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Ticking Sound

 

this story I'm going to tell you all is kind of short but I'll try to make it fit into the limit of words allowed.

From around when I was 7 years of age, every time I went to bed for the night and lay there before sleep I will always here this faint sound coming from the corner of the ceiling. The sound was more of a ticking sound like a clock but without the usual tick tick tick. It was more like tapping frequently as someone would tap on the window/table. This particular sound was annoying. It would go on most of night until I would fall asleep. It would always stop when I sit up to look for it and always would start again when I rest my head back on the pillow.

Other nights it would change locations like in wall beside me. Ceiling by closest doors. And by main door into bedroom. Some nights it would go fast other nights it would go slower. I mentioned it to my father but he just said it was the house cooling down from the hot days. But this sound always happened even in -2 degrees conditions of winter.

So one night I decided to sleep in my brother's room on top of the bunks. The same sound would start up again once my brother falls asleep. It always freaked me out. Even when I went to my mother's house for the night or a friend's. It would appear in the ceiling or walls.

The sound even went to the lounge when I had sleepovers. I don't know what this sound would be as it always stopped when I looked around. The sound stopped shortly before the 7.1 quake of September 4, 2010. Till this day I haven't heard the sound again.

So did anyone else had experience this before? Or am I the only one?

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The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, sheld999, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

Kat_D (2 posts)
 
4 years ago (2020-03-08)
That freaking ticking sound man. I hear it all the time at my parents place and when I was a child it was before all the freaky crap happened. My sister and I used to hear footsteps and a child talking gibberish in our room. I was not impressed as an adult last year when I heard it again for the first time in years but thankfully nothing else happened.
sheld999 (14 stories) (74 posts)
 
7 years ago (2017-04-01)
H2olily could of been. Just got on my nerves a lot lol. From memory one stage it even followed to a hutt in middle of nowhere
H2olily (5 stories) (158 posts)
 
7 years ago (2016-10-21)
I think it was a spirit of harassment that had the 'right' to disturb you for a time and make you a target. You are very brave, that's both scary and annoying!
sheld999 (14 stories) (74 posts)
 
8 years ago (2016-06-29)
Yeah all I know my house was built in 1970s. Its across road from an old graveyard.
roylynx (guest)
+1
8 years ago (2016-06-28)
That is amazing, it sounds like the sixth sense inside you is telling you that something big will happen. It might not be a haunt; my grandmother told me that she use to have a friend who always says that he will hear a very sharp PING sound, few months later the Vietnam War begun, the PING sound stopped since then.
I consider your experience and that of my grandmother's friend's is something inside our body, some people can sense them but most can't, its different but it's like some people can touch their nose with their tongue, bad example, but what I mean is people is born with or without an ability, we all know no one is perfect, so there lol

Love from São Paulo

E.Lynx
Tweed (33 stories) (2475 posts)
+1
8 years ago (2016-06-28)
Hi Sheld,

Evidently you're not the only one to experience this.😊 I had a not so nice experience with a tapping sound (not a clock ticking, totally different) that drove me mad for about a year. Like you, it started and stopped at key times suggesting an intelligence to it that couldn't be wrote off as anything physically explainable. My situation escalated, however.

Manafon's experience with a ticking sound is recommended reading, it's a very moving, positive experience.

There's no one size fits all reasoning to 'haunting styles', they're all unique in their intents and motives. The timing of when this stopped for you is interesting, wonder if the earthquake had a dispersing influence on it.

As an aside all this clock talk is totally fascinating!

Thanks for sharing and prompting an interesting discussion. 😊
Manafon1 (6 stories) (712 posts)
+1
8 years ago (2016-06-28)
Hi sheld99--I was in a rush yesterday when I commented but I wanted to share a rather great example of paranormal ticking that is taken from a book collecting case studies for the Society of Psychical Research. In the early 1920s Mona O'Kelly, then a ten year old, was home from school with a cold. She was reading in bed when, in her own words, "For some reason I looked across the room to the top of the stairs. The staircase came up in to the room. My attention has been caught by the sound of a clock ticking. We had no clock in the bedroom. The ticking got louder as it was coming nearer. I was now staring towards those stairs as the ticking was now very loud. Then I saw this man. He was a small broad person. I saw no face but on his head was a white hat, the sort worn in tropical countries. He had on a white suit; I even saw the crease at the back, made when one sits down. He had white boots. In his hand, although I saw no hand, was the clock. The person, or whatever it was, just went through the wall at the top of the stairs. This is the moment when I screamed to my mother, who was downstairs."

O'Kelly further states, "I have often wondered why it happened to me, why no one else saw anything, and why the figure was all in white like that, and why the clock?"
The author of this book states that, "Mrs. O'Kelly heard the ticking of a clock before she saw the apparition. This suggests that the object of the sound was to attract her attention." I believe in my experience with a strange clock like ticking, it was indeed there to get my attention and to lead me to a specific location. Once there, what I believe to have been the spirit of my deceased mother seemed to enter my very consciousness.

In your case it seems possible a spirit (possibly a deceased family member) was trying to get your attention to let you know it was there. As the above quoted account suggests, this strange ticking sound can potentially lead to more elaborate phenomena. Hopefully some of this info helps in letting you know you are not alone in experiencing this type of thing. Although I can understand the sound unnerved you a bit, there is no reason to think it was anything malevolent. After I submitted my story of hearing that strange ticking I received an email from a guy from your country of New Zealand who not only has heard a ticking, much like you describe, but in multiple locations spanning several years. It's a very intriguing paranormal phenomenon that does seem to be part of certain spirits repertoire.
PunkysMama (4 stories) (62 posts)
 
8 years ago (2016-06-28)
Hey Sheld999,

I am going to have to go with Biblio on this one. Very peculiar indeed. Made me think of an awful story about a woman with a roach stuck in her inner ear canal that started eating her insides and all the strange scratching noises she would hear with no explanation until the pain started! 😭 When he advised getting your ears checked. But since it's been years now you're probably not infested! LOL Thank you for the read though.
sheld999 (14 stories) (74 posts)
+1
8 years ago (2016-06-28)
Hi punkysmama. Nope no one I knew passed over at that age.

Dandk. Nope none of them heard it
Bibliothecarius (9 stories) (1091 posts)
+2
8 years ago (2016-06-28)
Greetings, Shield:

While I don't have a definitive response for your question (most of the ticking noises I hear are my clocks and watches!), I commend the thoroughness of detail you included which eliminated every other line of inquiry I was going to suggest:
1) The ticking stops when you move? Insects do that to avoid being eaten... But they wouldn't follow you into other rooms.
2) Steady rhythm? Yes, but not always the same rhythm, so it's not a clock's ticking being carried by pipes.
3) Temperature related?...and no, you've already thought of that.
4) Infestation of woodworm or termites? The sound followed you to other houses, and only the most oblivious of individuals would carry a termite colony around without noticing.
5) Piezoelectric phenomena? Usually sensed as electrical discharge or lights, not as sound waves; the earthquake would have ended geological pressure which caused this phenomenon, but your moving around wouldn't have altered your perception of the sound in the first place.

If there is a physical explanation for this, the only place I can think of checking is having your inner ear inspected by an audiologist; however, your hearing (or a presumptive pressure buildup inside the ear) would not be permanently changed by an earthquake.

For a short account of a peculiar phenomenon, you've packed in a lot of information.

Interesting account!

Best,
Biblio.
DandK (11 stories) (344 posts)
 
8 years ago (2016-06-27)
Hi sheld999, did any of your friends hear the sound during your sleepovers in the lounge?
Thanks for sharing your experience.
PunkysMama (4 stories) (62 posts)
 
8 years ago (2016-06-27)
Hello Sheld999,

When you were that age do you recall if there was a relative or friend of the family you were close to that had passed on? Perhaps they were trying to get your attention. This no longer goes on?

Thanks for the read. 😊
sheld999 (14 stories) (74 posts)
 
8 years ago (2016-06-27)
Hi manafon1 wow fast comment lol yeah could be a reli if mine. The sound will always drive me crazy.
Manafon1 (6 stories) (712 posts)
 
8 years ago (2016-06-27)
Hi sheld999--I had a very similar experience (it's on this site under the title 'An Invisible Clock Ticking'). In my case I believe the ticking sound was to get my attention and direct me towards a walk in closet. Once I entered this closet what I believe was my deceased mothers spirit assailed me. It was a very moving experience.

Maybe you had a deceased relative checking in on you. This ticking sound has been reported in well researched case studies that I have read going back to the 1920s. I'm sure there are earlier reported cases. It does commonly seem to be a way for a spirit to make a person aware of its presence. There are a few other accounts here on the YGS site that also describe this ticking. You should easily be able to find them through a quick search. Thanks for sharing your very interesting account.

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