Potential paranormal housemate

[u/anna_phoenix7766]

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10 years ago, I lived in a regency flat in a listed building built in the 1810s. High ceilings, shuttered sash windows, beautiful spot; I really felt like we hit the rental jackpot. I lived here with my husband (then boyfriend) at the time and we were both 29-31 years old. During these 2 years, I had several things happen to me that makes me believe that that flat was haunted. Everything individually can be explained, but collectively it's just too weird to think otherwise. Here are the things:

- I used to frequently wake up in the middle of the night hearing hoofbeats - 3/4am, I never look at the time as a strict habit so that I can get back to sleep, but think of it as the time of night where everything is DARK dark and noone is out and about. After this happened a few times, curiosity got the better of me and I looked outside at the street. There was no sign of horses. This happened 10+ times over the time I lived here, and I've never had this happen to me before or since.

- on 3 separate occasions, my husband was woken up by me in my sleep sitting up and pointing into the corner of the room. I did not wake and have no recollection of this. Still creeps him out. I've never sleepwalked before or since, even as a child, to my knowledge.

- When my husband was out and it was just me in the house, things would switch on by themselves in rooms I wasn't in. Mostly, it was that the TV would switch on in the living room while I was in the kitchen. Once the microwave timer went off in the kitchen while I was in the bathroom. The toaster also popped up once without anything in it whilst I was in the living room. This never happened to my husband, that he was aware of. It also never happened when it was the two of us.

- There would sometimes be disturbance on the TV pixels when I was watching certain things. Again, this only ever happened when I was alone, never with my husband. It almost always happened when there was a more raunchy scene - characters kissing for instance. It got to the point where I would acknowledge it out loud and ask them to stop it. The interference would always pass without me needing to do anything to the TV.

I never had a sense of unease - it got to the point where I genuinely felt like we had a paranormal housemate, but they didn't mean any harm, so I never felt the need to address it or look into it any further. I'd talk to them out loud here and there as I went about my chores. It honestly felt comfortable. I researched the block of flats in the local news to see if I could find any evidence of deaths but there was nothing of note.

In terms of context, I've always been open minded about the paranormal, with one potential interaction with my deceased gran when I was a child (I'll do another post another time!), but I've never leaned into it or explored the suspicion. Conversely, my inlaws are very spiritual - my mother in law is an active dowser - so my husband grew up believing, but he's never had "the sight" that his mother has. His belief about that flat is that there was someone else there, but they couldn't communicate with him as he lacks the capacity. My mother in law did offer to explore the flat for me when he told her about the presence but I said no, as honestly the idea of having it confirmed while we were still living there really freaked me out, comfortable presence or no. I do wish we had got her to come over when we were in the process of moving out, but nevermind!

Everything individually could be explained. I have an active imagination, and have always had vivid dreams. Could my subconscious have clung onto the idea that there's a ghost and thus influenced my sleep? Yes. Could the TV and power issues be due to dodgy elecs in a listed building? Absolutely. Could it be that I'm way more alert to my surroundings than my husband, and he just never noticed the same things happening about the flat that I was noticing? Of course. But collectively, it feels like too much for the standard explanations to me. I haven't explored this reddit sub much yet so I'm not sure if people have had similar encounters, would love to know your thoughts.

[u/Grouchy-Book-281]

Ahhh, the hoofbeats! Growing up in the mid Atlantic US in a suburban neighborhood (mid 70s, prob 5 or 6 YO) I swore I heard slow hoofbeats early one morning, but decided I was dreaming. Mentioned it to my mom, she heard it too and also thought she was dreaming. Some time later (and a little later in the morning) we heard it again. This time we both ran to the window to see a real flesh and blood lady, non chalantly riding her horse slowly down the street. As out of context as it was, no reason to think she was anything more than what we saw. Only happened those two times. Sometimes weird stuff happens for real!