My Poltergeist Story

Couple of people asked me to share one of my experiences, so here it is. Not so dramatic as a full-bodied apparition or ghosts walking around, but spooky and strange nevertheless. I did post about it in another thread, but decided to be an attention-whore and give it its own thread. Sorry. I did re-write a bit for dramatization (jk?). It's long, but I tried to give detail.

Over a decade ago I was staying with a friend, and while she was working I would babysit her boy who was around eleven. It was after midnight, the boy was asleep, and I was reading a book (I even remember the book... book 3, King's Dark Tower series). As I was reading, I saw movement in front of me where the entertainment system (ES) stood. There was a shallow tray on the floor in front and to the side of the ES for their pet box turtle that had water and food on it. Next to the tray was an iron candle holder with a tripod base, the three legs being these iron spirals... heavy, short, and squat. Attached to the top of it was one of those clamped reptile lights for the turtle, not much wider than my outstretched hand. The cord for the light ran down the base of the candleholder and was wrapped around at the bottom of one of the spiral tripod legs and went behind the ES where it was plugged into a power strip that lied on the floor.

The movement I had noticed was the cord slowly being pulled from behind the ES, snake-like, until it was taunt and started to slightly raise an inch or so off the floor. As I watched, it seemed to reach maximum tauntness, and the candleholder fell over, like a building tipping slowly over, into the tray with a clatter, and the cord dropped to the floor limply. The light was not lit, but it was plugged in. The bulb didn't break.

I didn't think much about it at all really, because I assumed the turtle was behind the ES and had gotten entangled in the cords. So I got up, went to the ES and looked behind it.... and there was nothing there. Turtles don't move too fast, so I figured it was around there somewhere, but when I found the turtle he was behind the couch I had been reading on, asleep (across the entire 8x10ish room from the ES). If you have ever seen a box turtle sleeping, well, they look like they're dead... their legs and head are sprawled out, and even their tongues will loll out.

So I stood there stunned because there was simply no way the turtle could have gotten across the floor from the ES and behind the couch without me seeing it, especially in that short of time. The turtle was obviously asleep. They had no other animals (other than country mice). I checked on the boy and he was in his room asleep. He also always slept with his light on... not possible for me not to see him pull a trick. The hallway to his room was in plain view to my right where I sat on the couch.

I was stunned, but I still believed there was some rational explanation. So I went to the light and tried to replicate what happened and I couldn't. No matter how I pulled the cord, it would only drag the heavy candleholder across the floor (because you were pulling from the bottom of the candleholder). It never came close to tipping over (on a shag carpet, no less). It was not top-heavy, but rather very bottom-heavy! The reptile light weighed next to nothing and the hood was light aluminum. I tried kicking it lightly around a few times, but this thing was like heavy cast iron; you would have to use force to knock it over.

It was around then that I got a chill and wondered 'what is here?', but I sensed nothing and nothing else happened.

Oddly, the candleholder tipped over in the opposite direction that it was being pulled from, into the tray. It just didn't make sense! I'm still trying to find a reasonable explanation. Even if it had been the turtle, there was no way it could have pulled this thing over. The turtle weighed less than a half a pound I would bet. It's entirely possible I missed something, but I have no idea what it could have been. It wasn't the boy or the turtle or mice, I know that much. To this day I can still see that cord in my mind, slowly being pulled until it was taunt, and the candleholder just falling slowly over. None of the motions were violent or abrupt. You could believe the turtle was pulling it and that's what happened, but the turtle was nowhere near the area.

So what pulled the cord and knocked it over?

Nothing else ever happened there that I was aware of, and my friend and her boy said they had never had anything happen before that. I know what you're thinking... there has to be a rational explanation other than 'ghosts' or whatever, and it's hard for me not to agree with that, but to this day I still have no explanation for it. Whatever pulled it still creeps me out to this day. Nope, no drugs/alcohol. I'm fairly certain (as you can be) that I wasn't hallucinating or dreaming. It is a possibility, though, I admit. I don't have a history of any serious mental problems. Anyway, there's my 100% true, non-bias-tainted ghost story from a skeptical believer. Hope someone enjoyed it.

Added irony for fun: I am still skeptical of 'poltergeists', at least the current/past explanations for the phenomena.

Were you going through any stress at the time? Was the book getting good. Had the child exhibited any heightened states of emotion?
Quite an interesting explanation. BTW I have seen some interesting things in my time.

Originally posted by Shirak
Were you going through any stress at the time? Was the book getting good. Had the child exhibited any heightened states of emotion?
Quite an interesting explanation. BTW I have seen some interesting things in my time.

Good questions.

1) Yes, I was going thru a rough patch.
2) The whole book was good.
3) The child spent most of his early life before living in an abusive household (not this house) with his father.

reply to post by Balkan


Poltergeist are usually confined within the house of the activity but not always.
So the most likely culprit was the young son--in his sleep.
Next, I would have to consider the turtle as the guilty one--in his sleep.
Third would be an unconscious act of yourself (which to your horror and protestations remains no more unlikely than to put the blame elsewhere).

Some things will remain unknown

Originally posted by Aliensun
reply to post by Balkan

 

Poltergeist are usually confined within the house of the activity but not always.

Well... there is actually was some other stuff I wasn't going to go into. Silly 'stuff' I considered debunked easily. One was a closet door which had one of those hook latches. Sometimes you would hear the latch pop, and the closet door would slowly creak open. The only problem with this was that I could put the hook half-way in, walk by, and the floorboards would sink a little, and the door would creak open slowly, exactly the same really. Incidentally, the door did this a couple of times when noone was near it, but I digress. Another incident that occured a few times was a plastic sunflower string thing/ornament would fall/snake off the edge of this bar when noone was near it. But again, it could have been near the edge...blah. Nothing else ever occured there that I heard of or witnessed and I stayed there for some time.

So the most likely culprit was the young son--in his sleep.

Isn't 10-11 young for a 'poltergeist' experience?

Third would be an unconscious act of yourself (which to your horror and protestations remains no more unlikely than to put the blame elsewhere).

It's funny you should say that... but, *ahem*, well I digress. (again)

Some things will remain unknown

Maybe not!

I wish I could offer an explanation, but having had things like that occur over the years and recently, all I can do is empathize with you. I've realized that the physical world that we are part of extends beyond our corporeal senses and that our technology is only capable of revealing a small portion of the rest of it. The indications are that we've got a ways to go before we invent the gizmos that will show it all to us.

I had a stapler scoot across my desk on its own, invisible sneakers make that loud skit-skit on a gymnasium floor sound for 90 seconds right in front of me, going batsh*t with no explanation whatsoever, and a kitchen chair take out a sink rack full of dishes and glasses with more force than I've ever seen anyone capable of, so I totally realize that there's too much reality there to dismiss. Those are the easiest incidents to describe, but it's been many years of stuff that shouldn't occur, and in a dozen different locations across multiple states.

I know I'm not the only one, too. This sort of things keeps happening to people regardless of whether scientists, or The Amazing Randi believes it does or not. Reality doesn't care about what those guys think. I'd just chalk it up to there being more to our physical world than we can perceive at this point in our technological progression.

reply to post by NorEaster
Hey man, thanks for that reply. I do have empathy for you. This incident (and a few others) are what keeps me seeking answers to the mysteries of life. Unless a gas rose from the earth and disrupted my senses a few times (or something), there is no question there is some weirdness out there that cannot be explained (yet). I'm not stupid (well, yes I am, but let's not going into that), and I know in my own life also that there have been some things that can't be explained (yet). And that's key for me... I'm more interested in looking at alternate explanations for the paranormal than I am listening to more people tell me what 'ghosts' or 'spirits' are (matter of factly). They might be right! But I'm still driven to look for more plausible explanations for much of the paranormal/supernatural.

Have you posted any of your stories? I'd love to read them.

The clues and mindset is consistent with classic geisting conditions.
There is some really progressive research being done on this by a Doctor Tiller. WWW.Tiller.org
That site supplies white papers and experiments. In his research which has been duplicated around the world he re-frames the reference points of mechanical physics to include magnetic and electromagnetic physics.

In repressed emotion stress states what is referred to as an over-unity state is produced and all types of effects can happen from loud acoustical snaps, light pulsing, cold spots in houses, kinetic release, static interference etc. It is far easier to use the adage "the simple explanation is probably right" This philosophy should only be used by the laziest of thinkers IMO.

Starting with the white papers and lecture series as a base you may choose to research further. I have done extensive research myself into the biofeild effect on the world around us.

Below is one of many experiments I have carried out to demonstrate the human biofields ability to create cold spots targeted to one location.

reply to post by Shirak
Very interesting stuff. I'm going to check out that link now.

reply to post by Shirak

Hey, thank you so much for posting that link. I love this guy! Been watching them over a few times today to digest. Definately plan to try a few experiments. Here's the link again if anyone else is interested:

www.tiller.org...

Good stuff, mate! Thanks again.