This one could be explained away by the boy being uncomfortable in strange surroundings. It's fairly common to have difficulty sleeping when you aren't in your normal setting. By the time the funeral arrived he might have become settled into the new environment.

The second story is just freaky though.

I'll throw down a couple of my own ghost stories. For the record, I don't believe in "ghosts". I'm a Christian and the Bible tells us we're gone once we die, but I do believe that their are "spirits" that can mimic people or things we're familiar with.

Story one: Shortly before I went off to boot camp, back in '88, I was staying in my in-laws' home. They'd owned it since it was built in the early 70's out in Eastern San Diego County. In the middle of the night I woke up. I lay there for a minute or two (minutes, not moments) wondering what woke me up. I blinked my eyes to adjust to the darkness in the room. Right besides me, just a couple feet away was a tall, dark figure. It looked like the outline of a tall man in a dark coat and hat standing next to the bed. The weirdest part was it was just the outline with no features in it. The figure looked like a silouette, just the outline with pitch black within it's lines. My first thought was a burglar, so I waited for the figure to turn away so I could make my move, but it didn't move, not even an appearance of breathing. Finally, I decided I had to do something, so I sat up in bed to confront my intruder. The figure stood there for another moment and then slid backwards. I don't mean backed up either, it was like looking at a cut-out being pulled back on a dolly. It got smaller as it backed up and disappeared through the wall. It almost looked like I could see it past the wall. Kind of hard to describe that part.

Scared the Hell out of me. I wanted to mention it to the rest of the family, but I thought they'd think I was nuts. Years later, I asked my wife, who grew up there, if she'd ever seen anything unusual or spooky in that house. She told me that when she was a little girl, she didn't like the wallpaper in her room (a different room) and she'd wake up having nightmares about the flowers coming out of the walls. One night she woke up and there was a dark figure, which she described as a tall woman wearing a black dress, sitting on the edge of her bed. She thought it was her mom at first, but when she sat up, the figure disappeared. She saw it a couple of other times too, but that was the closest it ever came to her. A couple of years ago, we asked her younger brother, who had never heard our stories, if he'd seen anything scary in the house, and he had a remarkably similar story to tell. His incident happened in a third bedroom that was on the same wing of the house. They were both little kids when they saw the spectre, I was 19 years old. Her parents, whose bedroom was upstairs, say they've never seen anything at all in the house. They sold the house years ago, but I'm tempted at times to ask the current owners if they've seen anything odd.

My second story is shorter. We bought a house in Oklahoma back in '96. We used to hear a lot of creaking in the house, which isn't unusual, but sometimes I felt like somebody was walking down the hallway and I could almost see them out of the corner of my eye. We'd hear what sounded like somebody moving around in the next room on occasion too. One day, during our first months in the house, I was standing in the kitchen, talking to my wife who was just outside the kitchen door in the hallway. I could see into the living room over her shoulder. In the far corner of the living room was our entertainment center, and on top of it was a disposable camera I'd been using for taking pictures of the new house. It must have been sitting there for a couple of weeks at least. As I'm talking to my wife I saw a movement behind her. It was the camera. It was wobbling around like somebody was trying to pick it up, but couldn't quite get their fingers around it. My wife saw the look on my face and asked what was wrong. I pointed at the camera and said "Look!" Now we were both standing there watching the camera moving around. It went on for about 30-45 seconds, then stopped. Nothing else on the entertainment center was moving and the water in my fishtank wasn't sloshing around, so it wasn't an earthquake. After praying for awhile about the "problem", I verbally told whatever it was that was causing the problem to get out. This is our house and it wasn't welcome here. We haven't had a problem since, not even the feeling of other people being in the house.

 

My little sisters used to see ghosts in my parents' house. Right after my grandma Meyers died, my parents brought home some of her furniture, namely a few dressers, beds, headboards, and night stands. The three of us girls (6,9,12) were sharing the attic as our bedroom. The stairs were on their "side" of the attic, my stuff was on the other side. One night, Rachel and Holly (my two younger sisters) woke up and they say they saw something over the stairs. Rachel, the youngest, claimed it was our grandma in a black robe with a hood holding a broom. (Grim reaper??) Holly saw something spinning, like a wooden circle, and screamed for my mom. She reached out and touched it before it disappeared, she claims. They're certainly more perceptive than I.

I tend to have premonitions about things rather than view the supernatural. For example... On my 21st birthday I went out drinking with a friend from work. I got pretty drunk. Well my friend and I had ourselves a couple of glasses of Guinness and were talking to some guy and standing next to a table. I had the feeling my friend was going to drop his glass. The table was worn down on the side so it sloped and sure enough, not more than 30 seconds after I had that thought, my friend set his glass down on the table and it slid off. What amazed both of them was that I had already started to move into position to catch it (which I did) before he dropped it.
I've also had those thoughts that I should take different streets/lanes, move certain objects, etc... I guess it's pretty cool.

 

When I was younger I 'saw' several things happen before they actually happened.

1, in grade 6, we were in a science class with the grade 5's doing a bunch of 'fun' experiments before the end of the year to increase our awarness about science and what-not. The teacher asked for a volunteer to help with one of the experiments and his task was to pour some iodine into a cup. I 'saw' him knock the bottle of iodine over and spill the whole thing onto the counter before he even started reaching for it and I even said to the kid next to me "he's going to spill it". Sure enough, he knocked it over and spilled it, just like I saw. The kid next to me just gave me this wierd look.

Another time in grade 8, beginning of the school year, the teacher was handing out our text books and had our names written in them and called us up one at a time by our seating arrangement. The kid in front of me was named Dustin L______ and somehow I knew that when the teacher called him he was going to call him Dustin Hoffman - which he did.

Another time when I was working, two co-workers were standing at my work station, one had a bunch of bolts in his cupped hands and I knew one was going to fall so I placed my hand under his to catch it. The funny thing is it wasnt' until he looked at my hand to see what I was doing and his hand tilted and the bolt fell.

Also at a friends house, he was holding his baby and was reaching across the table for the baby's bottle, I put my hand out to catch the bottle because I knew he was going to knock it off the table; he did, I caught it.

It's been 12 years or so since I've had any instances like that.

 

The only thing I re-call seeing anything that resembles a ghost was when I was 3 or 4 years old, I was trying to sleep and notice a semi-transparent figure standing outside my bedroom window; kinda like the virgin mary. I stared for a few seconds, then it disappeared. The thing was, there was no balcony and I was on the second floor. Could have been a dream.

 

I have a strange connection with my mother. When I was younger, I would hear my mother say my name sometimes during the day. Then now that I am older, I have two instances that stand out in my mind that has happened. Around ten years ago, I was at home cooking dinner for my family, and I started getting an anxiety attack that lasted only a few minutes. I am a very calm person, and have never had one before. The next day my mother calls me at work, she was in the hospital because she had a major asthma attack the evening before. Then about four years ago, I was asleep, and I woke up crying for no apparent reason. It wasn't a bad dream. I fell back to sleep, and then the phone rings. It was my neice calling me from the hospital. My mother had fallen down a flight of stairs at her house.
And then there are the times that my mother and I are calling each other on the phone at the exact same time. That happens alot. It freaks my daughters out.

 

google search popping up sleeping pills and non-invasive snoring products... Hypnosis? Sorry to kill the mood

Ryan

 

You all probably arent going to believe me, but here goes.
Ive always had a strange ability where I seem to sometimes know that something is going to happen before it actually happens. Its not so much that I see it in my mind, and I dont hear a voice warning me about it but I just know its going to happen.
I havent shared this with many people, so I guess you could say I never had it pounded out of me. I kept it a secret when I was a child and Ive only recently shared this with people who I trust.
When I was a teenage, I studies various forms of spirituality ranging from Christianity to Paganism to Druidism to Wicca to Zen and Buddhism. I dont think that I have some sort of special gift, I think Im just more aware. In my opinion, its just like any other skill or ability, it is something that someone can develop over time.
Ive had visions at various times in my life. Some of them were warnings about things that could happen to me later on in my life and in others I have talked to deceased family members. I can tell you this, to be 14 years old and to wake up in the middle of the night seeing a snake sitting at the foot of your bed only then to have it talk to you and school you on how you have been living your life and what your true path is meant to be is certainly something that will freak you out. Then, once you realize that you arent dreaming is something that freaks you out even more. I know I wasnt dreaming because I pinched myself and the next day I had a mark on my arm where I pinched myself. I later studies it and I found that in many ancient Pagan cultures the serpent (snake, dragon, griffin) was associated with someone who is usually pretty laid-back and prefers to avoid a confrontation, but when they are left with no choice, will defend themselves. Well folks, thats my personality. I cant explain it and I dont know why I was chosen for that, but Ive chosen to accept it as part of my destiny.
Ive also woken up from time to time with scratches on my body, scratches deep enough to where it caused me to bleed a little bit. I dont know how they got there, but you would think that if I scratched myself THAT bad, it would leave a mark.
I know that some of you dont believe in all this supernatural stuff. Thats cool but I can tell you this. When some people die, they dont want to leave. They are either so afraid of death that they just deny they are dead or they choose to stick around for whatever reason. They say that most people only use about 20% of their true mental capacity. It makes you wonder, if we only use 20% what are we really capable of?
Octane

 

Thats a widely held belief among many spiritual paths that the best way to get rid of an unwelcome spirit is to merely tell it that its unwelcome.
Often, the spirit will leave if you tell it in an authoratative voice that its not welcome in your home.
Of course, Im not saying that anyone should go in search of ghosts to vanquish. You dont want to mess around with matters such as this, its just not a good idea.
Octane