Ghost stories, time travel, and other musings... | jusdifferent's Blog

       Standing under a cold, gray sky, I am awed at this world, and all of it's many mysteries.  The brisk November wind strips our old maples of the last of their autumn finery; the leaves fall like nature's confetti onto the damp ground.  It is late Autumn here in New England, and that means dealing with the two seasonal unpleasantries - tourists and leaf raking.  Actually, I have never really minded the leaves.  I enjoy their satisfying, earthy crunch under my Wellies, as I herd them into scattered piles around our yard. 

       As I straighten up from my work, popping and stretching my ever-complaining, forty-year old back, my attention is drawn upwards towards the second floor window of our home.  A figure, way to tall to be one of our cats, is at the bedroom window.  I am watching it, and it is watching me back.  We regard each other in silent equanimity.  No "alarm bells" go off.  We are not strangers, this "wraith" and I.  After almost seven years, we have learned to cohabitate successfully together - mostly.  I look around to make sure the neighbors are not watching, and raise a hand to my ethereal "friend".  There is no motion on it's part.   "Cant you come out?", I ask, far to quietly for any human ears to hear.  I notice a sort of "shimmer" at the window, and then before my eyes, it is gone.  

       Our house is "haunted".  There, I've said it, and for all the world to see.  Although, we do not refer to it as such; we prefer to say "otherwise occupied".  "Haunted" is such an ugly, Hollywood word.  We don't feel that it is part of us, or our situation.  We first discovered "them" only a few weeks after we moved in, almost seven years ago.  At first, it was only things like odd noises, that I promptly blamed on the house "settling", or things coming up missing, that I blamed on "new home owner fatigue".  I refused to acknowledge them - either their presence, or their joint-claim on the property, that we had just purchased.   You see, not only am I the very "left-brained", highly analytical type, but I am a natural skeptic, as well.  I am also not terribly religious, and have the tendency to view anything "supernatural" with much eyebrow raising.  Believe me, I looked for every possible explanation, before I would even consider the one right in front of my face.  And, then, slowly, they began to "up the anti".   More things went missing; more noisy nights kept us up; the electrics began to "malfunction"; anything electronic died a quick and sure death; we heard footsteps in parts of the house we knew to be empty, or sealed off; our animal companions hissed and growled at thin air, and the list goes on...  

      One thing I have always been rather proud of, is my open, non-prejudiced view of life.  I try to treat pretty much everything, and everybody, with some degree of respect and tolerance.   And, then one day I realized, that in all places- my own home - I was not doing this.  I remembered from my college days, someone saying, "A good student/scientist opens their ears and eyes, closes their mouth, and concentrates on the facts."  And, when I did, one thing became appallingly clear : we were not alone. 

       To this day, I still don't know exactly what "they" are.  ( I am still not sure if I believe in "ghosts", or not. )  One thing, that I think might be possible, is that sometimes, for some reason, we here on Earth, experience what might be termed as something like a "rip in the time vortex".  Many modern thinkers believe that time comes in "two flavors" - "linear" and "non-linear".  ***( Oh, humor me! )  "Linear time" is what we all experience in everyday life; it is the flowing progress of day to day living, and the chronological history of the world.  "Non-linear time" is the time that is alluded to in quantum physics/mechanics; it the "eternal clock of the universe" that has no hands.  It is a place where time and space loose all meaning, and things do not happen, but "simply are".  ( No, I'm not "blowing smoke up your ass".  Think Bell's Theorem/ the Theory of Non-Relativity - you know? )  I think one possibility answer is, ( hold on to your shorts ),  - time travel.  Yes, technically, or at least theoretically, it is possible.  ( Although it involves a "subject" being able to go faster than the speed of light, which is not possible with current technology.  However, I don't think it's really an issue for a "subject" than can "ride the ethers", so to speak. )  Perhaps when we "see ghosts" all we are really seeing is an event/ a "motion" that has already happened, or is yet to happen?  May be, it has nothing at all to do with the dead?  Perhaps, we are even seeing into a sort of "parallel universe"?  Then again, may be I just got "hoo-doos", and don't want to admit it.