I only joined this website about a week or so ago. So my story....
I think it most likely started when I was a young child and my Nan used to give me stories of her experiences. Her favourite one was what she called an 'omen'. One night she was at home alone and someone knocked on the front door. She went to answer but no one was there. Then there was knocking on the back door and again, no one was there. This continued a few times and in the end she said something like 'it's OK, you can come in now' and the knocking stopped. She guessed what it was about and was right, her Mum had just died.
That wasn't the only experience she used to tell me about. After her husband passed away (my Grandad died before I was born) she said that whenever she was about to receive an important message from someone, her husband would appear at the foot of her bed. She used to see girls in victorian dress skipping in her bedroom also so as you can imagine, hearing all this when you're a child, can certainly get your imagination going. So I think her stories was what sparked my curiosity in the paranormal.
I did have a few experiences that couldn't be explained as a child but I did the foolish thing of saving them in to my hotmail account and then didn't access it for a year so my account was deemed inactive and I lost everything
(still not got over that!!)
But one thing I do remember was when I was a young teenager. I was inside a old hotel with my parents during a christening after-party and when me and my Mum got up to nip to the toilet which was in a different room and up a flight of stairs, I had a creepy experience. The whole time up the stairs I felt like I was being watched. My Mum put it down to the high ceilings but I couldn't shake that feeling and then as we were walking up the stairs, a cold draft rushed past us. I can't remember if my Mum felt it or not but I knew someone or something invisible had just moved past us and then I suppose it all just blossomed from there. Many years later when we finally got the internet, I looked online and sure enough, that hotel is supposedly haunted! I wish I could have gone back!
It was mainly during my twenties when I had the most interest and this gave me the most experiences, probably because I had such a big interest in it then. Then it fizzled out for a while and things didn't really happen until I decided to read up about it again and a few things happened. But now for about the last year I have really gotten in to it all again and been reading more about it than ever but still not got all of those experiences back like I did in my twenties although maybe things are just happening in different ways.
Baroness - I am curious about your tree spirits. I was curious if you have energy when you go in to wooded areas? I seem to have loads of energy when I visit wooded areas despite lacking in energy most of the time. I also have a huge love for woodlands and forests, nature and wildlife!
I've also had a few coincidences when it comes to wild birds so I think there is definitely some spirit in nature!
No one I personally know offline has as much interest in the paranormal as I do so I'm glad this and other websites exist.
I forgot to add that the GHOST film certainly made me wonder when younger if that's what happened.