What an Imagination!

Discuss/post ghost stories etc!
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jadewik
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What an Imagination!

Post by jadewik » Fri Aug 31, 2007 1:29 am

I've been pondering posting this for a few days... it's not exactly a ghost story (I believe), though it could be considered one if I tell it properly.

In mid-August, when I first moved into my apartment complex, I was single. I was also very bitter because of my last roommate and her "Redneck Roommate Soap Opera" (a story that's somewhat irrelevant here), so I was living solo for the first time EVER (which is relevant to the story, and also really AWESOME too).

It wasn't too long after I moved in that I got into a routine: Cook dinner, eat, clean up, watch TV (my computer monitor died shortly after moving), go to bed. What an exciting life. I'd been living there a month and I don't know why, but I started to imagine something watching me from the bedroom door, which was facing the bathroom on the other side of the very short hallway. Of course, I brushed these feelings off as being my wild imagination making a come back after laying dormant while I delt with the "days of my life".

One night, I woke up in the middle of the night (as I sometimes do)... and stumbled, half-asleep to use the facilities across the hallway. I shut the door, took care of business, and washed my hands. Still groggy, I stumbled back to the bathroom door, opened it, and took a step into a very tall and handsome man dressed up in a nice button shirt and jeans... he almost looked like a cowboy. Having run into him, I immediately apologized with a quick, "Sorry, didn't know you were there" and backtracked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind me.

Being a little more awake now... and, needless to say... puzzled. I paused a moment to think about what just happened. I remember locking the front door, so it probably wasn't a real person... and if it was and there WAS someone in my apartment, then I was in BIG trouble... only the "intruder" hadn't done anything really. I considered my options... and decided that I was half-asleep and just had a really good imagination.

Putting on all my bravado, I opened the door and WALKED back to bed, climbed in the covers, and went back to sleep... which took a while because my heart was racing.

I will never know if that was my imagination or not, but for my own sake... I like to think it was, though I'm not entirely convinced.

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Haunted Horseman
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Post by Haunted Horseman » Fri Aug 31, 2007 2:16 pm

Wow, creepy. Did you remember making physical contact with him? Also, was that the only time you ever had anything strange happen in that apartment?

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imagination

Post by AutumnGypsy7 » Tue Sep 04, 2007 4:01 pm

Wow! That is really scary!
I'll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween. -Charles Swartz

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jadewik
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Re:

Post by jadewik » Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:40 pm

Haunted Horseman wrote:Wow, creepy. Did you remember making physical contact with him? Also, was that the only time you ever had anything strange happen in that apartment?
Never really touched him, it was more of one of those cases where I stopped right before I hit him... but it felt like something was there.

That's the only time I had anything strange happen in that apartment. I would get the feeling of being watched, but I attributed that to the fact that I was living alone at the time. Though, my neighbors 2-doors down swear they woke up with a transparent woman in white glaring down at them...

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Re: What an Imagination!

Post by Andybev01 » Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:49 pm

Perhaps Cowboy was looking for his bride in white, but how rude that she was glaring at the neighbors. :lol:
All you that doth my grave pass by,
As you are now so once was I,
As I am now so you must be,
Prepare for death & follow me.

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jadewik
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Re: What an Imagination!

Post by jadewik » Tue Apr 20, 2010 8:25 pm

There's a follow-up to this story... that dates back to the early 1900s. When I get all my ducks in a row, I'll post the follow-up.

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Re: What an Imagination!

Post by MacPhantom » Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:14 pm

I have noticed that people who experience such things quite frequently experience them at night. Is it a coincidence that most ghost sightings occur in the same eight hours where people ordinarily sleep? Just a thought....

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Re: What an Imagination!

Post by jadewik » Thu Apr 22, 2010 4:24 pm

MacPhantom wrote:I have noticed that people who experience such things quite frequently experience them at night. Is it a coincidence that most ghost sightings occur in the same eight hours where people ordinarily sleep? Just a thought....
My Devil's Den story was in late-afternoon. The sun was still up. I've also read and have been told of other stories where things have happened during the day. Day or night, there are reports of ghosts and paranormal.... but I won't deny the number of night events far surpasses the number of daytime encounters.

Generally speaking, yes, more reports of possible paranormal activity occur during the hours when people are generally sleeping. There is a logical explanation for that. Daytime hours have a lot of noise and a lot of distractions that might make you miss something not-so-normal. On the flip-side, that lack of noise and the lack of distractions might also cause your mind to fill the gaps by creating something that isn't there, but it could also enhance your senses because of sensory deprivation. Science has proven that when one of the 5-senses isn't being used that the other ones amplify or compensate for the loss. So, in the dark when you cannot see, your hearing gets better. Though in hearing things people normally don't... believers often confuse normal every-day sounds with something they think is paranormal. If people would investigate noises or happenings for a probably cause while the event is happening, it can rule a lot of things out.

I think a dose of healthy skepticism should be applied to what people claim to experience in the nocturnal hours (and the diurnal hours as well), but I don't like to discount the possibility that something that wouldn't be noticed during diurnal hours still happens--- it might just be that it goes unnoticed.

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Re: What an Imagination!

Post by MacPhantom » Fri Apr 23, 2010 1:02 pm

I think the obvious reason most experiences occur at night is that most people sleep at night. Sleep is almost a supernatural event in its own right, and it involves various stages of consciousness. Some dreams are so vivid, they seem completely real. That most supernatural experiences occur at a time when the mind is most susceptible to misinterpretation of imagination as reality sends up red flags for me.

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Re: What an Imagination!

Post by Spookymufu » Fri Apr 23, 2010 1:47 pm

what about experiences of those who are awake at night when they happen?
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Re: What an Imagination!

Post by Andybev01 » Fri Apr 23, 2010 1:48 pm

Vampires don't count. :D
All you that doth my grave pass by,
As you are now so once was I,
As I am now so you must be,
Prepare for death & follow me.

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Re: What an Imagination!

Post by MacPhantom » Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:24 pm

Spookymufu wrote:what about experiences of those who are awake at night when they happen?
Depends on the proximity of the period of wakefulness to a period of sleep. It has to be a case by case basis, really.

I'm a fairly arrogant jerk, but I wouldn't be so arrogant as to tell a person what they did or didn't experience, or to claim knowledge as to their state of consciousness during such an experience. But if I'm evaluating a piece of anecdotal evidence for it's ability to persuade me, I have to take all factors into consideration.

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Re: What an Imagination!

Post by Andybev01 » Sun Apr 25, 2010 5:25 pm

"Fairly"?
If anything you're too modest. :P
All you that doth my grave pass by,
As you are now so once was I,
As I am now so you must be,
Prepare for death & follow me.

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jadewik
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Re: What an Imagination!

Post by jadewik » Mon Apr 26, 2010 2:27 pm

The update to this particular story relates to some articles reguarding the area of town in which I lived when I, being half-awake, saw this fellow.

Firstly, being that I was living on the corner of Fort Lowell and Swan at the time... which is to say, I was living less than a mile away from Fort Lowell.... I was rather stunned to learn that in the 1900's Mexicans living in the immediate vicinity of the Fort also reported seeing the ghost of a soldier. I make no claims that these stories are true-- for all I know it could have been a squatter in lieu of a ghost-- but the stories are quite amusing to read reguardless. I've only scanned and uploaded a few, but there are plenty more...

The stories begin in December 14,1900 and were covered by the Arizona Daily Citizen-- which later became the Tucson Citizen... and, which is no longer a paper as of May-ish 2009.

Some fun reading for y'all.

December 14, 1900 paper-- front page

Image

Other Stories about the Ghost:
From Dec 28, 1900
Image

Here's one where the ghost was shot at....
Image

Anyway, more amusing than these stories is the fact that when I describe the ghost as a "Cowboy"... he looks a lot like how a US Calvary soldier would have looked in the 1800's.... which is something like this photo, taken Jan 2010 at Fort Lowell Days:

Image

The coincidence of these events is rather compelling... though, I wouldn't go so far as to say I saw a ghost since I was technically still mostly asleep when I almost ran into whatever... but even in that state, I have to wonder why all my sensory perceptions would suggest that "something" was there...?

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Re: What an Imagination!

Post by MacPhantom » Tue Apr 27, 2010 12:09 am

"...technically still mostly asleep..."

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