Thank you for sharing your stories, Pokey!
I hadn’t been aware that lightning could travel that far horizontally/diagonally. Good thing to know!
Jim
Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
I’m sharing this story with some reluctance, but I did share it elsewhere, on an outdoors forum where people were sharing “creepy” experiences in the outdoors, although this story has little or nothing to do with the outdoors. It was well-received there and my credibility in that forum remained intact, but my purpose in posting it there was to bring something different to the discussion. My reluctance to post it here is that this story concerns my late dad (and, to a lesser extent, my late mom). I’m also a bit reluctant because it could potentially destroy any credibility I may have on this forum. But, as I’ve said elsewhere, people can think whatever they want, and in the long run, I know what I’m posting is the truth, as I see it. I am not sharing it for sensationalism, nor as a joke.
Over the years when I was growing up, on very rare occasions, my dad would point to a part of the room (always a corner, usually up by the ceiling) and ask me, “Look, there’s The Children. Do you see them?” I’d ask, “Where?” And he’d say, “Right there, in the corner.” I’d say, “No, dad, I don’t see anything there.”
Sometimes he called them “The Children”, and other times he referred to them as “The Little People.” To give an idea of just how rarely this occurred, I don’t think he ever said that to me more than maybe 5 times in my life; probably fewer than that. First time when I was a kid, and last time when I was an adult. Later in his life, he described them to me. He described them as small, perhaps several inches to a foot or more, with dragonfly-like wings. They had human-like forms, but they weren’t human. They were always accompanied by a single larger, human-sized one, who always stood off by itself. My dad said the large one never interacted with him, but was there to supervise the little ones. He said the little ones (there were always several) were playful. They didn’t speak any intelligible language to him, but made a high-pitched buzzing sound, like “EEEEEEEEEEEE.”
Well, I never saw a thing, and because I knew my dad, I knew he wasn’t lying, but I wasn’t sure what to think. So, being still young, the second and third occasions he said it, I just said something like, “Okay, dad.”
Let me point out that my dad was NOT prone to having hallucinations, and was not a drinker. Although in his later years he suffered from Parkinson’s, but this started way before that.
My mom was a die-hard skeptic. Whatever she couldn’t see or feel for herself wasn’t real, as far as she was concerned. In fact, she had been present during a time that I was present when he claimed to be seeing “The Children.” My mom just kind of rolled her eyes and shook her head.
One time, near the end of his life, my bedridden dad claimed to have seen them for the last time. I was helping my mom care for him. She was trying to discount what he was telling us, but he was adamant they were protecting him. After he was asleep again, I asked mom about it. To my utter shock, she said, “I believe him.”
After my dad passed away, I asked her what she thought of what my dad had told us, and why she said she now believed him. She told me that one time, as she was doing house chores, she stepped into the kitchen area and saw my dad just standing still and looking down, with a slight smile on his face, and she saw several tiny, shadowy beings or figures, holding hands and dancing in a circle around my dad. My mom said that she shook her head and closed her eyes, then opened them again, but she could no longer see the figures. But my dad had continued to stand there, looking down at the space around him, with an amused expression. She said she’d only seen the images for maybe a second or less, and that she’d felt a chill go up her spine, because it had been so unexpected. After she revealed that to me, I started to notice that my mom was no longer such a skeptic about things anymore.
On a bizarre note, a few years after my dad passed, I was receiving a therapeutic massage from a middle-aged massage therapist who inspired me to get into massage therapy myself. Afterwards, we were talking, and for some reason the paranormal came up. She told me that when she was a little girl growing up on an Indian reservation, she would sometimes flee her house because of her abusive stepfather, and go sit in a field by herself. She said that in that field she would see “fairies” that appeared to her. They were about several inches high, with dragonfly wings, and were always accompanied by a human-sized one that stood off in the distance and never interacted with her. The little “fairies” made a humming type of sound. Eerily similar to my dad’s description, the only difference being that she said the little “fairies” appeared to her in a flat, repeating, 2-dimensional kind of pattern. She said they occasionally appeared to her for a few years, but when she reached her teens, she no longer saw them anymore. This woman, who became a friend and a bit of a mentor, had never met my dad, and I had never told her his story until after she had told me her story.
I’ll also add that my dad was never a person to make up or embellish stories, and he had no interest in reading books, although he was very intelligent. He had neither the tendency nor the creativity to make up stories. His favorite pastimes had been fishing, watching baseball, and watching western movies and TV series, like Gunsmoke. My dad was honest to a fault. And even though I’ve had so-called “paranormal” experiences off and on throughout my life, I never saw “The Little People” that my dad (and later, my mom) had seen. They only came around for him.
What were they, and why did they occasionally come around? I don’t know.
Jim
Over the years when I was growing up, on very rare occasions, my dad would point to a part of the room (always a corner, usually up by the ceiling) and ask me, “Look, there’s The Children. Do you see them?” I’d ask, “Where?” And he’d say, “Right there, in the corner.” I’d say, “No, dad, I don’t see anything there.”
Sometimes he called them “The Children”, and other times he referred to them as “The Little People.” To give an idea of just how rarely this occurred, I don’t think he ever said that to me more than maybe 5 times in my life; probably fewer than that. First time when I was a kid, and last time when I was an adult. Later in his life, he described them to me. He described them as small, perhaps several inches to a foot or more, with dragonfly-like wings. They had human-like forms, but they weren’t human. They were always accompanied by a single larger, human-sized one, who always stood off by itself. My dad said the large one never interacted with him, but was there to supervise the little ones. He said the little ones (there were always several) were playful. They didn’t speak any intelligible language to him, but made a high-pitched buzzing sound, like “EEEEEEEEEEEE.”
Well, I never saw a thing, and because I knew my dad, I knew he wasn’t lying, but I wasn’t sure what to think. So, being still young, the second and third occasions he said it, I just said something like, “Okay, dad.”
Let me point out that my dad was NOT prone to having hallucinations, and was not a drinker. Although in his later years he suffered from Parkinson’s, but this started way before that.
My mom was a die-hard skeptic. Whatever she couldn’t see or feel for herself wasn’t real, as far as she was concerned. In fact, she had been present during a time that I was present when he claimed to be seeing “The Children.” My mom just kind of rolled her eyes and shook her head.
One time, near the end of his life, my bedridden dad claimed to have seen them for the last time. I was helping my mom care for him. She was trying to discount what he was telling us, but he was adamant they were protecting him. After he was asleep again, I asked mom about it. To my utter shock, she said, “I believe him.”
After my dad passed away, I asked her what she thought of what my dad had told us, and why she said she now believed him. She told me that one time, as she was doing house chores, she stepped into the kitchen area and saw my dad just standing still and looking down, with a slight smile on his face, and she saw several tiny, shadowy beings or figures, holding hands and dancing in a circle around my dad. My mom said that she shook her head and closed her eyes, then opened them again, but she could no longer see the figures. But my dad had continued to stand there, looking down at the space around him, with an amused expression. She said she’d only seen the images for maybe a second or less, and that she’d felt a chill go up her spine, because it had been so unexpected. After she revealed that to me, I started to notice that my mom was no longer such a skeptic about things anymore.
On a bizarre note, a few years after my dad passed, I was receiving a therapeutic massage from a middle-aged massage therapist who inspired me to get into massage therapy myself. Afterwards, we were talking, and for some reason the paranormal came up. She told me that when she was a little girl growing up on an Indian reservation, she would sometimes flee her house because of her abusive stepfather, and go sit in a field by herself. She said that in that field she would see “fairies” that appeared to her. They were about several inches high, with dragonfly wings, and were always accompanied by a human-sized one that stood off in the distance and never interacted with her. The little “fairies” made a humming type of sound. Eerily similar to my dad’s description, the only difference being that she said the little “fairies” appeared to her in a flat, repeating, 2-dimensional kind of pattern. She said they occasionally appeared to her for a few years, but when she reached her teens, she no longer saw them anymore. This woman, who became a friend and a bit of a mentor, had never met my dad, and I had never told her his story until after she had told me her story.
I’ll also add that my dad was never a person to make up or embellish stories, and he had no interest in reading books, although he was very intelligent. He had neither the tendency nor the creativity to make up stories. His favorite pastimes had been fishing, watching baseball, and watching western movies and TV series, like Gunsmoke. My dad was honest to a fault. And even though I’ve had so-called “paranormal” experiences off and on throughout my life, I never saw “The Little People” that my dad (and later, my mom) had seen. They only came around for him.
What were they, and why did they occasionally come around? I don’t know.
Jim
Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
The Kandahar Giant
TBH, I’m not certain what to think of this story, whether I believe it or not. But if I thought there was no potential truth to it, I wouldn't be posting it here. I first heard this story from another source a few years ago. Although the description of the giant is VERY similar to Native American legends of ancient giants; often red-haired, six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot. I don’t know if this applied in this case (he doesn’t mention it), but ancient giants were also reputed to have had double rows of teeth.
At 11:18, there is an artist’s rendition of the giant. It is NOT a doctored photograph trying to pass as real. There are no photos from the reported incident.
https://youtu.be/T92e0aaizaI
Jim
TBH, I’m not certain what to think of this story, whether I believe it or not. But if I thought there was no potential truth to it, I wouldn't be posting it here. I first heard this story from another source a few years ago. Although the description of the giant is VERY similar to Native American legends of ancient giants; often red-haired, six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot. I don’t know if this applied in this case (he doesn’t mention it), but ancient giants were also reputed to have had double rows of teeth.
At 11:18, there is an artist’s rendition of the giant. It is NOT a doctored photograph trying to pass as real. There are no photos from the reported incident.
https://youtu.be/T92e0aaizaI
Jim
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SpyderNut
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Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
Interesting thread. Thanks for posting this, Jim. As some of the others mentioned, I believe there is some truth to the paranormal, supernatural, or otherwise unexplainable events. I’ll share a story from my own experience:
In June of 2001, I was 18 and working in Chicago through a summer youth program. I was supposed to have been there for six weeks and then return home. However, on the night of June 28th, I had a very disturbing dream. I dreamt that my father, a 29-year journeyman lineman, was fatally injured while on the job. I don’t remember all the specifics of the dream, but I remember feeling the turmoil and anxiety that it caused as I watched my family grieve. It was so vivid and real that I woke up the next day shaking and completely drenched in sweat. I remember thinking, “Thank God that was just a dream.” I went to work that morning still feeling weird. I just couldn’t shake the bad feeling that the dream gave me. Later that afternoon, I was up working up on a ladder when my boss came over. He placed a hand on my foot and said, “You need to come down right now. Something’s wrong.” So, I quickly climbed down and thought that maybe I was in trouble or something. He said, “Your sister is on the phone and needs to talk with you. Your father’s been badly injured and you need to go home right now.” I started to shake because I knew. I knew what she was going to say. Picking up the phone, my sister was hysterical. Through her sobs I understood that our father had been fatally injured while on the job and didn’t have long to live. In the end, I was fortunately able to make it to the hospital to be with him before he passed.
What troubles me to this day is that I knew it was going to happen…before it happened. I hadn’t experienced anything like that before or since this event, and I can’t explain it. But I can tell you that anytime I have a bad dream, it kind of scares me because I’m not sure if it’s going to turn out to be real or not.
In June of 2001, I was 18 and working in Chicago through a summer youth program. I was supposed to have been there for six weeks and then return home. However, on the night of June 28th, I had a very disturbing dream. I dreamt that my father, a 29-year journeyman lineman, was fatally injured while on the job. I don’t remember all the specifics of the dream, but I remember feeling the turmoil and anxiety that it caused as I watched my family grieve. It was so vivid and real that I woke up the next day shaking and completely drenched in sweat. I remember thinking, “Thank God that was just a dream.” I went to work that morning still feeling weird. I just couldn’t shake the bad feeling that the dream gave me. Later that afternoon, I was up working up on a ladder when my boss came over. He placed a hand on my foot and said, “You need to come down right now. Something’s wrong.” So, I quickly climbed down and thought that maybe I was in trouble or something. He said, “Your sister is on the phone and needs to talk with you. Your father’s been badly injured and you need to go home right now.” I started to shake because I knew. I knew what she was going to say. Picking up the phone, my sister was hysterical. Through her sobs I understood that our father had been fatally injured while on the job and didn’t have long to live. In the end, I was fortunately able to make it to the hospital to be with him before he passed.
What troubles me to this day is that I knew it was going to happen…before it happened. I hadn’t experienced anything like that before or since this event, and I can’t explain it. But I can tell you that anytime I have a bad dream, it kind of scares me because I’m not sure if it’s going to turn out to be real or not.
:spyder: -Michael
"...as I said before, 'the edge is a wondrous thing', [but] in all of it's qualities, it is still a ghost." - sal
"...as I said before, 'the edge is a wondrous thing', [but] in all of it's qualities, it is still a ghost." - sal
Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
SpyderNut wrote: ↑Wed Aug 11, 2021 8:00 amInteresting thread. Thanks for posting this, Jim. As some of the others mentioned, I believe there is some truth to the paranormal, supernatural, or otherwise unexplainable events. I’ll share a story from my own experience:
In June of 2001, I was 18 and working in Chicago through a summer youth program. I was supposed to have been there for six weeks and then return home. However, on the night of June 28th, I had a very disturbing dream. I dreamt that my father, a 29-year journeyman lineman, was fatally injured while on the job. I don’t remember all the specifics of the dream, but I remember feeling the turmoil and anxiety that it caused as I watched my family grieve. It was so vivid and real that I woke up the next day shaking and completely drenched in sweat. I remember thinking, “Thank God that was just a dream.” I went to work that morning still feeling weird. I just couldn’t shake the bad feeling that the dream gave me. Later that afternoon, I was up working up on a ladder when my boss came over. He placed a hand on my foot and said, “You need to come down right now. Something’s wrong.” So, I quickly climbed down and thought that maybe I was in trouble or something. He said, “Your sister is on the phone and needs to talk with you. Your father’s been badly injured and you need to go home right now.” I started to shake because I knew. I knew what she was going to say. Picking up the phone, my sister was hysterical. Through her sobs I understood that our father had been fatally injured while on the job and didn’t have long to live. In the end, I was fortunately able to make it to the hospital to be with him before he passed.
What troubles me to this day is that I knew it was going to happen…before it happened. I hadn’t experienced anything like that before or since this event, and I can’t explain it. But I can tell you that anytime I have a bad dream, it kind of scares me because I’m not sure if it’s going to turn out to be real or not.
Hello, Michael.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I want to express my condolences to you, even though time has passed since then. Your story touched me deeply.
Jim
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SpyderNut
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Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
Thank you, Jim. I really do appreciate that.
:spyder: -Michael
"...as I said before, 'the edge is a wondrous thing', [but] in all of it's qualities, it is still a ghost." - sal
"...as I said before, 'the edge is a wondrous thing', [but] in all of it's qualities, it is still a ghost." - sal
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ChrisinHove
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Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
That must have been terrible, Michael / Spydernut. My condolences, as well.
Jim, faeries crop up in folklore all over the world. Certainly my late m.I.l who was from a rural part of Ireland would refer to many such tales, by no means always benign, and on country walks would pick out specific hedgerow trees that in her youth would have been flagged as likely spots for them. Sounds daft, but she was always specific and certain. It has to be said that rural communities, with long dark evenings without reliable light, books, radio (or TV etc) would have certainly valued fireside tales, whether factual or myth.
The Afghanistan reports are interesting. Of course, conflict didn’t start there with the Russians - Alexander the Great, for example, so fighting over strategic locations has been occurring for 2 millennia at least. My great grandfather fought there in the 1890’s. He passed in the 1950’s but my elderly father knew him well. When we invaded in 2001, my father was certain it wouldn’t be successful having heard all his grandfathers stories (and judging by the latest news, he was correct).
I’ve spent plenty of time around battlefields, but with only known historical facts to horrify me. I don’t fancy experiencing anything that would convince me about ghosts, though!
Jim, faeries crop up in folklore all over the world. Certainly my late m.I.l who was from a rural part of Ireland would refer to many such tales, by no means always benign, and on country walks would pick out specific hedgerow trees that in her youth would have been flagged as likely spots for them. Sounds daft, but she was always specific and certain. It has to be said that rural communities, with long dark evenings without reliable light, books, radio (or TV etc) would have certainly valued fireside tales, whether factual or myth.
The Afghanistan reports are interesting. Of course, conflict didn’t start there with the Russians - Alexander the Great, for example, so fighting over strategic locations has been occurring for 2 millennia at least. My great grandfather fought there in the 1890’s. He passed in the 1950’s but my elderly father knew him well. When we invaded in 2001, my father was certain it wouldn’t be successful having heard all his grandfathers stories (and judging by the latest news, he was correct).
I’ve spent plenty of time around battlefields, but with only known historical facts to horrify me. I don’t fancy experiencing anything that would convince me about ghosts, though!
Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
ChrisinHove wrote: ↑Thu Aug 12, 2021 12:57 amThat must have been terrible, Michael / Spydernut. My condolences, as well.
Jim, faeries crop up in folklore all over the world. Certainly my late m.I.l who was from a rural part of Ireland would refer to many such tales, by no means always benign, and on country walks would pick out specific hedgerow trees that in her youth would have been flagged as likely spots for them. Sounds daft, but she was always specific and certain. It has to be said that rural communities, with long dark evenings without reliable light, books, radio (or TV etc) would have certainly valued fireside tales, whether factual or myth.
The Afghanistan reports are interesting. Of course, conflict didn’t start there with the Russians - Alexander the Great, for example, so fighting over strategic locations has been occurring for 2 millennia at least. My great grandfather fought there in the 1890’s. He passed in the 1950’s but my elderly father knew him well. When we invaded in 2001, my father was certain it wouldn’t be successful having heard all his grandfathers stories (and judging by the latest news, he was correct).
I’ve spent plenty of time around battlefields, but with only known historical facts to horrify me. I don’t fancy experiencing anything that would convince me about ghosts, though!
Chris,
Within the past year, I read a book called Fairies: A Dangerous History, by Richard Sugg; I bought it because of what happened with my dad, although he never once used the word “fairies/faeries.” The book is excellent, but virtually none of the descriptions of fairy beliefs in history described winged beings. And before the image of fairies was “Disney-ized” with Tinkerbell, fairies were to be feared. Although I never disbelieved my dad, it was my mom who convinced me when she finally admitted to have seen the little beings. Before that, my mom was one of those skeptics who didn’t believe in anything out of the ordinary. And the nearly-identical accounts from the older lady who was a mentor to me just sealed my belief that my dad’s experiences had been real.
I’ve come to the conclusion that there are different types of semi-physical or non-physical beings (not all small, by the way) that exist on this earth alongside of us, possibly in parallel frequencies or dimensions, that occasionally interact with humans, and they exist worldwide, not just in Ireland, England, Iceland, etc., from which most people associate fairy/faery lore. I believe these “frequencies” are like the frequencies of different radio or TV stations, in that we normally cannot see or interact with them. But that at times, and under certain conditions, as on a radio, the dial is in-between stations or frequencies, or can be manipulated somehow, which allows temporary cross-overs, or bleed-throughs, between frequencies. I personally believe this applies to many so-called “paranormal” phenomena, not just “fairies.”
As for Afghanistan, I knew from the very moment the US was going there, that the ultimate outcome wasn’t going to be successful. As you say, too much history there. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
TBH, “ghosts” (whatever they really are) for the most part don’t scare me. Only two of the many experiences I’ve had in my life I would classify as “creepy,” and both happened in Taiwan. The first was in that story I linked earlier. I’ll write about the second in another post. I’ll also mention another incident involving poltergeist phenomena in the place I stayed over there, but it didn’t scare me, which I believe is one reason why the phenomena never harassed me or continued beyond one time. I believe if you react fearfully or in a panic, they (whatever “they” are) can feed off of that fear energy, and will latch on or attach themselves to you. Even during the two creepy incidents, I never freaked out. I’m not special because of that; I simply came to accept that things outside of the ‘normal’ realm are a part of life.
I occasionally watch some of those “paranormal investigator” shows, and I’m always amused when these investigators freak out or scream when a chair moves a couple inches, or a door closes by itself. Which makes me wonder if there is any staging or acting that way for dramatic effect, to make it more interesting for TV. I’m not saying they’re necessarily faking the phenomena, but could they sometimes over-dramatacize their reactions? If they’ve been on hundreds of investigations, how does a chair moving slightly, or a ball rolling by itself elicit such an “OMG” moment? I’m not trying to be an armchair expert; and I’m not saying they aren’t legit, but I’m simply wondering why the sometimes over-reactions. Maybe it’s the atmosphere they’re in. Or maybe it helps them boost ratings; they are TV personalities, after all. Some of the stuff I’ve experienced that I didn’t find scary would have made some of these guys scream and run out of the room.
Personally, I would never become a “paranormal investigator.” I have no need to go looking for encounters. As for the popularity of paranormal shows on TV, I wouldn't recommend for anyone to base all of their information on the subject from TV shows, real or not.
BTW, IMO, the best and most interesting of the paranormal-based shows by far is The Dead Files. The parts I enjoy the most are when Steve, the ex-NYC cop, researches the history of the properties he and Amy, the psychic medium (who walks the properties), investigate separately. Then they come together to compare their findings at the end, to see if anything matches up. Is it 100% real? I don't know. But I find it far more interesting to watch than the other paranormal shows.
Jim
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ChrisinHove
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Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
Jim, on the topic of sinister faeries, a great novel you might be interested in is Dr Strange & Mr Norell.
The paranormal investigation TV shows here are all pretty corny, tbh.
The paranormal investigation TV shows here are all pretty corny, tbh.
Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
ChrisinHove wrote: ↑Thu Aug 12, 2021 3:10 pmJim, on the topic of sinister faeries, a great novel you might be interested in is Dr Strange & Mr Norell.
The paranormal investigation TV shows here are all pretty corny, tbh.
Thank you, Chris! That novel sounds interesting.
With most of the (typical) paranormal shows I’ve seen, it’s as if the investigators, deep down, don’t really want to find what they supposedly came looking for. It’s a lot of the same old thing:
Investigator(s): “Can…you…speak…to…us? What…is…your…name? SHOW YOURSELF!!”
**something happens**
Investigator(s): “Yaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!! OMG, OMG, OMG! I’m outta here!!!”
Jim
Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
This is a chilling story.
Note: Although actual photographs of house’s exterior are shown, AFAIK, the actual paranormal photographs described that were taken in the basement and from the outside of the house are NOT shown in this video.
https://youtu.be/jo4t3ONJNFg
Jim
Note: Although actual photographs of house’s exterior are shown, AFAIK, the actual paranormal photographs described that were taken in the basement and from the outside of the house are NOT shown in this video.
https://youtu.be/jo4t3ONJNFg
Jim
Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
Most of my paranormal experiences have been either neutral or positive. I consider only two of my experiences to have been creepy. I shared my first “creepy” paranormal experience in the linked story, “Entiny Encounter In Taiwan.” The following event also occurred in Taiwan, and is the second of my two paranormal experiences I considered to have been creepy. It happened sometime in 1992.
A friend of mine from Liverpool, England, named Paul, and I had eaten at a small pizza restaurant. It was in a normal business area in Taipei. Paul and I trained martial arts together under our teacher, Sifu Peng. This evening, after we had eaten, we were outside and a few doors down from the restaurant, on the sidewalk, talking about whatever. He was sitting on his parked motorcycle, and I was standing, maybe about 8 feet away from him. It wasn’t late, only about 8:00 in the evening, and it was warm and humid. As I was saying something, suddenly an extremely cold energy came down into the top of my head and down into my throat, and I found myself unable to speak. This chill then went down into my upper torso. Similar to the account I gave to Lon Strickler, it felt like something was trying to take me over.
As I struggled to speak, it almost felt as if I were inside of a fog, and I saw Paul (through a slight haze) lean forward and squint a bit, as if he was trying to see me through a veil or something. I struggled to regain control of myself and my vocal cords, and started to feel the energy lift off of me. Then Paul sat bolt upright, wrapped his arms around himself, shook once and said, “****ing ****, man! Did ya feel that?” I told him that something had tried to take me over. Then I said, “We’d better not talk about it anymore, or it might come back.” He said, “Yeah.” Shortly afterwards, we went our separate ways.
Someone who’s a skeptic might say I’d had a health-related episode. Not at all. My health was fine. And if it had been a health issue, I guess it affected both of us at the same time.
The next morning when Paul came to training, he told me, “Something followed me back to my room last night. I could feel it in my room ‘til around 5:00 a.m. That’s when it finally left, and I only got two hours’ sleep.”
Keep in mind, Paul was a fairly big guy who was a world traveler and an experienced martial artist (and a good fighter in England) before he ever went to Taiwan. We never once talked about anything paranormal, and he never gave me the impression that he would have believed in anything like that if we had. The incident had creeped me out a bit, but he was actually freaked out over it. I remember saying that we probably shouldn’t discuss it anymore or keep thinking about it, because it might draw it back.
What was it? I don’t know. Most people who believe in the paranormal would automatically say, “ghost.” But I don’t know about that. I know from the personal experience of it that it was some type of entity; but whether it was a dead person’s spirit, I don’t know. Some people might say it was demonic. I don’t know about that, either. I’ve come to realize there are different things out there, and I really can’t speculate exactly what it might have been, only that it wasn’t positive. Nowadays, with the current pop culture popularity of paranormal investigation shows, they would call it getting “jumped” by a spirit or nonphysical being. All I know is both Paul and I experienced something, and that whatever Paul may or may not have believed before, he certainly was a believer afterwards.
Other than having been a bit creeped out at the time it happened, TBH, I didn’t really give it much thought afterwards.
The weirdest thing about it was where it took place; on a sidewalk in a normal business area in Taipei, on a warm, early evening. There hadn’t been many (if any) people walking past us at the time, but it was such a strange, random place for such an event to happen.
Jim
A friend of mine from Liverpool, England, named Paul, and I had eaten at a small pizza restaurant. It was in a normal business area in Taipei. Paul and I trained martial arts together under our teacher, Sifu Peng. This evening, after we had eaten, we were outside and a few doors down from the restaurant, on the sidewalk, talking about whatever. He was sitting on his parked motorcycle, and I was standing, maybe about 8 feet away from him. It wasn’t late, only about 8:00 in the evening, and it was warm and humid. As I was saying something, suddenly an extremely cold energy came down into the top of my head and down into my throat, and I found myself unable to speak. This chill then went down into my upper torso. Similar to the account I gave to Lon Strickler, it felt like something was trying to take me over.
As I struggled to speak, it almost felt as if I were inside of a fog, and I saw Paul (through a slight haze) lean forward and squint a bit, as if he was trying to see me through a veil or something. I struggled to regain control of myself and my vocal cords, and started to feel the energy lift off of me. Then Paul sat bolt upright, wrapped his arms around himself, shook once and said, “****ing ****, man! Did ya feel that?” I told him that something had tried to take me over. Then I said, “We’d better not talk about it anymore, or it might come back.” He said, “Yeah.” Shortly afterwards, we went our separate ways.
Someone who’s a skeptic might say I’d had a health-related episode. Not at all. My health was fine. And if it had been a health issue, I guess it affected both of us at the same time.
The next morning when Paul came to training, he told me, “Something followed me back to my room last night. I could feel it in my room ‘til around 5:00 a.m. That’s when it finally left, and I only got two hours’ sleep.”
Keep in mind, Paul was a fairly big guy who was a world traveler and an experienced martial artist (and a good fighter in England) before he ever went to Taiwan. We never once talked about anything paranormal, and he never gave me the impression that he would have believed in anything like that if we had. The incident had creeped me out a bit, but he was actually freaked out over it. I remember saying that we probably shouldn’t discuss it anymore or keep thinking about it, because it might draw it back.
What was it? I don’t know. Most people who believe in the paranormal would automatically say, “ghost.” But I don’t know about that. I know from the personal experience of it that it was some type of entity; but whether it was a dead person’s spirit, I don’t know. Some people might say it was demonic. I don’t know about that, either. I’ve come to realize there are different things out there, and I really can’t speculate exactly what it might have been, only that it wasn’t positive. Nowadays, with the current pop culture popularity of paranormal investigation shows, they would call it getting “jumped” by a spirit or nonphysical being. All I know is both Paul and I experienced something, and that whatever Paul may or may not have believed before, he certainly was a believer afterwards.
Other than having been a bit creeped out at the time it happened, TBH, I didn’t really give it much thought afterwards.
The weirdest thing about it was where it took place; on a sidewalk in a normal business area in Taipei, on a warm, early evening. There hadn’t been many (if any) people walking past us at the time, but it was such a strange, random place for such an event to happen.
Jim
Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
The Mt. Shasta area is known for having many unexplained and unsolved disappearances. I first read about this case in one of David Paulides’s Missing 411 books.
https://youtu.be/XqpKP1827wM
Jim
https://youtu.be/XqpKP1827wM
Jim
Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
On more than one occasion a handful of us volunteered to guard some abandoned base for weeks at a time on an island in the mediterranean. The place was huge, and full of wild goats roaming around (the fencing was torn in many places).
Military/PM2/P3 Native Chief/Native GB2 DF2 PITS Chaparral Tasman Salt 2 SE Caribbean Sheepfoot SE SpydieChef Swayback Manix2 Sage 1 SSS Stretch 2 XL G10
Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
Thanks for sharing!
It must be interesting being at a large facility like an abandoned base, that was once so full of activity.
Jim
Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
“This Hole Has Killed 16 People”
Nature never ceases to amaze me. Who would have thought there would be an underwater cave that goes down 300+ feet deep, right underneath a farmer’s field?
Cave diving is something I will never do.
https://youtu.be/A3yaednyAjI
Jim
Nature never ceases to amaze me. Who would have thought there would be an underwater cave that goes down 300+ feet deep, right underneath a farmer’s field?
Cave diving is something I will never do.
https://youtu.be/A3yaednyAjI
Jim
Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
The following story is very personal in my family. I’ve never shared this outside of family before, and I wasn’t going to share it here, but have decided to now. It does not involve me, but my dad’s family back in the 1930s, when he was young.
My paternal grandfather ran a produce farm in Ventura, CA. He came from Japan in the late 1800s when he was only about 17 as a runaway, but that’s another story. My dad was the youngest of eight children (six boys and two girls), who all had to do chores on the farm before and after school. They also had to go with my grandfather to Los Angeles when they went to sell their produce. One day, one of my dad’s sisters had fallen onto a concrete patio area and broke her hip. According to my dad, her hip had developed a severe infection, and that back then, the doctors were unable to do much about it.
My aunt was bedridden and her condition was deteriorating, when a neighbor, who was also Japanese-American and lived about a mile away, came to the house and gave my aunt a small book that combined Japanese Shintoism with Christianity. He stated that sometime before, he had had a health crisis of his own and studied that book, and that doing so had ‘cured’ him of his ailment. So maybe if she really studied it, it might help her, too. According to my dad, his sister read that book as much as she could, day and night, even as her condition continued worsening.
Then after some time passed (I don’t recall how long, perhaps a few days), one day my aunt just got up out of bed, miraculously stood up, and started walking around like normal again(!). Keep in mind, she hadn’t been able to get out of bed or care for herself at all. She was crying and apologizing to the family for putting everyone through so much difficulty in caring for her, and for not being able to do her share of the chores around the farm. The family was happy and celebrating that she had been cured.
That night, after everyone had gone to sleep, my grandfather was relaxing alone on the porch in his chair, smoking his pipe. At some point, he saw a small, glowing ball of light come through the front screen door; it floated past him, past the porch area and floated upward, where it vanished. My grandfather knew immediately that my aunt had passed away. Had it been her spirit saying goodbye to my grandfather for the last time?
My dad had never told me this story until the late 1990s, a few years before his death. Prior to that, I hadn’t even known he’d had a second sister who had died in her teens in the 1930s. A few years back, I mentioned this story to my older brother, and he said that dad had told him that exact same story, virtually word for word, when he was a kid. Meaning the details hadn’t changed.
I believe it, because: 1), My dad never made up stories; and 2), It was about his family, and specifically, his late sister and her passing.
BTW, the farm had been a prosperous one, but the property was seized by the US government when the family, along with all other Japanese-Americans (at least on the west coast), were rounded up and put into internment camps in 1942, after Pearl Harbor. My dad’s family ended up in the internment camp in Poston, Arizona.
Jim
My paternal grandfather ran a produce farm in Ventura, CA. He came from Japan in the late 1800s when he was only about 17 as a runaway, but that’s another story. My dad was the youngest of eight children (six boys and two girls), who all had to do chores on the farm before and after school. They also had to go with my grandfather to Los Angeles when they went to sell their produce. One day, one of my dad’s sisters had fallen onto a concrete patio area and broke her hip. According to my dad, her hip had developed a severe infection, and that back then, the doctors were unable to do much about it.
My aunt was bedridden and her condition was deteriorating, when a neighbor, who was also Japanese-American and lived about a mile away, came to the house and gave my aunt a small book that combined Japanese Shintoism with Christianity. He stated that sometime before, he had had a health crisis of his own and studied that book, and that doing so had ‘cured’ him of his ailment. So maybe if she really studied it, it might help her, too. According to my dad, his sister read that book as much as she could, day and night, even as her condition continued worsening.
Then after some time passed (I don’t recall how long, perhaps a few days), one day my aunt just got up out of bed, miraculously stood up, and started walking around like normal again(!). Keep in mind, she hadn’t been able to get out of bed or care for herself at all. She was crying and apologizing to the family for putting everyone through so much difficulty in caring for her, and for not being able to do her share of the chores around the farm. The family was happy and celebrating that she had been cured.
That night, after everyone had gone to sleep, my grandfather was relaxing alone on the porch in his chair, smoking his pipe. At some point, he saw a small, glowing ball of light come through the front screen door; it floated past him, past the porch area and floated upward, where it vanished. My grandfather knew immediately that my aunt had passed away. Had it been her spirit saying goodbye to my grandfather for the last time?
My dad had never told me this story until the late 1990s, a few years before his death. Prior to that, I hadn’t even known he’d had a second sister who had died in her teens in the 1930s. A few years back, I mentioned this story to my older brother, and he said that dad had told him that exact same story, virtually word for word, when he was a kid. Meaning the details hadn’t changed.
I believe it, because: 1), My dad never made up stories; and 2), It was about his family, and specifically, his late sister and her passing.
BTW, the farm had been a prosperous one, but the property was seized by the US government when the family, along with all other Japanese-Americans (at least on the west coast), were rounded up and put into internment camps in 1942, after Pearl Harbor. My dad’s family ended up in the internment camp in Poston, Arizona.
Jim
Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
The Elisa Lam Case
This is a very famous mysterious disappearance case from 2013. And this is the best discussion of it on YouTube that I could find. IMO, the weirdest part of the case is talked about beginning from 10:00:
https://youtu.be/YslBvqJ7_c8
Jim
This is a very famous mysterious disappearance case from 2013. And this is the best discussion of it on YouTube that I could find. IMO, the weirdest part of the case is talked about beginning from 10:00:
https://youtu.be/YslBvqJ7_c8
Jim
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The Mastiff
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Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
I thought they got their property back after the war if they didn't sell it. I read many of them did sell property and businesses mostly for pennies on the dollar and a lot of Americans took advantage of the ones that did.BTW, the farm had been a prosperous one, but the property was seized by the US government when the family, along with all other Japanese-Americans (at least on the west coast), were rounded up and put into internment camps in 1942, after Pearl Harbor. My dad’s family ended up in the internment camp in Poston, Arizona.
Did they live long enough to get the apology and the $20,000 ? I know that doesn't make up for what they went through . The Government is heavy handed at it's best. When they took our family's land for the price they determined was fair my family lost a lotof money. More importantly it ended up scattering us and it was never the same for us afterwards. It happened during a recession with a lousy to nonexistent job market so everybody went where they could find work and a place to live. No more meals for the extended family on weekends and on holidays people had to come from different states so that put a stop to that after a couple of holidays . For a very close knit Italian family it hurt. I could only imagine what it would be like to have soldiers herding us into buses and drive us out into the desert to a POW camp . If I'm not mistaken they even split up married couples and put everybody in barracks by gender . Still, they had it better than Americans in Japan and pretty much everyone held by Germany or even the Soviet Union. I hope I'll never live long enough to see days like that return.
Re: Unusual, and/or Paranormal Events
The Mastiff wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 6:18 pmI thought they got their property back after the war if they didn't sell it. I read many of them did sell property and businesses mostly for pennies on the dollar and a lot of Americans took advantage of the ones that did.BTW, the farm had been a prosperous one, but the property was seized by the US government when the family, along with all other Japanese-Americans (at least on the west coast), were rounded up and put into internment camps in 1942, after Pearl Harbor. My dad’s family ended up in the internment camp in Poston, Arizona.
Did they live long enough to get the apology and the $20,000 ? I know that doesn't make up for what they went through . The Government is heavy handed at it's best. When they took our family's land for the price they determined was fair my family lost a lotof money. More importantly it ended up scattering us and it was never the same for us afterwards. It happened during a recession with a lousy to nonexistent job market so everybody went where they could find work and a place to live. No more meals for the extended family on weekends and on holidays people had to come from different states so that put a stop to that after a couple of holidays . For a very close knit Italian family it hurt. I could only imagine what it would be like to have soldiers herding us into buses and drive us out into the desert to a POW camp . If I'm not mistaken they even split up married couples and put everybody in barracks by gender . Still, they had it better than Americans in Japan and pretty much everyone held by Germany or even the Soviet Union. I hope I'll never live long enough to see days like that return.
They never got their property back. Which was probably just as well, though they should have been compensated. They weren’t at the time. My grandfather was born in around 1871, and died in 1951; a very long life at that time. He would’ve been too old to farm, anyway, and I doubt my uncles would have been able to run such a big farm. They all later got into working on a tuna boat.
My dad, and I think my mom (who didn’t meet until after WW2) both got some compensation from the Reagan administration in the ‘80s, but I don’t remember how much it was. Not too much. The internment camps and property seizures were the main reason there are no big Japanese-American communities, unlike other Asian-American groups have. Most families kind of scattered after the war to make their own way. Sure, there is a Little Tokyo in L.A. and a Japantown in San Francisco, but they weren’t quite the same (and really aren’t now).
My mom’s family was luckier; they were popular in their neighborhood in Los Angeles, and some people volunteered to take care of their flower shop and upstairs living area for them until they came back from the internment camps. The people who watched over the property were the parents of Caryl Chessman, a criminal who later became known as The Red Light Bandit.
Yes, the internment of Japanese-Americans wasn’t as bad as the American soldiers held by the Japanese forces overseas, but the difference is that most of the Japanese who were interned were American citizens. My mom’s dad was taken from his family at the Manzanar internment camp by the FBI and was interrogated in Roswell, New Mexico. Why? Because he had been a financial contributor to a Japanese language school in Los Angeles. But he never admitted to any wrongdoing, and a former (Caucasian) boss and friend of his drove all the way from L.A. to Roswell to vouch for him, not an easy task at all back then, before the US freeway system was built.
Jim