I was brought up with belief in spirits/the afterlife, but wasn't sure if I believed in that sort of thing myself, as a non-religious adult. That is, until I visited a friend in Chicago 11 years ago. I was sleeping in a small guest room of an Edwardian era brownstone building in the northern part of the city. I couldn't fall asleep that night because I had this unnerving, and very real, feeling I was being watched. I could pinpoint from where, and it was the corner by the closet door. Nobody was there, the bedroom door was closed, and my friend was upstairs asleep, as was everyone else in the apartment. After feeling freaked out for about 30 minutes, I went to the living room couch to try to sleep with the TV and a few lights on. I have never been this afraid in my life. Every time I started to drift off to sleep, I had the sensation that somebody was leaning over the couch and looking at my face. (Almost like a small kid would do if they were trying to annoying another kid at a slumber party.) It felt like someone was mussing with my nose and had his face inches from mine. I freaked out, prayed, tried all the religious tricks I knew to get rid of it. Nothing worked. Nothing. I watched TV, started to drift off again, and then would be awaken by this same freaky sensation someone was leaning over the couch with his face inches from mine. Finally, at around 5 am, having slept for about thirty seconds that entire night, I saw a blue orb that was the size of a softball or cantaloupe. I know for a fact I was awake and not dreaming or experiencing sleep paralysis. Though I once believed in spirits as a kid, I always thought orbs were horseshit. I never believed in orbs, and the religion I was raised with never accounted for things like that. Now, I'm scared in a way I have never experienced before, and I'm seeing a blue, quickly gyrating orb in the upper corner of the ceiling by the hall that led to the bedrooms. It gyrated around very quickly for what would have been about 20 seconds and then completely disappeared. It was close to sunrise before I could fall asleep.

I tell my friend about the incident, and he admits to never having any experiences himself after approx. 2 years in the flat. But, he tells me I am the third person who told him they thought his apartment was haunted. This literally changed my life in that I am now totally open to the possibility of spirits and orbs. Incidentally, after my mother left the religion I was raised in, she pursued psychic "training/classes" and is a very talented medium (not her day job). She had always had "spiritual" experiences when I was a child, so I was open to this possibility to communication or experiences with spirits, but I wasn't entirely sure I believed it after leaving religion. I absolutely now believe in the existence of another plane/spirit world. Why they exist? I don't know. Many years later I stayed in a flat in Lisbon that I am 100% sure was haunted, and with something very unsettling. I didn't see anything, like in Chicago, but I realized whatever was in Chicago was way more benevolent and playful than the slice of evil I felt in Lisbon.

As a side note, my niece started seeing spirits at around 2, and my brother (who is not at all spiritual or religious) has had a couple sightings in the same house his daughter saw things. Maybe it runs in families? None of us have mental disorders that are associated with hallucinations, and all of us (except for my mom's unusual "hobby" of psychic medium/clairvoyant work) live very ordinary lives.