The Presence

I've experienced many things in my life that many would consider paranormal. A fact about me is that I'm a Christian and very religious which, I believe, attributes to the reason why I have experienced such things. I've pondered these experiences for many years and am glad that I can now relate them to others without fearing ridicule or disbelief.

I am now nineteen years old now and this particular experience occurred when I was thirteen or fourteen. In my old apartment in east Athens, Georgia, I always had the feeling that something dwelt in this little apartment along with my family and I. It felt like something or someone was always watching me and I knew it wasn't benevolent because whenever I sensed it, I got the feeling that I should be very cautious of the presence.

Our apartment had three bedrooms upstairs. My brother's was almost directly across from the staircase, my mom and sister's was down the hall on the side of the staircase, and mine was at the end of the hall. My room was the worst because that's where the presence was most felt. At times I would be in my brother's room and would sense something come out of my room, stand at the door of my brother's room, and just stare at me. I never heard, saw, or smelled anything. It was just a strong SENSE of something there.

One night, my brother and I switched bedrooms and I was lying on the floor reading a book near the door. I guess I fell asleep there and a few hours later I awoke VERY suddenly. I realized that I had fallen asleep on the floor and was about to get up into the bed when I looked in the hallway towards my former room. I again sensed something sinister come out of the room and stop at my door.

Suddenly, (it's hard to explain even now) I became immobilized there on the floor. I couldn't move or speak and I felt a great pressure around my head while my vision became blurry. Actually, my vision was strange. Consider the television fuzz or static that shows when there's no reception of a channel. Well that's similar to how my vision was then. I could still see everything but it was like the fuzz was mixed in with it. Simultaneously, in my head it felt like two forces were fighting each other-fighting over me!

As I stated before, I'm a very religious person and suddenly I began to say Jesus in my head - it wasn't even a conscious decision - I just began to say it in my head! As I said Jesus! In my head, it felt like one of the forces was getting stronger and overpowering the other. Soon the stronger force - which I KNOW was Jesus - had completely overpowered the other force - the evil presence. At that moment the pressure left my head, my vision returned to normal, and I could move again.

I shot out of that bedroom and ran downstairs to watch television with the lights on! I thanked God all the way, too! I'm so glad we've moved but I don't think I'll ever forget that frightening experience.