Ghost story?

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EDIT: Typical J_E long-winded flibuster follows; get comfy if you're gonna read on!


Okay, first off: sorry for my absence. My motherboard had a power connector fry, so I've been dithering between starting anew with a whole new compy or doing more "this is my grandfather's axe" part replacement. I chose the latter, a few days ago, and because the old hard drive is a different bus type than the new compy's mobo (sata/eide; I can't remember - why will become clear below) I don't have all my old cookies and bookmarks; I'm rebuilding my fave's list from (flawed) memory.

But I have to post something here because I...I gotta tell someone quick before all this melst from my mind like a snowflace on an open palm.

Secondly, sorry for the poor typesetting; I'm in a russh to get this out fast (see above), and I don't have time to go back and 'grammar nazi' myu posts like I normally do.

About a half-hour ago, I was just barely asleep - that point where you've woken up, looked at the clock and then are dozong for a while, right? I was still deep enough to have the last dregs of what I was dreaming being filtered through my conscious mind before I woke completely...

Empath-Tangent™: I almost never manage to remember my dreams; they fade away quickly like a shallow puddle on a sunny summer day. I do know that I dream, and usually it's pretty mundane stuff; sometimes I'm 'in' the dream - not always as 'myself' but in another body/soul/etc. - yet other times I'm not there; it's like I'm watching a movie play out.

...so this is one of the 'passive, 3rd person' dreams. The big crisis has been resolved (at least part of it was something about everyone taking a flight and the plane itself was in trouble), and I'm watching denoument occur with a few of the 'survivors' of the core 'cast'. Two of the team of 'investigators' (private detective firm? warehouse auditors? details are fading away already) are working out on exercise equipment that's set up in one corner of their office. With them is a black American (the investigators are Canadian) ....uh...athlete? musician? (I want to say 'he's played by LL Cool J' ) who either was their client, or a friend or assistant/bodyguard of the client, or even just someone they met on that flight and they bonded together to get through...dangit! - whatever happened then

Anyways, that's not the crux of this; that's just build up - I've been in this state of mind before and then usually I'll just have an overriding message from my body to get up and begin my ablutions, or I'll hear a news bite on the radio (kept on low throughout the night to 'lullabye' me - we live under an approach path for the airport ) and I'll make some retort to that, or whatever, and I'll drift up to full waking consciousness.

But not this time.

This time, I was listening to some friendly banter between the characters of this - well, this unmade Hollywood movie being played out on the screen of my subconscious - when all of a sudden, SNAP; I hear...and feel a sound, and I'm wide awake.

I'm talking back in the Dawn of Man, when we were little tree-dwelling scavengers that spent more time in flight than in fight.

For a split second, I had adrenaline coursing through my veins telling me "stay still and quiet; we think we detected a predator!"

And at that same fraction of a moment, something moved behind me from my left to my right...while I'm laying on my back on the bed, on the left side with my left foot poked out under the covers and dangling off the edge of the bed.

It was almost like it went under the bed, but at the same time, it was like it went through the back of my skull.

I...almost sensed it move from the back of the nightstand, close to where the alarm clock is - and out of the path from the radio to my head - and through (?) the mattress and my pillows (and the back of my head) and just...I dunno where; maybe through my wife to might right, maybe into another dimension, I. dont. know.

She was fully asleep (heavy sleeper that gets between 9-10 hrs) and she didn't so much as stir; even when I sat up and asked "did you hear that?"

Because it was the sound that got to me; it was like the source of this sound was moving under me...through solid objects.

I didn't feel a presence, or spirit, or anything (which might've made things less disturbing - if I could rationalize this as a 'ghost' of traditional manner, maybe it'd be less...distracting to me - it's now 1hr 5min since I got 'my wake up call' ), just 'heard the sound' which I'm sure my wife would not have heard even if she was awake and listening...and she's got better hearing than I do.

What is really...well, not quite 'disturbing' but more like 'compelling' and 'annoying' and 'distractingly wrong or odd or out-of-place' is that this sound wasn't anything I would associate with a ghost or spirit or the supernatural...

It was mechanical.

The best way to describe it would be two sounds merged together (not two voices singing in harmony, but two rather different tpyes of sounds in different registers coming from the same 'mouth'). The low-register was easy to set to a real-world sound: imagine you're trying to start a gas-powered chainsaw, and you pull the rip cord, but the motor doesn't catch; that 'brrrrr' sound.

The high-regiuster? That's harder; it started fading from my memory before I could even get out of bed. Not really a shriek, or a scream like you'd expect a high-pitched sound to be; but not a pure tone, or singing voice, or musical instrument...maybe that was more 'organic' than the other half, or something?

Anyways, that 'moved' under/thru me, and then everything seemed 'back to normal' - the radio was starting up a Trooper song, the wife was undisturbed, and I was half-sitting, half-lying on the bed, my pulse not QUITE beginning to speed up (I pressed a couple of fingers to my carotoid)

And it was not part of the dream, nor was it anything that could have made noise in the room. And it wasn't that hacknyed Hollywood plot device of a group of characters suddenly holding their ears and looking up as a piercing klaxxon goes off...and then the protagonist rolls over and turns off the alarm clock.

For an instant, I thought about Kuemper's former mouse infestation, then immediately dismissed it with "yeah, right: that was one frickin' big mouse...that can pass through solid objects (as well as your head)"

But what really upsets me is that this is NOT at all what I would expect a 'ghost' or a supernatural entity or experience to be like - the sound seemed MECHANICAL, above all else.

So, after a few moments of confusion and knowing I'd catch nine kinds of heck if I woke my wife, I got up, quickly rushed through my 'cleaning up' routine, then hurried over here to my compy to at least write this down, and - after doing a little password recollection - I got on here. My other fora are pretty much specific-purpose; the few that even have a 'off-topic chat' are...well, their readership/postership are pretty much skeptical in this area.

Well, you lot might be too, but I'd like to think you're at least willing to let me ramble and get htis out

Anyways, the thing is I'm not really a 'ghost believer' myself. Out of the (rather shrinking) circle of friends I have, it's:

Kuemper - full-on believer of this; has felt ghosts or presences from time to time (even managed to figure out that her hubby's grand-dad is hanging around the house - her mother-in-law was granddad's favourite daughter, and he always stayed with her whenever he came into the city to visit his kids); not an actual medium or anything, but very receptive to the supernatural.

My wife - almost 'on the fence' but leaning in the 'believer' direction; has plenty of times where she's 'felt' something, but nothing she is certain is RTEALLY supernatural.

Me - I'm so on the fence, I've got pickets up my bum! I'm not a skeptic, but I do tend to run anything unusual through a lot of rational scrutinty; I used to think I'd like to have a convincing supernatural experience...but now, I'm not so sure...

Kuemper's hubby - kind of the mirror immage of my wife; barely a skeptic. surpisingly he doesn't begrudge K her beliefs, but loves to help her identify unexplained stuff. Again, he doesn't deny the possibility of ghosts or whatever, but he's pretty good at debunking false hopes of same.


So now I expect y'all are wondering "well why not just bug K & her spouse instead of us?" Because he had the bright idea of taking some time off work, renting a car and having a 'St. Valentine's vacation' at some small bed & breakfast 'Out Around Da Bay.' Kuemper's never seen the rest of the island apart from St. John's - they're supposed to be travelling around doing touristy stuff...or as much as they can in winter up here.

So the two of them - yeah, perfect pair to help me with this instance of uncertainty - are unavailable.

Anywaysers, sorry for 'talking yer ear off', but if you've read this far, could ya give me your opinions on this?

 

I for one don't believe in ghost stories, and i don't think anything can convince me to believe.

and maybe you should have marked it "long read" or something like that

oh, and no offence by the way.


otherwise a good read, and an interresting story, but i feel compelled to say that you where not fully awake and "dreamed" the sound

 

JE, maybe a ghost. Maybe a phenomenon I've experienced called a "hypnopompic hallucination," a very vivid hallucination associated with the near-waking state (there's a related one called "hypnogogic hallucination" associated with going to sleep). One of my most memorable ones led to a broken foot as I tried to leap out of bed to flee and got tangled in the covers . . . but that would be another story.

As I understand it this happens when the neurological sequence that should occur as you wake up is scrambled up somehow. Mine have involved a number of senses, hearing, sight, tactile, even smell, though not taste so far. And no reason I can see for it not to involve proprioception as yours did. It can be a one time thing or a regular problem, as it used to be for me. Since you had no sense of "presence" of a person and specifically describe it as mechanical-seeming, and furthermore have a sleeping environment that tends to disturb your slumber, I vote for the hypnopompic hallucination.

 

Hmmm, apart from the name, I'm familar with the phenomenon, and am rather ashamed I didn't think of it myself.

Looking back, I find it a little odd that I've never experienced that sort of hallucination ever before, but then, I've never done a LOT of things I find interesting.

Maybe it's that I'm hitting my late thirties - neurological changes or similar with the gradual decrepitude? Oh, yeah - that genetic neurological problem with the auditory center of my brain (progressively losing the ability to pick speech out of the mish-mash of sounds that my ears take in) is probably contributing. Thanks AGAIN, dad!

 

A lot of weird things happen to your brain when you are just waking up. I always find that it takes me a few moments to adjust when I've been woken suddenly from the dreaming state.

About ghosts. I have to say that I am on the fence as well. I've had a few unusual experiences but nothing I can solidly say that was a ghost or a paranormal experience. My husband told me once that he saw a horrible apparition floating over me when he woke up because I was moaning in my sleep. My husband is both sane and a healthy sceptic, and he doesn't make up those kind of stories. I didn't see the apparition myself but I do vividly remember the horrible dream I was having at that time.

 

No need to be ashamed. If you've not had it happen to you there's no reason to identify it when it does.

Mine got better as I got older but I had an elderly friend who first developed them in his 70's. Who knows? I wouldn't think it was a serious problem unless you start having them frequently or if they really disturb your sleep.

As for ghosts, I am neutral. I can't logically rule them out, but that's not what this sounds like.

 

I agree with the other folks in that this doesn't really sound like ghost activity. It may have been an energy field, or the phenomena revmaf explained above.
I do believe on ghosts (a local Wal-mart is haunted) but really, IMO they can't much interact with you, and I've yet to experience a "hostile" spirit, so I tend to view the "angry ghost" stories askance.

 

Yeah, that's the thing; I'm really open-minded about the paranormal, but I was pretty sure, even at the time, that is wasn't a ghost. Heck, I'd have probably been less worried it it was

But it really didnt' have that...feel...to it. Thanks for clearing my mind of what is pretty much a certainty of an explanation, all!

 

I believe in ghosts, and I know several people who've had seen them. (Myself, I've only heard and felt one - my old dog, actually. )


However, in this instance I'm pretty sure it was just a dream. You can experience some crazy stuff when you're about to fall asleep, or waking up.