Month: August 2016

Safe Haven

~ Tara Theresa Hill ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to David Wood from the radio show, The Witching Hour, for this story!

David grew up in Kentucky.  He and his mom, Mary, lived next door to her best friend, Pat.  Both Mary and Pat had long blonde hair and loved wearing halter tops.  They looked so much alike that they could have passed for sisters.  They were also extremely close and protective of one another.

Pat was married to an abusive alcoholic man.  Whenever their fights escalated, Pat would run next door to Mary’s house.  Mary would absolutely refuse to let Pat’s husband in the door.  The way David describes his mother, Mary has always been a strong, no-nonsense woman and there is no arguing with her.  Pat would stay over Mary’s house until things quieted down.

When David was still a little boy, Pat died from complications related to a “female surgery.”  Mary didn’t really discuss her grief with her son because he was so young.  However, David remembers his mother trying to explain what death was and that it meant that Pat wasn’t going to be coming around anymore.

Shortly after Pat passed away, David was walking down the hallway when he saw a blonde-haired woman in a beige nightgown standing in front of the big mirror in the living room.  Thinking it was his mother stopping there to check her hair and makeup, he turned around to go back to his room, only to bump into his mother wearing a purple jogging suit.  David tried to explain to her what he had just seen, but she dismissed the incident as his imagination.  It was some years before David realized that he had seen Pat’s spirit.

The second event happened around Christmas.  Pat died before she got to tell anyone where she had hidden her son’s Christmas gifts.  Even though they looked everywhere, no one could find them.  It was getting closer and closer to the holiday and the presents still hadn’t turned up.  Then one day, Pat’s son walked by with a gift in his hands.  When a relative asked him where he had gotten that, he said, “Mommy told me where to look.”

Years passed.  David was now eighteen years old.  His mother had remarried and moved away, and he was living alone in the old house in Kentucky.  One night, he was in the restroom when he heard what sounded like the screen door opening and closing.  It was around two or three am in the morning.  Coming out of the bathroom, he suddenly saw Pat standing in the hallway.  David recognized her long blonde, fly-away hair.  The apparition was completely solid-looking.  He could actually see the light reflecting off of her and remembers that he looked right into her eyes.  Then just as quickly as she appeared, she was gone again.  Based on Pat and Mary’s close friendship, David thinks that Pat’s soul felt safe there and was probably looking for his mother.

If you have a real ghost story that you would like to share with The Ghost Post, send an email with your contact information to Tara Theresa Hill at theghostpostreporter@gmail.com to set up an interview. 

I’m always in the mood for a good ghost story! 

If you enjoyed this article and would be interested in supporting my work, please check out my Patreon page. 

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“Ghost Cat”

~ Tara Theresa Hill ~ Leave a comment

Ghosts seem to follow me wherever I go.  While there are specific places that may be haunted, I believe that most spirits who have been to the “light” and have come back, are able to roam the universe freely as they please.  We don’t see or hear them all of the time because most humans are not aware of them, but it doesn’t mean that they are not there.

While fascinated by ghosts, I take steps to manage how I interact with them.  I do frequent spiritual cleansings to help balance both my own energies and the ones in my house.  The energies in my home are generally peaceful.  I made sure of that before we moved in.  The last thing I wanted to do was buy a house with unhappy spirits attached to it.

For years, I’ve seen the spirit of my dog, Bambi, wherever I have lived.  I have even dreamt of my orange calico cat, Magic, coming to visit me.  A few weeks after we bought our house, George and I got our tuxedo cat, Diana.  Almost immediately afterward, I started seeing flashes of a cat that had similar coloring to Diana appearing inside of our bedroom.  At first I thought I was imagining it because I was worried about Diana sneaking into the bedroom and getting at our parakeet, Skye Baby.

Instead of stopping, the appearances of another cat increased.  One day, I was standing by the counter in our kitchen when I saw the black silhouette of a cat out of the corner of my eye.  Thinking it was Diana, I didn’t flinch when I saw it move to rub up against my legs.  I bent down to pet Diana like I usually do, only she wasn’t there.  I mentioned the incident to my husband, George, who told me that Diana was asleep on the couch in the living room.  George said that he had often seen the same thing and found that Diana was nowhere near him at the time.

After talking about it some more, we decided that we must have a ghost cat visiting us and have since dubbed the friendly, little apparition “Ghost Cat.”  Both of us have seen Ghost Cat around the house.  A few weeks after deciding on a name for our feline spirit companion, I had a dream that there were two Dianas sitting in my bedroom.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” I thought.  Then I said, “Oh, you must be Ghost Cat.”  The cat leaned into the caress when I knelt to pet him.  Whereas, Diana has mostly black fur, including on her face, this cat had white cheeks.  He kind of reminded me of an old man in cat form.

Later, when I told George about the dream and described the cat to him, he showed me an old picture of his childhood pet, Tracy.  The cat in the picture looked incredibly similar to the cat that I had seen in my dream.  Tracy was an extremely loving and friendly cat.  He even used to play with the children that attended George’s mother’s family daycare.

I have seen Ghost Cat come through our front door (while it was closed), jump up on the couch, and walk around our kitchen and dining area.  Diana doesn’t seem to be bothered by his presence.  Sometimes George and I have even seen him at the same time.  Whenever we do, we always say, “Hi, Ghost Cat.”

If you have a real ghost story that you would like to share with The Ghost Post, send an email with your contact information to Tara Theresa Hill at theghostpostreporter@gmail.com to set up an interview. 

I’m always in the mood for a good ghost story! 

If you enjoyed this article and would be interested in supporting my work, please check out my Patreon page. 

 

Ghostly Vibrations: A Change in Hauntings

~ Tara Theresa Hill ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to Paula from Nassau County, Long Island for this story!

Paula grew up in an old farmhouse that was built in the 1900s.  It has four floors including a basement, the first and second floor, and an attic.  Paula is more sensitive to psychic impressions than most of her family members.  She could always tell that her house was haunted.

Most of the paranormal activity happened on the first floor when there wasn’t anyone else down there.  Paula would hear chairs move, as if someone had just scraped them along the floor to get up.  Or there would be the vibrations of footsteps walking along the hallway between the main hall and the kitchen.  Sitting in her room and hearing these noises coming from downstairs, Paula would think, “As long as whatever it is doesn’t come upstairs, I’m okay.”

Some of the sounds were so commonplace that they literally became a part of the background noise of the house.  She’d hear dishes rattling in the cupboards and chalk it up to “old house sounds.”  It was only as she got older and started talking to other people about this, that Paula discovered that those things generally don’t happen in houses.

The house has a tragic past that the residents are familiar with.  Somewhere between 1915 and 1920, a young woman committed suicide in the master bedroom.  When Paula was growing up, her family did some remodeling of the house and found a box of love letters and old-fashioned clothes from 1906.  Apparently, the woman was unhappy in her marriage and had possibly planned to run away, but never found the opportunity to do so.

Another sad event took place in the house in the late 1990s.  A young man died in the basement from complications related to alcohol poisoning.  Paula states that up until this moment, the ghostly activities in the house were almost peaceful or non-intrusive in nature.  After the sudden death, odd things started happening in the house.

There is an apartment in the basement that family members use on and off.  Paula’s brother, Max, and his girlfriend, Michelle, were living there with their baby girl for a while.  Electronics would behave abnormally.  Sometimes, the ceiling fan would turn itself on and spin much faster than it was supposed to on the normal setting.

One evening, Max was in the shower and Michelle was lying down in bed.  Someone called out to her.  Thinking it was Max trying to get her attention, Michelle sat up in bed.  As she did so, she both heard and saw the light switch turn itself off.  Freaked out, she went and asked Max why he had played that trick on her, but he was still in the shower and there was no one else in the basement with them.

About a month later, Michelle was asleep in the basement apartment.  Max was upstairs, keeping watch over their child through the baby monitor.  Suddenly, he saw a pair of legs kicking as if someone was in distress.  He hurried downstairs to find that Michelle was completely fine.  He roused her, told her what he saw, and they both went upstairs to check the baby monitor.

Staring at the screen, they watched something invisible move on the bed.  Then a brilliant, zigzagging light started zooming around the room.  Fearful that whatever that was might mean the baby harm, Michelle went and got their daughter and took her back upstairs with them.  They have felt an uncomfortable energy in that apartment ever since.  Even the family dogs absolutely refuse to go down into the basement.

Paula definitely believes that there is more than one energy in the house now.  The change in the ways the hauntings demonstrated themselves makes me think that the first one that she grew up with is more of a residual haunting.  The second one with the electronics turning themselves on and off and the partial human-like apparition followed by a fast moving light, sounds more like an active haunting.  What do you think?  Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

If you have a real ghost story that you would like to share with The Ghost Post, send an email with your contact information to Tara Theresa Hill at theghostpostreporter@gmail.com to set up an interview. 

I’m always in the mood for a good ghost story! 

If you enjoyed this article and would be interested in supporting my work, please check out my Patreon page. 

The Ghost Chase

~ Tara Theresa Hill ~ 1 Comment

I had quite a few ghostly encounters during my years at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, NY.  Given the college was founded in the late 1800s, this was not extremely surprising and even somewhat expected when staying in the older buildings.  However, this time I was spooked in Alumnae Hall.  Alumnae Hall was built in 1965.  For most of my years at the Mount, it was the newest dormitory on campus.  So, I honestly didn’t expect to see a ghost there, especially since I had lived in that building in my freshman year and hadn’t experienced any paranormal phenomena.  There had been a few strange moments late at night, but never anything definitive that I could identify.

Now, it was the summer of 2005.  I had finished my sophomore year and I was an Orientation Leader.  Aside from decorating the bulletin boards, preparing Orientation packets for new students, and devising Ice Breaker activities, we had to help with getting the dorms ready for the incoming future students.  Just before everyone arrived, we were supposed to do a check of the rooms to make sure that they were ready.

The students were scheduled to come the next day.  I decided to make the rounds early to get it out of the way.  I started down my side of the floor, peeking into each of the rooms.  Everything seemed in order.  Then I turned the corner.

A young woman stood with her back facing toward me.  Her wavy, auburn hair fell to about her waistline.  I noted her bell bottom jeans, which had made a comeback at the time.  “Excuse me,” I called out.  “Who are you?”  She didn’t answer me, but instead started walking briskly away.  I followed behind, calling for her to stop.  No matter how fast I went, she always seemed to be a few feet ahead of me.

We reached the end of the hallway and she ducked into the last room across from the stairs.  “Hey, come back!  You can’t be in there!” I said knowing that I was going to have to confront this person now.

I entered the room.  “…And you’re not here,” I said aloud.

The room was completely empty.  I closed the door and checked every place that someone could hide.  No one was under the bed or in the closet.  I also looked out the window, even though they were closed and it was a far jump to the ground floor.  No one was there.  I had run in right behind her, so she hadn’t had any chance of getting out without me seeing her.

Standing there in that empty room, I thought back to the details of the young woman.  Long hair, bell bottom jeans, and I had never seen her face even when she turned into the room.  No one on staff fit that description.  I checked with security, but nobody like that had been admitted into the building either.  It was like she had appeared out of thin air and just as quickly vanished again.  She is still one of the most detailed apparitions that I have ever witnessed.

If you have a real ghost story that you would like to share with The Ghost Post, send an email with your contact information to Tara Theresa Hill at theghostpostreporter@gmail.com to set up an interview. 

I’m always in the mood for a good ghost story! 

 

 

 

The Ancient Ones

~ Tara Theresa Hill ~ 2 Comments

My favorite exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is the Egyptian Hall.  One day, my friend, Stephanie and I decided to go down into the city to see the museum.  Being the Egyptian exhibit is close to the entrance, we decided to stop there first.

A secluded hallway shoots off from the Egyptian temple leading to a room that is lined on either side with sarcophagi encased behind glass walls.  I usually skip this room because while the detailed artwork is beautiful, it is also strangely eerie.  For some reason though, my friend and I wandered down this way.  We were the only ones in this area at the time.  The dead silence and fixed gaze of unseeing eyes staring at you from every corner gave the place an ominous atmosphere.

I was standing near to the entrance and Stephanie was in the middle of the room when I suddenly tripped.  I don’t know how this happened.  There was nothing in my way to have caused this.  My hand flew out to help me regain my balance, accidentally touching the wall.  A dark presence rose up behind me.  In my mind’s eye, I saw the image of a ten-foot temple guardian appear.

“I meant no harm,” I thought.  “In fact, I’m leaving right now.”

Stephanie was as unnerved by my fall as I was and suggested that we get out of there.  I didn’t feel right again until we left the exhibit.  Later when I told her what happened, she said that she also felt something strange at the moment that I tripped.  The rest of the museum visit was normal, but I have never forgotten that experience.

I am not the only one in my family to have an odd occurrence in the Egyptian exhibit at the Met.  When I was young, my father worked as a security guard at the museum.  One day, he was standing close to the immense stone statue of the Egyptian lion-headed goddess, Sekhmet.  As he turned around, his mood ring clinked against the statue.  When he looked down at his hand, the ring’s stone had turned black as coal.  It never changed again.

The impression that I got of the entity made me wonder if there really wasn’t something to the old ways of worship and protection.  I think we forget about ancient magic in our modern world, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t out there.  This encounter also made me reexamine my thoughts regarding keeping another civilization’s artwork that doesn’t rightfully belong to us.  The archeologists disturbed the sanctity of the Egyptian tombs, upsetting the spirits.

If you have a real ghost story that you would like to share with The Ghost Post, send an email with your contact information to Tara Theresa Hill at theghostpostreporter@gmail.com to set up an interview. 

I’m always in the mood for a good ghost story!