How To Not Be Afraid Of A Ghost

by: Francis David

My house appears to be haunted, for what reason? Who knows? I’ve been waking up at all hours of the morning to footsteps, tapping, creaking, flickering lights… you name it. I am starting to become frustrated that something I can’t even see is controlling my sleep-wake cycle, not to mention scaring my family and me.

I’m also fed up with the fact that whatever it is has my daughter too scared to sleep by herself in her room at night or even watch a movie in there alone for that matter. My daughter will not play in her own room despite the fact that I have repainted it a bright color and she and I decorated her mirror and created our own shelves out of wooden baskets. Everything she could want to play with is in her room but she will wait until I go in there with her before she looks for a toy that is not in clear sight. She and I have seen a tall shadow move across her doorway and my husband saw what seemed to be a smoky white shape of a small person in what looked like a dress zooms from the bathroom into the kitchen.

I’ve splashed holy water over the doorways and windows, prayed, spoke to the ghost and told it that we don’t have enough time to pay attention to it and to move on, I’ve told it that it’s time for bed and not to wake me up, placed my shoes at the end of the bed facing different directions (a technique that I read confuses ghosts) and so on. I’ve talked to this spirit enough (when my daughter is not awake or in the same room of course) that I naturally spoke to it again and realized I did it in front of my husband and started to laugh at the insanity. I always had intentions to do something serious about this situation and but would chicken out.

Right when I think the paranormal activity is at its peak, there will be another occurrence that tops it. I came very close to yelling at whatever is in my house when I heard a noise as clear as day that woke me up at 4:00 a.m. I put my daughter to sleep and fell asleep in her room, something that is becoming a pattern I would like to break before kindergarten! The sound was as if someone with large hands rapped on the hardwood floor with their knuckles sounding like a gallop, if you will. The part about this sound that got me freaked out was the fact that it was right next to me on the floor where my daughter’s pony is. This is a stuffed pony about 3 feet tall that she can sit on but it does not make noise at all or move. It sounds silly but it almost seemed like a bad joke.

I eventually blew this off and drifted to sleep and was awoken by a noise identical to the rapping. It sounded like one knuckle at a time. This dreaded galloping noise was in the same spot again. This sound could not have come from anywhere outside of the room- it’s impossible. My husband was asleep on the couch but woke up to the sound of footsteps and my daughter, thank goodness, was fast asleep. They were home together today as we recently came back for vacation. I woke up early even though I hardly had any sleep and started getting ready in the bathroom at about 7 a.m. when all of a sudden I heard what sounded like a large plastic cup come flying out of the kitchen cabinet and on to the middle of the floor. I didn’t want to look, but I did nevertheless and saw that nothing in the kitchen had fallen to the floor or onto the counter.

Could this spirit or whatever it may be want to taunt me? Could it be a child who wants attention? My husband said the white figure he saw was small enough to look like a child and was flowing as if she was wearing a dress at a quick glance. This scared the daylights out of us and saddened me at the same time. The creepy part about this idea is the fact that children will do just about anything for attention. Perhaps this is what is happening. Who knows why I would have a child ghost in my house because there was only one couple that lived there before my parents bought the house in 1976 and we never had any noticeable paranormal occurrences when I was growing up.

The most common time for paranormal activity in my house is between 2:00-4:30 a.m. so I pretty much know when to be scared. I went to bed at 11:00 p.m. the night before last nervous about what events would occur that night as they seem to be inevitable. It didn’t take long to be woken up this time. It was 11:30 p.m. when my mattress started shaking. I couldn’t believe this was happening. It wasn’t like the scene from The Exorcist or anything where the whole bed levitates off the floor and starts banging up and down. This was a rapid side-to-side shake of the whole mattress as if some were trying to wake me up. I was fully awake and sitting up when the shaking finally subsided. I said out loud, “This is ridiculous”. I got up and dragged my husband with me to the living room to sleep on the couches. I woke up every half hour and the one full hour I slept was right before the alarm clock rang and it was time to get ready for work!

I’m not kidding- this is annoying. I’m 35 years old and I can’t sleep because I’m scared of ghosts. Go tell that to a psychologist and see what they say! I have a psychology degree, by the way, and although I do believe in ghosts, I never actually though I’d be haunted by one on a regular basis. I am a very well adjusted individual so I know that what I’m experiencing is valid. At least I have proof that I’m not losing my mind as my husband and five year old daughter have both noticed the paranormal activity (of course we always give my daughter an alternate explanation rather than telling her what is really happening).

I’ve had it. I need to prepare myself not to be afraid no matter what noises I hear or sensations I feel in the middle of the night. It’s time to show the ghost who is boss. I got ready for bed last night at 10:30 p.m. Assuming that this ghost could be a child, I didn’t want to scare it but I did want to lay down the law. I said firmly out loud (my daughter was sleeping), “It’s time for bed and even if you don’t sleep you need to be quiet. You will not wake me up tonight because I have to work in the morning and I am going to get some sleep”. My husband was laughing at me but I didn’t flinch. I showed absolutely no weakness though I didn’t come across as too harsh either.

I did however sleep with the bottle of holy water under my pillow and placed my shoes in the doorway of the bedroom facing opposite directions for added comfort. I lay down with my hands behind my head and kept a very stern state of mind. I told myself that it is ridiculous to allow an entity to control whether or not I sleep at night, demanded to myself that I would get a good night’s sleep and will not be scared if I am woken up by another unexpected incident. There was either no activity last night or I was able to tune myself out enough to not be woken up.

I don’t want to have to start an obsessive-compulsive pattern of things to do before I go to sleep, so I’ll test this out for a few days and then do nothing one night to see if it makes a difference. If the paranormal activity starts again, well, I guess I’ll just have to stick with my regimen. I’ll keep you posted!

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