Possible paranormal experiences as a child? Some I still sometimes experience now - would love some insight
When I was a child, i think mainly between the ages of 12 and 14, I felt like my bedroom was very haunted. It started off in a way that didn't feel so sinister - one night, I saw a shadow above my wardrobe in the shape of a baby in the fetus position. Before having me, my mum lost a baby. She confirmed that at night, she often heard a baby crying and would come check on me and my siblings but we were fast asleep.
But then things started to get bad and I feel like there were possibly a few spirits around. At first, it was always at night. I remember trying to sleep and feeling something move around me. I felt someone blow into my ear. One night, I heard someone whisper my name but it was very loud and clear (luckily I had already been told to never answer). When I was up late cause I couldn't sleep, I walked into my room and left the door open, when I turned back around, it was closed. I became so afraid that I left my lamp on and my tv... but then my tv started acting strange, as if it was controlling itself.
For me, the most sinister and frequent thing that was happening was that my mattress was shaking constantly. I'd be perfectly still but I could still feel and see it shaking. I will say more on this in a bit.
Things started happening in the day time, never as bad but still unpleasant. If I was sat in my room, certain things would move, such as a wire that was laying flat suddenly flipping in the air. There was very loud stomping in the attic which me, my dad and my friend all heard. I also saw hooded figures walking outside past my bedroom window.
My sister also shared a room with me but said she never experienced anything to that level. However, she did mention feeling very strange in that room sometimes, as if she wasn't alone when she was, that sometimes objects would move or the curtains moved a lot even without a draught (something I saw too). She'd also sometimes wake up in the night afraid, saying she could see something/someone standing in the room.
Things eventually calmed down. My mum told me to ask whoever was bothering me to please stop as spirits do listen. I started doing that and things did calm down a lot. After a year or two, I moved into a different bedroom where my sleep paralysis experiences started to increase to terrifying levels and I even had an out of body experience. I'd often wake up from nightmares in the night too frozen with fear to even move. The furniture would often feel unnaturally cold. But the most noticeable thing was that I was still experiencing the mattress shaking - constantly, every night. It absolutely terrified me.
When I was 16, I got my dog and one night i was in the living room with her and she suddenly started staring into the corner of the room and following, with her head, something completely invisible. I started to get quite scared and then she started to bark at this invisible thing and chased it around the room.
Now, I'm in my late 20s and I have had various paranormal encounters in adulthood, all of which I strongly believe were real. I've seen spirits - a couple of which were harmless but unwelcome nonetheless. But I've also seen and heard my two bunnies, who i am always happy to see as I miss them and love them deeply (my sister said she also hears my bunnies running around when she visits). As an adult, I've also embraced witchcraft and paganism, which I mention here because these practices have helped me feel more empowered in the face of these experiences, instead of feeling helpless and stuck in fear. And has allowed me to talk to others with similar ones.
One thing that has always stayed with me is the mattress shaking. It doesn't happen all the time but it has recently started again as I am not sleeping well. I'm going through an emotional time with someone and its coming up to the four year anniversary of one of my rabbits passing. It makes me wonder... is the mattress shaking actually created by my mind? And was the rest of my childhood haunting experiences?
There were multiple times that I went to the doctor about what I was experiencing as I did feel like I was losing my mind. No medical/mental health professional has ever been able to explain it and I've never been diagnosed with psychosis. Before the experience I explained above, I had other experiences much younger such as the people in my posters making faces at me, bugs and spiders crawling across the wall which weren't really there and, the most terrifying, a China doll coming to life- it walked up and down the shelf it was on, turned its head towards me and had glowing green eyes.
But since the mattress shaking continues to this day, I question whether or not that experience and the ones I was having around the same time, were actually paranormal or in my head. If it is paranormal - is it something trying to harm or help me? I'd really appreciate some insight! My memory is a little hazy of this time because I had a very traumatic childhood and lived in an abusive household. So if anything else comes to me, I'll drop it in the comments!