I don't know if anyone else has this "problem" but I hate steps! I can't go down them or up them without being paranoid. Especially my basement stairs. I can go down fine. But when I go to come up them it feels as if something is "rushing" up behind me and my heart starts pounding and I slam the door shut behind me (not like that would stop it!). It is now happening on the upper level in my house as well. I know it isn't my sister that passed away because I have a frightened feeling. She would always be playful and run up behind me and smack my butt (sisters =P ) So I know it is not her. It isn't my father in law either. The only person I can think of is the person who murdered my sister. He died of an overdose in Dec. but I have a feeling it just isn't him either (he has my sister to face). It just recently started happening. Does anyone else have this or something like this happen to them? I have always had the feeling as if someone was behind me coming up the stairs but never to the point it scared me.
*~*Sonia*~*

I get that feeling all the time no matter where I am...I just get so paranoid when I go down them too...just thinking what might be waiting for me at the bottom...Once again I share your feelings about going up them...I always thing something or someone is behind me and i must get out of there! I don't know why!

I also have a thing with stairs, especially cellar steps. Its not a feeling of someone behind me but someone under the stairs. I get the feeling that someone is under the stairs just waiting to grab at my feet. I got this feeling alot as a kid. We had steps that were open so I would always run up or down them as quickly as I could. But even now I get the same feeling and I have stairs that are closed and a finished basement.

[ March 18, 2003, 01:45 PM: Message edited by: blackadder ]

Willow is it just in your house or all stairs?

I had that feeling in my first apartment. We had access to a partially finished attic. My husband and I would fight to see who would get the finished part for their own. Long story short, he won, but "decided" I could have it after a few months. Once I started using the space, I could understand why. I was constantly looking over my shoulder. For 7 of our 8 years there we used the space as storage. In the house we are in now, there is an area of the finished basement that gives me the willies. When I have to open the access panel door for the fuse box, I am always expecting to see a face behind there! It does not help that my dog will not step one paw on the stairs let alone go down there. This is the same dog that would follow me everywhere I go no matter how many times he has to get up. All the other animals have no problems down there.
I am not overly sensative to stuff and these 2 areas were not creepy looking. I never could figure out why I would get so unreasonably freaked out.

Go figure!

Whew!! It's nice to know that I am not the only one! What is funny about it is that it was only my house I had the feelings. But now it follows me even to my fathers house. I went as far as telling my sister,"Look if your trying to freak me out, you win now Stop!!" She always said when she passed that she would play tricks on me. But it isn't her, not the feeling I get anyhow. I have always been afraid of steps. My mother said that one of my past lives may have ended by falling down steps or related to steps. She may be right! Thanks everyone! It is a relief that I am not alone!!

Hi Willow,
You are not alone! I usually don't have a problem with stairs, but in two houses I lived in they gave me the creeps, very similar to what you described. One house in particular had a winding staircase and I always felt major heebie-jeebies when I was at the top, ready to go down. It always felt like something was right behind me, ready to give a little push. Friends and family who visited said it effected them the same way. The other house gave me the creeps when I would go upstairs. One relative flatly refused to climb the stairs in that house because it terrified her so badly. I think I'll stick to single story houses for awhile!

Ive never had trouble with stairs. Although Ive heard storys from others with such experiences many times over and Ive pondered the question a lot in the times I have heard it. If you consider for a moment that many horror stories have incidents with stairs, most of it would be inplanted in our subconscious.
Stairs are usually used a lot, so there would be a lot of energy both negative and positive which also would account for such a creeped out feel.
I used to live in a place where I had what was basically a house away from the main house and I used it as studio of sorts. I would walk down to the studio all hours of the night and early morining no problems. A few times I would be working late, and considering locking up and going back to the main house for sleep. When that dreaded feel, of dont go out there would hit. Id sit and creep myself out and then get angry with myself and just march right out to go back up to the main house. Of course I would run all the way back, thinking dont look back, as if like mentioned, there was something rushing up behind me. The feel was quiet awful. Im a grown woman, and chastise myself a lot when it happens LOL. I got very annoyed with that feeling as it started to happen on a regular bases. So I pondered what could be happening. Eventually I came up with two theories, which probably would work for the stair feel.
Some where there is a slight bend in time, and youve actually walked down the path/stairs, but when you come back or go down you actually run into your self in the small bend in time doing the same thing and you get the feel something rushing up behind you ie your self.

The other theory is that because one does the same thing over and over, this acts as some sort of energy transmittor, which attracts other energy forms.

Either way, the feel is bad, and Ive never really been able to pinpoint why it actually happens.
Id love to know others views on why this may happen and why the feel is so strong.

[ March 24, 2003, 06:49 PM: Message edited by: Gianes ]

Interesting theories. In my case, I would almost have to go with the second one, about transmitting and attracting energies.
In the one particular house I mentioned, I would catch myself standing still at the top of the stairs, almost frozen, and getting a real sense that something was behind me, like it was trying to touch me. Really creepy! I've got to admit, when that feeling came over me, I wouldn't turn around, afraid of what I would come face to face with.

It was a relief to read that others have this feeling too. I've always had people who have passed on around me and some of them have made me feel uneasy but not many. sometimes I can go up the stairs day or night and I get this overwhelming feeling that someone is running up the stairs behind me and then it suddenly stops, there is an amazing cold feeling behind me then that goes. It has never hurt me just put deep fear in me for a few seconds.Also if I've nodded off in the evening on the sofa after the kids have gone to bed I sometimes get woken up with a start as though someone is standing over me, I half expect to see someone there above me. I know that I haven't given answers but sometimes knowing your not on your own is reassuring

Hi

I think that context playes important role on this as in many other phenomena...indeed an old house with a dark basement makes us more frightened and eager to "see" or "feel" something strange...just think that it may be a reaction of ourselves in order to be mentally protected we tend to give an explanation either logical or through our senses...certainly although i don't beleive anything concerning ghosts i must admitt that there are some certain places that have more "energy" than others...and i mean it through a positive way as well...quite far from were i live there is an old house which makes me want to pass outside everywere i am at the area...i always felt nice about this deserted now more than a 100 years old house and the people that lived there - i don't know it may have to do with one of my previous lifes if such a think exists -...i can't really explain it i only conclude that there are some places with a lot of energy either positive or negative...

It really is amazing how many plausible theories you can find for the feelings we get around stairs. Gianes, I think that's the first time I heard of a possible build-up of energy being a cause of negative feeling - I wonder if there could be something we could do to rid the area of that build-up?

I certainly agree that the above theories are possible so I'm just going to add something a little bit simple. It is easier to go downstairs than it is to climb back up. My blood pressure and heart rate are both elivated just enough that it could be interpreted as a negative feeling.

Ive been pondering the question about why the feeling on the stairs changed. You said you that you thought it was your sister but the feelings changed. Today while cleaning up the horror that is supposed to be my studio, I was pondering the question and I think I may have the answer to your question.
Your obviously still grieving for your sister, that much is obovious. You said you may supsect it to be your sisters murderer, but feel that your sister would have dealt with him so much so he wouldnt be able to come back to hurt anyone else. This is what I suppose is going on.
I suspect it is still your sister, however what may be happening is that your sister is trying to leave this world to go on. Your grief is perhaps keeping her here. She wants to go but she cant so what your experiencing on the stairs is this, your sister attempts to leave, but cant so she is pulled back to you, kinda like a bungy rope effect: When on a bungy rope you go hurtling downwards a hundred mile an hour and reach the bottom to be yanked back upwards, which accounts for the different feel. I think if you can some how find a good way to release whatever grief you have you may find the feel on the stairs change. If it does not, Well try a cleansing of that area.
Im not sure why certain objects have energys,feelings,of good bad or neutral, especially when the object belongs to someone who is living. How or why we part our emotions into particular things and that energy stays in the object like a finger print is a mystery. Just because it is a living person, animal either alive or spirit or a human spirit doesnt mean it to be anything different, it is the one in the same thing.How those who pass on leave that same energy years and years after is a bigger mystery, but one I suspect is the same thing. I think Im rambling and no longer making sense, Ill leave it here then