by Unknown
Well, my granddaughter is about to have her 3rd birthday, and has an imaginary playmate that she talks to constantly. Her mother says like she's carrying on a conversation with someone she sees. The playmate, according to her is "Uncle J".
My daughter says she has not talked to my granddaughter much about him for a long, long, time.
My daughter’s 2nd baby is a boy now 8 months old. She believed this baby would also be a girl; then while she was pregnant she had a dream in which God told her it was a boy and they were to name him E, which is the Old Irish equivalent of my brother's name, the meaning of which is "God is Gracious".
Daughter and Son-In-Law gave the baby that name, and we are waiting to see if there is more to the story. We all miss my brother terribly to this day.
So, How Are All of You?
At the age of 15 my friend was really into the paranormal and told me that she heard voices usually around 3am in the graveyard near my house.
I thought she was kidding but my curiosity got the better of me and I too a recorder and went to the cemetery around 3am. I just walked around asking if anyone wanted to talk. I heard nothing.
I went home and the next day I played the tape back and was shocked to hear that when I asked "how are all of you?" I got a voice so clear. It said, "dead".
I also caught whispers that I couldn't make out!! Changed me forever!!
It Just *Is*!
Often times in the morning, before I get up I hear someone walking up the front stairs and down the hallway. Sometimes they sit on the bed.
I am sure it’s my husband, but when I open my eyes, it’s not. Nothing is there. I am not afraid of this.
Sometimes it rings the doorbell; sometimes it goes down the stairs and slams the door. Sometimes it comes down the hallway and into the bedroom but doesn't sit down.
I don't consider it evil. It just *is*!
As One Dies, Another is Born
I was 3 weeks off turning 29 years old. I had just had my first baby, a girl. How happy were we to have a healthy beautiful baby; she was 2 weeks old.
I was sitting in our lounge room early one morning, still dark with the dimmer lights on, breastfeeding my baby. Our house then was split level, with a sunken lounge.
As I was feeding I looked up at the front entrance, walkway and their was my Pop slowly walking along the walkway looking ahead, not at me. Then he disappeared. I started crying with happiness; he did visit me, and our baby. My Pop passed away 3 months before our little girl was born.
I visited him daily while he was in hospital and every day he would tell me that he wouldn't get to see this baby of ours. I kept reassuring him he would. He never came home; he passed away in hospital.
It was his way of showing me that he is with me all the time; we were very close. I miss him, his physical presence, that is.
If Not the Dog, Then What?
In the same mobile home previously mentioned, I awoke, but did not open my eyes.
As I lay there, trying to get back to sleep, the room suddenly got freezing cold. I was shivering under the comforter, when I felt something breathing in my face!
I was paralysed with fear to the point that I couldn't move! I just prayed that whatever was there would go away! And no, it wasn't my dog! He was at the foot of my bed!
UFO or Apparition?
While we were driving to our local Chinese take away store at around 8pm a white shape flew across the road. It really make me jump! Then, on the way home EXACTLY the same thing happened again, at the same point in the road. There were no other cars or people around.
The Apostles’ Creed
I was 'talking' to my late grandfather and felt a sense of reassurance from him, which I was able to verbalise as a 'message' and share. It was very like him. I don't call it Mediumship so I answered no to that question. I call it 'the communion of saints' (as in the Apostles Creed) through Christ.
Here is the 'message'. "It's ok, hang in there. I'm here praying for you, and there's lots of others praying too. Just tell the family not to get so down, everything's going to be fine. It may not look alright from that side, but it's worth waiting for when you arrive."
Why So Angry?
Just after we moved to this cottage I awoke to see a man kneeling at the side of my bed, looking at me. I couldn't look away and he disappeared after a short while. He seemed to be very angry. I was petrified!
I have very vivid and complicated dreams and I have tried to convince myself that this was one of them but a year on I still remember every detail of his appearance.
The Levitating Monk
While living in the mountains, I often had a monk appear to me at night. He would levitate at the foot of my bed.
After I remarried, I teased my new husband about the monk. He said that since he didn't believe in ghosts, he didn't expect to see the monk. We were only married a short while before the monk made an appearance to my husband.
Now he is a believer!
A Bloodied Girl
I was cleaning my room with my Dad and heard a clicking sound behind my dresser. I turned round to look and saw some zombie-ish, bloody girl, quickly duck behind the dresser. I was too much shock to say anything, and didn't tell anyone. (I was about 7 years old at the time.)
An Olfactory Experience
My boyfriend died when I was 17 years old, in a car accident. One morning I woke up with a feeling of being stared at and all of a sudden I could smell him. I am 55 now and I had forgotten all about that smell but the moment I smelled it I remember it so well and knew he was visiting.
A Ghost of Two
I have actually seen 2 ghosts.
The first was about 12 years ago. It was a male and I saw him while out deer hunting in the Wicklow Mountains and he interacted with me. The experience lasted about 10 minutes.
The second experience occurred while I was working in a hotel as a security officer just for 2 nights. I saw the ghost of a lady on a stairwell, dressed in 18th century clothing and she stared at me and smiled before fading away. This occurred less than a year ago.
A Disturbance in Japan
I was staying at my daughter and son-in-law's house in Japan along with various other family members. This is a long story that took place over a year or two, so I will try and precis it.
The three-storeyed house was newly built in a rural region and at different intervals we all had experienced events that we didn't talk about at the time: eg continuous noises in the walls - mine was a loud drum being played that woke me up. It seemed to be coming from the floorboards beneath the futon.
I was sleeping in the uppermost floor and it was late at night. I got up and looked out the window but there was no noise coming from outside but I was woken several times during the night with the same loud drumming.
Next morning, we were told a Shinto priest had died during the night, so I thought no more about it.
After some time when the housekeeper cried and said she would leave because she had "visitations”. Then various members "saw" a white form walking down one of the passages. My small, two-year old g/daughter saw children playing outside etc when there was no one there. My daughter approached both the Buddhist priest and later the Shinto Priest to come to the house.
Both said that the house had been built on an old Shinto cemetery and we had disturbed the souls.
A Reassuring Presence
My lovely Mum died in June 2008. Since her death I have had many extremely traumatic life experiences to deal with. Mum has appeared countless times. My son has also seen her. He had been playing with the dog and she appeared on the front verandah. She manifests as a golf ball-sized purple orb or sometimes a cricket-ball sized orb. When things calm down somewhat she does not appear. I have seen her waiting in the garden for me when I am going to work.
A Comforting Visit
It was about 2 years ago, I dreamt I was in bed, which I was, and my father, who died many years ago, stood a few feet away from me. Through thought he said he ha
d a surprise for me, but they couldn't stay long.
From behind him my daughter appeared at the same age she died, looking happy and healthy. I shot out of bed and we cuddled, and all sorts of emotions and thoughts were being exchanged between us, love, missing each other, how happy and safe she is, and how she watches over me, and will come again.
Then my father said we have to go.
This dream was so real, it seemed not like a dream but so real.
I have no doubt whatsoever, it actually happened and she was allowed to visit, with my father's help, to reassure me all was well, and prove existence after life after death. I have believed in it since a young age anyway, but it was beautiful.
I know, or have a knowing she will come again. We communicate through thought, and it comes true, to me. I have no doubts; I am mentally sound, and of intelligent nature. This was not a grief dream; this was real.
An Overwhelming Sense of Calm
I was under some stress and feeling low when I woke in the early hours and saw my nanna standing across the other side of our bed, near my husband. She had died a couple of years earlier. We simply looked at each other, but I was filled with a overwhelming sense of calm. After a few moments I turned over and went back to sleep completely content. The memory is vivid still as is the sense of calm it brings me.
Two Tales
One night, aged around 15 years, I woke in the middle of the night to find moonlight pouring through the window. I had drawn the very thick curtains before bed, as usual, but the moonlight was streaming in anyway, illuminating a figure in the middle of my extremely small room.
The figure was an old lady wearing long grey, white, and (possibly) blue clothes and carrying sheets across her left arm.
She was moving very, very, slowly backwards and forwards, so slowly that I couldn't tell she was moving at all until I saw where she had been and then, where she had got to.
As I fumbled for the lamp switch, she very slowly turned and looked directly at me, at which point I dissolved into outright panic. A few seconds later, I did manage to get the lamp on and could see nothing, and the curtains were closed. I managed to fall back to sleep but the next morning the lamp was still on.
Lastly, my grandfather (only father figure) passed a few years back. I have had horrible dreams about his death since then; he was afraid of dying. I did not get to say goodbye; I got there just in time for the funeral.
About a year ago, I was visiting at my grandmother’s house, helping my aunt do the tea dishes and I felt grandfather tap me on the shoulder, call me by his nickname for me and ask me to let him through.
My mother has heard him calling her and my daughter has seen him lying on his bed. I would love to communicate with him and make sure that he is at peace. The idea that he is not happy where he is makes me very uneasy.
A Reconnoiter
Having travelled alone to our favourite Balearic Island, as I lay in bed, my husband distinctly walked slowly all the way across the room and through the door.
When I texted our daughter telling her, she immediately said, "Dad came to check that where you were staying was OK because you had never stayed there when he was alive". This is exactly what he would have done, as he cared for me very much.
Thoughtful to the End, and Beyond
Last year I moved out of home into a shared house for university. Regularly. I'd feel like something was playing with my hair as I was going to sleep. I also kept feeling like someone else was in the house, when all of my housemates were out, as well as seeing things move out the corner of my eye.
At first this really spooked me, as it was the first significant experience I'd had since being a child. As I became more aware of it I started to see things more clearly.
On numerous occasions I saw a man in full military uniform whom I tried to communicate with. He would pull a wallet of some description out of his pocket and try and show me the crest, which I have since researched and found to be a German Eagle. He'd also bend over towards me and show me the badges on his shoulder, as if he was trying to explain who he was.
Smudging Helps
I found it incredibly exhausting and hard trying to communicate him, and also felt very uneasy at times. I'm not sure what he was trying to tell me as, not long after it all started to become clearer to me. the tenancy ended on my house & I moved home.
A close friend at the time used to regularly spend the night in my room & after she told me about a paranormal experience she'd had as a child I asked if she'd felt anything in my room, without elaborating more about what I'd felt. She, too, mentioned that she felt like something was playing with her hair at night.
I'd also feel like something was pushing down on my duvet cover, which was quite unnerving. I've had similar experiences since being home but no longer feel threatened now that I'm coming to terms with things.
Since moving home I've also experienced similar things, but after smudging our house the energies I feel are no longer threatening. Before the smudging I would often see black shapeless energies that were floor level and felt incredibly sinister. My mum also saw them, and although I have never asked my non-believing friends I'm pretty sure they experienced similar things but didn't think much of it.
I've regularly seen these things and also noticed my friends seemingly track them with their eyes though they'd never admit it!
Shared Occupancy
This happened between the ages of 30 and 42, when we lived in a large old country house. I have a large family, and several of us regularly saw people who had lived there before, "ghosts" if you like, but they were not threatening. We were not frightened; it was just as if they lived there too.
They went about their business as we did ours. Children saw them clearly, and might ask who "that man" was. I saw them clearly. I also dreamt of things that had happened there before, and one of my sons did the same. Our dreams matched up.
Later, I saw a different type of vision there, no threat to me or mine but a warning of a bad thing that was to happen (and did). No need for details. I have very many more experiences throughout my life and many more now.
Using the Internet to Collect Paranormal Data (extract)
2.1 Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to review the literature on using the World Wide Web (WWW) to collect research data. While this mode of data collection is gaining acceptance within parts of academia, misconceptions and some unresolved issues concerning the method remain. In the first part of the chapter an overview of the development of the Internet is presented. This provides the background for the decision to use the WWW to gather data in the current study. In the subsequent sections the literature on the strengths and weaknesses associated with this mode of data collection are outlined.
2.2 Historical Perspective
The origins of the Internet can be traced back to the 1960s, when the United States Department of Defence constructed a network of university and military computers to assist with the defence effort. In the first instance only four computers were linked but from this initiative the email function was launched.
During the seventies, computers located in other countries joined this network but because of the cumbersome nature of the programming process the initial connections were awkward and unreliable. However, slowly, new computer networks were developed and, in the early eighties, the Internet as we know it came into existence (World Book, 2004). By 1984 two million computers and the world that had once been only the domain of academics, scientists and large corporations became accessible to millions of people.
The next significant leap in the development of the web occurred between 1989 and 1992. British computer scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, while working at CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research), developed a new, easier and more accessible computer language called hypertext mark-up language (HTML). Shortly afterwards, in 1993, the first browser (Mosaic) was released and with it came the ability to present pictures, words, and sounds on webpages.
By 1996 several WWW studies had been posted online (Weigend, 1994; Welch & Krantz, 1996) but the take up rate for this new research method was very slow. Today, the rate at which online studies are posted on the Internet is both high and growing exponentially (Birnbaum, 2004).
