If you'd like to add a true story, one you've lived or heard, please send them to mtears@hotmail.com with Story: and the title in the subject box. I'll be more than happy to add them!
My husband and I were living in Denver, and we went looking for a house to lease. We went and saw the first one and instantly had to have it. On outward appearances, it was a normal rach style house, built in the 50's, but shortly after we moved in, things changed. The first thing that happened was with the fireplace. We had some wood in there that we used as decoration, and we had taken it out to burn a duraflame log. The next afternoon, after we checked the fireplace to make sure it was cold, ( I stuck my hand in there) we placed the decorator wood back in and moved the loveseat back in front of the fireplace to keep our kids out of it. 10 minutes later, there was a roaring fire in there. We blew it off, but then we heard noises in the house. Our son wouldn't sleep in his bedroom, when we put him in there, he would scream in terror, and not stop until he was out of the room. The basement was very cold, and my brother in law had a box fly across the room and hit the wall next to his head. He was alone in the basement. We heard him yell and come running up the stairs. Everytime I went down there to do laundry, I felt watched. My husband became obsessed that I was cheating on him, and that no matter how clean the house was, he thought it was dirty. We fought constantly. We don't usually fight, and haven't fought that much before or since. Many nights I had dreams of things in the house, gory nightmares, only to wake up and not feel better. Shortly before we moved out, my husband was downstairs and something told him to get out. Loudly. We finally broke our lease and moved away from colorado, and to this day, my husband has very little memories of that house and neither do any of the male friends that we had in there with us. All I know is, that was the scariest thing we have ever been through.
Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio, is no stranger to ghosts. The area in and around Athens is sad to be one of the most haunted places in the country. Many students report strange and unexplained happenings in the dorms in which they live on. Although different dorms serve as the setting, the stories reported are sometimes the same, although there are always exceptions. Are these students experiencing encounters with paranormal spirits, or are they just experiencing spirits in their drinks?
Residents of Jefferson Hall in 1996 found more than they bargained for one day when they decided to go looking around their dorm. While walking around upstairs they came across a room that as far as they knew was unused, but the door was wide open. Looking into the room, they noticed a woman, dressed rather conservatively, sitting at an old desk in a dark corner of the room. The residents later said that she looked like an elementary school teacher. The students greeted her and then realized what they were really seeing. The residents noticed that the woman was not only transparent, but was also floating a couple of inches above her chair. Upon seeing this, they freaked out, and ran to their RA (residential assistant). When they returned to where they had seen the woman, the door was not only closed, but locked as well with no signs of anyone having been there. It is believed that the woman is a former caretaker of the hall and is just continuing to do her job even in! the afterlife.
Other phenomena from the top floors of Jefferson Hall reported by students include the sounds of voices in the halls that cannot be explained and the sounds of marbles dropping hundreds of times on the floor above you, even if the floor above you is the attic which no one but the administration have access to.
Washington Hall is said to be haunted by a female basketball team that had died in a bus crash after returning from a basketball camp that they attended during the summer at Ohio University. Residents have reported hearing basketballs being dribbled, laughing, and talking in the hallways, especially in the arch that connects Washington and Read Hall.
Another hall that is prone to unexplained phenomena is Bush Hall. Aside from the sounds of marbles dropping (as heard in Washington Hall, and as you will see others as well), footsteps in the halls, water fountains turning on and off at will, and doors opening are commonly reported strange occurrences in the hall.
A resident in Shively Hall in the 70's was drawn to specific parts of rooms and the building itself by a force that pulled her where it wanted. After numerous incidents of this, her friends plot a line of where the source might be coming from or where it might be taking her. The line that was plotted, when matched with a map, lead directly to one of the cemeteries in Athens. At the time, cults were known to be performing rituals in the cemeteries of Athens. The five major cemeteries of Athens form the points of a pentagram.
On April 11, 1993, a student by the name of Laura Bensek was sitting on her window on the fourth floor of her dorm in Crawford Hall. She lost her balance and fell to her death. The following Spring of '94, residents began experiencing problems; lights would turn on and off by themselves, items would disappear and reappear several days later, then things got worse. One evening, one of the residents lay down to take a nap. It was early Spring, and the soft light from the fading sun barely illuminated the room. Knowing that his roommate would be returning, the resident left the door cracked and turned off the lights. He drifted off to sleep, but after a while he was awakened by the door opening and the light from the hall poured into the room.. A female stood in the doorway, silhouetted by the lights. She entered the room, and calmly sat next to the resident on the bed. She spoke, saying, "I'm sorry, I've woken you". The resident tired to assure her that it was OK, but she wasn't listening to him, almost as if she wasn't even aware of him. She got up, left the room, and closed the door behind her. The resident was somewhat confused, since he was sure he knew everyone in his complex, and he had never seen this woman before. Not sure if he had dreamed the whole incident, he went to talk with his RA. He swore again that he had never seen the woman before, but that he felt perfectly calm when she was near. As he described his visitor, and the clothing she was wearing, the RA began to become alarmed, trying to hide her room marked the exact spot where Laura had landed exactly one year before.
Wilson Hall is one of the oldest buildings on the campus of Ohio University in Athens, and surpassingly, not a single report of unexplained phenomena have been reported from there, however, there may be an explanation as to why. The five major cemeteries of Athens, where the cults held rituals, form a pentagram. Pentagrams, according to the pagan traditions, create safe zones that are free from paranormal activity, especially so in the center of this pentagram which is exactly to spot where Wilson Hall was built and stands today.
Besides the events already explained, unexplained sounds such as foot steps and marbles dropping have been reported along with electric disturbances and doors opening and closing without reason in several other dorms including: Truedly, Tiffin, Sargeant, Ryors, MacKinnon, and Lincoln Halls.
Are the halls of Ohio University housing the spirits of people long forgotten along with the leaders of tomorrow? If so, then the line of people wanting to live in Wilson hall must be getting rather long, let's just hope the spirits don't decide to look for a new place to roam..
My true story is one for the books, but it's a romantic/tragedy. After 2weeks of headaches my boyfriend was finally coaxed into going to the hospital for some tests. Sadly, the doctors had found a brain tumor and within two weeks after he passed away. During the funeral, while sitting amongst friends and family I was, as I can only describe, as being kissed. It felt like someone had kissed me full on the lips during the funeral service, but no one was there. At that very moment, I knew my boyfriend was happy and safe in death. It was a "kiss" I'll never forget.....this happended over 24 yrs ago.
Kasey was the ghost I grew up with. He was the previous owner of our home. He died of a massave heart attack in his sleep, a few years before my parents bought the house from his wife. As I was growing up it was just natural to have a ghost, I never thought it was strange. The dogs always watched something walk across the room, and would follow him as he turned the washing machine on and off. He would take things then put them back when, totally fustraighted, you'd call out "Alright Kasey, Give it back now!" and viola there it would be. My family's encountered him, but I'll just explain when I saw him. I was about 8 years old and wasn't going to sleep. I was trying to count myself to sleep (I've always found numbers boring...still do) when my father leaving the room (we all slept in the same room) broke my concentraition. While he was out of the room I saw a dark shadow, which was still transperent some, appeared over the bed where my mother was sleeping. I remember very clearly a white eye. Anyway, I must have gasped (come on I was 8, I was terrified, plus that catholic education was kicking in) because his head turned towards me and in an instant he was gone. I was wide awake when this happened and drew a few pictures of him at the time. Unfortunately when our house burned in 1986, he ws no longer there. You couldn't feel his presence at all....But it's for the better.
I am a night walker. That’s when I usually go out to breath the crisp night air and check on the stars. While living at Gunter Annex, then an Air Force Base in Alabama, I came across a ghost. I had been walking with a friend past the Gunter bowl, a large parade ground used for sports and drills, when I saw from the corner of my eye a man. He was dressed in Navy whites, had blond hair and dark shoes. I was startled to see him, thinking first that I had better move since he was walking down the stairs of a building toward me and second curious as to why he was out so late. When I turned my head for a better look and stepped back no one was there. I stopped dead in my tracks, looking toward the building as my friend kept right along until she noticed I was no longer beside her. As she came back towards me I said " I could swear I just saw some Navy guy out of the corner of my eye." She said "Well, what we see out of the corners of our eyes is really there, a kind of glimpse behind the veil ya know.". Her comment did nothing to comfort me. That and the fact that on the particular building I was looking at, there were no stairs on that side. In fact the doorway from which I assumed the man had come was walled up and there hadn’t been stairs there for quiet some time. I left with a shiver, aiming towards the street light now as we continued on home.