Apparition Picture thread: who's photographed a ghost?

[stuartj]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Somne folks are good with reality, some folks need fantasy.

Amen.

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by stuartj

Amen.

Now that there's a witty one word response.

Gotta give credit for that.

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by motion

I believe that our universe is far, far more complex than we stupid humans can imagine...

I agree. Humans can be pretty smart, but arrogance and close mindedness is also hardwired into us.

[tabs]

A group of my friend Sandy's friends was visiting with her in the last week of her life. We were all sitting with her in her upstairs Family Rm when she points to thin air and says there is a tall woman with short hair standing there and there is a small dog with her. She then says that the woman is sitting next to her. She then kept on saying, "I don't understand." To which I would ask what don't you understand, with no reply from her. She wan't talking to us, she was asking a question of the tall woman with short hair.

Four days before Sandy passed away I was talking to her about asking for forgiveness very late at night. I felt thirsty so I was going down the stairs to get some water, when I slipped and fell on the stairs that I had gone up and down numerous times. I am very careful about stairs because of my size and weight, I hold onto the rail, put one foot solidly down before I move the other down. So I go down stairs in an almost crab like fashion. What I remember is that I didn't have my complete weight on the foot when I slipped. It was as if something moveable was under my foot that caused me to slip. Something didn't like me talking to Sandy about forgiveness, I thought it might have been Sandys deceased Jewish mother who would not tolerate any discussion about religion except Judaism in her house. Or it could have been something a bit more malignant. Whatever it was it did scare me.

In the final extremis of Sandy's life I was the only one who was with her when she died. I was talking to her when I finally said, "Sandy you do what you need to do," within 2 minutes she slowly stopped breathing and was gone. Leaving the Hospice I talked to a Priest for a bit about this not being my first rodeo with death and that the only thing that is important in this life is out capacity to love where upon the Priest started to cry. On the way home and to this very day I have this image that Sandys family all the way back to Abraham smiles upon me out of gratitude for standing up for one of their own out of friendship when I was under no obligation to do so. When I got home I lay down on my bed and stared out into infinity, I felt like I could just go out there and never come back. That that was the line between life and death, finally I decided I was still alive and breathing so I came back to this world.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by stuartj

Amen.

And some tools can't tell the difference.

[cockerpunk]

is there unexplained stuff happening? absolutely.

does this mean that there is not a perfectly rational explanation for it? nope.

i think its foolish to deny some folks experiences. foolish to tell them things did not happen to them when they are convinced they did. but i don't believe for a second any of there explanations of these events.

the mind is a complex thing. and what we are aware of, is very limited compared to what is going on.

an example:

when i first bought my 944, every day i swear i looked at the clock at exactly 9:44. both am and pm, almost every single day.

was something magical trying to say something to me? that i was fated to love 944s or something?

no, i was probably just looking at the clock every couple of minutes subconsciously. but because 944 meant something to me, it poked through into something i noticed every day. this kind of stuff happens all the time, about lots of things.

[Eric 951]

2) weeks ago I was in Scotland with part of my family and (1) night we stayed at Tulloch Castle--I didn't know anything about this prior to the visit, but there is a website, etc. as it is supposedly haunted. There are lots of pictures on their site with strange images, etc. and it has a very interesting history.(The pics below were taken by me)

.



After dinner, we went on the castle tour with the GM, who showed us the various rooms, etc. and discussed the history of the castle.
He relayed multiple stories about guests sleeping in the lobby after encounters, or leaving outright--the most famous ghost is that of a little girl named Elizabeth who lived in the castle with her family (IIRC the 1800s or 1700s)--when she was 11 or 12, she entered a bedroom and found her father in bed with someone who was not her mother, so she fled, and tripped at the top of an iron staircase, fell down the stairs and broke her neck.

Their family portrait hangs in the grand ballroom, and he pointed out an interesting detail--there is no father in the portrait. After Elizabeths' death, the family had the father painted out of the picture. Elizabeth is in the white dress, and the dark shadow behind her is where the father was painted out.

She supposedly still haunts the castle with reports of her being seen in the lobby, walking the grounds, giggling, and appearing late at night in the room where she found her father--guests have reported waking up to a deep weight on their chest, feeling cold in the room, being told "it is time to walk the dog" or seeing her image in the mirrors--TVs have turned on or off, etc.
She found her father in room 8, where most of the hauntings occur--which just happened to be my room--


I must admit after hearing the stories and seeing the pictures, the hair on my neck stood up when I went back to the room that night, but the evening passed uneventfully, and I can report no sightings or other events occurred

[Brian in VA]

Haha this reminds me of the place I worked for a summer during undergrad, in a bio lab in Athens, OH. Above the campus is this huge old asylum, which is now a museum and storage facility, and the outbuildings were converted into research centers. We were in the old TB building. None of the girls would go down in the basement where the dna samples were kept in freezers because they all claimed to hear things. Can't say I ever saw anything weird (other than some of the grad students), but it certainly was a little unsettling at night.

Some websites for your browsing pleasure if you enjoy this stuff: The Ridges - Hauntings

The Ridges Mental Health Institution | HAUNTED ATHENS OHIO

[rusnak]

There is an old insane asylum near me that many people say is haunted.

I stay the heck away from that kind of thing. Opens doors that should be shut. Do I believe in ghosts? Maybe. Do i believe in demons? Yes absolutely.

[Aurel]

The first house I bought, in Red Bank NJ, was probably haunted. An alcoholic person lived there and died, for all I know. I have multiple pictures of orbs taken there (not in this ipad, so you will have to trust me). Also, the bell rang once when a psychic friend was visiting, but nobody was at the door. She told me there was a presence hanging in there, and helped me cleanse the house, gently telling the presence that they did not have to stay here anymore. I used to live alone in that house, as a new immigrant, and my first two years with this invisible roomate were very difficult years. Having no familly, no friends, just a job to go to and a ghost to keep me company at night. Then I met this pshychic woman who helped me on so many levels. Some people are more sensitive to ghosts than others. As in quantum mechanics, the observer is part of the observation. If one does not vibrate to the same energy as the plane where these things exist, then they will see nothing.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by Aurel

The first house I bought, in Red Bank NJ, was probably haunted. An alcoholic person lived there and died, for all I know. I have multiple pictures of orbs taken there (not in this ipad, so you will have to trust me). Also, the bell rang once when a psychic friend was visiting, but nobody was at the door. She told me there was a presence hanging in there, and helped me cleanse the house, gently telling the presence that they did not have to stay here anymore. I used to live alone in that house, as a new immigrant, and my first two years with this invisible roomate were very difficult years. Having no familly, no friends, just a job to go to and a ghost to keep me company at night. Then I met this pshychic woman who helped me on so many levels. Some people are more sensitive to ghosts than others. As in quantum mechanics, the observer is part of the observation. If one does not vibrate to the same energy as the plane where these things exist, then they will see nothing.

Very interesting take on it. When I was reading through this Thread (late at night) I thought that I am a very sensitive person (who cries at the drop of a hanky) but I chose not to see the dead people walking around. Then I thought about the "insignificant pieces of dust" thought processes and thought they only see what they want to see or can handle.*

In talking to Dlock over dinner at Jerry's that for me it is like hearing people talk in the next room, you can hear them talk and move about but you can't quite make out what they are saying or doing. You just know that they are there.


* There is a certain rigidity or inflexibility to these people's thinking and being. A lack of freedom as they are constrained.

[rusnak]

Originally Posted by tabs

Very interesting take on it. When I was reading through this Thread (late at night) I thought that I am a very sensitive person (who cries at the drop of a hanky)

Well you did refer to yourself in the first person as "romantic, whimsical, and sensitive" about ghosts. Maybe the dead mans' clothing that you buy are possessed?

[mikesride]

I take the stance that such things don't exist.... Yet I am very interested in others stories and enjoy a good ghost story.

[Steve Carlton]

Let's go camping!

[sc_rufctr]

We need more freaky pics.

[M.D. Holloway]

I lived here for 2 years. Some may remember a show called Dark Shadows. This is Collonwood.




Here is a more reasonable pic. When I lived there it was known as Carey Mansion of Salve Regina College. Located on the beach in Newport RI. I stayed in there for a week once - all by myself (for a few nights ) - I never heard or saw anything that was not explainable.




I did know several people who were totally freaked out by the place. Some say it was haunted. Others had wild tales. I had some wild tail there but none of it haunting...

[tabs]

I'll tell ya what haunts me today is the two farm fresh young women that walked into the $10 buffet ahead of a well and tastefully dressed middle aged black dude. These gals were tastefully coiffed and dressed in new form fitting blue jeans while standing on 3 inch platform shoes. They were the best looking women in the building and you wonder why you would see them at a cheap $10 buffet?

[LEAKYSEALS951]

This thread got me thinking about the old "bloody mary" story. When I was a young kid, I believed in ghost, as an adult I do not. Either way- that story scared the hell out of me and I never had the guts to speak the "bloody mary" three times in a mirror when I heard it (about age 6).

Driving into work (it's a long drive so I get bored), it occurred to me that at the ripe old age of 45 I STILL hadn't dared speak her name, so, using my rear view mirror as a substitute, I finally summoned the courage to do it. I had several things going for me- for example, it was daylight, and I didn't have a candle, but on the other hand, I WAS driving a car, so if she attacked me the stakes could be higher. I also have 45 years of pragmatic pessimism on my side- for example, that's an old story. If there was any truth in it there should be a whole slew of dead kids with gouged out eyes keeled over in their bathrooms. You would definitely hear about that in the news.

So I called out her name, laughed at myself, and she never appeared. Seeing nothing, I tried it again with some provocative explicatives to really conjur her presence. It still didn't work.
It's funny that even though I don't believe in this type of stuff, the childhood story was so ingrained in my psyche I had to do a double take to pull it off.
On the other hand, I didn't do it in a dark room with a mirror and candle, so it wasn't entirely scientific.

Anyhow this thread made me go look for pics to see if I have ever inadvertently captured a ghost- I got a "hit" at three pics in:

[mreid]

This is an old Franciscan friary in Middleburgh, NY. It was converted by father Bruce Ritter to a Covenant House location in upstate NY in 1972.



My mom was the executive director and we ( my mom, me, and my 4 siblings) moved in the spring of 1972. We had the left wing, first floor as our "home". There were three married couples who made up the counseling staff of 6 reporting to my mom and about 20 kids assigned by the state and other charities for counseling.

The property was just over 100 acres built into the side of a mountain. The Franciscans had converted the chicken coop into an observatory complete with sliding roof, built a baseball diamond, and installed a full court basketball court on the second floor of the barn. There was also a chapel you can see in the picture on the far right with secret passages and a tunnel to the barn complete with several locked doors under the basement. There was a pond in the back and a large garden where the hippy counsellors grew lots of home grown vegetables and herb. Seemed perfect!

The town had about 1,200 residents and most thought the old friary was haunted and some wouldn't let their kids go near the place or hang out with us (plus, we were from the big city and surely would corrupt their innocent children).

Almost from the time we moved in weird things happened. My sisters bed would be turned 90 degrees. Doors would be locked and then suddenly not. Many other similar things happened. One day I was playing ball with several friends and the ball went over the side fence landing in a small overgrown area that had been a grave site for Franciscans long ago. While we were looking for the ball, one of my friends found a small slab about 2' X 3' sitting on top of a 3" block. We though it was a grave marker that fell over but looked a lot older than the other ones still standing. We tried to lift it to see what it said on the front and discovered that it was actually covering a steep staircase that went down angling towards the barn.

Nobody wanted to go down the stairs as about four feet down, they disappeared into darkness. I went in the house to get my brothers walker talkies and a flashlight. When. I came back, my friends had "volunteered" one to go down while the rest of us talked to them on the walkie talkie. Down my friend Clayton went. We told him to keep talking and describe everything he was seeing. He said it went down about eight feet and continued straight ahead. About twenty feet in, he said it made a sharp right turn heading towards the chapel. He said he was going around the corner and then he stopped talking. We kept calling him and telling him to stop fooling around, but he never responded. As we were trying to figure out who would go get him, the Wilkie talkie started buzzing and clicking and suddenly we heard a deep dry voice say, "fools".

Clayton came running up the stairs tears in his eyes and clearly terrified. He kept running back towards the Friary and we followed. One of the counselers hearing our commotion came out of the house and others soon joined. I told them what happened and they were clearly irritated and skeptical. My mom drove the others home and I showed the other counselers where we were. Two of them went down the stairs and said that we needed to stop telling stories, the stairs ended and the passage way was bricked up about 10 feet in creating a dead end. They made me promise I would never go back there and the following week a cement truck showed up and dumped ten yards of concrete in the opening sealing it up completely.

My friends and I never talked about it and none of them would ever come back. The friary closed a year later and reopened as an old folks home some years after that.

I never went back, but the friary is still there off route 145. Perched up on the hill overlooking the Schoharie valley below. I recommend you check it out if you are ever in upstate NY.

[rusnak]

^ Sorry to say, but those were not ghosts. They were something else.