Real Ghost And Paranormal Stories From India (2 page)

I have a secret about an ability that I had when I was a child. I never told my
parents or any of my friends because I did not think that they would believe
me. They knew that I often knew things that I had no way of knowing but they
had no idea how I knew them.  They usually thought that I was just making lucky
guesses but they had no idea what my secret really was.

I was able to have out of
body experiences as a child. I discovered it by accident one night; I was tired
but having trouble getting comfortable to sleep. Trying to find a comfortable
position, I ended up lying on my back, with one hand on my chest. I fell asleep
in this position and something extraordinary happened. 

I found that when I fell
asleep that I float up out of my body so that I was hovering just above myself.
I held out an arm and I could see that I was almost transparent. I could hold
up my arm and see through it to the wall.  I was also able to fly. I floated up
and hovered at the ceiling, watching myself sleep, with my one arm on my chest.
My chest rose and fell with each breathe and I thought that perhaps I was just
having a very weird dream but it felt like no dream I had ever had.

I discovered that I could
simply float through walls and so I floated outside, into the night.  I was
curious to see how fast I could go, so I tried to fly fast and the ground
beneath me flashed past. I stopped and had no idea where I was. Scared, I
started to panic, how would I get home. I closed my eyes and pictured myself in
bed and in a rush of movement; I was back in my room, hovering above my own
body. I willed myself to sink back into my body.

I woke up the next morning
and was excited. Unlike dreams, which fade as soon as my eyes opened, I could
remember last night very clearly. I had traveled outside of my own body! I
vowed to try it again the next night and so when I next went to bed, I lay on
my back, with my hand on my chest.  I wanted to recreate the exact position so
that I could do it again. 

It worked, when I fell
asleep, I once again rose up to float above my body. I thought of my best
friend from school and in a flash, I was flying and into her house. I hovered
in her bedroom and then quickly bored with watching her sleep I went to her
backyard. His brother was there, working on a motorbike. I watched for a while
and then went back to my own room and sank back into my body.

I asked my best friend the
next day how her brother’s motorbike repair was going along and my friend was
shocked that I knew. Her brother had just bought the bike yesterday and nobody
but family knew about it. I just smiled and said that it was my secret. 

I got into the habit of
using my newfound ability to keep up with what was going on with my friends and
their families, asking them the next day about presents they had received, toys
they had in their room or about their visiting uncle or aunt. Everybody thought
I was just a lucky guesser because who would have guessed that I could have out
of body experiences.

When I felt braver, I
would fly over my neighborhood, soaring in the night air over houses and trees.
I never felt the cold, or the heat; it was the best way to travel. I saw the
town when the streets went dark at night and I could fly over empty streets,
swooping up and down over fences and through yards. 

I cannot even explain the
exhilaration felt by doing this. There was simply nothing comparable to the
feeling of being able to fly through the streets of my town. I waved at people
who had no idea that I was there. Stray dogs would bark at me, but people never
noticed. I would even float in front of them, so close that I could almost
touch them and yet they would not know that I was there. 

Sometimes, I could touch
somebody on the shoulder and they would turn, frowning as if they had felt my
touch.  I discovered that not everybody could feel when I poked them on the shoulder
but some did. I would have to put my hands over my mouth to keep from giggling
when the people that could feel me poke them turned around in confusion only to
find nobody behind them.

Eventually, I started to
fly further distances out, branching out further over India. I visited the big
cities, all of the places that mom said that we would go someday. Little did
she know that I was already taking a tour of India, but in my own way. I wanted
to go further, to see more so I started to fly west.

I flew over endless
fields, and vast forests and then I went so fast that the ground underneath was
just a blur. I think I passed an ocean but I’m not sure because it was so fast
that I could not tell if I was over land or sea. Finally, I stopped, excited to
see where I was.

I was not sure what
country I was in but I was in a small town in Europe.  The buildings and
architecture was very old; the streets were cobblestone and narrow. It was
daylight here and people were walking or riding their bikes along the narrow
streets. I saw people carrying their shopping and sitting at the café’s,
enjoying their meal outside. 

I could smell the scent of
their coffee and of the freshly baked bread. I head birds singing and the
sounds of voices. The tinkle of bells on the doors of shops and the slight
creaking of the hanging shop signs all reached my ears. It was as if I was
physically standing there to hear and smell the sights. 

I flew up again, flying
over fields of grapes. I must be in either France or Italy but I was not sure
which. I swooped down along the rows of grapes, enjoying the aroma of them. A
large building loomed ahead of me. It must be the winery, which looked like a
good spot to explore. A cat sitting in the sun outside arched her back and
hissed at me when I flew by. The cat swatted at my legs, but did not damage.
With one last hiss, the cat turned and ran away. 

I wondered why dogs and
cats could see me, but not people. I wondered if I ran across another person
who could travel outside of their body if we would be able to see each other. I
had nobody to ask about that though and so I entered the winery. 

It was cool in the winery,
and I floated around the giant oak barrels. The winery was huge, and although
there were a few people there, they did not notice me, which I was used to by
now. I watched them for a while and then flew back up, to the upper floors of
the winery. I found who was working in an office, writing in a large ledger. 

Curious to see the large
map of the world that he had displayed on his wall, I floated into the office.
I was studying the map, which looked like an ancient map but it was beautifully
illustrated all around and it was those illustrations that I was studying
intently when I glanced over and noticed that the man was staring right at me.

He was not staring at the
map; his eyes were locked onto me. He knew that I was in his office! Terrified
I flew out the door, exited the winery and flew home, feeling a rush of
excitement. Somebody had seen me! I went home and rejoined with my body. The
next day I wondered if I should go back and try to say something to the man.
Out of all of the people I had encountered while out of my own body, he was the
only one who had ever seen me.

I was excited and scared
at the same time. That fear was just enough to keep me from going back. Every
time I slept with my hand on my chest, I would have the out of body experience
but yet I never went back to the winery. I would mean to, but then I would get
scared. What if the man could hold me there? If I was trapped, would I never be
able to wake up again? I had too many unanswered questions and so I never tried
to go back. As I grew older, the ability faded and by the time I was a
teenager, I had lost the ability to have an out of body experience.

I still dream of it
though, of flying over my town and through the streets. I see the memories
vividly, just as if it had just happened. I can draw to near perfection the
villa that I visited that day. Perhaps someday, I will visit there in person,
just to experience it again. Perhaps that winery too, you never know.

Houses can be haunted, places can be haunted and even objects can be haunted
but I am here to tell you today that people can be haunted too.  This is a
story of my good friend I had from school. I had known her for ages; in fact we
grew up together. When she was young, for some reason she never liked mirrors.
But she’s over it now. I asked her once and she told me this story as narrated
below.

***

Do you notice how I have
no mirrors here?  There is a reason for that. You will notice that I never
stare into a reflection more than I need to; most people brush it off but I
will tell you the reason. I have been haunted. I was haunted as a child by a “bhoot”
and she used mirrors to do it with. To this day, looking into a mirror makes me
anxious and afraid.

It started when I was
younger and my brother and I were at our family’s farm. I woke up because I
could hear a woman crying, very loudly.  Everybody was asleep in the house but
the loud sounds of sobs and wails continued from outside. Curious, I went
outside and with only the moonlight to guide by way, I went a little ways away
from the farm but the further I got, the further away from me that crying was.
This scared me so I ran back home and went back to bed. I head the crying for
another forty-five minutes and then nothing.

The next day a woman came
to our farm, asking if we had a young boy who was wandering the area at night.
My brother was telling her that nobody had been out last night but as I rounded
the corner to see who was at the door, the woman smiled when she saw me. She
turned and left quickly. My brother asked me if I had seen her last night and I
told him how I had heard a woman crying but when I ran out, there was nobody
there. 

We ran outside to look for
the woman, but she was not there. I did find a small compact in the dirt, which
I picked up and put in my pocket. My brother told my aunt how I had wandered
away from the farm at night because I heard some woman crying but never found
anybody and my aunt looked afraid. 

She cautioned us that there
is a rumor of a ghostly “churail” or “dayan” in the area, one that is trying to
lure children away in the night. One of the other farms said she was more dayan
than churail, when caught trying to lure a child outside, the witch had floated
into the air and disappeared. Many years ago, a dayan was caught performing
black magic rituals and the villagers killed her. Several missing children were
thought to have been stolen by her, but their bodies were never found.

Even in death, my aunt
said, she is still trying to lure children away and then my aunt described the
woman who had shown up at our door! I know that this sound unbelievable but it
is the truth. I see that you doubt me, but there is more. Just listen to the
full story and then you can judge for yourself.

It was deemed not safe for
me to stay at the farm so my brother and I went to stay with my aunt and uncle.
When I packed, I took that little compact with me because I liked the mirror
that was inside. We drove to my aunt’s house and I found myself staring out the
car window, nervous that the dayan would show up and try to steal me through
the car window. That night, I woke up and was thirsty. It was a very hot summer
and I needed a drink of water so I walked to get water. My aunt’s house had no
electricity, so I was mostly in the dark because I had not bothered to try to
light a candle. I had taken a drink and had just set the glass back down when I
heard footsteps.

I heard footsteps
approach, getting closer and closer and then stop, right next to me. My hands
started to sweat and I felt weak. There was nobody next to me, nobody at all
but yet the footsteps had stopped right in next to me. I grew chilled to the
bone and afraid but then I heard the footsteps move away.

I thought that maybe it
was my brother, playing a trick and that in the dim light; I just did not see
him so I went to his room but he was asleep and snoring. I checked every room
and everybody was asleep, except for me.  Scared, I went to the bathroom and I
splashed water on my face to help myself feel better.

I looked up and screamed.
There, in the mirror was the woman from the farm only she was no longer pretty.
The face in the mirror had sliced flesh, as if her face had been slashed at
with a sharp knife. Her eyes seemed to pierce my very soul and her lips twisted
into a smile. I screamed again and by then the entire household was crowded
into the bathroom. I explained what I had seen and everybody laughed, which
made me all the more miserable. I know what I saw.

They told me that my imagination
was just over reacting and that the story my aunt told of the witch had scared
me. I wish that it had been my imagination because it continued to happen. I
would be alone and footsteps would make their way across the floor to where I
was and then stop. When I turned and ran away, I could hear the soft laughter
of a woman following me as I fled the room. 

Whenever I looked into a
mirror, she was there, bloody and scary. I stopped combing my hair or looking
in mirrors until I discovered that I could use that little compact and not be
scared. The bloody dayan or churail whoever she was did not appear in the
compact that I had found in the dirt in front of our farm. I would use that
tiny compact as my only mirror and I would avoid looking into all other
mirrors. I had nightmares about the witch crying out in the middle of the
night, those horrible loud cries. 

In my dreams, I would
chase the sound of her crying but never find her and then I would be so far
away from the farm that I myself would be lost. I would wake up panicked,
hardly able to breathe and still hearing the faint sound of crying and wailing
in my ears. Nobody believed me that the woman haunted me through mirrors.

It did not have to be the
mirrors at home either. I saw her face in the car mirrors and in mirrors when
we were out. I had to try not to look into any mirror for fear that her
terrible and bloody face would show up and give me a fright. I cried that I
wanted the mirror taken out of the bathroom or else I would not use it. 

My aunt and uncle ended up
covering the bathroom mirror for me. I would be in the bathroom, which had no
window and the sheet covering the mirror would move, as if an invisible breeze
was causing it to ripple. I lived in terror that the sheet would fall off when
I was in there, and I would be trapped in the bathroom with the dayan.

Because it was the only
mirror that I could use, I carried that little compact with me a lot. Every now
and then, when I looked into it, I would think that I saw a brief glance of the
woman at the farm, but she was neither bloody nor ugly, she just looked sad and
then the face would disappear. It was just a flash though, almost like seeing
something out of the corner of your eye, by the time you try to focus on what
you saw; it would be out of sight totally.  That is what it was like trying to
see her reflection in the little mirror.

One day, while playing on
the roof, I dropped the compact. I had been holding it open in my hand, when my
brother bumped into me and I dropped it. It landed and the mirror shattered. I
felt a stab of fear in my heart, that was the only mirror that I could look
into and it was broken. My brother was still looking down at the broken mirror
when movement caught my eye.

The witch was there,
floating there, watching us. Well, half of her was, because her body ended just
under her chest, her sad but pretty face was watching us silently. I shouted
for my brother but before he could lift his head, she floated behind the wall
and out of sight. I tried to explain to him what I had seen but once again, it
was chalked up to my imagination.

What I do know is this,
that after that, I was able to look into mirrors again without seeing the
bloody dayan or churail or bhoot whatever it was, who had haunted me for so
almost a year. However, the fear that someday I will look into a mirror and she
will be looking back is still very real. 

***

This was the story told to
me by a friend of mine. I recently asked her how she was and she said she no
longer had fear of mirrors. The woman she saw in the mirrors never appeared
again after the mirror in the compact had shattered. She’s now fine.