My one and only ghost story
 

So i'm 30 now and this experience has been imprinted in the back of my head since I was 6. At the time I was living in Newport News, Virginia and I was laying in the bottom bunk with my bro in the top bunk snoozing - I couldn't get to sleep unfortunatley (trust me this was not a dream).

So the house is almost pitch black and I'm at the far end of the room with my head facing the entrance and I see someone slowly walking by carrying something so I kinda call out "Dad...." in a low kinda voice so as not to wake my brother up and this "person" stops and turns to look in the room. It doesn't respond, just stands there and I call out like two more times "Dad....", and when i finally faced the fact it wasn't him, needless to say I was scared shitless and just shut my eyes as tight as i could and said out loud "please go away, please go away."

When I opened my eyes he was standing in the room half the distance between me and the entrance, but not moving. I couldn't really make him out that well, but i could tell he was dressed in some sort of uniform with a big frickin hat, and he was carrying something real long and skinny that was hanging down beside his left leg.

Needless to say at this point i was 100 x's more terrified and did the same thing - just shut my eyes begging him to go away and when i opened them this person was standing right by my shoulder looking down at me but still motionless, and i could see every detail of his uniform. Really ornate with big buttons and a hat, and he was carrying a rifle in his left hand - just frickin staring at me. I was scared stiff and couldn't think of anything else to do but clutch my teddy bear, shut my eyes, and just say again "please go away, please go away, please go away."

Opened my eyes and he was gone. I layed in bed for the next few hours scared as hell,wide eyed, and unable to move.

I don't think i knew what in the world the civil war was at that time, but the first time I saw pictures of it I immediately recognized the uniform and come to find out there was a lot of activity in that area of Virginia during the civil war.

Anyway - 26 years later, and i still think of that on occassion. It was definately one of the freakiest experiences of my life

wow... that sounds so scary, thanks for taking the time to type it out.

very cool, there is definitely something that freaks me out about the war, I always think it is so spooky... but great ghost story!

I hate those Civil War re-enactors / cat burglars..

cool story... it gave me the chills!

Wow, great story. You've a very good story teller, I almost wish you had more experiences to share with us (not that I wish that upon you, though.)

wow .. that gave me the chills ..

i've always wanted to see a ghost or spirit .. but then sometimes i would rather not. i wonder what my reaction would be...

Heh, and the scientists try to explain away ghost stories with low frequency sound vibrations.

A conflict so voilent and so emotional is sure to produce a few remnants that will last hundreds of years. You are one of the few who was lucky enought to be given a glimpse of the past.

Wow. . .I can't imagine what I would have done if that happened to me.

You say that after this happened, you were 'unable to move'. This is actually symptomatic of quite a similar set of nocturnal experiences, which has some kind of biological explanation. I don't know much about it, but it involves being stuck in a sort of not asleep not awake state, which is why you have dream-like experiences which seem completely vividly real. Very similar stories are heard about apparitions of ghosts, manifestations of angels and alien abductions and many such events can be so explained. My own mother had a very similar experience only involving an 'Angel of Death' and two of her closest friends.

wow, thats some pretty messed up stuff to experience. I can sit here and think how cool it would have been to see something like that. but in actuality the site of a menacing figure with a rifle in the middle of the night, would have been enough to scare the crap outta me when i was six, and would most likely be enough to scare the crap out of me still.

all of my ghost experiences have been during the day or way before i've gone off to bed.

Those crazy scientists and all their explanations...!

I saw a show on sleep paralyssis that explained some of that. They say that when you are dreaming, your brain shuts down your motor control, so you don't actually, physically act out your dream. Some people get trapped, slightly awake, but still in this "paralyzed" state.

BTW, cool story Matthew.

There's lost of ghost stories about civil war locations, I would consider myself a scientist, but the fact of the matter is no one can explain what ghosts are. Yes of course it's possible that it was some sort of nightmare, but there is a lot of things science can still not definitively prove or disprove. People have the believe that "scientists" (whatever that term means) have an answer for everything, when in fact pretty much all scientific beliefs come down to one simple question: Is it testable? Unfortunately it's kind of hard to ask a "ghost" to show up when you have all your equipment set up (if in fact there truly is any devices that can accurately detect a ghost's prescence), then have him come back a few more times to make sure you results are reliable. Does this mean that ghosts don't exist and ALL these people who report incidences are lying? Of course not, these people saw whatever they saw and their perceptions are real to them. I cannot support nor disprove their reports, but nonetheless SOMETHING did happen.

ANYWAY, that's a cool story, I probably would have wet my pants at that age ! :eek:

thats crazy

if that was me i woulda never took my eyes off him and screamed as loud as i could

Nice story matthew.

One of the reasons I signed up to Tilted was to relate this story. I work as a builder/carpenter and at the moment I am working on a conversion project where a old hospital is being turned into a primary school.
Now I am a sceptic and always laugh of most semi paranormal things you experiance in day to day life deja vu etc, but lately at work I have started to notice weird things going on. 2 weeks ago I was walking down a corridor in one of the wings and saw a figure walk into a room, i just carried on my way got to where i was going and stopped short as the person I swear I saw walk in to the room was there working away quite oblivous, so I took to my toes and ran to the room that the figure went in, say 20 secs have gone by now, and no sign of anyone.
So then I thought I was mad and swore to cut back on the coffee at smoko, but on wednesday I saw the same figure, non descript just dark humanoid outline, go into the same room. I went off after this figure to the room, not knowing what to do when i got there btw, and no one there.
Freaky stuff
Dont know what to do now. I might carry a camera around with me? Any suggestions?