Who believes in Ghosts?

[w108rna]

I have just returned from doing 6 countries in 6 days on my trusty ST2, which performed brilliantly. Covered over 2000 mils, visiting France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Luxemburg, as well as good old Blighty, making up the 6 countries.
We camped in Belgium everynight, and spent each day visiting sites of historical interest, mainly war graves, which brings me back onto the topic.

Now i am a total non believer in this kind of thing, chooser science fact over ghosts and ghools, but what i saw over there, i can't figure out, so here goes.

On Thursday we visited the Verdun region, visiting the 'Bayonet Trench' memorial, 'Men of Mud' memorial (collection of over 130,000 skeletons of unknown service personel) and then finally the 'Fort de Douaumont'. The fort was built to defend France and was one of a number of similar Forts built. This particular one was started in 1885, finished in 1813, seized by the Germans and reseized by the French. Many 1000's of people lost their lives in or around the Fort, which is now open in part to the public.

Me and my travelling companions were moving around the inside of the Fort, exploring the open areas. There are lots of places to which the public do not have access and have been gated up, but you can still see through the gates and into the darkness. We came across one such passage, which was partly lit, so i had a wonder down it to see what was at the end. The floor was dry, but to get into the passage, i had to walk through some standing shallow water, only a few mm deep to get to it. Here is where it gets weird....

As i walked down the passage i noticed that there were human footprints also leading down the passage, the same direction as mine. These were bare footed, about the size of mine, so 10 plus, similar stride as mine (i am F602), and made by the water i had just passed through myself (i also left footprints from my bike boots). These footprints got gradulally fainter, like mine, until i reached the gate at the end of the passed. The passage ran into darkness, and the gate had rusted up hinges and clearly had not been used for many years. (to set the scene, this is a very cold, damp enclosed environment, which has not ever seen daylight and is completely underground).

Thinking this a little strange, i turned round, walked back to the start of the passage, and then checked the other side of the standing water to see where the footprints continued. There were none! You would have had to have walked through the water to get out of the passage. So something bare footed had walked down that passage and not returned. Now feeling the hairs on the back of my neck raise, i took a very quick photo of the footprints and got the hell out of there. I informed my mates, none of which had seen anyone bare footed all day. Its just not the kind of pace you would walk around without shoes. During the rest of the tour, i saw no other footprints like this.

Now i have tried to figure this one out, but it is all so random. Why would someone remove their shoes in the fort, or remove them just to walk down this particular passage? I have no idea, but thought i would share this experience, just as a weird thing that happened. Maybe you have been there and seen something similar.

Here is the picture, and also a few of the surrounding area, to set the scene.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee227/monster3969/182.jpg
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee227/monster3969/172.jpg

[Nickj]

That'd be what Rosie would describe as a geebly.
Usually bad things happen when geeblies are around, think yourself lucky w

[LouSCannon]

During the rest of the tour, you stuck around? **** that!

[uksurfer]

i think i would have stayed there........ maybe not, i would have legged it :mand:

did the footprints dry out like the bootprints?

[Grumpy]

My first wife came from a family of 'sensitives' both her father and aunt ( her dads sister) had stories of things seen at night. (The aunt described herself as a white witch).
The ex wife also use to see things, to the point that on one holiday in France, we stayed over night in a hotel near the first world war battlefields. The x woke up in the night to the sight of a man sitting at a writing desk in the corner of the room, dressed in Edwardian clothing!
We visited many historical sites from battle fields to churches where the x would see or feel a presence, and yes I did have any 'experience' myself.
My first house was haunted and I felt the young lads presence several times, the cats reaction was interesting, she would run around the house with her tail 3 times its normal size!
So yes I do believe there's more to our existence than just the body we inhabit!!

By the way, i've been to Verdun twice and can only describe it as overwhelming, the massive loss of live is mind boggling.

[slob]

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/

[Gamsa]

This particular one was started in 1885, finished in 1813

Now that is spooky :cry:

[gremlin]

We have "Fred". My daughter kept talking about a man dressed in funny clothes who she saw a few times and I took no notice until I woke up one night and saw a chap in cord trousers and gaiters with a grandad shirt standing next to the bed. The house is an old farm cottage which would explain the clothing it's typical Victorian working mans clothes Wierdly I didn't have a screaming fit. I've had the bed sink on one side as if someone has sat on it once or twice and nobody has been there. My ex said he watched a shadow pass across the tv one night and had a shadow pass between him and the window a few times when he was alone in the house. When we take pictures in the house there are always balls of light in them somewhere too. My house is really cosy and homely and warm so not your average possibly haunted place. I'm not sure if anyone else has seen Fred or felt anything odd. Things go missing too especially off the dining table and can be gone for months till you've given up searching for them them they turn up back on the dining table. I think my cat Jess has also visited, he was beautiful and my shadow but died of peritonitis with no warning of being ill. He used to be at my side pretty constantly and I saw him out of the corner of my eye a few times and when I was seriously ill in bed he came and curled up next to me. At the time I couldn't face having another cat and yet one jumped on the bed, padded a few times and lay down leaving an imprint. I think there is something out there but I also think some people are more sensitive to whatever it is which is why there's a lot of pooh poohing about ghosts, how can you believe if you don't see them or have the little wierd things happen.

[BluprintZ]

A couple of years ago, i was decorating the empty cottage next door to mine, the youngest daughter decided that she wanted to live next door to me,`cos she knew the rent would be cheap, cheeky cow!

Anyway, one evening at around 11.00pm, i was filling a bucket with water in the bathroom/toilet, to finish off some cementing i had been doing.
The bathroom is off the living room (very old Welsh cottage) and the door, which opens into the living room was open and out of the corner of my eye, i noticed something/someone pass by the opening, as if they were going into the kitchen.
The front door was locked, because i go into the cottage from my back door, which is directly across from the daughters back door, both in the kitchens.

I honestly couldn't move, i was frozen with fear and when they say that you are shaking with fear, i feckin' well was shaking with fear, uncontrollably so!
My heart was pounding like nothing since and it took quite a while for me to calm down, although i was convinced i could hear something in the kitchen.
Eventually i calmed down enough to slowly check that there was nothing in the cottage and buggered off back into my place, even then, as i closed her kitchen door and made my way across the six foot of yard to my back door, i was convinced that something was behind me and slammed the door shut and bolted it, without looking behind.
Yea verily, i fairly shat myself that night!

Some twenty years ago, i did get into reading some of Linda Goodmans books and they contained enough case histories to convince me that....well, i'm not sure what, really!

G ; ) :eek:.

[He11cat]

My Mother is , and so am I...
When times have been stressful or someone has passed My mother sees them ..same each time ..
She also picks up on vibes.. and sometimes can tell what's going to happen.

We both at my old house have experienced a little girl she is very harmless ..she used to be about me at home and now stands by my Mums bed often..
My Mum is not scared of her and asks her what she wants and she smiles and goes off again.
It was only recently we both found out we both had her about us.

I lived in a farmhouse on Dartmoor..
Stables converted to flats you often head the gravel crunching behind you and a child laughing also branches would ping back.
There was a boy who used to cry and it was a terrible sound..
People would move in then move out again each time due to this crying.

Workmen downed tools and left .. and refused to come back.

I lived in a bedsit thing on a corridor .. one way in ... corridor went to the end and stopped..only way out was down clanky iron stairs in or out. One way only and it was really noisy.
Most nights he would knock on doors .. and you would open the door to hear footsteps running away clear as day down the corridor and the dogs would go mad.
It was literally into a dead end wall.
There would be nobody there and always seemed to be about 11.30 at night...we just got used to it every night same time ... again lots of people did not last long there.

He was harmless.. but the crying was horrendous..

Years later I was watching some program in the west country and the house was on there as being very haunted..and with a boy spirit and a dark shadow which was what terrified the builders.. I never saw that.

The worst thing that ever happened to me was I was sitting in a group it was for stress relief and I was trying to meditate , suddenly I felt sick not good at all.. then felt a very hard blow to my chest I felt like I couldn't breath.. winded badly.
I panicked .. and had to run out of the room.. the feeling was so terrible I was sick ..it came from the woman opposite.

I can't describe how bad it felt.. it hurt and was the worst I ever felt.. I picked up on a terrible loss... and utter despair... I was very shaken and crying...
This woman came in and asked if I was alright.... and as we walked back she said what happened ..
I said I felt sick then this terrible blow to my chest , then utter terror and despair.. I said I felt a terrible loss.I said it came from that lady .. it was so bad I had to leave the room and throw up.

The lady went a bit pale ... then the lady who ran the group came up to me and asked what happened..again I told her..

She said I invited her here as she has not long lost her twins..
She was in a car crash and lost the babies very late on the crash killed them.
I presume that was what I felt terror and the blow.
She was not local and it had not been in the news here ..so I had no way of knowing.

I felt shaky but also terrible for the lady who was freaked out totally.
I used to be very sensitive .. go in houses and feel things .. but after that I sort of learnt to close down a bit.. someone showed me ..

My Mum sees things .. and feels a bit..
I feel lots and am quite an emotional person.. but don't see as much...but I sometimes feel bad things.
I would rather see then feel...
If I am upset and go out .. not good...

I couldn't describe an event its just a series of feelings... obviously what the person would feel.
I often sense when my Mums not good .. and get a pain where she has !!... grrrrrr...
I will ring her and sure enough!

I don't mess about with anything and it comes and goes dependent on me..
Only thing I do thats funny is I will if I do get in a pickle is read runes.. just basic .. does not say do this or that.

[vtaggart]

When I was a kid about 13 I used to visit my granny in a village down the Antrim coast, on the main street was a house that had been vacant and bricked up for years at the back of the house the long garden was over grown and the lower windows boarded up.

As kids we used to say it was haunted and how we could see someone standing at the top window looking out, basic kids tall tails. One day the dare was raised to break into the house and being the young foolish teenager snapped the padlock and entered with a few mates via the rear scullery door armed only with a battery torch.

As you would expect the inside was old, damp, the furniture was as left from the former owners passing, against the wall was a china cabinet and I remember clearly the blue willow patterned tea set dusty and neglected.

Getting braver we ventured up the bare wooden stairs to the top floor, it was empty with missing and rotten floor boards. Kidding around someone shouted "theres the ghost" starting everyone on a mad dash down the stairs to get out. At the bottom of the stairs we dropped the torch and had to go back in to get it, on our return the china cabinet was empty with no trace of the tea set.

Even writing this now some 32 years later it still freaks me out, I can't explain nor understand it. I ride up the coast every other week and to this day the house is still bricked up and vacant, the only one in a row of 15+ town houses.

Anyone fancy a cup of tea:rolleyes:

Cheers Vince

[bex]

Irish ghosts are extra scary! :eek:

[Gordon H]

I work in a lot of very old buildings, railway arches and the like - quite often alone.

It is very easy to convince yourself that you're not alone and I've often "seen" things out of the corner of my eye.......

There is a railway cottage on top of one of the tunnels in Sussex - one of our works supervisors will not go there alone after one experience which had him running from the building in a cold sweat.........

Railways / ghosts - kinda goes with the territory.......

[gremlin]

There are so many sightings that it's hard to not believe in them. Some can be explained away but not all. When I was going out with my ex hubby I used to stay at his parents quite regularly. The farmhouse had a Queen Anne front but a lot of it was probably Elizabethan and possibly a gatehouse to the hall nearby, the back drive to the farm lined up perfectly with the back drive to the hall. So many times when I stayed I had the same dream of a man asking for a christian burial because he'd been murdered and buried beneath the hearth. The dogs used to go loopy occasionally barking at the area by the hearth and a shadow could be seen moving across the TV which was in the alcove next to the hearth and the room would go really cold. I always said that when we took over the house I'd get the hearth dug up just to see if there was anyone under it. Unfortunately the ex decided he didn't want to take over the farm so I didn't get the chance.
There have also been sightings in York of a legion of Roman soldiers who apear to be cut off in the middle, I think it's because the old road is at a different level and they are still on that. Lots of people have seen them so it's not just one hysterical old biddy imagining it.
I like the idea that ghosts are just people who haven't realised they are dead like in The Sixth Sense, it must be one hell of a shock when they find out!
Lots of people see loved ones at the point of death or soon after even when miles away from them and you hear of the shepherd ones who get people out of sticky situations, maybe ghosts and guardian angels are the same sometimes.

[NattyBoy]

Spooky stuff !

Not sure I believed in some of this (all that old derek acorah/most haunted stuff doesnt help the cause lol!!), but...

A few weeks ago the wife and I (along with another couple had a lovely city break in Liverpool. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in the albert dock in an old flour storage building overlooking the mersey - very old beautiful building with many of its original features still intact. You can imagine what it would have been like in its hey day - a real hive of activity.

On the Saturday night we came back and went to the bar (on the 3rd floor) for a nightcap, and I went off to the loo. I hadnt drunk that much as I was stuffed from the meal, but as I washed my hands in the washroom and looked in the mirror (a series of mirroed panels right across the basin areas), I swear to you a black shadow just drifted behind me. I absolutely shat myself and still cant explain it !

[Nonnie]

I don't do ghosts or spooky things. Infact I think you're all mental although seriously cool pictures of wet feet.

Anyway, there I was in the Burt Reynolds suite (bathroom in weekend rental house with friends) and as soon as I walked in, I knew I shouldn't have. I didn't like it at all and actually it was nothing to do with the shag pile carpet or dark brown bathroom suite. The whole house was, for me, divided into 2 halves with one half definitely having something wrong with it. Just a feeling.

Then there was the time, I dreamed about a guy I used to know who told me to tell his wife he was alright. I knew in my dream that he was dead and we had this long chat about what it was like to be dead. 6 weeks later he died.

So, don't go on holiday with me and if I dream about you, be very worried.

[Thirdway]

Seen several, sensed many more. That footprint isn't typical. Did you look up at any point ?

I'm not suprised you legged it........have you seen the film 'Descent'!!

Something like that happened to me many years ago. My brother and I had cycled up a road which reached a dead end after a few miles. I had to stop to sort something on the bike while he rode onwards. By the time I sorted it out, my brother had vanished from view so I pelted after him to catch him up.

Eventually I came to the end of the road and he wasn't there. I turned around and went back. Passing the point where I had stopped there was still no sign, after about another 5 minutes of cycling I saw him coming towards me.

Neither of us could explain it. He had reached the end of the road and decided to turn back. The only way it could of happened is if he had managed to pass the spot where I was sorting the bike and somehow neither of us had noticed the other.

[uksurfer]

i think i'll be leaving the light on tonight!!! :eek:

[DaffyDuc]

When I was 9 we lived in Gibralter, in a house that previously been the governers house. One of the previous governer's daughter's had died during the seige of Gibralter in the house but that was unknown to me at the time. I used to wake up and see her standing by my bed or see her flitting down the hallway or in the garden. Except for when she stood by my bed it was just glimpses. Iwasn't frightened but kept it to myself worried it might frighten the rest of the family. Years later as an adult it came up in conversation with the family and it turns out we had all seen her. My parents had done some investigations hence the reason I now know who she was.
Have been in several houses where the hair has stood up on the back of my neck, other that just feel really good. Another house my parents lived in had something unpleasant in it, I can only described it as a dark malignant presence on the landing, only my mother, me and the dog sensed that one. That was a modern married quarter!
When we first moved into our current house I used to think there was a small child stood behind me. That disappeared when I had our children but sometimes I think I see one of our old cats.
My brother died when he was just 32, he visited me in a dream, it was great I felt such grief before but he's fine, he's happy and I miss him but I woke up the next morning feeling so good.
Good to read people coming clean cos' I usually keep quiet about it as otherwise you do get some strange looks.

[BluprintZ]

This is a continuation of my previous post, concerning me decorating the cottage next door, so that my daughter can move in.

So, a few days after the "weird" happening, a mate called up at my place, just after dinner, to see if i wanted to go for a spin on the bikes for a couple of hours.

While i was putting my leathers on, he asked if Fiona (daughter) had moved in next door yet?
I told him that it would be another week or so before the cottage would be ready for her, as there was still some painting to do and a new living room carpet to be fitted afterwards.
Plus, i needed to sort out the front bedroom, as the previous tenant had screwed a plasterboard sheet over the window, as he was a freelance photographer for several lifestyle magazines and used both film and digital cameras, so he used that room as a darkroom for developing the photo's.

"Hmm, weird" he says, "as i pulled up, i noticed the net curtains moving in the upstairs window, i thought it was either you or Fiona, looking to see who had arrived"!
Of course at that statement, my arse was like a chewed orange and my left ventricle did a mighty flip.
How could the curtain move, if there was a plasterboard behind it, screwed to the wall and sealed with liquid sealant, to stop any light getting in?

Fiona has been in the cottage a few years now and she hasn't mentioned anything to me about any weird happenings, although Fiona can be quite weird herself, so maybe she just doesn't notice anyway.
I haven't mentioned any of this to her, i know how she would react!!

G ; ) :eek:.

[He11cat]

Maybe it has moved in with you??? :)

[Gordon H]

The digital equiv of sitting around the camp fire telling ghost stories............

[DaffyDuc]

The digital equiv of sitting around the camp fire telling ghost stories............

Isn't it just. I just took the dog up the lane and into the field, few if any street lights in countryside, done this plenty of times in the dark but tonight I realised the one house I pass gives me the heebie jeebies!!

I guess though, as I heard somewhere (a film I think) it ain't the dead you should be worried about!

[Gordon H]

There is a railway cottage on top of one of the tunnels in Sussex - one of our works supervisors will not go there alone after one experience which had him running from the building in a cold sweat.........

Railways / ghosts - kinda goes with the territory.......


Did some digging - turns out Clayton Tunnel just north of Brighton was the scene of a serious train crash in 1861.

The house sits directly over the top of the tunnel portal and there have been reports of screams and the sound of rending metal ever since the crash. My colleague was totally unaware of the history when he got spooked - he still won't set foot in the place alone.

And there is a guy who lives there on his own....... :on:

[He11cat]

Thats a fine looking building ..
You would have to have dam good soundproofing or be stone deaf to live there!

[BluprintZ]

Thats a fine looking building ..
You would have to have dam good soundproofing or be stone deaf to live there!

Sorry Mel..what you did you say, eh?

G ; ) :biggrin:.

[gremlin]

I freaked my mum and aunt out a couple of times when we went up to Kenilworth and surrounding areas. The first was at Kenilworth Castle and I told her about the clearance of brambles etc around the castle in the 1300s to prevent foxes hiding and killing the chooks and local vagabonds lying in wait for visitors to the castle (something she read about in a guidebook which we bought later) and the second was in a large house we visited in the area and I freaked out when I went into the hallway. I went really cold and felt sick and went white then told mum about a doorway which wasn't there. A guide then told mum there had been a door to a cupboard but years ago someone had been bricked up behind it and later owners put panelling all around to diguise where it had been. I've wondered whether I was picking up vibes or whether I'd been there in a past life. Neither are things that I should own up to I guess!

[He11cat]

PARDON!!!!! I've lost my ear trumpet again pfft..

I think we are all able to pick things up but we can choose not too.
Take a look at animals they react to such things .so can we if we choose to.

[Chris & Nean]

Go down to the story by columbo, its one of my experiances down the pit.

http://coalmine.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=fun&action=display&thread=239

[w108rna]

I don't do ghosts or spooky things. Infact I think you're all mental although seriously cool pictures of wet feet.

Anyway, there I was in the Burt Reynolds suite (bathroom in weekend rental house with friends) and as soon as I walked in, I knew I shouldn't have. I didn't like it at all and actually it was nothing to do with the shag pile carpet or dark brown bathroom suite. The whole house was, for me, divided into 2 halves with one half definitely having something wrong with it. Just a feeling.

Then there was the time, I dreamed about a guy I used to know who told me to tell his wife he was alright. I knew in my dream that he was dead and we had this long chat about what it was like to be dead. 6 weeks later he died.

So, don't go on holiday with me and if I dream about you, be very worried.


And Thirdway.

Although i felt the hair on the back of my neck creep a little, it wasn't a scary place to be at, if you know what i mean? I didn't feel the urge to rush out of the place and was more interested in trying to find someone who might have been walking round bare footed in there, and looking for more prints.
Overall the place was horrific, purely because of all the history within those walls. I have yet the review all the pictures properly, a few of my friends have asked me to check all the pictures from there to see if anything else strange has been captured....

[Grumpy]

I've been to Verdun a couple of times, the first time I went into the same fort as yourself. Visiting the battle site is a sobering experience, especially the amount of unknown bodies found when constructing the museum.
I've also been round many of the Somme battle sites, I can only describe it as a moving experience.
The loss of life on the western front was horrendous.

[Gordon H]

I've also been round many of the Somme battle sites, I can only describe it as a moving experience.

Similar experience when i went to Culloden for the first time...... on my own, no one else around. And that was on a nice sunny day too........ just something eerie about the place.

[neilbaldry]

The loss of life on the western front was horrendous.

Its a good job the human race has learnt from its mistakes hey grumps! :chuckle:

[Gordon H]

Its a good job the human race has learnt from its mistakes hey grumps! :chuckle:

"the war to end all wars........"

[Grumpy]

"the war to end all wars........"

Maybe putting a few politicians on the front line under fire might make them think twice!