32 eerie experiences that defy explanation

“When I was 13, I dreamed of my mother’s death in a car accident every night for a week. The accident happened exactly the way my dream panned out. Life changed; I changed; the whole family was impacted. I felt guilty for years that I didn’t tell anyone it would happen, but at the time I did not think anyone would believe me. I also dreamed my aunt’s death as well. I try not to dream anymore.” – Mrs C.B.

“Many years ago my husband and I lived in a house in Hamilton, New Zealand, that was very noisy. Often it sounded like someone running over the roof. We would get up in the morning to find books and ornaments on the floor, our cat would sit and stare at something we couldn’t see with his fur standing up. We would often see someone walking down the hallway out of the corner of our eyes. Over time things settled down a bit.” – Mrs J.E.

“It happened a year after my brother passed and I was missing him so. Mother decided it was time for us to take his ashes to where he wanted to be finally laid to rest, though I was not ready to do so but I also realised that she herself was getting older and needed to know that his wishes had been carried out while she was still able to take the journey with me.

“We bundled him into a carry bag and flew with him next to us all the way, so he would safely arrive at his final resting place. When we landed, we drove to the hotel and rested for the evening – but the next day we took him out to a beautiful spot where he’d asked to scatter him, sitting for morning tea with him before returning to our hotel for the evening meal.

“I had planned a hot air balloon flight the next morning as this had long been one of my bucket-list wishes and my brother had always encouraged me to do this but my husband was not happy about me doing so. Without telling my husband, I decided that I would take the flight in memory of my brother, so with a 3:00am start I encouraged mother to do the follow-and-chase in the vehicle and off we went.

“It was a beautiful and calm morning and the tour company collected us from our hotel to take the journey out to the take-off point. While waiting for the balloon to be filled with enough gas for it to lift off, Mother was by the vehicle and I was at least six metres from anyone else, taking photos of the wildflowers and the sunrise – which was something my brother would love to do – when I felt a tap, then another on my shoulder as he would often do while he was alive to tease me.

“Needless to say, I quickly looked around to see who it was but there was not another soul nearby. But I could hear him saying, ‘Good on ya, sis, enjoy your flight.’

“Upon landing, Mother’s first words to me were, ‘Your brother was here with you this morning,’ to which my reply was, ‘Did you sense him too?’ ‘Yes,’ was the reply, ‘he was pleased for you.’

“I have not heard from him since but it was comforting to have had this experience.” – Mrs J.F.

“When my son’s best friend died from a motorbike accident, we had his service at our house. When the hearse arrived, so did a dog. During the service and through the night this dog just sat down with everyone by the fire and never left. It was so friendly and just walked around so comfortable. My mum, when I told her, to this day believed it was him coming back to visit and watch amongst us, like he never left.” – Mrs K.D.

“When we moved into our beautiful old home in Hobart I would often see a small woman standing on the landing, crying. This occurred for some months. Then one day we had a knock at the front door and a gentleman who had grown up in the house requested could he bring his siblings back through the house. We were overjoyed that they wanted to visit again and tell us about growing up in the house.

“When we went upstairs and were talking about bedrooms etc, I looked at the landing and the sister, small in stature, was standing in the very spot and crying just like our visitor had been doing for months. I knew it was her as I had seen it many times before. She then left with her brothers and we have never witnessed our lady on the landing since.” – Mrs M.C.

“My wife required an operation and even though we were covered by private health we were still required to pay $500 to go into a private hospital. This was quite urgent as my wife was in a lot of pain. I remember being so upset as we just could not afford the $500 at that time, as I had been out of work and had only just started a new position.

“On this day I was at home by myself and so upset I sat down in a quiet place at home and just prayed to God to help, give me a sign of what to do; I was desperate.

“At that time a gust of wind came through the house, strange as it may be but it was very still outside. Next thing a phone call; it was my sister, whom I had not heard from for about nine years. When speaking to her, she picked up on my mood (being upset). I explained the situation and also told her what had just happened and she explained she had just had a feeling come over her to phone me.

“The thing was, she also lent me the money straight away and my wife had the operation she needed within days. It was so spooky and it was something I will never forget.” – Mr G.S.

“About 10 years ago, my husband’s grandmother, Oma, passed. She was a tough Lithuanian woman who had survived World War II – and long-term separation from her husband – with two little girls as she travelled from Lithuania to Germany and eventually to Australia. She was no-nonsense, get-over-it-and-get-on-with-it tough and we were all a little scared of her. It had taken a long time for her to accept me as her only grandson’s girlfriend and then wife and had even threatened me on one occasion if I should hurt her grandson!

“When she passed, she was just shy of her 100th birthday, she still lived in her 1940s home on her own and she had a very active and independent social life – catching public transport several times a week to wherever she was going. After she passed, it was decided that the family would tidy up and sell her home. I volunteered to come up during the day and paint inside.

“The first day I arrived and let myself in. There was no-one there and the furniture had been removed. I walked into the loungeroom as my phone rang. My husband had called to have a quick chat about the painting. As I was talking to him, there was a loud bang at the back of the house in the sleepout. I kept my hubby on the phone as I went to investigate.

“When I got to the sleepout, I found an old plastic light shade had fallen from the ceiling light to the floor. That shade had hung there for as long as we could remember. We think it was circa 1970s. Somehow the shade had shimmied around the bulb and dropped to the floor. There was no damage to the shade, no melting, and it was not misshapen in any way. The bulb was not switched on and it was larger than the hole in the shade. There was no-one in the house, no wind and nothing else that could explain it.

“I knew immediately it was Oma. I knew it was Oma saying, ‘I’m here and I’ll be watching.’” – Mrs A.L.

“My sister passed away some time ago and my mother had become quite ill, unknown to me. I have this pillow that my sister had made for me to thank me for always being there for her and on this particular occasion this pillow kept falling into my bed, prompting me to make some phone calls to family members – and when I couldn’t reach my mum I went over to her house, only to discover her unwell. So I now believe that when this pillow falls into my bed it is my sister looking out for us as a family unit.” – Mrs R.S.

“I visited a cottage where my friends’ mum was staying and my friend went to show me something in a bedroom. I saw a soldier in a uniform I’d never – at that time – seen before, who then disappeared. Later I learned that relatives of my grandmother had lived there, whose son died in the Boer War – and that was his room!” – Ms A.A.

“When my husband John was very ill with cancer I had to take him to the emergency department of our local hospital. We had to ring a bell and someone would open the door. I rang the bell and was told someone was on their way. I returned to the car parked nearby to help John out and when we got to the door there were two nurses standing there; one dressed in a modern uniform of pants and blouse, the other dressed in an old-fashioned nurse’s uniform of long dress, apron and veil.

“I turned to John to say how nice it was to see a nurse looking like a nurse when one of them said something… and when I turned back to answer there was only one nurse there – the one in modern uniform. John had not seen the other nurse.” – Mrs G.L.