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Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve talked about how I’m fascinated by dreams and other “Universe-y” things like intuition, synchronicities, psychic abilities, etc. Well, Halloween season is officially upon us, so naturally, we’re moving right along into another topic that I find fascinating: ghost stories!
On a recent episode of Rob Lowe’s podcast, “Literally! With Rob Lowe,” Kevin Bacon shared a story about his Connecticut farmland being haunted. Kevin, who grew up as a city boy in Philadelphia, decided to buy a farmhouse in 1983. He ended up loving country life so much that he started buying up the land surrounding it in order to maintain his privacy. And this is where Bacon’s ghost story begins… <Muahahaha! Cue spooky organ music.>
“I’ll tell you a funny story,” Bacon began. “The guy that sold me the house, he lived across the road.”
“One of the pieces [of land] that we bought had an old house in it and he didn’t want me to own the house. It was an abandoned house that he had grown up in,” he continued. “And we kind of went back and forth on it for a while and then eventually I said, ‘Listen, you can’t sell me a piece of land but not sell me the house that’s on it.’ ”
“He said, ‘I can’t sell it to you because it’s haunted and I’m afraid that you’ll get possessed and, you know, do some serious damage,’” Bacon said. The Mystic River star said that he and the owner “went back and forth on this haunted house thing” for a while before finally working things out.
“We finally came to an agreement in the contract that I had to destroy it within, I don’t know, a month or something like that,” he told Lowe, who then asked the actor if he ever spent a night in the ghost-infested house.
Bacon said he did not.
“Not only did I not do that, but I went up there and there were some beautiful old pine boards and a banister and I said to [wife Kyra Sedgwick], ‘We gotta take those out,’ And she’s like, ‘No, you’re not. You’re not putting those f—ing things in our house.’ ”
Lowe — whose fascination with the supernatural is no secret — also asked about the origin of the ghouls.
“It was a long story that had to do with a Native American who in the 1700s had been murdered, I think, by a colonial soldier,” Bacon shared. Before selling the house, the owner even “had ghostbusters there,” according to the actor. “It was a whole long thing,” he said.
The movie star, who has been in several horror movies throughout his career — most recently Peacock’s “They/Them” — also shared his personal stance on the paranormal.
“I always find that when you’re in a scary movie, everybody wants to know, ‘Well, have you ever seen a ghost?’ or ‘Do you, you know, believe in ghosts?’” Bacon said. “And the thing I always say is ‘I would really love to but as of yet, it just hasn’t happened. But I hope someday that it will.’ ”
The podcast host, who does believe in the paranormal, recalled his “intense” experience filming his ghost-hunting series The Lowe Files with his two sons — including a conversation he had with a ghost.
“I wish that I had kept that house up. That would’ve been a great episode,” Bacon joked. “Celebrity haunted house.”
“I would’ve been there in a minute,” Lowe responded.
I love these kinds of stories and can listen to them all day (or at least until approximately two hours before bedtime). I’m so excited that Snap Judgement and Glynn Washington have made the Spooked podcast free again. Seriously, feel free to share any supernatural stories if you got ‘em. I am *here* for them. Anyway, I really want a follow-up interview with the man who sold Kevin that house. I’d love to know what his personal experiences were (if there really were any) and what happened with their ghostbusters ordeal. The story he told sounds a bit lot cliché, but as they say, I want to believe. I also had no idea that Rob Lowe and his kids had their own ghost-hunting series, hahaha.
Photos credit: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon and Getty
When my grandma passed away. She came for a visit to my then boyfriend’s now husband’s family house while we were sleeping in his bedroom. We both felt her I saw her as I knew her. I didn’t feel scared or anything as I had done nothing wrong to her. We were never close and I think it was her way of saying goodbye.
The closest encounters I have ever had have all been with friends/family who had passed (or, in one case, someone who was about to pass and was slipping in and out of consciousness at the time). The encounters were dreamlike, but characteristically different than regular dreams. It’s hard to explain if you haven’t lived it. A bit like getting a call from the great beyond. You kinda just have to pick up and go with it.
My advice is, if you experience something like this, just be grateful for it and don’t try too hard to make it make sense. The one message I have received from absolutely everyone (regardless of our relationship at the time) was that they were well, and in a better place, and that they wished that all of us who loved them weren’t so upset about their passing.
One of the most dramatic experiences (besides my grandmother who I only met as an infant turning up and laughing at me for not realizing she had created a piece of art I had just inherited) was when I woke up thinking I had a voicemail from a recently departed bestie. when I realized that was impossible, I fell into despair. I missed her so much.
once I got back to sleep, she showed up again and informed me that the voicemail didn’t matter because I could actually hear her voice any time I wanted by remembering, and that in fact it wasn’t that easy to make this kind of contact from her end. which makes a lot of sense, if sense is even something that can even be applied to this sort of thing. heh.
I don’t tend to see entities etc but once I did work somewhere that was actively haunted and was touched on the shoulder. it was intense! but that is another story.
Those are definitely special experiences when they are with someone you loved.
My father wasn’t in the picture when I was growing up, so my grandfather was my father figure. I completely adored him. When I visited him in the hospital when he was dying, he told me that Grandma had come to see the night before and she was as beautiful and healthy as she had been when they were teens (they had been together since they were 16). He died the next day, so I like to think she came back to be with him in the end.
I was devastated when he died and about a month later, I had such a clear dream of them, picnicking together in the summer and they told me that they were happy and I would be okay and not to worry.
@Lise, there was a recent episode – Aug 7, I think – of My Favorite Murder podcast that included stories of dying people being visited by previously deceased loved ones. In one story, a dying woman said she was visited by her deceased husband and daughter, who said they were there to pick her up. She told them they’d have to come back because she needed to tell her living daughter some things.
@elle, I’ve heard of that many times. There was a memoir about it by a hospice nurse a while back who saw it repeatedly (the book wasn’t good but it’s interesting to hear how often that happens).
@Bee (not that bee): I find your story about the one comment everyone made, really comforting. Thank you for that.
About six months after my friend died, I had a dream we were having coffee. I told her I was so sad she was gone, and she said, “Don’t worry about me! I’m having the time of my life!” It was really comforting.
My brother and his wife and three sons lived in a former bordello for several years and there were a number of weird things happening.
Dana used to wake up with handprint-shaped bruises on her legs and the prints were too small for my brother and too large for any of my nephews.
One time, she was alone in the house, doing laundry. She went to put the load from the washer into the dryer and noticed that her favorite pjs weren’t there, but distinctly recalled putting them in the washer. She said, “That’s it. I’ve had it with you guys! I’m going to go start supper and when I come back, I expect to find my pajamas on the dryer!” She went to start supper. Came back about 10 minutes later and her pajamas were dry and neatly folded on top of the dryer.
My mom had a similar experience in the house our family lived in. There has been a man who lived and died there and we could hear footsteps in the middle of the night when nobody was up.
We also had this crappy washing machine in the basement that my dad had snagged from a laundromat. My dad had removed the box into which the quarters went and every time my mom did laundry the quarters would jump and sometimes land behind the machine or beside the machine. One time she left the basement, too tired to retrieve them. When she went back downstairs later, the quarters were all neatly lined up on top of the machine. She was the only one home.
We rented a house on the lake for spring break and had a fire going in the fire pit. My hubs & son were outside by the fire. I came into the kitchen to grab some things & wash my hands. As I was getting ready to go back outside, a deep loud voice screamed at me to turn off the lights. I gasped & ran outside, told my hubs someone was in the house. He ran in to investigate, no one was there. To this day I don’t know if it was an intruder or a ghost, but I was terrified for the rest of the trip & we left a day early.
Spirits / ghosts are real. I’m a shamanic practitioner apprentice and I’ve done psychopomp work – which is helping disembodied spirits cross over. Some do not want to cross over, some are protecting the land, many are confused or scared of “hell” (there is no hell). The astral realm is all around us, and our five senses are ‘tuned’ to only pick up the physical for our physical survival. We have other senses to pick up on the spirit realm that we can work with and strengthen. They have gone ‘offline’ for some is us due to the many generations of persecution of healers, mystics, shamans, etc.
Ohhh, I’m so on the same page as you, and I’d love to get more of your insight! How do you suggest strengthening “other” senses?
The best way is to follow your intuition on all things magical, mystical, and spiritual. Take courses and workshops that interest you. They are activations to help us remember (we’re not learning new things, we are remembering who we are – spiritual beings). Some practices will resonate and some won’t but they all help us remember. Work with oracle cards, pendulums, etc. Be careful consuming media that is stressful and fear-based (news, horror, true crime, popular entertainers that use demonic symbology in their shows to be edgy, etc) – we are energy and we call ‘dark / negative / chaotic energy’ to us when we get into that state. Notice animals – they’re often bringing messages from spirit. For example when building my healing business I would see woodpeckers, but they would always be trying out a tree for a few seconds and then moving along. They were teaching me to keep moving until I found a ‘juicy spot’. Squirrels remind us to play while we build our resources. And it’s also important to work on ourselves, heal childhood wounding that is actually karmic content replaying from past lives until we heal it. Heal from tendencies to people please, etc. The wounding anchors us into realms of survival / stress / resentment, healing brings us into the heart-space and realms of peace / love / empowerment. And importantly laugh a lot, have fun in this crazy world. And enjoy the journey of remembering who you really are <3
We lived in a haunted house. The ghost was constantly walking up and down the stair at night and turning the lights on and off. It occasionally lit candles, but I made it clear that was not ok. The cat was really spooked by it, but we didn’t mind. It’s not like ghost take up any space.
As for the ‘until two hours before bedtime’ thing, I hear you. I just started on the X-Files (I watched some in real time back in the day but not diligently) and that is definitely not before bed tv for me. I scare easily.
Sarahcs I got hooked on the XFiles when it first came on air in early ‘90’s. I was single and living alone at the time & XFIles was on Friday nights. There were some episodes I would tape on vcr to watch Saturday during the day or I knew I’d be sleeping with all the lights on.
I thought you had to do something more than just tear a haunted house down because the spirits can stay at the site. It’s not just the house that’s haunted – it’s the grounds the house is on too. And I thought spirits could actually get angry if you tear it down without releasing them? Idk maybe I’ve seen too many movies.
True. They needed to get a medium to try to get them to cross over.
We stayed at the Hotel del Coronado (a bucket list thing for me…it’s so beautiful) after I passed my board exam. It’s known to be haunted. We were staying in the old part of the hotel and when we stepped off the elevator, my 3yo son said, “Where did all the people go?” We asked him, “What people?” and he said, “The people on the elevator.” We were the only people there.
I also worked in a clinic that everyone swore was haunted. The front desk staff wouldn’t leave alone and people would see and hear things. One night I was there by myself. I walked past a treatment room and saw someone sitting in there. She looked right in my eyes as I passed. I was like, “How is there still a patient in here??” When I looked back in, she was gone. On the drive home a huge barn owl swooped across my car. According to my tribal lore, owls are sort of spirit messengers from the dead. I freaked out. Lol
“Stir of Echoes” is an *excellent* scary Kevin Bacon movie. One of my short list of movies I’ll watch whenever I come across it.
Yeah, boy–it’s terrific work. It’s hard to know what is scariest–the ghost…or the bad news underneath that close-knit community’s friendly “do anything for ya” faces.
I stayed at the Partridge Inn in Augusta, GA with my dog and my friend. Our room was on the first floor at the very end of the hallway in the original part of the building. My dog is very well trained and knows to be quiet in hotels so as not to disturb other guests. After we checked in that evening, several of the hotel staff commented on how polite and silent he was, even when other dogs were nearby.
At about 12:30 am, we were all asleep, with my dog lying at my feet. My bed faced the door to the hallway. It was perfectly quiet, but all of a sudden my dog stood up on the bed with his tail sticking straight up in the air and started snarling and growling at the door like we have never heard before! Both my friend and I woke up and tried to calm him down, but it took a long time to get him to settle down.I looked out the peephole, and there was no one there. Plus I already knew that the hotel staff said no one was staying in the rooms around us.
The next morning I Googled the hotel and discovered it is haunted by a female ghost named Emily. The front desk strongly suspected my dog’s reaction was to her as she has been known wander in that area of the hotel.
So yeah, ghosts are real.
If you love these kind of stories, check out the Other World podcast. It is true life first-person paranormal encounters that are well researched and absolutely fascinating. I am completely obsessed with it. Never miss an episode.
Oh, thanks! I will check that one out. For more campy/fun I enjoy A Funny Feeling, and Ghosted by Roz Hernandez. Both have listener stories and guests.
I love spooky stories. I’m pretty skeptical about a lot, but it’s still fun, and there are some I absolutely believe.
Thank you for the podcast recommendations! I just subscribed to all 3 of these.
The first home that my ex and I purchased was about 100 years old and the old orphanage across the street that another neighbour owned was over 100 years old. I was walking into the back room and there was a little boy sitting in the little “pop” tent in the playroom. I saw him, it registered that my kids didn’t have any friends over and I think I said “what are you doing here?” and POOF. He was gone and I never saw him again. A worker was in our basement and could feel something going on. After I told him about the little boy, he was out of there.
I had several dreams about my dad when he died but they weren’t memories – they were him giving me advice about something troubling me. So I took his advice whenever he gave it to me in a dream and guess what? It was always good advice.
On our property, there is a fenced area with two tombstones – one marked and one unmarked (smaller, maybe a child). The marked one is dated 1812-1870. One of the first things my husband and I did when we moved here was landscape that area to make it look well kept and pretty in case the residents are still present.
Towards the back of our property, there are 12 one foot tall stones about 6 feet apart. Maybe at some point the previous owners planned to do something there, but I think it’s a civil war graveyard (we are in Kentucky). So then we had to landscape that area too. Better safe than sorry!
Finally, the previous owners of our house, who built it, may have died here (like in hospice, not nefariously). I make sure to compliment Mr. Holloway and Mrs. Holloway often in case they are still around. “Mr. Holloway picked out really nice wood for this house” or “I love that the Holloways selected such a nice deep sink.”
We’ve had several bad storms and tornadoes in the area and while we’ve had tree damage, none have come close to the house.
I wasn’t going to put it in the post itself but my “story” is actually my mom and grandma’s. About a year or two after my grandfather died, my mom had a dream that he was back at my grandparents’ house, walking around and talking to her. When she asked him what he was doing there, he said, “I’m just here for a visit to check on things.” When she spoke to my grandma the next day, the very first thing my grandma said to her was, “Your father was here ‘for a visit’ last night. I heard him walking around, he kept me awake.” She said this before my mom even had a chance to tell her about the dream.
Another time, my sister and mom were out in NYC to see a Broadway play. They stopped for food beforehand and my sister said something like, “Remember when grandma and grandpa used to take us to see shows? And Grandpa used to give us money to buy something at intermission?” As they were leaving the restaurant, my sister – no joke – randomly found a $20 bill on the sidewalk. She is certain that my grandpa left it there for her to find to get something at intermission.
I have a few stories about my grandpa coming to me in dreams but honestly, they’re not nearly as cool as those two.
Thanks for sharing, Rosie!! That’s amazing that your mother was dreaming what your Grandmother was simultaneously experiencing in her home with your Grandfather’s visit. Amazing, and quite beautiful.
I love this story so much. I live in AZ and one of the local radio shows is doing ‘Did Kevin Bacon Destroy a Methlab?!’ The funny story runs that this guy sold him the property and told him the house was haunted and needed to be destroyed so Kevin would clean up his tracks! Hahahaaa!
LMFAO!
My spouse and I were out on the sidexside late one night. We had dozens of owls in the trees sitting and a bunch flying and swooping silently around us. Not one hoot and I mean there had to be 40-50+
Oddest and coolest thing I’ve ever seen.
Lots of stories in my family. I definitely believe, too many things have happened not to.
I was visiting my husband’s grandma for the first time at her house in Baton Rouge. In the middle of the night I went to the bathroom, and while I was walking down the hall, I looked sideways into an open door and out of the corner of my eye, like a mirage, I saw the quickest glimpse of an older man wearing blue trousers and suspenders and a white shirt. I looked again and the man was gone.
I asked grandma E about it the next day, and she said, “Oh, you met Bill. He does come and visit me still.” — her husband, who had died the previous year.
I still don’t know if it was a mirage or a dream or a trick of the eye, but I could identify him somehow down to his clothes…
My stepson has always seen spirits from as young as he can remember – they know he can see them and they try to communicate with him.
His parents never really believed him so he stopped talking to them about it. When I came along, I totally believed him and he would describe what he saw in detail. There was one spirit in our house who was angry and would not leave him alone. He became freaked out and moved his bedroom from the basement to the top floor with the rest of the family.
Eventually, I took him to a medium when he was 16 and she helped that spirit cross over – he was stuck in the physical plane. It was a man from about 100 years ago whose whole family had passed on but he didn’t, and he was looking for his family.
That experience freaked my boy out a bit as he had proof his sightings were real and his experiences were valid, even when his parents didn’t believe him. That spirit never bothered him again after that…
I went to law school at Maryland and the law school is based in downtown Baltimore. So naturally, I rented out a 200 year old rowhouse with 2 other girls a few blocks from the school. That place was definitely haunted. I remember coming home one evening after class, when it was dark and no one else was home. I distinctly heard heavy footsteps walking around on the second floor. I called both my roommates just to make sure they weren’t home and they answered their phones and confirmed they weren’t. Just as I was about to walk up the stairs to investigate ( I know,I know, idiot #1 over here) the living room stereo turned on by itself full blast. And it was unplugged. I hauled ass out and stayed at my boyfriend’s place for the next few nights. My roommates confirmed they had strange occurances too.
Also, the newly build Maryland law school occupies a huge city block that also compromises a centuries old church, Westminster church, and a graveyard where Revolutionary war soldiers are buried, along with the grave of Edgar Allen Poe. The school owned the church but rarely used it and I asked a veteran beat cop one night about it. He confessed that no one wanted to be in there by themselves because they would also hear footsteps stomping around, organ music playing and the sounds of children singing.
Also, on a totally vain subject, Kevin Bacon is so hot!! He just gets better and better!!
I had an odd experience years ago. My godmother was in her 80’s & had a stroke. I visited her several times and she remembered my recent visit wedding but inevitably she’d revert to her childhood & even speak french(her first language). She then had another stroke which left her in a coma. I visited once & felt so sad that I selfishly didn’t visit again. A few months later I was on a business trip with colleagues & had a dream about godmother Cecile. I was in a restaurant & she came in looking just as she did when I was a child. I went up to her & asked her to come sit a while. She said: No dear your uncle (her deceased husband) is waiting for me. Then she exited the restaurant. I related dream to colleagues & everyone thought it odd. A week later my mom phoned me to say Cecile died in her sleep. I believe she came to me in dream to say goodbye.
I feel like birds come to tell me when someone is going to die. Also, someone who has passed will return as a bird and hang around for a while. I mean hang around in a way that is unusual for birds. We have a tiny semi-urban back yard so it’s odd for a bird to just choose a spot there and pretty much stick around for a few days without building a nest or flying away.
With my sister, it was an owl. My husband came home from work and was at the front door. I went to open it for him and as I was approaching he said “Oh my God!” An owl had been perched over the door just staring down at him. We had never seen an owl that close to the house before. Normally, they stay in the trees and they certainly don’t get close to a human intentionally. And we just don’t get many owls in general.
I told my husband I thought it was about his grandfather, who was then very ill (and in his mid 80s). I just had a feeling the owl was a sign his grandfather was about to pass. Instead, my sister died suddenly about a week later.
I love me some haunted Bacon history. Spooky szn is here and I am(un)living for it. PS can anyone else see a sort of grey shadow or a..Diminishing aura around ill/ very old people and animals? It’s like a slight mist….asking for a friend.
I’m so happy to see a shout-out for Glynn Washington’s Spooked Podcast here! Its stories are all real, which in some cases, is just beyond belief. The production quality, and Glynn’s story telling are amazing. It’s the reason Podcasts were invented, for me anyway. The shows available on the NPR link in the article are all from past seasons. Does anyone know when Season 8 comes out, and where to find it? I don’t see it on Patreon yet.
@HillaryIsAlwaysRight – good catch about the link, thank you! I thought Season 8 started about a month ago. After they removed the Luminary paywall, they played a lot of repeats that were previously behind it but for the past month, it’s been ones I haven’t heard yet. I’m looking at the list in my Podcasts App, and I think the new ones may have started with the ep “Dod” on Aug. 25. Please let me know if I am wrong!
Ugh Dod… yeah that’s an old one, too. I messaged them through Patreon. I’ll let you know if I hear back.
I have so many. I have been always able to see spirits, my whole life. After my son died my husband and I constantly saw him in the house. CONSTANTLY. It was very precious and comforting. I do think that it was residual energy, not actually him. But yeah, I’ve got tons of stories.
One house we moved into I saw a blonde lady in a housedress with her hair done up, within a couple of days of living there. I worked from home @ that house and I cuss a lot when frustrated, and one day when I was having a work meltdown, I hear this light, lady like voice say “here, here, what’s this?” I apologized to her but I never saw her again after that. (I saw her a handful of times total). I can hear, see, smell them, not always all of those senses at once though.
They show themselves right away usually. I do not ask them to leave, I ask them to be polite. We had a man in our basement that kept turning on the light when my husband would go outside at night to smoke (freaked him out). So I went in the basement one night, told the spirit that I was working two jobs and could not afford for him to leave the lights on all the time, that it was ok for him to use them, but he had to turn them off when he was done, and HE DID LOLOL My poor hubs, he gets freaked out.
I saw an orb once. I was taking the trash out. It was big..like 5 feet? I played it off like my eyes were playing tricks on me. Next day, had my daughter in the truck with me and she wouldnt stay seated in her carseat, she kept turning around looking behind us…I finally said SISSY SIT DOWN she goes Mama look! She pointed out the back window..I looked in my rear view mirror instead of turning around and there the same kind of orb was only a lot smaller like the size of a globe. Just kind of trailing behind us.
Really enjoyed this post, because Kevin Bacon is just a wonderful guy.
But even better are all of these incredible stories here in the comments!! Thanks for sharing all you beautiful CB’s! ❤️
I loved reading these comments and I’m so jealous! I have never had any kind of paranormal experience or had anyone come to me in a dream. No ghost sightings either but I’d sure be open to it.
I forgot to post what I actually came here for. I’m with the poster who opined that Kevin was duped into tearing down a meth lab. Makes more sense than the old haunted house routine.
I have had quite a few in my life. They aren’t as often as I get older, but they still happen.
The first that I know of for sure is when my dad’s dad died. He past away from cancer in the middle of the night when I was 7. I had woken up in the middle of the night and he was sitting on the edge of my bed, in full Native dress, and let me know that it was ok, and that I had to be a good girl for my daddy because he was going to be sad in the morning. I said ok and he hummed the Swan Lake theme song to me until I went to sleep. The last time I saw him, we watched Karen Kain and the National Ballet dance it on TV. Dad came into my room early the next morning to tell me and get me up so we could pack to go (my grandparents lived in a different city) and I hugged him and told him it would be ok, before he gave me the news. That still weirds him out to this day.
Anyone followed the Dear David tweets? I’m convinced it’s not a fake.
Love all these paranormal stories in this thread.
My god, he destroyed a beautiful house.