Urban Legend of the Ghostly Kind

Oct 18 19:04 UTC 2000

Just in time for Halloween, I invite you to share your experiences with eerie
coincidences of a ghostly nature.  What events raised the hair on your back
and made you say, "Whoa?"  Evidence of an afterlife is neither presumed nor
endorsed by participating in this item:  Please don't argue with Rane.

response 2 of 30:

Oct 18 19:47 UTC 2000

Ah fuck, if I can't argue with Rane, what's the point of posting?

I suppose that means: Please don't argue with brighn either. Both of them can
take it somewhere else. =}

response 4 of 30:

Oct 18 20:11 UTC 2000

<beats her head against a wall>  Hmm... now is the wall named Brighn, Rane,
BrighnRane, or RaneBrighn?

I don't consider any of my emotional responses to be irrational, thank you
very much.  Creepy noises in the walls are very freaky.  Ever read poe?

response 6 of 30:

Oct 18 20:37 UTC 2000

PC ghost stories?  Now I've seen it all...

response 8 of 30:

Oct 19 00:46 UTC 2000

Check the meaning of irrational, Sunny. Emotional and irrational are
nearly synonymns, although usually used in different contexts. 

flem was correct. Such words, like "f....gsticktomyskislikes...tsnow".

response 10 of 30:

Oct 19 14:43 UTC 2000

#8> Your second paragraph is in the wrong item, sir. =}

As to your first paragraph, I'll leave the rant about semantics vs. pragmatics
for another time. =} Abbreviated form: You're not really so naive about
language as to think that two words with semantic similitude and pragmatic
opposition are synonyms, are you? This goes back to polygon's rant about
"theft" and shock values and such.

response 12 of 30:

Oct 19 16:14 UTC 2000

oh yeah, ghosts...

[Disclaimer: The following is an anecdote based on irrational interpretations
of events.]

We had a cat ghost once. It lived in the hall outside our apartment. Our cats
would sit at the door, growling and acting like there was a cat on the other
side of the door, but when we opened the door, there was nothing there.

A friend had had a cat die recently, so we did a little seance, asking her
cat to come and show our cat ghost the way to the Summerlands.

After that, the cats never hung around the door growling and hissing again.

response 14 of 30:

Oct 19 16:28 UTC 2000

Actually, in the seance, we saw about three or four cats following our
friends', so apparently the cat ghost count was getting a little high around
our apartment building (we were right next to a freeway).
=}

Also, during our handfasting, there was a black wisp on all of the photos
taken during the ritual proper, which appeared when Center was called and
disappeared when the circle was banished. When Center was called, the wisp
takes up most of the photograph, completely covering the HPs.

We've talked to others who insist that such a wisp indicates taht the person
being covered is going to die soon (apparently the bits in the Omen where the
shade of the method of death was visible in the photos was grounded in actual
myth), but as far as I know, she's still alive in Florida somewhere (and this
was, oh, six years ago). She DID have a mental breakdown about three months
later, but all the same, the wisp felt more like a ghost than anything (and
NO, it wasn't a hair on the lens or a trick of the light, although I haven't
ruled out a temporary defect in the camera or the photo processing -- it's
just more fun to imagine it was a ghost).

response 16 of 30:

Oct 19 19:02 UTC 2000

Here's another animal ghosty story:

We used to have two dogs, Bud and JP.  Now, one of JP's little quirks 
was that, if one were pulling up weeds or sod or something, she loved to 
shake the bejeesus out of the uprooted material, flinging the dirt all 
over.  Bud never never ever does this (he has plenty of other 
insanities, however).  So, JP dies a couple of winters ago.  Come 
spring, I'm out in the yard, digging up sod for a new flowerbed while 
Bud is halfway across the yard rolling in some stink or something.  I'm 
shaking off the dirt from the sod, trying to preserve as much soil as 
possible, and I say softly to myself, "Geez, if JP were here, this would 
be a lot easier".  Immediately, Bud stops what he's doing and comes 
zipping across the yard, grabs the chunk of sod out of my hand and 
shakes the bejeesus out of it, just like JP always did.  Then he licks 
my face (yuck) and goes back to what he was doing.  "Hi, JP...", I said. 
  

response 18 of 30:

Oct 19 21:35 UTC 2000

Awww...  =)

Two of my past apartments have been haunted, the second one much worse than
the first.  The first apartment was in an old home built in Kalamazoo during
the Civil War.  It had been moved to a new neighborhood during WWI.  A man
lived there and built the upstairs apartment for his mother.  She died in that
apartment.

When I moved in, I felt an immediate presence.  It wasn't scary, though, so
I said, "Hello.  I'm Sarah, and I'm living here now.  I'm nice and willing
to share the space."  After that I came home to a strong smell of cinnamon
in my kitchen and a "friendly" feeling (as if I were at Grandma's house). 
Later that night, I felt someone watching me from the kitchen (I was in my
bedroom), so I flipped on the light and said, "Goodnight."  The feeling went
away.  I didn't find out about the woman dying there until just before I moved
out, but I kinda already knew.  ;-)  Also, if I left my closet door open
before I fell asleep, I would wake up with it shut.  Kevin did a few tests
to see if it was an "old home" trick, but breezes, drafts, and the chance of
an uneven floor (he would tap the door gently) didn't close it.  In fact, you
had to lean on it to shut it completely.

The second apartment was another upstairs apartment in an old home in one of
Kalamazoo's historic neighborhoods.  I got my key around 5 p.m, so it was
pretty much dark when I went to put some initial things in.  I walked in the
front door and felt very very scared, as if this demon was glaring at me from
the darkness (great feeling, I tell you).  I hurridly turned on the bathroom
and kitchen lights, but they didn't extend into the living room or bedroom.
Those rooms didn't have overhead lights.  I got the hell out and went back
the next day at noon with lamps.  That first night, Matt was with me so I felt
better.  I told the evil thing the same thing I told the ghost lady, but weird
stuff still happened.  I always felt watched if I was alone in the house, and
when Matt fell asleep at night things happened.  Lights flickered, the TV
turned on for no reason twice, the bathroom window came off its hinges and
landed across the room, an apparition appeared in the hallway for three
seconds, and shelves in the kitchen collapsed.  The cats were always waking
up from a sound sleep and going into hissing predator mode.  There was always
a feeling that someone was behind you, so I was GLAD to move out of that
place.

response 20 of 30:

Oct 20 13:55 UTC 2000

Perhaps it was Newton's ghost.

response 22 of 30:

Oct 20 15:13 UTC 2000

#15> Mary? Are you reading? That was a DEFINITE personal attack. ;}

response 24 of 30:

Oct 20 17:03 UTC 2000

It occurs to me that, if murder victims tend to give rise to hauntings
and ghosts, that certain locations (e.g., liquor stores in high crime
areas) must be *very* haunted by now.

There was an article in the Atlantic Monthly last March titled "Notes on
the Murder of Thirty of My Neighbors."  The writer lives in a Washington
DC neighborhood which has had a lot of shootings.  Along with the article
was a map showing the locations of all the recent homicides there: homes,
convenience stores, street corners, etc.

Here's an interesting observation from that article:

   That's what people do at shooting scenes -- they appeal to the
   gods. Or they stomp on the ground. Friends and relatives, caught
   in the hellish recognition that nothing can be done, stomp on
   the ground. Maybe it's worth knowing that when awful things
   happen and we are truly powerless, the urge to stomp on the
   ground is waiting in human nature. Sometimes I sense that those
   who enter into a discussion of violence don't really think that
   they might be killed, or that they might end up stomping over
   the death of someone close to them. Do Hollywood moguls ever
   consider this possibility? Most people never discover that they
   have that reaction within them. They can thank God.

See http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/03/myers.htm