Here is the one in fb! I'll include some of the comments.
Since Ate C- asked me also the other day if I believed in ghosts, I think it's not clear enough. I believe that there is something happening, especially since a lot of people experience it, but I do not accept the explanation of ghosts per se. If you notice, I wrote this as a collection of events without any sort of explanation. The big flaw here is that all the information is not accessible; we are left to imagine with what we are given. Perhaps if we knew better, these occurrences might not have been ghosts at all.
But of course, it's entirely possible that they might have been ghosts all along. ;)
In all honesty I thought this was well-written. It did take me 2-3 hours to finish this. However, it wasn't well-received. I guess people don't really like ghost stories, or maybe they thought from the introduction that this was another Bible thing. Haha. But of course, that's part of it.
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If you asked me if I believe in ghosts, I'd tell you I believe in demons. Biblically speaking though, I've heard it often quoted that "man is destined to die once, then to face judgment." Based on this, some say that ghosts do not exist, because there is no mention of an in between. Logically speaking that is an appeal to ignorance. And then there's the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Some argue whether it is a parable or not. In the Old Testament, King Saul summoned for Samuel's ghost, but then some say it wasn't actually his. Either way, it is not uncommon that personal biases tend to be imposed on the text, and these matters are no exception.
In any case, one thing is for sure: we are forbidden to make contact with the dead (and probably for good reason). Whether they can or cannot make contact with us, I do not know.
But in my imagination, it is not far off that the world of spirits is as complex as, if not more than, the world that we live in. Perhaps even more interesting than all the intertwined ecosystems and all the various creatures that live in the jungles and those undiscovered that lurk in the deep. After all, don't we have the same Creator? I think it rather odd for angels (and consequently demons) to live in a boring world.
I've picked up quite an interest in the supernatural and the paranormal as we call it, although I am not allowed to dabble with them myself. Maybe that's exactly what makes them so fascinating and so interesting. Are they real? Why does folklore vary across the world? Why do they have so much in common? Why do they do what they do? What part is fantasy and what part is true?
In my quest for amusement, I've been asking around for some stories. And so here is a collection of some of them that I can get off the top of my head right now, in no particular order.
Legend:
[1] - First-hand source (personal experience)
[2, initials] - Second-hand source (friend's experience)
[3, source] - Third-hand story
Please verify!
1. [2, M.Y.] Apparently, she's one of the most... sensing(?) of my friends. In fact, she never runs out of stories. Her elementary school was located beside a church and a graveyard, and one of their houses (bracket A++, mind you) is antique. She's told me of dwarves' silhouettes and a kid's ghost playing with them at night and of dead people. I'd let her tell her own stories, but let me start with two of hers.
It's always the little things, the unexplained little things, and the build up of little coincidences that makes the unseen real to us beyond any shadow of doubt, yet remains unprovable to others. For the unobservant, it might not have been scary. In fact, it might not have been noticed at all. Unfortunately for her, she wasn't one of them.
This occurred in the middle of the day in Palma Hall (as you know, that century-old building we still call AS). It is by no means creepy when the sun is up; it is well-lighted and well-ventilated by its open corridor and high ceilings. She was walking down the stairs from the 3rd floor (Edit: It’s actually the 4th floor), when she realizes that there's another step behind her. Now this was not unusual, for someone else to be there. But when she stopped, it also stopped. Then she walked again; Tick, tack, tack. Tick, tack, tack. Tick, tack, tack. She's sure that there is a third step, right behind her. Someone must be messing around with her. But when she looked around, there was no one.
She runs down the remaining flight of stairs.
I've walked up and down the same flight of stairs a few hundred times and I've never heard my footsteps echo in any of them. Besides, she said that the time delay was too long and the sound too distinct for it to be an echo.
If I remember correctly, she said she wasn't wearing a backpack. The extra step was gone when she reached the bottom.
2. [2, M.Y.] Early in the morning, around 6:00 AM if I remember correctly, she goes to the third floor GE wing of Melchor Hall (Engineering, which we fondly call Engg). She was about to enter the CR when she heard a sob. Not wanting to intrude, she stood in the corridor right outside the CR, waiting for the girl to finish. Shortly after, she heard a flush and thought that this crying girl was about to leave. But after 5 minutes, she still hasn't seen anyone leave the CR, so she got impatient and decided to enter and check it out and do whatever it is girls do in the CR. As she approached the open door, she saw a puddle on the floor from one of the cubicles, with wet footsteps leading from it towards the door and vanishing outside.
I can't remember if she actually went in after seeing that, though I recall her saying that she did. (It takes a lot to scare her)
Whatever it is girls do in the CR is more of a mystery to me.
3. [3, Engg night guard] This I heard from C., who heard it from his friend, who heard it from the guard. I can't remember if he was there when the guard told the story.
The guard was doing his usual night rounds, when a group of students (around 20+) came up to him and asked for a room in the third floor GE wing to be opened (yeah, that place again). However, he was not informed of this class, so he began to get suspicious. He led them near the stairs, right in the middle of the lobby where there was a CCTV camera so that these guys would be identified if anything happens. Then, he proceeds to go up and open the room they requested. The students enter and the lights turn on and he hears the noise of chairs being pulled around. He leaves and continues his round. It doesn't really take long to walk around the whole building; so he was a bit surprised that the class had already ended when he went back to see the room; the doors were locked and the lights were closed.
The next day he was on duty (from what I can remember, it wasn't immediately after), he checked the CCTV footage. He was talking alone in the middle of the lobby.
Sadly, I don't have the CCTV footage. It's an old story, so maybe they don't have it anymore. Or maybe it's one of those myths, although I have not heard of any variation of this inside UP.
4. [2, Sir J.] Let's move somewhere closer to home. Second floor, where the Department of Chemical Engineering used to stay just 2 years ago.
At random nights, sometimes there would be a little girl seen running barefoot along the corridor. Now there's nothing scary about that, except that sometimes they would also see little muddy footprints along the corridor that begin out of nowhere and end just as suddenly.
And in room 209 (Edit: It’s actually room 207) if I remember correctly, sometimes there would be a sound from the window saying "pst! pst!" The window is closed all the time. The profs just got used to it and ignore it, but it still gets creepy when you're alone.
In the same room, sometimes there would be a single, muddy, footprint (left foot) (Edit, it’s actually the right foot, picture posted by sir below) in the middle of the room. Once, they left the room for just a few minutes and when they came back, it was there.
They have pictures of the little footprints. I personally saw the picture of the dirty footprint on sir J.'s phone.
I'm going to have to ask the new occupants of that room if ever they notice something.
5. [2] This one is from my grandmother (who we call nanay). We've all been told that children are more often able to 'see,' and that this ability normally vanishes as one grows older.
It was one stormy noon at home (before it was renovated), and the skies were dark and the cold wind blew outside the house. All the lights were turned off because no one's really using them. There was only the faint scattered white light of the sun to give the objects outlines and shapes and shadows. I was a baby back then (or maybe my brother, she couldn't really remember which one of us), and was alone with nanay at home. Everything was quiet when I suddenly said,
"Nanay, tao. Nanay, tao," while pointing at nowhere.
6. [1] Independent corroboration is perhaps the most convincing of proofs, when cold hard evidence simply does not exist. That's why witnesses in court are treated as evidence.
This was in first year high school, during star gazing. We were staying at the field, and along the length of the oval was the Science and Humanities Building. Two whole classes saw a 'white lady' standing in the music room. We even pointed flashlights at it. I saw it from afar too, but didn't take a look at it with the telescope. It wasn't actually a lady; I mean, it had no face or anything. It's just a white blob of a humanoid figure standing(?) by the window. It was gone shortly after.
I remember that there were some who wanted to go ghost hunting, but it was either they tailed out or weren't allowed. Probably the latter.
The next week we asked our music teacher if she had seen ghosts in that room, and she said she hadn't. But apparently, a lot of other batches in the past tell her that.
7. [2, Y.C.] Just this July the barkada decided to hike Mt. Batulao. We had a sleepover at N's house the night prior so we could leave early in the morning. It was raining during the night and thunder was more than just audible.
Y. woke up for some reason, and realized that his left hand was stretched... and floating as if it was resting on something. He pulled it and crossed his arms and just ignored it and tried to sleep. His arms fell off his chest as if it was shoved. He felt the banig (sorry conyo, 'mat' just doesn't cut it) move to the right of his head and then to the left, as if someone just stepped on it.
He forced himself to sleep after that.
My guess is, his left hand went numb, that's why it felt floating and moved involuntarily. I'm not sure about the 'ghost steps.'
As far as I can remember that's how he described them.
I was sleeping on the banig immediately to his right. I didn't feel anything.
There's nothing under the bed where his hand could have rested. I was the first to sleep, so I know there was nothing there. If there was anything, I didn't see it.
N. says he never experienced anything, even after that.
Nope, it wasn't me.
8. [2, A.C.] My friend was on duty at UP Vanguard and had to stay the night alone. On the very first night, the windows and the doors of his room were opening and shutting noisily.
There was no wind.
It was scary at first, but by the third night, he was just annoyed that he couldn't sleep because of the noise.
9. [1] This isn't really a first-hand paranormal experience but it's something rather mysterious. Once during August, it was raining hard after 5 PM. I went to the Vanguard rooftop to train early. Now on the way up was a small iron gate, which was more like a metal mesh/fence that you could swing open.
When I looked again, it was closed. It's impossible for the wind to have blown it, since it's a makeshift metal mesh (I don't know the mesh number but I'm sure it's less than 1). I didn't see anyone come in or out.
It's a very minor detail, but it's always the unexplainable little things that get to our nerves.
To be fair, I was making a lot of noise hitting the rubber tires so it is entirely possible I might not have noticed at all. In fact, I've seen someone use the CR once without me noticing their arrival. But why he closed the gate this time, I don't know.
Perhaps it's just by habit. Yep, probably just that.
Feel free to share yours. They are more than welcome. :)
