Growing up on Court Street, in Alameda, I found a large bone. It looked like a vertebrae. It was laying in the dirt, underneath the deck, in the backyard.
My parents told me it was a cow bone; something that the owners of the house before left behind. Or their dog. –Or it was their dog.
But it was large–like I said–but not “cow-bone large”….
I grew up experiencing a lot of strange things in my house. But, my experiences weren’t isolated to that location. My parents usually shined me on. Didn’t want to talk about it. Throughout my life, I continued to experience things.
When I was in my 20’s, walking down the hallway to my room, from the bathroom:
I saw the shadow of a person.
It was leaning over the large armoire we kept the linens, and table decorations in. It was looking into the big mirror running the length of the table top.
I noticed it like you notice someone in the bar after close. Or wandering around the office complex after hours.
From a distance, it could have been some errant shadow cast from an indeterminate source. A mote cloud.
But–it’s true, that–as I got closer, the figure only appeared more solid.
The porch light was shining through the glass above the front door. So the scene was not as dark as one would expect.
There were no walls in between us. So I watched it. Expecting it to disappear in the next blink. But the shadow only grew bolder.
As I walked around the dinner table, and turned down the hallway, to my intended destination; the figure remained.
As I closed the 25 feet between us, I noted a few things:
- The porch light is not visible through this object.
- The object really is person-shaped; and,
- It is really leaning against the armoire, and looking in the mirror.
- It hasn’t moved at all this whole time.
- This doesn’t seem physically possible.
- This is really strange.
Within 6 feet, I began to get a physical sense that this nondescript, humanoid, shadow actually had mass. The way that you feel when you can tell that someone is there. Next to you, in the same room. Without you seeing them, and without them announcing themselves. It works for objects, too. But it’s strongest with living things. Physical presence. It had physical presence.
At this point, I had to make a decision:
Do I walk through this thing?
This thing, which had only shown itself as more solid, and more real, with every step? What if it is a ghost, and not just … a human-shaped shadow, with physical presence? Trying to walk through it just seems rude, somehow. And freaking out seems like it would only draw attention to myself. Nope.
Do I walk around it?
I was committed to going down the hallway, at this point, I couldn’t very well just turn around, could I? Could I?
I would probably end up running. And there was no where to run to. What would I be running from, anyway?
What if this is some kind of repeating event? Or residual energy? What if all of the people who ever leaned over that armoire, and looked in their reflection–right there–formed this?
The hallway wasn’t wide enough, with the shadow, and the armoire, and me; without touching. So I turned sideways, and shuffled through in the space between the cold air register (a hole in the floor,) and the shadow.
As I passed, I said, “Excuse me.”
Then continued, without looking back, to my bedroom; where I closed the door, and tried not to worry about it. As far as ghost-stuff goes, that experience was as nonthreatening as it gets. The physicality is extremely notable, because I have seen a lot of stuff that totally wasn’t there. Like a specter.
But this was totally there. It was so totally there, that I did not touch it.
Why didn’t I touch it?
Well, what would happen if I touched it, and it was real, and not a burglar, or a person, but a solid, human-shaped… solid shadow mass thing… and it turned around?
Do you have a contingency plan for, “I just poked a ghost, and now it’s following me?”
I just did a Google Search, and it can’t grasp the concept of touching a ghost. It only shows results for ghosts touching people. It just isn’t done!
Or maybe, and this is really important for you to consider, before you go touching ghosts….
Or maybe, no one who’s touched a ghost has lived to say anything about.
I’m just saying.
Don’t poke ghosts
