Thursday Ghost Story!

Prefacing this by saying: YAY!! Buried, chapter one went live on Tuesday :) And . . . I totally didn't mean to miss these last 2 days of updating this darned thing after I'd posted twice on Monday.

[For those new to 'ghost story thursday' on Ger's blog, there are only 2 rules if you wish to tell a story of your own, 1- It must be your story, or that of a valid source (ex: your best friend, but not your "friend's neighbor's cousin's ex-fiance was once told that his college roommate . . .") who has granted permission for their story to be shared. 2- It must be truthful. Your tale can be shared either by posting it in a comment on Thursday's blog post, or you can email it to me and I'll tell your story on the following Thursday (GerilynMarin@gmail.com). You are welcome to ask to remain anonymous, and at no time will I ever claim that another person's experience is my own.]

This one occurred when I was 18 going on 19.

Touch

As I'd recounted in my last personal ghost story, my room was the sub-level basement of my parents house- studio apartment sized, nearly pitch-black at night with just barely enough ambient light to make one's way to the staircase, and even then I think I was only able to navigate 'cause I was so accustomed to the room's setup.  

It must've been about 2 AM, and I was in bed just drifting off.  The time is kind of remarkable in itself, as I was pretty nocturnal then.  Just as I was almost asleep, I felt air on my face.  Literally in the center of my room, nowhere near any vents, I had no fans, and the windows did NOT open, yet I felt this.  And it was localized and rushed, like a person was blowing their breath over the side of my face. I bolted up in a panic, and there I was, looking around my oh-so-dark room, like it was going to do any good. 

Nothing, still, empty . . . silent.  But I couldn't seem to calm down.  I was trying to dismiss it, to tell myself it was my imagination, or . . . well, there was no 'or', that was kind of it.

After a few moments of this nothingness, I felt something else. A gentle caress, like someone brushing their hand against my cheek.  In hindsight, the next day, I realized this should have freaked me out as much as the breath, but it was quite the opposite. I felt safe and comforted- so much so that I hadn't even questioned the feeling, I just lay down again and went to sleep.

You may be of a mind that this was just a dream and I've talked myself into thinking that it was more than that. I know what I felt that night and there is no logic that can explain it away, I've tried.

*new* Ghost story Thursday Disclaimer:

 Believe what you like, because no amount of argument from me would get you to change your views, just as no argument from anyone else would get me to change mine.  I'm not a frivolous believer in the paranormal.  I don't believe strictly that every so-called haunting is fact. I do not believe that every flash of light across a wall, every 'unaccountable' noise, nor every feeling of a unease, or a 'chill' up the spine is an indication of something 'supernatural' occurring.  In fact, those who run about claiming everything 'ooky' that happens is a sign of a ghost (like those fools who claim every lighting defect in a picture is an 'orb') irk the ever-loving crap out of me because they only accomplish one thing- and that is to make the entire community of paranormal believers seem like irrational, gullible whack-jobs.  

On the same token, I take offense to the 'professional skeptics' who go to a handful of 'haunted' locations, find logical, natural explanations for the reported phenomena at those places, and thereby declare that ALL hauntings, everywhere, are hoaxes, intended or not.  It's kinda like that one episode of Monster Quest where they went looking, unsuccessfully, for monster-sized camel spiders in Texas.  Mind you, the presence of camel spiders has never been recorded in Texas, at all, only in the desert areas of the Middle East.  Therefore, the idea that any specimens of this species being unusually large was dismissed . . . based on searching an area that is a similar habitat to where the creatures live, but have never been reported to actually be. Am I saying that this means there are monster-sized camel spiders running around the shadowy desert night somewhere? Gods, I hope not. What I am saying is that dismissing a significantly larger 'concept' based on a mere fraction of data is foolish from either end of the spectrum.

I believe hauntings should be investigated by open-minded skeptics.  Period.  Hard-core skeptics will almost never believe in the unexplained, even if they come across something that they have no explanation for, and hard-core believers will never be swayed by a skeptics presentation of 'irrefutable data' from a handful of locations simply because there are hundreds of thousands of locations in the world with haunting claims, so in a way, they're almost more logical than the skeptics for not buying that.

So- it is my personal belief that hardcore skeptics are fools for dismissing things out of hand, and hard-core believers are fools because they accept everything without proof (and you make anyone that believes in the paranormal look like a moron, thanks so much, now stop it.  I'm serious).  Skeptical believers and open-minded skeptics are the way to go :).