What's the most interesting unexplained phenomenon you personally experienced?

[porphyrian]

I'm fascinated by strange things that happen to people and the way they interpret those things, which is often colored by their religious/supernatural beliefs (or lack thereof). So, if you don't mind, please indulge me with your favorite story, preferably that you experienced personally (we've heard the friend of a friend ones already). Or make one up if you have/want to, it's not like I'll know. Anyway, to be fair, I'll begin with one of my own.

Nearly twenty years ago, a bunch of my friends and I rented a house together in what is often referred to as the "student ghetto" near FSU campus - a former lower-middle income suburb close to campus that has now become almost entirely rental property, much of which is poorly maintained and overpriced. Our first morning there, to give you an idea, a cop came to our door to ask whether we knew anything about a body found earlier one house away on the corner. That really has nothing to do with my story, though, just an illustration of how sketchy the neighborhood was. I lived there for two or three years, and my friends continued to live there for another year or two after I moved out without any serious problems (the house was only broken into once with almost nothing taken, probably kids) and with a whole lot of parties, some nearly legendary. It was a total shithole, apparently built by someone who was reading (or ignoring) the manual as they went, infested with roaches and spiders that couldn't eat them all, but there was really nothing about it that anyone would consider "haunted" or even scary (except for the vermin, maybe, though we finally broke down and got an exterminator in my last year there).

Anyway, early one night, I was on the phone in the kitchen with a friend of mine, I think making plans for either that night or the coming weekend, and all of my roommates were either asleep or out of the house. Then, out of nowhere, one of the cabinet doors, all which were cheap, wood and poorly-hung, began rapidly banging shut for no apparent reason. It did this for nearly twenty seconds, long enough for me to walk over to it, whereupon I put my hand on it and said "stop," which it immediately did. Then I had to explain what happened to my friend, who didn't know what in the hell I was talking about, and pretty much shrugged off my story in favor of concluding our plans and the call. Afterwards, I examined the cabinet and the door, which was so badly adjusted that the bottom corner was jammed in place when closed and the top corner bent outward with some tension - it was this corner that was banging. I proceeded to pound, slap and shake everything in the kitchen in an attempt to reproduce the phenomenon, but only pushing the protruding corner of the cabinet door rapidly even came close. I'm not sure what made me more uneasy later, that this happened, or how calmly I dealt with the situation at the time (because it really freaked me out later). In the rest of my time in that house, nothing else like that happened, nor has anything like it happened to or around me since, and I still have no idea what it was.

Your turn.

[mainegreen]

1. I dialed the first three digits of a 10 digit number, and it connected to the number I wanted.

Before I had entered the final seven numbers. It was to my mom, and it was on an old-style no features phone (ie there was no 'last number called' or 'redial' or any other features of the sort). Needless to say I was a bit shocked when my mom picked up after only dialing the '207' state area code. I presume it was just a hiccup in the system though, somehow reconnecting the last call I had made, which was the day before to my mom as well.

Still, I'm kinda baffled by it to this day. Mysterious, but not really 'unexplainable phenomena'. More like 'ghostie in the machine'.

[porphyrian]

24. Ooo, that is weird.

I've picked up the phone to call someone before and had them already on the line without the phone ringing (though the other person said it rang once or twice).

[Orrex]

2. My then girlfriend said "yes" when I popped the question

To this day eight years later, I still can't quite explain it...

[porphyrian]

23. Pheromones. Believe it. -n/t

[Z_I_Peevey]

3. I was alone in my home during the day,

surfing the net, when I discovered an intriguing site about EVP, (Electronic Voice Phenomena), a thing I'd never heard of before. I spent a bit of time reading, scoffing and entertaining myself with the written descriptions.

So I decided to click on a link that promised voices from the beyond. As soon as I clicked, all the electricity in my house went out.

I took a little walk outside and when I returned, all was back to normal. However, I have yet to click on another EVP link.

[porphyrian]

22. Creepy. Some of those things really freak me out.

I have no idea how many of them are not simply hoaxes or easily explained natural phenomena, but some of the ones I've listened to gave me the serious willies.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

82. Check out Reverse Speech.

There's a website about reverse speech, which means you tape someone and reverse it and listen to the words. It is not considered supernatural or paranormal. Considered to be a message from the subconscious.

The guy who started it is named David Oates. www.reversespeech.com

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Mine was a dream. Maybe brought on by EMF or sleep paralysis. Maybe real

You know how real dreams can feel, right? I have had a few lucid dreams that I have controlled. This was not one of those, but felt very real all the same.

I was running down through the field behind my parents' house. To anyone watching they would have seen only me, but I could feel two beings with me. One on my left and one on my right. They kept telling me in my mind to Jump. JUMP! But I did not understand what they meant. So one got in front of me and pulled while the other got behind and pushed.

My soul was ripped out of my body and was the most agonizing thing I had ever felt. Not pain exactly but like fingernails on a blackboard to the nth degree. It was both eternal and only an instant. I 'arrived', no longer with my companions and no longer in the field but was surrounded by blackness. Not a shred of light was anywhere.

And then I saw the most beautiful light. It was magenta and wispy like a nebula, but there were no stars at all. Only this nebula which got closer and closer until I was consumed by it. And suddenly I realized that that I was not alone; that the nebula was made up of others. But at the same time they were all me. It was as if I could not tell where I ended and they began.

And it was so peaceful. So content.

The next day I had trouble with controlling my body. It was like my mind would make one decision and my body would make another. I was in Portland walking around the Old Port and had come to an intersection. My mind said to stop for the traffic, but my body just kept on going. Had my friends not been with me and grabbed me back up on the curb, I might have been hit by oncoming traffic.

At any rate, I hope that it was real. And I hope that my mom is in that nebula of light now and that I will be with her there again one day.

[zingaro]

8. That is awesome.

The joyshrapnel from this will sustain me all day. How cool. Thanks for sharing it.

Now please tell me because I must know: Do you meditate at all? Do you try consciously to get there, to that place, again? And how, if at all, did this change You? (if those aren't too too nosy questions...and if so please accept my humblest apologies for intruding.)

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. I wish it was one of those stories where

I say "And from there on out I cleaned up my life" or whatever. But I am still a worrywart and still an overeater. (And still bipolar, which somewhat explains the previous two things)

I don't often try to go there but once in a while I try to recapture that feeling of contentment and oneness. Sometimes I can do it, but again the bipolar and the racing thoughts makes it realllly hard to get still enough in my mind to do any effective meditation. :(

[Flabbergasted]

11. No psychedelics involved?

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. Nope. But I did read a lot of Richard Bach books back then. :^P

[porphyrian]

21. Whoa, good story. And, yes, I am familiar with realistic dreams and lucid dreaming.

I've almost never been able to pull it off myself, at least not intentionally, but I had some very realistic flying dreams as a kid (although they were very corny, as I had to flap my arms to do it).

I also felt the bodiless void before, but that was on some good acid when my friends decided it would be fun to shut off the lights and make tracers with burning incense.

I hope you get your hope.

[GreenPartyVoter]

39. Thanks. :^) I really doo too

[anarch]

5. this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_lights

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. Cool! I may have seen a UFO when I was about 6 or 7. But I don't trust the

memories for sure.

[porphyrian]

18. Whoa, cool.

That reminds me of something else. Some of my friends (the same one from my story, in fact) and I were stargazing outside of the city light pollution one night and we saw what was probably a satellite cruising across the sky that made a sudden angular turn, or so it appeared. However, we were all incredibly high, so who knows.

[XemaSab]

46. I've seen that happen

The "satellite" that starts doing loop-de-loos.

When that happened I decided it was time to go to bed. :P

[porphyrian]

48. Heh, that's probably for the best. -n/t

[guitar man]

6. marriage

....it's a phenomenon that defies explanation... :hide:

[IndianaJones]

7. booya nt.

[porphyrian]

15. Damn, you're right. It even happened to me for a short time. -n/t

[bif]

9. Sex with an alien.

That was pretty strange.

[porphyrian]

14. Was that someone at Dragon Con or someone from Colorado? -n/t

[dropkickpa]

10. Library pooping

Without fail, within 5 minutes of entering ANY book-centered establishment (boookstores, libraries, etc), I gotta poop. Urgently. Doesn't matter what time of day or night it is, when I last ate, etc.

That's the most interesting unexplained phenomenomenomena I've encountered.

[porphyrian]

13. That is indeed strange, and I'm not sure I want to explain it. -n/t

[IndianaJones]

19. lmao. nt.

[Der Blaue Engel]

68. Lol...that's funny, but I bet I can explain it

My mother used to tell a story about my oldest sister and how she had potty trained her by setting her on the pot with a book to keep her from getting up. It got to the point that if my mother gave her a book on the pot, she'd immediately do her business. When my mother sent her to preschool, she was afraid my sister would have an accident the first time she sat down for a group reading circle. (Luckily, that never happened.)

So my guess is, you were book-poop trained too. :D

[dropkickpa]

105. Nope, I think they put laxatives in the air system

Much more logical.

[WildEyedLiberal]

83. OMG that used to happen to me at Barnes and Noble!!

For years, every time I'd enter a B&N, without fail, I'd have to end up using the bathroom. Freaky!!!

[dropkickpa]

104. See!! It happens to many, I'm not alone! n/t

[Squatch]

20. I saw Bigfoot in the North Cascades in 1996

(hence my moniker)

Scared the bejeezus outta me. Had a .44 mag revolver, but I wouldn't have hit a damned thing, I was so scared.

[porphyrian]

25. Wicked. I just saw something on the History Channel about Bigfoot...

...although I missed most of it, I caught the very end. Apparently, some people in Canada had a cabin where they put screws sticking up through the boards of the porch for some reason, and something stepped on it, leaving blood, hair and skin samples. And they've done a DNA test on the blood that shows it's almost completely human, except for one pair which is some other primate. And now they're going to test the hair and flesh samples. Very interesting (and definitely scary to witness, I'm sure).

[GreenPartyVoter]

40. Whoa! How cool is that?!

[porphyrian]

51. Seriously, although I think the credibility of the History Channel is somewhat in question nowadays.

It seemed convincing to me, anyway. I guess we'll see.

[Duer 157099]

108. LOL, that was funny.

You said:

"...I just saw something on the History Channel about Bigfoot...
...although I missed most of it, I caught the very end."

That sounds just like a Bigfoot-sighting description, except it was a bigfoot-documentary-sighting that you were describing.

[porphyrian]

132. I swear, it was real!

Yeah, that is kind of funny now that you've pointed it out.

[AngryAmish]

26. I heard a banshee the night my mother died

[porphyrian]

27. Wow, for real?

I know that's probably pretty personal, but can you elaborate? My mom's side of the family is Irish, so I love stories relating to Gaelic mythology, especially if there's a modern manifestation. And sorry about the amount of alliteration in this paragraph.

[AngryAmish]

55. For real

They follow families. Did not hear one when my dad died, though he heard one when he was a kid back in Ireland.

[lost-in-nj]

28. This summer I was sitting outside talking on the phone

it was about 11pm, calm, still night... i was having a really bad time of it and was crying to the person I was on the phone with when all of a sudden a breeze blows the Red Maple tree I was sitting next to.... no other trees moved just the maple.... I felt the slightest touch on my cheek.... after that happened I knew things were going to turn out ok.... My Dad planted that tree the year we moved in to our house..... 47 years ago..... It was his pride and joy....

I believe he was letting me know... I was going to be ok

:hi:


lost

[porphyrian]

30. Wow, that's so cool.

It really doesn't matter if it was supernatural or not, it made you think about your dad and feel better when you were down. And it probably would've been completely ignored by anyone else. Wild.

[yellowcanine]

29. Dolly Parton's boobs. I didn't actually "experience" them but just seeing them

for the first time was a revelation approaching an unexplained psychic phenomenom.

[porphyrian]

Her boobs will likely end up in the Smithsonian. -n/t

[DarkTirade]

31. Not me, but an ex of mine... used to experience what seemed to be some kind of spirit echoes when

she was asleep. She'd dream about people and places, then look them up to find that someone died there, or something like that. She didn't believe in ghosts per se, she thought it was just some kind of psychic echo or psychic impression. And it never happened to her when she was awake.

Of course, it is possible that she was just a compulsive liar and she was making it up. :) Since it wasn't me, I can't really verify.

[porphyrian]

32. Yeah, that's the problem with things like this.

It's difficult to say even a firsthand experience is what it seemed to be at the time, let alone secondhand or further removed. Did you ever see her do it, or was it just something she told you?

[DarkTirade]

33. Just something she told me.

which is why I have doubts.

[porphyrian]

34. Right. I mean, it could be real, but it also sounds like the plot of some recent movies...

...and TV shows. Do you think she was convinced that it was true, or was she trying to be convincing? That wouldn't prove anything either way, either (many people believe they've seen something that didn't happen, and trying hard to get someone to believe something doesn't make that something false), but it might help you decide whether you believe her story or not, since you know her better than any of us (probably, anyway).

[dembotoz]

35. last 2 presidential elections

still cant believe they happened...

[porphyrian]

36. You are not alone. -n/t

[MorningGlow]

37. Lots, actually

Mostly encounters with ghosts. The two freakiest incidents were 1) hearing a voice in our first house, which had a lot of entities, say hello, QUITE loudly and clearly (on Halloween, no less) and 2) having my bed shaken by a ghost in a New Orleans hotel.

Most gratifying magical experience: My dad collapsed at his doctor's office (lucky) and was taken to the hospital, but we didn't know what was wrong. I left work and stopped by our house before going to the hospital. I did a magic spell for his health and safety and as part of it envisioned him bathed in light. I couldn't decide what color light (white for general healing? blue for soothing?), but I chose red because it means survival. I was envisioning him bathed in red light in his hospital bed, but didn't want it to come from an artificial light, because that could mean the "emergency" sign or some other light source with negative connotations, so I chose to see him bathed in light from the sunset.

Went to the hospital and found him in a semiprivate room, in the bed by the window. The window faced west, and he was awash in the red of the setting sun.

It turned out he only had to have emergency gallbladder surgery.

[porphyrian]

43. Freaky.

I don't know how much I believe in magic, but I do believe in belief, which seems to affect some amazing and unlikely phenomena.

I love sunsets and that whole time around them when everything seems to get strangely clearer - that's magical for me. And gallbladder surgery sucks, I was with my ex when she had it, but it's apparently better now that they do it laproscopically(sp?) as its less brutal on the patient's system and recovery is quicker, so I hope that's what your dad got.

[MorningGlow]

52. Belief = magic

By any other name and all that!

I've formally studied witchcraft and other esoteric topics for about 15 years (and believed in it all my life), so I've got a million stories!

I don't know what type of gallbladder surgery my dad had--that was more than 10 years ago--not sure if they did laparoscopic surgery at the time. I do know that I was eternally grateful to the Great Is that within a day or so he was well enough to joke around with me, asking if I wanted to see the staples. (EWWwwww no way!) It was a huge relief, considering that his idiot of a doctor was guessing he had pancreatic cancer instead. :eyes:

I have heard that laparoscopic surgery is better, and I sure hope it is, because my gallbladder's been giving me trouble lately. Like father like daughter?

[porphyrian]

61. Gallbladder problems are often genetic, so you should probably get it looked at.

You don't want to wait until it ruptures if it's got to come out, and it's painful either way (which I'm sure you know already). With my ex, once everything healed, the pain spikes and back aches pretty much went away, as did the problems with eating certain foods.

[MorningGlow]

63. My doc recently gave me an order for an ultrasound

But the US health system strikes again--she's not on my HMO's doctor list, so they won't cover the ultrasound. I'm trying to find a doctor willing to be my "medical beard", who will still let me see my current doc as my primary. Not much luck yet, but I'm still trying.

[porphyrian]

66. Good luck on that. It's funny how everything is political (weird-funny, not haha-funny). -n/t

[unpossibles]

70. "I don't know how much I believe in magic, but I do believe in belief"

I have to agree with you there.

I think the mind is a lot more powerful than we know, and may ever know.

[porphyrian]

79. I think it's how curses work, for example.

Bad things happen to almost everyone eventually, so saying something bad will happen to someone isn't really making it happen or even a prediction. However, telling someone convincingly that something specific is going to happen to them makes that person spend more time thinking about every related situation they encounter, if only to remember the silly curse, directing their attention and possibly distracting them or causing doubt at a crucial moment, thus fulfilling the prophecy. And if the person is already inclined to believe in curses, their fear and nervousness in those situations make this even more likely. There may be some external power involved, but it certainly isn't necessary or even likely, but belief is, both to make the curse convincing enough and for the victim to make it happen.

[Fox Mulder]

38. I once saw a UFO over my apartment.

[Liberal Lassie]

41. OKAY--I am Christian and I don't want any nay sayers bugging me about this!

About 20 years ago I was praying very deeply about some personal problem issues that were a huge issue in my life. While I was wrapping up the prayer an extremely strong scent of ROSES filled the room so much that my clothes and furniture still smelled like roses for DAYS! I will never get over it or forget it. I didn't take any particular meaning from the experience except that ever since I have believed that the presence of the Holy Spirit--in my own mind--smells like roses. Ever since that day the smell of roses gives me tremendous comfort.

[porphyrian]

47. That's another one of those situations where it doesn't matter...

...whether it was an angel or the neighbor's fabric softener from the drier vent, it has meaning for you. My mom and sister have a couple of things like that from some time they spent together after my dad's death.

[porphyrian]

44. Cool. Did anyone else see it, too, or were you alone? -n/t

[Fox Mulder]

45. I was alone.

It was 1 am about four years ago. I just got done studying for finals and I was walking back to my apartment when I saw it. It was just a typical UFO.

It didn't change my view on aliens and stuff. I had already believed they existed anyways. :shrug:

[porphyrian]

54. I'm kind of torn on the whole subject.

On one hand, there are a whole lot of credible people who are convinced that there is something out there, though they could be mistaken. On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of physical evidence to support the stories that isn't questionable, though there is some that should be investigated further and may indeed be proof. I also kind of want to believe, so I have to constantly question whether I'm being too easily convinced or too dismissive of evidence. All I know for sure is what I think I've experienced, which was kind of my intention with this thread.

[Mojorabbit]

42. I was walking across my living room

and stopped in my tracks and said to my husband, "Someone has died and we have come into money". A minute later the phone rang and my aunt and uncle had died in an auto accident and we indeed did come into money. Freaked me out.

[porphyrian]

57. I bet it freaked your husband out, too.

Although I have no evidence to support it, I entertain the possibility that there are senses we have to some degree that don't directly correlate to our known sensory organs, or that use those sensory organs or some combination of them to detect stimuli we have yet to fully understand. This kind of thing is one of the more commonly reported, if I'm not mistaken. Sorry and congratulations for your loss and gain.

[Mojorabbit]

106. It did freak him out

and I don't normally use phrasing like, "we have come into money". I have no idea where it came from. Just popped out of my mouth.

Another example of this kind of thing which happens ever so often is I was sitting with some girlfriends at a table and a friend came over and introduced a guy to us. He talked for a moment and then left and I said to the girls, "watch out for him, he likes married women".They all just looked at me like I was crazy.
Turned out in the next year he broke up three marriages. He indeed had a thing for only married women. I have no idea how I could have known that at first glance.

[porphyrian]

119. I think more scientific investigation into what constitutes intuition needs to be done.

I'm not sure if any already has or not, but I know that many in the scientific community avoid things like it for fear of becoming outcasts (moreso than scientists already are, anyway).

[ashling]

49. Lately, all of my DU threads have dropped like a stone

It is pretty clear that the reason for this phenomena is unclear, but may be related to UFOs and / or alien abduction of certain GOP presidential candidates. :shrug:

[ashling]

50. Lately, all of my DU threads have dropped like a stone

It is pretty clear that the reason for this phenomena is unclear, but may be related to UFOs and / or alien abduction of certain GOP presidential candidates. :shrug:

[MorningGlow]

53. Well, if you didn't repeat yourself so much...

:rofl:

J/K Ashling--you know I luvs ya for my sig pic!

[ashling]

56. But how else is I gonna' draw attention to mysef??

[MorningGlow]

62. LOL cats are always a good start

Then you can wax rhapsodic about Olive Garden...

[porphyrian]

58. Whoa, deja vu... -n/t

[crispini]

59. Well, I don't have any stories,

but a very good friend of mine was over at a mutual friend's house. My friend went into the bathroom and actually saw blood on the walls. Then it vanished. The weird thing is that my friend is not psychic at all. The mutual friend, however, was VERY into omens and so on... we never told her because that would have really freaked her out.

[porphyrian]

64. I think that would reduce me to a gibbering heap...

...or cause me to break records running to the next state. I don't have any kind of phobia about blood, but it would seriously freak me out to see it where it shouldn't be, even if I could explain it away as a hallucination (and I can do that with just about everything at this point).

[Uncle Joe]

60. Sometimes I feel like I'm having precognition.

Yesterday for example while I was driving a song starts to play on the radio and I'm thinking of the song "Angie", that song wasn't "Angie", but the next one was.

It's not like I have control over it, but this seems to happen to me a fair amount of times.

Edit for P.S. I had just started the car when the first song started and there was no announcement by a disc jockey announcing his or her play list, for those wondering if I heard a disc jockey and forgot it.

[porphyrian]

65. I've had something like that with expecting someone to call who does shortly after.

Also, I tend to drive faster than I'm supposed to, and one night I slowed down on a hunch as I approached an interstate onramp only to pass a Highway Patrol speed trap a moment later. I wonder if we don't sense things outside of the scientifically-proven range allowed by our established sensory organs, or by using them in other ways.

[Uncle Joe]

67. I've had similar experiences to what you're describing regarding

thinking of a friend or family member and then hearing from them.

I believe we've only begun to scratch the surface of what the human brain is capable of doing. I just try to keep an open mind regarding this subject and stay attuned to my surroundings and also feel emotionally connected to everything and everybody else as if we're all one, that's when it seems to happen the most.

[unpossibles]

71. I call that my "copdar"

I also have foodar apparently, as I am often finding free food at work, and a good test taker (which saved my non-homework doing butt in school) and generally a good guesser.

The thing is, these things don't work for me if I am too 'into' the decision/guess, so it doesn't tend to make me money (I am an awful gambler - I must use up my luck just staying alive).

[porphyrian]

84. We have things in common.

I totally skated high school on my ability to test well, because I stopped doing most homework halfway through it. And because I could write entertaining bullshit for essays, which is a trick I encourage kids to learn. It's all a form of intuition, which some people have and many people don't, and I'm not sure anyone can explain what makes it work. But it hasn't earned me a dime either, dammit.

[unpossibles]

69. I have had several ESP-ish moments, a few "out of body experiences" and maybe saw a ghost

The ESP things are strange, but quite a few times in my life I have predicted weird events, or thought about someone out of the blue and ran into them that day or they called (one was even in France I thought at the time, and I ran into her at a bar that night). Usually they are fairly benign things that just come to me. Could easily be coincidence, although the sheer number of times these things have happened makes me wonder at least a little.

The out of body experiences were all during moments of extreme shock/stress, and I simply felt that I was disconnected from my body and suddenly noticed that I was looking at the room/myself from an impossible angle, then it stopped. Again, could easily be explained as just the emotional shock making my brain misinterpret things.

I saw a ghost very well once, and that is the one that freaked me out the most. I was working in a restaurant alone making pasta for the week, and saw a woman with dark hair and a white dress walk by in the dining room. I was so sure I saw her that I scoured the entire building, checked that the doors were locked, called out, looked under everything, and even checked the basement. Nothing. I eventually (after being freaked out a bit) decided that I had just imagined it and forgot all about it until a week or two later I overheard the maitre-de telling someone that a woman had killed herself in the building decades ago. As I had not told anyone, I don't think he was just messing with me. Not sure, but it's a strange one, and I really have no explanation. I do have good peripheral vision, so I sometimes wonder if I just saw something else and imagined it, but... I don't know. For the record, I generally do not believe in the afterlife, but can fit ghosts into my own belief system as perhaps some other sort of phenomenon.


Overall, I am a relatively rational person, but I do admit that perhaps there are things which we do not yet understand. I don't necessarily see these as supernatural so much as akin to a caveman trying to understand fission, and perhaps we'll never understand them. So in other words, I am relatively skeptical but also skeptical about my own skepticism. :)

[porphyrian]

73. It sounds like you and I are in a similar place with certain beliefs.

I think most people who claim to know anything for certain about the paranormal/supernatural/afterlife are either mistaken or selling something. However, as I've had my own unexplained experiences, I have to acknowledge the possibility of some kernel of truth in the basis of certain superstitions and mythologies, especially given how little we understand about our universe. I don't believe ghosts are a fact, I believe they are a possibility. I'll let science establish fact, but I'm not threatened by the idea (the fact) that there is as yet far more that we don't understand than we do about our universe, and that manifestations of these unknowns have almost always been explained first by superstition before science could get around to explaining it. That doesn't make the superstition true, but neither does the superstition make the phenomenon it attempts to explain false.

[Arkansas Granny]

72. I used to live just a few miles from a phenomenon called the

Hornet Spook Light. Over the course of 15 years or so I saw this several times with my own eyes. It has never been satisfactorily explained. There are some who believe that it is caused by headlights on a nearby highway, but that doesn't take into account the sightings that were reported as early as 1881 when there were no highways or cars in the area.

http://www.prairieghosts.com/devprom.html

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/MO-Spooklight.html

http://www.astronomycafe.net/weird/lights/hornet17.htm

[porphyrian]

76. Very strange. I wonder what it is. -n/t

[Arkansas Granny]

90. I certainly couldn't tell you, but it's really interesting to watch.

It appears on this little traveled dirt road and looks like someone walking in the distance carrying an old kerosene lantern that sways back and forth. Then it might suddenly disappear only to reappear a little closer or a little farther away. If you drive towards it, it seems to disappear, but people behind you can still see it. At times it would appear to be two or more lights in either a vertical or horizontal row. It has been studied by the Army Corps of Engineers, but they had no explanation for it. My family knew some of the old folks in the surrounding area who told of seeing the light before highways were built in the area and cars were common.

[momophile]

74. a Ouija board story

My younger sister was claiming that a spirit was bothering her on a Ouija board. Every time that she used one with friends, the same spirit would pop up and take over the board. It was freaking her out. I only half believed it, but it truly was upsetting her so when I found out that a friend owned a Ouija board (can anyone ever really OWN a Ouija board?) my friends and I decided to use it to ask this spirit to leave my sister alone.

My friends and I sat down to use the board, and I promptly asked if the spirit was there who was bothering my sister but we never got an answer about that question. Almost immediately the board started talking to one of my friends – I’ll call her Jenny – and addressing her by name. The board continued to talk to her in short sentences about love and fire such as “I am fire,” “fire is love,” “Jenny come to the fire,” “you belong with me,” “we are love.” The board was moving so fast that I find it hard to believe that one of us was moving it, even unconsciously. It took all five of us to keep up with the weird messages.

Then after repeating some of the messages, the board again wrote “fire is love” and then came to a halt after saying “fire is now.” At that exact moment, the lights in the house went out and an electricity pole right outside the house burst into flames. Skeptical me pushed the board across the room and we all just about knocked over the table jumping up. Jenny was in tears.

I’ll never touch a Ouija board again.

[lost-in-nj]

80. My father

who was a minister
would not allow us to have Ouija board....

said they were evil......


lost

[momophile]

81. I think I agree with your father

by the way, your story above about the tree and your dad was touching.

[porphyrian]

86. Ooo, that's really creepy.

I know lots of people who are in the "I'll never touch a Ouija board again" category (my sister is one of them), but I'm just not sure I remain convinced. One reason is that the manner in which they move seems to depend on who you're with and what movies/TV shows they've seen with Ouija boards in them. Another reason is that they are made by a toy company and have their roots in Nineteenth Century Spiritualism, which was chock full o' hucksters and scam artists preying on people with the need to believe (much like some of the more popular mentalists without conscience today). I'm not saying what you said happened didn't, I just don't think it was the Ouija board.

[trof]

75. How do they get the Tabasco into the bottle?

Through that little opening?
If it goes in as slowly as it comes out it must take about a week to fill a case of those little bottles.
How the hell do they stay in business with an operation that slow?
;-)

[porphyrian]

87. Miniature anthropomorphic turtles.

Don't mention it to them, but we've got the clocks in the factory set really slow, so they don't know they're working about three and a half months every week they're clocked in.

[zabet]

77. Mine.....

I was walking down the road to
the pier, suddenly I had a vivid
flash of an old friend. Like slides
and film clips flashing by, I saw
her kids, her parents etc. This felt
like it lasted a minute but was actually
almost instantaneous. The person with
me said that I hesitated mid-step was the only
thing they noticed. In less than an hour,
someone called me and told me she had been
killed in a car wreck not too far from where
we were at the beach.

[porphyrian]

88. Crazy. We must be networked together in some way we have yet to define.

I don't know how, but it sure seems likely, especially with the people we are close to.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

78. I actually made love to a bull.

Fucking gods.

I swearz its troo.

[porphyrian]

89. Was he of the golden Sumerian type or the tall Chicago kind? -n/t

[WritingIsMyReligion]

102. The Jovian type.

And his wife's a jealous one, I'll tell you that.

[porphyrian]

103. Avoid her when she's walking softly.

I hope he's stupid at least, if there's any justice.

[Drum]

85. Among many, here's one:

As a poor college student I was walking back from the campus library, late one snowy Cincinnati night....

It was freezing and windy, and I broke down and went into Hardee's and bought a cup of hot chocolate to see me through my trek. Back in the wind and en route to my dorm, another figure approached on the desolate sidewalk: a very tall and very dark young man, smiling so broadly at me that I forgot all else. He asked me: "Pardon me, I want to ask if you can help me with a little change, my friend? I need eight cents."

My mind told me I was dirt-poor---and I mumbled some apology to that effect---but I reached into my pocket and pulled out all I had: a nickel and three pennies.

His face beamed even brighter than before, and so did mine as I walked away...suddenly not needing any beverage to warm me, and newly-consumed with the concept of "coincidence."


:)

[porphyrian]

92. Coincidence or a clever trick, if he had been able to observe your Hardee's transaction...

...from outside.

[otherlander]

91. Nothing that specific/tangible ever happened to me.

The only thing I can think of is kind of vague, and not that interesting. My parents and I were driving south for summer vacation, passing through Maryland, and had to take a detour because the road we were on was blocked off. So we were driving down a side road, kind of lost, and I felt like we just entered this aura of fear and emptiness. It lasted for less than a minute. Then we got back to the main road.
Two weeks later, driving back through Maryland again, there was no more detour, so we just stuck to the main road going north, and I never got to see if the same thing would happen if we drove down the same side road again. It doesn't make a very good story, but it's what happened.

[porphyrian]

93. If some places can feel calming or majestic, why can't others feel frightening and empty?

I don't know if it's the combination of sensory data that makes a place "feel" a certain way or if these things can be somehow recorded in the location itself, but I've experienced similar sensations in different places and I don't know what it is either.

[otherlander]

96. But the place didn't look disturbing in any way.

Some roads, some fields, a large building in the distance that could have been a science lab or business offices, some trees and some small houses. Maybe if someone feels something strongly enough, that feeling can be left behind in the place they were when they felt it?

[porphyrian]

99. That's one hypothesis, that places can somehow store "feelings."

I'm not sure if I believe it or not, as I tend to reject Aristotelian Essentialism (which basically says that things can contain some intangible defining quality, or "essence," such as the notion that a blessed cracker really IS the flesh of Christ, even though it appears to be just a cracker in all testable ways, because the Priest has changed its essence), but there may be some obscure factor triggering the feeling. There is also the possibility that location was incidental and that the feeling came from something happening within you or even with your parents that you detected without realizing it. Human emotions are biochemical and can be smelled, though most people aren't sensitive enough to detect them or aren't aware of what they're smelling even if they are.

[oregonjen]

94. How about this...

Many years ago, I was going south on I-5 late at night. I was in the left lane of the freeway and driving where the freeway has a huge curve, when all of a sudden, I thought to myself, I need to change lanes right now. I went into the middle lane and as I was heading out of the curve, there was a huge mattress in the left lane that I wouldn't have seen until I was on it, due to the curve. I am convinced there was an angel making sure I was not in that left lane or else there would have been an accident. Everytime I drive that stretch of road, I think of that incident and am grateful I changed lanes.

[porphyrian]

97. I wonder if there's anything to the number of driving-related incidents.

I guess we are in a certain kind of mindset while driving, especially if we're alone or under stressful conditions. Hmm...

[SPKrazy]

95. An Incubus/Sucubus Nightmare

not enough time to explain it

but it scared the bejeebus out of me

seriously

very scary

very real

to this day sends chills down my spine

25 years ago too

:scared:

[porphyrian]

100. Ah, I haven't heard much of those.

I don't have many realistic dreams that I remember, and few of them are sexual. I'm not sure I'd want one of those dreams.

[Turbineguy]

98. A broken electrical controller

I was looking at it because the Electrician did not know what was wrong. It suddenly appeared to turn into glass and I could see all the parts. I told him what to fix and indeed, it was the problem.

Never could do that again.

[porphyrian]

101. Yeah, that's weird.

I'm pretty good at guessing what's going on with my PCs when something is wrong, but I've never had anything with that kind of clarity. It's a shame it only happened that once...

[Cabcere]

107. When I was 17, I got to go inside the stone circle at Stonehenge

as part of an archaeology class I was taking over the summer at the University of Cambridge. :) It was an awesome experience, but to this day there is one thing that stands out in my mind that I can't really explain: the stones were warm to the touch. :shrug: You know how on even the hottest summer days if you touch a rock or stone that's been outside, it still feels cool to the touch? Well, the day we went to Stonehenge it had been overcast, windy, and fairly chilly all day (probably highs in the upper 50s or low 60s, not counting the wind chill). We got to the monument probably around 6 PM (I don't remember exactly, but it was late afternoon/early evening - we got to see the sunset from inside the circle :)), and I kid you not, there was a slight - but definitely noticeable - warmth emanating from the stones. :o It was kind of thrilling and oddly comforting at the same time. :shrug: Before visiting the stone circle I didn't really believe in Ley lines, earth energy, or any of that sort of thing...but afterwards, I'm not so sure. Anyway, that's my story. :hi:

Edited to add: I found this web site that mentions the issue - it's about 9 paragraphs down under the Tuesday 9/16 entry. Only one sentence, but apparently I'm not the only one anyway... :hi:
http://www.afineline.org/writings/travel/2003.html

[porphyrian]

109. That is strange, although I'm inclined to think it has something to do with the rock's composition.

I know quartz can store and radiate heat. Maybe there is some amount of a similar crystal in the stones, I don't know. Kooky.

[Cabcere]

117. Yeah, I did a little research and that would appear to be the case.

Welsh bluestones (like the ones at Stonehenge) seem to have properties that allow for the retention of unusually large amounts of heat, apparently so much so that some families in Wales used to use these stones to help keep their beds warm at night. :shrug: It is interesting, though, and a number of pagan sites I found describe the stones as having certain healing capabilities, as well. :hi:

[enigmatic]

110. Phoenix Lights

The first sighting; I was riding my bike on the paths besides the canals in East Phoenix on my way home from work when I saw them. That was some night...

[porphyrian]

120. Wow. What do you think they were from what you saw?

If that isn't too nosy of me, anyway.

[Critters2]

111. I once saw St. Elmo's fire. I know it's not unexplained,

but it's wicked creepy!!

[porphyrian]

121. It's pretty rare, so it would be cool to actually witness it. -n/t

[Shakespeare]

112. I saw a ghost in a Biloxi casino last December.

I was visiting my parents for the holidays, who drive over to Biloxi frequently to play at the casinos there. I'd sought out the no smoking section downstairs (at the Beau Rivage casino), and sat down at an almost-empty bank of penny slot machines. As I played, I noticed an elderly black man (I can even give you a detailed description of what he was wearing) sitting two machines down from me--he was slightly built, and not playing, but seemingly sitting down for a rest and people-watching. After about 20 minutes, I turned to make small talk with him, and he was gone. When I faced the machine I was playing again, I could see him once more in my peripheral vision. I tried turning to him a few more times, and each time he vanished when I turned my full gaze on him--but was there again in my peripheral vision when I turned back to my machine.

It remains probably the single strangest thing I've ever experienced. Given the loss of life there after Katrina, it doesn't really surprise me that there might be some ghosts about, but it's not something I usually believe in.

[porphyrian]

122. That would be creepy.

I catch things that seem like people in my peripheral all the time (well, not all the time, more like once a day), but there's nothing there when I look at it, although sometimes there is something that is vaguely people-shaped that I just assume was what I saw.

[GaYellowDawg]

113. This is pretty prosaic compared to the other stories...

I was in that hell called middle school gym class, and we were playing "battle ball," an atrocious game akin to dodgeball, in the gym. I was leaning on the back wall, talking to someone else leaning on the back wall. Wasn't watching the half-court line or anything. All of a sudden, my head jerked aside and a ball landed precisely where my head had been. I looked towards half court and there was one of the jocks with a disappointed look on this face. He'd intended to hit me in the face as hard as he could throw the ball, which was pretty hard.

My head didn't move of any conscious volition. Perhaps my subconscious picked up on the ball coming in via peripheral vision, but it felt like something completely foreign moved my head for me. Not like hands on my head, but as if something else used my neck muscles to move my head aside. Even though the ball wasn't hard in and of itself, it would have driven my head straight into the cinderblock wall, and I'd imagine I would have at least been knocked cold.

Also, there have been some times when I've not done something stupid and had a very vivid "vision" of the disaster that might have been had I done it.

[porphyrian]

123. It was one of those reddish balls that sting, wasn't it?

I don't know what moved your head either, but I'm glad it did, especially because it disappointed the little asshole that winged it at you.

It's funny you mention the alternate option vision thing, because I've had the same thing with some of my close calls. I always assume it's just my vivid imagination, though, and maybe some part of my subconscious giving me a hard time ("Good thing you dodged that bullet, dumbass...").

[GaYellowDawg]

136. Yes it was!

And I preferred to think of the guy who tried to nail me as a big asshole. :evilgrin:

Yeah, I pretty much think the same thing you do - that it's imagination and my subconscious - and I literally laughed out loud at what your subconscious said, because I get called a dumbass by mine, too! I tend to be really skeptical about calling things visions or sendings, etc. My dad and I have maintained for some time that the Book of Revelation came about because John ate the wrong kind of mushroom.

[porphyrian]

137. Heh, heh, I heard ergot was a likely culprit.

:toast:

[Adsos Letter]

114. The fact that my wife still loves me after 29 years...

:D

[porphyrian]

124. You two are indeed in a steadily shrinking club. Congratulations, lucky.

;)

[China_cat]

115. Walking past a Bank of America

in Oakland and having the huge plate glass window shatter and fall out all over the street and people walking by. No shots, nothing thrown from anywhere, no noise at all except for the glass hitting the street.

[porphyrian]

126. I think I'd have to go change my pants.

That was something that freaked me out when I was downtown in Chicago during the winter. A number of buildings had "Danger - falling icicles" signs that had me in fear of being impaled every time I was within a yard of the walls.

Did you ever find out why the window fell?

[China_cat]

135. Nope. Never found any reason for it.

[trusty elf]

116. a prophetic dream

Some years ago I was in Italy with a group rehearsing a program of medieval music in preparation for a tour. One of the musicians hadn't yet joined us and was due to arrive the following day. That night I had a strange and traumatic dream about a baby drowning in a swimming pool. In the dream I had managed to pull the baby out of the pool only to have it somehow slip back into the water. The second time I pulled the baby out it had weirdly taken the form of a plastic bottle with a vaguely human form, its gaping mouth corresponding to the opening.

The dream was so upsetting to me that it woke me up. This was at about dawn. I immediately got up, dressed and went downstairs to tell one of my colleagues about it. As I approached her room I heard her talking on the phone. I knocked on the door and the first thing she said as she opened it was "Jason's dead!" You can imagine how shocked I was. He had drowned the evening before while swimming in the Rhein. According to witnesses he had gone under once and resurfaced, only to resubmerge and disappear. His body was recovered way down stream quite sometime later.

[porphyrian]

127. That would freak me out twice.

The dreams I remember are usually too weird to worry about them coming true in any capacity.

[redqueen]

118. I have two incidents...

The first consisted of me suddenly being fully awake in the middle of the night... for no reason, I was just suddenly awake. It seemed too quiet and still outside and I had this sense of something being out in the back yard (the windows in my bedroom at the time faced the back yard, which was dense with whatever plants were back there, they were allowed to grow unchecked). I was looking back there and starting to wonder what woke me up when I smelled the strongest stench. The closest thing I can compare it to is raw sewage. It smelled like a sewer main had opened in my bedroom. Then almost before I had time to process that, there was an ungodly-loud slamming sound coming from the kitchen. Just BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! over and over... so loud I thought everyone should have been roused by it, but no one was. Then just as suddenly the smell disappeared and the noise stopped.

The second was in a different bedroom. I was trying to get to sleep and I happened to look out the window, where I saw this weirdly-shaped head (inhuman weird, not just big or something like that) silhouetted by the streetlights out front. Naturally I was very freaked out, but I thought I'd just close my eyes and when I opened them it'd be gone. That didn't happen though. So then I thought I'd just turn over and face the other direction, but on that side of the wall I could see the shadow. It didn't move or anything but nevertheless, at that point I seriously freaked out and woke everyone up with the freaking out. I was told I wouldn't be allowed to watch scary movies anymore (they lied).

I saw the head again... some time later I was at my grandma's house across town... and I was sitting on the dining room floor playing I don't remember what. My mom, aunts and grandma were sitting at the table playing cards. I happened to look up at the row of windows that were up near the ceiling and lo and behold... same silhouette. Now the windows in my bedroom are low enough that it isn't so shocking to see a head there... but these windows were some 10-12 feet off the ground. So I was immediately seriously freaked out, but this time I didn't say anything about it.

[porphyrian]

128. Ugh, one of my oldest fears is seeing something in a window or mirror that shouldn't be there.

The first incident could've been a weird plumbing thing, especially since you could smell sewage and banging pipes are pretty common. But I don't know about the head. *Shiver*.

[MrCoffee]

125. The Thread

[porphyrian]

129. Ha! I don't know if that's good or not. -n/t

[sakabatou]

130. UFO

[porphyrian]

131. Were you alone, or were others with you? -n/t

[sakabatou]

133. Alone, in my bedroom

I dismissed it as an airplane, until it moved straight down and vanished in a flash of light.

[porphyrian]

134. Yeah, that would freak me out. -n/t