Paranormal Phenomena - True Stories:
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What to do at the time of other's death:
Your Friendly Concerned
Spirit:
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Once when Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura was opening a new centre in a house that had been given for the use of the Gaudiya Mission, a ghostly incident occurred.
He was staying in a room on the second floor. One brahmacari was in attendance, reading Srimad Bhagavatam while he worked at his desk. That brahmacari suddenly saw a bone hand float in through the window. He cried out and fainted. When Srila Bhaktisiddhanta inquired the cause for his alarm, the brahmacari told what he'd seen, but Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati didn't seem to take it as very important. He told the brahmacari to chant Hare Krishna, and to not cry unintelligibly.
Thereafter the hand again appeared and floated into the room as if to grasp the neck of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati. This time the brahmacari chanted Hare Krishna and then fainted. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati revived the brahmacari, saying, "Don't faint. Chant and read Srimad Bhagavatam." When the hand came again, the brahmacari did just that. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta saw the hand and chanted, "Haribol!", and the hand disappeared. He then said to the brahmacari, "No need to worry, that ghost is now delivered."
So that baba went on his tour, and when returning, he passed by those small, narrow side roads. From down one he heard the sweet sound of kirtan. He thought, "There is a festival of Harer Nama! It sounds ecstatic. Let me see this. After all, this is Krishna's own holy dhama - what can be the harm in passing this way?"
So he went down that street, and soon came upon a group of men and women chanting the Hare Krishna mantra to khol (mridanga drum) and karatalas (hand cymbals). They all looked like pukka Vaishnavas. The baba happily joined in the kirtana. After some time they offered him a place to sit for honouring prasad, but he told that he had to return. So they rolled prasad into a banana leave and gave him.
He arrived at the guest house in ecstasy. "It was wonderful!" he began telling that proprietor. "I went down your forbidden narrow street on my way back here, and saw the most wonderful harer nama kirtan festival. And just see - they've given nice prasad!" He unrolled the leave - there was only hunks of raw meat inside.
As a small boy in my room
I was lying in bed when a group of about 10 or 12 grotesque faces appeared
in the upper part of the room. They were ugly and mocking me, teasing me
and saying bad things to me. They were telling me that they were going
to kill me - then the curtains of the room burst open inwards and I screamed
out and my parents came in.
Sometimes as a small boy I used
to experience like someone was trying to smother me. I would be half a
sleep, and still conscious of things going on around me. Then I would find
it hard to breathe, feel like something or someone was sitting on my chest,
and would become paralysed and lay there helpless, whilst internally fighting
to break free. It was always such a traumatic sensation that sometimes
I didn't want to go back to sleep.
One evening I had the most interesting
experience while I was coming home from one friend's house (Clive Pearce)
whose house was by the Golf course at Pitshanger lane, near the Millet
Arms and olde church cemetery 1978.
After about 250 meters there's a hump back bridge that crosses the river, I stood for a second or two on top of the bride looking back to the path where I'd come, the chapel shimmering in the moonlight in the distance, headstones visible. But there was now wind, no breeze, and not a tree moved. for the next two or so miles home still there was no breeze and the full moon li the way and I quickly walked with focus, to get home.
At Xmas time in 1977 I went
to visit my parents in London, as a devotee, and stayed in their home overnight.
During this night I had this dream, that there was this woman, who was
gesturing to me to come toward her. Now bear in mind that I was at that
time a strict brahmacharin (celibate monk) it puzzled me why a women, especially
clad as she was with frizzed out hair, top-less, and with long finger-nails
would be calling a brahmacharin.
The situation was something like a railway station
there were two ticket type boxes one each side of the entrance/exit. She
stood a little beyond that beckoning me saying, "...come here!" Feeling
somewhat lost, and puzzled I replied to her, "What do you want mataji?"
To which she laughed like a demoness (cackling). Suddenly I felt myself
being drawn toward her, even though I couldn't stop it..........
Then suddenly two brahmins (a dark skinned one with
Ramanuja style tilak, and a fair skinned Indian with distinct Madhwa style
tilak) appeared from her side but to the left near the tick boxes. One
was carrying an achaman cup - with which he splashed me with its waters,
the other carried a small plant of maybe three or five inches resembling
a Tulasi seedling. As the waters hit me I awoke to find my panchapatra
over turned, and the waters all over my pillow, but no Tulasi.
Even in the morning I looked high and low for that Tulsi leaf, but it wasn't there.
This was an interesting incident.
In 1985 my wife, son and I went to visit the newly purchased New Gaudadesh
land and temple, in northern most Victoria, bordering on to New South Wales
and South Australia, near Mildura. Iskcon had purchased really cheap some
land (16,000 acres) along the Murray River from a man who had one time
sat next to Srila Prabupada on an aeroplane.
The next morning I mentioned it to Krodeshwar the Temple President, who casually mentioned "oh yeah, where this house is, it used to be an Abo' burial site, there's a few of them on the property.... but the boys' are pretty good."
Once when I was staying at the
Melbourne Temple, guarding the Deities, while everyone was away at a festival
in Murwillumbah or Colo River in the early 1980s I was awoken by a strange
sensation and the sound of a little blonde boy playing on the rickety wooden
stairs leading up to the brahmachari ashram (now the prasadam hall). I
thought for a moment that it was one of the devotees children, and called
out to him, to cut the noise out.
You can bet I had a really good night sleep, or what was left of it after that.
When His Divine Grace Srila
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada came to London's Bhaktivedanta Manor
in August of 1977 his body was unwell, and needed rest. At that time all
of us young devotees on the Bhakta program were occupying the rooms that
ordinarily were above his quarters. So out of concern for his well being
we were relocated with all our bedding etc to stay in the Theatre room,
down stairs near the kitchen.
Anyway one night both myself and Purushottam prabhu woke up, looked around the room, and both saw that there was no-one there in the room, that everyone had left, and we felt that we were the last two there. So we individually wiped our place where we slept as was our system, with the bucket and cloth in the corner. Rolled up our sleeping bags and proceeded to go upstairs to get ready for Mangal arati at 4:30am.
As we opened the Theatre room door Braja-jana prabhu
the temple guard stopped us and asked where were we going. We replied up-stairs
to get ready for the morning program, to which he replied, "What at mid-night???"
He then ushered us back into the room despite our
pleas that the room was empty and everyone had gone. the to our surprise
when we opened the door and looked in EVERYBODY was still there, all over
the floor.
To this day I'm amazed how we both saw that the floor was clear, and we step by step followed the process of wiping our places, rolling up the sleeping bags and leaving the room, with seeing anyone one there. Somehow or another the bhuta who we since found out resides in that room had covered us over, and got us out of the room, as he wanted.
When I was living at Bhaktivedanta
Manor back in 1977-78 there was one room that always left a chill on your
spine. It didn't matter day or night it had an eerie sense about it, but
in the early morning or later at night it was FREAKY.
In the winter of 1977 I came
down with bronchial pneumonia. No-one would give me funds to go to the
doctor across the road in Letchmore Heath, so as a poor brahmachari I tried
to tolerate it. But I just got worse and worse.
Again another incident on the
landing out side Prabhupada's rooms at London's Bhaktivedanta Manor. It
was winter, because I could remember the cold. There were a lot of devotees
at the Manor at the time, so I'm guessing it was at the end of the Xmas
marathon, or something like that.
One devotee named Braja-jana
prabhu was at Chaitanya College (Croom Court) - and had an interesting
encounter with the Pink Lady. Apparently the Earls of Coventry who were
the previous owners of the Country Estate had some interesting history.
One of the aspects of it being how the Duchess of Coventry a couple of
centuries ago found out that she was pregnant and gave herself an abortion,
from which she died.
Anyway, Braja-jana prabhu had changed his residence and had moved to
the newly acquired Chaitanya College and resumed his night duties as temple
guard. Then when many of the devotees were up and the place again deemed
secure he would take rest for a few hours.
On this morning he was laying there, in his sleeping
bag, but was awoken by the intense feeling that someone was standing over
him, looking at him.
When he in fact opened his eyes, to his surprise
there was the ethereal form of the Pink lady, dressed in a ball gown kind
of attire, crouched beside him, not inches away from his face, looking
directly at him.
Scarring here as much as himself he let out one blood curdling scream of Krishna and leapt about a metre in the air, to which she was seen gliding down the corridor.
Captain's Room at Croom Court.
The stories from Iskcon Melbourne
1985-89
The stories connected with going
to Wellington to try to give some relief to one congregational member S's
daughter K who was being raped by a ghost almost every night.
I sat with one older lady devotee and the girl and asked her questions about what she had been forced to undergo, and why she thought it might be happening.
She told that the "personality" came when she was asleep, and held her down and threatened her with her life. He told her she was a bad person and that's why he was coming for her, and that she deserved it.....etc.
After some consultation with her father and mother we began to set up for a yajna in their house.
At first everything was okay. Then as we began to recite the bhuta nirvaranam mantras the girl became disturbed. Then some of the people at the back of the room said they felt something brush past them, cold and heavy and the atmosphere in the room suddenly changed.
Then as we invoked Agni the fire began to flare and spit sparks right out of the fire - during the Purusha Sukta yajna I felt that as I was chanting that the air was being denied to my lungs and I was becoming weak, I stopped for a second and began chanting hare krishna in my mind to gain control, and we proceeded. Then we planned to go through the house, and it seemed like this was the last straw - suddenly the door leading out to the hall slammed closed, and then as I began to sprinkle water about the place there became this incredibly powerful and rancid smell in the room. For a moment I became the focus as my mouth felt as if it were being blocked, and I was being choked by the smell of dry stale urine. Again we gained composure and went through the place, but then as I left the house I was hit in the chest by something, which felt like a stone, but there was nothing there on the ground - the next day I broke my ankle and came down with an undiagnosable "Flu".
Shonya Klair - six different
ghosts sent by a demoniac tantric Man Singh in Rajasthan.
Tajindra's family (Paramjeet's
wife's suicide, Paramjeet's suicide, Karamjit's attempted suicide, Kranti's
mystical ways.....)
Gaura Gopal's making mudras
in Melbourne
Sometimes as a youth I would
go around to my friend Steven Bennet's house. We would sometimes be sitting
there late in the evening chatting or listening to music or watching something
on TV when suddenly a strong smell of lavender would enter and permeate
the room. One evening I was there with Steve's brother Ray and Steve and
it happened. Ray told us how it was the former owner of the house. Some
of the people who were in the area before the Bennet's' told them how there
used to be an old lady who lived there. A nice old lady who always
smelled distinctly of lavender, she had passed away there some years before
they moved in.
My grandmother, who was among
her friends quite a famous clairvoyant had a visit from her husband the
evening after he passed away, telling her that he was okay, and that he
was going now, and not to worry. She told me this as a small boy and told
me that I shouldn't fear spirits as they are just like us, but they are
caught in between births.
Sleepwalking - me and my father.
When we lived in Melbourne occassionally
we used to see a man in top hat who used to wander through the Philipson
Rd flats. Sometimes you would hear him talking in the night, on other times
you could hear his footsteps going through the room and lights would go
on or off in the room. I had heard about this fellow from other devotees,
like one mataji who had gone to the temple for a few minutes and while
she was away her daughter was woken by the man going through, and I mean
through her room.
An incident with an Haunted
lady at the downtown Melbourne bus terminal - this was only a brief encounter.
I was sitting waiting for a bus to Canberra, and was reading a book on Raghavendra Tirtha swami, the incanration of Prahlad maharaj. Then suddenly my mind became extremely turbulent, like when you open a door and wind rushes in and blows everything everywhere. All kinds of non-sense thoughts came to mind, out of sequence and crazy-like. Then I saw this lady about five or six feet away from me, standing in the middle of the room talking jiberish to herself. I cast a side-long glance in her direction and from facing the other direction immediately turned around and began to walk toward me saying words that no-one could understand.
I intently chanted the Nrsimha bija mantra; ugram biram maha ghoram.......and it was like she was redirected onto someone else, and followed a couple of people as they traversed through the terminal. Lord Narasimhadev ki jaya.
The haunted house we lived in
when I first left home in Sudbury Hill - Wembley as a 16 year old with
my girl friend Mandy and her friend Vicki Palmer.
I think our very first encounter was when we were standing at the gate and tried to take a neighbours cat down the path - the cat freaked out and scratched Mandy on the arm really bad. The landlords, who lived down stair told us that they had a cat for a while and when they moved there it ran away. Also they bought another one too and it wouldn't come into the house - like it really freaked out and would come in. It was as if something in the house scarred them away. And we felt that without anyone saying anything. We tried several of the neighbours cats, but no cat would come in that house.......
Then one night the heavy breathing began, sometimes if you were alone in the room you would feel it on the side of your face, and a presence as if someone was very close. In the late evening sometimes you could hear the same heavy breathing, almost snoring coming from the corner of the bed room, but not the side where the bed was, nor a wall that was habitated on the other side by neighbours, but in the corner where the sofa was near the closed window which always remained dark.
Once I was running up the stairs when I was physically stopped by a force on the stairs. Whoever it was it was strong enough to stop me as I ran - it was kinda freaky as you couldn't see anything there.
Often you could see what appeared to be seeing of shadows moving in the rooms but there was no light that was causing it. We checked everything.
Our last night there was ended by a creepy journey to St. Andrews church.
The amazing thing was that when we got to the church epecting it to be
open the church doors surprised us at being locked. Desperate to take shelter
of something, some one Holy to stop our fears we went all around the church
checking the doors, but they were all locked tight. Lights were on, as
it was only about 7pm, and all the fonts outside were dry, where they normally
keep holy waters.
We consciously began to pray, even though outside
the church, and then Vicki was inspired to try the door again, but then
it was open. Nervously we all went in and sat down. Vicki pulling a seat
down for the person next to her. Lots of freaky things, and then the priest
came and we told him everything.
The next evening quite late the priest came around to the house. First he began to chat with us and ask us ask us where and what had happened. He then began chanting some prayers and throwing around sanctified waters - but he advised us not to stay there that night.
The priest's visit throwing water around seemed to do some good, but
we were still too freaked out to live there any longer.
The gnome/leprecorn we
saw near High Wycome. There were about four of five of us cycling up the
big hill there just outside Denham, when each of us looked over and saw
this small man with a big nose big pointed ears and carrying a stick over
his shoulder with a bundle tied on the end.
We all kinda looked at each other and no-one said a word. At the top
of the hill we all stopped for a rest, and we were all pretty silent. then
one of my friends said - "Did you see that bloke?"
"What did he look like?" asked another.
"Come on there was onlt one bloke we passed going up the hill, and
we all saw him!" another said.
He was just like a gnome, about three feet or four feet tall, really old looking face, big nose, impish look, and big pointed ears - and carrying the bundle. But he wore a Trilby hat, and a rain-coat - must have been on his way Gnome!!!!!
Maori woman pointing at me in
a dream just after we moved to New Varshan
Each time I went past the area known as "Radha kund" my mind would freak
out, and fear would over momentarily take me, cold and goosey....the shelter
of the Holy name being my only solace.
Bhakta Michael at Bhaktivedanta
Manor, 1977.
He was a 16 year old English boy who joined the temple. He did have a history, we later found out of mental challenges, which would have made him more suseptable to this kind of thing. Anyway, after being at the Manor for a short time he totally changed. From being a 16 year odl English speaking boy to speaking like a 40 year old Polish man, and walking dragging one leg, and with one pupil of his eye large and the other small.
There was a always a bad smell that followed him everywhere, an unclean smell.
With understanding, compassion and kindness, we took him into the office and tried to give him some prasadam and have an open conversation with him. When we tried (Virabhadra and myself) to suggest to him that he has to be strong and preach to the mind he replied, "...we have to listen to the mind, mind is like guru he knows best, mind is my friend....)
Then as I was talking to him I could feel an overbearing presence pushing down on me, and he sat there grinning from ear to ear, but with his eyes almost with a blank and cloudy stare. In my mind I began chanting the Nrsimha prayers and it broke the tension. the other prabhu ended up calling his parents who came and collected him the next day, which was when we found out about a previous history of mental problems.
Later that evening we gave him some prasadam, and as soon as it touched his lips he fell unconscious on the floor. then this aweful smell became so strong, like a gas - and we lifted him up and carried him out to the bhakta office.
Just recently (circa 1999) a
Maori woman came into my room and stood near the door - she seemed upset.
In my dream I went to her and compassionately embraced her and told her
that it was okay. Just try to accept that you have passed on, and go to
your next body now. She looked at me as if to ask how did you know.......
and then as I began chanting Hare Krishna she disappeared.
We used to have a ghost who
haunted our garden. During the day most parts of the garden were pretty
safe, but at night when you would go there you could hear him saying "...this
is my garden, you get out!"
On last Wednesday evening (
3rd November 1999.) I was in my room just preparing to take rest when I
kept feeling uneasy as someone was there in the doorway. I didn't take
much notice and carried on but kept looking toward the door expecting someone
to come in. Finally I turned the light out and went to bed.
Today ( 9th november 1999. ) my mother rang me from England to tell me that my aunt (her elder sister) Kit had passed away after collapsing in the street last Thursday, which would correspond to Wednesday evening Thursday morning here.
I did a Narayan Bali for her and since that she hasn't been here.
At the Manukau Tourist Park
a huge Pacific Islander ghost threatened me in my dreams, telling me that
he was going to kill me if I didn't leave that caravan - it was his.
This ugly, huge ghost might not have killed me as he angrily screamed he would, but he certainly gave me a hard time for fighting back with the Holy name - which he really didn't want to hear. Hey but, if I hadn't have had the Holy Name who knows what would have happened to me - could have become one of the millions one sees wandering the streets in their shinny suits and werewolf appearance mumbling to themselves and hurling abuse at passers by.......!
If you have any TRUE Ghost experiences
please send them to us here
In the USA we are very much in the mode of passion - nothing too high, nothing too low, "Just the facts, Mam". In South America and India experiences of subtler beings are much more common.
Off the top of my head I can remember three ghost stories from reputable sources but I'll just include one. Maybe we can put something more in later books if anybody is intereted. These are included just to convince us about the existence of the subtler physical planes. Then it is easier to understand the position of the spiritual plane.
My friend Bhakta Saranga Swami was living in New Mexico (The Land of Enchantment) before he joined ISKCON. His girl-friend was a native American. She purported to see peoples "auras", thoughts. One time he was sitting in her living-room with her and her two cats watching a booring TV show. Then she said, "There's a ghost moving across the room and boy is this one strange looking".
My friend said, "Cut it out. Stop it".
She said, "You don't believe me do you?".
He said, "No. Stop it.".
She said (he told me), "Then just look at the cats."
He looked at the cats who were on the floor side by side at the foot of the couch and almost jumped out of his skin. They were sitting there crouched on the floor but they were both looking at something move across the room. Their heads were moving completely in synch from left to right looking at something he couldn't see.
Rarely some of the ghosts aren't somnambulists. Some are quite aware and intelligent and can cause big problems. The Vedas list many different "species" of these subtle beings.
My friend Rohini kumar was in Mexico in a village about 1972 when they were visited at times in night by duendes, dwarves. He and four other people once saw them run across their courtyard jump to the top of an eight foot wall and disappear. They were about two or three feet tall with little jackets with little buttons. The next day they asked the local people about this and they laughed and said, "Yes, we know them. They are duendes. They live in the forest and keep to themselves. Usually only rarely does anybody see them. But because you are new and foreigners they are curious. They are like children they usually don't cause any problems for anybody".
Citreshvara is an ISKCON "Ghost Buster". He comes from a tantric family in Orissa that traditionally busts ghosts. He was asked to exorcise one new member of the temple in Australia who was obviously possessd. "Who is his closest authority?", He asked, "Because when the ghost leaves it will try to go to him". "The New Devotee Program Director," they answered but he's a long distance away driving a vehicle here". "Physical distance doesn't matter. These fellows operate on mental, emotional distance. Is he strong minded?", asked Citeshvara. I know him, Janananda. He personally told me this event. He is a very literal, down-to-earth guy. But while driving the car the ghost attacked him. He didn't know at all what was going on and only later confirmed the event and the timings. Ghosts - Beings with only psychological coverings.
Courtesy of India Divine: http://www.indiadivine.com/pigs45.htm
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