I had a wealth of experiences as a child in a house that I must say was haunted in some way. It sparked my interest in the subject, although I'm as skeptical as they come. Yet I cannot deny what I experienced. I'm only mentioning the chair because everything I experienced would take up too much space.

Suffice it to say that my grandfather ran a bar out of the big room at the front of the house. It had been closed up way before I was born. The wooden tables and chairs were still left as they were when it was open.

I was sitting on the living room floor one night, with the door to the barroom open and the light on in there-the idea of that dark room with its door closed was too terrifying to contemplate.

I heard one of the chairs move. Very distinct–wood being pulled across the floor. When I turned to look, one of the chairs had been pulled away from the table and ROTATED to face me! Like someone had pulled it out so he/she/it could keep an eye on me. I flew upstairs and stayed next to my father's bedroom where he was asleep (my mother was not home that evening).

That chair did not move like the one in Race Rock. It would have had to been pulled and turned just like a human would have done, only no human was around. By the sound it was one quick motion; not like the jerky Race Rock chair. BTW, we had no pets at the time, although how a dog or cat could have accomplished that chair movement is beyond me anyway.

To this day, I have no explanation and, coupled with everything else I experienced, I know something was going on in that old house. I sincerely believe that what we experience has a scientific explanation without all the spirit stuff. Maybe that's why I'm so hard on evidence as presented by GH and other groups–I want to find out the REAL truth, not some trumped up and possibly faked occurrences. And the only way to accomplish that is to be as skeptical as possible.

iwanttobelieve said:

Oubliette – thanks for sharing your story, too.

I agree 100% with what you said about all of this having some scientific explanation we can't yet understand. We're like some early Greeks, fumbling around trying to prove that Zeus isn't in fact sending us lightening bolts, only we don't know how to prove it yet.

At least that's what I think. And as soon as we've solved those mysteries, more will come…

Thanks for reading it! You can see why I am very intrigued by what may possibly be going. Is it psychological? I believe it is a combination of energy abnormalities and our brain's interpretation of them. There can be no doubt that something is missing from a deceased's persons body that is still present in someone still alive. I believe it to be a form of energy–which is what our entire universe is composed of. IMO sometimes this energy does not property dissipate upon death but gets "caught" somehow.

That's why I'm such a stickler for the pure scientific approach. All the Victorian parlor tricks just detract and lead us nowhere.

And yes, I hope there is never an end to mysteries in life. Imagine how boring that would be!

Jen said:

Oubliette, I loved your story even though it really gave me a sick feeling reading it. It's impossible to come up with a rational explanation for an event like that.

Thank you for commenting on my experiences. After decades of not being believed (which really caused me a lot of anguish as a child; being accused of lying or in league with the "devil" is hard for a young child to live with), I now no longer hesitate when recounting those events.

It's a fact that, although I am extremely skeptical about anything paranormal, these events DID happen to me. Through all these years, the experiences are as fresh in my mind as they were back then. There is not one explanation I have ever been able to come up with to account for my personal encounters with horrors that went bump (or worse) in the night in my childhood home.

I saw how a chair REALLY moves when some unknown force is at work, and have yet to see the same on any of these shows. It was very deliberate, and moved with a purpose. These little twitches seen on GH or similar shows don't even approach the chair that rotated to face me. I still get chills thinking about it.

There was a wealth of weird sounds, voices etc. that occurred on almost a nightly basis; way too much to write here. But the chair ranks as #1, because it happened with all the lights on and the only object that moved.

Thanks to you guys for 1) believeing me (I've really suffered a lot about this over the years) and understanding why I'm interested in the field.

Stephen: I am 100% sure of the position of the chair–in fact every chair in that room. The reason is that when I was downstairs alone at night, I would keep the door open and the light on in the barroom simply because the thought of that closed door and what may have been behind it was too scary to contemplate. It comforted me to be able to see into that room and have it well lit. I would sit in a direct line with the doorway in order to keep an eye on the room.

Thank you for your comments. It is certainly true that it only takes once, as the saying goes, to make even the hardest of skeptics take notice.

Wish I could have seen the actual movement but it did happen very suddenly. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if the chair just moved backward a foot or two, but to have it do that plus rotate to face me is something I will never forget to my dying day.

Jen-good observations on why I watch these shows. I don't think it's the debunking as much as the fact that it shows I am far from alone in what I experienced. Here are grownups who had their own personal encounters and are endeavoring to discover just what lies behind these occurrences.

I do have a longer document (not quite completed) about the entire haunting but it is too long to put here. However, I was subjected each night to a large booming noise which began in the cellar, rounded the living room and then went back down to the cellar again, after which there was usually silence and I was comforted that it was over for the night.

If anyone is familiar with The Haunting-the b/w version with Julie Harris-the "booming" noise in that movie sounded so similar to what I heard that I had to turn off the TV before the movie ended. I did not see that movie until I was an adult, many years after my childhood experiences. Something was hitting the walls hard, yet not actually hitting the solid wall that was there, if you can understand what I'm trying to say. A phantom sound that seemed to come from the air itself.

Even now, I remain stumped and can find not one rational explanation for all this. There were no "ghost investigators" back then. People would have been laughed at or thought crazy. At least now, there is more understanding and research into this part of the universe which so far remains an unknown entity.

Oubilette, as always I love your posts.  I have not seen this one, and am surprised I missed it when first looking around this forum.  I like reading about personal experiences because I am still trying to find an explanation for mine. 

I am truly sorry that you were not believed as a child.  That must have been tough.  The chair moving in full light and in one smooth motion.  I would have definitely thought "something" was there watching me. I am like Revenant, cannot come up with an explanation for that one.  Even a large dog bumping into a chair would have not produced that type of movement. 

Though the booming thing, did it occur around the same time?  Pressure changes. . .though would think that different types of weather would affect that.  Though I have not seen the movie you referred to, I am guessing that it was not a settling noise from an house.  And as a general rule it doesn't always have the same sound.  I am stumped. 

Revenant and Hannah:

Thanks for the continued interest in my experiences and my posts.  I'll try to answer as best I can.

The house was unusual for the neighborhood in that it was rectangular and there were rumors it had once been a schoolhouse.  It was two stories, and supposedly built around 1920.  I don't know what it was built of since I only saw it covered with green asbestos siding, but my guess is wood since most of the other houses around it were.  Very few brick houses in the neighborhood.

This was in South Trenton, and a working class neighborhood where immigrants and their families generally lived in row houses and worked in the factories.  No open spaces, and if you wanted to go to a park it was a mile walk to what would be called a "common" today.  Our house really stood out as it was the only one of its kind there, which lends credence to the idea that it was not initially built to be a home.

The idea about tunnels is very interesting.  Seeing shows like "Cities of the Underworld" has opened my eyes to the fact that most cities have surprises right under our feet.  It would be interesting to try and research the history as far back as is possible.  But I know of nothing interesting that anyone had found or knew about.  Heck there wasn't even a cemetery close by :(  I grew up with just sidewalks, no trees and other than backyards the only grass was what would grow between the cracks.

I'm making it sound more depressing than it was.  The people were great, a real community and we kids had lots of fun and always felt safe.  In fact, I miss it, but those days are sadly gone.

One thing I haven't mentioned before but might have a bearing on some of this is the cellar.  It just plain looked creepy.  The floor was partly concrete and partly dirt.  Dark, damp and dreary about covers it.  I never liked to go down their on my own.  The far corner always made me uneasy and this was another place where I would have the feeling of being watched.  However, maybe that was just because it was so scary looking and OLD.  There were two sets of stairs: one leading up to the kitchen and the other one led directly into the infamous barroom.  Nothing ever happened with the kitchen steps, but the other–I believe that whatever made the barroom so creepy extended to the stairs that led from that room down into the cellar. 

Come to think of it, if one of the cellar walls was knocked out, who knows what might be revealed?  My husband just told me that Trenton (the oldest sections) is riddled with underground tunnels.  Curiouser and curiouser.

About the booms–they would occur no matter what the weather or season, and always followed the same path.  Due to the fact they never deviated from this path and because my bedroom overlooked the open staircase, I was able to figure out that the point of origin began with the cellar steps leading into the barroom, and hence out into the living room, circling around it and then back the way it had come.  The sound was such that one almost would have had to experience it as words just seem inadequate.  That's why, when I finally saw "The Haunting", the booms in the movie upset me so much.  The sound seemed to hang in the air itself or was heard through a kind of heavy atmosphere.

Sometimes after the booms stopped the crazy singing and fiddle/violin playing would begin.  No words could be made out.  Nothing on earth would have enticed me to go downstairs.  But even if I wanted to, I couldn't investigate.  The reason was that, as soon as I went to touch the doorknob to open my bedroom door, everything would suddenly stop.  No sounds, nothing, for the rest of that particular night.

For years I've pondered over this, but it was my husband who had the proverbial lightbulb go off over his head.  He remarked that it sounded like my reaching out had broken some kind of field.  Although this is in the realm of science fiction (put up the shields, Scotty!), recent theories in quantum physics may not find this so strange.  At this point, and as crazy as it sounds, I believe it is one of several possible theories.   With serious physicists proposing parallel universes, this might not be that "far out" of a theory.

I have spent more time than I would like to admit wondering how that chair moved the way it did.  The only pet we had at this time was a little budgie.  Occasionally we would get mice as most such neighborhoods did, but never anything as big as a rat.  In fact, I never saw a rat until I moved out into the country. And no Grant with fishing line–oops, sorry, couldn't resist!

When I began to share my experiences with fellow classmates, I was totally unprepared for all the negative reactions.  It was my belief that everyone heard things like this in their own houses, and it came as a shock for me to find out otherwise.  If anyone has experienced going to a Catholic grammar school, then he/she probably understands how cruel the nuns were and the awful things they said to me.  For decades after, I kept my experiences to myself for fear of ridicule.

Funny thing is that I would never have believed in anything paranormal if it weren't for my experiences.  My skeptical nature and scientific bend of mind seems so at odds with what happened, and it is hard to reconcile what appear to be opposing belief systems.  I often feel this struggle within myself and don't quite understand how these extremes can co-exist, but they do. 

In a way, perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.  It has allowed me to keep an open mind about many things in our universe.  If it hadn't happened to me, I would probably dismiss any and all claims of paranormal activity.  It's taught me that strange things can and do happen, leaving behind a sense of wonder and the need to know what exactly happened all those years ago.