of this world photos.

Very thought provoking. I will re-visit this post time and time again - lots to absorb

BTW Lucky you living in Singapore when you were young. I have visited it several times and my eldest worked there for a few years.

It was hot, humid, but exotic when I visited and had changed so much in the 5 years between visits. Hustle, bustle, colourful, and wonderful.

Ali said...

What a great post, very thought provoking indeed. I am undecided about ghosts too, I'd like to believe they exist, but I have never experienced one. The closest I have come is feeling an icy blast every time I passed my kitchen doorway for about 4 months after my Dad died.

Amazing Gracie said...

Well, I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Bible-thumper and I never believed but had questions. Since you used to teach Sunday school, remember the story about King Saul and the Witch of Endor? God told Saul to leave all sorts of witchcraft and astrology, etc., alone. He went ahead and sought out the witch and she foretold his death in battle the next day. Now, why would God tell Saul to leave this stuff alone if it was all nonsense?
Secondly, we've had three really mysterious things happen since my son-in-law died; one of which was observed by dozens of people - it was a message on a telephone answering machine. It was my SIL's voice (EVERYONE has said this - even though they were not told in advance who we thought the voice sounded like!) and it said, "S-t-o-p --- s-t-o-p!" It was real slow and drawn out. A week later my grandson blew through a stop sign and had a horrific accident in which the person in the other car had to go to the hospital! Now, who knows...could be nothing more than coincidence; but combined with the other things that have happened, it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up!

RUTH said...

Moggy, Dot and Mauigirl; hope you slept ok in the end!

Lottie I'd love to visit Singapore again. When you're a child living all over the world you just take it for granted.

Ali; that does sound weird. I really don't know whether some of these things are imagination, wishful thinking or for real:o)

Amazing Gracie; yes I do recall the story! Thanks for sharing your experience...something to think about.

Shaz said...

I wish you'd put the warning at the beginning! At least it's day light now. Those are amazing pictures especially the one o the man behind Manda. You wouldn't get me there at night for toffee!

Akelamalu said...

So much evidence of life beyond you've had Ruth. I'm a firm believer, as I too have had much evidence.

I laughed about Mick's dog - we often here the clatter of our dog's claws in the kitchen - he's been gone 8 years!

The orb pictures are fascinating!

CG said...

Really fascinating stuff...I'm convinced ghosts exist. My mum used to see a presecence in our old house but it never scared her as she said it was kindly!

Gledwood said...

... that orbs phenomenon reminds me of that RIVETTING programme MOST HAUNTED ... surely you have seen it?!? I used to love that when I was at Nutnut's house.. especially as she was superstitious and it frightened her!
That phenomenon of waking seeing a ghost is v well documented... psychiatrists would say it's an hallucination caused by the dream-state crossing over with waking (which is why it so many ghosts are seen just AFTER waking...) in different parts of the world they have different names for the character seen...
I used to wake up, go wandering round the house, upstairs (I slept down stairs at the time)... encounter an intruder there who strangled me and pushed me downstairs where I fell in increasing swirliness only to WAKE UP AGAIN!... to realize this had only been a "dream"... I use inverted commas as some more new agey aquaintances insisted this was a kind of "astral projection" and the intruder was astrally real!
(Ooer!!)...

Peaceful/Paisible said...

that's just so strange...i think there're so many things in that world we don't really know...may be one day we'll get an explanation, may be not...and may be the important thing is the meaning we put on them...( hope i used correct words...)
it's not frightening, just strange ...
thanks for sharing Ruth

Annie said...

I've had the experience of "feeling" or "almost seeing" or "hearing" those I've loved who have died, shortly after their deaths. It's always been comforting to me, never frightening.

Mauigirl said...

I've often had a very vivid dream about someone who has died, not long after their death. The most memorable was the dream about my grandmother, in which she told me that where she was, "everyone has a task to do" and that she was happy there.

Mike said...

The pictures of Manda are quite normal for a slow shutter speed but i have no idea about the door, and the orbs scare the life out of me. Best example I've ever seen. Yvette Fielding would be in her element here.

Barb said...

Scary!!!!! I have shivers!

Suzi-k said...

Interesting post, Ruth! I see you and Max have spooky dogs in common.
I am fascinated by the orbs, are they always there and seen by everyone who goes there, or only sometimes seen by certain people?

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