I lived in Brisbane for seven years, from the age of 11 until 18, then I moved back down to Victoria, were I previously lived. I am now 22. It was my Father, Mother and me. I have no brothers or sisters. We moved to Rochedale in Brisbane, just near the freeway. Anyway, things got strange after about 6 months that we had lived there. It was late at night and we were all asleep, our house was a split level so the garage was directly under the bedrooms. I could hear my basketball bouncing in a continuous pattern, like someone was bouncing it. I got up and went into my parents room and my mum was awake because she could hear it also. My dad, who is a heavy sleeper, woke up not hearing it and went to the bathroom. The ball stopped, but about 15 miniutes later it started up again. Dad went downstairs to the garage but found it sitting on the table, so he didn't believe mum or I. Nothing happened again for quite awhile. A couple of months later I was at school, and mum and dad around midday could hear a strange buzzing noise. Dad went upstairs to the bathroom, and found his electric shaver buzzing around the sink. He switched it off...the only way for it to be turned on was by the power point.

At night, in the late hours, I would be woken by footsteps walking down our stairs inside the house. They would continue just walking up and down, for some time, then I would hear my floor boards creak at my door...then I could feel it in my room. I've always had that sixth sense that someone was watching me. Sometimes I could feel somthing sitting on my feet. One night I felt a heavy weight on my feet, so I kicked my legs and heard a thud on the floor. Not long after I heard footsteps going down the stairs. These occurences happened every night. About a year or so after moving in, I woke up to seeing a dark figure standing by my bed. I sat up, and asked if it was my mum. It moved back towards the window, without a word, and the curtain began to sway. I reached over and pulled up the blind. I saw the black shadow run and then disapear as if in to thin air. I also recall hearing plates and knifes and forks being rattled in the kitchen during the night. During the day if I was left alone in the house, I could hear footsteps, and I could feel it behind me. I could even see shadows on the floor turning around the corner and disappearing. Mum and Dad hadn't seen or heard anything, expect the ball and the shaver, but they believed that there was a reasonable explanation.

Mum and I, one night, decided to do a seance...just one we made up that we could destroy later made from cut out bits of paper...a lot safer than boards. We contacted a spirit that said he was the one in the house, and he said his name was Mark. He had lived in the house many years ago, and had died in a bad car accident. We asked him many questions, that he happily answered, and he seemed rather friendly and even had a sense of humor. One time I asked him if he could go into bodies and he said yes, so I said go into the dog and make her go over to the cat. The next thing we knew, the dog got up and went over to the cat and licked him, with the result that we both almost fell off our chairs. The chair that Mark said he was sitting in was across from me. I heard that animals can sense ghosts, so I put our cat on his chair. The cat jumped straight off - the thing is, the cat always sat on that chair, but not around the seance time. As soon as it was over though, he'd happily sit on the chair again. Sometimes I could tap on the wall at night, and I would hear a tap back. My father didnt believe any of it until he started hearing music, that he said came from the war days. And every time he'd get up it stopped. He started to hear the footsteps, and one night he said he could hear a trickling sound as if someone was going to the toliet. He got up but no one was in the toliet, but the hairs at the back of his neck stood up.

Another night, which really made my father believe, was when he was coming back from the toilet and he saw a dark shadow pass through my door. My mother saw a cloud float past when she was using the bathroom mirror. When I used to have a shower, the cupboard doors would open and shut, and sometimes, the face washer would suddenly land on my shoulder. But it appeared that most things were directed to me. Years later, I heard him whisper my name in my ear. Another night I had been sick, and was coming back from the toliet, and I heard a voice say 'Rebecca are you alright?'. Mum and dad were asleep. They didn't even know I was awake. Not long after that, I was woken up by someone shaking me and saying 'Wake up', and when I woke I realised that my fan was almost to catch fire. I quickly switched it off. Once I was very ill, almost ready to go to hospital, when during the night I woke up and saw a person or apparation in my room. He was old, wore glasses, and had a white glow about him. Later there were two people. The next morning when I awoke, I was completely better. Many, many things happened to me in that house, the list goes on, but i realise that this is begining to get rather long so I'll have to keep it short. When I finished year 12, we moved back to Victoria. We had a lot of car trouble on the way down here, and thought it may have been Mark not wanting us to go. Now 4 years later, I'm waking up during the night and seeing a person in my room, sometimes in a solid form, sometimes not. Or if it is not a person, it is something like spiders or cobwebs over me. The 2 things I fear most are spiders and intruders. I have heard that poltergiests find out the things that scare you most and then they play on that. Could that be the case here? It is rather frightening wakeing up to it, and it happens quiet regularly.

Well that is my experience that I had, which feels as though it may be continuing now down here. I am very much into the paranormal, ever since being through it myself. I have always been eager to go intoit more. I'm studying psychology at the moment, and parapsychology would be fascinating.

Submitted from: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia