Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Spiritual Warfare? Things That Go Bump... Anytime...

I admit I am reluctant to post this entry.  It's been a while, and this will be nothing like previous entries.  In a nutshell, I believe that there is something/someone in our home.  No. I'm not crazy.  I never bring this up though...  I don't appreciate being made to feel crazy when I know in my heart that there is something there... and it's most certainly not my imagination.  It's been witnessed by others as well.

We bought our home and moved in on Memorial day weekend 1997.  The home was built in the mid 70s, in a subdivision.  Ranch style... no upstairs.. no basement...  good sized fenced in yard.  The previous owners had lived here for 8 years before selling the house to us.
Any owners prior to them I am unaware of, but I know others did own it before them.

Many years ago, this was all woods and farmland.  There was a nearby plantation, and this may or may not have been part of the outlying property.  We are also one mile North of a main train line...  and there is Civil War history here near us.  Camp Milton was about five miles away, and I've heard that just a half mile away was another smaller Civil War camp.
As far as the previous owners...    they were Indonesian.  I don't know what their religion was... but I recall seeing a shrine in the den (converted from a single car garage) with little elephants and tons of incense.  I remember being impressed by the amount of ash marks on the walls from all the incense that had been burned.   We met them at closing. They seemed nice.  Two sons.

Almost immediately after we moved in, I had the odd feeling of being watched.  One night, late, the television in the den came on by itself. Hubby was not home... he was working late.  My only child at the time, who was then a toddler, was asleep in her bed.  As I reached to turn the television off, the volume started turning up.  On its own.  Right in front of me. LOUD.  It was icy cold (fear?... because this is Florida and it was early summer)... and my heart was pounding.  I ran as fast as I could back to bed. I didn't sleep a wink the rest of the night.

Talking to my new neighbours, I learned that the previous owners had the grandfather living with them.  He passed away in that very den.  He was hard of hearing... but he liked tv and always turned it up loud so he could hear it.   When he passed, his family had him cremated.  And scattered his ashes all over the yard.   Something no one mentioned when we bought the house.  Probably not looked upon as a positive selling point.
*rolls eyes*

Almost 18 years later, we've gotten used to having someone else here.  He isn't hurting anything.  And somehow along the way we have had two others join in.  Why?  No idea. Maybe they were there all along but we just didn't know.   Who knows?  How do I know they're there?   We have had three different people... separate situations...  unaware of the other...  and don't know each other...  ask us about them.   They have even described them exactly the same.   I have never seen them.  I don't understand why some people have but most don't.  I cannot explain that.  But I know that there are three here.   The older grandfather who basically came with the house.  There is also a maybe 14 or 15 year old girl in old style dress...perhaps Civil war era... and a tall smiley man with long dark hair.   No clue who he is... or where he came from.  He has been around for years... and apparently likes me.  He watches me cook.   I am not sure how I feel about that.  Part of me is weirded out.  Part of me is curious.  It's very conflicting.

However.  Since there has never been a problem, and it's been, for the most part, uneventful, we have just accepted it and didn't worry about it.

Now things have changed.   Almost a week before Christmas, our brother in law passed away.  Around that time is when the knocking started.

I was sitting at the dining room table.  Youngest daughter was in her room.  Eldest daughter and hubby were both at work.  There was a distinct knock on the window pane in our front room next to the front door.  Literally, several knocks in succession...  like a friend would do.. except... everyone we know would either knock on the door or ring the doorbell.

I got up to peer through the window to see who knocked. Almost immediately there was another knock... same distinct succession of knocks...  directly behind me.  I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up... and my heart was about to pound out of my chest.  I turned...  and it knocked again.. very deliberately...  on our home school bookshelf.  I nearly stroked out.  It dawned on me that I was being played with.  "Stop that.  You're not funny." I tell my unseen visitor.

The day after Christmas is when we discovered that we had a leak.  In the pipe behind the stove...  which backs up to a wall.. and on the other side is the home school bookshelf.   The knocks have continued every day.  Sometimes they're very loud.  We moved the bookshelf to a different wall...  it's still in the front room, but now is backed up to the wall which... on the other side...is the den.  The knocking is on that wall now, next to the bookshelf.   Even our dogs will sit quietly and stare in that direction.  No barking or growling... but they know that there is something there.

It's been about three weeks since the knocking started.  We are still waiting for the insurance company to decide what they will cover, but that pipe is "off" so no more leak.   The knocking sound cannot be pipes since (a) that pipe was dealt with, and (b), the wall that the knocking has moved to has no pipes in it, and (c), there are certainly no pipes in the window pane.

Once we get the repairs done and things looking normal again, I am going to call our priest and have our house blessed.  I am not sure what else to do.