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Over the past week, we’ve been asking fans of INSIDIOUS ON FACEBOOK if they’ve ever had a brush with the paranormal in their daily lives. The response has been scarily good, which may be cause to worry… It seems the dead aren’t to eager too let go of our world…

If we assume that ghosts exist, then the traditional English pub must logically be a Mecca for the unquiet dead. After all, if having unresolved issues is a factor for your soul staying wedded to the Earth, then the chances of you having unfinished business are bound to be higher if you’re either drowning your sorrows at the bar or staying overnight away from home.

While working in the kitchen of an historic public house, Jack Harrison had this uncanny experience:

“I worked as a chef in our Village pub, an old Georgian building renovated from the early 17th century. Of course with any old country pub comes the rumours of a ghost – either a disgruntled former guest, or an old barmaid – but I paid no attention to the locals ‘stories’.

One day I was working alone in the kitchen, using the food preperation sink in the far corner of the kitchen. I could hear some children laughing and running around outside. After about 45 minutes, I could still hear them playing outside, so I put down the collinder full of spuds and asked one of the waiting staff where the childrens parents were, and whether they were being supervised whilst in the beer garden. The waiter gave me a look as if I’d finally cracked from stress, and told me that there had been no visitors to the pub all day.

I laughed, and told him to stop winding me up, opening the fire escape door to show him. As soon as I opened the door the noise stopped, and we were greeted by an empty beer garden. I looked back at the waiter, asking him to stop messing about and what was going on. He told me he was being deadly serious, and that no-one had been in the pub all day.

I went back into the kitchen, frowning at him, just in time to see a black shadow flash across the kitchen, and noticed the collinder full of potatoes had moved across the kitchen to the opposite work surface. Normally this would have struck me as a prank, but at the time the waiter and I were the only members of staff with access to the kitchen…”

Old buildings, particularly public ones that have seen many people pass through their doors, seem to hold onto shadows. Georgie Haldane lives in a converted school and the echos of the past seem ever present…

“I live in an old school and plenty of scary things happen, my family and I have learnt to ignore them – cupboards and drawers will be open when we get home, footsteps in hall when no one else is here, creepy noises in the cellar and the occasional flash of a face or person followed by an icy feeling. My friend reported seeing a man sat at the dining room table.”

A lot of ghostly encounters take the form of a sense of disquiet or a sudden drop in room temperature. Objects redistribute themselves when you leave the room or ornaments smash to the floor. Kayla Williams shared an experience with a friend that’s a lot closer to Hollywood take on being haunted:

“About four years ago now, my cousins were sleeping over and from where I was I could see my landing. I looked over one time and there was this tall black figure, it was almost as high as the ceiling which is over sex feet. You could make out the head arms everything except the feet; I thought it was nothing so I looked away and looked back and it was about a foot closer.

I was kind of freaked out so I moved.

Then nothing happened until around a year later I saw the same figure on my landing again. I was so scared that I just shut my bedroom door and stayed there for a few hours.

When I eventually opened the door there was nothing there and again I forgot about it until again about a year later when my friend came over and we were in the room next to my bedroom. I saw again a large black figure quickly walk past the door on the landing, my friend also turned around and asked if I had seen that and she described the figure to me.

It was exactly what I had seen the previous two times”

Anthony Mumford has had more than his fair share of poltergeist activity. You can check out his near-epic saga of spectral adventures in the original thread for real life spooky stories on the INSIDIOUS UK FACEBOOK FAN PAGE but here’s the first story he shared with us:

“I lived in an old house with Poltergeists so I have a few stories to tell.

My Dad was home alone and reading a magazine in the living room.  Just behind him on the wall we had a giant clock - I mean giant too… It was huge.

Whilst reading, the magazine had literally been swiped out from his hands and landed on the floor. As my Dad lent forward to pick it back up the giant clock crashed onto his back causing a massive bruise. Could have just been a simple accident but the nail that held the clock on the wall was still sticking up and out. The clock would have to have been lifted up and over the nail and dropped for it to come off.

If the magazine hadn’t flew onto the floor and Dad hadn’t picked it up the Clock would have landed on his head and potentially could have killed him.”

Some ghosts are clearly good for the tourist business – as those in charge of the day to day running of Hampton Court will doubtless attest – But it seems the domestic reality of home possession is far uglier. It’s at times like this that you wish that the afterlife were arranged like it is in Beetlejuice and that some kind of beyond the grave Asbo could be issued.

Finally, what interested me most was that people seem to live with their unexpected housemates for years. Having a ghost is something people have to routinely deal with… Adrian Smith was raised with ghosts:

“I grew up in a house with a ghost. Almost every night we would hear it walking around my parents room whilst we were all sat in the room underneath. Once when I’d gone to bed (I was ten) I heard it walk out of their room, across the landing and into my room. I could feel it standing next to me bed, but I was so terrified I lay facing the wall trying desperately not to breath! There was definitely nobody else upstairs in the house.”

Thanks to everyone who told their tales or added comments on the fan page last week (A copy of Insidious is on it’s way to anyone quoted). To everyone else, Insidious is out this week on DVD and Blu-ray. Do yourself a favour and pick up this entertaining and spooky rollercoaster of a movie.

READ THE FULL GHOSTLY CONVERSATION NOW ON THE OFFICIAL INSIDIOUS UK FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

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