One of my experiences

[dusty]

Hiya gang,

Been pondering this for some time, and right now I must say I feel comfortable enough sharing this with you all.
As in my humble opinion this forum is the place where I feel the level of intelligent debate/analysis is strongest. And I value the insights of many here.

Here goes.

When I was about 9 years old my father suffered a truly devastating and
frightening nervous breakdown.
This all errupted one night in November 1973. As I was only 9 and my brother 7 at the time we were both blissfully unaware of any problem with dad, and if mum was aware then she kept it very quiet.

Late one night, John "brother" and I were woken by the sound of dad screaming and raving, quite literally like a thing possessed.
He was raving about burning in hell and seeing demons, and then that he was God and had all the attendent powers then again that he was all evil and described what dreadful things he could do.
Basically he suffered an absolute meltdown and it very nearly destroyed him. Unfortunately he continued to have these kind of episodes, sometimes two or more times a year for at least the next five years.
And to this day he has troubles though not with that kind of intensity.

The impact this had on our family was as will understand profound and
frightening.

As I was at a very impressionable age all these events had a huge impact on the way I viewed the world, and when talking to dad during those early days he opened my mind to the potential we all have not so much to crack the way he had. More like, once he had, his perceptions of reality
were so altered at times. That it made normal existence nigh on impossible and how ones understanding of "Self" is completely altered.

All of these events preceded a series of experiences I had, and I feel that
they may have occurred because of the heightened emotional state of everyone in our house, and my own overly sensitive nature.
In short it felt like a door had been opened and for sometime odd things happened.

Now if you are still with me this is what happened.

For three consecutive nights I had what I regard as a recurring dream,
where I find myself at the door to the bathroom and upon opening I am confronted by what can best be described as a humanoid figure of about 5 to 6 feet tall with lizard like features and very colourful skin
that seemed to shift pattern.
If any of you are familiar with the computer game "Morrowind" then you will know what I mean when I say it looked very like an "Argonian".

Anyway the first time I open the door we look at each other and this creature vocalises something that frightens me to the point where I blackout.
The very next evening same thing, I open the door the creature says something only this time I do my best to repeat that sound back at it,
then I blackout
The last time, and the same scenario, I repeat the sound and then the creature disappears.

Now dont get me wrong I dont believe I have actually had an encounter with some kind of alien. However this is only one event out of a whole series that really intrigue me, and I can only say that much like what David has said before about what others think. I know what I experienced with this and I know what I have seen at other times and
in a strange way I am grateful. Like that guy Gene has mentioned from time to time, I think these events occur like ufo's, maybe just to make us think.

Peace,

Mark

 

[Aaron LeClair]

What made your dad crack? Ex: job stress, loss of a loved one, etc. Was he very religious?

Yes, I've play a little of Morrowind. Never could quite get into it though Thinkin about getting Oblivion however. Looks better.

So, you're not sure if it was "just a dream" or not? If so, care to share some other events that lead you to think that?

What was the sound you had to repeat?

 

[Poi]

I'm not good at dream interpretation, but the dreams suggest to me that you may have been trying to deal with the fear your dad's episode had on you, Dusty. Maybe even that he was correct in that each of us has a very dark side we should come to know.

But a friend of mine suggests we could better interpret dreams if we see ourselves as each person or entity in our dreams. That opens up a new ballgame, doesn't it? At least more to think about.

I'm not trying to ignore any paranormal aspect of your dreams because I think the dream world is much more than we like to expect. But everything in that world does result in our having to try to understand in our waking state. Since dreams are personal, no one can really know much except the dreamer.

 

[Aaron LeClair]

"But a friend of mine suggests we could better interpret dreams if we see ourselves as each person or entity in our dreams. That opens up a new ballgame, doesn't it? At least more to think about."

That and see the objects in dreams as shadows of emotions.

 

[dusty]

Hi Packrat,

The main reason for my dads breakdown I think was because of work.
He used to be a systems analyst at BOC cryoplants back in the days of
punchcards et all, and from what I understand prior to his troubles he was having to get his head around lots of new computer systems that ended up being just too much for him to handle and that was the main reason for him going over the edge.

He was never a very religious person, ie, he and the rest of the family never went to church or talked about such things though that all changed
very soon after his breakdown. I will perhaps go into some of the experiences he had like visions, at some point but I will need to chat with him to get the full picture.
Our family at that time was nothing special, Mr and Mrs average with two kids and there was nothing untoward with mum and dads relationship at any time, we were all even after all this a very close and loving family.

The reason I regard the events I posted earlier to be dreams, really just boils down to me finding myself waking up in bed and not collapsed in front of the bathroom door. Also as I pointed out earlier I did have more unusual episodes at that time whilst fully awake some of which can be corrobarated, some others happened whilst I was alone.
Here's an example.

When aged 10 I think I was playing at the bottom of our garden with some toy soldiers. I heard a sound behind me and turned to see what it was, and as I live and breathe, and I swear on my very soul. I saw a bird
about 2 to 3 feet tall predominantly grey in colour looking like a Dodo, and the strangest thing of all was that this damn thing had teeth.
I dont know much at all about ornithology but I can say that it wasn't
a Heron or Cormorant it's legs were way too short and it was far bulkier than either of them.

I have already posted another event that my whole family can corrobarate on a different thread here. Which I can only describe as being what I would classify as being a Poltergeist, though who knows what it was. I will look into where this thread is and let you know. If I cant find it I will post it again. I dare'nt go look for it now as I will lose all I have written so far. So now you know how un computer savvy I am.

Just to get back to your other question re what sound this creature made. It was a harsh single rasping squawk or growl, at least that's how I perceived it. Cant say I understood or anything but on the second and third occasion I determined to face this thing and see what would happen. I was afraid but didn't feel threatened and I truly believe there was no bad intention from this thing. Having said that we all know the dangers inherent with belief and I for one am a very wary person when it comes to that.

One more thing. If you are thinking of getting the game Oblivion please, please, please check that your pc is up to the spec quoted on the box.
I recently bought it and it wont run on our pc and after looking on the relevant problems page on the Elder Scrolls website many people have had the same problem.

Peace,

Mark

 

[Aaron LeClair]

Hi Packrat,

The main reason for my dads breakdown I think was because of work.
He used to be a systems analyst at BOC cryoplants back in the days of
punchcards et all, and from what I understand prior to his troubles he was having to get his head around lots of new computer systems that ended up being just too much for him to handle and that was the main reason for him going over the edge.

He was never a very religious person, ie, he and the rest of the family never went to church or talked about such things though that all changed
very soon after his breakdown. I will perhaps go into some of the experiences he had like visions, at some point but I will need to chat with him to get the full picture.
Our family at that time was nothing special, Mr and Mrs average with two kids and there was nothing untoward with mum and dads relationship at any time, we were all even after all this a very close and loving family.

The reason I regard the events I posted earlier to be dreams, really just boils down to me finding myself waking up in bed and not collapsed in front of the bathroom door. Also as I pointed out earlier I did have more unusual episodes at that time whilst fully awake some of which can be corrobarated, some others happened whilst I was alone.
Here's an example.

When aged 10 I think I was playing at the bottom of our garden with some toy soldiers. I heard a sound behind me and turned to see what it was, and as I live and breathe, and I swear on my very soul. I saw a bird
about 2 to 3 feet tall predominantly grey in colour looking like a Dodo, and the strangest thing of all was that this damn thing had teeth.
I dont know much at all about ornithology but I can say that it wasn't
a Heron or Cormorant it's legs were way too short and it was far bulkier than either of them.

I have already posted another event that my whole family can corrobarate on a different thread here. Which I can only describe as being what I would classify as being a Poltergeist, though who knows what it was. I will look into where this thread is and let you know. If I cant find it I will post it again. I dare'nt go look for it now as I will lose all I have written so far. So now you know how un computer savvy I am.

Just to get back to your other question re what sound this creature made. It was a harsh single rasping squawk or growl, at least that's how I perceived it. Cant say I understood or anything but on the second and third occasion I determined to face this thing and see what would happen. I was afraid but didn't feel threatened and I truly believe there was no bad intention from this thing. Having said that we all know the dangers inherent with belief and I for one am a very wary person when it comes to that.

One more thing. If you are thinking of getting the game Oblivion please, please, please check that your pc is up to the spec quoted on the box.
I recently bought it and it wont run on our pc and after looking on the relevant problems page on the Elder Scrolls website many people have had the same problem.

Peace,

Mark

Don't worry about finding the thread. I can find it.

Yeh, one of the reasons I haven't bought Oblivion yet was due to the specs. I was able to run Witcher well enough, and that has some hefty spec requirements. The load times are hedious though, so I stopped playing it

Have you ever had any missing time experiences?

 

[dusty]

Sorry Packrat I have looked through my previous postings and have not found the one I was talking about. As I recall now I wrote it as a PM to David some time ago, so here we go again.

This all happened when I was 10 or 11.

It was May 22nd of either 74 or 75. I am accurate over the date as it was my brother John's birthday. Whilst out riding our bikes we came to our friend David's house, he was outside looking scared and holding a spade. Of course we stopped and asked, whats up? He then went into telling us that his parents and older brother were out, and that he had been spooked by something that made him think that someone or thing was in the house. As you can well imagine John and I got very excited about all this and we hung around with him, daring each other to go in. None of us had the nerve though.

Sometime later his brother showed up and, being older than all of us, proceeded to go in through the back door armed with David's trusty spade.

As it was, no one or thing could be found, much to our disappointment. So John and I soon left and went home.

All the above is there only to illustrate how John and I had got very excited prior to going to bed that night. At that time we shared a bedroom and as usual we went to bed with our cocoa and comics and settled down to read. At this point, all upstairs doors were closed and the door to the lounge downstairs was closed. Mum and Dad were watching TV and all was well.

Firstly, in the room next to ours, there came the sound of paper being flung around. At which point, John and I looked at each other in amazement, yet did nothing. We may have said "What the f*** was that?" but then went back to reading our comics. Next, there was a loud knocking sound on what we perceived to be the banister immediately outside our bedroom door. Again, John and I both heard this clearly, then we began to feel a bit frightened and listened intently for anything else. Soon after, we heard three very loud bangs on the plastic panel fixed to the bath. I must say now that that sound had significance to everyone in our family, and this will sound funny now, but when John and I were small, when we were in the bath, we used to bang on the side of the bath for Mum to come up and wash our hair and bathe us. The panel I refer to had some screws missing from it, probably due to us banging in the first place!, but the sound was known to us all. Then, of course, John and I screamed out for Mum and Dad. Dad came running up, asking us what was wrong. To which we replied: "Didn't you hear it?" or something along those lines. My dad denied hearing anything and, even after our panicked explanation of what we'd heard, in time he calmed us down, we went to sleep and that was that.

This incident was never talked about and soon was forgotten. Now flick forwards in time and I'm in a pub with a friend and my dad, and the conversation winds up getting into the realms of the paranormal, I guess, and I told this whole story to this friend, whilst my dad was listening and when I got to the end, saying that neither Mum or Dad heard anything, my dad spoke up for the first time and said: "Hold on, your mother and I did hear that banging, and it freaked us out as well, but we didn't want to worry you any more, so we denied every hearing it." But he agreed it was a very strange thing to have happened.

I have pondered this whole thing on and off over the years and can only relate it to something along the lines of maybe poltergeist activity, possibly manifested by my own pre-pubescent hormonal state; you know how that whole story goes!

In answer to your other point, no I haven't experienced any missing time. In fact I'm gaining, freakily, up to half-an-hour, one time at least, on my Russian-made Vostok Tank Commander's watch, bought for me last Christmas by my darling wife. What do you think? Did those crazy Ivans know something about time travel?!

Peace,

Mark

 

[Graphimancer]

I think it's a shame that we don't have the modern equivalent of shamans, who can help us deal with and work things out with these visionary encounters. These sightnings and dream states can be very powerful, and I suspect that whatever they are trying to tell us may well be wasted since we can't understand them anymore. Western culture really screwed up when it turned it's back on the mystical.

Great stuff, Dusty. Thanks.

 

[skunkape]

When aged 10 I think I was playing at the bottom of our garden with some toy soldiers. I heard a sound behind me and turned to see what it was, and as I live and breathe, and I swear on my very soul. I saw a bird
about 2 to 3 feet tall predominantly grey in colour looking like a Dodo, and the strangest thing of all was that this damn thing had teeth.
I dont know much at all about ornithology but I can say that it wasn't
a Heron or Cormorant it's legs were way too short and it was far bulkier than either of them.

Apparently there were some primitive birds with teeth.
Google Image Result for http://ksjtracker.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/seabirdteethfossil3.jpg
I caught a critter while fishing when I was a kid that looked prehistoric. It was maybe 2 foot long, had a head similar to a gar, but it wasn't a fish. There were no gills and it's fins were closer to seal flippers. It had smooth, orange, semi translucent skin like an amphibian. I got it up on the bank, but the hook wasn't set, it just had it's needle-like teeth snagged in my bait. It got loose and flippered back into the water. My brother was with me and saw it, too.

 

[dusty]

I checked that link skunkape and the overall shape of that skull is similar, though what I saw would have been about two thirds the size, using the persons hand in frame for scale.
The arrangement of the teeth was pretty much the same only all of the teeth were the same size not interspersed with larger ones.

That fish like creature you hooked sounds really strange, and it's good your brother saw it too. Dont know about you but aside from corrobaration being important for other people, it's important (at least for me) as a way of realising I'm not going crazy.

Mark

 

[Gareth]

Interesting experiences Mark. Thanks for sharing.

Maybe that banging you heard was actually years earlier and there was some sort of time slip event like Paul Kimball was postulating for some ghost encounters on last weeks show.

Just an idea.

 

[skunkape]

Dont know about you but aside from corrobaration being important for other people, it's important (at least for me) as a way of realising I'm not going crazy.

Mark

I feel you, man. I have just enough experiences with other witnesses to assure me that I'm not "completely" crazy, but sometimes I have my doubts.

 

[dusty]

Interesting experiences Mark. Thanks for sharing.

Maybe that banging you heard was actually years earlier and there was some sort of time slip event like Paul Kimball was postulating for some ghost encounters on last weeks show.

Just an idea.

I hear what you're saying Gareth but the banging we all heard was most definitely the panel on the bath, and as far as replays of a previous event in time goes. All I can say is that the house was built in 1970 and we were the first family to live there. Prior to that the land was just open fields as far as I know.

Now having said that. Just recently my Mother and I have been talking a lot about those days,(Gonna PM you Gareth) and we got on to the subject of those banging sounds, some dreams I had seeing a being in the bathroom and the thing with the bird, and a few others.
We then got around to talking a lot about my Dads mental health issues, and that on the one and only occasion he actually attacked mum, it all kicked off in the bathroom and finished up downstairs with my brother and I pulling him off her.

So I guess some people might then attach signifigance to that particular room. We will never know, personally I think it's irrelevant.
To be honest, since then so many things have happened in other places and at other times, (that could I suppose be thrown in the paranormal basket) that I truly think much of it can be put down to "confirmation bias", a new term for me, but bang on imo.

That's not to say some events haven't hit home very hard indeed, but the thing Jeff Ritzmann has said in the past for instance about the fact that (If you go looking for it, then it sure as hell is gonna find ya!) Are wise words, and we should all be wary of what we choose to believe about any given situation. It's all too easy to start seeing patterns and conjuring up explanations in your own head, and consequently bloody dangerous in some instances.

That's a whole other thread right there so maybe I should stop.

I had a hard time believing that he was really leaving,
but I have friends at wits end still.

That's for all you guys and gals ,
Some of you might decipher it, but all is well.

Peace,

Mark

 

[Schuyler]

Old thread revitalized! About your Dad's experiences, they sound like a bad LSD trip. I'm not suggesting that he took any--please don't get me wrong, but acid has this way of opening up your perception of reality that can be extremely frightening if you're not prepared for it. I'm not pretending to be a chemist, but I remember reading somewhere (probably in the sixties) that what it does is cause natural chemicals to be released into your brain, and THAT is what causes the experiences. If stress did the same thing, that could be an explanation.

I can't imagine what that would do to a family dynamic. It had to have been terribly upsetting. Thanks for sharing a compelling story.

 

[cyberknight]

Hi Mark,

You stated that the 'creature vocalized something'... were you able to come to some conclusion as to what that was?

I had something similar, the voice was extremely garbled, I still don't know what that was, the experience was very disturbing. This was in March 08.

 

[Bixyboo]

I'd like to know what you heard/repeated from the creature too, Mark.

And not to make light of your event or anything, but it sounds akin to Donnie Darko.

 

[dusty]

Hi Bixyboo and cyberknight,

It's kind of hard to describe the sound this thing made, the best I can describe it is, it was like a bark mixed with a squark. The meaning of which I haven't a clue, but my impression was that it meant me no harm, and that it was good that I had opened the door.
Donnie Darko I have seen but I dont know of anything in that movie that sounded similar, if I can find something maybe on youtube that is close I will post it.
I must stress that I regard this whole thing as a dream, not an especially bad one but interesting never the less. I'm very dubious of dream interpretation as it is such a personal thing. Having said that I certainly dont under estimate their potency and do feel it is important to try to understand more about the whole subject.

Funnily enough only this afternoon I started to write a new song using some of the weird events I have experienced as lyrics. This wont be for performance or release, just for my own amusement to be honest.
Just as well really, you might think that was weird but having to commit these things to paper made me realise just how wacky all of this stuff sounds.
And No I dont care to share.

This all puts me in mind of something David asked recently about how this kind of thing can effect ones mental health. I've been asking the same question a lot recently, only I want to add something. How much is a persons mental health bringing into effect these kind of events, and by that I mean not just the percipient.

Definitely mentally ill,

Mark

 

[skunkape]

I must stress that I regard this whole thing as a dream, not an especially bad one but interesting never the less.

I'm with you. It seems like everything I percieve is just a foggy outline of what I am really in the middle of. Like a dream. Upon waking from a dream it is difficult to recall details. I sometimes feel like I am constantly in a waking dream and just can't gather all of the details that I won't remember later.
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[cyberknight]

Mark,

Thank you for your reply...

I agree with you that one's mental state does seem to draw these kind of events for whatever reason. Maybe a type of frequency match. On the other side of the coin, having an event I believe does affect one's health,
a type of bruise on one's reality that does not go away.

Mine was a little different, I woke up at around 2:30am or so to find a transparent figure moving through the room, my room was somewhat lit from the moonlight, it stopped and made this garbled sound for a few seconds (8-10 seconds) and vanished.

It took me about an hour to get back to sleep, when I awoke I thought I
dreamed the whole event except, I have a cat, the cat was so flipped out that morning .. which I have never seen to do before that I thought maybe there 'was' something that happened and it was still in the house.

So I stayed home from work that day and hung out with the cat to make sure everything was cool.... nothing else happened and nothing since.

 

[methshin]

First off, thanks for sharing. I understand why you would be apprehensive about telling such a story, so really man, thanks. Secondly, Morrowind!? Awesome fucking game right there. Played that game quite extensively and have more recently put a couple hundred hours into Oblivion: GOTY edition on my PS3.
<O</O
This kinda reminds of a dream I had a few weeks ago. I was at work, but it was different than my work, but in my head, I knew I was at work. There was a door there that I had to open, and I had no apprehensions about opening it, and as I reached for the handle the door swung open, so in confusion, I closed it, but a second after I closed it, it swung open again. I then screamed out in sheer terror and woke up. Neither time the door opened was there something there to open it. I didn’t wake my girlfriend up during this dream, and when I told her about it she said that it was really strange. What’s even stranger is that I normally have complete control during my dreams, and nothing is ever beyond my control. When I awoke I remember just this huge feeling of confusion as to why this dream happened, I went out for a smoke, came back in and fell asleep. This dream has not since repeated itself, but I remember it vividly.
<O</O
Dreams sure are strange things. It boggles my mind how when the body sleeps, the brain is so active.