I'm not a believer as most of you will know but some strange (but good) happenings came my way a little while back which are hard to explain away to my complete satisfaction. Anybody care to share any unusual experiences? This isn't a piss-take so, please no made-up ghost stories, but I'd really be interested if anyone can give me some personal input in this area.

I went through a phase of using a Quija board lots with friends (who hasn't?)

We made friends with a spirit girl named Hilary, who'd died when she was 9 years old. We used to just chat to her and she'd tell us stories, and generally acted really pleasant and friendly towards us.

It was good fun until the "spirit" girl, Hilary, started threatening us. Being young, naive kids, we were really amused, excited and scared, in equal doses.

A female friend of mine got so into using the Quija board that she started using it alone. She then became convinced she was involved in some "battle of the spirits", that was going to take place in the near future. She became so unhinged by this that the only thing that eventually brought her out of it was being exorcised.

A few days after moving into a new house my parents saw a large black dog in their bedroom, and found out from neighbours that the previous owners had a large black dog that died.

I don't really have a 'belief' in these things, but there's... something.

there's ... nothing.

last year i lhousesat for my aunt while she was away on holiday, with my sister. it was supposed to be for 3 weeks but we had to leave after 1...
its a huge victorian house, and the tv channels kept turning, you could hear footsteps, doors closed places...
we had to leave in the middle of the night and go stay over my nans. and my aunt has had similar experiances there herself. shes not superstitious, but she keeps seeing people etc.
its just really wierd in that house...

TS - I can't believe that seemingly no one has enquired of you exactly what these strange (but good) happenings were, yet.

You wouldn't have brought 'em up unless wishing to expand, am I right?

You are right, Guest... and I will tell all soon enough.

When I lived in halls at uni, i had a dream one night that i was being chased through the site by some weird guys, but couldnt get into my dorm cause the door was locked. Instead I ran round the back and climbed over my best mates ground floor balcony and banged on the glass for her to let me in....
Next morning, as i recounted that to my mate, she went a bit funny, and said she'd had a dream that night too, in which was someone hammering on the window trying to get in...
bit spooky, but not really in the ghost sense. Actually, more just a bit odd than spooky...

This is more the kind of thing that interests me. Ideas being communicated through dreams, messages from"the other side" and so on.

C'mon, Tony - tell your own story. I don't have any of my own, save the occasional experience of deja vu, where I suddenly feel I know exactly how a conversation will go because I feel I've had it before.
However, as may have been gleaned from the astronaut interview posted in the conspiracy theories thread, I was for about a year The Sunday People's specialist on aliens/ghosts/near death experiences etc. Not through any prior love of the subject, it was merely a starting position for a feature writer.
Of the 30 or so articles I did on the subject, a few people were convincing enough that I at least believed THEY were convinced something had happened to them, and were plausible character witnesses.
Near death experiences tended to be the most plausible of paranormal experiences; I don't know if there's any definitive scientific research as to why they happen.

I've just been studying about them. Modern scientists tend to argue that the process of dying and then coming back puts such immense strain on the brain that reality is utterly warped. The experience happens at periods of maximum stress i.e. just before dying and just after coming back, and in the technically dead period nothing happens, but of course because there is no consciousness the person having the experience notices no gap. There's more too, but it's long and I'm tired.

In studies of near-death experiences in survivors of cardiac arrest: boards marked with figures were suspended from the ceilings of the wards. The figures were invisible from below, in the researchers’ attempt to verify the survivors' claims that they had witnessed their arrest from above during an out of body experience. Funnily enough, none of the 63 subjects described the figures. All but six had no memory of the event; four had the familiar near death experience, including feelings of peace, seeing dead relatives, seeing bright light, and sensing a point of no return.

Ooh, look. We just got our 100th member!

Do I get a prize?
Bottle of champagne, mebbe?

only if you sign in, GIRLS ALOUD. nah, maybe a half-bottleof KWIKSAVE gin.

wellllllcome, thee good self!