I've always loved monsters and the horror genre since I was a little kid, but purely for entertainment value. I'm not into the whole "seeing Jesus' face on my toast" sort of thing, but I do have a passing curiosity in stuff like Bigfoot/Loch Ness/UFOs, etc. I don't consider myself superstitious, nor am I an outright sceptic. I do try to keep an open mind to the possibility of something out there, although I'm quick to dismiss gimmicks and charlatans.
Just thought I'd lend a little context to my story here, since this seems as good a thread as any to share it.
This June will make two decades since my father passed away. I'm a Hindu, although not particularly devout (so if you have any questions, check Google first
). Anyway, part of our belief is that after death, the soul is bound to this terrestrial plane for ten days until the family completes certain rites to give it a proper send-off. Another thing I should mention is that Hindus are cremated using (among other things) a type of pine-wood for the pyre that gives off a sweet scent when burning.
When my dad was alive we had a large black Alsation named Axl. Axl had this very specific way of greeting every one in the house. With my dad, Axl would stand on his hind legs and place his paws on my father's shoulders (my dad wasn't very tall, so the dog would dwarf him), flatten his ears and wag his tail like crazy.
A few days after the funeral, I came downstairs to start the car. It was an old car inherited from my father, and I would have to warm up the engine (for at least five minutes) before I could drive it anywhere or the sucker would conk out. So I'm sitting there in the car feeling despondent and not really wanting to go to work, and a few feet to my right my peripheral vision catches the dog near our orange tree. I raise my head and see Axl with his back towards me and he's standing on his hind legs. I thought what the hell is he doing, trying to climb the damn tree? Then I realise he's nowhere near the tree. This huge dog is standing on his hind legs with his front paws up in the air, ears flattened, tail wagging like crazy and making whimpering noises, but not in a scared way or anything. He did that for five minutes (I know because that's how long I warmed up the engine for). I glanced away and when I looked back, the dog had dropped to his legs and walked away.
The weekend after my mom and I were watching TV upstairs one afternoon when we got a strong burning scent in the house. We live in an old house so I jumped up thinking there was an electrical short someplace. I checked every outlet in the living room, but nothing. I left the living room and checked every other outlet, still no problem. I come back in the living room and my mother is confused as heck because that smell is hella strong. I walk out through the front door and no scent. I take two steps back inside, and the smell is still there. I check everything that's plugged in downstairs, and there is no problem. I walk back up the front stairs and my mother is standing outside the door. She tells me to step inside, and the smell is there. I step back outside and no smell. I'm freaking out now cause the last thing I want to do is fall asleep later that night and wake up in the middle of the Towering Inferno, y'know. So we both sit back down on the couch and this darn smell won't quit. And then she asks me "You don't recognise this?" I said, What? "The smell. You know what that smell is?" Then it hits me. It's the smell of the pyre burning.
I didn't think too much of those incidents at the time until I was talking to my sister who lives in Florida. Around the time I had those odd experiences, she also experienced the burning smell in her house and she didn't recognise it. Her husband (who is a deeply religious man) did, however.
Sorry for the long post, but reading this thread made me think about those things and I guess I just had to get them written down.
