Scottso, I've learned from the Christian belief that we are "assigned" a place in Heaven or assigned to Hell and the only spirits that make contact with the living world are "demons".  However, we know there are many experiences where people are just dealing with friendly or playful spirits.  That's why I'm under the impression that some spirits get stuck in between dimensions or stay in a transitional period.
 They don't have a physical body to interact with us but still try to make contact.  I agree that as a spirit it would be very frustrating and hellish trying to communicate with family (on earth)while scaring the hell out of them in the process.  There seems to be some kind of barrier that only lets them filter through...so traditional communication is not possible.  Do I sound completely insane?
I don't think we are supposed to know and won't find out until we get there.

Woe Kat, you are a very deep person!  I'm not quite sure what to say, but your story is intriguing to say the least.
When I was in Junior High I went to a camp out in the forest with my classmates.  We stayed in cabins and made things
by hand...and so on.  In my mind I remember the trip as a learning experience that helped us learn about nature..they
would take us on hikes and we would sit and learn about the trees and the leaves.  I found it kind of odd at the time.
Now, I would much rather be outside hiking, walking, and exploring. 

Ok so the word "ghost" is so traditionally um...dumb.  I believe in spirits and I believe that there are many reasons they stick around and dont completely pass over.  Unfinished business.  I have had my own experiences with spirits.  Scared the crap out of me for a long time until i realized they were there for a reason and accept it.

bunee, I know Lake Hughes well. I just saw some recent photos of the stone store- still looks the same. Also, one of my best friends in high school lived in the large stone house just east and up the hill. That driveway was something else to get up there! You might remember the Antonucci family. I have many enduring memories in that area.

I have never seen a ghost but I have had wonderful experiences that suggest ghosts or angels are real. While thinking along such imaginative lines, I begin tinkering around in the physics of it.

Today, physicists recognize there must be dimensions other than ours to explain test results that simply don't make sense.

One test is done by cutting slats into the sides of a box so that light can enter. As you multiply the slats a strange effect occurs. The light from some slats is "canceled out" when it enters the box. As you add more slats, the light entering inside the box is less than the number of slats. How does something like this happen?

They used to call it a canceling effect but no longer.

Canceling didn't explain anything, but interference by another dimension has far greater explanatory power.

Dimensions also, as a matter of scientific description, adds possibilities to how the ancient mythologies could have been so centered in the spectacular, the gods, angels, and demons in ancient writings, and a host of supernatural apparitions or intuitions that are so easily sensed, believed, and apprehended.

But, what is ancient is also modern to me.

Who doesn't have a story that is mysterious? I have mine and everyone else has theirs, but experiments in physics deepen the mystery instead of dispelling what might otherwise be called supernatural or just plain superstitious.

All of which brings me to a short story.

Many years ago I lived in a place called Anchor Bay on the north coast of California. To get an idea of how remote we were, we would go shopping once a month. Round trip to and from Santa Rosa was about 4 to 5 hours depending on weather.

In the early, quiet morning hours, I would write and play classical guitar but something was preparing for me in those early hours, something I never expected.

After about six months of doing the same thing every morning, I became aware of a change in my hearing. It was then, and there, that I discovered I was playing along with every movement of sound and melody that nature had to offer me.

A wind rustling through my meadow? I was an accompanist. Birds winging through the air? I was an accompanist. The geese ruffling their feathers or the creak of a branch in my forest? I was an accompanist.

I was part of a symphony of nature as fingers tapped along the frets and others plucked the strings. All the elements of sublime symphony were there for me to hear and participate with.

I was in awe as I listened to it for the first time that morning, and I continue in awe, even reverence, to this day.

I had become aware of and hence, entered another dimension that morning. Oh sure, I was still quite real but the moment I brought up that guitar to sit on my lap and set fingers to plucking and fretting, awareness and insight changed as to the world around me.

The geese would join me each morning. They would waddle the sixty or so yards from the lower pond and form a semi-circle around me. One goose usually offered extra notes to my music by using his beak to pluck strings while I strummed.

Hummingbirds would visit and butterflies landed on the tuning keys, sometimes they would land on my hands and stay there until I finished a piece.

Both my hearing and eyesight were permanently changed that morning, but it is my hearing that changed the greatest. Someday, I will share the story of the unbidden visitor, but that is for another day.

Since that time, I have always been able to say in all modesty, heaven is in our midst, but noisy distraction from the sublime seems ever the greater nuisance.
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Thats a cool idea and one that I sort of touched upon in my prior post, Bunee.  I was raised Catholic and to believe there is a purgatory.  I never bought into the whole religious aspect but if there is one, that would be mine, or even Hell if it was for all eternity.  Still one has to wonder whether time as we experience it  would be the same for a "spirit".  I mean if your spirit is eternal, thats pretty equivalent to infinity as far as time goes and then I have to wonder if thats the case, my spirit should be able to visit any time I want, like in Its A Wonderful Life or the ghost of Christmas Past or Future like in the Dicken's stories.  If its possible, after my time has come, I promise to leave a post mortem post to Tehachapi News telling everyone who was right and who was wrong, or however much I'm allowed to type.  After I leave a personal message to my wife of course. ;)  Somehow I think thats not possible though or someone would have done it.

Does no one else think that would be the worst and penultimate punishment of all?  I mean think about it.  If you could SEE everything that is going on past your death and have no ability to influence it whatsoever, what hell could be worse than that? The only way I could see that being a non-punishment would be to lose your ability to empathize with people post-death.  That would be the most un-human thing I could think of.

I wonder if  ghosts are in a transitional place or another dimension  between Earth and Heaven...or Hell if  you're
naughty... According to the Catholic religion Purgatory is some kind of punishment and also a cleansing process so you are eligible for heaven! 

I grew up in an old house that my ancestors built in 1886 over in a little town called Lake Hughes.  I was the sixth generation to live there.   As a child I never experienced anything paranormal or out of the ordinary.  Visitors would come to my home and many sensed that there were spirits there but I never gave it much thought.  There have been many births in the house, and equally as many deaths.  As an adult I lived there and took care of my grandmother until the day she went into respiratory failure and I knew I would lose her in a matter of hours.  I sat next to her bed facing her while she slept.  I sensed that someone had come into the room and was standing behind me.  My grandma opened up her eyes wide and was looking at the person behind me (I thought it was probably my Dad) and she held her hand out wiggling her fingers like she was calling him over to her.
I turned around to look at him, but no one was there.  She continued reach out over my head and it was obvious to me that she
was familiar with the person she was seeing.(I don't know who it was because she couldn't talk)  It really scared me at first and I wasn't sure what to think.  Shortly after this she passed on and I firmly believe that this was a spirit coming to take her with them. 
I've had other experiences while living in other places in which unexplained things have happened.  I think that we do
have spirits around us.  Some humans are more in tune with paranormal activity, I don't think I'm one of them.
I think  that demons like to hang around and torment people sometimes, and I'm not quite sure why ghosts and other
harmless spirits stay where they once lived?  I do believe that we continue to live  when our bodies give out, so our spirits still need a place to stay.

I'll be a little disappointed if after my time comes I have to sit and watch life go by for others on the sidelines, with no ability to help or communicate, so I hope there is no such thing as ghosts. ;)  If there is such thing as Hell that would be it for me!   I also have my doubts that the dead can affect the living.  If these truly are the spirits or ghosts of dead people then they are affecting you by simply doing the things they do.  I like to think these things are one of myriad universes briefly touching or something science fiction like that. That would be such a mind bender. :)

Count me in also.

I have had a few strange, unexplained experiences myself as have other family members. My mum was raised in the UK and moved to Canada to raise a family. She was just finishing a lengthy, messy divorce and was having a hard time in her life. She awoke one evening to what she says was "A man in a black cloak head to toe standing at the end of my bed". She could not see his face but says she knew it was her father. She said she just stared at him and when she blinked he was gone. She said she felt at peace, not un-easy or afraid. She is not one to believe in anything that cannot be proven with facts but of this experience she says there is no doubt in her mind what happened.

I also spent many years working in a critical care hospital. One section of our hospital was for individuals that were terminal. Needless to say, many people took their last breaths in that area, and many people have encountered strange/unexplainable phenomenons. I for one, strongly believe that ghosts/spirits whatever they may be, do exist.

I sincerely hope that you eek, can find some comfort in the fact that you are not crazy and many other people have experienced things like this. It's an awful situation you seem to be in and I hope you can resolve it quickly.

Count me in eek; I believe I live with the ghosts of loved ones.

Joty, it is just hard being here becuase I witnessed both of my parents death here. I took care of both of them until they passed away, and actually lived here with my Mom. I think it is because there have been alot of good memories in this house and then the bad with their deaths and those are the memories I wish to forget and leave behind me. And honestly it is a little hard when you are faced with them everyday.

eek, why would you feel uncomfortable in a house where your loved ones have died? Were your relationships good? Ghosts can't hurt you, and usually have a message for you.

Jewels, yes we just moved into this house in April. The house belonged to my Parents. They bought the house about 20 years ago and no one besides them have lived in it besides family. And like I said both my Parents died in this house my Dad from Emphyzema and my Mom from Pancreatic Cancer.  Just really do not want to be here but don't really have a choice right now.

My DH and I saw a ghost once, about a year ago in the morning. It appeared right by our patio. Even freaked out the dog.

I've been a few other places where I thought odd things happened, but nothing I could really put my finger on. I think some people are just a little more "tuned in" than others, so we tend to be more aware of its existence.

Oh this brings back memories for me.  I'm the last one to believe in ghosts and hauntings, but I'll tell ya what.  I lived in North Carolina for 7 years or so in what used to be an old mill house, on a dead end road that had, of course, a cemetery on the next lot over.  Every single time there was a funeral, we would get some WEIRD things happening for a couple of weeks after.

The most notable event for me, and the only event I couldn't explain away somehow,  was this one time I was sitting watching TV  with my girlfriend at the time and we had this big giant heavy ashtray on the end table.  It must have weighed at least 2 pounds and was made of thick ceramic. I mean it was BIG and HEAVY.  So here we are watching TV and suddenly this ashtray flies at least 5 feet across the room and lands on the floor.  I mean, it didn't just fall off the table.  We saw it fly, like someone threw it.  It still makes my hair stand up when I think about it.  Needless to say that shook me up a little. ;)

There are a ton of other stories, like one time we came back from shopping and every single plug in the wall in the bedroom was unplugged, or the really really odd noises that we used to hear in the basement, but that one is the one I actually SAW something that I couldn't come up with a rational explanation for. :)  I spent a lot of time after that trying to see or find a ghost, even going so far as to go into the basement when we heard the noises, but I never did see one and the noises always stopped when I went downstairs!