298: Hugged By A Ghost, Spirit In Ballyseede Castle & Poltergeist Activity

[00:00:04] Tonight, I'll be talking about a ghost in Ballyseede Castle in Ireland. A spirit that hugs people, mysterious glowing blue entities, and a haunting that has lasted for multiple generations. All coming up on this edition of Paranormal Mysteries. Thank you for joining me and welcome.

[00:00:42] I'm your host as always, Nic Ryan. Before we start tonight's show, I want to recognize all of my amazing listeners around the world. Thanks to all of you for listening. And now, let's begin with our first experience of the night, which comes to us from Jeff.

[00:01:01] And Jeff's story is called, Something Hugs Me. Jeff says, Hello Nic and thank you for your podcast. I have been listening for a couple of weeks now and I love hearing everyone's stories. My story begins when I was around 7 years old.

[00:01:19] My family, being that of only my father, my brother and me grew up relatively poor. And we had to stay with my grandma and grandpa throughout the next year or so due to some hard times. Let me describe my grandma's house so you have a better picture.

[00:01:34] We always came through the garage which led into a very big porch area that had cement walls and a screen for the top. From there you would walk into our kitchen where our grandma would often be seen cooking

[00:01:45] for my three uncles, my grandpa, my dad, my brother and me. Past the kitchen you would either turn left to go into the dining and living room area or you could take a right and go down a usually dark hallway.

[00:01:59] If you took a right and walked a few feet you would see my grandpa's den to the left where I would often sit on my grandpa's lap and watch old war documentaries. Just past my grandpa's den, the bathroom would be on the right.

[00:02:13] Further down, my grandpa's computer room would be on the left and just past that our room would be on the left and my grandpa's and grandma's room would be adjacent to the right. Just past the bathroom hanging on the wall was an oil-based painting of a lighthouse

[00:02:27] with waves crashing on the rocks just below it. I tell you all of this because this is where something would begin to always hug me or hold me. It started as I walked down the hallway and just as I would get to this painting I would

[00:02:41] feel this feeling of weight on my body. This was weird Nick as I'll try my best to describe the feelings I felt, which to this day is hard for me to really explain. As soon as I felt this weight I would continue walking.

[00:02:55] I would feel the carpet below my feet and my legs and arms would still be swinging as if I was walking. But the truly strange thing is that I wouldn't be moving.

[00:03:04] I knew I wasn't moving because the lighthouse painting was still to my left and I was not passing it. The sounds around me would always get muffled. I wasn't levitating. I know this because I could still feel the ground as I was supposedly walking.

[00:03:18] I would feel tightness from my shoulder down, to include my arms, down to my lower stomach. But it's not like if you would come up behind me and give me a bear hug, because if you

[00:03:28] did I would feel your arms around me and I would feel your chest and body behind me. I did not feel anything like that. Just more like a pressure around the top half of my body. I hope this makes sense.

[00:03:41] I didn't feel cold, I didn't feel scared, and this would only last for about 5 seconds. It wouldn't hurt me and this would only happen to me in front of that painting. And it was always the same feeling. This happened to me about 6 times throughout my year there.

[00:03:57] I often got curious and would walk the hallway over and over to see if it would happen again. But it wouldn't. As a kid I always believed in ghosts and UFOs, having my older brother always trying to scare

[00:04:10] me and us sitting up together watching scary movies with my uncles. I spoke with my grandma after maybe the fourth time of this happening and I explained to her what was happening. But she just laughed and said that maybe a spirit or my guardian angel was giving me

[00:04:24] a hug or letting me know that it was there. She told me that since I'm not scared and it doesn't hurt me, that maybe it's an old family member giving me a loving hug. But no one I knew from my family had died.

[00:04:37] Eventually, we moved out of that house and we got an apartment, but would frequently visit my grandma's house every month or so, as my grandpa loved to barbecue for us. I told myself that if it ever happened again, I would turn around to see what, if anything,

[00:04:52] was there. A few months we visited and nothing would happen, until eventually a few months later I walked into the bathroom. As soon as I walked in, I felt it. The weight. The pressure.

[00:05:05] I felt as if I was walking, but this time I was in the bathroom and I could see myself in the mirror through the corner of my eye. I was walking, but I wasn't moving.

[00:05:15] I quickly turned around and I saw nothing, but I immediately started kicking and punching the air and eventually I made my way out into the hallway, fighting nothing. My grandma just then was walking from her room to go into the kitchen and she saw me.

[00:05:30] She asked me what I was doing and I told her that I was fighting the ghost. She laughed and then continued on her way past me. After I did this, whatever it was that was doing that to me stopped.

[00:05:42] I never had it happen again to me after that and we visited that house for a couple more years. I regret doing that now, as that was one of the scariest things that happened to me as a child that I remember to this day.

[00:05:57] Thank you for taking the time to read my story and I hope I described the feelings I got while this happened so you and everyone listening can understand. And if anyone else has had a similar story with these feelings, please share it. Take care and stay safe. Jeff

[00:06:17] Our next experience of the night comes to us from Professor Paranormal and their experience is called Blue Light Children in Poltergeist Activity. Professor Paranormal says, Hello Nick. I recently found your podcast and have really become inspired to share some of my experiences with more people.

[00:06:38] This is one of many stories that I have had over the past several years and it used to be one of the most terrifying experiences up until the past couple of years.

[00:06:48] I believe I was in my first year of college and I was still living in my mom's house and I was commuting to a nearby community college. My brother was starting his first year at a university in southeast Ohio that holds its own notable stories of paranormal encounters.

[00:07:03] I mention this about my brother because I truly believe that there was an attachment to him which led to me experiencing what I did. While he was at school, he was living in one of the dorm rooms known for paranormal activity

[00:07:16] and after a couple of weeks, he had already had some stories to tell me when he would come home. At first, he mentioned hearing disembodied voices and a young girl laughing with no one there when he would turn around.

[00:07:28] However, there was one night in particular that he told me about after only being at this school for three weeks. My brother was visiting home for the weekend and was giving me all the details on the ghost stories he was having.

[00:07:42] He was telling me about how a couple nights ago while he was in a dorm room with a couple of other hockey players for the school, they were all staying up late. I think he mentioned that there were about nine of them or so.

[00:07:53] At some point, they had all fallen asleep. However, at around 3.15am, one of them woke up to an eerie sight. My brother woke up and then he and another friend began shaking everyone else to wake up. Each and every one of them all were seeing the same sight.

[00:08:09] An entire dorm room full of kids and adults all emitting this strange bluish light. This absolutely amazed me and I immediately was hoping to see something like this for myself. Fast forward about two months and I was getting ready for bed.

[00:08:25] The lights went out in the house and I would say that it was probably around 11pm. No sooner did I fall asleep, but I was woken up and could not believe my eyes. Through the cracks in my door, I could see three bluish figures moving around in the

[00:08:40] hallway outside of my bedroom door. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't dreaming and I sat up in bed only to see my bedroom door being pushed open and what I believed to be three small spirits of children no older than ten.

[00:08:53] And they all ran into my bedroom. I was caught in disbelief briefly before jumping out of my bed when I saw them all jump into my bed and then crawl under the covers.

[00:09:05] I looked at my bed and began to see all of the blankets being tossed around as if the kids were trying to hide underneath the blankets. However, they were no longer there. After a couple of minutes of this, the blankets stopped flying into the air and they laid

[00:09:19] down neatly and almost perfectly back down as if it were just made. Not thinking too much about what I had just witnessed, I told myself that this was clearly a dream. So I climbed back into bed and fell back to sleep.

[00:09:35] After what felt like 15-20 minutes, I woke back up. However, this time it was not because of the children, but because my bed was virtually rocking back and forth and I was physically being tossed around like a rag doll while lying in it.

[00:09:49] The best way I can describe this is very much like the stereotypical scenes from The Exorcist and all the typical poltergeist-based activity of furniture shaking violently. So I jumped out of bed once again thinking that this had to be some kind of a dream and

[00:10:03] that there was no way that this was actually happening. Sure enough, just like before, the bed came to a complete stop. I believe at this point that something was there, but I wasn't sure. Was this scary to me at the time? Of course it was.

[00:10:18] However, I didn't really feel threatened by whatever force was there, but more so intrigued as to what was happening. So I went right back to sleep and I did not wake up for the rest of the night.

[00:10:30] Two days later, I'm getting ready for bed and finally around 12am, I go to sleep. Around 1am, I woke up to my bed violently shaking again, just as the previous night. Clearly something was trying to get my attention and I told whatever was there that I was not

[00:10:46] going to get back out of bed and ruin my sleep for another night. And I then simply rolled over and waited out the shaking. I lived in a small rural part of Ohio in a very large agricultural county about an hour west of Columbus.

[00:11:02] Shakings are not common, especially ones that would shake my bed and literally nothing else. In the morning I woke up and asked my mom if she experienced anything similar to this the previous night and she told me that she hadn't.

[00:11:16] My mom, being the devout Catholic that she is, always blessed our houses that we moved into with holy water and thankfully she had some extra from the local church. That night before I went to bed, my mom walked into my room and splashed holy water across

[00:11:31] every wall and piece of furniture to try and prevent any such activity from happening again. I have yet to experience anything like this since my mom blessed my room. It is stuff like this that has grown my love and passion for the spiritual realms and life after death.

[00:11:50] This passion grew and as a result I now run and operate a paranormal investigation crew out of Columbus, Ohio and I am now making grounds to start up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as well.

[00:12:01] I have a lot of stories that I would love to continue to share with you and all of the listeners as well, to not only share my experiences but also to see if they have had any similar experiences themselves.

[00:12:13] I look forward to sending more of these stories to you and I want to thank you for taking the time to read everyone's experiences. Have a great night and thank you from Professor Paranormal. Before I continue, please remember that you can share your experience with me through

[00:12:32] email or voice message at paranormalmysteriespodcast.com or at paranormalmysteriespodcast at gmail.com. And if you're interested in showing your support, please consider following and sharing the podcast and by giving me a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts, you can help new listeners to find the show.

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[00:13:05] the forum, and be sure to follow me on social media for show updates and future content. And of course, links to all of our contact and support information can be found in the show notes.

[00:13:20] Our next experience of the night comes to us from Em, and Em's story is called, Generations of the Same Haunting. Em says, Hi Nick, I hope this email finds you well. It's hard to believe this almost happened 40 years ago.

[00:13:37] When I was 8, my family moved into a small house in Toronto, Canada. I lived with my grandparents and some of their children, my mother's siblings. There were 7 of us in this small but comfortable house, and always many relatives visiting daily.

[00:13:52] The house was circa post-war, and the moment I walked in, I knew something felt odd. I shared a basement room with my uncle, and his brother also had a tiny room in the basement area as well.

[00:14:05] The downstairs was very small, with a floor space of about 14 by 14 for the room, laundry, furnace room, bathroom, my room and the small bedroom, plus a hall and storage closet. This is important, because you could hear everything in the middle of the night.

[00:14:22] One night, in 1984, I woke up to see a figure of a woman in my room. She was near the end of the room, but staring at me. I reached over to the side table and I clicked on the old TV, and as the light of the television

[00:14:36] illuminated the room, she vanished. I didn't tell anyone about this for a long time. In 1986, my grandmother got ill and was sent to the hospital with terminal cancer. My cousin from Ireland came to visit, and my great aunt took over the duties of housekeeping

[00:14:54] and caring for me and my cousins, who would come over after school until their folks picked them up to bring them home. My cousin would say that she would see a woman walking around her in my grandparents' room at night.

[00:15:06] My grandfather took the pull-out couch in my room, so there were now three in my room. Even with the added person, I was terrified to go to sleep, because I knew that what I saw was real.

[00:15:19] One day I was outside and felt an urge to dig a random hole in the lawn. I found an old toy soldier, which I immediately brought inside and destroyed with a vise. It felt like the house gave it to me, but I threw the toy away.

[00:15:34] Other relatives would hear people walking around at night, and my uncle's girlfriend saw a cat which we did not have, and our dog wouldn't go into a tiny room in the back of the basement where the laundry room led to.

[00:15:46] When my grandmother was alive, she saw a person in the kitchen and thought that it was her son-in-law. However, it wasn't, because he was in the living room, and he never went into the kitchen that night. We ended up moving out in 1988.

[00:16:02] Years later, my father, who would have no knowledge of this house, and his daughter, my half-sister and I, were driving past the house, dropping her at a friend's. I pointed to it and told Kaylee that I grew up in that house, and she reported that a

[00:16:15] boy in her class lived there. A few weeks later, I was at an event, and a boy came up to me and said, You're Kaylee's brother? I live in your old house. Can I ask you something? I knew what he was going to ask, and he did.

[00:16:30] I replied, Even if it's haunted, you're fine. I'm fine, but no, I don't think it is. I said this as I was hired to be at the event, and I didn't want to scare a child at the party, as I'm an entertainer.

[00:16:43] The boy's mother called me, and without me saying a word, told me that the boy and his brother both see a woman at night, that watch them as they sleep. I was stunned. Years later, about four years ago now, I passed the house with my girlfriend.

[00:16:58] We were visiting the area to go to a restaurant that I love. We approached the house, and the current owner was outside, and I struck up a conversation. I told him that I lived there in the 80s, and after I did some convincing and a few magic

[00:17:12] tricks for his kid, he invited me and my girlfriend in. However, here's the thing. There was no way I wanted to ever go back into that place. For decades, I had reoccurring dreams I was trapped in the house, and a voice is welcoming me back.

[00:17:28] I went in, and the place was completely renovated, and it looked nothing like I remembered. The downstairs was open concept, and the house was filled with people, like my life decades earlier. Kids, siblings, and an elderly couple. We had tea and chatted, and then went on our way.

[00:17:47] When I left, I asked him, is this house haunted? And he replied, the ghost is gone, we don't talk about it. And he then laughed. The neighbor was out and has lived there since the 60s, and he remembered me and my family.

[00:18:01] I asked him the same question, and he said, they don't talk about the house. I was now really curious, but I had to go. As my rideshare approached, I thanked the new owner for his hospitality, and I said goodbye to the old neighbor.

[00:18:17] I looked at the house, and I said out loud, thanks for not creeping me out. And at that moment, I felt someone grab my arm. Everyone saw me look down, and saw my jacket material move as it was gripped.

[00:18:29] I went white, and said out loud, do not come with me. I was scared and got into the car, and we drove off to downtown. Eventually I was okay, and everything was fine. I never had another dream about the house again.

[00:18:45] I think the spirit remembered me, and wanted to tell me that it's okay, and that it wasn't bad. I looked into the history of the house, and I discovered some information about a 20-year-old Orthodox Jewish woman who passed away in the house in the 60s.

[00:19:01] The way I remember the spirit was very simply dressed with a skirt, modest blouse, tied back hair, and a headscarf. Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read this. This story has been featured on a Canadian TV show, but prior to even my sister's little

[00:19:17] friend telling me about his experiences. The boy is now 27, and swears that he saw what he told me about at age 8. Another quick story was a time I was at my father's in my 20s, and we both saw a boy

[00:19:31] walk into the living room, and then vanish behind an armchair. My dad is very skeptical and no-nonsense, and swears it was real, and changed his mind on the possibility of ghosts. I've never seen the man spooked, and he was creeped out.

[00:19:47] I luckily went home that night, but he had to stay in his own apartment. Nothing else ever happened there again. M Our next experience of the night comes to us from Hillary. And Hillary's story is called... Hilda. Hillary says,

[00:20:09] In 2018, myself and four of my best girlfriends went to Ireland. During the planning of it all, we talked about staying in the Ballyseed Castle, and I had thought, oh cool, I wonder if it's haunted. I mean, I think that about every place that seems old anyway.

[00:20:26] And honestly, by the time I arrived to Ballyseed, I had totally forgotten about my ties or interests with the paranormal. Because myself and four other girls were more interested in, number one, holy crap we're

[00:20:37] in a castle, two, we need to do photo shoots in every square inch, and three, we had a really fancy dinner that was complimentary of the stay, and we were pretty hungry and ready for a day of relaxation.

[00:20:49] Especially because of all the pubs we ventured into days prior on the trip. We all specifically agreed to not drink that night. However, because we were all in our mid-twenties, they did give us a complimentary bottle of

[00:21:02] wine during that dinner, which basically was enough for us to have like a half a glass each. So we didn't turn it down. I only put this into the story because I was very sober for what I'm about to share, and

[00:21:14] I want to be as open and honest as possible about anything it could have taken for me to think that what occurs would be in a state of intoxication. It just simply couldn't have happened, because not only were we all pretty decent drinkers,

[00:21:27] but one bottle of wine equals about four glasses, in which there were five of us. Also, what I'm about to share happened at least four or five hours after I would have sipped the last of the complimentary wine.

[00:21:40] So we have our dinner, which was amazing, and we go up to our rooms to shower and basically get ready for the next day of the trip. Two of my friends had a different room, and I shared a room with the other two girls I

[00:21:51] had just met that trip in person. Because I had just met them on the trip, it just seemed natural for those two to share the other bed in the room, and for me to have the one on the opposite side by the door.

[00:22:03] I wish I could remember off the top of my head what room it was in, but I probably could find it. If anyone has been to the Ballyseed Castle before, they will know the rooms are very fancy and ornate.

[00:22:14] It honestly is stunning, and I will share all the pictures I have on my Instagram with you. If I can get other photos from my friends, I will share them as well, but I didn't really think to take pictures of the room itself.

[00:22:27] So anyway, after showers, face masks, and watching some Irish drama series on TV, we all fell asleep. I want to mention again, I was in the room in my own bed by the door, and the other two

[00:22:39] of my friends were in the other bed on the other side of the room, just for an idea of the scenery. This is where the story really begins. I remember having a dream about standing in a pretty driveway surrounded by trees.

[00:22:54] In hindsight, it looked like the Ballyseed's driveway, which would make sense. I remember playing with a tiny dog. I remember the dream very vividly, and for some reason this was my dog, although at the

[00:23:05] time I did not have a dog, or really enough dogs in my life to even reference where this dream came from. However, I remember in the dream releasing the dog down the driveway, and I remember it running off.

[00:23:18] The dream then kind of faded, but I happened to wake up from it. Not for any reason I thought, I kind of just thought that I was finding a more comfortable spot on the bed, and that was that.

[00:23:29] That is when I saw something, or rather the shape of someone at the foot of my bed. Initially I was about to wake up the girls and scream that there was some creepy intruder

[00:23:38] in the room, but as that idea was coming to my brain, I simultaneously noticed what I was really looking at. A shadow person. I was paralyzed in fear at first, but I actually felt okay the more I looked at it.

[00:23:52] I didn't know what to do, so I just stared at it until it swiftly disappeared. I had never seen a shadow person before, and I can tell you that that's just exactly what it looked like. It was just like a 3D shadow standing there.

[00:24:06] I was actually at the time pretty terrified, but quickly my brain thought two things. I could wake my friends up that I just met, and annoy them with some ghost story. Or not. I know I saw it though.

[00:24:19] It was the most crazy pinch myself situation I've been in since the unexplainable UFO story that I shared with you that I still can't explain. But here is where the story gets even crazier. That night, I guess just paralyzed in fear and uncertainty, I eventually fell asleep.

[00:24:36] And just like dinner, the castle had a complimentary brunch that was more on my mind than anything else. However, I also kept thinking about what I saw. I decided to wait until the morning to share with the girls about it, but we were stuffing our faces.

[00:24:52] Our host, which was like the castle expert and worked there for many years, was named Joe, and asked us about our stay. And I then remembered about asking if maybe the place was haunted, or something of the sort.

[00:25:06] I began to say, oh guys, I saw a ghost last night, and I totally think this place was haunted, but I don't know. Joe, can you provide any information on that? Because I totally saw a ghost.

[00:25:18] To my surprise, Joe was not only confident in what I saw, but said, yes, you must have seen Hilda. We were all intrigued, and leaned in as he explained that the heir of the castle was a woman named Hilda.

[00:25:31] She was buried on the grounds, which I will include a photograph of her and her dog's grave. But apparently she visits the guests that stay there. As I learned about her and the Irish wolfhounds that she adored, I couldn't help but remember

[00:25:44] that I had a dream about a dog right before I saw her. I truly believe that she is who visited me. I regret almost feeling fear initially, as she seems to be a nice spirit, but I'm sure she's used to it.

[00:25:58] As I visited the grave later after brunch, I thanked her for visiting, and I spent the rest of my time at the property thinking about what her life was like. I wonder if there's any particular reason that she visited me.

[00:26:12] I'll try to keep this experience in mind the next time if I ever see a shadow person again, because maybe they aren't all bad. Thanks again, and I love the podcast. Hillary I have added Hillary's pictures to our forum for everyone to see.

[00:26:33] As tonight's show comes to a close, I'd like to thank Jeff, Professor Paranormal, Em, and Hillary for sharing their experiences. And remember that if you have a story to share with me, you can find links to all of my contact information in the show notes.

[00:26:50] Until next time, thank you so much for listening, and please remember, don't wait for the unknown to come to you. Get out there and find it.