Strange Visitor

Your experiences seem pretty intense. Since your boyfriend is also experiencing much the same, I do believe you need to do something to see if you can rid your apartment of any presence. Though the experiences are scary, it's possible the intention is not to harm, but rather to warn you about something else in the apartment. That's something to keep in mind when an experience happens and may be of comfort. Perhaps the presence is trying to scare you out so you don't become ill (like the previous tenant) due to water contamination or mold and mildew. Biblio had a lot of good points.

I would do Rook's Cleansing and Shielding Method as soon as you can. Then I would clean like I was germaphobic, especially checking for soft spongy spots in the drywall and flooring around the toilet and shower, indicating past water problems and possibly existing mold problems under those areas. If the bathroom had previous water problems and only the drywall was fixed as opposed to replacement of underlayment and drywall, mold can exist and not be seen. I'd also check the sink cabinets to see if any mold or mildew or water leaks are evident. Mold and mildew can really hurt you both and cause serious illness.

I would pick up a water testing kit or send a water sample to a testing lab.

Another thing I'd look for is electric or microwave sources. You shouldn't sleep too close (18" or less) to your computer or cell phones. Please don't carry your cell phone in your bra or fastened to your hip on an all day basis as research has shown the wavelengths can cause damage bone strength and alter cell structure (cancer) if exposure is constant. You should note if there are any electrical/radio towers close by the apartment. Perhaps the nice old man is trying to warn you the apartment is not all it should be. If the presence still doesn't go away and you can't find or remedy anything you do find, I would change apartments again.

Hello Alice,
Thanks for sharing your story. The other comments seem to have covered the paranormal possibilities but what about the ordinary mostly boring possibilities? You lost a dear friend and that can be upsetting, which leads to other things such as disturbing dreams etc. Having said that I would like to add that maybe something paranormal did occur and if that is the case I hope you find the other post helpful.
Best Regards,
Skeptic_1960

Greetings, Alice, and welcome to YGS.

A couple of ideas sprinted through my mind as I was reading your absorbing narrative. Sidenote: very seldom do I read narratives written in a brisk tempo with few errors; your concise, detailed account was a joy.

Now, for the ideas which occurred to me:

1. You stated that, "he was a sweet elderly man who loved telling stories about his younger days." Did everyone love to listen to them, because they were entertaining & full of interesting details? If so, was he able to provide any evidence of their validity (photos, postcards, mementos, letters), or did everyone simply trust him for the details because he was sweet and gentle old fellow? The reason I'm asking is because of my customary cynicism; people in the midwest/west tend to be rather personable and open with others, unless you commit a breach of decorum or courtesy (six months in Castle Rock, Colorado, before it was filled with out-of-staters). The older neighbor may have been exactly what he appeared to be; however, that doesn't "fit" with the events after your move into the apartment. If the "kindly old chatterbox" routine was a façade, though, there's no telling what was masked by the charming exterior. A check of his name against the county records, on-line newspaper archives, etc., may prove to be informative. IF he turns out to have been the head deacon at his church, a Boy Scout Troop leader, award-winning fundraiser, champion of good causes everywhere, etc., you'll simply have to accept my apologies for making you suspicious of a decent old man. HOWEVER, if you find hints of something unsavory, that's the "X marks the spot" moment; keep digging! If he claims to have been in certain places at specific times, see if he appears in photographs in the local newspapers, archived footage, etc., to validate those claims. If you find mention of him, or his image, browse around the news headlines for a sense of what was going on in the community at the time. Then, try to find another story you can substantiate, and see if there are similar headlines. IF NOT, then the problem is less complicated than I suspected. If there ARE striking similarities, you MAY have had a neighbor who used the relatively low population numbers of Montana to spend his declining years where he was unlikely to run into reminders of his past.

2. It is unusual for someone to achieve the age when people have no qualms of describing him as "a sweet elderly man" without his having had some form of family life, string of former relationships, etc. Did he have a wife, children, siblings? Had they predeceased him? Were any living family members at the funeral? Your narrative is a little unclear on this point, as you were getting to the events of the haunting phenomena, but if there were no family members, just members of the local community, neighbors, fellow senior citizens from "Bingo Nights" or whatever social events he attended, then I'd take a moment to reflect upon that. If he had no siblings, and his wife had died (say, a decade earlier, of age-related illness complications), then it would not be suspicious at all. The circumstances would be a little far-fetched, but plausible. If you can't trace his existence back further than five years or so, then there is something far more sinister at play.

3. Now, before you get really freaked out, I'm NOT suggesting that he was a serial-killing lunatic; he may have been a peeping tom, a closeted homosexual, a getaway driver for bank robbers, etc. There's no limit to the potential reasons that someone may not wish to be confronted with his past. Did anyone you know visit the old fellow in the apartment while he was still alive? Stop by for coffee and a chat? I hope so, as it should be easy to ask them about the feeling, the atmosphere, in the apartment (if they get too nosy, pass it off as a mold allergy that didn't bother you before you switched apartments, and you think there's a damp pipe in the walls). If people didn't feel creeped out when visiting the old guy, then there may not have been anything to worry about at all.

4. Have you had visitors to your apartment who've felt uncomfortable WITHOUT prior knowledge of your experiences? Have they been willing to mention this while they were there, or did they tell you about it at a later time (e.g.: "Dinner was lovely! Good to see your new apartment... Have you ever noticed there's a cold draught?") when the sense of threat was not present?

5. I know that some cancers lead to slow, painful deaths; my grandad was given a "three weeks left" diagnosis, which proved to be overly-optimistic, and a morphine prescription for the pain. I don't know if the cancer had reached his brain, but toward the end he was drifting away from the here-and-now, and describing events from over four decades earlier as if they were just a week ago. (He'd bet a chunk of his demob pay on a odds-against horse; when his horse won, it effectively doubled or tripled his pay packet!) The point is that if the haunting phenomena were more prevalent during the final stages of cancer, there's a chance that the old neighbor was lost in his own internal chronology, and a *very* slim chance he was having out-of-body experiences in which he couldn't figure out why you were in his home. Some of the aggression, then, would not be a sinister presence so much as an outraged tenant confronting burglars! (At this point, see Rook's advice.) Once he'd died, then he simply returned home to sort out you young interlopers for once and for all!

6. If there is a dark secret in his past, and the events are substantially the same as #5, then he's returning home to make sure you don't uncover where he's hidden the evidence of his secret. I'd recommend keeping notes of where the majority of the haunting phenomena occur. If I were living there, I'd draw a diagram of the apartment, then jot down where and when each event occurs with a number and a corresponding list of the type of event. You may want to consider taking very accurate measurements of the apartment, too. Some walls, such as behind the bathtub or kitchen sink, may be a bit wider than others because of the pipes, but see if ALL of the measurements make sense. There may be just a couple of inches unaccounted for, a wall which sounds hollow, or a squeaky floorboard that could be pried open. Check all access panels, vents, etc. If he was concealing something in a victorian-era air duct, the paint or unfinished metal on the screws will be scratched, shiny, even mangled. Open up everything you can think of, including the recessed kick-plates (the base-board part) under the kitchen cupboards, the side panels of an enclosed bathtub, ceiling tiles in the bathroom, etc. IF he's protecting something, this process may upset him; for goodness' sake, DON'T do this when you're alone!

7. I could be misreading the situation entirely, and he's showing up to protect you two from something supernatural which -when alive- he had kept in check through prayer, indomitable spirit, and righteous indignation. Not every secret is the fault or responsibility of the person keeping it!

I do hope you'll forgive me if any of the above scenarios caused you to feel fear; that was not my intention. I seriously had all of these ideas while reading your story, and it took me over an hour to jot them all down! (I was eating dinner, then loading the dishwasher, and making tea for my wife, too! I'm not THAT slow a typist...)

Please let me know if any of these suggestions make sense to you, or if you discover that I'm *way* off-base in my suspicious paranoid imaginings about 'nice' people.

Take care,
-Biblio.

Do you know if your friend and former tenant of your apartment was 'happy' to leave it?

I ask because if for some reason he has not accepted his death his spirit may have returned to where it was most comfortable and still thinks the apartment belongs to him. If this is the case the next time you feel like you are being watched or a presence in the room address it using your departed friends name (if you just speak without 'directing' your conversation you never know what may hear and respond. Make sure you use his name 'EVERYTIME' you speak. (Yes I mean out loud.) Explain to him what has happened and ask him to 'move to the light'. If it seems he does not wish to cross over then explain to him there are rules... The apartment is no longer his (well not his alone) the bedroom and bathroom are off limits... Do not mess with the dog...ect. Just lay some basic ground rules, like you would with any roommate.

Again it is very important that you address him by name... No reason to chance another spirit 'hearing' you speak and taking it as an invitation.

If you do not want to do that then you may try a Cleansing and Shielding Method, there are many of those out there (or feel free to use the one on my profile) while it does not affect 'positive' spirits it may help him to cross over.

Please keep us posted.

Respectfully,

Rook