Originally posted at Gaia.com on May 22, 2009
Today a patient of mine, Frank, told me one of the most interesting and detailed ghost stories I’d ever heard in real life. Patients often do confide such things to me, which is a major reason that I’ve been writing about people’s experiences with the spirit world. Typically these stories begin with, “I’ve never told anyone about this because they’d think I was crazy.” Yet, it seems that the majority of people are having experiences along these lines. I want to give everyone permission to tell what they know is true. You too- if you have a story, please let me know.
And Frank says this is true. About ten years ago, when he and his family lived in a different house, once a week they would awaken to find their stove with two burners inexplicably turned on. One night Frank decided to turn off the gas to the stove so that this couldn’t happen. A commotion in the kitchen woke him early in the morning, and sure enough, the burners were on again.
These activities happened only on Wednesdays or Thursdays. On some of those same nights, Frank’s daughter reported that an old lady in a nightgown would come into her bedroom and tell her to be quiet. One evening Frank himself saw this woman walk into the living room, as if she were any normal person. She put her finger up to her lips and said, “Shh!” At that moment, Frank’s daughter came out and announced, “Dad, she’s back!”
The family naturally wanted all this to stop. When Frank mentioned this to a local woman who happened to be related to a curandera (traditional healer), he was told to put out a glass of water to ease the spirit’s passing to the next world. I’ve never heard of this technique, but Frank said that the old lady was never seen again.
The family’s landlord, when he heard about this, said that the old lady fit the description of his mother.
The woman who recommended the water also told Frank that he would have a strange visitor. Soon after, there was a knock at the back door-Frank said it was an actual knock. No one was there but a small, black and white, boxer-type puppy with one eye. The dog walked into the house, sat for a while, then asked to go out the front door. He was never seen again either.
Frank has had other apparent encounters with the dead, including one with his recently deceased grandmother when he was a small child. Throughout his life, he’s seen and known things that others weren’t aware of. And as we unfortunately so often find, hardly anyone has believed him, despite the fact that his experiences fit patterns that are extremely common and should not even be surprising anymore.
Elene Explores 