Everyone loves real life ghost stories, especially since it’s nearly Halloween. So with the spooky season just around the corner we’ve found some scary stories guaranteed to send a shiver up your spine.
From prank-pulling poltergeists to phantom playmates and saucy spooks, which one of these totally true real life ghost stories will keep you tossing and turning tonight?
Time to find out...
My real life supernatural stalker
Alex Matsuo was feeling lucky. She'd just survived a terrible car crash. She'd broken her hip, pelvis and three vertebrae. But at least she was alive.
Are you a fan of real life ghost stories? Well, her survival was about to become one...
For as Alex gazed around the hospital ward, she saw a man wearing a leather jacket and trousers, his hair was encrusted with blood and he looked furious.
Suddenly he started shouting ‘get out!’ to everyone on the ward. They ignored him.
Day after day the bloody biker kept returning to the ward, although nobody but Alex seemed to notice. One day he glared at her and said ‘why you, not me? You don’t deserve to live.’
Finally it dawned on her. He was a ghost. And he wasn't going away.
For months this supernatural stalker followed Alex everywhere, even when she left hospital to recuperate at home.
She tried church blessings, bible readings, rosary beads and holy water to banish him from her life but nothing seemed to work.
Eventually she'd had enough. She wasn't going to let a ghost ruin her life.
‘I told him I was sorry he didn’t survive his accident but refused to apologise for surviving mine,’ recalls Alex, who has become a paranormal investigator. ’I set strict boundaries and told him he had to move on too. To my relief it seemed to work. I haven’t seen him for ages. Whoever he was I hope he’s found peace.’
We have movie nights with a ghost
Rebekah Carmichael always knew she could see spirits. But when she moved to Wilmington - one of the most haunted towns in the US - her gift reached a whole new level.
It seemed everyone had their own real life ghost stories, and the place was literally teaming with spooks.
‘Everywhere I’d go phantoms would follow,’ says Rebekah, 32, who admits she was ‘terrified’ at first.
As she walked to work one day she met Rupert ‘one of the clearest spirits I’ve ever seen.’ A soldier from the 1700s, Rupert wore a red coat and white trousers, was chivalrous and polite and insisted on accompanying Rebekah on her daily walks to work.
But after a while Rupert turned nasty and started criticising Rebekah’s boyfriend J for letting her walk without a chaperone.
‘What kind of man is he?’ Rupert raged.
Eventually the angry spook apologised but said he couldn’t help feeling protective…
Rebekah decided the best way to avoid a spooky split was if the two love rivals met.
Now Rupert, J and Rebekah share cosy movie nights together. ‘J was totally cool with it all,’ Rebekah says. ‘We’ve even got Rupert to ditch his big red coat for sweaters and khakis.’
Now that's what we call a scary story with a romantic twist.
Aprank pulling poltergeist made us flee our home
Strange things started happening almost as soon as Jamie Newman and his partner Chris moved into their fisherman’s cottage in Bognor Regis, West Sussex.
The floorboards creaked as if someone was walking up and down the stairs all night, making sleep impossible.
Cupboard doors flew open and – weirdly – shoes that had been left tidy in the wardrobe were constantly found scattered around the bedroom.
They were trapped in their own scary story.
Was someone playing tricks?
One night Jamie woke to see a huge shadowy figure looming over Chris as he slept.
‘I’d seen a spirit in my childhood and knew instantly what it was,’ he recalls.
‘Whatever it is, we have to get rid of it,’ Jamie told Chris the following day.
A split second later, a picture flew off the wall and a candle shot off the shelf, smashing down next to the picture.
As if that wasn't scary enough a friend then got in touch to say her mum used to live in the cottage. She’d been forced out by a prank-pulling poltergeist who tried to lock the patio window every time she stepped out onto the terrace.
That did it. Within weeks, Jamie and Chris had moved out. Fortunately, they’ve now found a home they love – without any real life ghost stories to go with it.
Perhaps they have the shoe-throwing spirit to thank?
Our haunted dressing table saved my cat
When she moved to a new flat in London Tara Hudson, 29, knew her rescue moggie Annabel might be scared by the change. But she wasn’t prepared for Annabel’s extreme reaction.
For three long weeks after the move the freaked-out feline cowered underneath Tara’s bed, hissing if anyone went near. Even her food and water bowl had to be left under the bed. She was so stressed her fur started falling out…
Then Tara bought a second hand 1960s dressing table for the room. Inside a drawer she found a fabric bag with the words ‘Maggie Mounsey’ embroidered on it. The previous owner perhaps?
As Tara rummaged in the bag Annabel suddenly poked her head from under the bed, sniffed the dresser, jumped on top, settled herself on the fabric bag and started purring contentedly.
Now Annabel spends many happy hours sitting on Maggie’s little bag purring happily and has resumed all normal activities. ‘The spirit of Maggie Mounsey is definitely having a cat-hartic effect on Annabel,’ says Tara.
Phew. That’s one big cat-astrophe averted. There's nothing better than a scary story with a happy ending.
My daughter has playdates with a phantom
Beth Munro smiled as she watched her two-year-old daughter Poppy playing with her toys in the hallway of their neat terraced home.
Then Poppy looked up the stairs and blew a kiss to someone.
But there was nobody there.
She's heard enough real life ghost stories to know something was up.
When she asked her daughter who she was looking at, Poppy shrugged and said: ‘It’s a little girl.’
Puzzled, Beth took to social media explaining the scary story and asking if anyone knew the history of their two-bed house in Liverpool.
The responses shocked her. ‘That road has a reputation for supernatural activity,’ one man wrote.
Meanwhile a former neighbour said: ‘My brother used to speak to a little boy on the stairs none of us could see.’
Then came a knock at the door.
‘I saw your post online,’ said the woman standing on the doorstep. ‘I think it could be my daughter.’
Speechless, Beth invited her in.
'We used to live next door,’ she continued. ‘My daughter passed away aged six from leukaemia. It makes me happy knowing she is still here, helping to protect your family.’
Now Beth is convinced the phantom Poppy plays with means no harm.
Not all real life ghost stories have to be a scary story!
I'm a real life exorcist
Imagine popping to the loo during the night and coming face to face with an angry man wearing a wooden mask.
That scary story is exactly what happened to Reverend Canon Dr Jason Bray – and it left his heart racing with fear.
‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost’ his wife Laura told him after the terrifying encounter.
Fortunately, they persuaded the local vicar to visit and bless the house.
As he walked around sprinkling holy water and mumbling mysterious prayers, Jason felt intrigued and inspired. So he became a deliverance minister, otherwise known as an exorcist!
Now he goes around people’s homes with his large cross, bible, bottle of holy water and some salt to get rid of evil spirits, hauntings and poltergeist.
And while he rarely feels scared anymore, Jason admits some of the real life ghost stories and cases he deals with leave him spooked.
He recalls one home had a ‘pervading sense of gloom'.
‘As I led the family in a recital of the Lord’s Prayer, I felt my body arch backwards as if something was travelling through my spine,’ he recalls. ‘Thankfully after saying the final "Amen" I opened my eyes and the house was bathed in warmth.’
Phew. Sometimes there's nothing quite so scary as real life.
After 600 years my fiance came back to marry me
The Medium had deep blue caring eyes and as she listened to his reading Angela had the strongest feeling they’d met before.
But Derek McGillivray was a complete stranger.
Months later she still couldn’t get him out of her mind. So she booked another appointment with Derek – this time for past life regression.
What happened next was extraordinary.
For one of Angela’s past lives was as a 15th century Scottish lass called Mhairi McCloud. Mhairi was in love with a sailor called Charlie Anderson. Only she was marrying someone else.
‘Who does Charlie resemble in your current life?’ Derek asked.
Angela suddenly felt an amazing warm glow in her heart. Sitting up and feeling teary she pointed at Derek. ‘You!’ she said.
Astonished, Derek realised there was only one way to find out if Angela was right….by having past life regression himself.
After being hypnotised Derek discovered he was Charlie Anderson. He’d wanted desperately to marry Mhairi but had been sent to Australia before he could propose and never made it back.
Angela and Derek, from Elgin, Scotland, fell in love and married in April 2022. Six hundred years after they first met the twin souls are finally together. ‘We’re making up for lost time,’ adds Angela.
Scary story? This is less horror movie, more romantic comedy!
I had a holiday in heaven - and I've got proof!
One minute she was standing in the garden, the next Tina Hines had collapsed, suffering a massive heart attack.
For 27 minutes paramedics and doctors tried frantically to get her heart working again. As her horrified family looked on, they were warned to prepare themselves for the worst.
Oblivious to all the panic, something quite magical was happening to Tina, 56. ‘I remember seeing a bright yellow light that looked like the sun. I had an overwhelming feeling I was in the presence of Jesus who was standing before some black gates and reaching out his arm to touch me,’ she recalls.
At that exact moment, Tina felt a BANG as doctors shocked her heart for the sixth – and final time.
This time it worked. Tina’s heart started beating.
The following day, despite being barely conscious and hooked up to machines Tina asked for a pen and paper and after 30 painstaking minutes managed to write two words.
IT’S REAL
‘I was in heaven,’ she whispered. ‘It was beautiful, calm and peaceful.’
Tina made a full recovery but will never forget her brief holiday in heaven. ‘I’m no longer afraid of dying,’ she says.
And she still has that heaven sent message…
An angel saved me from an abusive relationship
As her violent ex tightened his grip around her throat, Lizzy Lumb knew she was about to die.
Lying on the living room floor waiting for the end to come Lizzy, 39, suddenly felt peace wash over her. ‘Everything around me melted away,’ she recalls. ‘Then a shinning figure appeared over me. It looked like an angel. The angel was telling me I couldn’t die yet. I had to go back and use my life to bring light to others.’
Thankfully, a neighbour heard everything and called an ambulance. Lizzy was rushed to hospital.
Despite horrific injuries - her jaw, eye sockets and cheekbones were broken - Lizzy couldn’t get her angelic vision out of her mind. The angel, she decided, had given her a second chance.
While her ex went to prison Lizzy moved to New Zealand and set about transforming her life. With further angelic guidance she found a new man Wayne – a good man - they had a son Landon, and Lizzy set up a business called The Golden Butterfly offering angelic Reiki healing.
‘I’ve come a long way and I owe it all to the vision of my angel,’ she adds.
I worked in a school for ghouls
Vicki Hext was looking forward to spending the summer at Port Regis School in Dorset set in ornate gardens. Vicki would be teaching English to foreign students with accommodation provided in the grand old building. She had no idea she'd be walking into a real life ghost story.
When Vicki woke one morning she noticed that the heavy creaky bedroom door had seemingly opened on its own during the night…
The same happened the following night.
Could someone be watching her?
Then one day in the library alone she heard a blood-curdling scream. She raced down the corridor thinking someone might have had an accident – but there was no one there.
Frazzled, she shared her spooky stories with colleagues. ‘You might have had an encounter with the White Lady,’ her boss said.
Apparently, the White Lady’s husband had died in the war leaving her to care for her daughter. Unable to cope, she drowned herself and was said to roam the building, near the matron’s room – Vicki’s bedroom – looking for her daughter.
It seemed Vicki, 30, had spent the summer in a school for ghouls with scary phantom screams.
‘If I return next year I won’t be staying in the matron’s room,’ she adds.
Have our real life ghost stories left you feeling seriously spooked?
We hope they've given you something to think about as Halloween approaches.
Remember, Halloween is for the whole family, even your pets.
But if a supernatural stalker comes your way, don't worry. We know an exorcist who might be able to sort you out..
Happy Halloween!