Scared of ghosts?

[Nect]

OK. Seventh month of the Chinese Calendar, a.k.a. the Ghost Month/Festival.

I'm shaking 24/7, imagining all sorts of freaky sh*t and I'm getting very, very annoyed at my own behavior! I need help seriously...haven't been productive at all, just spent most of my time scaring myself with my imagination.

Do any of you get this (not necessarily in a certain month)? What do you do to combat this? I would really appreciate some advice...

I know, I'm such a wimp....

Nect

[Melysande]

My mother tried to help me get over my fear of ghosts by saying that, "There's no such thing as ghosts. I haven't seen Casper flying around here lately, have you? If I see him, I'm going to tell him to pick up a broom and help me clean this house."

Nowadays, I still don't know if there's any such thing as ghosts. I tend to want to not believe in them because in my own twisted mind, believing that they exist gives them more power. So, I plan on going around not believing in them, but at the same time, I also let anyone dead who is not a family member or friend (human or animal) know that they aren't welcome in my home.

Although, lately, I think one of Wanderer's fairies stowed away in my luggage the last time I visited her. And it's driving me a bit nuts at night when I hear little rustlings (seeing as I'd rather not believe in *them*, either).

(It's not mice. Haven't found any of the telltale signs of mice, and my cats would have killed them if they found any anyway.)

[Old Witch]

My house is haunted.....Hard not to believe in them when everyone in the house sees him regularly...... We just acknowledge him, usually we just say hello, and go about our business.........I don't think he is aware of us tho..........

[Storm]

OW, That is so cool. I love ghosts. Lived with one for 10 years.. Never saw it but heard it speak all the time and what a prankster. Not afraid of them as long as they are harmless.

[Old Witch]

We've lived with ours 24yrs...............

[Tammy Sullivan]

Nect, I lived with a ghost for about a year and my mom still does. I have seen several in the course of my life but have not really been scared. I accepted that they are there whether I see them or not and that made a big difference to me. The presence alone is somewhat comforting as it does show you a little about the soul and it's continuance. Also there is no reason to assume that they mean any kind of harm. Don't be too scared, and you might feel better if you actually went out and did a ghosthunt type thing, as you would be in control of where you are and your purpose there, there is not much of a chance that you will encounter anything, but who knows? And it would help build your confidence on this issue.

[Silver_Alhena]

I lived in a converted jute mill for a while, and a lot of kids died in those mills, due to them having to go under the machinery at times.

The irst time we saw 'Toby' as we called him, was in the form of a boy-shaped shadow going around the corner. I was standing still at the time, and there was no-one else in the corridor, so i know it wasn't me :)

'Toby' was a prankster, he used to take one piece of any jigsaw I was doing, and put it in a wierd place, like on top of the wardrobe once. He also hid my purse in the bottom of the laundry basket when I'd had it out hours before (the laundry basket had three day's worth on top of there) and also, our windows had a second one inside that opened with a slide lock. Often it would be closed when I left, but opened when I returned, and I always locked my room when i went out. Other stuff went missing and turned up in strange places, and until we actually seen Toby, I thought I was losing it!

[flar7]

Nect, do you have any reasons to believe you might be bothered
by ghosts? where you live? work? go? Fear serves a purpose, but
dont let it rule you. Use it as a guide, acknowledge it, choose, and
go on. If you see or hear or even think a ghost may be present...
talk out loud. To it or yourself, say comforting things. Realize you
are physical and it wont harm you. Things only have power over
you if you give it to them, especially true in spiritual matters.;)

[Azure]

Flar's got a good point. I've been seeing ghosts since I was little. When I was in junior high, I went through a period where they scared me - ironically it ws the point where I was also admitting consciously to myself that I wasn't a Christian, and the ghosts got my fears of Christian hell and vengence painted on them by my mind. Once I got over it, the ghosts ceased to scare me unless they individually were scary - and almost none of the ones I've ever encountered have been malicious.

[Three Feather]

"I see dead people" My sisters went with me to see that film (what was the name of it?) Bruce Willis was in it. Anyway, my sisters-- they both were cracking up laughing. Other people in the theater thought we were whacked. I kept saying fine, don't believe me. I hear them. I don't always see them. But I do hear them.

And its no coincidence in my life that every (and I mean every) legal job I have had always results in my case load involving the dead. I work for a firm now that handles all major devestating injuries (a victim's rights firm) and I have all the dead ones. I don't mind. My co workers know that--so now I get them. Any case that involves loss of children. Send it to Three Feather. She'll take it. No fear here. Just emotional hangovers every now and again!!

Talk about ghosts. My husband has planted three trees on our property so far. All named after special children who died too young and now have deep roots with a long alternate life ahead of them. He calls our yard the afterlife garden. Laughing.

[Mithrea]

Honestly, I don't know if there is anything we can do to help you get over your own fear. All I can say is that if it were me, I would try to distract myself and try not to think about it :p

[earthcat]

I have lived in many old old homes; most have had ghosts. The house I'm in now is well over 100, and myself and friends have determined that there are at least 3 here. The most active is Roger, (again I'll say that how I learned his name is a story in itself), and he does get rather rambunctious at times. He's scared 2 non-believers badly, and recently unmistakably made himself known to my hubby. (Who was a FIRM non-believer.)

This is gonna sound weird, but I have found it makes a difference...
If there is a lot of activity, and it bothers you, feed 'em.
Yep, feed 'em. What do ghosts eat, you say? Well, obviously, they don't. Anything physical is difficult, if not impossible for them. Seeing how they mostly use noises, scents, and temperature changes, light some incense, a smudge stick, fresh potpourri, anything with a strong scent and heat for them. Tell them "This is for you.". Put something on their plane of exsistence... Azure and Flar are right; they are rarely malicious, and your fear does affect them, if you let it.

Some would say that this is not without risk; by acknowledging them, you are inviting them "in". If the spirits around you wishe you harm, (and you can tell; trust yourself), then say a prayer or cast a spell to protect yourself. (And re-inforce it often.) This does work. DO NOT feed these spirits. But I can't stress enough how rare these nasty ones are. I've been a medium for as long as I can remember, (that's not something I talk about, and I don't profit from it) and in 40 some years, I can't recall ever meeting a truly evil spirit.

If this is not actually about ghosts, then the prayer or spell I mentioned above can help you center yourself. Make a personal ritual of it; and focus your energies on the positive, not the negative. I experience a similar feeling every fall. (So do many of my friends.) It's like there's something in the air affecting us. It influences much of our lives, so we do rituals, and center ourselves. I think it's just our bodies/spirits reacting to the season change; in olden days, fall was a season of frantic activity to prepare for winter. (And the Death of Earth, before the Rebirth in the spring.) That could very well be what you are feeling, you're just a little early. http://www.plaudersmilies.de/happy.gif

[Dellit Tandannon]

i'm pretty used to them

[MammaStar]

I don't see them, but I know they're there. I was only afraid of one, cause I felt it was not a friendly casper like one.

we have one here at the house. Everyone thinks I'm nuts, but I know he's around. (in fact, I think he's looking over my shoulder right now :eek: he does that)

I've heard my Poppy too when I was at my grandparents house. They're everywhere really, if you think about it.

I just deal with it....try not to be afraid. I found it quite comforting when my Poppy started to visit me. It was like he was never really gone.

[Armitage]

Heehee. Going ghost-hunting with some friends in a few somewhat locally notorious places tomorrow night. Got a videocamera, regular camera, tape recorder...And my baka stick (4 1/2 feet of copper piping) incase of wild animals or a**holes.

[Raevyn]

Originally posted by Dellit Tandannon
i'm pretty used to them

Ditto that. At least with the people I hang around spirits are a natural everyday occurence.

I think the fear arises from the fact that 99% of people fall into one of two categories - don't sense spirits, or have had to deal with poltergeists (the guys who *are* scary), but then I'd say 99% of spirits aren't scary anyway.

Mind you I say this as someone who still gets the bejeezus scared out of me when I physically see or hear them. :rolleyes:

[Witchy Cowgirl]

Yep, I'd have to admit, I'M SCARED. Althought I don't have any reason to be as I've never encounted a ghost......that I know of.

I don't see ghost cause I don't call 'em that. At a warehouse I used to work at I would catch glimpses of people going around the corner or peeping out from behind stock. I don't know if they were real or my over-active imagination running away.....I can scare myself REAL easy.

My husband grew up with a ghost. My mama-in-law's home is a pre-civil war home. It has housed LOTS of people. The house has also burned a couple, maybe 3 times. A woman burned to death in one of those fires. Hubby says she used to like to play with Christmas toys.....wind up Santa's and such. The in-laws say that she used to love playing tricks with the phone on my hubby's dad. He was the only person she picked on. They say she didn't like him. She'd take his stuff and hide it too.
When my mama-in-law was re-married (in that home) all the pictures came out fuzzy and mama-in-law believes it's the ghost.
After hubby and I were married folks didn't hear from any longer. Then when my oldest son was 8 months old the house burned. I figured the ghost caused the fire to escape cause not a peep from her in 14 years.
Then when sis-in-law was married in that house most of her pictures were fuzzy.....again the ghost? Then mama-in-law had a computer and fax hooked up and her phone lines started doing funny things.....is it the ghost?

[Nect]

You're all right - don't give in to the fear. I'm pretty sure that what I feel isn't coming from a (or a few) malicious entity, I'm just too good at scaring myself!

earthcat: there was a period when I was doing a lot of rituals regularly and I knew then that I was spiritually strong. But now coz of a busy work schedule, I've put them aside.

flar7: Actually, my only reason would probably be my body's responses in the middle of the night (I believe a lot of people get this...but I tend to add some drama to it...bad idea, I know). I'd wake up finding myself sweating, hearing loud snoring (definitely not myself, and I sleep alone), being firmly held down, and I can often tell how many shadows there are doing this to me. The last time this happened, I believe there were four of these guys... Great, as I write now, I feel like there are two looking over my shoulders.

All your stories made me feel a lot better - and, gosh, ghosts really are normal to you, eh? :lol: I wish I were so used to them that I'm not scared anymore, but then again, I'd so much rather not see any! Yep, something just zapped past my left and I think it feels somewhat pleased that I jumped out of my chair....Great...I'm still soooooooooo scared.....

Nect

[Chibi-Fallon]

My house has two ghosts living in it. It’s an old farm house (made in 1901). We’ve never really had any problems. They actually leave everyone but me alone. I’m the only one who ever sees them or feels them. It’s a brother and sister (older brother maybe 15/16 and the sister maybe 9/10).
There’s a bunch of construction going on outside my house now (on property that used to be owned by the farmers who lived in my house) and that seems to have quieted them down, but doing redoing the kitchen made then uneasy I think.
They seem to be attracted to certain things and places in the house (the landing of the stairs is where the brother hangs out at night) and some things seem to send them into other parts of the house (they don't like loud electronics like TVS, CDS, but they're okay with the radio). I really only know the likes and dislikes of the brother. The sister seems to be afraid of me (and people in general).
The only "bad" things that's ever happened is when brother did this funny thing with the phone line, there was a bunch of static and then a guy screaming for about 10 seconds before the phone went back to normal. Scared my poor friend who I was talking to pretty bad.
That was the biggest problem I ever had. We’ve worked it out and agreed to just kinda live in peace with one another. I try not to bug them they try not to bug me.

[Tammy Sullivan]

Originally posted by Nect
I'd wake up finding myself sweating, hearing loud snoring (definitely not myself, and I sleep alone), being firmly held down, and I can often tell how many shadows there are doing this to me. The last time this happened, I believe there were four of these guys...

Nect
Have you ever read "Green Witchcraft" by Anne Moura? She speaks of a similar dream but that she took the 4 figures to be the elementals. Just another way to look at it.? You of course have to go with your gut instinct but realize that you do not have to be automatic with your response. Don't re-act, act.
Oh, try to get a picture or two and see if anything shows up.:p

[ShadowStorm]

around me....my mom says they follow me.....I saw my first one at around 18months old.

This hasn't changed. I have a couple here now in this house and one of them tends to stand behind me when I am sitting at this computer. I am busy learning computer grahics and I am always playing around with photo manipulation and such.

The other day I could feel the presence behind my chair and I actually heard the words, "Nice work" come from behind me. I was home alone at the time.

He's an old man.....very tall....the previous owner of my house. He died and draco and I bought the house from his wife.

My 18 month old daughter sees him often and isn't scared of him. She talks to him.

She has a sesame street toy on her wall that laughs if you press one of the buttons. If we're making her bed in the morning, the toy starts to laugh on it's own!

This tends to freak my dad and husband out. My mom and I are more calm and aware of it. My mom says she saw him kneeling over my bedroom loo, vommitting.

Strangely enough, he apparently died of cancer.

Anyway...such is life.

It's easy for people to tell you to get over you fear.....it's just not that easy for you though!!!!

good luck!!!

:ghost:

[Epona44]

My initial reaction is that we've all seen way too many scary movies.

My mother grew up in an extremely haunted house on the Townsend, Massachusetts common that served as a boarding house for many years.

There were numerous ghosts there, most harmless. One or two were mischievous.

There are several proposed explantions for ghosts. One is that they are the etheric double, a layer of the many layered soul that looks exactly like the body and may eventually disintegrate with the body. It's consciousness is said to be limited, rather like a fading photograph.

Another is the astral body which is said to be a conscious ghost. It is with these that a level of communication is possible.

For the most part ghosts are people, and like people, they all have issues, likes and dislikes.

[Dellit Tandannon]

Originally posted by Raevyn


Ditto that. At least with the people I hang around spirits are a natural everyday occurence.

I think the fear arises from the fact that 99% of people fall into one of two categories - don't sense spirits, or have had to deal with poltergeists (the guys who *are* scary), but then I'd say 99% of spirits aren't scary anyway.

Mind you I say this as someone who still gets the bejeezus scared out of me when I physically see or hear them. :rolleyes:

hehe! sometimes you just don't expect it. they fight dirty.

[Skye]

Don't know what you can do to get over your fears, but, maybe you may try to talk with them......they are there for a reason, and if you understand that reason you may not be quite as afraid.

I live with many, two who are residents, and the others are family spirits I call upon from time to time.

The residents died here, my old farm house was their past, present and future, they are the guardians of this place, I am just a visitor.


Good Luck on your quest

[DragonDawn]

We have a ghost or spirit or something in the house.
Theres nothing like walking into a room and seeing stuff floating in the air!!!
It doesn't usualy come around that often. I was little when the floating stuff happened. Always happens to me it seems. My parents don't believe me.
I used to be scared but then i just started to talk to it. and tell it to leave me alone or what ever it was messing with.

I think it scared my dog tonight, she was in my room with me and she started growling at the hallway. I said outloud that it wasn't supposed to be here and that i wanted it to leave. My dog calmed down after that *shrugs* don't know.

[Annika]

Although I have lived in a few houses where ghosts also resided, sometimes I still get a little freaked out when something happens suddenly.

My first encounter with a ghost was as a child. I believe the ghost that inhabitted that house was also a child because of the games it liked to play. It was fond of freaking my friends out. For instance I could be in my room with a friend when my door would suddenly open. I would call out for the door to be shut and my ghost would honor this request. Or I would knock on the wall and it would knock back. Mostly it just "misplaced" my things when I most wanted them. This ghost was never malicious and I can actually say that I dearly missed its presence when I moved.

As an adult, a few years ago, I was living in a house that had 3 different ghosts, with very different personalities.....and I don't think they cared for each other much. There were several little indications; however, one evening when I was home alone, my bedroom door suddenly slammed shut. It was winter, so no windows were open to cause a strong enough draft to explain this occurrance. It definitely startled me, but I knew it was the ghost. So, I stayed in my room the remainder of the evening. I figure it had some reason that it didn't want me wandering around the rest of the house, and I certainly wasn't going to debate with it. So, that is my scaries encounter, and it was more freaky than scary.

Nect, I can't imagine what it is like to feel a fear towards the spirit world, but I wish you success in calming your fears.

Blessed Be.
Annika

[Raevyn]

Originally posted by Dellit Tandannon
hehe! sometimes you just don't expect it. they fight dirty.

The latest one was at a bonfire/party/drumming circle type thing. I heard loud crying in the woods, looked around, no one else had heard it. Most of the time for me it's been more unexpected then anything.

[Epona44]

I'm living in a 112 year old house that is located on an old railroad depot. It once served as either a hotel or a boarding house for the travelers.

It has many ghosts, both human and animal. At first when I came here there was some apprehension after my friend, who sees them and is not suffering from mental illness, told me they were here, in particular, in the barn.

As I've lived here for a few months, I am settling in and find it really a rather peaceful place. We are doing work on the house and seem not to have disrupted anyone, but then the house has not been cared for in a long time.

[mooo_mommy]

I have been able to hear ghosts for as long as I can remember. I seem to come along a lot of troubled and misplaced spirts. I am a EMT/Firefighter and I see a lot of people that die suddenly and are just confused. My son is 18 months old. He talks to my dead uncle and plays with him. He had only met him once when he was about 12 weeks old and has never relly been showed any pictures of him. We noticed last week he was talking to someone in a room by himself, he then walked into the kitchen and pointed at my uncles picture and said "uncle Billy" If they scare you just ask them to go away. It usually works for me.

[SerenityMoon]

this sort of thing fascinates me.
when we first moved to texas, we rented an old house in town. it too was haunted. upstairs there were four rooms that formed a U: my room, a bathroom, an extra room,and my brother's room. that extra room was constantly cold, and when you went into it, you just FELT like someone was with you. our dogs refused to go in there, and when we carried t hem in, they began to growl, shake, whimper,a nd dig their claws into you. we used that room as a storage room and kept it closed.
i always heard noises from that room.walking, banging, etc...and one day i walked into the kitchen where my mother was washing dishes. next to her on the counter, about 3 feet away, was a tupperware container. right when i walked into the room, that container FLEW off the counter and onto the floor. my mom an di looked eachother and we both were like "I KNEW IT!!" and i found out that my mom had been woken up by the ghost shaking her shoulder several times but didnt tell anyone.
when we moved out of the house, an old man and his wife came by to look at it. we let him go upstairs by himself, and i swear, secondsl ater he flew back down and said to my dad "you have spooks in there, don't you!!". we couldn't believe it.

[SpikesPet5150]

The only ghost experience I've had that scared me happened when I was 11 (6th grade). This might be a long story... theres details that needs explaining.

Ok, so when I lived in my parents house, the set up was like this... My bedroom and my parents bedroom are downstairs, in the basement. My sister's, Cimarron, bedroom is upstairs, across the hall from this closet. The only way to get into the attic is through the ceiling in that closet. Ok.. on with the story.

I was sleeping. I woke up. I rolled over and I see this old woman, sitting in my room, in my rocking chair, petting a cat. Upon closer inspection, I see that the cat is my old cat, Sunshine. Sunshine had died, in that room, when I was 9 years old. I sat up, and rubbed my eyes, thinking that I must have been still dreaming. I was kind of talking to myself, saying things like, "Ok, Bree... wake up." I was just trying to keep myself calm. So I reach over to turn on my lamp, which was sitting on my dresser. I glanced over into the mirror... and I saw her reflection in my mirror. I remember staring at the reflection for a second, her eyes were staring blankly forward, not moving, except the rocking of the chair. Then all of a sudden, her eyes shifted over to mine, and we made eye contact, and I felt sick, and scared. I immediately screamed bloody murder. My dad came running into the bedroom, thinking someone was killing me. My sister, woke up when she heard me screaming. She said the second she heard me stop screaming (which was the second my dad came bursting into the room, turning on the light), she heard the closet door slam shut. I have never been that scared in my entire life. There was something wrong with her, she wasn't a good presence. I didn't set foot in my bedroom for 2 years. My sister, every single day, would go into my room and pick out clothes for me to wear. I slept on the floor in her room for 2 years. When I started high school, I decided it was time to try sleeping in there again. But I slept with the light on for another couple of years. Even thinking about it, it reminds of that sick, wrong feeling I got when we made eye contact.

A few years earlier, my dad had nailed a board across the opening for the attic. Insulation fibers kept falling down onto our bath towels and making us itch really bad. So he actually nailed a board across the opening. The only way to get into the attic would be to rip the nails out. After this ghost thing happened, he was getting into the closet to get a towel for his shower and he happened to glance up and he saw that the board had been ripped from the opening, the nails bent, the wood cracked. Ever since then, he's paid someone to come and do the insulation changes for the house. And my dad has never paid anyone to do any kind of home improvement stuff... he can easily do it himself.

I was talking to my sister and mom about the whole thing when she was here last weekend. And we all feel someone staring at us when we walk up the stairs from the basement. We all feel an overwhelming urge to run as fast as we can up the stairs. None of us is brave enough to look behind us when we're walking up the stairs. My dad finally saw her. He hasn't gone into my old room since. And my dad isn't scared of *anything*. He asked me to do a cleansing ritual for him, but I haven't done it yet. When my sister and her husband come to town to visit, they sleep outside in my parents camper trailer, rather than sleep in that room. My mom made her old room into her sewing room, so the only other option is to sleep in my old room, and Cimarron refuses to do it.

I've always wanted to find out what she wants, and why she's there. I looked up the history of the house, and no one has ever died there, and no old people have ever lived there, fitting her description. My moms cousin has been emailing me pictures of my ancestors... maybe she's part of my family. I felt a sort of sick recognition with her. Maybe I knew her in a past life or something. Either way, it was not a good experience.
~Bree

[Tammy Sullivan]

Why did I get chills reading about the eye contact part? I can just see the whole thing in my head and whew.

Maybe you should have someone with no experience of her do the cleansing ritual Bree. If the fear is still prevelant she may pick up on that and stay. Just a thought.

[Witchy Cowgirl]

I skipped through Bree's post to read Grettas reply and have made a note to myself not to read Bree's story till someone is home with me!8O

[Witchy Cowgirl]

Everybody's home now.
Bree I don't know how you ever brought yourself to go back into that room.:ghost:

[SpikesPet5150]

I don't know either, sweetness.. I really don't.

You're right, Greta.. maybe I should. My friend Valerie's mom can perform the ritual, if I ask her to. I just really can't imagine doing it myself... cause the fear is still there, its overpowering sometimes.
~Bree

[EarthMom]

My family has had ghostly experiences for years They only seem to 2follow myself, my aunt and my grandmother around though. Most of our experiences have never been frightening and most of them are family ghosts. The only non-family ghost was one that woke up my aunt one night. She felt as if she was being watched and when she opened her eyes the ghost of a confederate soldier was standing at the foot of her bed. She told him to go back where he came from and he disappeared. She thought this was unusual because she was living in Vancouver at the time. They eventually traced it to an antique dresser bought from an auction. The other ghosts we've seen or sensed have been my great-aunt, grandfather, my first dog, etc. The latest one was a few weeks ago. My husband's grandad came to visit my son. :)

Julie
xxx

[Tammy Sullivan]

Originally posted by SpikesPet5150
I don't know either, sweetness.. I really don't.

You're right, Greta.. maybe I should. My friend Valerie's mom can perform the ritual, if I ask her to. I just really can't imagine doing it myself... cause the fear is still there, its overpowering sometimes.
~Bree

You have the heart of a warrior.
You must be alot stronger than you give yourself credit for to handle it as long as you have already. It is okay to take a break now and let someone else deal with it.
Love and bright blessings

(((((Bree)))))