October 26th, 2007 9:02 AM Eastern
Scary stuff!
by Alisyn Camerota
Wasn’t that a scary story that Steve told about his childhood home in Kansas being haunted? We’re telling ghost stories on and off the air this morning. It started when we read a new Associated Press survey showing that 34% of all Americans believe in ghosts. That got us talking about our own experiences and Steve asked viewers whether they’d ever had any spooky sightings.
Our email went into overdrive — within minutes we got hundreds and hundreds of messages. Then our email froze ….(cue the spooky music…)
Our tech guys are trying to fix it now. Maybe that meddlesome greenroom ghost jamming the transmission. I will excerpt some of the best emails here!
I haven’t told this story to very many people, because it is hard to believe, but very true. My favorite aunt, Aunt Lona, and I were very close. She was my mother’s sister, and the best person in the world. Shortly after she died, my young daughter and I moved in with my mother. I began to have terrible nightmares — to the point that I would wake up screaming, crying, and sweating.One night my nightmare consisted of evil shadows flying around my room. I could feel the evil. It seemed so real. This time when I woke up crying, there was a hand-crocheted cross about five inches long, and two inches wide, lying across my legs on the undisturbed blankets. My mother has never crocheted, but my aunt did all the time and tried to teach me.I truly believe that this cross was from my aunt. I didn’t have any more nightmare’s after that time either. I swear, this is all true.–Karla
I was visiting my friends grandparents in Northern Maine in the late 80s and there I had a bad dream that my mother had died in a very violent way,. I was crying hysterically. I woke up and saw a man over me trying to wake me up to tell me everything was fine, it was just a dream.I don’t know how I knew this, because he didn’t say a word, I just knew. I also knew I was awake because I felt the tears on my face.When I shared this with my friend and his grandparents they told me the house had been haunted for years, though nobody ever saw the ghost before , they had only heard it.–Shannon (Monroe, Maine)
In response to Gretchen’s question - can a new house be haunted? - my answer would be yes. My husband and I moved to Frederick, Maryland years ago and had a new home built. My husband travelled quite often. I repeatedly told him that while he was away, I often heard someone opening and closing doors. I would call out and inspect the home to find no one (thinking maybe my husband had returned home). Of course he thought I was “nuts”. Only until he stayed home alone one day. When I returned from work - he looked ashen- when asked what was wrong.He responded that several times throughout the day he heard “footsteps.” He also inspected the home to make sure that no one had entered. He also said that at one point he heard someone whistling “Dixie.” Upon sharing this story with our neighbors, we were told that our area was the site of a Civil War battle. I am a firm believer in “spirits living among us.”–Jean (Currently residing in TX)
I do not believe in ghost. Why! according to the Bible scriptures Luke 16:19-31, Hebrews 9:27.–Ollie (Atlanta, GA )
When I was about 10 or 12, my mother knocked on my bedroom door around 1:00 in the morning. She asked me where my aunt (her sister) went. I told her that I had not seen her for weeks. Then my mother said, “Nonsense … she was just at the foot of my bed a minute ago. She told me that she was going to check on you, so I got up to see why she was even here and if you were alright.”We looked all over the house but could not find her. About an hour later, the phone rang. It was the hospital and they told my mother that my aunt, uncle and cousin all were killed by a drunk driver at 6:00 that previous evening. Quite chilling, even to this day, especially for my mother.– Jim, Dexter, Michigan
Shortly after moving into our newly remodeled home in upstate sc,our family started experiencing strange activity,the feeling of being watched,things brushing past us , moans, pots and pans banging, voices that you couldn’t quite understand…THEN I REALIZED — it was my mother-in -law!!– C. Elrod (South Carolina)
Well, I always thought it would such fun to have a friendly ghost living in my home!!!!!
As a student of the paranormal (and a near-death experiencer) it’s become clear to me that what we call “ghosts” are simply the personalities of people we knew or loved in their physical bodies. By the way: having a closed mind, a pre-determined belief that ghosts and other paranormal ’stuff’ is impossible will automatically close off muc h of the experiencers the rest of us have. That’s why children see and hear ‘imaginary’ people. I recommend Fate magazine and John Edward’s tv show for peole who want to find out more…
In response to the question, “Can new houses be haunted?” We built a log home in the country on a 5 acre plot of ground. We were told that there had been a log cabin on the back of our property at one time. We were also told that indians used to camp along the creek below our home.
Our daughters have experienced the sound of boots walking across the dining room floor or coming down the steps. One daughter claims, that several times, she saw a black shadow of a man looking at her during the night in her bedroom. Twice, while watching TV late at night, I was frightened by a loud booming noise coming from the floor in the corner of the living room. Recently, while house-sitting for me and my husband, our older daughter was in bed when she experienced a bathroom door adjoining the bedroom slamming shut. That door will not close without someone pushing it!
I am a believer in something–maybe demons–if not ghosts!
Virginia
Newton, Iowa
So ya want some scary stories, huh? Well, I can tell you a bunch, but they all have to do with my ex-wife!
I enjoyed reading these brief stories. I only wish there had been more stories posted. This is a topic I really get into. Thanks
I am sending you a link to a local magazine (Mobile Bay Monthly) that did a story on a group of Ghost Hunters that came to our town (Mobile, AL) to investigate a haunting at the Richards DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) house.
While the photographer was covering the investigators he caught something on film….Take a look:
http://dennisholt.com/files/ghost_3.pdf
Hacienda de Cortes in Cuernavaca, Mexico is haunted…Rm. #112…It would be #113 if there was one…
Around 1:30 in the morning the dresser drawers started opening and shutting and we heard loud steps, which sounded like high heel boots or shoes, walkng back and forth on the tile floor,
eventually moving straight through the door, to the outside..We believe it was a senorita preparing for an evening out…The mariachi band had just started it’s last set and she was probably in a hurry to catch it…
I REALLY ENJOYED THE STORIES. WISH THERE WERE MORE. I HAVE NEVER LIKED HALOWEEN, BUT
THESE STORIES JUST ATTEST THE BELIEFS I HAVE ON THIS SUBJECT… THE SPIRIT WORLD IS VERY REAL… GOOD AND BAD.. SEVERAL YEARS AGO MY HUSBAND HAD JUST FINISHED PAINTING
THE BEDROOM, AS WELL AS OTHER ROOMS OF THE HOUSE. “WE HAD ONLY BEN MARRIED TWO
MONTHS AT THE TIME” I HAD NEVER SEEN PICTURES OF HIS PARENTS… THEY HAD PASSED ON.
EARLY ONE AM. STILL DARK OUT I WOKE TO SEE A MAN STANDING AT THE FOOT OF THE BED STARRING AT THE FRESHLY PAINTED WALL, HE HAD HIS HAND ON HIS CHIN, JUST STARRING
THOUGHTFULLY, AS IF CRITIQUING THE PAINT JOB.. I TOLD MY HUSBAND ABOUT IT WHEN HE WOKE.. SEVERAL DAYS LATER HE SHOWED ME PICTURES OF HIS DAD, I FROZE IN MY TRACKS.
THE MAN AT THE FOOT OF THE BED WAS MY “DECEASED FATHER IN LAW” I COULDNT BELIEVE IT
WHEN I TOLD MY HUSBAND, HE WENT ON TO TELL ME HIS FATHER HAD BEN A “PAINTER ALL HIS LIFE” I CANT HELP BUT THINK HE CAME TO OUR ROOM TO LOOK AT THE NEW PAINT JOB HIS SON HAD JUST COMPLETED… THIS IS ALL VERY TRUE… NEEDLESS TO SAY IM A BELIEVER NOW FOR SURE…
Very interesting stories. I think if Ollie had an experience that could not be logically explained it could open a window into the thought regarding questions of after-life!
I JUST CAME IN THE ROOM TO HEAR YOU TALKING ABOUT THE HAUNTED SUBJECT.. I MISSED STEVES STORY, IS THERE ANY WAY I COULD HEAR IT AGAIN?? PLEASE… THANK YOU…
I am an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and I was called to my present parish in 1996, straight out of seminary. The parsonage is an old Victorian mansion built in 1887. No one told me it was haunted. My first night alone in the house I was awakened by someone walking on the third floor above my head. The footsteps left the room above me and started to come down the staircase on the other side of my wall. I prayed and they just stopped. No one was there. After the terror subsided, I became used to my “friends.” I would come home and have the doors open on their own–sometimes lock on their own. Lights turn on and off. Things move around. I managed to find someone to marry me and move in and she too has experienced the footsteps and such. We have both been awakened by the spirits in our sleep. An angry male ghost in the house often speaks our names and has “touched” my wife inappropriately as she slept. There is also a former pastor’s wife in the house who is a caretaking presence; a governess type spirit, and a little girl.
We’ve been awakened by a black form standing by our bed and I have seen a man in the house. Someone even got a photograph of him last year which is posted on my website.
Turns out, there are over 20 haunted places in our small PA town of Riegelsville. It is built on a former native American settlement called Pechoqueolin–a site of shamanic ritual. Anglo settlers plowed over the burial mounds and used skulls and crossbones to mark territory in this area. No wonder so many weird things happen here.
Our library sponsors walking tours every October to tell ghost stories and I have written two books on our town’s spirits: Ghosts in the ‘Ville and More Ghosts in the ‘Ville. The latter was just published. Creepy stuff!
Sure I believe in hunted houses. I was born on Halloween, I always got to have a birthday party and then go trickier treating that same night. What a way to grow up!!!
In July 1989 our mother passed away. After she died my sister and I started looking for a pearl necklace our father had given her. We could not find it and even asked relatives and friends when they last saw her wear the necklace. We even looked at recent holiday pictures to see if she it on but to no avail. We were heartbroken this necklace was lost. In July 1990, my sister was again visting at the family home. She was dusting in a bedroom and picked up some items on an old table. She noticed there was a lid and lifted it up to find compartments for jewelry which were empty. She put the lid back down and as she was putting the items back on the top, an overwhelming feeling came over her to STOP aid she kept walking by one bedroom in the house and just felt the urge to go in. She would then leave and something kept telling her to return and she even heard
In July, 1989, our mother passed away. My sister and I started looking for a pearl necklace given to her by our father. We were heartbroken that we could not find the necklace and even asked family and friends when they last saw her wearing it. No one knew where it was. A year later my sister was again visiting the family home and was dusting a small table with a lid in one of the bedrooms. She lifted the lid and found several empty jewelry compartments. As she was placing items back on the table an overwhelming feeling came over her to STOP, LOOK AGAIN. She lifted the lid again and actually said outloud “there is nothing here”. She then moved her hand over the velvet lining and found a secret compartment. Inside the compartment was a bank envelope with money and the pearl necklace! She said it was as though a calm feeling came over the house and felt a “thank God you found it”. She is totally convinced our mother took her to that spot….did I mention it was a year to the very day she died??
I’m going to try sending this again…completed with the real version. I wasn’t sure of the exact facts so called my sister and she retold the story to me. She said she relieves it over again each time she tells it.
In July 1989 our mother passed away. My sister and I started looking for a pearl necklace given to her by our father. We were heartbroken that we could not find the necklace and even asked family and relatives when they last saw her wearing it No one knew where it was. A year later my sister was again visiting the family home and was dusting a small table with a lid. She lifted the lid and found several emply jewelry compartments. As she was placing items back on the table an overwhelming feeling came over her to STOP, LOOK AGAIN. She lifted the lid again and actually said outloud “there is nothing here”. She then moved her hand over the velvet lining and discovered a secret compartment. Inside the compartment was a bank envelope with money and the pearl necklace. She said it was as though a calm feeling came over the house and felt a “thank God you found it”. She is totally convinced our mother took her to that spot…..did I mention it was a year to the very day our mother had died?
Before we moved here to Florida, the house we lived in was my (ex) husbands parents house, when we divorced he kept the big house and he gave me the small two bed-room bungalow. Which was fine with me! I re-married and my new husband moved in with me. Back in the 70’s, while my (ex) husband parents were still living in the house, my (ex) father-in-law had died in the bed-room off to the living-room. (He wanted nothing to do with the hospital, so they decided to let him die in his on home.) I remember my daughter didn’t want to sleep in the bed-room after we moved in, I told her that grandpa was a very nice man and he would not come to haunt her. So that made her feel a lot better and she was fine with it
About two years before we moved here to Florida, Brian (my husband) and Troubles (my Poodle) was setting on the couch. Brian on one end and Troubles on the other end. And I was setting in my lounge chair next to the bed-room where my ex-father-in-law had died in. It was about 12 midnight and we were watching tv, out from the kitchen area to the left of me, someone brushed against my arm, it startled me, I laughed, then said…”Troubles”, (because I thought it was her that brushed my arm) Brian asked me what was wrong, and I told him. He said Troubles was right where she was the past hour or so. We just laughed. Then all of a sudden, I saw a white shadow come in front of me and then went into the bed-room next to where I sat. Later on I told Brian about it, because I was wondering if he saw what I had seen. he said he did also, but didn’t want to tell me until later, because… he said he thought I would freak out.
Now… I had never believed in ghosts, but after I saw a shadow go in the bedroom where he died, I knew then, that I had believed! I think my (ex) father-in-law knew we were leaving the house, (to be sold by someone else) and… he just wanted to let me know he was finally ready to leave also.
Before my (ex) father-in-law died, my (ex) mother-in-law had called and told us that he was out of the Coma, and was asking for me. We were there in just a few minutes I went to his side and the first thing he did, he reached for my hand, and then squeezed it, and pulled me closer to him then whispered… “I Love You”! Then he took a big gasp, then he died with my hand in his! ;-( My (ex) mother-in-law… till the very end of her death, still felt a little envious of me, because he had asked for me instead of her. And… to this day, I’ll never forget him! ;-(
Lavina
My father, Paul, always had a black cat. Some of the two or three cats he had during my 17 years at home had a splash of white on one foot or on the chest. My father didn’t have a cat when he died in l961 after a long illness. A few days after the funeral, my mother came home from work to find a totally black cat sitting on the front steps of her house. My mother’s first response was, “Paul, is that you?” My mother opened the door, and the cat entered the house, and jumped into my fathers rocking chair. The cat stayed around a few days, staying outside while mother was at work, greeting her when she arrived home in the evening. The cat hung around for about a week, then disappeared. Mother always believed that the black cat was Dad letting her know he was at peace.
Paul Smith Jr., Rockport, Tx.
I do not like to discuss ghosts because I was always told it was a spirit that was neither in Heaven nor Hell which I think is very sad, but I do have a ghost story from when I was small. I always played “school” in my parents’ basement. My father had put my great grandmother’s rocking chair in the room where I used to play. I was about nine years old, one night, playing in the room writing on my chalkboard. I got a very cold chill (this was during the summer) and something made me look at the chair. Not seeing anything, I turned back around and kept playing. Then I heard footsteps sounding like high heeled shoes crossing the floor where I was playing. No one was in the room but me. This scared me but what caused me to run from the room, yelling for my mother, was after the footsteps. We had a cat, and he was in the room with me. Out of nowhere, he hissed and ran up the stairs. I turned around at that exact moment to see the chair rocking slow and steady and the room was cold all over again. I should also tell you, my father’s grandmother had NOT been a very nice person all her life, which may explain the room being cold. I bolted from the room and never played there by myself again.
My grandmother in her 70’s was sitting in the kitchen of my parents 100 year old victorian and saw the kitchen door open and the screen door open and then both doors closed as if someone walked through although no one did that she could see. She stated some one walked through that door but no one did. She was quite disturbed not being a person that believes in ghosts. This house always had something happening that couldn’t be explained.
It was a dark and stormy night. I had just returned from a night of celebrating the passing of my mid-term exams and was walking across the parking lot to my dorm, when in the faint light of the pre-dawn hours appeared an absolutely frightening sight.
It was a form, of sorts, darting in and out of the bushes in complete silence. It would circle me, taunt me , looking at me with it’s huge eyes, then, back into the bushes it would go. It finally ran right at me, made an trumpeting noise as it leapt over me, bounced over two parked cars and jumped into the trash dumpster.
I was in total shock. My legs were shaking, but my feet felt like they had turned to lead. I couldn’t move. Finally, I broke the paralysis and ran faster than OJ must have run on his fatefull night. I crashed through the dorm’s entrance, up the two flights of steps and almost broke my room’s door off it’s hinges as I slammed it shut behind me.
My roommate, startled, asked what was wrong. I told him what I had just been through and I swore I had just seen a ghost. He moved to the window…opened it…. and looked around outside. He slowly pulled his head back into the room, turned around and said, ” You drunken idiot, that’s no ghost….it’s just a pink elephant.
My husband and I bought an old house when my daughter was about 18 months old. (she’s now 31 years old) It was a Saturday. My husband was already at work. Christy and I got up to eat breakfast. I put her in her high-chair facing the door to the hall way. I was facing Christy. As I raised the spoon to her mouth, her eyes looked past me and with a big smile she said “Paw Paw”. I turned around to look and saw no one. We were the only ones in the house. Well I grabbed Christy and my keys and out the door we went. My father was still living and at his house so I don’t know who Christy saw in the kitchen. When I was a teenager, I heard strange noises, breathing down my neck and growling next to my bed. I would scream and my mother would tell me to come in her room. This would happen a lot. Once as I was running to her room something grabbed my foot. I was so scared in that house I couldn’t go to sleep at night for several months. One night a white robed figure came in my room and stood by my bed. I was too scared to look up at his face. His hands were crossed in front of him and he was bare-footed. (looked like hands and feet of a man) I screamed out, but by the time my mother came in the room, the figure slowly faded away. This went on for about a week. At the breakfast table I would talk about what I saw. My parents thought I was dreaming. I was too scared to go to sleep because of all the other stuff going on. One morning at the table I was talking more about the figure, then my brother told me it might be my guardian angel. I thought about it and decided I would try to talk to him. Ghost or Angel? I never saw the figure in white again. I am sure that it was my guardian angel. I am 56 years old and once in a while weird things happen but I’m not scared and I get plenty of sleep.
Alisyn,
I saw you and the kiddies this morning on F & F, they were all adorable! I loved it when you daughter said, “mommy’s on TV”. It was so cute, especially since she was too. They seemed to be all happy kids!
Could Fox and Friends PLEASE PUT IN A PLUG FOR GRETA AND OTR PROGRAM @ 10 pm TONIGHT WITH INTERVIEW WITH LAURA BUSH from the MidEast trip about Breast Cancer Awareness?
Here BLOGs are absolutely over the top this week!
http://www.gretawire.com
Is it possible to smell a ghost?? My dad died in 1978. I was in the basement of my house in 1983, doing the laundry. My husband and I had been arguing off and on about how to pay down some credit card debt. I wasn’t thinking about anything, really, when I suddenly smelled an overpowering ‘aroma’ of gin and cigarrettes. My dad loved martinis made with gin, and smoked heavily when he was alive. Just as suddenly, the solution to our money problem came to me. I ran upstairs and told my husband that I had found the solution to our problem. Later, I told my mom what we had decided to do - borrow from our very low interest life insurance, pay off the credit card, and pay back the life insurance. Her reply - ‘Oh, that’s what your dad always did anytime we were in a crunch’!!!!
I have a good one! My dad died in 1978. While he was alive, he drank gin martinis and was a heavy smoker. In 1983, my husband and I were experiencing some credit card debt. I was in the basement one night, doing laundry, not thinking of anything in particular, when I was suddenly overcome by a heavy ‘aroma’ of gin and cigarrettes. The solution to our credit card problem came to my mind at once!! I ran up to tell my husband what we needed to do to get out of debt. When I told my mom how we were going to solve our problem, she said ‘oh, that’s just what your dad would have done’!!
When I was a kid, I remembered my father telling my mom that when he died, he was going to haunt her for the rest of her living days. He said… “I might come back as dog, a cat or some animal, but I will come back!”
I just laughed and said… “Right!”
But to make a story short, dad had passed on, my mom was setting in the livingroom looking out the front yard. She had her sliding door open to let some breeze in. About a few minutes had passed and then all of a sudden a cat came walking in the room. Mom was startled at first, then all of a sudden she remembered what dad had told her some years back.
Then she said… “I’ll be gall-darm, (she never swore) dad said he was coming to haunt me and he was right!” The cat just looked at mom, walked around the room and just walked out where he came in!
And thats a true story!
Don’t forget Ghost Hunters (TAPS) on Sci Fi channel tonight at 9 pm est. they will be at the Waverly Hills Sanitarium. its a live halloween event. Last year they did the stanley hotel live (where Steven King filmed the shining)
Well, weird one. A restaurant in Mackinaw City Mi was supposed to be haunted. One quiet dark winter in the mid 70’s, my friend and his sister were going into town, the restaurant closed and dark. On the way back, we passed it and every candle on the tables were lit. Without a word, My friends sister turned around, went back and all were dark. It was then when she asked “did you guys see that?” and our reply, yes the candles? Weird… With that and all the Mysterious family dreams, feelings etc I am a believer!