Do You Believe in Ghosts? #ThinkyThursdays 7

Having seen Crimson Peak this week (Crimson Peak review is here) what I am mostly thinking about is Tom Hiddleston's lovely bottom, but also ghosts, hence today's topic ;).

Do You Believe in Ghosts?

The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall

Ghosts are often something of a dividing topic. There are those who firmly believe, those who aren't sure and those who definitely do not believe. I am in the first camp, but I totally respect those of other views because, lets face it, the evidence is all very hand wavy.

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I am of the opinion that ghosts exist because I have had ghostly experiences. For example, until very recently our house was haunted by the ghost of the previous occupant (I shall not mention names). I'm not sure if she's moved on now or if she is just not interacting with us, but there have been no signs for a while. What are these encounters I hear you ask.

First off, I will say we have never seen her, but we have heard her and she has done things.

The Lights

When we first had the attic converted we put the light switch at the bottom of the stairs in what used to originally be the kitchen where there had once been a light switch before the electrics had been redone. We would turn the upstairs light off every night and sometimes, in the morning it would be back on.

I know, you think we just forgot, but it's very hard to forget that in our house because we keep the door to the bedroom open and light from upstairs would make it into our room. Hence we would always know we had forgotten to turn off the light.

Also, when we moved the light switch it stopped happening.

Our Ghost Says Hello

One day when Rob was outside doing something out front, the son of the lady who used to live in our house stopped while he was going by to say hello. Rob spent quite a lot of time talking to him. This seemed to get our ghost very excited because she said hello to both Rob and I at different times.

There have been other things as well with other people, but I shalln't go in to them. They can comment and add their own if they see this.

1919 picture of an RAF squadron from WWI
Freddy Jackson (the man in the circle) had
been killed two days before the photo.

I also had ghostly experiences as a child at the Rectory in Wittersham. We lived there for around 8 years from when Soph and I were four to when we were nearly twelve. It's not even a very old Rectory because the original one was sold off and the new one bought, but it was still haunted.

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It was quite a large house with four bedrooms, one of them being very large (Soph and I shared this one most of the time) and a bathroom and toilet right up one end next to the smallest bedroom. Of course it was this room that was haunted, so a trip to the loo in the middle of the night was very rare :).

My parents never mentioned this when we were living there because they didn't want to spook Soph and I, but we always knew there was something up. Neither of us would ever go upstairs alone unless we absolutely had to and we'd prefer to be outside rather than stay in the house on our own for more than a minute or two.

I tried to have that room as a bedroom once when Soph and I were going through a 'we want our own room' phase. Yep - that didn't last long! It was never anything overt for me, just this feeling that I really, really, really did not like.

My mother said she sometimes heard coughing when there was no one to make the noise.

One of the previous occupants had died of lung cancer and while he didn't actually die in the room, he had spent his final months there before the end came. I don't think he had left yet.

The Doors Have a Mind of Their Own

The most interesting event is something my parents told me about after we had left and occurred in the kitchen. Now the house was very interestingly designed in that there were at least two door to every room downstairs - the kitchen had three, one from the hall, one from the dining room and one out into the small corridor that joined the backdoor, the side door and the garage.

One evening my parents were sitting around the table with a couple of friends having a drink (I assume Soph and I were safely tucked up in bed) when first the door from the hall opened and closed, then, a few seconds later, the door to the small corridor opened and closed. These we not easily opened doors. Mummy always says the face of one of their friends was priceless :).

ghost caught on CCTV opening doors at Hampton Court Palace

I think there is too much evidence for things out there that we do not understand. I'm not sure if they are all the same phenomenon or different things in different places, but I do believe that things survive after death. After all we are all made of energy and energy cannot be made or destroyed, just changed in form. Maybe ghosts are simply life in a different form, or echoes of where people and things once were.

So are you a believer? Have you seen a ghost, heard a ghost, or just had a weird experience?

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The Share a Scare Halloween Blog Hop will run on the 31st October as you would expect, but now is the time to sign up.

Have something a little bit scary to share? All bloggers, authors and artists welcome. Just click the link to see all the details:

Share a Scare - A Halloween Blog Hop

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Authors might also be interested in this blog hop. The Trick-or-Treat blog hop is run by the lovely Patricia Lynne and the idea is to give away free books to trick-or-treaters visiting your blog.

Trick-or-Treat Blog Hop