While it feels like the world has become a real life version of American Horror Story, many people have actual scary tales of paranormal encounters IRL. And, these real-life ghost stories to share on Halloween 2017 from Reddit are guaranteed to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Not everyone believes in ghosts, but perhaps that's because they just haven't had their own creepy experience yet. If you have yet to have an encounter with the lady in white, or you haven't been stalked by a demonic doll, you might feel left out of the Halloween 2017 ghost story conversation.
Not to fear my friends, these real-life ghost stories to share on Halloween 2017 are a perfect substitute for when it's your turn to share a paranormal encounter at the monster's ball. Personally, I've had my fair share of paranormal moments, including one where a seven-foot tall apparition appeared in my bedroom doorway two nights in a row.
I must have been dreaming, right? Well, I would tend to agree — except that my dog woke me up both nights barking to alert me about the unwelcome guest. I also talked to a pet psychic (yes, I'm one of those people) who said my dog told her that she hangs out a lot with a sad old man in the apartment.
At the time I was living in an 1930s art deco apartment in Los Angeles, and while it didn't have the creepy history of the Hotel Cecil, which American Horror Story: Hotel was based on, actor Mae West lived there for 50 years, and she was known to conduct seances in the lobby, and in her apartment.
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My Haunted Hollywood
West has also been quoted as saying that she loved the Ravenswood so much that she would never leave as long as it stood, and pretty much everyone who lives there just accepts that they're likely sharing space with her ghost, which seems to be pretty friendly, but sometimes likes to play pranks that include trapping tenants in the tiny, ancient elevators that are mirrored on three sides.
A previous tenant of West's former apartment, number 611, once asked a neighbor to snap a group photo in the apartment. When the film was developed a bosomy apparition appeared in a mirror. "I’ve never doubted anything metaphysical, but I’ve never had it so blatantly in my face," tenant David North is quoted as saying on Facebook for Bizarre Los Angeles.
North also reported that on a separate occasion a "computer-generated, slow-motion miniature tornado" rose from an electrical outlet. "I sat down and watched it for 45 minutes," he noted. Once North was sure he was living with West's ghost he made concessions to make her feel more at home, even throwing her a 105th birthday party.
After my freaky experience, I changed my room around to be more fen shui, used crystals and sage to clear the energy of the apartment, and said out loud that I did not wish to engage with whomever was lurking in my doorway. Say what you will about that sounding super new age-y, but the apparition never came back. Since I was not able to find the history of who lived in my apartment, which was down the hall from West's, I just wanted it to leave me alone.
Dead Eyes At The Waverly Hills Sanatorium
One Reddit user detailed an encounter of a ghost hunting trip at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Kentucky. According to Wikipedia, the show Ghost Hunters visited Waverly Hills, which has been dubbed one of the most haunted hospitals in the U.S. The website Prairie Ghosts said the facility had a body shoot to depose of dead patients — kind of like the one James March used in American Horror Story: Hotel. Reddit user sunshinedaisies_ detailed an experience she had with her brother and a paranormal group who visited the sanatorium in college.
"We started investigating and trying to communicate with the dead. [Thirty] minutes into it I see my brother walking around on the other side of the Sanatorium so I yell at him. 'You're not supposed to be up here,' I said. But he ignored me. He started to walk closer with a smile on his face. I asked him what he was doing but he ignored me. I was getting really upset," sunshinedaisies_ wrote.
"My friend yelled at him to stop being an ass but he still wouldn't listen. He got closer and I shined the light at him. NO JOKE HIS EYES WERE PITCH BLACK. I felt my skin crawl. We all stared at him as he entered one of the rooms. My friend and I followed after him but when we got in there, he wasn't there, and there was only one way out. We were spooked. About 20 minutes later my teacher comes up with my brother and the other student. I'm pissed, yelling at him. My teacher asks what the problem was so I said my brother came up to our floor and ignored us. The look on his face... apparently he was with my teacher on the bottom floor the entire time."
Skype Ghost Wants To Chat
Reddit user Flyingpastakitty details an experiencing of chatting with a friend on Skype when a paranormal entity decides to join the conversation. During the call, Flyingpastakitty's gets up to grab a snack, and that's when the ghost sees its opportunity to connect.
"I could hear a few noises, just basic background noise: Her parents talking, dishes moving, and her voice. They were distant but I could hear them. After about a minute I heard what sounded like a small child crying. This was unsettling and confusing for two reasons: 1. My friend didn't have any younger siblings. and 2. My baby brother was with my mom," Flyingpastakitty wrote. "When she returned I asked her about it. She was caught off guard and froze for a second."
"You hear it too?" She asked.
"Yes, I hear a child crying..." I responded.
"Do you... Believe in ghosts?" She asked.
"Yeah, why?" I replied.
"Tell me what you see..." She then proceeded to turn the webcam towards her window by her desk.
I couldn't believe it. A transparent figure of a little girl stood there, looking in. The creepier part was that she started smiling and laughing.
"Is that a ghost child...?" I questioned.
"Yes. She was murdered a long time ago in this house..." My friend calmly answered.
"That's sad... and unsettling..." I said as she turned the camera back to her.
"Yeah. Nothing we can do..." My friend shrugged.
"She explained to me after the little ghost girl left that apparently she was brutally murdered by her father. Her father apparently cut her up and scattered her remains throughout the area around the house. Apparently, she wanders around outside... That was the creepiest Skype chat I ever had... From her reaction, I don't think she was pranking me..."
The Aunt I Never Met Watches Me
It's fairly common for people to feel energy and inspiration from people who have passed away, but they don't usually see them. Reddit user droctopus808 did. While the story isn't scary, if you don't believe in ghosts or spirits it just might change your mind.
"Every month or so I see woman with short light brown hair presumably in her early 30s outside my window. Watching me, keeping me safe, comforting me for years," droctopus808 wrote. "Later looking through old photos of my mom I find a picture of the two of them; the woman and my mom. I glance at the photo awkwardly, my mom responded with 'that's your aunt you've probably never seen pictures of her because I don't like to remind myself.'"
Droctopus808 wrote that her aunt, whom she never met, died five months before she was born, and was intended to be her godmother. Her aunt apparently took that responsibility very seriously and even honored her duties from beyond the grave.
Don't Go In The Basement
Don't go in the basement is pretty much the first rule of surviving any horror movie. However, everyone always goes in the basement in the movies, and it usually doesn't end well. Reddit user swt_asschick detailed an experience where the ghost of a little girl appeared in his house and tried to coax him down those dreaded stairs.
"One day home alone and sick I was laying in my bed and watching movies and I remember hearing someone walking to my room, assuming it was my mom home for her lunch break I ignored the sounds. A few minutes pass[ed] and then I heard a little girl say 'hello.' Confused I got up and opened my bedroom door and see a girl in a night gown with black stuff all over her. I gasped and she turned to me and asked me if I could help her. I couldn't answer her because I was shocked to see she was burnt on her face, [and] that's when I knew she wasn't alive, I was looking at a spirit! I asked her if she was OK and she said no and she wanted her mom I said 'OK it's OK where [is] the last place you saw her,' and she couldn't remember. Then all of a sudden we hear a woman yelling for her across my house! The little girl looked so excited and asked me to follow her for some reason I felt I needed to so I started to follow," swt_asschick wrote.
"We got across the house and of course we went to the basement stairs. I NEVER go down there by myself I wouldn't even if my life depended on it! So I started to walk away, and of course she came back to me and asked me to follow her down the stairs she wanted me to meet her mom. So I walked back and stopped at the stairs. She kept begging me to come down but I finally looked at her and said 'no' and that's when the entire mood changed; she looked so mad I don't think a girl could ever look as mad and evil as she did. She then looked at me with pure black eyes and yelled at me to come down stairs when I screamed back no and to leave my home she burst in to flames and I have never seen her again."
Uninvited Roommates
When people experience paranormal activity in their house or apartment they often consider the spirits the uninvited guests, when often it's really the other way around. If you watch American Horror Story then you know that when people die on this show, they are doomed to remain as a ghost in the place they passed away. Reddit user AmbellaRose has a creepy story that is similar: When she moved into her first apartment she realized that she wasn't the only one living there despite being the only "person" on the lease.
"When I got my stuff I took pictures of everything I had. When I took a picture of my TV it didn't turn out right. I didn't have cable at the time, and the TV was off. In the picture of my TV there was a white girl with brown hair wearing a blue shirt. The shirt left the shoulders bare, [and] there was a man on his knees in front of the girl wearing a white shirt that was way too big for him. Standing next to the girl was a tall older man. He was wearing a brown suit with black pin stripes. After I took the picture I didn't want to live there anymore," AmbellaRose wrote.
"Weird things started happening. My cat, who got spooked easily, started hissing at something I couldn't see. My favorite Coca Cola glass fell by itself out of the draining board that wasn't even close to the edge of the counter. Months later I was getting ready for bed. I was standing in front of my bedroom door when this black figure walked right in front of me, like I wasn't there, the figure was a man I could tell. I can't explain it but I knew it was, he was six feet tall and bold. Weird stuff still happens. When I'm in my bedroom I can smell cigar smoke as if someone is blowing it right in my face. I can here old time Music like from the '20s. I can also hear conversations going on in the living room when I'm the only person in the apartment, and I keep seeing this girl in a blue dress and black hair standing at the foot of my bed. She never does anything just stands there and watches me sleep."
Scared yet? If not read more real life ghost stories from Reddit to make your Halloween 2017 super spook-tacular.
