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Memories From My Childhood

 

After writing my bio, and stating that I had never seen any apparitions, I got to thinking about some things that I remember from my childhood.

When I was young, around the age of 4 probably, I remember waking up in my room in our trailer. Floating in my room were what I always described as "spiky balls" floating around. These were grey-ish, somewhat diaphanous, and of varying sizes from about the size of a golf ball to about the size of a softball. I remember very strongly that I wasn't afraid, just sort of childishly curious. The experience lasted for only a short period, a matter of a couple of minutes perhaps, and I went back to sleep.

The second experience was when I was about 8 years old and living in an apartment above an old store. I again woke up in the middle of the night, and saw the sort of shadowy form of a man with an "Abe Lincoln"-type hat (although I don't think it was quite like that, shorter than a stovepipe hat, but flat on top like one) at the foot of my bed. He then walked into my closet and disappeared. (There was an entrance to the attic in my closet, although we never used it.) Again, I don't remember being frightened. (To be honest, I'm not sure how that works, because I was a fearless child, often to the point of doing stupid, dangerous things, but as I got older I became a real chicken. I'm 30 and scared of the dark, if that's any indication.)

I want to assure you that I have always written these two experiences off as some sort of dream, hence why I didn't want to include "seeing" things in my bio. I'm not even sure that they weren't dreams, especially given my age. The only reason I am submitting my experiences is because they seemed very real to me at the time and stuck with me all these years. Also, the other thing is that my whole life I don't recall ever dreaming of waking up in my room. When I dream I'm in "my house", it is always a strange house that represents my house. These were (dreams?) of waking up in my actual darkened room and seeing something.

I've looked online for explanations of "spiky orbs", but nothing I've read seems to match what I saw, and I guess I'm sharing this to get either reassurance that I was just a very imaginative child or that these might have been paranormal experiences. Please feel free to be brutally honest with me, because I figure if you guys at YGS can't sort it out, nobody can, LOL! Thanks for reading!

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

Seek (1 stories) (15 posts)
+1
9 years ago (2014-10-15)
I often have dreams about places I've been/lived. These places are different from how they looked in reality. For example, garage on wrong side, backyard different. Very vivid reacuring dreams. Always an evil feeling to them. Can't recall entire dreams but itseems I'm being chased or being "hunted down". By something not human. You might think these dreams would leave a feeling of uneasiness, but I always wake up feeling like I have been through a great adventure. These dreams are so real. I am not scared of them, which surprises me. Rather I wish I could have more and maybe understand what they mean.
AshCat (24 posts)
+1
10 years ago (2014-01-06)
I have not witnessed any, but over the years I have definitely come across quite a few stories of the glowing balls with what others describe as "knobs" all over them. It seems to be a variation on an ORB according to other's sightings. Often times in those stories the spirit later takes on their recognizable human form.
MissusTodd (2 stories) (14 posts)
+1
11 years ago (2013-05-26)
Hello everyone! Thanks for responding, and sorry to have taken so long in getting back here. I guess it's one of those things where I'll never know exactly, but I do hope I can research at least the apartment. The trailer I grew up in was only about 10 years old when my parents bought it and they had it brought to the property of a relatively new neighborhood, so I doubt I will find anything about it.

Amie_16: The apartment I lived in as a kid was in town, and streetlights shone in, but it was dark other than the usual outside lights. You could see well enough to get around, but I didn't have nightlights or anything... Which is funny considering how scared of the dark I am as an adult!:)

Other than "feelings" and (as I said in my other submission) hearing footsteps, I have never actually seen anything. Growing up, my grandmother taught me to have a healthy reverence for spirits, so I think that may also be because I truly never wanted to. Being 30 now, I still don't know that I want to. I will ask my mom if she ever felt or saw anything at our old apartment, or at our trailer though, and if it's fruitful, I will report back.

On a side note, at our trailer, my dad did use to have bad nightmares to the point that he would sleepwalk and grab me to protect me from the "monster" he called it. He was a sleepwalker as a kid, so it may have just been a resurgence of that, but only in the trailer was it so dramatic.
DARKNESS (3 stories) (2022 posts)
+1
11 years ago (2013-05-23)
MissusTodd: Nobody on this site and even the world can be exactly right as to explaining what you witnessed all those nights ago.
We can only guess as to what it may have been by relating it to similar occurences that other people have witnessed.
By the sounds of these it may very well have been dreams but from a paranormal perspective they may have been orbs and the figure you seen may indeed have been a manifested spirit. The only advice if your interested in it, is to may be to look into house and land history also speak to family members, had they witnessed anything unusual before? Look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for sharing.

Dan
Amie_16 (2 stories) (104 posts)
-2
11 years ago (2013-05-22)
Hey I have a question there, if the room was darkened (at the time you saw that man) because of course it was night, then how could you see him?
zetafornow (4 stories) (447 posts)
+2
11 years ago (2013-05-20)
I also might add... If you had no prior experience with the paranormal, as you are not sure if dreams or not... You probably wouldn't be on this website. Albeit there are people who are curious, mostly what I have found is people on this site have either had numerous paranormal experiences or have known someone who has. That is what brings us all here. So I too believe that you more than likely experienced something paranormal and that is what brought you here.

Zeta.
WishfulNull (151 posts)
+1
11 years ago (2013-05-19)
Hi MissusTodd, I appreciate your invitation to be brutally honest...haha, as somewhat of a skeptic, I am brutally honest with everyone, but it's good to hear someone is really prepared! 😆 In this case however, I am (despite my nature) leaning towards these being paranormal events you experienced. I agree with Val, in that if these were just dreams you had as a child, it would be highly unusual for you to remember them so vividly for all these years. I have to agree with your self-examination of how you normally dream - I have never dreamed of my own dark room...it's always either a different time of day in my dream, or a representation of the house/room...not the same as the "real thing". Intriguing experiences - thank you for sharing, and best wishes to you! 😁
valkricry (48 stories) (3257 posts) mod
+1
11 years ago (2013-05-19)
Generally 'spikey' somewhat transluscent orbs are dust. But, when you say the size of golf balls to softball size - well then 'dust' simply doesn't fit the bill.
The hat your shadowy visitor was wearing sounds like one they called a 'skimmer'or a 'boater' built like the stove-pipe hat but only 3 or 4 inches tall. Popular back in the late 1800's-early 1900s.
COULD these be paranormal experiences? Yes, especially since you can recall them with such vividity decades later. WERE they paranormal experiences? I don't think any of us can give you a definate answer. I would say this though, it's very unusual for the dreams of a 4-8 year old to stick with us and make us wonder if they were dreams or not.
Bluerose19 (3 stories) (164 posts)
+1
11 years ago (2013-05-19)
MissusTodd: First, Welcome to YGS.com! 😊

Well...those were quite interesting experiences, especially those spiky-orbs thing! I really don't have even a bit of an idea about them but hopefully, the regulars here in this site may give you a better idea about what could those things be. Take care.

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