Has anyone ever experienced a ghostly thing happen to you. And also, how do you think Ghosts and Spirits relate to rewilding.
I’ve seen plenty people might as well a been ghosts…
Sorry I posted this without an example… was a little not myself last night. Anyways, I’ve done a ouija board maybe 20 times. Each and everytime, something or someone moved the dial to spell out letters and words. Also, I’ve had paranormal experiences while I was asleep, or half asleep. I’ve had, what I think, possessions of my body by evil spirits. This has happened about 5 times. Isn’t true that Native Americans also has paranormal things happen to them too? Or any other indigenous people?
In my childhood I’ve had numerous encounters with the paranormal, maybe I was sensitive to it, or perhaps it was my surroundings or location, I’m not really sure what attracted it into my life. I remember when I was in the third grade I had a best friend that had a family that was very different from what I was used to. Her mother was very mysterious and almost magical, her father was meditative and wise. When I was at their house, strange things always happened. Lights flickering, weird smells, doors slamming, voices coming from empty rooms.
I didn’t really get what it was until I saw it. I think the first ghost I saw in their house was a girl, probably in her later teens, standing in front of a mirror in the middle of the night. She had pig tails and overalls, no shoes and a face that was almost longing and forlorn. Now, ghosts don’t look like they do in modern media, they aren’t blue or white, or even necessarily transparent at all. Sometimes I can barely tell them from real people. Of course, this may be how I perceive them only, I would be interested to hear how others have seen them manifested. In any case, she looked fairly solid, but her coloring was strange, it didn’t match the lighting of the room, like she was being projected from a video or something. She didn’t speak, only looked at herself and eventually faded.
The morning after seeing her, I told the family about it at breakfast, and they proceeded to explain to me why their house was literally infested with ghosts. They told me it was because their daughter (my friend’s little sister) was a miracle, and was not supposed to be alive. You see, this little girl was the first child survivor of brain cancer. And no thanks to modern medicine either, they had a spiritual healer work on her and it was only because of him that she lived. Anyways, they said that because the darkness had come to get her and was interceded by the work of this spiritual healer when she was meant to die, spirits had been drawn to the girl her whole life.
They told stories of ghosts that had come to take her, and how their spiritual worker friends had helped get rid of them. I’m not sure I know it was because of this special little girl that such strange things happened in the house, but I won’t deny it had something to do with the family. Among spirits and ghosts, I also saw angels in this house. Maybe because my friend and I were young, we saw more than anyone else did.
In later years, I have had a few more encounters…Though never as plain as day as they were when I was younger. My friend and I still have a major connection to the spiritual realm, and used to talk to spirits together and explore “haunted” places. We’re not really scared of ghosts ever, since from a young age we were both taught of how to deal with them.
Also, I've had paranormal experiences while I was asleep, or half asleep. I've had, what I think, possessions of my body by evil spirits.
I have experienced this sort of thing before as well. At one time, my little brother was having troubles with a ghost following him, claiming to be his “spirit guide” or imaginary friend. He would play tricks on the family, and convince my little brother to do strange things. At night he would make my little brother have nightmares and run through the house crying in his sleep. One day my brother told me that his imaginary friend, the ghost who called himself George, didn’t like me, and wanted me to leave. I didn’t think much of it, but that night I woke up sweating and couldnt move. When I looked up all I could see was a strange fog. When I tried to move, it shook me and I felt like my body was being spun around and turned over in my bed, thrashing from side to side, but I wasn’t moving at all. I couldnt scream either and my chest had a terrible weight on it. Eventually it let me go, after I focused on white light as my mother taught me to, and in the morning I burned sage and a friend of mine who was in touch with the spirit world helped me get rid of it.
In a way, ghosts can be a dangerous thing to have around. Not always in a physical sense, but if they have ill intentions then they can do much emotional and mental damage to a person. However, I have experienced many ways to keep these sorts of spirits away. I’m still learning more about spirits and ghosts, and they have always been of interest. Many things of the invisible world fascinate me and I try to make them a part of my lifestyle in some ways.
As for how it has to do with rewilding, I suppose it depends on what you do with the experience or how it manifested to you. I think we can learn a lot from spirits, they have much wisdom at times and can show us things that we can’t see ourselves. I think the invisible things in this world are being forgotten by our society, and so being in touch with spirits is becoming a more mythological thing in a way, ghost stories and such. Maybe that’s why children are able to experience it more, because when we grow older people tell us that these things aren’t possible, or don’t really exist, and so we forget how to contact them. However, I think that rewilding is a process of remembering. If we can remember what we knew when we were young and unaffected, maybe we will bridge that gap between ourselves and spirits. With a connection to ourselves and spirit, remembering the old ways in a sense, I believe we can manifest messengers and guides in the forms of ghosts that will perhaps help us in our journey. Also, spirits often live in the land, and by being able to communicate, we can better understand the lands needs and it’s story, which is an important aspect of rewilding I think.
(Kind of a long ramble, but I suppose this is just a topic I connect strongly to…)
(responding to southerner):
Yes, ai’ve observed a fairly universal trend to relate to unbodied folk (though not on an indevidual level, just on a group/cultural level). What kind of persons they are, how they treat humans, and how humans treat them varies from culture to culture. Unusually, one group of bushmen believes that their dead relatives have malicious intent and cause all (or most) ailments. Ai think it fair to say that most peoples had and have positive encounters with at least some of their dead relatives. Ai’ve recently had intentionally initiated relations with some of my own. Ai’ve also had a few encounters with deceased nonrelatives and those who could be called “gods” by some (a misleading term at best, imo), varying from outright attack to intense friendship.
Ultimatly, the relations with such persons constitutes an integral part of animism (which, depending on the person, may or may not constitute a part of their rewilding). Animism being defined as respectfull relations with all persons who relate to you, wether human or other.
Selkie, I enjoyed reading about your experiences.
I also saw ghosts as a child of 4 or 5. I remember having a man come into my room, through the 5 story window night after night. He was not particularly scary, but I did wake up and scream at times when I saw things in my room. The worse part I guess, was that no one in my family knew what to do about it.
One night, in the same apartment I was attacked by a spirit that took demonic form. It choked me and I was quite sure I was going to die. A light showed up and told me to pray, so I did. Then as I watched, the demon exploded into light and disappeared.
I have had encounters with spirits on and off since then, but not usually ghosts.
How is it relevant to re-wilding? I don’t know specifically. But, I know that having a good relationship with the many beings without bodies that inhabit our world, whether city or wilderness seems a wise idea
To tribal peoples in many places, interacting with spirits is an everyday affair. It is good to see that is starting to change, all be it very slowly, in our culture.
This is an interesting topic…
i’ve had a couple unusual experiences in my life but i’m not sure if they’re all spirit related or not.
when i was 6 or 7 i was sitting at the dinner table with my family after a long day at the fair, way past my bedtime. i was so tired i fell asleep at the table and was in the middle of tilting over and passing out when someone gently caught me and held me for a little bit until i pulled myself back up. i remember being spooked and telling my parents that a ghost was “touching my face”. of course they were annoyed which made me embarrassed. but i still remember the feeling of hands both on my shoulder and on my face holding me up ever so gently.
my mom tells me that it was also around that time that i had a past life flash back, though i don’t remember that at all. apparently i asked her if she remembered being my grandma and dieing with me in a train crash. i don’t remember saying that or ever dieing in a train crash but my mom tells me that i was positive it had happened. apparently i quickly realized that she was freaked out and so i refused to talk about it thereafter.
i didn’t have any weird experiences like that until a little over a year ago. I was walking my dog around midnight, there wasn’t anyone out (i live on an old overgrown WW2 era army base) and i remember it began to rain lightly. i was on the far end of a gravel parking lot and my dog began glancing around nervously, like what he does when he smells a wild animal he wants to chase. i looked around and saw an abnormally large hunched over figure walking extremely fast on the other side of the parking lot, heading into the direction where i had come from. it was close enough for me to be able to see any features a normal person would have, but even in the street lights i couldn’t make anything out, besides that it had the shape of a giant bipedal gorilla and that it looked like it was determined to get somewhere really fast. i watched it speed walk into the trees where i had come from and then i hurried home. i emphasize it’s speed because it was moving at the speed a normal human might be able to run, except that it was clearly walking, not running. it was like yao ming status in hight. i’m 6’2 or more so i’m usually used to being taller than most people and this shadowy figure definitely made a big impression on me (pun intended).
when i came home i told my mom about it and she said that in tibetan folklore, there are spirits that match the description of what i saw called “hungry spirits”. they’re people who have died before they could finish some specific task they had in mind. refusing to let go of whatever it is, they’re doomed to rush around in a kind of limbo between this world and the next, trying to get done what they never got around to doing. i guess it could have been a really tall jogger on steroids or maybe a body building speedwalker but there are never joggers out at that time of night. again, i couldn’t make out any specific features besides it’s REALLY abnormal size, speed and ape like posture… so i don’t know.
but if you ask me, what i saw was not human. it’s size and gate definitely set it apart from anything i’ve seen before, even if distorted by the rain and without sufficient light. i guess i’ll never know…
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Hmm, personally, I find this subject very hard to talk about. I think our language gets in the way.
So, having said that, bear in mind that the following probably doesn’t do justice to what I’m really trying to say. :-\ (First Disclaimer)
Also, I don’t know how useful words like “supernatural”, “paranormal”, etc are. Sometimes I think folk start thinking that something that’s “paranormal” is somehow separate from the rest of the world, and in addition to never having an experience that supports that point of view, it brings to mind too many historical atrocities for me to easily ignore. So, I’m going to try to avoid using any words to that effect. (Second Disclaimer)
Sometimes, I see Others, and I’m the only (or one of few) human(s) around who sees them. I don’t see thru them, they don’t look transparent, but I always know if I see an Other or a person (incl animal, plants, etc). Try to imagine sitting at a desk with two security screens in front of you. Each screen gets data from 1 of 2 cameras. Both cameras show the same place. So you watch these screens and most of the time you see the same place, the same people, same things; everything is identical. But every so often, you see someone on one screen that you don’t see on the other.
It’s kind of like that, only not just sight, but also hearing, and sometimes smell or touch too.
I don’t think these Others as quite what a lot of folk have in mind when they talk about ghosts & spirits. I do think they have (or can have) an impact on rewilding (ditto for domesticating). I don’t think they control us (exactly). I don’t think we control them (exactly). I do think they exist and are tied to the world. I don’t think they are entirely outside or inside of us. I do think they help “tie” the world together.
Several years ago my hunting partner and I were hunting a small woodlot, seperated by about 600 yards. Couldn’t see or hear each other. I got an incredibly creepy feeling, so bad that I decided it was time (only an hour after sunup) to go back to base camp. I literally ran up the trail.
I was very surprised to see my buddy coming up from his location also. Said he got “freaked out” and wasn’t staying in those woods anymore. We left that morning. Both of us were stone cold sober.
No idea as to why we both felt the same weirdness.
I had been to that same place several times in the years previous and never had even the slightest problem. Never killed any deer either, though I saw several.
Haven’t been back. Heard it is now a subdivision.
Not my first, nor my last, paranormal experience.
alan