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My experiences had been vague up until right before my first husband passed away. We had moved closer to my grandparents so I could take care of them. The house we bought had been built by a couple my family was close to and the man had been killed in a train wreck many years before and the woman had died the day she had been checked into a nursing facility. The house had an old wooden building out back and all of the mans tools etc.. were still out there. When I would go into the building I would feel like someone was with me and it was a pleasant feeling. I would talk to Tom but nothing ever really happened to confirm his presence. Several months later I began to feel like my grandfather was in my bedroom every time I walked into the room. It felt like he was standing on my husbands side of the bed and it was a very strong feeling. I kept thinking "Why is he here now?" He had died in 1977 and this was 1994/95. It was not a scary feeling but just odd. Then in February my husband died of a sudden heart attack. At this point I stopped feeling my grandfather in the house but my husband had not left with his body. I wonder if the shock was just as hard on him as it was on me. He appeared beside my bed one morning. I left a dresser drawer open after looking for something and when I went back in the room later a turkey feather was laying on top of the stuff in the drawer. It had not been there earlier. I would find guitar picks in strange places. Cold spots, cold touches, pinches, orbs of light, soft brushes across my neck etc.... went on for the next 3 months. I thought it was him but I was in such a mental state at the time I just accepted it for what it was and did not try to interact with him. I wish I had now. Later after I remarried and moved a state away he woke me up one morning by calling my name, my grandfather passed away later that day. Right after I had my son it felt like he was with me again. I would feel someone in the room with me and see shadows especially around my sons room. Again it was a comforting feeling and yet odd.
This lasted about 8 or 9 months.
It is to bad I had not known about paranormal investigations at the time because it would have been very interesting to see what they would find. I do not think these were a hauntings so much as maybe visitations. I would like to see more research on this subject and see where the differences are between ghost and spirits.
Regards,
QSBC

Wow those are some great experiences. After my grandfather passed away I went through some of the same thing, I would pass his and my grandmother's old bedroom and smell his mentholatim {not sure I spelled that right} and cigarettes. I went down to his wood shed once and his old radio was on. When i walked in to turn it off I noticed something strange, the clock part of the radio wasn't on. Since I had touched a button the music had stopped, only then did I realize that the clock radio wasn't even plugged in, and neither was the extension cord he had used to run power from the house down to the shed. Like you these experiences did not leave a scary or creepy feeling, it was more of a comforting presence. When we were in the process of moving out of my grandparent's house some time after they had both passed, I again had the experience of smelling the mentholatim and cigarette smoke, this being nearly 7 years after my grandpa had passed I believe that it was my grandpa saying goodbye to the house and letting us know it was ok to move on. As I was moving some things in the back yard {mainly taking stones out of the patio my grandpa had made for my sister cousins and myself with our hand prints} I looked up to see someone standing in the woodshed/barn. After doing a double take I saw nothing, there was no one there. I walked into the shed/barn and no one was there, however it felt as if someone was there watching me and it was a lot cooler in there than it was outside, a noticeable difference from the 100+ degree temperatures outside. Not all 'hauntings' or paranormal encounters are evil or unpleasant, in fact a good majority of experiences are explained as being a comforting sort of presence, or just non-threatening in general.

As for your question about the differences between a ghost and a spirit, it is all in the eye of the beholder. I will sometimes refer to paranormal entities as such, or as ghosts, or spirits, its all jargon. The terms 'ghost' and 'spirit' both speak of the same type of entity, it really is just the preference of the person speaking; a ghost is a spirit, and a spirit is a ghost; both of which are paranormal entities. The real major, viable difference is truly in the type of activity, haunting, or experience. What I am talking about is whether the experience indicates a residual energy haunting, or an intelligent entity haunting. Residual energy hauntings are typically things such as my experience with smells I associate with my grandfather, there was no intelligent interaction in this experience. An intelligent entity haunting is described in such experiences as when you opened a dresser drawer and found the feather upon returning to look at the drawer, or the physical touches that you felt, there was a distinct interaction with the 'ghost' or 'spirit', thus indicating an intelligent presence. I am going to do some deeper research on the differences between the two and qualities of both to make a post to help everyone decipher the difference between residual hauntings and intelligent hauntings!
I hope this information helps you in your quest to learn more about the paranormal!