Okay. Anybody who knows me or cares to check my previous posts here on ATS knows that I am a rational, oft-times skeptical individual. I don't believe in many "out there" theories or beliefs and when I consider an experience or an idea, I have tried to be as balanced as I can. I say this because I want people to realise that the experience I am about to describe was something genuine and to allay fears that I have made it up. The experience is a very personal thing and I haven't shared it with anyone in 12 years. But if I can't share it here on ATS, where can I? Here goes.

I grew up in a small town in the Australian bush. We weren't exactly a rundown, one-horse town, but it was fairly small compared to cities and such. The population was about 6000 people.

We built our house on a non-descript piece of land that had no significant background or history. But it was creepy. I know that sounds ridiculous, but take it from a self-professed skeptic - that house had a scary feel to it. The feeling was one of being watched, as cliched as that may sound. It was limited to the back of our house. It was strongest in the hallway that connected all the other rooms of the house. At night, my two little brothers and I, if we had to go to the bathroom or get up for any reason, would creep towards the door and literally run as fast as we could down the hallway. We would ensure that doors were unlocked before we went to bed, so that you wouldn't have to stand in the hallway in the dark while you unlocked them. We would argue over who got to have the dog sleep in their bedroom, since you always felt better with the dog there.

Summers in our town were extremely hot. If you know anything about summer in the bush, you know I'm not exaggerating. Yet instead of sleeping with light sheets or without covering, we would sleep covered with as many blankets as we could. We would tuck them in tight so that none of our toes or body other than our faces were showing. Even though we were sweating bullets, we would be too scared too move. My father used to yell at us because the electricity bill was high, since we kept the lights on all night. It just felt like there was something there, something watching you all the time.

I used to have a recurring, terrifying nightmare: I would be walking down the hallway at night in the darkness, with no lights on. The only light would be coming from the kitchen, the door to which would be slightly ajar. In the dream I could hear my parents and brothers talking about nothing special. I would run down the hallway towards the light, but as I went to open the door, some dark, black thing would grab me and drag me back down the hall, or would hoist me into the air. In the dream, my brothers and parents would scream and point with horror etched on their faces. I had that dream almost every night.

When I was 13, I was lying on my bed, not tired in the least. I had the lights on and was lying on my side, facing the wall my bed was pushed up against, staring up at the posters on my wall. Then, I felt an impulsive need to turn over. I have sincerely tried to explain this impulse better, but that's exactly what it was: I just knew I had to turn over on my other side, as crazy as I know that sounds. When I did so, I saw an old man standing over me. He had a long moustache and was wearing what I would describe as work clothes. He slowly reached out his left hand and touched me on the top of my head. Then, he vanished.

I sat in my bed for about 5 minutes. I guess I was in shock, since I don't remember being scared. But after about 5 minutes, I became truly terrified and ran as fast as I could to my parents room. They were still awake and could see that I was upset. I was crying and shaking and tried to tell them what had happened. I remember when they asked what was wrong I said "There was a man in my room".

This was a long time ago and I never saw anything after that. But I was so scared that every Thursday night thereafter (which was the night it happened), I would sit awake all night, terrified. Our house no longer feels creepy. Everybody in the family comments on how the feeling is gone. You don't have to sprint down the hallway any more.

This was very hard for me to talk about, even indirectly through ATS. I just wanted to share this experience and let you know that this was something that really happened. I'm not the kind of person to make stuff up. So, there's my personal experience. Perhaps somebody has had a similar experience? If not, well, I hope you get something of value from it. Whatever else it was, I assure you it really happened. I still get chills thinking about that night and that house.

I don't think you are crazy, I beleive you. I grew up in a haunted house too. It was mainly in the basement and always had a cold spot even in the summer and you could feel a very wicked presence. At night it would come up to my room...you could literally hear the footsteps. It used to breath in my ears, rattle my mirror, open and close my closet doors and a few times even pulled my hair. It only bothered my sister a few times, my dad saw it and it did stuff to my mother too. One time during a family gathering a picture flew off the wall.

We have no mental illness in our family and I will tell you without a doubt it was a haunting and the spirit was pure evil.

I have seen several ghosts since then and I can always sense them. Even in antique stores and other people's homes.

Makes my skin crawl too and my hair stand on end when I think about them breathing in my ear.

I saw a "ghost" similar to what you described, with the moustache and the work clothes, only the one I saw had one of those bowler hats. Though I'm not one-hundred percent sure what I saw was actually a ghost, because I was only eight and that night my eyes were like screwed up or something. What I mean by my eyes being screwed up, those things you see after looking at a bright light and looking away, like those colorful circles, well they were all over the place that night (without seeing a light). Well I went to go to the bathroom, for some reason that night I was extremely terrified of something and sat in bed for like hours thinking that there was ghosts hiding in the cracks I couldn't see and such, but I couldn't hold it any longer, I really had to pee. I went down the pitch black hallway and those colorful circles formed the shape of a man like I described earlier. So thats when I yelled and ran to my parents, but either way, seems like a somewhat similar story and a good time to use it.

It's possible that your experience could be related to Aboriginies in some way. I live on a block of land in Victoria, and apparently it is an ancient battle ground. Our closest nieghbours, about 150 metres away, used to say that they saw an old person sitting on their steps, and that the place had an odd feeling in general. They moved out a few years ago, and I'm not sure whos living there now, so I have no idea if they are having the same experiences. In our house there are no such ghosts of things, but right down the bottom of our preoerty near teh creek there is an odd feeling, no way to describe it, just odd. But you say the man that touched you was wearing work clothes and all that, so this is jsut a theory.