Sidenote: Reading about witches' experiences with paranormal stuff is eye opening, and helps me make sense of some stuff that I did/do. Like. When I was super little, I wouldn't go upstairs by myself. This went on for years. I remember being afraid that I would see something bad, so I wouldn't go upstairs alone. Going downstairs was fine. Hell, hanging out in my grandmother's creepy basement was something I did regularly. But I couldn't go up to even my bedroom alone for the longest time. When I got older, I still kept hanging around downstairs because that's where the computer was and I was an early teen stuck on Gaia. I would let the entire floor get dark around me -- no fear at all. But whenever I had to move to go upstairs, I'd get that prickly tingle of something not being right. I always waited for a voice, or a touch, because by then I'd figured out that looking at darkness just makes my brain see things that aren't there. But that changed. One night I was walking up to bed very late at night. I forced myself to walk slow because I was tired of bolting up the stairs from the darkness that hadn't bothered me before. I felt the atmosphere change, and get tighter. Like in a movie where you're suddenly aware that the music stops, and when I was halfway up the stairs is was unbearable. It felt like the very last second before something. So I said no. Without even thinking about it, the deep, authoritative "no" that I use with dogs who misbehave echoed out of my chest. The atmosphere broke. Nothing was there. I walked the rest of the way up the stairs and went to bed peacefully. I think it's why I'm so feisty with ghosts, now. They don't scare me, because every time I plant my feet and bark back, they disappear. Feels kind of cool.