Friendly Ghost ???

[kynardsj]

The posts on the thread " The Sense of Evil " have and continue to be a good read but I wanted to tell of a different kind of "something." I have heard stories from people of ghosts being in their home and not bothering anything or anybody. Never put much stock in them until we bought this place we live in now. Found a place out in the country about 3 1/2 years or so ago for a good price and bought it. It was a remodel job from Hell and many times I wished the ground would open up and swallow it. Finally after three years of blood, sweat, money and tears we have a nice home. The place had not been lived in for 12 years before we got it and the neighbors told us of a man named Jake that was here and loved the place. He got sick and passed away long before we came here. There has always been strange things here, something moving that's gone when you look straight at it, footsteps in another part of the house, the dog staring at nothing and growling and some of the pictures I've taken of things would have this orb floating in it. I was putting a bed together in the spare bedroom and it was like the dog jumped on the bed next to me. I looked for her and she was outside. I went on and it happened again, like something hit or jumped on the bed next to me. I told "Jake" to go on and let me work. Another time I was trying to go to sleep as I had an early day the next morning. Kept seeing something move in the semi dark that was gone when I looked straight at it. After about 30 minutes of this I said out loud " Jake, go on and let me sleep now. I've got to get up early." You guessed it, the movements stopped. He doesn't show up all the time and really doesn't bother anything when he does, except for the dog and I told him to leave her alone. Guess he's just checking out all the improvements on the house. My grandkids get the willies when we tell them a ghost lives here but they still haven't seen him. Guess that's good.

[BUGEYE]

That would be casper.

[prospector86]

When I was about 5 years old we moved into the house that I would grow up in. My parents had bought it after an elderly couple passed away in it and I was the first to notice anything out of the ordinary. My room was in the basement and the old man that was there before use to spend a lot of time in the room  that became mine. Never had a problem with the old lady, she would come by and watch me at night and in the morning the TV would be turned on and cartoons would be playing. the old man would crash around makeing noise and what not. The whole time I was growing up they were there, sweet old lady and grumpy old man. They only showed up to me so everyone thought I was makeing it up. Well, as I got older they both came around less often and then my sisters prom date showed up to pick her up, turns out the house was his grandparents. All he asked when he came in was if his grandparents were still around. He was 2 years older then me so guess as I got older they decided that they had watched one of their grandkids grow up and they left.

[peakoftherut]

I have had a similar experience to yours, kynardsj. I bought an older house that needed a lot of work. In order to keep my ex wife living in a way she was accustomed too the state decided to relieve me of some cash which required me to have some roommates in order to get by. The first two would swear that the place was haunted. I would come back from hunting trips and find chairs pried up against the attic door so I knew that they really believed what they were saying. My girlfriend moved in with me several years ago and she has heard footsteps when she was alone in the house and would notice my bird dog would start acting weird for no reason. All this time I have never noticed anything and figured if there was something around it left me alone because I was the one fixing the place up. Then a few months ago my son, girlfriend and I were sitting at the kitchen table when we all heard a voice clearly say HEY. even though It sounded like it was a couple of feet away I went outside and no one was around. A couple of days later we heard a noise in the kitchen and a tomato that was sitting on the widow sill above the sink was laying in the middle of the kitchen floor. All has been quiet now for about 5 months but who knows. Weird stuff.
 

[Graybeard]

In spite of several folks close to me such as my wife, both sisters and Matt saying they have seen or had other interactions with ghosts I'm a nonbeliever in the existence of them. I sure can't prove they don't exist but then I've yet to see anyone prove they do either. I have no explanation for the strange things folks report seeing but guess I just personally can't buy into the idea of some part of a dead person hanging around here on earth once they are gone.

I do however believe in demons and angels and guess I don't see how a person can believe in GOD and not believe in the devil and his evil minions and GOD's angels. Perhaps what folks see, hear or feel are those instead.

Or then maybe I'm just all wrong and they do exist. But until I have some personal experience of the ghost kind I'm gonna remain very skeptical of them as I am of Bigfoot sightings. Maybe one has to be more receptive to them than me to have these experiences. Dunno.

[spikehorn]

I have seen three ghosts and heard one, and all but one of them were known to me when they were alive. Some time shortly after my wife's father passed away I was at the sink in the bathroom looking in the medicine cabinet mirror and i saw the reflection of her father walk out of the bathroom behind me. Now my wife's mother was diabetic had kidney failure and was blind. while Pat (my wife's father) was alive he would stand in the doorway of their bedroom and watch Madge (my wife's mother) sleep.a few years later after Madge had passed we rented that room to a boarder, and she would always tell use that she felt like someone kind was watching over her from the doorway of her room. I distinctly heard my grandmother say "goodbye gene" when she passed. another time I saw a man standing on a stone wall next to a cemetery he was wearing a black suit with a white shirt. He was there one minute and gone then next. A few days later we went to the calling hours for the father of our boarder and when I looked in casket I recognized him as the man standing on that stone wall. The only one I didn't know was recently. I work at Residential center for boys we have MRED kids, sex offenders and juvenile delinquents. It has been around since the turn of the century, and has had few suicides in that time. Now when a kid sneaks off he is considered AWOL. We had no AWOL's on this particular night and I was driving back down the main road through campus it widens out into a parking lot for the school as I started to swing left to go to the medical clinic I saw a kid in old style leather shoes and knickers take off running and after about three or four steps just dissapeared.   

[shortround]

What is a ghost?

Does it have to be someone who's spirit lingers after the corporeal body ceases to live?

Maybe there are different things happening when people see or experience ghosts and they may or may not be interrelated.

The house I grew up in was a brand new home when we moved into it, and the area had no history as the paranormal folks are fond of saying.

Back in the days before dvd's and vcr's we had super 8 home movies and one bright and shiney afternoon my parent's and I were in our basement watching the movies.

I point that out to show that not all things have to take place at midnight and during a thunderstorm.

All three of us heard the distinct sound of hard soled shoes walking from our kitchen upstairs into the hallway, where they stopped.

Thinking it was my older brother who had come by my folks went upstairs and I stayed in the basement watching the movies. After a few minutes they came back down and said nobody was there. At this point I thought we might have an intruder and I checked all over and come up empty handed.

That was the first and only time something like that happened in the 12 years my family lived there. Was it a ghost? Maybe it was pipes under the kitchen, or the house settling, I don't know, and probably never will.

What I do know is that it didn't bother or upset us. In fact I had forgotten about it until many years later after we'd moved and someone was telling me his ghost story.

Maybe if you don't take them seriously and don't think about them, it in some ways inhibits their abilities. No proof of that, it's just a suggestion.

[powderman]

My old house was built in 1937. For many years the whole family had seen a ghost, or apparition, including myself. Every time I saw him he was walking down the hall past the kitchen door, coming from the West going East to the back room. Every one of the kids, including a good friend said that they would wake up in the middle of the night and see this man standing at the foot of the bed in the back room. They ALL said that they were not scared at all and actually felt a peace and comfort. After we quit using that room as a spare bedroom and the kids all moved out whatever it was we saw left too. He would always look at me as he walked past. First time I saw him I grabbed a gun and went after the intruder and found nothing, doors and windows locked and in broad daylight. Go figger. POWDERMAN. 

[Cuts Crooked]

My spouse and I stayed here: http://hotels.about.com/od/hauntedhotels/a/masonhouseinn.htm last weekend. We were in the suite on the first floor (the windows on the left side of the picture) Didn't see anything spooky or scary but did hear footsteps in the night from the second floor......there were no other guests while we were there.

[t-reg]

My horses manes are occationally found with a braid in them.  At first I told my daughter it was done by an old Indian ghost.  I really thought it would be a neighbor or a visitor just spending time with my horses.  Now I really wonder.

The braids are often found shortly after the mane has been brushed.  They are always near the center of the mane with no or little other twisting (not braiding) in the mane.  There has been a time or two when there were 2 braids.  These are distinct braids - not twists.  Several times in the winter with fresh snow and fresh braids I have walked around the perimeter of my property and the neighbors properties looking for tracks and there were no human tracks whatsoever.

Next time I find one I'll take a pic and try to post it here.

[puma4440]

Growing up, I had an indoor cat, we were pretty close. When I was in the ARMY, the cat passed away, when I would come home on leave, while in bed, it felt like my cat jumping on the bed and curling up at my feet. I felt the weight and purring, but when I reached down to pet him in a sleepy daze, nothing was there. It may have been my mind playing tricks on me, but it all felt real.

[missouri dave]

I used to work for a lady who had purchased a home in new jersey. She was a single mom living with her daughter. The home had partially burned in the past and the lady who lived in it had died in the fire. The fire had started in the kitchen. She told me that if they were outside they would see a woman looking out the windows at them. She also said if she was cooking and went into the other room to check on her daughter when she came back into the kitchen the pot would be moved off the burner and the stove would be turned off. Guess the old gal didn't want another fire.