Paranormal Ireland: Living With Spirits

Do you ever wonder if there are spirits around you? Do you ever shiver and think "someone's walked over my grave"? How would you know if you were sharing your life with unseen visitors?

There are a few telltale signs that there might suggest that there is some paranormal energy around you:

Hearing unexplained noises
Finding that things are not in their usual place
Your pets seem to follow someone or something unseen around the room
Feelings of being touched

Noises

Always remember that houses can creak and groan due to natural events such as wind, temperature and pressure changes. Also, if you are alone especially at night, noises always sound louder and creepier leading to the assumption that they are paranormal.

However, noises that can not be attributed to natural sources can be assumed to be paranormal. For example, I often hear someone shuffling through papers in the dining room but when I go to investigate there is nothing out of place and both my dog and cat are asleep in the sitting room.

I once heard a very loud bang beside my chair as if a heavy object like a piece of furniture had fallen over but there was nothing to fall over. Both my dog and cat jumped and I had to calm them down as they were very unsettled by it.

Misplaced Items

We can all make mistakes and sometimes we do. There are times however, when we know that we are not imagining that the item in question had indeed moved. Even at these times we can doubt ourselves and pass it off as imagination but if it happens often enough we see a pattern and recognize that something strange is actually going on.

For weeks I kept finding the back door key in the lock even though I am very careful to remove it and place it in a safe place every time I use it. This happened so often that I began to think I was losing my mind. I finally realized that something strange was going on when I accidentally grazed my finger as I put the key back in its hiding place. A few minutes later the key was back in the lock but my grazed finger proved that I had removed it.

I used to keep a bucket for food waste on the floor beside the cooker in the kitchen. Several times I almost tripped over it as it was moved out of its place and into the middle of the floor. I thought my cat was somehow moving it and just kept replacing it to its normal spot. Then, one evening I left the kitchen, the bucket was in its proper place. I closed and bolted the kitchen door so that my cat couldn't get into the kitchen and then remembered that I had left my coffee on the kitchen counter. I opened the door and found my way blocked by the bucket.

Pets

A lot of people believe that pets can sense paranormal presences. We have to remind ourselves that pets have much better defined senses than most humans. My dog often wakes up and barks at a spider running up a wall. Did he hear it? Or did he just wake up and see it? I have no idea but I do know that my cat hears mice underground and can see a bird high up in a tree even when it is half hidden by leaves.

There are times however when there is little doubt that they are seeing something that I can't see.

Often they will both sit up and follow something unseen moving about the room. Sometimes my dog wags his tail and quite often my cat gets up and follows something - I can see that her eyes are focused on whatever it is she is following.

At other times she goes and sits beside my unlit stove on her own in the other room. I didn't take much notice until I realized that years ago when I bought the house the furniture had been left behind by the previous owner who was a cat lover and there had been an armchair right beside where my cat now sits. When the stove is not lit it is not the warmest part of the room and my cat loves heat so I can only assume that something draws her to that spot.

Touches

People sometimes feel a creeping feeling on their skin or even a feeling that someone has touched them even though they may be on their own at the time. Our skin is a remarkable organ and is very sensitive. An unseen current of cold air can produce feelings of creeping and a slight muscle spasm can feel like a light touch.

Most of the paranormal activity in my home takes place in the kitchen which is surprising as this used to be the site of an old shed rather than the house itself.

Quite often I stand looking out of my kitchen window and feel a light slap on the back of my head. I assume that I am standing in the way of the long gone entrance to the shed so I simply move.

Other Signs

There are other things that indicate that you may be sharing your home with spirits these are just some of the ways that I have noticed over the years.

Feel free to comment any interactions that you may have had as the more we share, the more we can learn from one another.