My Experiences Past And Present

I remember seeing "shadowy" figures at a very young age, around 8-9. I remember one quite vividly; it was one morning as I was leaving my house for school. As I exited my house through the side gate as normal, as clear as day, I saw a black figure peering round the corner and I vaguely remember it smiling at me, before disappearing round the corner as if it were trying to play. I saw the odd figure from time to time but as I grew older I think I began to dismiss this as my imagination and eventually stopped seeing them.

I have lived in this house since just before my first birthday and all the instances I witnessed as a child occurred around my home. I'm now 23 and I'm beginning to notice things again, and I'm not the only one. It began a few weeks ago when I was turning all the lights off downstairs on my way to bed and as I turned the final light off in my front room I heard quite clearly someone whisper my name. Freaked out I got to my bedroom in record time. I mentioned this to my mother the next morning, and she said "maybe we've got a ghost!" which has sparked my memory of the figures I used to see.

My mother has also had experience with a ghost back when she was a younger; she has told me stories along with my grandmother about actually seeing an apparition of a woman floating. They also told me about things being moved around, like my mother's rings, she used to always keep her rings in a copper shell (my grandmother was in the navy) but one day she left them on a shelf in the kitchen instead while she did the washing up, when she went to retrieve her rings they were gone, guess where she found them...

However despite my memories resurfacing about the figures I used to see, I again dismissed this as imagination. A few nights after I heard my name, I was woken to the sound of banging against my wardrobe. A few nights later a stack of games on my desk inexplicably fell off my desk, I tried to account this to wind but it was a very cold night and as such, my windows were closed.

These instances died off for about a week or so. Until yesterday in which my mother, while sitting in the front room reading one of her many books about vampires, noticed a shadowy figure move down the wall next to our television, as if someone were standing in front of the lamp situated behind her, but she was alone. Then about four hours ago I turned the TV off in my room to get to sleep and set the TV remote down next to my phone on the floor next to the bed, after about 30 minutes of trying to sleep, I began to feel increasingly uncomfortable or "unsettled" may be a better word. I then heard someone walking around in my room and coming to a stop by my computer chair which then creaked as though someone had sat in it; this was followed shortly by a very clear and distinct "sigh" in a very feminine tone. Shocked by this I reached for my TV remote to turn the TV on for some light, to find that my remote was gone which I later found under my jeans at the foot of my bed. I left my room to tell my brother what had happened, to which he said

"Last night I had a similar thing, I was watching a movie on my iPod, and the battery was full, after about 5 minutes the screen flickered, went off then came back on for a second then the battery drained instantly. Afterwards I went really cold as if I'd just stood in front of an open freezer"

I have looked around the internet through various sources to try and find some "rational" explanation for it all, and the only thing I can attribute my experiences to is an overactive imagination, but then that doesn't account for my parents and siblings. I highlighted "rational" because I have always been open to accept various things such as psychic abilities, the paranormal and other phenomenon, so I didn't want to just dismiss the abnormal, but seek a more "logical" explanation like I suppose most would.

What puzzles me the most however, is "why now?" why has this spirit or being chosen now to show itself or perhaps in my case to reintroduce itself, and in rather more forward manner than previously? Could my current emotions have reawakened its need to communicate? I have been feeling very down and depressed of late and quite stressed out over work so could that have influenced it? Also if he, she or it is trying to comfort me for my current state of feeling, then that kind of makes me upset that I dismissed it as my imagination and not some spirit that simply wanted to be friends.?

Any insight anyone could give would be a godsend at this time. I'm considering trying to communicate, but I don't want to open up any pathways to more sinister things, so I'd like to tread cautiously.

Thank you for reading and I hope to hear your thoughts soon.