Mark’s Ghost Story

Last week I mentioned my good friend Mark. Every once in a while I try to get him into a discussion about my interests in the supernatural. He usually will only accommodate me briefly before trying to change the topic. You see, even though he had the same realization about fate as I did, I believe for him it is more of a way of interpreting the world. I don’t think Mark really believes that there is some sort of fatalistic force that influences our lives, and he certainly doesn’t believe that God is controlling our lives.

On one occasion I asked Mark if he really had never had anything happen to him that struck him as supernatural. He admitted that yes in fact there had been but it didn’t interest him in the least. Mark is a scientist and to him the only things that interest him are things and events that can be studied by science. In his words “if you can’t kick it and if it doesn’t kick back I’m not interested in it.” The problem with studying the supernatural is that almost by definition it can’t be analysed scientifically. It doesn’t seem to involve forces and energy that are apart of our normal reality. That is why I like collecting stories. It isn’t science, but I think it gives you hints about what is going on. It is really the only think we have got. With this in mind I pushed Mark further: “Even if you aren’t interested in the supernatural, I am and I would like to hear your story.” And this is his story.

Mark had had this long on-again, off-again relationship with this woman, Tara, in Edmonton. He finally broke the romantic ties with her but remained a close friend and would visit her whenever he happened to be passing through town. On this one occasion he made a special trip up to visit Tara as she had recently lost her dog Fallah. Tara had been extremely close to Fallah and it was clear to Mark that Tara wasn’t handling the death well.

Now I guess I should point out that Tara believes she has the 3rd Eye and can see auras and ghosts. Apparently she once told Mark that I have one of the blackest auras she has ever seen. I think this is because I have a tendency to be cynical and sceptical – hard to believe, ain’t it folks? Tara would probably be one of the last people I would collect a story from about the supernatural because she strikes me as a person who needs to believe in things – anything. This I think makes her vulnerable to suggestion.

Now when Mark arrived at Tara’s house Tara told him that she had already been visited a couple of times by Fallah’s ghost. I don’t think Mark really believed this, but he had heard this sort of thing many times before from Tara and just considered it part of her persona, and so didn’t question her about it.

That evening Tara suffered another blue spell over the loss of her dog and had started crying. Mark sat her down on the couch, put his arm around her and tried to console her as much as possible. Then after a while Mark noticed a light in the corner of the room. It didn’t move but just seemed to light up that section of the room. Tara stopped crying and looked over towards the light. She asked Mark “Do you see that light over there?” Mark said he did and then Tara replied “That’s Fallah. He just came into the room.” Mark couldn’t see Fallah, just the light, but then all of sudden he felt something rub up against his legs just as if a dog had had squeezed passed him. The next moment Mark then saw Tara recline backwards into the couch, just as if a large dog had stood up and put its paws on Tara’s chest. Tara then started speaking to Fallah as she would have when he was alive. The dog however stayed only briefly and the next thing Mark noticed was the light had gone out in the corner of the room.

Comments
I find that this story has lots in common with the story about my wife hearing the voice of her dead friend Henrietta while I saw the red light in her eyes. In this case Tara saw the ghost and Mark saw a light in the corner of the room. Tara, the person the Ghost is visiting, is able to see the ghost, but Mark the bystander sees the light. Also, Mark and I were both acting to console the other over their loss. This story does differ in that Mark could actually feel the ghost. In fact I think this is my only story in which someone feels a ghost touch them. There is another difference in that the story doesn’t take place late at night after waking up. It did, though, happen in the evening, if that is worth anything.

Again, I like this story because it happened to two people so they can corroborate the event. Admittedly I would have never believed the story from Tara, but since Mark is such a sceptic, to me the story is worth gold. Ironically he still doesn’t really believe in ghosts.

Having said this I have to come clean about something. Once again I tried verifying the facts of this story and so contacted Mark about it. I was curious to find out if the light Mark saw was also red. To quote Mark “I don’t recall the colour of the light. In fact I don’t really recall the event at all. Although I don’t doubt it happened.” Yikes! I’m not doing very well here folks. It’s curious that similar to my friend Morna he couldn’t recall any of the detail, although didn’t deny the story. On one hand it seems clear that to my friends these stories don’t overly concern them and so they forget the details over time. The question is how much am I embellishing the stories purely because of my fascination for the stories? Am I subconsciously adding on to the stories in some way because they are always in the back of my mind? Obviously I made a big mistake in not documenting these stories when I first heard them.