ghosts? or other names???

Maybe this is the bit for this question, but maybe not, so mods please do your thing.
anyhow, has anyone ever encountered a ghost, specifically a loved one who has died? what happened in this visit? was it positive or negative?
also does anyone believe in angels? if so why or why not?
just some thoughts i had today...

I lived in a house for 14 years that I am absolutely sure was haunted.  I consider myself a rational person and am not religious in any way whatsoever but I do believe in ghosts.  Not necessarily that they are the spirits of the dead, or have any form of consciousness, maybe more residual.. energy.  Or something.

I don't really know how to explain how I feel about the whole thing because it makes me sound crazy and invariably people think i'm talking out of my butt.

I don't believe in angels because i'm an atheist.

residual energy is a good description, i think.

two weeks after my best friend's dad died, she called asking me to come over & she was hysterical on the phone. i raced over (there was just one house in between our houses) and she let me in.

we were the only two people in the house, yet we could clearly hear someone walking around upstairs. we were freaked. finally, therese said "hi, dad," and the walking sounds stopped.

it's giving me goosebumps just writing about it.

now, her dad's been dead since 1993. a few years ago, her three-year-old niece started talking to the corner of her bedroom wall, where the wall meets the ceiling. after a few nights, her parents asked who she was talking to. she said, "it's the other kind of daddy,"  and she described to them what she saw, a large man in a white cap with the letters "ND" on it. the parents blew it off as toddler-babble, until they were visiting family & the little girl saw a picture of therese's dad. she said, "i know him -- that's the other kind of daddy!" the picture was taken when he was cutting the grass in his favourite notre dame floppy hat.

several other of my best friend's nieces and nephews have had similar encounters. none of them have been afraid. all of them were born after their grandfather had died.

Often when a loved one passes we are alerted by what's called a 'crisis apparition' this can come in the form of a light, a dream or a shadow for example. I've been visited twice by crisis apparitions.Once when my friend Steve passed away and the second when my father died.
Often passed loved ones come to us in our dreams which is not uncommon at all but I believe that when they do visit you in a dream they will always make sure you will remember it. For instance when my father came to me in a dream he came to me on a beach wearing bright red trousers rolled up above his ankles and a red and white candy stripe long sleeved shirt. This was not at all how my father would dress! He was ultra conservative and always dressed in 'old man' attire but he told me "this isn't a dream Becky, remember me" I can't remember what he was trying to get across to me in the dream but I'll never forget the clothes was wearing. Another time he came to me in a dream wearing a bright red suit jacket. It's always bright red. This is how I know he came to me in spirit not just a dream.
I can ramble on and on about this because this is what I do but I won't bore everyone. PM me if you would like to chat!

residual energy is a good description, i think.

two weeks after my best friend's dad died, she called asking me to come over & she was hysterical on the phone. i raced over (there was just one house in between our houses) and she let me in.

we were the only two people in the house, yet we could clearly hear someone walking around upstairs. we were freaked. finally, therese said "hi, dad," and the walking sounds stopped.

it's giving me goosebumps just writing about it.

now, her dad's been dead since 1993. a few years ago, her three-year-old niece started talking to the corner of her bedroom wall, where the wall meets the ceiling. after a few nights, her parents asked who she was talking to. she said, "it's the other kind of daddy,"  and she described to them what she saw, a large man in a white cap with the letters "ND" on it. the parents blew it off as toddler-babble, until they were visiting family & the little girl saw a picture of therese's dad. she said, "i know him -- that's the other kind of daddy!" the picture was taken when he was cutting the grass in his favourite notre dame floppy hat.

several other of my best friend's nieces and nephews have had similar encounters. none of them have been afraid. all of them were born after their grandfather had died.

That's really interesting.  In my old house I would often clearly hear footsteps walking up and down the hall when I was alone in the house.  It was the kind of thing where you don't even really think about because you are used to hearing people about, and then realised you'd been alone all day.  It didn't bother me too much until one night when I was up late in my room and heard the most almighty crashing and banging from the other end of the house, it basically sounded like everything was being smashed, glasses broken, stuff pulled out of drawers etc.  

I was utterly terrified as I thought the house was being broken into.  I hid under my bed because I didn't want to risk running for the phone and being caught.  After about 3 hours (it was 6am by this point) it stopped and I waited about another half an hour and then went to have a look.  I really expected the house to be stripped clean and utterly destroyed but not a single thing was out of place.  D: D: D:

I was never  really a believer or a disbeliever in ghosts/spirits.  I never really gave it much thought and never had experiences with them.  Then, a month or so after my dad died I had a REALLY vivid dream.  I hardly ever remember dreams, but this one was so clear.  My dad was sitting in a bay window with bright sun coming in, wrapped in his favorite blanket.  He was telling me he was OK, getting much stronger and everything would be alright.  I chalked it up to part of my healing process, but met my best friend for coffee later that day and she told me that she had had a dream about my dad, and went on to describe almost my exact dream.  Coincidence?  I don't know, but it made me feel better.

I've only had this happen to me once, when I was 30.  It was after a good friend passed away and the LAST time I will ever position a mirror opposite my bed because it scared the hell out of me.

I woke at around 4AM to see Rich standing in the closet door to the left of my bed head.  He was reflected in the mirror.

He was smiling, and came over to me and stroked my arm and said a quote we'd always used to share and then to say we part only to meet again.  Then he went back to the doorway and vanished into the dark.

Although the sense of peace coming off him was one I'll never forget, it shook me up.  I know he didn't mean that.

Of course, I spent two days convincing myself I'd dreamed it, been drunk, etc. when I knew I wasn't.

My mother had it happen to her once, when her good friend Yolanda died in a single car accident at the age of 28 after a divorce.  A lot of people thought Yolanda had killed herself.

My mother was pregnant with me at the time and, like me, woke to find Yolanda standing in the doorway of her bedroom.  She said, 'I didn't kill myself.'  My mother said, 'I know.'  Yolanda just said, 'I'm very happy here, I just wanted you to know.  I have to go now, though.  I will see you, though, one day.'

I've only had this happen to me once, when I was 30.  It was after a good friend passed away and the LAST time I will ever position a mirror opposite my bed because it scared the hell out of me.

...and I put the mirror there purposely to encourage things to happen. LOL
I know of an exercise you can do with a mirror to help you see your spirit guides. I've never tried it but I'm convinced one day she'll appear without me having to look for her. 

I was never  really a believer or a disbeliever in ghosts/spirits.  I never really gave it much thought and never had experiences with them.  Then, a month or so after my dad died I had a REALLY vivid dream.  I hardly ever remember dreams, but this one was so clear.  My dad was sitting in a bay window with bright sun coming in, wrapped in his favorite blanket.  He was telling me he was OK, getting much stronger and everything would be alright.  I chalked it up to part of my healing process, but met my best friend for coffee later that day and she told me that she had had a dream about my dad, and went on to describe almost my exact dream.  Coincidence?  I don't know, but it made me feel better.

My dad is a DIE-HARD skeptic, I think in part because he may have inherited some of his mother's family's 'talents' but would rather die than admit it.

He also dreamed his mother in such a fashion.

He inherited rheumatoid arthritis from her side of the family, and one night it was really painful in his shoulder.

He dreamed his mother, and she made one of her herbal massage oils, as she used to do (she was a Mayan Indian) and rubbed his shoulder.

When he woke up, the pain was gone.

She never said a word, though.

I am getting goosebumps reading this thread. I didn't believe until I was 19 an had an experience in the bathroom at a bank I worked at. Most people don't believe me when I tell them, but I know it happened. It was during my first week there and afterwards I found out that the bank used to be a hotel for about 60 years before it was a bank and that at least 10 people had died there. Many of the employees there had similar experiences. I only worked at that branch for about two weeks before moving to another one....not because of the incident, I just got another position. 

I am getting goosebumps reading this thread. I didn't believe until I was 19 an had an experience in the bathroom at a bank I worked at. Most people don't believe me when I tell them, but I know it happened. It was during my first week there and afterwards I found out that the bank used to be a hotel for about 60 years before it was a bank and that at least 10 people had died there. Many of the employees there had similar experiences. I only worked at that branch for about two weeks before moving to another one....not because of the incident, I just got another position. 

OOOoooo... tell us what happened!!!

I've had dreams about my father since he died 8 years ago.  He's standing off to the side and smiling and when I have them I know he's visiting me, letting me know he's happy now. 

In January of this year, my friend, who was also my next door neighbor, went into the hospital for cancer related treatment.  She had been gone about a week and I was up late one night (on the comp as usual) when I saw a flashing white disk-like shape from the corner of my eye near the ceiling.  I thought it would disappear when I turned to look directly at it but it stayed there for a couple of seconds and then disappeared.  Then the dragonfly mobile hanging next to where it was started moving.  Right then I knew my friend, Rita, had died, I felt it inside and felt really emotional.  I found out a couple of days later that she had died the night I saw that white light thing.

When my daughter was about 3, I lived in an apartment where I would always hear a woman humming lightly if I woke up really early.  It was really pretty and always kind of soothing.  One time I heard my daughter talking to someone in her room.  When I asked her who she was talking to, she said "the lady", I asked what lady, and she goes, "the lady in the wall".  That always gives me chills when I think about it. 

I haven't personally experienced any of this stuff, but DF certainly has. I'm kind of skeptical about it all--I'm not really sure what I believe, but I've been with him when he's asked if I've seen anything. For instance, when he was visiting me at college once, we were walking by the cemetery that the campus has been built around (weird, I know) and told me that someone was holding onto the fence from the inside looking out at us, when it was after dark and the gates were locked and no one was there. There was also the 4th of July last year, when he was visiting me here in the US and we had a party at my house...it was late and we were in the front yard because we had been watching fireworks...we were walking to go back inside when he turned to me and said "something whispered in my ear out there and asked 'am I dead?'"--that was kind of creepy, because there have been 2 car crashes into the huge oak trees in my front yard in my lifetime that left the drivers dead on the scene.

There have been several other times when he's told me that he's seen lights and such, but he always tells me it's just kind of creepy to him rather than scary. However, that seemed to change within the past year. His grandfather passed away this past September, and he's "seen him" since then. Once was when I wasn't there, and he relayed to me by phone that the night before he had seen his grandfather standing in his bedroom doorway watching him and told DF he was proud of him before disappearing. The other time was at Christmas when I was there. We were upstairs in his room when he heard something downstairs (I heard nothing out of the ordinary, but seeing as it's his house, he knows what sounds are normal and which aren't better than I do) and went to check it out while I stayed upstairs watching tv. He was taking an awful long time, so I called for him to come back up and he came back up shaking like a leaf and had turned pale. I asked if everything was alright and he said yes, and I couldn't get out of him until a couple of days later what was wrong. He told me he went downstairs and was about to come back up when he stopped because he heard a voice, and his grandfather was standing in his dining room.

His grandfather hardly in his life visited DF at his house--DF always went across town to visit with him instead.

Creepy.

the LAST time I will ever position a mirror opposite my bed

i have a small bedroom with large mirrored wardrobes... there is nowhere else for my bed to go other than opposite the mirrors... and i DO NOT want to see anything scary.

i have a small bedroom with large mirrored wardrobes... there is nowhere else for my bed to go other than opposite the mirrors... and i DO NOT want to see anything scary.

After what happened to me, I either cover mirrors directly across my bed or change them entirely.

Seriously, it freaked me out big style and now, anytime I stay in a place that has this set-up, I cover it up.