Spooked while watching a ghost story

[wnylib]

I was watching videos of the old TV show, Medium, about the psychic who worked for a DA and talked to ghosts. OK, so you don't have to believe it to enjoy the program. I like Harry Potter, too, but don't believe in witches.

Anyway, it was late night and quiet in my apartment building. My bedroom is off the living room, and the bedroom door is behind me when I'm watching the TV screen. i always leave that door open.

Just as Allison Dubois was trying to contact a ghost, I heard the bedroom door squeak behind me. WTH? I live alone. The windows were closed, so I ruled out a breeze. As I watched the door, it moved about an inch, then stopped. Did somebody get into the apartment earlier in the day when I was out for a few hours, and hide in the bedroom closet? But what for? There are more affluent neighborhoods in town than mine. In this town, I'm more likely to get attacked for my politics than my money.

As I searched my mind for plausible explanations, still wary of going to the door to check, the tip of a lime green pipe cleaner wiggled through the space under the door. Aha! My "ghost" intruder was Ember, the cat, entertaining herself, invisible to me from the other side of the door.

She likes to push pipe cleaners under doors, then pull them back. She had just discovered that the carpet resistance, combined with the twisted up pipe cleaner, made the bedroom door move, and was experimenting with it. By the time the video was done, the bedroom door was nearly closed, except for a small gap.

Of course she's not smart enough to deliberately spook me out while I watch a ghost story. But the timing couldn't have been more coincidental.

[Cracklin Charlie]

1. I got spooked by an actual ghost one night.

I stayed spooked about it for years.

One dark late night I went outside for something. I turned to go back inside, and about 20 feet away, I saw something fly through the air, really fast. At first, I though it was a plastic bag, but it wasn’t windy. Only thing else I could think of was ghost. Spooked for years.

So, about 20 years later, I was watching a show on PBS. They showed a video clip of something that looked exactly like what I saw that night many years ago.

It was an owl. Fascinating creatures.

[wnylib]

4. Spooky things have a natural explanation

when we figure out the cause. What makes them "spooky" is that they are out of our ordinary experience or defy logic. You experienced a "flying object" that you could not identify. I experienced a door that seemed to move by itself. Both experiences are spooky because there is no explanation at first. Add to that the fact that I was watching a ghost story at the time.

One of the strangest and spookiest experiences I have had is an example of what Jung called synchronicity. I was reading the intro to a philosophy book. The intro told about the philosopher's belief that modern humans are too removed from the psychology of our hunter ancestors, who loved the thrill of mastery over their prey as they killed it. The intro gave some graphic examples of how wild animals attack their prey, especially predatory birds.

It was a bit too graphic for me so I looked away from the book, out a window. On the branch of a tree very near my window was a hawk, with a bloody mammal in its claws, tearing away at the flesh with its beak.

I got so spooked by the synchronicity of reading the book description and seeing the hawk doing what I had just read that I closed both the book and the window blinds.

[FakeNoose]

6. Or a bat, they also fly at night

[Cracklin Charlie]

8. Way too big.

It was the size of a plastic grocery bag.

It was definitely an owl.

[UTUSN]

2. I hate when spooky things happen. Well, scary things.

When I was reading "The Family" or somesuch about the MANSONs, I was so spooked that I put the paperback under the foot of the bed when I went to sleep.

[Doodley]

3. You spooked me.

[Trueblue1968]

5. CATS RULE !! she IS smart enough to deliberately spook me out !!!

[wnylib]

7. It would make a good cartoon, I think.

The picture would show a woman or man alone, putting a clearly labelled Freddie Kreuger disc into a DVD player. Out of sight of the person, behind a door, two cats are watching. One cat is facing the other one.

Caption: "Wanna see him go berserk? Wait a few minutes, then tap the door so it creaks and moves."

[NJCher]

9. the ironic part is

when you actually see a ghost, you're not scared. You think it's a legit being, like a regular human being or cat that looks a little whispy.

Then later you start thinking how come that guy was dressed up in 1850s clothes. Or how come that black cat looked sort of transparent. Or how come that person's legs faded out at the bottom? It fits in with what you know about the environment, like that the house once had an employee who dressed all in black and was in charge of the coal furnace. Or that a black cat passed away a month ago. And how come you saw two black cats in the house when there is only one.

But being scared isn't part of it. It's just a little peculiar, but not enough peculiar to think twice about it until later. Then it dawns on you: I saw a ghost!