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Sinister Presence During my Childhood

 

I was brought up in a house built in the 17th Century. Overall it has always had a very peaceful atmosphere about it, except for one room. This is the room where I grew up from ages 0-18 and it is at the back of the house off a landing/hall area which is about 15 feet long. The room had a large cupboard which extended to a passage with a spiral staircase down to the basement.

My first experience with the presence in this room was when I was 4. I remember it very vividly. I had a dream of a man's face in a hood staring at me - that's all - just staring, in a humiliating, mocking way. I pulled myself out of the dream, and woke up. All of a sudden, I felt something grab my rib cage under the covers, like a hand grasping at me. I jumped away from the clasp and it cackled, mockingly, in my ear. I ran to the door and started to call for my mother.

As I did so, the light above my bed started swinging and was still swinging when my mother appeared a few seconds after. I told her everything that had happened and she said, at the time, it must have been a dream, the cackle I heard was a fox crying outside in the garden, and I must've woken with a start and knocked my light with my head. (This was impossible, because even when I stood up on the bed, my head didn't touch the light.)

My mother would later tell me when I was 18, that she used to breast feed me in that room in the middle of the night when I was a baby and feel like male eyes were watching her fiercely - staring at her in the same mocking way that I saw the face staring at me.

As time went on and I got older, I used to see apparitions of hornets and wasps appear all over my room: either a swarm of hornets or one single, big hornet, about the size of a juice carton would appear to be flying around the room when I woke up in the middle of the night, and then disappear. Over these years, the male presence was always there. It was a constant, oppressive feeling that I needed to get out of the room or something would "happen..." I barely spent anytime in my bedroom and would beg my parents not to have to go to bed.

I was seen by a psychologist for having "separation anxiety" as I ended up sleeping in a makeshift bed in the hallway most nights from age 4-13. Everybody called me a "baby" because I refused to sleep in this room, and at the time I believed it, but now I know it was more than that. I had to go into the room, of course, because I had to collect school clothes and books etc, but there was only a limited time I could spend in there. The sense that something was about to happen was the constant feeling. If I stayed too long in the room I could feel it circling me.

A shadow would pass by out of the corner of my eye and I felt like it was pushing its face right into mine. I would feel fingertips on my head and a feeling like sheets were swishing past my face and energy was moving around me. When I eventually left the room on these occasions that I felt the oppression, I could feel it follow me down the hall but only go so far. The sense of restriction on it was very obvious to me. It was almost like it was in chains and could go no further, just watch and stare while I went about my business in the other rooms off the hall.

I became quite troubled at age 18 and got very depressed and anxious. This is when the energy appeared to become stronger. I had started reading books about spirits and decided to take the advice in a book I had read and confront it. As I felt it pursuing me down the hall one day, I turned around and faced it and swore at it to leave me alone. I used strong language. I kept shouting at it and pushing it away, trying to make myself more aggressive than the spirit itself, and eventually the feeling left. I felt like I had "won..." For a while, anyway.

We started getting recurrent hornet infestations which seemed to manifest from the basement after that time. Big, African hornets would appear out of nowhere, at places in the house. Our neighbours never experienced them, and nobody could understand why they were appearing in our house. I even found three dead hornets in my bed (under the covers!), they would just appear while I was in the shower, or doing work, or when my parents were cooking dinner.

Sometimes my parents would be working in our basement study, and suddenly hear the low buzz of a group of hornets out of nowhere. My mother was very upset by it, and still is. The problem has never seemed paranormal to my father, or any man who has entered that room. It's like the male presence backs down to the male person, but is activated by seeing women. The hornet problem persisted for about three years. We always called the infestation men out and they could never find the nest. I don't think there ever was a nest. When I left home, it gradually stopped.

No-one goes in the room anymore, it is just storage. So occasionally my boyfriend or my father go in to collect something from it. Both of them say they feel absolutely nothing in there. When I visited home a month ago, I wondered past the room and saw the light on. I put my hand around the door and turned it off, then went to the bathroom. I thought to myself while looking in the bathroom mirror "I wonder if that male spirit is still here?" Low and behold, when I walked back past the room, the light was back on - just to remind me! Anybody have any clue who this man could be and why it seems so personal to me?

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Comments about this paranormal experience

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

Ibelieveinghosts (6 stories) (63 posts)
 
14 years ago (2009-11-28)
Very frightening story! This sounds like a nasty, abusive entity that gets its kicks out of scaring people, especially females. Have you ever thought about having the house and especially that particular room blessed? This may help drive the spirit out. It's worth a try! Best of luck to you! 😊 ❤
WitchSpawn (7 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-06-08)
So many nice comments in this story

Although my life's experiences are still sprouting (I'm a kid) Paranormal activity has always fascinated me.

One of many instances of when it has happened to me was a very very troubled girl who was like a sister to me, I was the only guy she trusted because of her other life's experiences (Father beating her, boyfriends tricking her etc etc) and her room was her sanctuary, As she was always in pain she always had to pass it on to other people, In her room nobody was ever allowed in, nobody was to look at it not even me. She grew to hate men and to fear them as a result she abuses girls to the fullest extent of her power. I have not read the answering phone one but I wanted to give first thoughts.

I believe its a woman who's life was horrid, she was abused and your room was her sanctuary. You sleeping in it must have angered her.

Those are my first thoughts:)
KimSouthO (27 stories) (1960 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-04-04)
Oglegen,
I have chosen not to read the other comments before posting as I am a bit delayed in reading your story.

It is possible that for some reason this entity in that room choose to only show it self or make it self known only to females. There may have been some un-resolved issues or problems with females whil he walked the earth, there for he choosed this method after death. Or, perhaps it is simply fond of females, or just likes scaring females. Unfortunately, there are a few men I know that thrive on doing that now, you read about it in the news every day.

I would say, however, that this entity is bound more to the area then to you. For some reason which may never be known, it has bound itself to that room or that area of the house. I realize that it had frightened you for many years, but pray for its release. Pray for it to cross over and find peace, to release what ever binds and tasks hold it here so it may walk in peace with the Lord and no other fenakes in that area of that home will have to endure what you did.

Thank you for sharing your story with us!

God Bless!
ms (1 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-04-04)
I have had the hornet experience before, I thought it was only me going crazy hehe, I guess not:-S.
whitebuffalo (guest)
 
16 years ago (2008-03-11)
Hello Oglegen,
Without giving away too much of the binding process, I will say that it is possible. There are some entities, that all though you point out all of the wonderful things on the Other Side, for some reason they choose to stay behind. Not all of them are angry or evil, some just do not want to go.
A couple of years ago I studied under someone who bound ghosts. If she tried to help them Cross Over, and they refused, she would simply bind them to that location so that they could not scare or harm anyone else.
I no longer study under her, and this was one of the main reasons why. If you can FORCE an entity to remained IMPRISONED to an area, why can you not "trick" them into Crossing Over? Why would a person HAVE to resort to binding when you could simply continue smudging and keep on trying to FREE them, and NOT IMPRISON them? They are already stuck! They NEED to be released.
My thoughts on the binding process is that the person doing the binding is CREATING bad emotions. Anger, rejection, loneliness, and at times, those emotions can FEEL like pure evil radiating off of a ghost.
I do not personally feel that this ghost is bound to you, just connected. I believe that he is only bound to you as you were the only one to see and feel his presence. Well, except now your Mother now has bad feelings in the room also.
What I would suggest is that next time you go to visit the home, take along some lavender incense. Burn them in the room and also in the hallway. Lavender helps in ridding a place of negativity. Maybe you could make the home more comfortable for her.
Maternal instincts and emotions are VERY protective. When protecting anyone who needs obvious protection (i.e. Small children, the elderly, those who can not tell who could harm them) I would have to say that we become extremely watchful. When we do that, we also seem to start assuming that just about anyone could be "the bad guy". We become attached to the one needing us, and our instincts tell us to protect against ALL.
Thank you.
Oglegen (6 stories) (61 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-03-10)
Thanks Whitebuffalo and Karyn for your comments.

Whitebuffalo -Thanks for your comments about it - what you said was definitely what I needed; a different "take" on the whole thing. It's sometimes difficult to get out of the subjective mindset. The fact that "he" might have suffered an illness in there rang very true, intuitively for me. I agree with you about the entity being "bound" to a certain area. How would someone have done that in the past with him? What is the binding process? It was very obvious to me how far he could go - he could come out of the door, but only go a few paces down the hall and then that was where he could only stand and watch. In terms of the entity being "bound" to me as well, I must admit I get a similar oppressive feeling of his "style" of oppression whenever my maternal drive comes out. I have been in circumstances where I have had to protect children and worked with abandoned/neglected children in Asia and during the moments I have felt most protective of them (tucking them into bed, holding them in my arms etc) I have felt "watched" by the same eyes. Do you think this is the nature of the maternal drive? To see everything as a predator? Or do you think it is something to do with him?

Karyn - I go back to the house to visit my parents 5 times a year or so. My mother is now scared of the room because as I got older and started maturely articulating my experiences in there, instead of my parents STILL being able to put it down to separation anxiety, she started talking openly about her own experiences with the room as well. My father goes in and out often and rubbishes our feelings about the place.
whitebuffalo (guest)
 
16 years ago (2008-03-10)
Hello Oglegen,
It is my opinion that he is connected to you as no one else could or would sense him. I find it interesting that he had boundaries. The boundaries seem to imply that at some point someone else knew of his existence and bound him to that area. Most generally a ghost or spirit move about freely, from one point or another and do not appear to have any space that is "off limits", but this one had a clearly defined line it could not cross.
For some reason, I feel as if he was someone who was a strong physical presence in his lifetime. Maybe "ruler of his domain" is a more appropriate term. Women had their place, and men were accepted. Perhaps this was his bedroom and he was bound there by something purely physical (an illness that kept him bed fast, or locked in the room. Early on, certain characteristics of people were thought to be evil, and their families locked them away either out of shame or to keep themselves, or the one afflicted, safe).
The hornets are interesting. Early beliefs claimed bees (and hornets are in the family of bees) were heaven-sent. Because of their ability to find their way home over great distances, the bee (and hornet) came to represent the soul. It stood for sexuality and chastity, as well as fertility and care, and there are many stories of small children being protected by bees.
With that said, you said that "When I left home, it gradually stopped..." That would sound to me as if they were there to protect you.
Thank you.
Karyn (1 stories) (63 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-03-09)
This story really was well written. I bet you are glad to no longer be living there. I too grew up in a house with a bad spirit/entity and I know they can prey on fear. Especially when a teenager is involved.
Do you still visit, are there still family living in the home?
rhodes68 (14 stories) (1596 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-03-09)
I wouldn't atempt to advise you on how to approach the matter as I've got very little experience with and knowledge of the paranormal but I'd follow Flutter's advice if I were you.

I'm sorry about what you've been through all these years and I agree with you, it takes courage to go back there;childhood experiences leave a powerful imprint in our minds.

I loved your story and wish you all the luck 😊
Oglegen (6 stories) (61 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-03-09)
The house is one of two houses that were connected to a big manor house a little bit down the road. In there the workers used to store and prepare food and materials for the people in the manor house. There are no stories of death connected to the place, but I suppose going back to the 17th century that gives a lot of time for something to happen that might not necessarily be remembered or accounted for.

I had a dream of the same man recently and I asked who he was. I heard the name "Jack Horner" and when I thought about it I remembered that the poem goes something like "Jack Horner in the corner..." Whatever it is it feels like it is just playing games and if we pay attention to it, they get more sinister. Thanks for your advice Flutterofwings, I am trying to build up the courage to go back and sage the place.
Flutterofwings (13 stories) (428 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-03-08)
Evil entities can come in any form, to haunt one or a home and everyone in it. Do you know the history of the home this occured in? Was it always a home to live in, or something else?.
Since your Mother felt it while nurisng you when you were young, then the entity had been there for a long time. Probably came with the house.

Evil entities feed off emotions of fear, it gets stronger and the person with the fear gets weaker.

Placing crosses in each room sometimes help, or saging a home can help rid spirts that are evil.

I would look first into the history of this place and see, if you can find out if anyone died in it, by natural or unnatural causes.

Perhaps that room in the back, was an add onto the house in a later date, but orginally didn't come with the house.

Well written story, thanks for sharing with us.

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