While I have always had an interest in the paranormal, I have never seen anything that convinced me that ghosts and spirits are real. And quite honestly, even after what happened early this morning, I'm still not convinced. However, what happened was "odd", and it may be paranormal, or it may not be. I'll leave that to you to decide.
Some background: my 70 year old father passed away in Florida earlier this month after several years of illness (cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc.) He passed away in hospice at the local hospital and was subsequently cremated. I came down to Florida to help with his affairs and to assist my mother with ongoing responsibilities. While my mother slept in one bedroom, I slept in my Dad's old bedroom which had been largely cleaned of his things (although some of his belongings are still here).
On the last day of my stay in Florida, I woke up very early in the morning after the alarm clock on my cell phone awoke me (as planned, at 5:30 am). After I turned off the phone and lay back down in the bed in the darkened bedroom, I heard a very odd noise - there was some movement coming from within my backpack. Specifically, there was something moving around the plastic bags I had placed in there the day before (I had put some snacks in my backpack the day before as I was going to be flying back to Illinois the following day [today]).
Honestly, it sounded like there was something playing with the bag... Or it sounded like there was something like a mouse or lizard inside the bag. If you could imagine the sound of a hand crinkling a plastic shopping bag, you'd have a good representation of what I heard.
What was odd is that the sound wasn't momentary - it kept on continuing (it wasn't just one sound but an ongoing sound). Furthermore, I am certain it hadn't happened previously that morning and it certainly hadn't happened the night before (when I was getting ready to go to sleep).
Listening to this sound in bed, I thought that I was imagining things. However, I got out of bed, turned on the light and looked at the bag... And the sound kept coming: crinkle, crinkle, crinkle. I stood there, just dumbfounded, trying to imagine what could've been causing it.
I was convinced that there had to be a mouse or some other critter in there, making that noise, although my parents had never complained of mice in their condo, and I had never heard or seen anything related to mice or lizards inside the condo. My parents do not have any pets, and the windows all have screens on them.
I reached inside, pulled out the bag, looked inside, and there was nothing. Zero. Zip. I looked inside the rest of the backpack, and there was nothing, zero, zip. Nothing crawled out of the bag (which I would have seen) and there was nothing inside the bag.
The crinkling sound stopped after I pulled out the bag and placed it on the ground.
Now, it is possible that a lizard may have somehow gotten into the condo, and crawled into my bag looking for snacks. But again, I didn't see any lizard either in the bag or crawling out when I reached inside the backpack.
Honestly, I don't know what could've caused that sound or whether it was related to my Dad's recent passing. But it really happened, and it was very strange.
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I will say this - the sound did not occur earlier in the evening or when I went to bed. It only occurred early in the morning. When I awoke, my initial thought was entirely rational - it was, "Is that an animal poking around my bag?" However, I didn't see any animal come out of the bag (I watched it as the bag was making the sound) and there have never been animals found in that condo. That doesn't mean it couldn't have been an animal; just that, it is unlikely to have been an animal.
In terms of other rational explanations, there was a ceiling fan in that room but it had been blowing all night and the bag didn't make that sound before. As for an air vent, there were no air vents near the bag (I'm not sure whether there are any air vents at all in that room). The sound, to me, definitely would require moderate pressure applied to the bag - it sounded like someone deliberately crunching the bag, not it being blown by wind.
I appreciate the suggestion about the snacks - I hadn't thought of that. My Dad was a BIG snackaholic (worse than me, which is saying a lot). Who knows, maybe that's what caught his attention?
My disposition is to believe that there is a rational explanation for this, but it WAS very strange and it DID happen. That I am sure of.