02-21-2008, 02:11 PM
About.com
Telephones are little more than plastic, wiring and electronic circuitry... but do they sometimes connect with other worlds, other dimensions in a way we cannot explain?
"My grandmother died one year ago and on the night of the one year she died, I was sitting at the computer and it was rather late, kids in bed and the house was quiet. I thought I could hear muffled ringing of a telephone. I went to inspect and discovered one of the kids' play cell phones was ringing. The phone will not work if the handset is open, but it was still ringing. My boyfriend came over to the phone, picked it up and called me silly, teasing that it was probably my grand- mother saying hi. He said that I was acting silly and that I didn't hear anything, he put the phone down and walked a couple of feet away and the phone started to ring again..."
Telephones, cordless phones, cell phones... These communication tools have become indispensable parts of our daily lives. With them we can connect with just about anyone anywhere from virtually anywhere. Voices, conversations and the business of every day moving at the speed of light along wires, through fiber optics, across the sky, under the ocean and sometimes into space and back. Is it possible, however, that these electronic gadgets that we've come to take for granted sometimes make connections beyond what can be logically explained?
Consider these true stories from people who have had unexplained, puzzling and sometimes downright unnerving experiences with their phones.
The Impossibly Cloned Call
Many years ago, when married to my first husband, I received a telephone call at about 4:20 a.m. It was my elder brother telling me he had just gotten married. The call woke up my husband and I spoke with my brother for about five minutes. I hung up and went back to sleep. About a week or so later, I was visiting at my mother's home and this same brother was there with his wife. I thanked him for calling me... and I got this odd stare and his mouth fell open. He told me he had called our mother, but he had never called me at all. I turned to my mother and she related the entire conversation she had had with him, and then I related the entire conversation I had had with him - and these conversations were literally identical and at the exact same time. - Barbara
The Phones That Called Each Other
This strange incident happened in our home at Christmas. My husband had his cell phone on our dining room table and it was turned off for the evening. My purse was in our library, where my husband was playing a computer game with our daughter. In my purse I had my cell phone turned on. As my husband and daughter were playing, my cell phone rang. My husband picked it up and it said the incoming call was coming in from his cell phone! He thought our son was playing a prank on him and ran into the room we were in and told our son to stop messing around with his cell phone. We laughed at him and asked him what he was talking about. He said, "Your phone just rang and it said the call was coming in from my phone!" This is where things get weird! My son and I were both in the same room together talking and neither one of us had left the room. We weren't even in the same room as my husband's cell phone at all. My husband checked his phone and sure enough it was off just as he had left it. We can't figure out how a call came into my phone from his phone when his phone was off and there was certainly no one in the room with his phone! Strange indeed. We were all pretty mystified over the whole incident for sure! - Janine T.
The Phone Call That Never Was
My mum usually picks me up from work and she doesn't work far from me. One Tuesday night, we were driving home when I asked her how my dad's computer classes were going. My dad usually attended the computer classes every Tuesday night. She said she didn't know as she hadn't spoken to him about it. She asked me why. I replied, "Well, when I was speaking to him he said he was having some trouble. They had been given three assignments to complete, but he couldn't finish assignment number two as the computer wouldn't 'save as.' I think he eventually managed to do them all though."
"Oh, right." she said. That night, with the conversation with my mum forgotten, I was sitting watching TV, when my dad knocked on my door. He said, "I was speaking to mum earlier about the conversation you had about my computer class. How did you know we had three assignments and I had trouble with the second one?"
Confused, I said, "You told me that on the phone."
"No, I didn't. There is no way you could have known that because I have just come from my computer class. You had the conversation with mum before I went, and what you told mum happened tonight. I couldn't have known we had three assignments as I missed last week's class."
We both just sat there looking at each other trying to figure out how I knew what was going to happen before it did. I was sure we had spoken on the phone about it, but how could we if it hadn't happened? The strange thing is, I can remember my dad telling me what happened on the phone, but I can't recall how, where and when. - Cian B.
The Call from Grandfather
Sometime in 1999, our phone was out. My mother was at work and I was asleep when the phone rang and woke me up. I answered the phone, but didn't hear anything. I listened and then this man said something that I did not understand. I said, ''What?'' Then the man repeated himself. He said, "Is this the barber shop?'' And I said, ''No.'' Then I didn't hear anything else. The phone sounded dead, so I hung up. But I soon realized that the person sounded exactly like my grandfather, who had been dead for four or five years. The phone wasn't even working at the time it rang, because after it had rung I picked it up and the phone was still out! I'm convinced it was my grandfather. - Judy W.
The Message from the Afterlife
My sister has had some pretty interesting activity on her answering machine and phones. I have heard messages from the other side left on her answering machine. We know someone or something is trying to communicate with her using electronic energy as the mode. What we both want to know is how we can better receive these messages. The messages are sometimes hard to make out, yet some of the words are very clear. These messages are not left by human vocal chords (that much we know). We do not know where to go for this. I mean, it is not like we can call Ghostbusters or anything! She recently has had a good friend pass away, and I also have had a friend pass. It could be one of these two ladies, or it could be any lost soul in need of assistance. Today's message said (as far as we could make out), "I'm calling from the afterlife. Pick up the phone." - Patrice T.
The Anniversary Call
I was asleep one Sunday morning and heard the phone ringing. I tried to wake myself enough to answer it and when I did... it was my father. I was stunned. He had a big voice, like James Earl Jones, so there was no mistaking who it was. He asked me how I was doing. I'd just had major surgery a few weeks earlier and was in recovery. He asked me if I'd heard about the death of two people. I told him I hadn't. He told me that things would get better and to hang in there, he loved me and he had to go. When I hung up the phone, it was as if I stepped from another level back into this one. I immediately called my siblings to tell them daddy called! My father called on September 13 - the second anniversary of his death. - Michelle
The Call That Got Back at the Telemarketers
I worked as a telemarketer to earn a little money before fall quarter started for nursing school. A friend was a manager there and got the temporary position for me. I had been working there for a couple of months. There was a dialogue on the monitor in front of us to read from while talking with people. The computer dials the number, so I had no say in who I call. I cannot remember the last name of the folks I called this one day, so I'll just use the name Smith.
The phone rang and a man answered the phone. I asked to speak to Mr. or Mrs. Smith, please. The man very nicely said, "It depends on what you want." So I went into my spew of mailers for donations for the particular charity we were doing that day - spew being the number of letters they would have to send and what to do with any money they should get back. I asked if I was speaking to Mr. Smith. He answered with a chuckle, "Yes. And just how much in postage would I have to pay? I'm on Social Security, and my wife and I have to watch our money pretty close." I think it was like $3.40 in postage.
As I was explaining the amount of money and options to mailing, a woman comes on the call and says, "Hello." I said, "Excuse me, I was talking to Mr. Smith." The woman said, "Miss, I'm sorry, Mr. Smith has been gone for three years now. He passed away."
I asked, "Is there someone else there I could have been talking to?" She said, "No, honey. I'm here by myself. Can I help you with something?"
By her voice, I believe she was being sincere. Stunned, I said, "No, thank you, ma'am. You have a nice day."
When the call was disconnected, I looked at the girl sitting beside of me. She said, "Terrie, are you okay?" I guess my face was pale and I had a vacant stare on my face. I went out to a break right then, and proceeded to tell my friend, who was also the manager of the floor. She went in and called the main office and asked them to pull my operator number calls for the day. I told her the name and the next day she called, concerned someone may have been in the house with the woman and she didn't know; she sounded elderly to me. The answering machine came on and sure enough, she sounded like an elderly woman to my boss. Shelly left the number to our office and asked that the woman call back and reverse the charges. The woman called back a few hours later and just said she was fine. She recalled the phone conversation and thought maybe I was a prankster. - by Terrie
Here's further evidence that devices such as telephones could be connections to realms we have not even begun to understand. More of this Feature
"When my friend uses his cell phone, I cannot be by him because he can't get a good signal when I am within 5 feet of him. The reason I asked about electrocution was because when I was little I got shocked while plugging in the Christmas tree. Someone wrote that there abilities became stronger when the were nearly missed by a lightning bolt, so I figured maybe there could be a connection."
How would we in today's culture get by without the telephone? As a communications tool for keeping in touch with friends and family and for doing business, it's become almost indispensable. As we saw in our recent article, "Freaky Phone Calls," however, sometimes the telephone is a link to the unexpected and the unexplained. In the poll we conducted with that article, more than half of respondents (at this writing) said that they have had a weird or unexplained experience with their phones.
Are they merely technical glitches? It's likely that many of these experiences can be chalked up to crossed lines, cordless phone interference and other explainable malfunctions. But there are other experiences that are not so easily explained away. So what's the answer? Can beings on other planes of existence make contact through electronics? (Consider the phenomenon of EVP.) Or can the mysterious workings of our own minds, our subconscious, use such devices as telephones to express our deepest desires and fears?
Readers have responded to "Freaky Phone Calls" with more true stories that just might give you pause and make your heart skip a beat the next time the phone rings...
Greensleeves
I was at the age of five and lived in a very small village near Vienna, Austria with my mum, my sister and my brother. My mother got divorced from her husband approximately three months previously and I was having a very hard time. One day, I was alone at home and watched TV when the telephone rang. I answered the call, but there was no man or woman on the other side. There was just the melody of the traditional song "Greensleeves," sounding like a MIDI file or something electronic. I listened to it for about two minutes and hung up.
Eight years later, my mother married again and we moved to another town called Neunkirchen. We lived there for about three months, and one day the telephone began to ring. I was alone at home, and this time the phone did not ring as usual. It sounded very electronic and weird. I took the call, and there it was again - the melody of "Greensleeves." I got very nervous and frightened, and I wanted my dad to back-trace the call. One week later, our telephone company sent us the trace log: the complete number did not belong to any company, man or anything else, but it definitely originated from South America. - ste fan
Call from Grandmom
I was in the kitchen making dinner with my five-year-old son. All of a sudden, he looked at the phone as if it were ringing. He quickly picked up the phone and began talking to someone on the phone. He said his name, said "yes," then looked at me and handed me the phone. Shocked, I asked him who he was talking to. He answered, "Grandmom." I asked him, "What does she want?" He answered, "She wants to talk to you. She wants to say goodbye." I took the phone, but heard nothing. My mother has been dead for five years. My son has never played or pretended on the phone. We have never spoken to him about a grandmother, because we felt he was too young to understand. That was the first time he ever said her name. - Julia K.
Cemetery Call
I am one of those people who never writes letters, but I wanted to share my strange phone call story with you. I have strange things happen around me, but never to me personally. My fiancé is the Louisiana MUFON State Director who had, a few months ago, done a live show with Whitley Strieber on Dreamland about orbs. So, in his "hunt" for orbs, we went driving to another small city in Louisiana and wound up in their town cemetery. I was anticipating a cell phone call from a friend of mine, so when my phone started to ring from the back seat, neither of us were surprised. But when he handed me my purse, we were both stunned because my phone was ringing, vibrating and blinking as if there were a message. Yet there was no call being registered on the caller ID. When I answered it, there was nothing but "dead" air. And later, speaking to my friend, it was not her calling. So... ? It still perplexes me to this day. My phone should not even be able to do those three things at the same time. - CMA
Double Puzzle
A few years ago, my daughter, her boyfriend and I were watching Poltergeist. At the point of the movie, near the end, where the family is battling with the negative entity, the phone, which was on the table next to me, rang. I picked it up, not really wanting to be distracted from the movie. At first, there was just static on the other end. I kept saying, "Hello? Hello?" Then my girlfriend, Toni, was on the other end saying, "Hello? Hello?" I said hi to her and there was a moment of uncomfortable silence. I said, "So, what did you want?" And she said, "What do you mean? You called me!" I said, "No, I didn't, we were watching a movie and my phone rang. Maybe you hit redial or something on your phone." She said that she had made half a dozen phone calls to other numbers other than mine since we had last talked. She was on her cell phone and she and her son were just driving back to their home. I said "Where are you?" She told me that when her phone rang, she had just been passing Glenview Memorial Gardens, a cemetery located in a little town, Ixonia, Wisconsin. We just let it go at that, both wondering what was going on with this double phone call. - DhyAn 2e
The Holiday Ghost
My fiancé Aaron has a pre-WWII home, and the ghost of the man that lived there originally haunts his house and the house of the neighbors every year between Thanksgiving and New Year. My "freaky phone call" happened at Christmas, so I think it was that ghost. One day, I called Aaron. He answered his cell phone; it was definitely his voice and he called me by my pet name. He has a unique voice, so I knew it was him. But the call was faint and it just disappeared. I hit redial, and since I assumed he was there for it or he picked up the first time, I kept redialing over and over without a pickup. Later, he called me and wondered why the heck I called 30 times. I explained that I was just talking to him on his cell phone, that the call disappeared and I was trying to get a hold of him again. That is when he told me he was out all day and did not have his cell phone with him! He had left it behind to recharge. So who was I talking to? Was it the house's holiday ghost playing games? - Heidi
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The phone would ring, mom would answer it and the little girl would say, "Mamma! Mamma! I want my mamma!"
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Little Girl Lost
I recall an incident that happened 20 years ago to my mother. She decided to have a phone installed in her home as she was a diabetic and wanted to be able to be in close contact with me. A day or two after having her phone installed, she started receiving very weird phone calls. She got these calls at night, in the afternoon and in the morning; sometimes she would get these calls four to five times a day. The calls were from a little girl who mom said sounded like she was about four or five years old. The phone would ring, mom would answer it and the little girl would say, "Mamma! Mamma! I want my mamma!" My mom would try to ask her questions, but all the little girl would say was, "Mamma! Mamma! I want my mamma!" This went on for a week, and it freaked my mom out so bad that she had her phone disconnected and never had a phone after that. - Loretta R.
An Extra Goodnight
Two or three years ago, I was on the phone late night with my boyfriend. He had been out of town, so we were catching up on things. It began as a late call and finally we decided to go to bed around 3 or 4 a.m. It was like, "Well, I can hardly stay awake. I think I am gonna go to bed... What do you think, Larry?" He agreed so we said our "I love you's" and said goodnight when at the same time, a creepy voice of a man said, "Okay, goodnight." There was a funny click sound and then silence. We both were startled, to say the least. No one else was home at either of our places, so it wasn't a family member playing a joke or anything. It could have been something to do with the cordless phones, but I have this feeling that is not the answer. It is so weird to think that whoever or whatever that was, that they were listening in on the whole conversation. To this day we are both completely baffled about the whole experience. - Rachel
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All of a sudden, my grandson got up, went into the dining room, picked up the phone and started carrying on a conversation: "Yes... I will... I am... Okay... Uh-huh..."
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Uncle Jason Calls
My son Jason died in July, 1994 at a Pink Floyd concert at RFK stadium. He adored his nephew (my grandson), who at the time was 21 months old. We were all sitting around my mother's house a few days after Jason died (he grew up in that house), and weren't talking about him or anything, just sitting around. All of a sudden, my grandson got up, went into the dining room, picked up the phone and started carrying on a conversation: "Yes... I will... I am... Okay... Uh-huh..." Mom asked who he was talking to. He looked at her like she should know and answered, "Uncle Jason" very matter-of-factly, and handed her the phone. She held the receiver to her ear and there was just dead air, no dial tone and no operator telling her to hang up and call later or anything.
Recently, my grandson, now nine, was on the computer when all of a sudden the words "Wish You Were Here" came on the screen and repeated all the way across and down the screen. It really freaked out my daughter. When my daughter is feeling lonely or upset, she can drive down the road and say, "Jason, I miss you" or that she wants a sign that he is with her... and on the radio will come Pink Floyd or certain Eric Clapton songs that she can relate to Jason. On another occasion, my grandson was sitting up in bed talking to Uncle Jason and telling us things about Jason's childhood he had no way of knowing. - Connie
A Call and Other Antics from Noel
Several years back in college, we were doing a play. I believe the name of the play was "Dream Play" and it involved angels, the paranormal and such. The college theatre is located at Washington College on Maryland's eastern shore. Many paranormal activities are centered in this theatre. It was rumored that while the theatre was being built, a homeless man took shelter one night in the basement and died from exposure. We affectionately called him Noel after Noel Coward, the playwright. One day at about noon, on the first day of constructing the set, we decided to get some lunch. We went to the department head's office to order pizza. There were about five of us. The whole time we were in the office, the phone kept ringing. When we would pick it up, there was only static on the other end. Annoyed at this, we finally took the phone off the hook. At that point, the other phone in the professor's office next door started ringing. We were all a little freaked out as we have all had paranormal experiences in the building. A friend and I decided to do some investigation work. Being theatre techies, we knew the place inside and out, and we knew where the phone lines come into the building and where the main bus is. We headed for the main bus upstairs in one of the lofts. The loft is nothing more then a hallway of sorts that runs the length of the theatre from the stage to the lighting booth above and to the left of the audience seating. We use this area for storing props, and the dimmers used to be located there. We entered the dimmer room and looked down this hallway. Seeing nothing, we proceeded with flashlights in hand to the phones' main bus for the building. Everything looked to be in order. At the moment we decided everything was fine, the door to the dimmer room shut with a bang and three lights on the cat walk above us blew out in order. We almost killed each other getting out of there, down the stairs and out of the building. The other three people in the office saw us run by and came to ask what was wrong. We sat outside and waited for the pizza guy, ate and left as none of us wanted to go back inside and work after we related our story. Some could say yes it's a drafty old building that caused the door to slam shut. Yes, it's an old theatre built in the early sixties with a faulty electrical system in bad need of repair, but if you ask any drama major at Washington College about Noel, they'll tell you differently. - Tony S.
Story and links to similar stories
http://paranormal.about.com/library/week...40102a.htm
Telephones are little more than plastic, wiring and electronic circuitry... but do they sometimes connect with other worlds, other dimensions in a way we cannot explain?
"My grandmother died one year ago and on the night of the one year she died, I was sitting at the computer and it was rather late, kids in bed and the house was quiet. I thought I could hear muffled ringing of a telephone. I went to inspect and discovered one of the kids' play cell phones was ringing. The phone will not work if the handset is open, but it was still ringing. My boyfriend came over to the phone, picked it up and called me silly, teasing that it was probably my grand- mother saying hi. He said that I was acting silly and that I didn't hear anything, he put the phone down and walked a couple of feet away and the phone started to ring again..."
Telephones, cordless phones, cell phones... These communication tools have become indispensable parts of our daily lives. With them we can connect with just about anyone anywhere from virtually anywhere. Voices, conversations and the business of every day moving at the speed of light along wires, through fiber optics, across the sky, under the ocean and sometimes into space and back. Is it possible, however, that these electronic gadgets that we've come to take for granted sometimes make connections beyond what can be logically explained?
Consider these true stories from people who have had unexplained, puzzling and sometimes downright unnerving experiences with their phones.
The Impossibly Cloned Call
Many years ago, when married to my first husband, I received a telephone call at about 4:20 a.m. It was my elder brother telling me he had just gotten married. The call woke up my husband and I spoke with my brother for about five minutes. I hung up and went back to sleep. About a week or so later, I was visiting at my mother's home and this same brother was there with his wife. I thanked him for calling me... and I got this odd stare and his mouth fell open. He told me he had called our mother, but he had never called me at all. I turned to my mother and she related the entire conversation she had had with him, and then I related the entire conversation I had had with him - and these conversations were literally identical and at the exact same time. - Barbara
The Phones That Called Each Other
This strange incident happened in our home at Christmas. My husband had his cell phone on our dining room table and it was turned off for the evening. My purse was in our library, where my husband was playing a computer game with our daughter. In my purse I had my cell phone turned on. As my husband and daughter were playing, my cell phone rang. My husband picked it up and it said the incoming call was coming in from his cell phone! He thought our son was playing a prank on him and ran into the room we were in and told our son to stop messing around with his cell phone. We laughed at him and asked him what he was talking about. He said, "Your phone just rang and it said the call was coming in from my phone!" This is where things get weird! My son and I were both in the same room together talking and neither one of us had left the room. We weren't even in the same room as my husband's cell phone at all. My husband checked his phone and sure enough it was off just as he had left it. We can't figure out how a call came into my phone from his phone when his phone was off and there was certainly no one in the room with his phone! Strange indeed. We were all pretty mystified over the whole incident for sure! - Janine T.
The Phone Call That Never Was
My mum usually picks me up from work and she doesn't work far from me. One Tuesday night, we were driving home when I asked her how my dad's computer classes were going. My dad usually attended the computer classes every Tuesday night. She said she didn't know as she hadn't spoken to him about it. She asked me why. I replied, "Well, when I was speaking to him he said he was having some trouble. They had been given three assignments to complete, but he couldn't finish assignment number two as the computer wouldn't 'save as.' I think he eventually managed to do them all though."
"Oh, right." she said. That night, with the conversation with my mum forgotten, I was sitting watching TV, when my dad knocked on my door. He said, "I was speaking to mum earlier about the conversation you had about my computer class. How did you know we had three assignments and I had trouble with the second one?"
Confused, I said, "You told me that on the phone."
"No, I didn't. There is no way you could have known that because I have just come from my computer class. You had the conversation with mum before I went, and what you told mum happened tonight. I couldn't have known we had three assignments as I missed last week's class."
We both just sat there looking at each other trying to figure out how I knew what was going to happen before it did. I was sure we had spoken on the phone about it, but how could we if it hadn't happened? The strange thing is, I can remember my dad telling me what happened on the phone, but I can't recall how, where and when. - Cian B.
The Call from Grandfather
Sometime in 1999, our phone was out. My mother was at work and I was asleep when the phone rang and woke me up. I answered the phone, but didn't hear anything. I listened and then this man said something that I did not understand. I said, ''What?'' Then the man repeated himself. He said, "Is this the barber shop?'' And I said, ''No.'' Then I didn't hear anything else. The phone sounded dead, so I hung up. But I soon realized that the person sounded exactly like my grandfather, who had been dead for four or five years. The phone wasn't even working at the time it rang, because after it had rung I picked it up and the phone was still out! I'm convinced it was my grandfather. - Judy W.
The Message from the Afterlife
My sister has had some pretty interesting activity on her answering machine and phones. I have heard messages from the other side left on her answering machine. We know someone or something is trying to communicate with her using electronic energy as the mode. What we both want to know is how we can better receive these messages. The messages are sometimes hard to make out, yet some of the words are very clear. These messages are not left by human vocal chords (that much we know). We do not know where to go for this. I mean, it is not like we can call Ghostbusters or anything! She recently has had a good friend pass away, and I also have had a friend pass. It could be one of these two ladies, or it could be any lost soul in need of assistance. Today's message said (as far as we could make out), "I'm calling from the afterlife. Pick up the phone." - Patrice T.
The Anniversary Call
I was asleep one Sunday morning and heard the phone ringing. I tried to wake myself enough to answer it and when I did... it was my father. I was stunned. He had a big voice, like James Earl Jones, so there was no mistaking who it was. He asked me how I was doing. I'd just had major surgery a few weeks earlier and was in recovery. He asked me if I'd heard about the death of two people. I told him I hadn't. He told me that things would get better and to hang in there, he loved me and he had to go. When I hung up the phone, it was as if I stepped from another level back into this one. I immediately called my siblings to tell them daddy called! My father called on September 13 - the second anniversary of his death. - Michelle
The Call That Got Back at the Telemarketers
I worked as a telemarketer to earn a little money before fall quarter started for nursing school. A friend was a manager there and got the temporary position for me. I had been working there for a couple of months. There was a dialogue on the monitor in front of us to read from while talking with people. The computer dials the number, so I had no say in who I call. I cannot remember the last name of the folks I called this one day, so I'll just use the name Smith.
The phone rang and a man answered the phone. I asked to speak to Mr. or Mrs. Smith, please. The man very nicely said, "It depends on what you want." So I went into my spew of mailers for donations for the particular charity we were doing that day - spew being the number of letters they would have to send and what to do with any money they should get back. I asked if I was speaking to Mr. Smith. He answered with a chuckle, "Yes. And just how much in postage would I have to pay? I'm on Social Security, and my wife and I have to watch our money pretty close." I think it was like $3.40 in postage.
As I was explaining the amount of money and options to mailing, a woman comes on the call and says, "Hello." I said, "Excuse me, I was talking to Mr. Smith." The woman said, "Miss, I'm sorry, Mr. Smith has been gone for three years now. He passed away."
I asked, "Is there someone else there I could have been talking to?" She said, "No, honey. I'm here by myself. Can I help you with something?"
By her voice, I believe she was being sincere. Stunned, I said, "No, thank you, ma'am. You have a nice day."
When the call was disconnected, I looked at the girl sitting beside of me. She said, "Terrie, are you okay?" I guess my face was pale and I had a vacant stare on my face. I went out to a break right then, and proceeded to tell my friend, who was also the manager of the floor. She went in and called the main office and asked them to pull my operator number calls for the day. I told her the name and the next day she called, concerned someone may have been in the house with the woman and she didn't know; she sounded elderly to me. The answering machine came on and sure enough, she sounded like an elderly woman to my boss. Shelly left the number to our office and asked that the woman call back and reverse the charges. The woman called back a few hours later and just said she was fine. She recalled the phone conversation and thought maybe I was a prankster. - by Terrie
Here's further evidence that devices such as telephones could be connections to realms we have not even begun to understand. More of this Feature
"When my friend uses his cell phone, I cannot be by him because he can't get a good signal when I am within 5 feet of him. The reason I asked about electrocution was because when I was little I got shocked while plugging in the Christmas tree. Someone wrote that there abilities became stronger when the were nearly missed by a lightning bolt, so I figured maybe there could be a connection."
How would we in today's culture get by without the telephone? As a communications tool for keeping in touch with friends and family and for doing business, it's become almost indispensable. As we saw in our recent article, "Freaky Phone Calls," however, sometimes the telephone is a link to the unexpected and the unexplained. In the poll we conducted with that article, more than half of respondents (at this writing) said that they have had a weird or unexplained experience with their phones.
Are they merely technical glitches? It's likely that many of these experiences can be chalked up to crossed lines, cordless phone interference and other explainable malfunctions. But there are other experiences that are not so easily explained away. So what's the answer? Can beings on other planes of existence make contact through electronics? (Consider the phenomenon of EVP.) Or can the mysterious workings of our own minds, our subconscious, use such devices as telephones to express our deepest desires and fears?
Readers have responded to "Freaky Phone Calls" with more true stories that just might give you pause and make your heart skip a beat the next time the phone rings...
Greensleeves
I was at the age of five and lived in a very small village near Vienna, Austria with my mum, my sister and my brother. My mother got divorced from her husband approximately three months previously and I was having a very hard time. One day, I was alone at home and watched TV when the telephone rang. I answered the call, but there was no man or woman on the other side. There was just the melody of the traditional song "Greensleeves," sounding like a MIDI file or something electronic. I listened to it for about two minutes and hung up.
Eight years later, my mother married again and we moved to another town called Neunkirchen. We lived there for about three months, and one day the telephone began to ring. I was alone at home, and this time the phone did not ring as usual. It sounded very electronic and weird. I took the call, and there it was again - the melody of "Greensleeves." I got very nervous and frightened, and I wanted my dad to back-trace the call. One week later, our telephone company sent us the trace log: the complete number did not belong to any company, man or anything else, but it definitely originated from South America. - ste fan
Call from Grandmom
I was in the kitchen making dinner with my five-year-old son. All of a sudden, he looked at the phone as if it were ringing. He quickly picked up the phone and began talking to someone on the phone. He said his name, said "yes," then looked at me and handed me the phone. Shocked, I asked him who he was talking to. He answered, "Grandmom." I asked him, "What does she want?" He answered, "She wants to talk to you. She wants to say goodbye." I took the phone, but heard nothing. My mother has been dead for five years. My son has never played or pretended on the phone. We have never spoken to him about a grandmother, because we felt he was too young to understand. That was the first time he ever said her name. - Julia K.
Cemetery Call
I am one of those people who never writes letters, but I wanted to share my strange phone call story with you. I have strange things happen around me, but never to me personally. My fiancé is the Louisiana MUFON State Director who had, a few months ago, done a live show with Whitley Strieber on Dreamland about orbs. So, in his "hunt" for orbs, we went driving to another small city in Louisiana and wound up in their town cemetery. I was anticipating a cell phone call from a friend of mine, so when my phone started to ring from the back seat, neither of us were surprised. But when he handed me my purse, we were both stunned because my phone was ringing, vibrating and blinking as if there were a message. Yet there was no call being registered on the caller ID. When I answered it, there was nothing but "dead" air. And later, speaking to my friend, it was not her calling. So... ? It still perplexes me to this day. My phone should not even be able to do those three things at the same time. - CMA
Double Puzzle
A few years ago, my daughter, her boyfriend and I were watching Poltergeist. At the point of the movie, near the end, where the family is battling with the negative entity, the phone, which was on the table next to me, rang. I picked it up, not really wanting to be distracted from the movie. At first, there was just static on the other end. I kept saying, "Hello? Hello?" Then my girlfriend, Toni, was on the other end saying, "Hello? Hello?" I said hi to her and there was a moment of uncomfortable silence. I said, "So, what did you want?" And she said, "What do you mean? You called me!" I said, "No, I didn't, we were watching a movie and my phone rang. Maybe you hit redial or something on your phone." She said that she had made half a dozen phone calls to other numbers other than mine since we had last talked. She was on her cell phone and she and her son were just driving back to their home. I said "Where are you?" She told me that when her phone rang, she had just been passing Glenview Memorial Gardens, a cemetery located in a little town, Ixonia, Wisconsin. We just let it go at that, both wondering what was going on with this double phone call. - DhyAn 2e
The Holiday Ghost
My fiancé Aaron has a pre-WWII home, and the ghost of the man that lived there originally haunts his house and the house of the neighbors every year between Thanksgiving and New Year. My "freaky phone call" happened at Christmas, so I think it was that ghost. One day, I called Aaron. He answered his cell phone; it was definitely his voice and he called me by my pet name. He has a unique voice, so I knew it was him. But the call was faint and it just disappeared. I hit redial, and since I assumed he was there for it or he picked up the first time, I kept redialing over and over without a pickup. Later, he called me and wondered why the heck I called 30 times. I explained that I was just talking to him on his cell phone, that the call disappeared and I was trying to get a hold of him again. That is when he told me he was out all day and did not have his cell phone with him! He had left it behind to recharge. So who was I talking to? Was it the house's holiday ghost playing games? - Heidi
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The phone would ring, mom would answer it and the little girl would say, "Mamma! Mamma! I want my mamma!"
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Little Girl Lost
I recall an incident that happened 20 years ago to my mother. She decided to have a phone installed in her home as she was a diabetic and wanted to be able to be in close contact with me. A day or two after having her phone installed, she started receiving very weird phone calls. She got these calls at night, in the afternoon and in the morning; sometimes she would get these calls four to five times a day. The calls were from a little girl who mom said sounded like she was about four or five years old. The phone would ring, mom would answer it and the little girl would say, "Mamma! Mamma! I want my mamma!" My mom would try to ask her questions, but all the little girl would say was, "Mamma! Mamma! I want my mamma!" This went on for a week, and it freaked my mom out so bad that she had her phone disconnected and never had a phone after that. - Loretta R.
An Extra Goodnight
Two or three years ago, I was on the phone late night with my boyfriend. He had been out of town, so we were catching up on things. It began as a late call and finally we decided to go to bed around 3 or 4 a.m. It was like, "Well, I can hardly stay awake. I think I am gonna go to bed... What do you think, Larry?" He agreed so we said our "I love you's" and said goodnight when at the same time, a creepy voice of a man said, "Okay, goodnight." There was a funny click sound and then silence. We both were startled, to say the least. No one else was home at either of our places, so it wasn't a family member playing a joke or anything. It could have been something to do with the cordless phones, but I have this feeling that is not the answer. It is so weird to think that whoever or whatever that was, that they were listening in on the whole conversation. To this day we are both completely baffled about the whole experience. - Rachel
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All of a sudden, my grandson got up, went into the dining room, picked up the phone and started carrying on a conversation: "Yes... I will... I am... Okay... Uh-huh..."
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Uncle Jason Calls
My son Jason died in July, 1994 at a Pink Floyd concert at RFK stadium. He adored his nephew (my grandson), who at the time was 21 months old. We were all sitting around my mother's house a few days after Jason died (he grew up in that house), and weren't talking about him or anything, just sitting around. All of a sudden, my grandson got up, went into the dining room, picked up the phone and started carrying on a conversation: "Yes... I will... I am... Okay... Uh-huh..." Mom asked who he was talking to. He looked at her like she should know and answered, "Uncle Jason" very matter-of-factly, and handed her the phone. She held the receiver to her ear and there was just dead air, no dial tone and no operator telling her to hang up and call later or anything.
Recently, my grandson, now nine, was on the computer when all of a sudden the words "Wish You Were Here" came on the screen and repeated all the way across and down the screen. It really freaked out my daughter. When my daughter is feeling lonely or upset, she can drive down the road and say, "Jason, I miss you" or that she wants a sign that he is with her... and on the radio will come Pink Floyd or certain Eric Clapton songs that she can relate to Jason. On another occasion, my grandson was sitting up in bed talking to Uncle Jason and telling us things about Jason's childhood he had no way of knowing. - Connie
A Call and Other Antics from Noel
Several years back in college, we were doing a play. I believe the name of the play was "Dream Play" and it involved angels, the paranormal and such. The college theatre is located at Washington College on Maryland's eastern shore. Many paranormal activities are centered in this theatre. It was rumored that while the theatre was being built, a homeless man took shelter one night in the basement and died from exposure. We affectionately called him Noel after Noel Coward, the playwright. One day at about noon, on the first day of constructing the set, we decided to get some lunch. We went to the department head's office to order pizza. There were about five of us. The whole time we were in the office, the phone kept ringing. When we would pick it up, there was only static on the other end. Annoyed at this, we finally took the phone off the hook. At that point, the other phone in the professor's office next door started ringing. We were all a little freaked out as we have all had paranormal experiences in the building. A friend and I decided to do some investigation work. Being theatre techies, we knew the place inside and out, and we knew where the phone lines come into the building and where the main bus is. We headed for the main bus upstairs in one of the lofts. The loft is nothing more then a hallway of sorts that runs the length of the theatre from the stage to the lighting booth above and to the left of the audience seating. We use this area for storing props, and the dimmers used to be located there. We entered the dimmer room and looked down this hallway. Seeing nothing, we proceeded with flashlights in hand to the phones' main bus for the building. Everything looked to be in order. At the moment we decided everything was fine, the door to the dimmer room shut with a bang and three lights on the cat walk above us blew out in order. We almost killed each other getting out of there, down the stairs and out of the building. The other three people in the office saw us run by and came to ask what was wrong. We sat outside and waited for the pizza guy, ate and left as none of us wanted to go back inside and work after we related our story. Some could say yes it's a drafty old building that caused the door to slam shut. Yes, it's an old theatre built in the early sixties with a faulty electrical system in bad need of repair, but if you ask any drama major at Washington College about Noel, they'll tell you differently. - Tony S.
Story and links to similar stories
http://paranormal.about.com/library/week...40102a.htm