Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The following report was sent into our website by Laura on December 31, 2014:
“Back in 2003, my husband and I moved into a beautiful 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment in another building in our complex, as our son had just turned a year old, and we needed more space. It is a great older complex, only three stories high, with a secluded courtyard in the middle for residents. This new apartment offered everything we needed; it was two stories, with the bedrooms and larger bath being on the second floor, and we loved it from the day we moved in.
Within the first few weeks, we noticed an odd feeling at night upstairs, especially when laying in bed trying to fall asleep. It felt like someone was “watching” you at all times; there was just that uneasy, uncomfortable feeling that you were not alone. Though neither of us talked about it at that time, we later came to find out we were both experiencing the same feelings.
Then, odd things started to happen – when sitting downstairs in the living room, you would hear footsteps right above you (in what is the master bedroom). We chalked this up to it being an old apartment building; with creaky floors, and other tenants beside us, it could be just the floor settling or something like that. But then we started to hear deliberate steps upstairs – the exact same sound as when an actual person crosses the rooms. This was harder to explain away.
Next came the issues with the shower; it is an old building, and with that comes I am sure lots of plumbing issues. But we started hearing the shower upstairs turn on – when everyone was on the lower floor. When we would walk up the stairs, and get to the bathroom door – it would shut off. We figured it must be the plumbing – maybe pressure in the pipes, etc – so we called the building manager to come take a look. To this day, they cannot find anything wrong with that shower, and have replaced all parts repeatedly; but it continues to turn on and off, and only when nobody is upstairs; but as soon as you walk up the staircase, it shuts off.
There is also an ongoing feeling of not being alone in the bathroom when showering – you hear shuffling noises outside the curtain, or see shadows, but as soon as you open the curtain to look – it stops.
Many times, we see things move in the corner of your vision; always in your peripheral – it looks like something darts quickly away. This happens a lot when sitting in the living room – you will catch movement at the top of the stairs, almost as if someone/something was at the top step, and quickly went back up.
After about a year living here, we would be falling asleep and just about to drift off, when you feel like someone yells “HEY!” really loud in your ear. This happens to both my husband and myself, but never at the same time. We will be laying right beside each other, but the other person will not hear it too – but it happens to both of us, on a regular basis. There have been rarer occasions where both of us have heard someone whisper our first names in our ear (again, never loud enough for the other person to hear), but each of us have experienced it, and the voice is very clear and easy to understand.
Other times, when laying in bed, you will get woken up – immediately from deep sleep – to absolutely wide awake – like when a person is awoken by a loud noise. You will lay there, heart pounding, frantically listening for whatever woke you – but there is nothing.
Both my husband and I have also had our legs and feet touched when laying in bed – either when falling asleep, or just as you are drifting off – it feels like someone smacks your leg, from near the foot of the bed – not hard enough to hurt you, but enough to get your attention.
From the time my son turned two years old, he started having trouble sleeping through the night. He would wake up in a panic, and scream for us – we would run to his room (only a few feet from our own), and he would be hysterically crying. After calming him down, he would refuse to tell us what was wrong – but would instead want to come sleep with us. This went on for a few months, before he finally told us what was scaring him at night – he said “I don’t like the scary man that stands in the hallway”.
After talking at length with him, he shared with us that he sees an “old man”, who “stands outside his bedroom door looking at him”.
Being an early childhood educator, I did not want to dismiss his fears, but I also wanted to look at the whole situation, to see if there was any other reasons for what my son was feeling (bad dreams, overactive imagination, stress or anxiety, etc). But nothing else, no other explanation, ever emerged; and to this day (he is now 12 years old), he is adamant that not only did he see this man, but he saw him on a regular basis in the years since.
When he first shared his experience with us, my husband and I had not talked about our experiences around our son, nor had we talked about ghosts in general with him. So when all three of us had experienced separate unusual events, we started to think our home may have spirits.
So that night, while my husband took my son out, I stood in his bedroom, and said “I don’t know who you are, or if you are here – but my name is Laura, and this is OUR home. You are NOT allowed to bother my son – this is HIS home, and you are not allowed to scare him, show yourself to him, enter his bedroom, stand in that hallway, or make him uncomfortable in any way. Whether or not you were trying to scare him – you are – and it stops NOW.”.
When my family returned home, we performed a smudge of our whole home (my husband is Sioux), and of ourselves. One night when my husband’s cousin was over visiting, we started telling him about what had been happening, and our experiences. He is deeply involved in their Sioux culture, and had a lot of knowledge about situations like this. After listening to everything we shared, he believed we were dealing with a “Trickster” spirit, who was basically playing games with us, with the intent of causing pranks/drama. He also pointed out that in a complex of this size, and this old, there were bound to be many people who had passed away in this building; and some of their spirits may still be here. Which could also explain why the activity comes and goes on a regular basis – they could be wandering throughout the complex. He recommended that we continue what we were doing – claim our home verbally, with intent and forcefulness, and continue to smudge on a regular basis.
I have spoken with a few neighbours over the years about it, and they too have had unexplained experiences in their apartments, on a consistent yet not every day basis.
Over the years, we find the activity kicks up every few months, and when it becomes a regular occurrence, we smudge again, and verbally claim our home. This seems to help, and makes the activity lesson. We still get the voice/breathing in our ears at night, hear footsteps, have the shower turn on and off, see shadows dart in the corner of your vision, and feel like you are being “watched”; but it has never escalated beyond that, and we do not feel like something here means us any harm. We are still here after 11 years, and have no plans of leaving based on the paranormal experiences we encounter.
And as our son has grown older, we have kept open lines of communication about it all; making sure he knows he can share any feelings or experiences with us, and that we will tackle them as a family.”
NOTE FROM MICHELLE MCKAY: Everything that this family is doing to keep the activity relatively calm is right on target, bravo to this family!! For those having difficulty with troublesome spirits please see my article here.
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