Weird Stuff (tinfoil hat wearing goons only, please) - The Bear and Badger

superflyninja

Just a bit of a wrap up on the story I had.

At the time (being a kid and all) I felt like it was ghostly activity. As an adult, I think it was some sort of sleep paralysis deal.
But there are some caveats that still make me wonder from time to time.
A close friend had a sleep paralysis episode while we were in college. He described not being able to move but being awake, eyes open and with what felt like a large weight pressing down on his chest, that was nothing like my experience.
The noises never happened while someone else was there or in earshot, if my brother was awake or if my parents were in bed then everything was normal.
Looking back, I dont think I was physically paralyzed, I recall being able to move, but being too terrified to move much. Then again how reliable are the memories? I was able to shout, so I would normally shout for water or something just to get one of my parents to bring it up.
Never had anything like it in any other place I stayed and it did seem to stop when I got a bit older.
The noises were quite reactive, not sure if I explained that too well, I definitely got a sense of being toyed with. If I was feeling good one night and ignoring the smaller sounds, it would ramp up until I couldnt anymore.
Another event I recall was during a storm at night. One of the windows suddenly tore open and the curtains moved as if something had come in, I do remember in that circumstance that it was one of those situations where you scream and no voice comes out. Dont remember anything of the night after that. Again though easily explained by mundane explanations. My feeling is though, the night steps stopped after that. I dont know why.

My best guess it is was some combination of night terrors and sleep paralysis. Im only talking about this because of the recent discussions. That was something that terrified me for years but Im hoping Im evaluating it in a rational manner, Im not pinning a supernatural explanation on it. Im saying that a single eye witness testimony isnt proof of anything, even if its my own

EDIT: I forgot to mention, Ive seen night terrors first hand. My eldest had them for a while. Fucking awful it is. Screaming in the middle of the night, clearly she was asleep but eyes open. Neighbours must have thought we were murdering someone.

bad_hair_day

Yikes.

Spooky tales often give me goosebumps, especially after dark. Love them.

Ghost stories usually happen when young, at night, half awake, in bed and alone. Perfect conditions for the brain to wander.

My own view - multiple witness testimony is more evidence than proof of something.

Lord_Griff

Night terrors etc are odd.

Worst is when they are not distinguishable from reality. I once awoke in my darkened room and saw myself staring at me from the door way, it was and it wasn't me, it was more pale and had dead eyes and was whimpering. I sprang out of bed ready to fight, scared the shit out of my wife who turned the lights on and calmed everything down.

Another time I awoke to see my wife staring at me, but she had the eyes of a fish and blood was streaming out of them. Again, sonic boomed out of the bed but this time went crashing into a closet. Heart raising. Now either I am haunted by a doppelganger and my wife is a fish demon, or I was under some stress.

g.man

Sounds fishy to me...

Yossarian

Lord_Griff wrote:

Again, sonic boomed out of the bed.

I had to read this a couple of times before I realised that there wasn’t a blue hedgehog involved in this.

nick_md

Scout wrote:

A good friend of mine was once convinced his flat was haunted. It was a very odd series of events. We were both on a media traineeship scheme at the BBC at the time so every morning he'd come in with the latest update. I absolutely loved it but he became increasingly frazzled as the weeks went on. He lived in a small flat in a high-rise with his mum. They were high up, above the 10th floor at least. It started with him saying he could hear footsteps at night, wandering around the flat and stopping outside his door. Said he could see a shadow there that would wait for a few moments then wander off again before the footsteps would move into the living room followed by the sound of someone sitting in an old armchair that had a distinctive sound. I obviously told him it was probably his mum sleepwalking or something but he was convinced it was something else. Claimed he got a really bad vibe from it. Anyway, as the days went on he'd come in every morning with a further escalation of events. Said he'd hear tapping at his window (high-rise remember) and yet more footsteps and the same squeak from someone sitting in the armchair. By this point he said his mum was now experiencing the same thing and they were both terrified. In one of his most frazzled mornings he came in claiming that the night before he was having a bath when the wall-mounted mirror popped off the wall, bounced glass-side down on the sink before flipping over and shattering on the side of the bath, showering him in shards of glass. Another morning he claimed that after more tapping on his bedroom window he finally worked up the courage to open the curtains, almost having a heart attack when he noticed a small boy down below on a tricycle (at like 4am). His mum, a catholic, eventually called in the local priest who supposedly came to the house and performed a blessing. He said things calmed down after that. I've always been intrigued by his tale. On one hand it sure does seem like a whole bunch of made up horror movies cliches. But I've never been able to get my head around why he'd make it all up. If he did then he was certainly playing the long game as it went on for weeks. Quite possible he was just a bullshit artist of course. As mentioned, we were on a media traineeship which gave us access to video and audio recording devices. At the height of it I was pleading with him to set up cameras but he was having none of it. If it was all bullshit then he certainly did a convincing job of acting increasingly frazzled by the whole thing.

Deserves not to be lost in the PT.

superflyninja

Yeah that Scout story is freaky for sure.
@griff what makes what you describe not simply nightmares?

Djornson

Yeah interesting. I have a much more mundane one. One night a friend and I were walking home from the pub, about 1am probably. I looked up at a floor to ceiling length window in a block of flats three stories up. There was a woman standing there in either a wedding dress or a dress from like the 19th century you know corset and all that. Couldn't see her face, but she looked old, very thin, frail, but the dress was massive. It gave me a weird feeling, i looked away, looked back, she was gone. No trace. I looked at my mate, he was also looking at the window. He looked at me, we made eye contact, we started walking very very fast and didn't say anything for a few minutes.

Not really claiming it was a ghost, just a weird spooky cool memory. I'm not or a believer or a non believer. I think it's feasible whatever people experience as 'ghosts' are something more than a product of their brain whether thats really a dead person or some parallel universe thing or some time travel thing. It's also entirely feasible it is a product of the brain!

Wookienopants

I'm really enjoying the spooky stories in here.
Remind me, have I shared mine? I've had numerous spooky goings on in my old family home and I've also had two instances of sleep paralysis.

Lord_Griff

superflyninja wrote:

Yeah that Scout story is freaky for sure.
@griff what makes what you describe not simply nightmares?

Being semi-awake I suppose.

superflyninja

Oh so you werent just dreaming you were in your own room,it was akin to hallucinations?

@wookie, no idea share away!!

Roujin

I had three spooky experiences as a kid, and I'm pretty sure I'll put them all down to just child brain doing whatever, but they were spooky at the time.

1. When I was a weeeeee lad, like 5 or 6 tops, I used to be scared that something would be waiting for me outside my bedroom window. One time I looked outside and there was a spooky looking giant bird on the rooftop of the building behind my house, yikes! I looked away, and then looked back, it was on the window sill! I fucking shit myself and left the room asap. Looking back - I'm pretty sure this is me waking myself up out of a nightmare and but the memory felt like it was one sequence of events and I was awake the whole time.

2. Same house, same age - one time I swear I fell down the stairs, but I just kind of slowly floated down instead of falling, I couldn't move and I had the same sensation you get when you are in a dream and open your mouth to shout but all the air is gone. 99% chance this was also a dream, but I definitely remember feeling like I was awake, I left my bedroom, slipped on my bag at the top of the stairs (this is the smoking gun, why the fuck was my bag there!?) floaty fell down the stairs unharmed and then walked into the kitchen feeling weird, and deciding I probably shouldn't tell anyone about that. Almost certainly an extremely vivid dream or maybe I was fucking sleepwalking or something and just woke up at the bottom of the stairs, who knows, not me. Alternate theory, ghost saved me or I have latent psychic powers that will kick in if I am in danger - I have not experimented further on this because I am a huge pussy irl.

3. Age 7-8 went to the stately home thats in a park in stockport, forget the name, looking up I saw a lady in one of those old victorian style puffy grey and white servants outfits looking down from one of the windows on the top floor - looked again she was gone - there wasn't anyone living in the home at the time, just open for tourists and there was no recreation type living exhibit stuff happening. OMG A GHOST! Maybe.

Kow

I always thought I was awake during sleep paralysis but I was talking to someone a few years ago and she said she had thought the same until one night her father came into the room and she tried to call him but as usual couldn't make a sound. But when she asked him later if he had heard her trying to call him it turned out he hadn't even been home. So maybe although we feel like we're awake, we aren't really. It could just be a very vivid dream.

superflyninja

Some freaky shit going on out there. Come on Dr Brian Cox PHD, pull the finger out and explain this!

Yossarian

I’m absolutely sure that I’ve been in half-asleep, half-awake states where I’m able to move freely but have a dream taking place while being aware of my surroundings, always while trying to get to sleep.

I don’t think it’s a standard dream as I don’t tend to remember my dreams and I’ll often wake fully from that state before I attempt to sleep again.

Gremill

@Roujin

I had that exact same floaty staircase dream at about that age too, had it multiple times.

LivDiv

I remember during mine the room was an exact version of my bedroom, even the lighting was the same once I woke. I could have imprinted that after waking though.
It seems to be a misalignment with being conscious and unconscious so it could be bits of both. I remember after a short time being aware I was in a dream, I needed to wake up but couldn't so I told myself I had to shout myself awake which worked eventually but with considerable effort.

Wookienopants

superflyninja wrote:

Oh so you werent just dreaming you were in your own room,it was akin to hallucinations? @wookie, no idea share away!!

Ok.

I used to hear and see things at my old house as a child and a teenager.
I recall one event in which I woke in the middle of the night, I must have been about 9 or 10 at the time.
I walked to the bedroom door, opened the door and saw a shadow figure of a man standing in the hall, looking back at me. It then turned and slowly walked away, right through the wall by the bathroom. I called for my parents and they opened their bedroom door, confirming that it wasnt them and that I wasnt asleep.

Another time my brother and dad were downstairs watching Tv with me. I went upstairs to the toilet and as I same down the stairs I felt a cold shiver and then from the top of the stairs someone threw a jumper at me. There was nobody else home and the jumper was previously in my dads bedroom.

Other times I would wake to find things had moved in my room at night such as toys and figurines being repositioned on opposite sides of the room.

I recall many instances in which I would see a shadow of a figure cross the doorway from the living room to the hall. This would happen at all times of the day and night.

When I was 15 we heard a loud clear snap sound come from the dining room multiple times when my dad and brother were in the same room as me. We went to investigate and found a clipboard I had left on the table had been moved. We went back, leaving the clip board there. 5 minutes later the same snap, three times clearly.

I went out there and snapped the spring loaded clip on the clipboard and my dad and brother confirmed it was the exact same sound we heard.

This kind of stuff would happen all the time.

Roujin

Gremill wrote:

@Roujin I had that exact same floaty staircase dream at about that age too, had it multiple times.

OMG who else had floaty staircase dream!? How far does this rabbit hole go!?

bad_hair_day

Gremill wrote:

@Roujin

I had that exact same floaty staircase dream at about that age too, had it multiple times.

Did your nan have a Stannah?

Wookienopants

I have twice had Sleep Paralysis when I was a teenager. I recall being "awake", aware of my surroundings. Able to move my eyes I could look left and right but my body was completely paralysed.
I recall tall dark figures standing surrounding my bed staring at me. It felt like something heavy was pressing down on my body. I tried to scream but no noise came out. I just remember screaming so loudly for several minutes until the figures vanished and I suddenly sat bolt up right, awake and able to move.

Utterly terrifying.

nick_md

As I've got older I've had more and more lucid dream incidents, reasonably regularly now, once a month or so. I'll realise it's a dream then I normally have a minute or so of being able to control things, it's pretty cool. A lot of these are triggered by seeing my deceased father in my dreams. I used to see him in a dream and not click that he's dead irl, then I'd be gutted waking up. Now though if I see him in a dream I know instantly it's a dream, because like, he's dead innit. It's not a sad time now though, I'm happy to see him and it lets me know I'm dreaming.

Other times though I tend to get in that half-asleep-just-waking-up state and dreams can seep into reality, like the story I mentioned the other page back or so when something was grabbing my leg in bed at night. I'm sure it was a dream lingering on as I woke up.

I've had other weirdness lately where I had a dream but I thought it wasn't, thought I was awake, then went to sleep and realised I could control my dream, only the 'sleep' I went into was already a dream, I was already asleep. Like inception kinda thing. I was waking up from a dream into reality, but it wasn't, it was all a dream. Eventually I woke up.

Yossarian

Or did you?

poprock

See with lucid dreaming? I get that it’s just about perception, because that’s all you have to go on, but …

How would you identify that you’re actually lucid - ie. in control? Versus just waking up with a memory of thinking you were in control.

It doesn’t matter. Your perception’s the same either way. But you may not actually be in control – you could just have been dreaming that you were.

nick_md

True, but in the dreams I'll thinking of something I want to do like fly or whatever and it'll happen with a bit of thought. It's like I can't just magic Scarlet Johansen up but I can kinda influence things a bit.

Facewon

nick_md wrote:

I've had other weirdness lately where I had a dream but I thought it wasn't, thought I was awake, then went to sleep and realised I could control my dream, only the 'sleep' I went into was already a dream, I was already asleep. Like inception kinda thing. I was waking up from a dream into reality, but it wasn't, it was all a dream. Eventually I woke up.

Had a run of those sorts a year or so ago. (well, but longer, pre lockdown)

Right fuckers. Basically feeling real, feeling like I could kinda force myself awake, only to force myself awake into a further layer of the dream..

There was a run where it was literally the exact same dream sequence for multiple weeks. Can't even remember the jist of em now, but it wasn't pleasant.

Djornson

Couple of weeks ago i had a moment. I'd fallen asleep in bed as normal, at some point i wanted to wake up, don't know why but i wanted to take up, therefore, i guess i knew i was asleep. I wasn't dreaming, nothing interesting like shadowy figures, i just wanted to wake up. But i couldn't wake up. For some reason i panicked that i was stuck asleep and i'd never wake up and i'm paralysed. So i tried to make as much noise as possible and move as much as possible. In my head i was shouting at the top of my lungs and shaking violently from side to side. Mrs said i was perfectly silly making a creepy high pitched whimper. She woke me up, I smiled and went back to sleep.

nick_md

This isn't weird or anything, but I had a proper terrifying nightmare a month or so back, dreamt I was in my living room and massive claw marks started appearing on the walls, walls started opening and the devil (the main devil) was coming through to get me. Started going "aaaarrrgghhghghg!" in my dream closing my eyes then came to in bed still screaming, absolutely drenched in sweat, heart pounding. Nightmarish at the time but once they're over I find I'm quite pumped.

djchump

Some lucid dreamers have been able to send messages back out through pre-arranged eye movement signals. IIRC there have even been 2 way communication where the dreamer was able to respond to questions or something? Speech not possible, so it’s all on eye movements.

Roujin

I don't tend to get the super scary monsters nightmares, all my nightmares are usually some tiny thing goes wrong in my life and causes a succession of things to happen that leave me feeling like "Oh no my entire life is ruined now", they really suck, I think I'd prefer the immediate terror of some typical nightmare fodder sometimes.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories