I’ve had friends and acquaintances who claim they lived in ‘haunted houses.’ While their stories were pretty convincing, I must say they’ve never totally gotten through the skeptic in me. I guess you have to experience something like that firsthand to become a true believer.
These AskReddit users share their creepy personal tales of paranormal experiences that they just can’t explain. Let’s see how skeptical you are after you’ve read them all…mwahahahahahahaaa!!
1. Long dead
“My uncle’s house out on a very eastern part of NY was said to be haunted due to the family that used to own it in the 1800’s decided not to give it to the stableman and sold it instead. He and the maid were said to have haunted the place.
We always used to joke that you would hear people or things moving at night but since the house is so old, we used to just laugh it off.
My uncle’s friend had her and her sister stay over the house one night and the friend noticed a maid bringing towels down the stairs when she woke. She saw the maid again, bringing what looked like a percolator, down the stairs.
She was so impressed by my uncle hiring staff (he is a Neurologist in NYC so he had a habit of spending a little bit extra). She went back to bed and woke up later downstairs to see my uncle and his friend just chatting.
She asked where the maid went and she thought that the maid was cooking breakfast. My uncle had no idea what she was talking about and asked what she looked like. The sister explained and he laughed. Walked her to the living room and pointed to an old picture. She said that was the woman.
My uncle replied, “Yea, she has been dead for about 100 years”. “
2. A real b*tch
“I lived in a house for about 5 years that was haunted, but not in a malicious way. In a ‘sh-tty roommate’ kind of way. I’d come home to the windows on the second floor being open when it was raining. To food containers being open in the fridge that I hadn’t touched yet.
The worst was that the ‘ghost’ hated clocks. She hated them. I had antique cukoo clocks that had worked for 50 years that would just stop. Brand new wall clocks that ate through batteries like it was candy. My watch ended up on the floor one morning, the crystal shattered, even though I knew I slept with it on. The one that pissed me off the most was that I got a brand new kit-kat clock for Christmas – and the b-tch threw it off the wall. I was cooking and out of corner of my eye saw the cat freaking FLY. Turned around and it was across the kitchen. Broken. It was brand new!
Man, she was a b-tch.”
3. Come and play, kitty
“I watched one of our cats being pulled backwards about 5 feet by her tail.
She was walking through the dining area and suddenly was sliding backwards, as if someone was pulling her by her tail. Only there wasn’t. She freaked out and tried to run, but couldn’t immediately as something held on for a brief second before letter her go.
I tend to think that was the handy work of a 4 or 5 year old girl ghost who hangs out and she just wanted to play with the kitty.”
4. The Tall Man
“When I was around 9-10 years old, I remember waking up to see a large shadow stood at the foot of my bed
I was living with my dad at the time, he has a very large (5 floors) terrace house built in the 1800s, every so often there would be an unexplainable event happen, such as footsteps when there’s no one there or voices
On the night this happened, it was just my dad and I in the house, my sister was staying with my mum at the time.
I woke up and noticed the door to my room was wide open, I normally sleep with it closed. I then became aware of a large (around 7 ft tall) shadow-like figure watching me from the end of the bed.
When the figure noticed me it seemed to ‘melt’ into the floor and the door to my room slammed shut, understandably I was slightly traumatised by the whole experience
Asked my dad the next day if he was in my room and he denied any knowledge of the event (he’s not the type of person that likes jokes).”
5. Upstairs
“When I was younger, I used to take naps upstairs but by the time I was 8 years old I absolutely REFUSED to go upstairs. The upstairs had two large Closets? Attics? They ran from one side of the upstairs all the way to the other side on both sides. It was essentially a crawl space that was maybe 30 feet long.
It started one day when a friend and I went crawling from one side to the other with flashlights like kids normally do. Then I saw a girl, sitting there, in the corner acting like she wanted to play with us.
I know a lot of people say when they see a ghost they aren’t scared. Just interested. Nope, I was beyond terrified. This girl looked normal, had blonde hair, a nice dress and seemed friendly. I stayed silent, kept crawling behind my friend and got out of the closet. Told him what I saw in there, he said he didn’t see it, but felt like he didn’t want to go back in.
Then my parents would occasionally send me upstairs to get something and when I would get up there I would see the doors swing open. As if they were trying to get me to come inside. I would lose toys and wouldn’t be able to find them anywhere. Suddenly, my parents would be fishing out christmas presents out of the attic and we would find some of my toys in there.
I remember being 8 years old, my parents are asleep still in the morning and I leashed up my dog to go take on the monster in the attic. My dog, usually up for anything REFUSED to go off the top step into the attic.
My parents never believed me with all the weird things that happened in that house. I would get blamed for things that happened all over the house. Leaving lights on, toys all over, things I knew I didn’t do.
Well, anyway we move out of there when I am 10. Not a week passes before the new owners call us up and ask if the house is haunted. There daughter sleeps upstairs, she says that she has been playing with a blonde haired girl at night.
My parents laughed at how crazy these new homeowners must be. To make an already long story short, the girl started appearing in other parts of the house for them (they kept in contact with us.) They would look over while watching tv and see the girl sitting on their daughters lap etc. They looked up on the computer the past owners of the house, found an old dress maker that lived there and yep, a picture of the little girl wearing one of the ladies dresses.
The family that moved in there were absolutely torn apart by the events. Got divorced, dad stayed living in the house and ended up taking his own life in that house.”
6. Stranger
“I used to live in an old big 5-bedroom house with 6 other people. My SO and I shared one of the rooms.
I “saw” a stranger in my room when I was in my 20s. It wasn’t exactly visible, but I somewhat knew it was right there in the corner of the room. My SO was next to me sleeping. While I had my eyes open, I knew it was there.
So I closed my eyes. I tried to wish it away. I opened my eyes, and it was now next to the bed, looking at me. I closed my eyes again, and suddenly relief came. I opened my eyes, nothing there.
I saw it once again at the stairs. It was only a brief moment this time, and then it was gone.”
7. This old house
“I live in a house built in the 1800’s. It’s survived the 2 world wars and it’s seen some sh-t I imagine. One of the previous owners had 2 sons, who both committed suicide.
A lot of strange stuff happens. The animals (dog and parrots) will wake up from their naps and follow something with their heads just as they would follow me if I walk around. Also, before I switched rooms in the house, my brother had a room and he refused to sleep there as he would hear voices. He slept with my parents (he was a child) until the day he got my old room and since then has slept in that room without problems.
There’s also a whole floor we don’t use and I sleep in the attic, and I pass through that floor to get to my attic (weird explanation but it’s a weird house) and I have a motion activated light there that goes on as I’m walking the stairs to that unused floor. It would also switch on in the middle of the night while nobody is walking under the motion detector. Also, there’s cold spots.”
8. Sleep paralysis
“Closest I’ve got to a haunted house is a haunted room:
I used to sleep on the 2nd floor (the bottom one being the 1st) and my sister in the attic. She used to have sleep paralysis often. Then she moved out and now I have her old room.
She no longer has sleep paralysis, but I do.”
9. Charlie
“When I was younger, I was in a band with a drummer named John. John’s parents were divorced, so he spent half the year with his father, and half with his mother.
His father was an airline pilot, and lived in a townhome community that was once some big farm (this was outside a major east coast city). Apparently this ghost haunted all the houses in this community, living with one family for a few days or whatever, then another for a week. The people in tis community were mostly older and retired there, so they were all used to it, and called the ghost Charlie.
John would tell me sh-t like he and his dad would be watching tv, and the radio would come on. His dad would say, “Come on, Charlie, we’re watching tv, go listen to the radio upstairs.” and the radio would go off and the one upstairs would come on. Another story I remember is that his dad was ironing some pants, and the phone rang, so he went to answer it. No one was there, so he went back to the ironing board, and the pants were gone. He said, “Come on, Charlie, I need those pants for work,” and the doorbell rang, and the pants were folded on the front steps. Sh-t like that.
I, early 20s badass, didn’t believe a word of this.
One day, I was helping John move his drum kit from his father’s basement to his mother’s house, because it was his mother’s turn to have him or something. This was the first time I had ever been in John’s house, and I was on the look out all day for something weird.
So, I’m carrying the last high hat or whatever up these stairs, and I go “Ok, Ghost, if you’re really here, I want to see a sign, right now.”
The light above me in the stairwell got super super bright then exploded.
To this day, my speed in leaving that house remains unmatched by any olympic athlete and most land predators.”
10. Thanks
“I had fallen asleep at night with my fan running, and woke up freezing – I turned it off. Not long after, I woke up hot, and turned it back on. This happened several times. The last time, I woke up hot once again, and the moment I opened my eyes, I heard the pull of my fan and looked up to see it slowly start speeding up.
I said, “thank you,” and fell back asleep.”
Got any stories like these that measure up?
