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Get Frightened-learn A Lesson

 

This happened many years ago when I was a dumb kid, & messed with something I shouldn't have only to regret it later. My cousins, C., & K. (Just using the initials for privacy reasons.) lived in Cleveland. My folks would take us to visit with them quite frequently through the years when we were growing up since C. Was my age, & K. Was my sister, J's age, which was 5 years younger. So, C., & I were the 'big sisters'. We were the big girls. About 13-14 years old around this time. It was during the Fall time of the year.

We did all the stupid things that kids do before they develop something in the later years called 'common sense', lol! We told ghost stories a lot & recorded our antics on a little 3-inch reel-to-reel tape recorder that I had. We'd play ourselves back for fun. We'd go exploring, or walking to places that we thought were interesting. In other words, we had fun together.

One time, whilst visiting at their house in Cleveland, one of us-I don't remember who-had the idea to conduct a 'seance'. Since I had had some paranormal experiences when I was much younger, I was selected to conduct it. Lucky me. I didn't really give too much credence to what we were about to do at the time. I wished later that I would have.

They lived in a relatively smallish-sized house. There was the master bedroom downstairs that my aunt, & Uncle slept in, & a spare room that they used kind of like a playroom. It was small, but big enough to accommodate a sofa, T.V. Stand, easy chair, & 2 little end-tables. My cousin's bedroom was upstairs. It was originally the attic when they bought the house, but my aunt, & Uncle labored to turn it into a lovely girl's bedroom of a very large size with a walk-in closet/cubby-hole room on one side of the hallway.

We held the seance in the back spare room. We closed the door, & just lit a small lamp to give off a soft light. Before starting we had to decide who we wanted to contact. The vote was to contact-get this-King Tut. I began it with a tongue-in-cheek attitude quite frankly. However, as it progressed, I began to take it seriously. We were all concentrating & calling on him while holding hands & staring at the lamplight. It wasn't but about 10 minutes into the session that we started to observe 'something' forming in the corner behind the easy chair that sat next to the window. It was rather short of stature, standing rather off-center, & a vaporous gas-fire blue. It looked like a short person.

We sat speechless & transfixed just staring at it. We were squeezing each other's hands so hard I'm surprised that we didn't break each other's fingers. That's how stunned we were.

Suddenly the spell was broken when "I" had what felt like 2 fingers forcefully rammed into my right ribcage causing me to jump, & scream at that point. We all unclasped hands & watched as the form just evaporated from the corner of the room. One of my cousins jumped up to the light switch & turned the lights on. Our parents came to the back room, & demanded to know what us kids were up to. The usual answer from a kid was 'nothing'. We were told to keep it down.

We didn't dare tell our parents 'what' we were doing. Our parents were religious, & what we were doing was a major, big time no-no. We just all sat there looking at each other, & glancing around the room trying to evaluate just 'what' really happened to us. I was sitting on the far end sofa that had a stuffed toy kitty sitting on the armrest. So, who poked me so hard that it hurt. No one was even near me. I know what I felt. It actually hurt. Matter of fact, I had a little bruise between my ribs to prove it. I decided, then, & there, no more conducting seances. It was far too scary for my taste.

However, 'that' was not the end of it. Months later. In the good ol' Summertime, our cousins came to visit us. We went upstairs to my sister's, & my bedroom. C., & K. Wanted to have another seance'. I protested, but they 'talked' me into it. Ugh! Our bedroom was, once, the attic also, but our parents worked hard to turn it into a beautiful bedroom for us. We all sat on the floor & lit a candle. We were discussing who we wanted to contact. One of my cousins mentioned Adolph Hitler. I gave a resounding "no way!". I told them to contact someone nice. Not a monster like that. We decided on Abe Lincoln. He was always my favorite President, next to JFK. We held hands, once again, & concentrated. This time I asked for an audible signal like 2 knocks. Inside of a couple minutes we heard 2 loud knocks resounding from our cubby-hole crawl space that we used for storage. We 'all' heard it.

I lost my nerve at that point. I told it to go away, & I broke the circle. I told my cousins that what we were doing was not a good idea. That we shouldn't be messing with stuff like this. My cousins were intrigued, but my little sister, J., 'listened' to me. Unusual for a little sister to 'listen' to the big sister, but J. Looked up to me, & if "I" said it's a bad idea then it's a bad idea. However, that was not quite the end of it that night. Unbeknownst to me, the worst was yet to come.

After they went home, we went to bed for the night. Nothing strange there. J., & I had twin beds. One on each side of the room across from each other. Next to our beds & built into the walls were shadow boxes that we kept little knickknacks, some ceramic animals, books, & we each had a little doll sitting in the cases. About 2 in the morning, I heard what I, first, thought was my Dad tromping up the steps to our room. He would, sometimes, come up to check on us. As parents often do. Only 'this' time he didn't turn on the hallway light coming up the steps. He would bring his flashlight with him to shine just far enough to make sure we were in bed, & alright. This time there was no hall light, or a flashlight. I thought that to be very strange for him. I was laying on my stomach, pretending to be asleep when I got the feeling that it wasn't my Dad coming to look in on us after all. I, then, heard very heavy footsteps on the tile floor coming towards us. My Dad was always barefooted when he did his checks. This whatever it was had heavy-soled shoes on.

I, suddenly, felt enveloped in an intense cold. To the point of shivering. Weird! It was Summer. That upstairs bedroom was ridiculously hot that time of year, & in 1968 my Dad couldn't afford A/C at the time. So, we just slept with the windows open for air. I laid there motionless, & barely breathing with my eyes closed tight. I felt a definite weight leaning over me & heard the items in my shadowbox being moved around. After that I heard 'it' go over to my sister's bed & do the same thing. I was freaking. I, then, heard it turn, & walk away back down the steps. I must've passed out after all this was over.

In the morning, my sister began accusing me of knocking all the stuff over in her shadowbox. However, everything was knocked over in my shadowbox as well. I told her exactly what happened during the night. Her face went blank. We were very frightened. We vowed to never conduct a seance' again.

A couple of weeks later I confessed to my Mom what we had done. As expected, she read me the riot act. My Mom is deeply religious & told me that only God has the power to do those things! I felt quite upset, & ashamed. I would never do something disrespectful like that. At that time in my life, I didn't even give a thought to what we did. To us dumb kids, we thought it was cool, but cool soon turned on us, & brought us to our senses the hard way.

I guess that some of the best lessons learned are those that we learn the hard way. I've, since that time, have never again experimented with conducting, or participating in seances. I realized that you cannot command the spirits to perform for our amusement. If anything, you respect them. I've had visitations from my late husband, but I never tried to contact him. He came to 'me' as an assurance that 'he' is alright & loves me. He has visited me in special circumstances when I was extremely stressed, & trepidatious to give me comfort. I believe that our loved ones do that to comfort & encourage us. That's fine with me, but I, no longer try to contact the other side. I know better. I learned my lesson. If you don't know what you're doing, just don't do it. You'll be better off in the long run. I hope these are words of wisdom!

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

CrimsonTopaz (1 stories) (239 posts)
 
1 year ago (2023-09-23)
Linjahaha, Great story, and very true words said, *If you don't know what you're doing, just don't do it.*
lady-glow (16 stories) (3186 posts)
+2
1 year ago (2023-09-09)
Hello Linjahaha.

I definitely consider "the voice" to be a guardian, either an Angel or a Spirit Guide whom not only warns me about upcoming events but more than once has (almost) pushed me into, figuratively, the right path to follow.

Thanks for reading my story.
Linjahaha (24 stories) (161 posts)
+3
1 year ago (2023-09-02)
Ladyglow, I read your story about the gangster, & the wise voice in your head warning you before something happens.
This is just an opinion that I'm throwing out to you, but it's possible that the voice was actually a Guardian Angel watching over you. Just something to think about!

All the best- 😁 😁
TravisCannabis (73 posts)
+4
1 year ago (2023-08-29)
That's creepy!
Glad to know that nothing worse happened to you.
Nice read. ❀
Seekings (1 stories) (14 posts)
+4
1 year ago (2023-08-26)
That's exactly it Linjahaha, the totally unexpected outcome! In our case it was the sudden escalation from something benign and a bit of a laugh to something more sinister and beyond our control which was unexpected and frightening.

Glad you enjoyed my vicarage story. I've not managed to find out more about the house's history so far, but I do keep looking on-line at local history sites etc. It was a very special place to me and I'd love to find out more about it.
Linjahaha (24 stories) (161 posts)
+3
1 year ago (2023-08-26)
Hello, Seekings: Thank you for reading my post. I'm glad that you 'can' identify with it.
I'm glad that you didn't experience what me, my sister, & cousins did, but, like me, it made you realize not to do things like that in the first place because the outcome could be something totally unexpected. Not to mention frightening. I certainly was cured after that.
I read your post about the vicarage. Very interesting. Did you learn anything else about it's history? I'd be interested to hear about it.

Best Regards! 😁 😁
Seekings (1 stories) (14 posts)
+4
1 year ago (2023-08-26)
Hi Linjahaha!

I'm a quiet but avid reader of this site and rarely comment, but have to say that your story completely resonates with me, as I and a friend had a very similar and frightening experience. Like yours, it was in the summer of '68 and involved two bored 14/15 year old girls on a very wet afternoon, an improvised ouija board and a bedroom in my aunt's house (which was originally part of an 18th century water-mill). It started well, but let's just say it took a turn which scared us both into never doing it again. It wasn't as dramatic as your experience, in that we saw nothing and were not physically touched, but we knew what was happening was really not good.

As you say, a lesson learned. Thanks for sharing this.
Rajine (14 stories) (884 posts)
+3
1 year ago (2023-08-25)
I suppose if you go looking, you might just find more than you bargained for, that being said, it's a very scary incident you went through, but with age and experience comes wisdom.
Linjahaha (24 stories) (161 posts)
+3
1 year ago (2023-08-25)
Hi, Ladyglow, & RC: You 'both' have valid points in what you say. My being slightly psychic may have attracted something 'other' than what we anticipated.
Lady: I never even thought that just 'maybe' the hard poke in my ribs was a possible attention-getter to make me back off from what we were doing in the first place. It 'got' my attention.
As far as I know, my cousins never reported anything unusual [at] their house afterwards. At any rate. I just quit doing that kind of thing all together. Like I said. A lesson learned the hard way, but I 'learned' it!
Thank you so much for your thought provoking comments! 😜 😁
RCRuskin (9 stories) (847 posts)
+3
1 year ago (2023-08-25)
Very true that, "the best lessons learned are those that we learn the hard way," but one must first be capable of learning. I know, and know of, many people who would put their hands on hot stoves, realize that caused a burn, but would still later on put their hands on hot stoves. It makes no sense to reasonable people like us... 😁

My brother and I, back in the 1970s, fooled around with similar things, with remarkably similar results: something coming up the stairs with heavy boots, looking in my room and then my brother's room (or the other way around). One night, my brother spoke to the darkness, commanding it to go away. It shoved his bed and from what my brother told me, it dove out the window, moving the curtains. But it was winter in upstate New York, so of course our windows were closed because of the cold outside.
lady-glow (16 stories) (3186 posts)
+4
1 year ago (2023-08-24)
Hello Linjahaha.

This is a fascinating experience.

I imagine that, with you being "slightly psychic" would have been enough to attract some response from the other side, regardless if it was from the summoned spirits or from something else.

Personally, I think that spirits that are not earthbound are less likely to be summoned at command, specially if they are at peace. Perhaps whoever came to you were not King Tut nor Mr. Lincoln but something else pretending to be them.

I wonder if the pocking fingers belonged to a guardian desperately trying to stop the sΓ©ance before it went too far.

I'm glad nothing negative made itself at home at your place and/or at your cousins' home.

Thanks for sharing.
Linjahaha (24 stories) (161 posts)
+4
1 year ago (2023-08-24)
Thank you LostVoyage: I have learned a lot over the years by making mistakes. You hopefully gain insight, & wisdom, & try not to make them again.
I think that what happened those couple times that whatever we contacted was making us acutely aware not to bother them. I definitely 'got' the message.
When you're a kid you want to experiment & are intrigued by what happens. However, like I stated in the story, what 'we' thought was cool, turned around to bite us.
I am still intrigued, & fascinated by the paranormal, but I draw the line in some areas. Just to be on the safe side, LOL!

Thanks for your comments- πŸ˜‰ 😊
The_Lost_Voyage_11 (8 stories) (253 posts)
+4
1 year ago (2023-08-24)
Hello Linjahaha, great story, thanks for sharing!

Seances are a bit like Ouija boards, they seem to have the power to open a doorway and unfortunately, if the participants don't know what they're doing and don't close the door, then it remains open.

It's true we learn from experience; I'm assuming you had no further incidents as a result of the seance? If so that's lucky, I've heard of perfectly normal households becoming 'haunted' after a Ouija or Seance session, often only one bad session!

I remember when I was a kid, I had read in a book that you could summon a ghost by walking backward around a grave backwards 12 times, or something like that. I can't recall specifically, only that my brother and I decided to try it for fun. The day was partially overcast but as he rounded a grave we had selected on the 6th circuit, a storm blew in from seemingly nowhere and got intense pretty fast, interrupting our experiment, and frankly looking back on it, I'm glad it did! We never tried again for sure!

Kids are curious, we as adults know better of course, but mostly through experience. As we age, we also learn to trust our intuition better which helps tremendously!

I know it was a scary experience, and am also glad nothing too serious came of it, but try not to be so hard on yourself, whether you knew better or not, experience can be the best teacher, greater wisdom comes from that! It may have kept you out of far more dangerous situations down the road! I'm glad you relayed your experience, who knows it may help some of our younger members from engaging in something similar!

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