Let me first off start by saying that I' a religiously minded person. I believe humans have a spirit that lives on after they die. I've always rejected, however, the notion of hauntings, of ghost stories because I fail to see how they fit in with my religious beliefs. Questions about why they didn't 'cross over' are hard to answer, so despite my belief in the spirit world, I've always considered myself somewhat of a skeptic in this department.
But...
In the late 90s, my parents purchased what used to be an old school house and began making renovations on it. And almost since we bought it, there have been a number of strange occurrences I'm having a hard time rationalizing away. There are the old stand bys, strange noises, household items inexplicably disappearing, etc. One time our remote control went missing in the middle of the night, and we found it the next morning in the driver's seat of our car. I thought that was pretty weird.
Another time, my sister was certain she saw someone staring at her through the window while she was waiting for the bus. No one was there, of course. I remember once hearing the distinct sound of beating hooves and the neighing of a horse inside the house. This was at 3:00 in the morning and I'm not afraid to admit that it freaked me out a little.
In my parent's bedroom, there was a certain wall that my Mom refused to put the bed up against. Sometimes, if you stood too close to it, you could smell the scent of pipe tobacco, even though no one in the family smoked. That same wall, once, I had an extension cord plugged into the outlet, running it outside. I was working on something when the power cut out. I went inside and found that the cord was not only unplugged, but neatly coiled up in a pile on the floor.
In more recent times, I have a four year old niece who has been going on about two people in the house, one she calls Bob and the other just, the Girl. Bob is a mean adult, she says, and the Girl lives in our walls because she is afraid of Bob. I would think that they were just figments of her imagination, imaginary friends, or something. But too often, I would see her and her one year old brother "interacting" with something that's not there. Opening the door and waving someone in. Both talk to someone that cannot be seen, etc. Last summer, there was a period where my niece said that Bob went away. But recently, she has started up again saying that he's back and he told her not to tell Grandma because Grandman doesn't like him.
All very strange, to say the least. There has never been anything threatening or dangerous, but it got me thinking about it a little.
What do you think? Do you believe in Ghosts? Ever had some strange things happen that defied logic?