The unsolved mystery of my possessed TV
Growing up at my mom's house, I had one of those old, chunky tvs with the rounded glass screens you can feel the static off of and the big, bulky backside sitting across the room from my bed. It should also be noted at my mom's I had my own room and slept with the door closed. Until I was about 8 or so, it seemed like a completely normal and functional tv, but then one night it started acting weird.
At some point late in the night, after everyone in the house was asleep, I was startled awake by the sound of my tv turning on. By. Itself. The tv started pulsing from black to gray light repeatedly, making a weird noise when it did this, and then all of a sudden it would just turn off. Terrified, I turned on the light next to my bed to see if anyone had come into my room. It was just me. I peeked into the hall. The house was silent. After a moment I assumed it was just a dream and went back to sleep. And for a few nights, maybe even weeks, I was okay.
But then it happened again. Once again at night. And this time, it wouldn't turn off on its own. I tried waiting. I tried the power button. Nothing would stop it, until in a fit of fear and anger I hit it on the side, and then it miraculously stopped.
I tried explaining it to my parents, but they didn't believe me until I was much older and moving out of the house. This cycle of the possessed tv pulsing and turning itself on and off continued through my childhood, and eventually I became so used to it that hitting my tv in the middle of the night became a sort of ritual.
My family didn't get rid of it until my youngest sister moved into my old room. I've tried researching what it could've been. Was it a remote? Couldn't be, the tv didn't have one anymore and we didn't own any universal ones. Was it a power surge? With the number of times it happened, it was unlikely. Sticky power button? Considering the button wouldn't work when I tried to use it then and the fact that the screen pulsated in a way it never did when turned on normally, probably not.
So the mystery of the possessed tv lingers on. I'm not one to believe in the supernatural, but that tv made me question my beliefs. If you have an explanation for its weird behavior, then I'm all ears. But until then, I may never know for certain if I spent my childhood in a room with a ghost possessing my tv or if it was just an electronic glitch.
