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Last month Hecate covered Sting’s story about living in a haunted house, which generated a lot of spirited (sorry) conversation in the comments about people’s experiences with ghosts and belief in the supernatural. On the podcast Hecate shared more stories about her experiences with ghosts, and Celebitchy talked to her mom about a ghostly incident from her childhood that she remembered.
We can add Courtney Love to the list of celebrities who’ve had interactions with ghosts. NME’s Will Lavin recapped part of an interview that Courtney conducted with Interview Magazine in which she shared that she saw the ghost of her late husband once during the time that she was dating Edward Norton:
In a new interview for Interview Magazine, Love was asked 20 questions by a range of figures from the music and fashion worlds, including Debbie Harry, Marilyn Manson, Michael Kors, Aaron Sorkin, and Lana Del Rey. Actor Joshua Boone asked Love: “Have you ever seen a ghost?”
Remembering a time when she moved into a new home with ex-boyfriend Edward Norton, Love replied: “When I moved to Hancock Park from Seattle with Frances and Edward, I saw Kurt in a chair for a moment.”
She added: “He said hi to me and then he left.”
I’m part of the crowd that loves hearing stories like this. I believe in ghosts, though I’ve never interacted with one. Over the years, I’ve been privy to certain unexplainable occurrences. There have been more over the past couple of years, including seeing tiny spots of light that had no obvious source on a wall; having a toy randomly start making noise when no one or nothing was touching it (several days in a row). Years ago, I smelled my late grandmother’s (very distinctive) cigarettes while I was in Barnes & Noble. No one else was in the aisle with me in or the ones on either side, so there wasn’t anyone nearby who might have just come in from smoking outside. Though my grandmother had been gone for a few years, I started frantically walking up and down the other aisles just to see whether I could see her ghost, or discover another more likely source for the cigarette smell, but once I stepped out of the aisle, it disappeared. She loved reading, so it made perfect sense that she’d turn up while I was at a bookstore.
photos credit: Getty, WENN and Avalon.red
Many years ago, we travelled in Italy over a summer and stayed in a 500 year old farmhouse. My daughter had just turned five years old. She called out one night after I’d put her to bed. Her room was in the original very old part of the house. When I went up she said she couldn’t sleep because of “all the old ladies talking”. Now this house was on acres of land and vineyards and there were no neighbours for miles. No TV or radio was on. When I asked where the old ladies were, she pointed to the corners of the room and said “There. Can’t you see them mummy?” I had to make myself stay calm. I asked what they were saying. She said they were laughing and were calling out “Bella bambina”. Which is ‘pretty girl’ in Italian. She didn’t speak Italian.
She was quite unphased by it, but I brought her in to sleep with me. I’ve never forgotten it.
^^this is my biggest parenting fear LOL
She’s a very pragmatic criminal lawyer now with a slightly out there mystical side!
Cool!
Psychic abilities run in one side of my family. It passed me by, but as a little kid, my daughter Laura has always seen spirits at the foot of her bed staring at her. She can pull thoughts right out of your head–VERY unsettling. At lunch one day with her boyfriend (my daughter had to leave early for an appointment), I told him how my dad worked with the women in a garden club in Honolulu to get bill boards banned to preserve the city’s scenic beauty. Later that day, Laura scoffed, “I can’t believe you were talking about BILL BOARDS with Gabriel! How boring is that!” She had NOT spoken to him. Another time when she was pregnant, I mentioned, “I just read an unusual but not freaky name for a little girl. It’s–” “Cassandra,” my daughter blurted out. “How did you KNOW?!” I exclaimed. “Meh,” she replied. Laura had a son, Vincent, and he’s carried on the family tradition in spades. He took for granted that everyone can see ghosts/spirits. We didn’t say anything as not to scare him. Occasionally I heard him talking to someone when he was alone. When he was 3, he asked Laura. “Mommy, who’s the man in the hall? He’s following you.” What really gave us chills was the day Vincent was very agitated at something he heard. “Can’t you hear it? A little girl is crying! She’s behind that door.” He indicated the door to the water heater, which doesn’t have a handle. “You have to open it!” Humoring him, we unbolted the door and showed Vincent the water heater. “See, honey? There’s nothing else inside.” As we replaced the door, Vincent was quiet. Then he told us matter-of-factly, “She’s still crying. This time she’s in the wall.”
My old boyfriend (died 2005) left a penny on top of my undies a few months after he died. He used to dance and spread them on family members graves. I knew it had to be him because my panties were on the bathroom floor and when I went to pick them up, there it was! Not scary, but super sweet!
I lived in a house once where every night at bedtime Id hear the coats on the coat rack rustling and swishing as if someone was going through them putting on his jacket.
It scared the crap out of me and I looked around for another rental to move into as it was really affecting my life.
One day as I was walking out my gate an old man who was walking past stopped and said ‘You live in number 3 do you?’
I replied yes and he said ‘You know many years ago when I was a boy my best friend lived in that house. He rushed out the house one day and his mum ran after him with his coat and right in front of her he ran in front of a delivery truck and was killed’.
I stood there and looked at the old man and told him the rustling coat rack story and we both stood and stared at each as if in a trance.
This is a true story!
Omg how sad and spooky!
omg.
Quimby’s story about her grandmother gave me chills. I loved reading the other stories, too, can’t wait to check back for more.
The week after my grandmother died, I was reading to my son in his room and his bedside lamp started flickering. I checked the bulb but it was fine. It had never happened before and it never happened again. I felt like it was her checking in with us.
As for Kurt, I guess I wouldn’t imagine he’d have much more to say to Courtney than hi, lol. And holy hell does her face look scary now. I wouldn’t have known it was her in the header photo. Her eyes and nose look 100% different. Yikes.
When my husband and I were in town for his Grandmother’s funeral, we stayed the weekend at his parent’s house like usual. The morning of the funeral, we were lying in bed dozing a bit late, and the ceiling light flickered on and off. We’ve stayed in that room several times and his mom confirmed that she’s never had issues with the lights in the house. We’re all pretty sure it was Grandma telling us to get up because we had someplace important to be (her funeral!).
On my first birthday following the death of my father, I was backing out of my driveway when my son asked “where did that balloon come from? “
Not seeing a balloon from my vantage point I stop the car and look up to see a Mylar happy birthday balloon drifting slowly down to the ground in front of my car. The balloon had a weighted stick to keep it from getting lost so could not have come from very high. There was no explanation for where this happy birthday balloon could have come from. It was a clear and still day.
I choose to believe my dad sent it to me and thinking about it that way helped me process my grief a little. I still believe 6 years later it was him.
It was!
OMG! That happened to me too. I was missing my mom on my birthday. I watched this weighted ballon float down the street at waist level and right up to my front door and stay there. I just said “Thanks mom” out loud. It really made me feel less alone.
Is it me or is Courtney starting to resemble Samantha Markle?
Yes. And these ghost stories are more believable than her face.
You win! Bwhahaha…lol
She certainly doesn’t look like Courtney Love. Without that headline and that old pic with Kurt Cobain, I would have no idea who this woman is. Poor thing.
Yes! That’s who she looks like! I couldn’t pin it down.
(I thought, Kristin Scott Thomas mixed with Melanie Griffith.)
Courtney is a mess (and has been one for years) but that’s really a terrible thing to say about anyone!
Bah.
My mom passed away last year ,the second day I woke up and saw a bright light on a chair in the room, then a week later my bedroom door which i always shut at night was wide open in the morning (my house is pretty secure with an alarm so Noone can get in) recently I had a strong smell of her perfume out of the blue !
i lived in a house for 3 months that was haunted. it was me in the 3rd floor apartment and there was a tenant in a basement apartment. the owner was an antique dealer so the 1st and 2nd floor of the house was staged and used as his showroom. i had to walk through the front door and the main house to get to my apartment. the kitchen had a servants stair to the 2nd floor were roped off b/c the 5 middle stairs were completely collapsed in and yet – i heard someone rushing up and down those stairs ALL. NIGHT. LONG. footsteps from the kitchen up the stairs, across the landing to the front bedroom and back down the stairs. i brought two different friends in to witness. one of them didn’t know before coming over that it had been happening and he was very brave and skeptical and convinced me to go down and we sat about a foot away from where the footsteps were and heard them as clear as day as if a person was walking by. it happened about 3 times in an hour. then i broke my lease and moved out.
My mother died of a sudden heart attack. After the funeral the whole family was gathered with Dad in their home. Unexpected rain whipped up and all the power in the house went off. After a few minutes my youngest sister ran out to her car and drove around to all the nearby houses. She reported back that no one else had lost power. A few minutes later, lights came back on. We always wondered.
After my mother died we cleaned out her apartment and divided up a lot of her belongings. I brought all of her linens to my house. While I was standing at my table folding her towels I could still smell the fabric softener she used and and it just hit me so hard that she was gone that I just stood there clutching the towels and sobbing. At that moment I could feel a hand rubbing my shoulders in comfort. I turned around to see if my son was behind me but the room was empty. I was alone in the house but I believe that my mother was trying to comfort me.
My son has never been really talkative, but when he was around three I heard him out in the garden, having a long giggly discussion with someone invisible, as if he were answering questions about his summer and his favorite things and so on. (He never talked to himself like some kids do.) I was so confused I didn’t ask who he was talking to! Or, I guess I didn’t want to barge in in his – clearly very real to him – moment. I have always thought it was my grandfather who died a year before my son was born.
After my mom died, I went through her stuff and found some garments that her mom had made. They had embroidery and really special touches. My mom collected all kinds of things from around the world, so I began to wonder whether these were actually from her mom, or from somewhere else.
I had a dream in which her mom came to me and laughed at me for thinking someone else could have made them! She and I met only a few time, when I was an infant. So, this rings true for me.
How fortunate for your son! My experience with this sort of thing seems to indicate that it is not easy for those who have passed to make this kind of contact. It is a true act of love.
Unrelated to ghosts, but the full interview with Love was a great read. Back in the day she and Shirley Manson and PJ Harvey were my inspiration. They were so freely themselves.
Yay! Ghost stories!
Esmom’s flickering light reminded me; I had an uncle who died and I never really liked him. I always found him creepy. As far as I know he never did anything creepy, I just got that vibe from him. So he dies, and about a week later the lights in my bathroom started flickering anytime I was naked. They were fine if I had clothes on, the second I stripped down to get in the shower they started flickering. And I just had the feeling that he was there. I didn’t feel scared, more annoyed and would roll my eyes and say in my head “hope you’re enjoying the show you creep”. It went on for a few weeks then finally stopped. It’s been about 5 years and the lights have never flickered since.
Next she’ll be visited by ghosts of her faces past
@ CLAIRE-DEAD ☻💀
So do we think ghosts stay in the houses/places where they died or do they move around and follow their loved ones? Or both?
Both.
I have a “DJ Ghost” who plays the perfect track (or the perfectly ironic track) but who seems utterly harmless otherwise, who has moved with me to at least three homes and shows up on the random. But some ghosts seem very attached to a physical location.
The music ghost has a hilarious sense of both humor and timing! As one might expect of a ghost DJ! I’ve noticed this in my past three or four homes. It was especially expert at trolling a particular past housemate. The Mr can back me up on this!
What’s really funny about this is that everyone always suspects me, but it is literally the ipod shuffle! While I’m across the room! Yet, the timing and selection is Spot. On.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
My grandma lets us know she’s around with tails up dimes. Almost every time I’ve had moments of distress and sadness there my grandma is. Same with my mom and my aunts. Maybe my brother has seen her around too, I’ll have to ask him.
Kurt probabky paid a visit to ask, “who are you and what have you done with Courtney’s face?”.
It’s astonishing to me that someone can change their face that much that it bears zero resemblance to who she once was. Everything is different. Her mouth, her nose, the shape of her eyes. How is that possible.
I’ve been visited in my dreams by my ex who hung himself. In the dreams, we always talk and cuddle. He hung himselfmin his room. One dream, I noticed we were always in our old house, but never ever his room. I begged him to come with me to his room. He suddenly turned white and grabbed his throat and said “ I can’t…. it burns.” He kept grabbing his throat saying he couldn’t go in that room. 😓💔
Poor boo. XOXOX.
The thing that causes these transmissions is pure love energy. Or, so I believe.
I wish I could better figure out my DJ ghost. Is it my mom? Is it someone I should recognize, who loves me? Or is it just someone who thinks I’m entertaining? (Admittedly, I *am* entertaining.)
I can’t tell!