A while ago Ariel suggested a good topic for the theme of the week, I never noticed if anyone had responded to this but I am very curious about spirits that it interested me, I know back in the day of bloop there was an actual forum about peoples paranormal experiences, I have never had any myself but I do like to watch Lisa Williams a lot, I have even read books and online stories, I don't know about aliens though I have an uncle that swears he has been captured, anyway the question was:

Describe a paranormal experience you've encountered in your life.
What was it? A ghost? An alien? Religious figure? What happened, and when did it happen? Do you have photo or video footage of it? Did it change your life?

- My mom's old house was haunted. Not sure by what exactly, though. I do remember hearing doors closing/opening, indoor and outdoor faucets randomly turning on full blast, footsteps when I'm alone in the house, even a dog howling from my mom's room, when my dog was sleeping in my bed with me, down the hall. It moved mirrors, too. Freaked the hell out of my ex one night. hehehe And whatever it was poked me between the shoulderblades one night when I was trying to sleep. :P

- A friend of my boyfriend's friends died in 2001. He'd never met me, so he decided to do so after his death. I never saw him, but after asking if it was him that was making my candles flicker, he tapped something (don't remember what). That was about the extent of it, but somehow, I knew it was him. I ended up meeting him again a year later, though, in cat form. He's the only cat I've ever come across that's had an unmistakable air of familiarity. That experience really solidified my belief in reincarnation.

Since then nothing much has happened. I used to convene a lot with my soul, but that could easily be construed as internal dialogue. Anything paranormal is very difficult to prove.

I recommend watching this video on the fourth dimension. It makes a lot of sense, and is a very good theory about things such ghosts. :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDaKzQNlMFw

Holy shit and all that happening at your mom's house didn't end up giving you a heart attack?? lol :P

That was an awesome house; I loved it. I've been fascinated with the paranormal since I was a child, so it was like heaven to me. It was creepy, yeah, but having a dog around helped, so I had something to keep me company.

Thinking of the footsteps, though, still gives me chills. I'd been in the basement many times when everyone was home, and while the house settled once in a while, creaking footfalls were a very unique sound. Being in the basement, with the dog, when no one else was home - in the middle of the day - and hearing someone slowly walk from one end of the house to the other....you just can't imagine that.

I still wonder wtf about the howling dog, too. That didn't scare me at all, but it was just so bizarre that it caught me off guard. And it only happened once.

I have never had a paranormal experience but I'd like to! I'm really interested in the supernatural and I'd like to experience something to confirm to me that there is something else out there.

I was about 6 and staying at the babysitters overnight. it wasnt the first time i had stayed at the babysitters and was definitely comfortable and felt safe where i was. well my lil sister was laying the bed with me. There was another kid in another bed in the room that was being babysat as well. Well I woke up cause i felt like someone was in the room. I saw a shilloutte of a woman with long hair. I assumed it was the mother of the other kid coming to pick him up. Well, she wasnt this shilloutte was coming towards me. I freaked out and woke my sister up to look and when I woke her up and my sis looked she disappeared. Then my sis went back to sleep. The lady returned and was coming towards me. I was screaming because well I was a kid and there was a ghost coming at me. Well my screaming woke everyone up and the babysitter ran in, turned on the lights and the shilloutte disappeared for the night.

After that experience the babysitter took me and my sis into the living room. Turns out the other kid had went home hours before. He wasnt even there. So then we stayed up talking about paranormal experiences. I looked at the front door and heard a sound and saw footsteps walking past our door, back and forth, back and forth. It was like they were pacing outside the apartment. I freaked out again and was terrified because I thought it was the devil. (It was like 2AM.....there shouldnt have been anyone outside her door, much less pacing.)

That's creepy. I would scream too, even now at 26, lol.

Many actually....

My (now) husband and I did a ghost tour of Melbourne. There were severeal creepy places but nothing that really stood out.

Until we went into the old Cobb & Co depot in Little Lonsdale Street. It is abandoned now....pretty much a carpark and shooting gallery for junkies. It was a steel foundry in the 1950's and the mezzanine floor containing the offices and a catwalk from the mezzanine to the supervisors office is still in place. We walked in and even before the guide started telling us the history of the building I could see something up there. Not a person but a different in the shadows which probably makes no sense....and a feeling of absolute malevloence. The guide directed us to walk underneath the catwalk and through around the back of the building and back in. I walked nunderneath and felt a huge THUMP on my right shoulder, like someone much taller had given me a chop. When we walked back in the guide told us that one day in about 1955 the foreman came in, walked across the catwalk and attacked his supervisor with an axe before killing himself.
Funnily enough, he chopped off his supervisors right arm.
My shoulder hurt for three days after that.

wow that is spooky.

When I was little 7ish I was at one of my Auntie's house as it was my cousins Christening. I went upstairs to use the toilet and as I came out I saw this little boy (who I guess was about 5, 6) who was wearing Victorian style clothes...I was absolutely petrified and I screamed and RAN down the stairs, jumping over 2 baby gates while I was at it, lol...it seriously scared me sooo much. I don't know whether it was my imagination or whatever - but I always got a bad feeling when I was upstairs in their house.

Also, my Auntie was in hospital giving birth to my cousin Laila (who was stillborn) - I was at her house babysitting her other children. I took the kids to School and came back and could hear running water. So I ran upstairs and the taps were on, so I turned them off and 5 minutes later I heard it again. They were on again, it happened quite a few times....then the kids were all asleep in bed and I heard the noise again and the taps were on...it just kept happening and stopped once I heard that the baby was born. It creeped me out, it was weird too because Laila was born in a lot of water (my Auntie's waters didn't break until the baby came out) so people think it was her giving me a sign or whatever.
When I was sleeping there, I woke up to someone calling my name, it was a little girls voice which is weird because all of my cousins are boys. After that, I didn't get any sleep. I sat up all night just trying to not think about it lol.
Again, I don't know whether that was my imagination or something. I know that the tap thing couldn't have been my imagination, but hearing my name. Maybe it was just because I was so upset about my cousin dying and mixed with lack of sleep, you know?

I don't think I believe in ghosts and things, but after a few things happening to me I find it hard not to if that makes sense. I've had a few other things happening to me too but those are the three things that stick in my mind the most.

two things*

No, I did mean to write three things. Just ignore me, I need sleep :P lol

I don't believe in ghosts. As someone said, it is hard to prove anything paranormal. I have never seen or heard a ghost, spirit, or anything of the sort. I don't believe in aliens because I've only seen them in movies. I don't even know anyone who claims to have seen them or anything. I am not exactly open to the idea of either one, as well..which could play a part in why I don't imagine these things like others do.

Ah but isnt this what religion is based on as well? Things we cant see but believe in anyways?

That is the whole purpose of Christianity. Other religions do not all claim the same thing. Muhammed was never raised from the dead, nor did he perform miracles. He was someone people really believe to have existed. Why do so many people disbelieve that Jesus did exist, as well? Probably because he performed miracles that no typical man could. Probably because rose back to life after being dead for three days. That is unbelievable to a lot of people, so they choose to not believe.

Christianty is largely based on faith. Other religions, not so much. Other religions are based largely on actions and deeds. Catholicism with it's confessions; Muslims with their jihad; hindus with their total inclusion; buddhists and their eight fold path. It all is based no deeds and what you can do to become worthy of whatever they offer. Christianity is different. Christianity is about true faith: believing in a God that no man can fully understand, accepting His Word as inerrant and infallible, placing that faith on Christ's resurrection. It is all faith, believing in something we can't see, comprehend, or make up.

I have seen God come through for many people: one of my best friends lived through something he shouldn't have because of prayer; demons have been exorcised out of people in my own church; blind people have been given sight; tumors have been erased; movement has been restored to maimed and lifeless limbs. These are the signs and wonders of a living God, a powerful God, a real God. This is why I believe in God: because He is something that we, in full carnality, shouldn't believe could exist - and yet he proves, time and time again, that He does.

God love ya ;) you totally missed my point.

And I believe a few hundred thousand Catholics would beg to differ you infering they are not Christians :S

A lot of science is purely theoretical speculation, yet its teachings are accepted as fact by most of the world. There are still a lot of people in the world that believe that man has never left Earth, simply because no one can provide any concrete, tangible proof that any of the pictures or video taken in space or on other planets.

But how can you possibly prove such a thing? If you think about it, there's no way to prove such a sure thing as your own existence, because you really don't know whether or not you and the world around you are just the product of some other being's dream or some such thing.

However, the ability to have an open mind escapes so many people that it's impossible for them to think in such terms. They would rather accept that the tangible is the only reality. It's unfortunate, really. There's so much people can realize and accomplish if only they opened their minds.

I can prove my own existence: I'm here. You're talking to me. Case closed.

Some people choose not to believe in the fact that we've left the moon because they feel like it. It is not speculation that we left. People witnessed it. Mass groups of people at one time. Whole crews have gone into space, and not at night time when they're all alone. They are sitting at desks, talking to them through microphones and computers.

The noises and blurred sightings people record about ghosts could all too easily be anything at all; someone breathing too close to the mic, light reflecting off of a misplaced toy or coin, a door or window left open, creakings of an old house misconstrued by frightened inhabitants. That is speculation.

I have never heard of a whole group of people witnessing the same ghost or alien. Maybe one person in the group "seeing" one and spooking the rest, but not the whole group. As I said before, prove it to me and I'm more than willing to believe in it. But I've yet to receive anything but people's nighttime spooks that are, to me, credited to their imagination working overtime in the dark.

I don't trust a lot of recorded hauntings either. They fascinate me, but as it is very hard to provide concrete proof (and hoaxes are so easy to commit), I don't take any of the information to heart. I admit it's difficult for anyone to believe in the paranormal unless they have experienced it first-hand - I do stand by the belief of all of the things that I've experienced. And I LOVE to speculate on the things that I haven't. I can't bring myself to say that such things don't exist or have never happened simply because there's no proof. :P

Also, did you by chance watch the video I suggested in my original post to the thread?

Well there is evidence to both the paranormal and aliens, enough to get me to put my belief into aliens anyway.

I disagree. All I have heard, and seen, or read is people's own stories. And it almost always happens at night time (when our imaginations most often get the worst of us), it's usually just a blurred "shadow" or "thing" that they can't discern or tell, and if they look away for just ONE second, it's gone. I write that off as imagination playing tricks on you in the middle fo the night. But, I'm more than willing to believe in them if there is actual evidence. I find the idea of such things fascinating (and plan on writing a book/short story on it eventually), but fully fictional and of the imagination.

And no....I have had things happen in broad daylight.

So you call videos in broad daylight with minutes of footage a person's own story? Just google or go to youtube, "UFO sighting" and you'll find more than SEVERAL videos. There are T.V. shows, entire communities of people who have pictures and videos to support their claims.

Either way, I think it's flat out unrealistic to think that we're totally alone in the universe. We haven't even gotten close to discovering our own galaxy, let alone the billions of others out there.

I call that someone videoing what they don't know. I don't just assume it's an alien just because I've never seen anything like it. The gov't has all kinds of things that I'm sure we don't know about (that aren't from an alien race).

My friend's house always creeped me out. I hated being alone in her house even if it was only for a minute. Houses settle, I understand that, but it sounded like someone was constantly coming up and down the steps. Her doorway was the creepiest. If her door was open you would get that feeling like your being watched. No one was upstairs, it was just her room. Her lights were insane too. The lights would turn off for no reason and when you would get up to turn it on, the light would turn on. One day, the light turned off and I jokingly said to my friend, "whoever turned the light off turn it back on!" WELL the light turned on after I said that! Another time, her computer turned off and then turned back on. When it turned back on, this picture of a scary clown appeared on the screen and it had a laugh sound effect like it was a gif file. She didn't have any clown picture on her computer nor was she searching images of clowns online. It was really creepy!