Trippy Tales # 61..."The Death Knock Phenomena"

There's a mysterious phenomena known as the "death knocks" that is sometimes said to occur when a loved one has either died, or is close to death.  They have also been heard during crisis situations.  But no matter when they choose to "come knockin"...they certainly get the attention of all who hear them!

 From Derry Ghosts.com:

The Death Knock

"There are several stories of ‘The Death Knock’. The following one is authenticated. It was told by a woman who married into a family that apparently heard the three death knocks shortly before the eldest member of the family died.

Three years ago on New Year’s Eve, she and her husband were in their sitting room watching television when they heard three almighty knocks which shook the house. They both jumped in alarm and the woman said that she felt weak and ill. When she looked at her husband, he was as white as a sheet. However, seeing her alarm, he tried to laugh it off as the wind playing tricks. She was not convinced and her husband persuaded her to go out for a run in the car. She was still quite upset and just before they left, his brother came to tell them that his father had taken ill very suddenly and died. Their father was a big strong man who was apparently very healthy and his death was quite unexpected."

And here's another story of the death knocks, coming from "about.com"...

"This happened in my hometown in Illinois. It was November 2008, Thanksgiving, to be exact. We were having Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt and uncle's house. My aunt, who is a very straightforward, no-nonsense woman, told us about what she had been experiencing. This was in a offhand manner; clearly she thought it was silly and a bit ridiculous.

She told us she had been hearing knocks, always just three in a row, always loud, always at night. They were always on the back sliding glass door in the kitchen. She would hear the knocks from the living room and get up to see who it was, but would never see anyone.

She said it was strange because the knocks were evenly spaced, not just random knocking. This happened three different times on three different nights. Each time she heard it she would run to the kitchen and straight to the sliding door -- and no one was ever there. She told us it had to be kids just messing around, even though her entire backyard is fenced in with a lock on the gate.

A few weeks later, my uncle -- her husband -- was having surgery. It was about 6 p.m., already dark at that time of year, and my aunt was sitting in the waiting room at the hospital waiting for my uncle to come out of recovery. There was also another woman in the room with her that my aunt did not know.

All of the sudden, three hard knocks came from the window directly behind her. She instantly turned around to see no one! Nothing!  She looked at the woman and saw that she too, had heard the knocks. The bit that is really strange is that they were on the 7th floor of the hospital! No ledges were on the outside of window, no walkways or deck of any kind.

She said this surprised her a little, but again, she is a no-nonsense kind of woman and dismissed it. After telling us all this, she said it was silly and gave us all hugs as we left.

Five months later, my cousin -- her son -- was killed in an accident. This was her only son. It was devastating to the entire family. He was only 35 years old. At that time, I had not heard about the three knocks of death, so that was never in my thoughts. Grief blocked out many thoughts at that time.

Only later, did I read on this website about the "three knocks of death"...and now I believe that's exactly what they were. I have not told my aunt this and don't plan to, as she does not need to be reminded of her son's death again. Also, a little strange is the fact that my father, my older cousin, my uncle and now this cousin, all from the same side of the family, were all killed in accidents. All of them in their 30s." 

 And another... 

Death Knocks
by Neal

"First off, I have never heard of "the three knocks" prior to today, but went online to do some research. The story begins back in the 1920s when my grandmother was in the kitchen and heard three loud knocks on her front door. There was no one there, but three days later learned that her mother had died back in Germany.

In 1973 my parents were awakened with three loud knocks on our front door. Upon inspection, there was no one there, but received a phone call about an hour later that my uncle had passed away.

This was never brought up again until I was telling my uncle about the story at my father's funeral in 1979. He and his wife froze and said that they had heard three loud knocks on their storm door about the same time my father had passed away (they lived in Arizona, thus the three-hour time difference). We have never looked into this.

Two weeks ago, my mother awoke to three loud knocks or bangs on her front door. Again, she got up and found nothing at the door and was immediately scared because it reminded her of the 1973 incident. Three days later, my brother was murdered in Louisiana in the early morning. The strangest fact is that in all of the times a family member heard the knocks, it corresponded to the time of death (give or take an hour) of a family member.

This last case is the only time the knocks came three days prior to my brother's death. It was only last night that a cousin and I were discussing the events and decided to do some online research and came across this post. We are definitely not what you would call paranormal, but are looking into any information on the subject and why our family has had so many occurrences."

But is the mysterious knocking always a bad sign?  Not according to the story below...

 "A few years back, my daughter was to have emergency surgery on her intestine and the doctor said that her temperature was high and that things "didn't look good for her". I was beside myself, thinking I might lose my only child.
In the middle of the morning, a loud knocking woke me. It seemed to come from the front door, but the knocking occurred again, rocking the entire house. I got up and walked through the hallway and the third set of knocks became a bit lighter.
Finally, the sound vanished. The next morning, the doctor told me that sometime during the night, my daughter's temperature went down and that the surgery would be successful. I feel the knocking was a good sign to me, alerting me that things had changed."

Stay tuned for more trippy tales about this freaky phenomena in part 2!

~Queenie~