Human or non?

http://www.ralphmag.org/CM/dog-ghost.html

I had a ghost of a different kind. Not of someone dead, but of someone living. More the ghost of an event, I guess.

The summer in between the 9th and 10th grade, July 31, my father suffered a ruptured aneurysm. It was summer, and I was up late that night. About 1:30 in the morning. I was watching TV. I heard him get out of bed, hit the door facing of his room, brush roughly against the thermostat in the hallway, drag his feet the entire way to the kitchen, at which the first step on the linoleum he collapsed. All fit and trim 225 of him. It was loud. He survived and is alive today. Not the same, but here.:smile:

He was in the hospital for months, but I came home with my then brother in law so I could start high school.

That first night I tried to sleep in my bed. That whole night described above played over and over and over again like a bad dream. It wasn't in my head it was real. My eyes were open and I could feel the floor shake every time he would fall.

Maybe it IS like a vapor trail of sorts.

That term vapor trail resonated or impressed me some way.




"Alive today" sounds good.

Not so sure this qualifies as a ghost since the person was alive but none the less compelling. As a 16 year old I worked in a nursing home. Several of the residents found a place in my heart. I went on vacation to Ireland (Ghosts galore)to visit family; leaving the nursing home behind in South Boston.

One evening as I was showering I heard my friends/family calling me and figured I was taking too long since water was a scarce commodity. I hurried up and exited the bathroom grumbling about impatience and just having got into the shower and my parents, friends and cousins looked at me like I was nuts saying what are you talking about and I complained about their calling me and rushing me....all claimed to have not called me.

The shower was leading up to a night on the town with some fine Irish gents at the local pub...commencing around midnight...after much dancing, talking and suffocating on cigarette smoke, I retired to an empty alcove to catch my breath and someone called me but when I looked behind me no one was there.....

The next day on a bus heading into the city I again heard my name called and since I was in the last row of the bus; I knew no one was behind me but my name was as clear as a bell. By this time I had become the butt of everyone's joke and was tortured with my name being called out loud, whispered etc.

Fast forward two weeks later I am back home in Boston with gifts for my friends who told me one of my favorite residents from the nursing home had passed away and as she died she was calling for me (believe it or not 30 years ago 16 was considered old enough to sit with the dying so they would not pass alone and also to get a time of death) my very good friend had been at her side the day she died and verified she was calling out to me....and yes the time and day she passed away was the time I heard my name being called in Ireland.....not a ghost since she was alive but definitely a STRONG energy force to be heard thousands of miles away.

I have had several experiences that have left me feeling quite sure that those who pass never completely leave us. One instance in particular is when I was a teenager in the hospital and was very, very sick. My great grandma was there in a very real way even though she had passed away 4 years earlier.
When we moved into our house strange things would happen such as little angel figures appearing and dropping out of thin air and little "welcome home" decorations suddenly in rooms that were empty. I'm pretty certain the lady of the house is to thank for those. It sounds crazy, but true. Scared my mom silly

I think that most people who had experiences (for various reasons) do not talk about them ... me included. I feel that may be why a relatively large percentage of people believe in ghosts.

I went out to do some errands and was gone about 90 minutes. When I came home, my dog (who was usually at the door) was in the family room. Okay, no big deal. So, I went in there and took off my shoes. Then, I heard footsteps up stairs in the master bedroom (directly above the family room). These were not soft little sounds ... it sounded like my 225 pound husband walking across the upstairs rooms. At first I thought I was imagining it,
but my dog was looking at the ceiling and the hanging fixtures were swinging back and forth.

Okay, this is something that I can not ignore. But, I would like some backup. At the bottom of the stairs, my fearless dog sits her bottom down and basically says "let me know how it turns out". She has never done this before or after. And, in fact, she chased a group of neighborhood problem makers (who later went to prison for attempted murder) into 6 lanes of traffic, because she thought they were a threat.

Okay, now what ... all the good "stuff" is locked up in the master bedroom (had young kids at the time). So, I got the biggest knife that I had ... it was really big (I know this was dumb). And, I went upstairs ... dog still wishing me well at the bottom of the stairs. As I went up, I was saying things like, who ever you are, you don't belong here and it's time for you to go home. I have never had any thing like this before. I mean you hear noises and look into it but never picked up a knife.

When I got to the top of the stairs and entered the room, no one was there! And, my dog then comes charging up the stairs to my rescue. I was shocked!! But grateful, I thought okay I will NEVER tell any one about how stupid I was.

Later that night. on the evening news, I heard that a high school football player had died about an hour before I came home. He died on the practice field on the other side of the fence that encloses my backyard. I knew nothing about this at the time. It makes me wonder.

Oh, and I believe that dogs can be ghosts too. Not talking about that!!!

I've seen *so* many dead people in so many different situations ( combat, medical, coroner ) that I just can't consider that there is such a thing as ghosts.
Just my opinion, of course.

Also have a medical background and seen many people die. I never have seen any thing related to that either.

When I was a veterinary student, on a Friday night, after a really hard week, I found myself coming home and cleaning the house for some reason, having a thought in the back of my mind that I was "going somewhere", that I had to get "ready". It was a strong force, never EVER did any work get done on a Friday nite, it was the one evening with no studying.
While vacuuming, the phone rang. My mother, only 44, had a seizure in the Denver airport, was transported via ambulance to the hospital, CT showed a brain
tumor, she died shortly thereafter.
I think I felt that somehow, over 100 miles away. In fact I am convinced of that.

When my dog Garth (my heart dog) died, I swore I heard him breathing and moving around on his bed at night for the longest time. He was the only dog that slept in my room at the time, while my other dogs slept in my "dog/kennel" room. It took a long time for me to stop hearing him.

My sister, daughter, a good friend and I lived in a haunted house for six months. I'm just finishing a book about the experience. Writing the book was as much about catharsis and healing as it was about selling a book.

While we were living through this experience (which all of us agree was one of the most traumatic experiences in our lives) none of us felt like we could talk about it for fear of ridicule. The book was my chance to finally talk about it all.