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On to Something

 

I have always had a connection in my family with the paranormal. My grandmother was sensitive and my family lived in a haunted house for several years in the '90s. Recently, I had an overt encounter with an unexplainable human-like force. Since then, I have felt more aware and tuned-in to a supernatural undercurrent. I believe now that the more alert you are, the more you may see or feel. For example...

I live in an apartment in Brooklyn, New York. I moved in to this place in the spring of 2002. I lived on the 1st floor and would experience strange things. Often, I would be sitting on the couch there when I would feel something lightly tap the top of my skull. Once, I felt a brush of cool air immediately before being tapped. I told me roommates about it, but they are both scientists and refused to believe me. After these run-ins with skepticism, I kept things to myself. However, on a few occasions, they shared encounters with me.

Often, when I'd be getting ready for bed, I would turn off the TV and then the stereo and walk across the room to the stairs to go up to bed. The second that my foot would touch the first stair, the TV and/or stereo would go back on--sometimes together, sometimes only one of the two. I would then walk back across the room and turn them off. One time I did this and had to go back twice to turn off the TV. Each time, the appliances would turn themselves on as soon as my foot touched the first stair, as if I was being toyed with. One of my roommates saw this happen once and, while he found it difficult to explain, would still not believe our house was haunted. I, too, was not entirely convinced thinking I could chalk up these experiences to nerves and electrical malfunctions.

One night while sleeping in this apartment, I had a disturbing dream. I dreamt that there was a door within my room to a "new room" that isn't really there. There was incredible light blasting through the cracks around the door and frame. In this dream, an overpowering force was pulling me up out of my bed towards the door. This was not a good feeling, in fact, it was terrifying for some reason. When I awoke from this dream, I was sitting halfway up in bed as if I really was being pulled by my chest out of the bed. It was like I was awoken in the middle of a sit-up. To know what I mean, try laying flat on the floor and then sit up without employing any muscles or limbs except for your abdominal muscles. You will see that this is quite difficult unless you're in excellent shape. So anyway, I awoke and immediately fell back down into the bed as if I was a marionette and my strings had been suddenly severed. I found my pillows laying underneath the windowsill across the room. I felt as though the house itself was trying to communicate with me or something, that a dialogue had opened between myself and something unseen.

I moved out of this apartment in 2005 to live in Manhattan for a few years. This past October, after my incident with a ghost in Europe, I moved back into the same apartment building serendipitously, but into the fourth floor unit instead of the first. My old roommates still live in the first floor apartment, which is cool because it's easy for us to hang out after work--just like college! Anyway, one night when I was up in my place alone, I felt something tap me on top of my head. Immediately, I remembered how I was often tapped in this building the first time I lived there. I tried to brush it off and occupy my thoughts with something else.

Later that week, while standing in about the same place preparing the sheets for my bed for the night, I felt a light tap on top of my head again. Again, I tried to brush it off. After about ten seconds, as I was draping a blanket across my mattress, I felt an undeniably harder, more resolute tap on top of my head again. This time, I froze in mid-movement with my arms outstretched as I was tossing the blanket to the far side of my bed. I was petrified like that for about two whole minutes when I finally worked-up the courage to say, "Please don't do that again, it really, really scares me. Thanks..." I heeded advice I gleaned directly from this site and was polite, yet direct. I have not been tapped since then.

However, the most scary thing happened one Sunday afternoon while I was getting ready to shower and go watch some football. I was sitting on the futon upstairs alone working on the computer which was sitting next to me on the futon. I got up to go to the bathroom to prepare the shower. I turned on the water, but forgot my slippers in my room. I left the bathroom and walked back through the living room towards my bedroom. Before I got there, however, I noticed that a chair that had been in the kitchen fifteen seconds before, was now pressed up flush against the futon so that I could not sit down again where I had been sitting working on the computer. I had been in the bathroom for only a minute when this happened. I was pretty scared, but pushed it out of mind and went back to getting ready to leave. This in itself was not too alarming until I spoke with the tenant who lives directly below me on the third floor.

He came up to my apartment one night at about midnight asking if I had been banging on his door. My friends and I were hanging out and told him that we hadn't banged on his door, but that maybe he heard us stomping around. There are only 3 units in this four-floor building and all were accounted for at that time. He insisted that he most definitely heard someone banging loudly right on his front door for five or six bangs. Bewildered he went back downstairs. Later, I asked him about it again. Fearing rejection, I breached the subject carefully, "Um, do you think per chance this building might be haunted?" I was sure he'd laugh, but he just looked at me and said, "Probably..." He said his cat acts really strange sometimes and seems to follow invisible things about the room. I related the story about the chair to him and he grew pale. His girlfriend used to live in my current apartment (I know, small world, such is the micro-culture of Brooklyn youth) and he said she always pulled a chair up flush against their couch (which was positioned in the same place as my futon is now) to use as a makeshift desk on which to place her laptop. We both arrived at the same conclusion: this ghost might have thought it was helping me out by providing a platform for my computer. We have both been very aware and are looking out for things like this since then, but have experienced no repeat performances.

Some nights when I'm upstairs alone I love my apartment; sometimes, I feel very nervous and uncomfortable and I know I'm not alone. I love that place because it's so big and airy and clean, but on some nights, it has an undeniably sinister feel to it. I am ready and waiting.

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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, Ohiowatha, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

KimCan (1 stories) (19 posts)
 
14 years ago (2009-12-07)
This might sound pretty wacky to you, but I have a theory about the light in your dream. I grew up in a haunted house and while there I had one nightmare that filled me with such profound fear that I have never forgotten it. In my dream I was lying in my bed when a blazing white light began to shine in through the windows. I was horrified of the light but what was even worse was that, as I watched, frozen in fear, the light began to dissolve the walls of my bedroom, and then the furniture, until it was just me on my bed surrounded by white light. I felt desperate to hide from it, and then I suddenly woke up with a pounding heart.

Now this dream mystified me for a long time. I love the light and even had a bizarre out-of-body experience when I was 10 in which I was engulfed in white light and felt amazing peace and happiness. So why would one of the worst nightmares of my life involve white light?

Here is my wacky theory; I believe that whatever was haunting our house was, that night, projecting its fears into my dreams. It was not me but the entity who was terrified of the light, and had made our house its hiding place.

Reading your story, I wonder if whatever was in your apartment messing with you that night felt that it was hiding in your apartment from the light behind the door?
mustang (5 stories) (749 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-14)
Hi Ohiowatha. Sorry it took so long to get to this one. I don't know how I missed it. I was curious, what made you come up with your username? Anyway, being that the apartment building is older, it probably has a lot of history and a lot of different ghosts. Have you ever checked out the buildings and/or property's history? I personally feel that you have more than one ghost. Definitely one that is helpful, one that is a prankster and one that may have evil intentions. However, I think that when it comes to the sinister feel, it may be that the building just having ghosts period is creepy as heck! This may be playing into your sub-conscious. Who knows for sure. Do you still live there? If so, has anything else happened? ~Shelby
outta1smind (4 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-06)
I once heard a dream analyst say that every dream has a purpose, maybe your ghost wants to tell you something, like what happened to end it's life. Or maybe there is some family secret that you've buried in your mind. I suggest you take the time to investigate your building, New England is full of history maybe something happened in your building long ago. Good luck and let us know I personally am dieing of curiosity. 😉
Anna12 (1 stories) (44 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-05)
Hello!
Wow! What an awesome story! Thank you SO much for sharing it with us! I think this one is friendly. I almost laughed a little about how sweet this Spirit seems. Your Dream though is very frightening. I'm still trying to figure out its meaning (once I find out I'll tell you). I hope you stay in this place for a long time, and try to communicate a little further with this ghost. He(she?) is probably just looking for a friend, or someone to play around with.
Great story!
Tiffy (5 stories) (14 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-04)
from what you've told us, your ghost sounds friendly. Its almost cute how it wanted to help you by moving the chair for your computer. Maybe it wants a friend. I can understand though how you'd be scared. Maybe you could try talking to it somehow? Best wishes!

~Tiffany 😊
Tonith (1136 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-04)
Well I don't know about the rest of you but if I was gone a minute and a chair moved I would never be able to pass that off as matter of fact. Either you have kinetic energy you are not aware of or you have an in house spirit. I also live in a very old house circa 1886 but guess I'm not sensitive because I have never seen anything out of the ordinary or anything that couldn't be explained. One time I went to bed at around 2am and for whatever reason I woke up feeling I was being stared at. What I saw was a man's silhouette outlined in dim twinkle lights standing next to my bed. I mean I could make out that he was wearing a suit and tie and I could see the head (no face) and the twinkle lights where his hair would be. Needless to say that shocked me fully awake and of course it was gone. Being asleep at the time cancels out the legitimacy of this event as I chalked it up to a waking dream type thing.
On the other hand you were fully awake when the chair was moved just that you didn't see it move. So of course your experience holds a lot more water than mine.
whitebuffalo (guest)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-04)
Ohiowatha, you are so bad. But I mean that in a good way. 😊
Just for the record, I thought it was funny too.
Ohiowatha (11 stories) (415 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-04)
I was home alone last night and started to think about the tapping and whatnot and started to get scared. At one point, I looked into my bathroom and there, reflected in the mirror, was a dark hooded figure. I walked very quickly to my room and stood there in fear. Slowly, I got my nerve back up and turned on all the lights and walked back to the bathroom. I stood before it, gathered my will, and entered the bathroom. There, where I had seen the hooded figure a moment before, was my navy blue hooded sweatshirt hanging from my laundry hook, but it had looked like a figure in the dark with my paranoia. It wasn't anything at all to be frightened of, of course! Just goes to show that if you're all worked-up, you will see whatever you're most afraid of at that time.

Pretty funny, though!

And, just for the sake of clarity, the dream I had about the door was back in 2003 or 2004, about. But I have had a few dreams about my parents' "haunted" house having more rooms than are really there. It seems to be a theme in some of my dreams--secret rooms.

Thanks for all your comments, guys, I liked reading them. Will supply a few more stories if the submissions are ever up again! HAAHA!
whitebuffalo (guest)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-04)
Hi Ohiowatha.
I believe you have a firm grasp on what it means to check out everything before jumping to the conclusion that would be an easy fix, and that would be that your apartment is haunted. I always enjoy reading your stories and comments as they ring clearly as to the truth of your convictions.
The man who lived downstairs and came up to see if you were knocking on his door, his girlfriend (I am assuming here, and you know what can happen when you assume) is fine? I mean, she is still with us? That would make me think that you have a helpful entity in your apartment. Odd that it would use this form of help to let you know it is there, but who can say what a ghost thinks?
Maybe your dream means, like FRAWIN said that this is your awakening into the world of the unexplained. Maybe the pull you literally felt was an inner battle between your logical side and the side of you that may be leaning towards believing a bit more than what you would have a short while ago. Or...
You are looking at a closed door with light radiating around the cracks of the door. Could be that the door is the window to your subconscious mind. The part of your mind where facts and no nonsense reign. The light that appears to want to bust out could be the things in life that have no answer as of yet.
I am not saying a secret door is in your room that leads to the Other Side. I think that would be a bit far fetched, don't you? Maybe it is just things in your life that are at the moment difficult to explain (like I just changed out the battery, starter and alternator in my Grand Marquise, and yet it STILL does not want to start, what else could that be? Or I already reinforced the rubber tubing around the dishwasher and it is still flooding the kitchen, now what?)

I don't know. But I DO know that new doors are opened up to us all the time, and we only have the job to recognise them for the doors that they are, and not an extension to the wall we think we have been staring at for years...
Thank you.
FRAWIN (guest)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-03)
Hello Ohiowatha, thanks for sharing you story, it was great as usual. I think that whoever it was just wanted you to know it was there. When you acknowledged it`s presence and asked it to quit, it did. The only troubling part of your experience was your dream. The only conclusion that I can come to is that maybe it is just you "opening up", becoming more in tune with the other side. Of course this is just my opinion, just something for you to think about. God Bless.

FRAWIN 😊
Bellissima (12 stories) (792 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-03)
Ohiowatha, as usual an interesting story of one of your many experiences. I enjoyed reading this one. I'm glad your 'friends' are just friends so far. Hopefully your sinister feelings never come to fruition, but with all of your experiences and things you've been through, I have faith you'll handle everything just fine. I can't wait to hear how things go for you and your friends(the real ones, I mean) in your building. Please keep us posted.
haleybug (10 stories) (89 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-03)
Hi Ohiowatha,
WOW! I defintly feel what you are going through. The knocks tend to be creepy. ❤
Ohiowatha (11 stories) (415 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-03)
I do still live in the apartment and the girlfriend who used to live there lives just down the street now--about 1/2 block away. There has been no history of foul play or anything as far as we know, but the building is over 130 years old now, so it must have some stories by default. I have not been tapped or anything for a few months now. However, one morning at about 5 am, I awoke to the sound of something tapping against my window about three times, which is rather alarming considering I live on the 4th floor. Grain of salt: I was pretty groggy and still partially asleep when it happened, awakening me, so it could be any number of natural things. However, the thought of seeing something tapping at my window chills me. Reminds me of that scene in "Creepshow" when the kid gets sent to his room and the grim reaper is floating at his window and they exchange smiling glances.

Taps or not, I muust be careful not to leap to conclusions. The simplest explanation is usually the best and most accurate.
KimSouthO (27 stories) (1960 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-03)
I always like to read your stories and comments. This story is no exception. Thank you for sharing it with us! I am certain many of these occurances are and where quite alarming! I know they would have been for me also!
Are you still in the same apartment? Are you still having 'experiences'? Do you know what happened to the girl friend mentioned or have any other history on the building? I would be curious to know of its history as it sounds to me like you may be dealing with more than one 'entity'.

God Bless!
Ohiowatha (11 stories) (415 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-03)
Who knows. Sometimes I feel really uncomfortable, but mostly I think it's all in my head. Either way, I'd prefer that nothing else be there at all. I'm not afraid to be there alone, but if something really scary happened, like if one night a terrible voice growled something like "Get out of this house!" or whatnot, THEN I would be gone, but as is, there's just nothing threatening enought to warrant much fear.

Get your own apartment! It's great living alone and you shouldn't be afraid of "ghosts!" You'll love it--make the move!
melonlover (3 stories) (50 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-03)
Well I don't know wether this ghost is bad really, cause like you said it might of been trying to help you. Anyway good luck! And if these kind of things happen again please tell us 😁. ❤ Melonlover
frenchpoet (10 stories) (61 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-03)
I really like this story. I was considering getting an apartment next year but I'm afraid to live alone because of things like that. I would have ran out of there sooo fast.

One question- did your tenant's girlfriend die or did he mean that something was just mocking what she used to do because it was helpful? I don't think the spirits (or whatever it is exactly) are out to hurt you then, because when you asked them to stop tapping you on the head they did and though the chair incident was freaky, it seems like it was to help you be more comfortable. But you said sometimes you feel uncomfortable. I'm not really sure what exactly to make of it. Keep us posted. 😊

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