CMU Haunting

My story is rather weird, as are all ghost stories, it took place in my freshman dormitory in Carnegie Mellon University, to be exact, Morewood Gardens, E-tower, 606.

My first encounter, I wasn't really sure if it was paranormal related, but as they progressed, I was rather sure of it. One day, when I was sitting at my desk, all the posters of my room just flopped on the floor at once. There were four of them in all, an all them were hung by thumb tacks. This gave me a major HMMM... then I just threw it in the back of my mind, a truck possibly passed by.. and shook the walls.... YEAH.. THATS IT!! Yeah...

Then one day, as I was sitting at my desk, my computer turned on by itself, monitor and all.. and if you know about PC power switches.. that's pretty hard to do with a power surge, you got to flip on a huge, imposing switch for it to turn on!!! This is no feather touch baby.. Then another day, and my TV turned on by itself... Now the story gets real freaky...

My room was like the floor headquarters for video entertainment, it had a Super Famecom (Japan's Nintendo) CD rom, Sega, TV, VCR the works, people on the floor would just come in and play the things, it was cool, they brought beer and chips and stuff. But one day, my next door neighbor Miguel, who WAS TOTALLY SOBER, was playing video games experienced a cold breeze, and then turned his head towards my bed and saw a dark shadow hovering over my bed. Then subsequently ran out of my room...

Then the next day my friend Steve was in my room trying to convince me that if I Ws strong in faith with God (He does this stuff.. its his way...) I would surpass these obstacles... but as he finished his last sentence.. t to very last second... my answering machine turned on...

Corwin
Scott Safer
corwin+@cmu.edu

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Critter's Ghost

I have been reading ghost stories for a while now, and see that my little experience is nothing compared to some of those by others in the group. But I must say, this happening is one of the scariest I have ever had.

First, I have to say I have always been interested in the paranormal and unexplainable, but have always been skeptical. I have never had any strange experiences like this any place else. I have been up during late hours before and have spent a lot of time alone in other places and late nights at friend's homes. I have never seen or imagined seeing things in other places and I have never been scared or even been thinking of seeing ghosts. Nothing strange has ever happened until I moved into this house. But even to this day, I still wonder about what I have experienced and if there is a "real" explanation for the things I have seen.

This is a bit long, but please bare with me. I want to give you some background and go into some details. These are experiences I have truly had and relate them as I remember them.

Since I have moved into this house (about 8 years ago now), there have always been little things that I have wondered about. Frequently, while sitting in my basement and watching television, I would see things out of the corner of my eye. I used to have this ball light at the bottom of the stairway to my basement. Twice, I saw what looked like some kind of cloud, about the height of a figure, but wider, move from just under the light up the stairs. After I changed the light fixture, this never happened again.

Then, while sitting in the same place, I occasionally saw something move across the carpet in the room on my left. This happened on several occasions. I tried to explain it as light from a car or a reflection off my glasses, but there are no places for light to get into the basement on that side and since this only happened occasionally, it just wouldn't be practical for it to be a reflection off my glasses. I have been through 3 different televisions, so it could not be a reflection from that. Later, while sitting in another part of the room, with a house full of people, I saw this moving across the carpet again. This both interested me and spooked me at the same time, knowing I saw this from somewhere else this time. The movement has always been from the front of the house to the back, never the other way.

In my bedroom on the first floor, after I put in an overhead fan, at times I thought I could hear low voices, as if in a large room behind a closed door.

Well, I always put these things aside in my mind thinking I was just imagining them. My biggest scare came when a friend of mine was over late one night. We were into a long computer session, as I have frequently done with friends on the weekends. We had been talking about some weird things like backwards masking on records and the Beatle's mystery in the songs. I'm sure that didn't help matters. Anyway, a little after 4am, I went upstairs to the bathroom leaving my friend downstairs to play with the computer. I was thinking in my mind that when I went back down there, I'd ask him if he had any ghost experiences. Anyway, while I was washing my hands, I saw this arm beside me. (For some reason I remember all my thoughts as if imbedded in my mind.) I remember thinking, my buddy wants to try to scare me. I quickly turned around to startle him, but all I saw then was an empty bathroom with the door closed behind me. I quickly jerked my head back around, looking in the mirror over the sink. Looking in the mirror, I glanced over my right shoulder: nothing. I then looked at my own face, with my hair now in front of my eyes from the startled jerk of my head when I turned. There was nothing.

I quickly dried my hands, opened the door, and quickly headed downstairs. My friend could tell something was really wrong. I told him I saw -something- in the bathroom. I told him I saw an arm, a forearm. I remember it was beautifully colored, like the vivid color of an old Technicolor movie and the skin was smooth, like that of a beautiful young woman. I don't remember a had or a body, just seeing the forearm.

My friend and I talked for a while, and he was getting ready to go. We talked for about 15 minutes, and then he was leaving. I was still shaken, and it took all the courage in me to move through my kitchen toward the sink to open my garage door... it was getting too close to the bathroom down the hall for my comfort. We talked outside for about another 20 minutes. I did not want to go back into the house. When he left, I left too, driving around for about two hours until it was daylight. I then went home and went to sleep.

After this incident, I thought about these other things that I just considered imagination. I couldn't sleep with my bedroom door open after that (as if closing the door would really protect me from a spirit). I guess I just didn't want to accidentally see anything. And even though I had to be at work by 6am, I wouldn't get up until at least 5am. I felt safe during the day, and was persistent on having lights on in the house.

I told a number of friends about this. I had one come through saying they felt a presence in the house. Another one said the same thing. They both felt an unusual feeling in one particular room. Another friend said he also felt strange in that same room. I couple of girlfriends of his were over one time, and one of them related to him that she felt uncomfortable in my house. She knew nothing of what had happened. As an experiment, another of my buddy's friend, who knew nothing of any of this, was asked to walk though every room in my house. Afterwards, I asked him if he felt uncomfortable or strange in any room. He said not really, except for maybe in this one room... the same room that everyone else felt strange in.

Anyway, there is this one friend who says he can feel things. He has known this for a long time. When I first met him, he told me a story about knowing who his stepfather was before ever meeting him. I didn't think much of it at the time, but after he came to my house we talked about some of this. He sat down in a chair just beyond this one room. He let his mind wander and he could feel certain things. After talking about different things he sensed in the house and around it, he really seemed to be getting into a deep state. All of a sudden, his eyes started getting really red and watering up. He said that he sad, but he felt good about it. Then he said, "Don't tell anybody I told you about this." I replied, "What do you mean?" He again said, "Don't tell anybody I told you this." Again I questioned, "Don't tell anybody you told me about what?" He said, "I didn't say that." I told him he did. He said that he didn't. I insisted, "Yes you did. You said, 'Don't tell anybody I told you about this.'" My friend said that he DID say that, but he didn't mean to. He said -HE- did not say that.

This freaked me out and freaked him out as well. I told him get up out of that chair and we moved to the other side of the room and discussed more about what he said that he knows he said but didn't really say. Both of us were clearly shaken.

I told a few people of these happenings. Some believed and related their own experiences, while some thought I was just a little goofy. Nothing happened for about six or seven months, and I finally settled down, being able to sleep well at nights and with the bedroom door open. Then one evening, I saw this scurrying across the carpet in the room next to where I was watching television. But this was different than other times; I actually saw somewhat of a pressing down of the carpet and the movement was in the opposite direction this time, from the back of the house to the front.

A bit later, my friend who sensed things dropped by to visit. He asked if I had any more problems. I mentioned that I didn't. He said he couldn't feel anything in the house any longer and then I proceeded to tell him what I saw.

About a month ago, some friends were over and we were messing around in the computer room. While someone was showing me how to get around on Internet, I saw this somewhat glistening thing near the upper part of the room near the computer room. It looked like light reflecting off some crumpled aluminum foil. I just took it as seeing things. A couple hours later, one of my friends, the same one who was with me the night of my "sighting" looked in the same direction I saw the reflection, and appeared a bit startled. I asked him what was wrong. At first he said nothing, but then said he saw kind of a shadow up near the ceiling. It was in the same place I saw my glistening object. ?????
 

Bob Myers (Critter)

The Phantom Horseman of Columbia

The next day the news of the citing spread. A crowd gathered on the corner that to stare at the treetops. They waited patiently for the horseman to show himself again. The crowd was not disappointed. Above the trees the figure appeared again. Many, in the crowd, were scared that the white horseman was one of the four horseman of the Apocalypse.(a biblical figure foretelling the end of the world) Others believed the image to be the ghost of stately General Wade Hampton, who was there to warn of the upcoming world war.

The couple resumed driving and talking. The wife asked the young girl a question and when she received no response she turned around and discovered the young girl had vanished.

In hysterics, the couple drove the rest of the way to Columbia. The wife was so upset that her husband had to take her to the hospital. Remembering the address of the young girl's destination, the husband made his way to Pickens Street. The woman who answered the door knew immediately why he was there. He was one of three people to have picked up the woman in the swamp only to have her disappear. As it turns out, the girl from the swamp and the woman on Pickens Street were sisters. The disappearing girl was killed in an auto accident. On the anniversary of her death, she appears on the swamp road where she lost her life.

The new House Hauntings