Saturday, March 31, 2007

Vanishing act


I wonder if ghosts get to play in cyberspace. I think I’ve brought back a couple from the mansion and they’re making mischief online.

My comments section has completely disappeared from my previous entry. I’ve been blogging about all sorts of things for over a year and this has never happened before. Funny that it did just as you, dear readers, were starting to post some fascinating replies to the whole subject of ghosts and psychic phenomena.

I’ve been troubleshooting for two days now and can’t seem to find the missing comments. So this is a test. Empirical research. Let’s see if my comments section is up and running again. If so, please, please come back and tell me more. Er, I mean you of the flesh-and-blood variety.

Have you ever had an other-worldly encounter? Just a trick of the imagination? Smoke and mirrors?

Or is this old world of ours just a rest stop for many other destinations?

Yowza, I’m going all Twilight Zone on you. Parallel universes and rainbow bridges … what do you think?

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, well...

Who would have thought Ghosts would be so touchy about people talking about them. :-)

This post seems to be working though.

Anonymous said...

We have some. I call them "people in the house" because I don't know if I'll upset them if I call them ghosts. All I am sure (as sure as anyone can be...) of are one man and one woman. And you'll never know how much I wish that Tree was still doing remote readings.

Anonymous said...

Spoooooky! Well, I guess if ghosts began using TV a long time ago (think of the Poltergeist movie), it was only a matter of time until they caught up with the Internet.

velocibadgergirl said...

Trippy! No advice, but I have some goosebumps!

Humboldt Writer's Workshop said...

I don't know if this would count as a ghost, but I will tell you my story anyway. I was home alone, reading. The TV was on but I wasn't paying much attention to it except to know that it was eleven p.m. and the news was just coming on. By the way, I was in Virginia, my hometown (where my Dad lived) was in Pennsylvania. I looked up from my book and saw my Dad walk through the hallway and into the living room. Don't ask me why but I went back to reading and then realized that MY DAD HAD WALKED THROUGH THE HALLWAY AND INTO THE LIVING ROOM. I looked up again and, of course, he wasn't there. Strange. The phone call came later that night, my dad had a blood clot go to his brain and died instantly---at eleven o'clock---right when the news was coming on.

The Mater said...

Thanks, guys, for stopping by and weighing in on this subject. I still can't figure out where the previous comments have gone - and maybe there is some ghostly mischief at play here.

fifi, Tree did a remote reading for Jenn which blew us away - this was months ago - and I haven't shared any of what made me BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF TREE because it is really Jenn's story to tell. I'm so hoping once she settles in with the new pupper, she will return to her saga of her "people in the house" and also how my mom made herself known through Tree. It's an amazing story.

connie, your story just stopped me cold. Your dear dad found a way to say goodbye, didn't he?

Yep, I do believe that we are sharing our world with so many "others" who find a way, every now and then, to break into our reality.

geo, the light going on in the mansion last week reminded me of your family ghost story in Virginia!

Really enjoyed your comments.

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah. The haunted Chandelier. I forgot I told you about that. Did I mention that we also had a graveyard in our backyard. It was an old house from the 1800's complete with family plots. My mom wanted to clean it up one day (it had become overgrown with weeds etc.) So we moved the grave stone to make it easier to mow etc. We leaned it up against a tree a few yards away and in a two month period the tree was struck by lightning twice. Now, I would argue that it was the height of thunderstorm season and the tree was the tallest in the yard and on top of a hill...but I will admit that my mom got spooked and put the stone back and the tree was never struck by lightning again.

Anonymous said...

Mama Mia!!! This is so cool, M. Ghosts on the internet, who would have thought?

'kmum said...

I swear that the house we lived in 6 years ago had some sort of presence in it. The stairs were located in the corner of the house, just off the kitchen. They were closed in and had a landing/turn on the way up. Many times I felt like I saw movement out of the corner of my eye in and around the stairwell.

One Christmas Day, we were pulling out of our driveway on the way to my parent's house. I thought "how horrible would it be to come home from a day trip and find your house burned down while you were gone?". I have had a fear of house fires since I was a child, btw.

That night we came home, put the kids to bed upstairs and settled in on the couch to watch some tv. We heard a loud pop and wondered what it was. My husband went up to investigate and the next thing I know, he is yelling "fire, get the kids out". A fire had started in our bedroom at the top of the stairs and the smoke detector did not go off. He got the fire out while I was rounding up the kids and calling 911.

A light that we didn't realize was on had tipped over onto some clothes and ignited. When we looked at the burn marks on the wall behind where the fire was, there was an outline of what looked to be an angel with it's wings spread. I wish we had've taken a picture of it. To this day I say that we had a guardian angel looking over us that day. We lost the dresser, most of the things on top of it and the comforter from our bed. The kids were fine, it's scary to think what might have happened, and the house was fine.

Sorry for the long story, but I was inspired to share.
K

Patti McCracken said...

Here's the one I originally posted before some cyberghosts shut everything down!

In the late 1920s, my grandparents bought a farmhouse from a couple in rural Virginia, who were grieving the death of their only son. He had allegedly died in a swimming accident in France.
When my mother was about six years old, she had a dream about a young man who was telling her that he didn't die swimming, but was actually alive. It was his friend who had died, but he was too filled with guilt to come home, so he let everyone believe he was also dead. This is apparently what the man told my mother in her dream. According to my grandmother, my mom had, up until then, not been told about the swimming accident because they didn't want to scare her.
Anyhow, the day after the dream, my mother found what turned out to be a French coin on her bed (an unlikely find during Depression-era Virginia).

along the lines of coins... when I was in my early 20s, I was deliberating about whether or not I should take a trip to England to see my sister. I wanted to go, but was a poor college student, terribly lacking in cash.
I prayed about it, asked to have an answer as to what to do. I awoke the next morning with a British coin on my belly. No kidding.
I went.

Let's see... what else. My grandfather ran a General Store and used to let my mom crawl up in the attic and choose things to play with (or to take... mom was spoiled rotten).
She decided she liked this music box--about 15 inches long and 8 inches high--quite ornate or beautiful...
once the music box came into their home, a ghost seems to have come with it. Huge sash windows would open wide and slam shut, and once my grandmother saw a kettle actually being moved off of the woodburning stove onto the countertop.
A "breather" was associated with the music box--it sounds like someone who is in a deep sleep.
I refuse to be in the same room with it at night.
I once was sleeping on the couch (having given my room up to guests) and got up in the middle of the night and moved out onto the porch to sleep (florida) disgusted that one of the guests had obviously come out to sleep in the living room (I could hear their breathing).
In the morning I discovered that no one had come out to sleep on the couch with me, but that my mom had moved the music box in there from her room. EEEEK. Get that music box AWAY FROM ME!!!


Oh. And one more. Several people have seen a female ghost at my sister's summer house in England. She apparently speaks French.

Patti McCracken said...

The post about the father visiting his daughter upon his death is incredibly moving. I've read about this in books, and similar things have happened in with loved ones in my family. But hearing it here again just reinforces the power of the living connection. The power of love and the ties that bind. Love is real. Literally. A physical force. This life as we know it really just must be but one small step along the way. I find it comforting.

Anonymous said...

I like this stuff you've done about ghosts. I have always been fascinated by paranormal stuff and I have heard some amazing ghost stories. I have seen one ghost: a cat.

Anonymous said...

Oooh! I am writing from our sweetly haunted home right now, spooked to bits about your stories, everybody! Yikes!

I think everyone is hoping Tree comes out of retirement someday and fully into business. She is so nice, that Tree, we will all have to press ghosts into service leaving our payments on her tummy in the middle of the night. Because she will be so stubborn about taking it directly from clients. You KNOW she will. Are you reading, dear Tree?

The Mater said...

Jeez, Louise ... I am getting ready for bed and reading through all these ghost stories and something keeps "clicking" in my PC ... LOL I AM NOT GOING TO THINK ABOUT IT!

Thanks again for such super tales. And, Jenn, I love your take on the "coin on the belly". Patti, you sure do lead a charmed life!

The story about the fire in the bedroom was amazing too.

My "clicking" has stopped - did I just pay the piper?!

Anonymous said...

Have you vanished too? Been a while since a new posting! ha ha

pogonip said...

We miss you, Mater. At least we get to read you on BEAW. I loved loved loved your perfect response about Sophie's upcoming birthday.