Secrets in the Ceiling

I’ve had weird things happen to me and around me since I was a child. Since I bought my first home about 5 years ago (I’m 31 now) things have finally calmed down.. But before that, every single place I’ve lived in has had strange occurrences. Most of it has been related to sleep paralysis, and while some of those have been pretty terrifying I can at least chalk that up to a scientific explanation that has affected a lot of people, that’s one of the things that drew me into your podcast is knowing I’m not the only one. It’s the things that happen when I’m fully awake that have always bothered me the most. 

What prompted me to email you guys tonight was a very strange occurrence at dinner. I was with my husband and his brother and my cousin (my husband’s brother is married to my cousin- so if y’all can’t tell by now, I’m from the south). Anyways, my cousin and I were talking about some of the crazy things that happened to me in my 20s when I lived alone. Like I said, weird things happened in my childhood, and in my teen years I tried to write it off as an overactive imagination.. then things flared back up in my 20s. Other than intense sleep paralysis, I would experience things like my bed shaking while I was awake, things going missing (like just random stuff), seeing orbs, something pulled on my pillow twice one time, and a clock was moved in my house. That’s what me and my cousin were initially taking about at dinner- the clock incident..

When I lived in an apartment I had a heavy Victorian style clock on the wall that I discovered  was moved across the room one morning. I tried so many ways to explain it being moved, there was construction in the apartment building at the time so maybe.. it fell? But it would have had to fall straight down and roll across the wall, turn a corner and continue rolling, then land face up propped against another wall on the other side of the room. Did I sleep walk and move it? I’ve thought that might be a possibility but I have never sleep-walked in my life, never in my childhood and I’ve been with my husband for 7 years so surely by now he would know if I did…that’s what we were talking about at dinner when it brought up.. the missing objects at that apartment. It was a pair of scissors and a spatula. Thats when she mentioned that I had found them.. and a memory came creeping back that I guess I’ve suppressed for years. I said “I was in the shower when I found them, wasn’t I?” She goes “yeah”. I said, “They were in the ceiling right? She goes, “I’m so sorry I thought you remembered.”

I was so sick to my stomach because I truly could not believe I blocked out this whole crazy ass memory that’s now been flooding back. That stuff went missing in my apartment when I lived alone and I just happened to look up while taking a shower one day and noticed that one of the ceiling tiles was off kilter. 

I’m pretty sure I had to get a stool to reach the tile, honestly the memory is still kind of fuzzy, but when I lifted the tile in the crawl space, there were my fucking scissors and spatula that went missing. Did I sleep walk and put that stuff there?? I really don’t think I would have had the capability in my sleep to get out a stool and everything to put something in my shower ceiling.. and those things went missing months between each other. Sleepwalking is the only logical explanation, but I think this goes beyond logic.. I still can’t believe I completely blocked it out of my memory for so long, after all the other crazy stuff I’ve remembered happening. 

My cousin even brought up the first time we watched the movie paranormal activity, and when they pull that picture out of the crawl space I had to leave the movie theater because it was so eerily similar to what I experienced. Well, I had completely forgotten that until tonight. Meaning I remember being upset and leaving the movie; I guess I had just blocked out why.  I have rewatched that movie so many times and that scene has always bothered me and I never knew why. It’s like a weird puzzle piece I forgot I had has fallen into place. I truly don’t know what is more upsetting, the fact that I found my missing stuff in the ceiling of a shower or the fact that I so completely repressed that memory.

Because things have been quiet for so long, I do get a little nervous talking about it, but I couldn’t help myself to email you guys and get some of this off my chest.

Follow Up..

While listening to the Dark Fairies and Cloaked Creatures – Beyond Missing 411 episode today, I heard you guys mention spatulas in the ceiling, and that was the push I needed to finally reach back out. I called my cousin the day after I emailed you guys, and she gave me more details that I had completely blocked out about that situation.. and to be honest, it freaked me out so badly that I just wasn’t comfortable talking about it. It still blows my mind how much I was able to block out.

So I called Emily (my cousin) the next day to press her for details about what happened, I can remember now finding that stuff in the ceiling, but it is still so fuzzy regarding exactly how I got it down.

I just remember every time I’d take a shower it would feel like some kind of energy was coming from that corner in the ceiling, like something was watching, and that’s what prompted me to finally look up and notice that ceiling tile.

Emily was very reluctant to tell me anything more, she felt pretty guilty about bringing it up, but I really wanted to know exactly what happened and I guess it started with pillows on my couch being moved while I was asleep. Yet another thing I had blocked out. I remembered as soon as she mentioned the pillows, but it is bizarre to me that I was able to remember that clock being moved in my apartment but not the pillows or my stuff going missing. I remember that I would stack my pillows a certain way on the couch before bed and at first I’d wake up and they would be slightly rearranged. Not a big deal- I had 2 cats at the time, I figured they were messing with them. Then the pillows started being moved around the apartment.. All I remember is finding one on top of my printer on the other side of the room, and one in my closest.

All the while I was experiencing terrible night paralysis. That’s what initially had me thinking I must be sleep walking. When the spatula went missing, I don’t remember much other than one day needing it and not being able to find it. But with the scissors, I had just bought them and needed them for a project. I remember I left them on the kitchen counter that morning before going to work, and when I got back from work they were gone. No sleep walking excuse on that one. The only thing logical I can even think of is that someone who worked for the apartment building got into my apartment twice to hide stuff as a prank, but that makes no sense to me. Why would anyone do that, especially not knowing if I would ever find the missing stuff? Or even being there to enjoy the prank?

I do believe in my gut it’s a paranormal explanation over a logical one, but that doesn’t keep my brain from desperately searching to find the logic in it. My husband flat out refuses to talk about this stuff. I’ve brought it up a few times because it still bothers me. So truly I appreciate you guys for letting me unload all this to someone that I feel not only listens but understands.

Thank you for sharing what I went through and not making me feel like a crazy person. That first email I sent was so raw when writing that, but that was a very hard time in my life and it kind of shook me to my core that I was even capable of blocking out something like that.