Hauntings, Ghosts, and more

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This is the season that my favorite movies play on air, stories told around camp fires ring true, ghosts, what do you believe in? I grew up in an old country style home that was constructed in 1827. My father and mother moved from Queens NY to this isolated existence known as Bisbopville. Raising a family there was ideal as crime did not exist and the only near by nieghbor was a farmer. Life was perfect. The house needed much tender love and care, walls needed insulation, windows needed replacing, the usual thing one would expect after buying an old forgotten home. I was born 8 years after they moved in. My dad was a very gifted carpenter and decided to renovate the house by replacing the high ceilings with low wood lined ceilings through out the first floor. When I was 8 our house caught on fire and after the damage was assessed my father began remodeling the hall way upstairs as most of the fire was isolated between the walls. Apparently while we were at school, my neighbor came over to banter with my Dad. My neighbor did not believe in anything that isn't religious or things scientific, ie Dinosaurs and possible Alien life. He sat at the bar in the kitchen talking with my dad when hammering was heard upstairs. "What is that?" my neighbor inquired, "Your boys staying home from school?" Apparently my father was used to the noise he merely shrugged and said, "Nope." The hammering did not cease, stirring my neighbors curiosity. He decided to take initiative and go upstairs with my dad behind them. The hammering continued until they were both in eye shot of the hall way and both men saw nothing. My neighbor was befuddled and gave my father a look of confusion. He promptly left. Growing up I was used to the phantom foot falls in the hall way, the occasional misplacing of nick nacks and the opening of cupboard doors. The activity in the house seemed most obvious during the period in which my father was remodeling. It was like he woke them up. There were times where out dog and two cats refused to enter a room, either night or day. I recall a few major incidents where I realized this house we called home had other inhabitants. I was 14 and sound asleep in bed. A thunderstorm rolled in and a few loud crashed woke me. I sat up in bed as I was going to get out and watch the lightning (my favorite thing to do) when my full length mirror which was screwed into my wall, flew off the wall and stopped as if someone was holding it, then it broke and fell to the ground. I was not happy with that and despite having grown up in that house and feeling the invisible force of someone sitting on my bed sometimes, this scared me. I ran down stairs and watched tv the rest of the night. Another incident happened when I was 16 and my parents and I were in the kitchen preparing for dinner. We were talking about something unimportant when a loud crashing sound came from our two cupboards over the sink. I walked over to open the door and when I did, a bunch of chunks of ceramic and glass spilled out. Each glass and bowl had broken as if it was safety glass, small miniature cubes sprinkled out onto our counter top. Then, as if that was not enough, the heat resistant cutting board my mother had on the counter just exploded. Nothing was on it or near it. Friends of mine would attempt to spend the night where they would often hear the familiar phantom foot steps running up and down the hall way at night. Having been exposed to this all of my childhood, I was forced to believe in ghosts. Since I moved out and lived on my own, I have not had encounters in my home. I did however, become part of a ghost hunting society and often toured alleged haunted buildings snapping pictures and recording EVPs. I have visited cemetaries and conducted seances in attempt to talk to the dead. This, however is a dangerous thing. I learned that by opening your world and life up to something of the 'other side' one is inviting the chaos it brings into their lives. These voices, haunts, and things that go bump in the night are not and never were human. They want us to believe they are souls of loved ones passed so we let them in and allow them to drain us of our essence, our joy. Spooky and mysterious? Indeed. User friendly? Never.