There are two revolving around my dad. First one was shortly after he died. My sister was trying to study for a big Geometry exam and since my dad was a math WIZ, she was flippnig through one of his books. She went thru it page by page and couldn't find it. Finally, being very late, my mother said she would look and sent my sister to bed. The next morning the book was open, on her dresser, to the page she needed. When she thanked my mother, my mom told her she couldn't find it and just closed the book and went to bed.

And the second time, I was asleep at the foot of my parent's bed (the room in which my father died). It was late when I woke up (midnight runs in my mind, but that's just hokey) and I saw him standing in their closet. Smiling at me. And telling me he loved me. Scared the snot outta me (I was 5).

The dead don't seem to talk to me, either, Eileen. And I find it somewhat disappointing. I mean, what's so hard about checking in now and then? It's not like we stop thinking of them and wanting to talk to them just because they're gone. Still, I've heard nary a word from my dad in the year and a half he's been gone or from any of my grandparents.

When I was little, though, there were a pair of ghosts that haunted my bedroom. They liked to sit on top of the little bookcase I had right inside the door. That same bookcase is now in my son's room but I haven't seen any evidence that the ghosts came with it.

When my mom died, I felt her afterwards. It was in the middle of the night, I was driving across country to attend her funeral, van full of kids and husband. I'd made it as far as Knoxville. Still hadn't cried, because I was just numb all over. I was thinking about her, listening to the radio, trying to figure out how to deal with life when my best girlfriend was gone. I just started talking to her, asking her what I was going to do, how I could raise my kids with her not there, how I could hold on to my marriage without her advice and support. It was tough. Then it was like she was right there with me, sitting in the empty passenger seat, telling me I was stronger than I gave myself credit for, and she was proud of me, and all of the things that she said to me so often, but I really HEARD her that time. I thought I was going crazy, and said something like "Geez, I'm losing it. Next thing you know they're going to play your song on the radio" And they did. "Fire and Rain" came on. I smiled through my tears as I drove through Knoxville, and never told anyone else about that night.
Until now.
Geez, Eileen, you always have these posts that make me spill part of my soul out. Thanks for that. :)

I've had a few weird experiences. I know I saw my first ghost when I was about 3 or 4, he looked like a cross between Rupert from Survivor and Hagrid from Harry Potter standing in the doorway to my bedroom. And my parents wondered why I didn't want to go to bed! lol
But the most recent one is one of the more 'odd'. We had up to last month an old style answering machine that ran on tapes and was pretty silent. About 1am every night when it would start making white noise. Some nights it would get so loud I just couldn't stand being downstairs by myself and would promptly hightail it to bed. But there'd be stretches of time where it was silent for days straight then it would start right back up with the noise for no apparant reason.

I have never had any personal experience with the beyond but I have heard of other people having those kinds of experiences (my grandfather opening doors, etc).

I had an aunt that I met shortly after she married my uncle. My family was not seriously close with my uncle (we didn't talk all that often). When my sisters and I met her she started telling us all things about ourselves and our significant others that she could not have possibly known. She even gave each of us a bit of advice.

The one thing I remembered the most was her advice to my sister. We had actually shown her a picture of my oldest sister (who was in England at the time). The first thing she mentioned was that my sister was having a hard time getting pregnant (very true and not something she could have found out, even from my uncle). She asked that we call my sister. When she spoke with my sister she gave her some advice on how to get pregnant. She even told her that she seen two months stand out above the rest that my sister would be pregnant and that those would be my sisters only two chances. My sister did end up pregnant during the months that our aunt had mentioned, unfortunately she lost them both. It has been several years since then and even though my sister has been trying, she has not been pregnant since then.

Wow. It's good to know we're not the only ones.

Jen and Dee, you made me all sniffly. My mom hasn't been well for a long time and I dread losing her. My dad died almost two and a half years ago. I wish he'd stop by.

Lis, that's just creepy. It's exactly the kind of thing that makes me wonder who is trying to communicate with me.

Jo, I'm sad for your sister, but very interesting about your aunt.

LC Eileen

Well, I was going to say nothing freaky has ever happened to me, but then I remembered. So here goes: When I was 18/19 years old I kept lists in a notebook. I needed the lists to keep me on track. I also used to doodle in this notebook and one day I doodled a wedding announcement. When I realized what I'd done, I was like, "that's a weird thing to doodle" (normally I doodled pictures and boxes, stuff like that. Not words) and thought no more about it. A few days later I doodled an obituary. It totally freaked me. So I went back to the wedding announcement and convinced myself I was just making up stuff. I mocked myself for the last name on the announcement (for a friend who had just moved away) was Makepeace. I thought "You could at least make up a last name someone has heard of and that exists."

Many years later, I recieved a wedding announcement in the mail from my friend. Her new last name was Makepeace. I freaked again. My first thought was "No F-ing way." My second was that she was bamming me. Then I thought why would she? And I remembered I'd never shown anyone my little notebook. And I freaked once more.

Now I live in a little bit of terror for the day one of my old HS friends dies by a drunk driver, leaving behind an lovely wife and some sweet kids. I never ask about this friend when I talk to old HS friends because I don't want to know he has little girls, but maybe I should so I can hear he has a ton of strapping little boys and I can forget about it.

Oooh... chills. The dead have spoken to me, but always in dreams, and always in those casual, "Hey, I'm fine, you're good, see you later," kinds of ways. I've never had the dead give me real estate advice, but I think your sister has a point - maybe you have to be open to it. In which case, if there are any dead people out there who know where I can find a good mechanic - I'm here!

Wow, cool stories from everyone. Totally gives me chills. I'm with your sis, Eileen. I think you have to be open to it. I'm a 99.9% believer in this stuff. I mean, if we're only using 5-10% of our brain then what can the rest of it do? Your sis probably was born with an advanced "spiritual communication" part, just like some people are good at math. I've heard you can develop it though...a friend of our family took classes on it (meditation etc) and speaks to her "guides" regularly. It's amazing how right on and specific they are about stuff. BTW, this would've been a great post for a Friday 13th or Halloween. Ooo-wah-wah-wah.

I win the Weirdness Award for this, don't I? I can ah, smell ghosts. (Even weirder, there is technically a term for doing this: "clairambient.")

My grandmother's house always smelled very musty to me- she wasn't the best housekeeper in later years. At her memorial service, I could smell, right in the center of the aisle in a very specific (which is to say, not a floaty-drifty smell), the musty smell. My mom smelled it too, which made it nice to know that I wasn't the only crazy one.

It's kind of a useless talent, though, if you don't have a particular scent associated with anyone. But whenever I smell a completely random scent in a hot spot in a certain location that has nothing to do with that smell, I wonder.

As for talking with the dead, my mom is still waiting around to get a message from my dad these days. My dad had no truck with hippie stuff, so I kind of figured he never would. I kind of wonder if I'd smell him if he did, but I don't know what smell I'd associate with him anyway. (I'd really hope it wouldn't be Hospital Smell, but he was in for a long time, so who knows.) I did have a dream he was in the night after he died, but it was obviously non-psychic- he was at my favorite craft fair while I was shopping. My subconscious is lame.

I had my own personal ghost for years. It was an annoying little monster, always taking my things and hiding them.

I first became aware of him when I was a teen ager. Probably a sophomore in high school. I woke up one night because my bed was shaking. Living in California this isn't a big surprise, so I check the clock (12:28 AM) and got up and wandered out into the dining room. The only problem was that the hanging light wasn't moving. Perplexed, I walked into the living room only to discover that the light in there wasn't moving either. I climbed back into bed and went back to sleep, but the whole thing was decidedly odd. The next day was a big family reunion out at my sister's house. I listened all day to the radio but there was no mention of an eearthquake. I even casually mentioned it to my sisters and they both said they hadn't noticed anything. It was when I was with my brother that I got a response, but not the one I was expecting.

When I asked him about the earthquake, he looked at me with a straight face and told me it wasn't an erathquake--the bedroom was haunted. Oh yeah, right! The bedroom I now had used to be his, and he told me that when he was in Jr high he was almost asleep one night when he felt the edge of his bed go down, like someone had sat down on it, but no one was there. Then a weight laid down on him. He said he was absolutely petrified, and the weight just gradually dissipated.

Obviously I figured he was pulling my leg--he is my big brother, after all--but then when I found one of our cousins and tried to laugh it off, he said he remembered my brother talking about it when they were about 13-14 years old! And they hadn't talked before this and cell phones weren't even thought of at the time, so I KNOW he was telling me the truth!! OMG. The next time my bed shook I was scared out of my mind!

Damn thing followed me to college, too. I got used to it waking me up and moving things around (another of his favorite pasttimes) but my suitemate's reaction to the little pest was great. I was packing my stuff--the year was over--and she was lounging on my extra bed. I was looking for my address/date book, and finally I just stood in the middle of the room and said "Ok. Game's over. I want my book and I want it NOW!" My friend looked at me funny, then got up and asked me "Is this it?" and picked up the book from underneath my chair. I took it from her calmly and said "yes" and she freaked! She swore it hadn't been there before and I said " yes, I know" and she ran out of my room as if the hounds of Hades were chasing her!! It was too funny!