Memories From the Past - A True Ghost Story for Halloween

My younger teenage years were not the most joyous of my life. I had plenty of issues, both personal and psychological in addition to consuming my life around a psychotic boyfriend.

One of my only sane recluses was my best friend in high school, Tracie. Our very different and strange sense of humor kept both of us quite entertained most of the time.

One particular late night my family decided to go out for ice cream - if my memory serves me correctly. My grandfather who was living with us at the time was the only one home and he was in his usual sitting spot in the living room glued to the T.V. I took advantage of this opportunity of privacy and gave my friend Tracie a call.

Our only phone was located in the kitchen. Our house was set up in a way that the kitchen had three doors - a door to the outside, a door to my bedroom, and a door to the living room. In order to have privacy for my phone conversation, I closed all three of the doors.

As I was chatting away with her in our little closed off kitchen I got up to get me something to drink out of the fridge. As I was pouring myself a glass of tea I was aware there was an ever so slight dingling sound behind me. Chattering away with Tracie, I didn't take too much note of it at first.

Through my banter, I became aware of the dingling in the backround getting louder and louder. It's at this point that I turned around to see what all the noise was about. What I saw was very disturbing to me. The dingling noise that I was hearing was the kitchen utensils swaying back and forth on the hooks they were attached to on the wall. As I watched in confusion they kept swaying more and more dramatically as if there were a gust of wind blowing them.

After blinking a few times and trying to come up with a logical explanation for the movement I finally realized the untensils were swaying freely by themselves. I dropped my freshly made glass of tea and the phone I was holding to the ground. To this day I wonder if Tracie remembers this incident.....

I kept my eyes riveted on the swaying utensils that seemed to be swaying out of control. Every hair on my body stood up as I darted to the closed living room door to escape whatever unseen phenomena that was causing such a ruckus of the utensils.

Once I made it to the door, hair on end, and eyes still glued to the out of control utensils I grabbed the door handle and turned. In a state of fear I realized the door handle would not budge as if it were locked in position and the lights began to flicker. Take note that there was no physical lock on this particular door.

I stood there a few moments in fear trying to get the door knob to turn so I could escape the entity. Finally realizing the door was not going to open willingly and the utensils had managed to fling themselves off of the hanger, I finally managed a blood curdling scream. It's only at this point that the door I had been frantically trying to open, automatically released it's locked status and freely opened itself to me.

My poor old grandfather was in the living room watching T.V. as I came flailing through the door in a state of frenzy and panic. I don't really remember exactly what I said to him, but I do remember the look on his face as I came busting through the door. I am very surprised I didn't give him a heart attack.

It was also about this time that my parents and brothers showed back up after their nightly outing. After I explained everything that had happened my whole family looked at me as though I were as insane as I felt I was.

I don't know what it was in my kitchen that night, but whatever it was followed me around for a few months after that. No matter what room of my home I tried to hide from it I felt it's presence. It knocked on walls and closet doors and shuffled around behind me like a black cloud everywhere I went.

I lived in a state of fear during this time. I can't remember exactly how long this went on before it finally disappeared. I never discussed it anymore with my parents after the initial incident....they already thought I was crazy enough and I'm sure they would have just blown it off as just some more crazy stuff to have to put up with.

Back then, I was schooled but not very educated. This memory of that time of my life has stuck with me through all my years. A few years ago as I was doing a little research on my own about psychological phenomenons I came across the term poltergeist. Even though I had seen the movie "Poltergeist" I had never connected it to myself...after all Hollywood always exaggerates and dramatizes the truth.

"Poltergeist" is a German word meaning "noisy spirit." Current research indicates, however, that poltergeist activity may have nothing to do with ghosts or spirits. Since the activity seems to center around an individual, it is believed that it is caused by the subconscious mind of that individual. It is, in effect, psychokinetic activity. The individual is often under emotional, psychological or physical stress (even going through puberty). Effects can include rappings on walls and floors, the physical movement of objects, effects on lights and other electric appliances - even the manifestation of physical phenomena.

As I was reading the definition of a poltergeist I realized that what it was was actually myself.

Yes, the mind is a powerful thing. Use it wisely.