Topic: Odd Experiences.

[8ullfrog]

Over on Reddit, they're doing a thread on "paranormal experiences", but I don't put much stock into paranormal anything. Sleep paralysis, seeing poo when you're tired, just the fact that is dark out have to factor into this poo.

But I love hearing the stories.

Personally, I only have one unexplained "what the golly" moment. This was around grade school for me, when we were renting a house. The house had a sloped roof, made of wood, and my bedroom was a loft. It had a window that went out to a flat secondary roof, where a bedroom and bathroom were located. Odd little house.

Occasionally we'd hear cats running over it, which was pretty bless'ed terrifying in and of itself, with the scritch scritch scritching as they ran, but one night when we came home from our favorite burrito place, and before we'd even got in the front door, we heard a loud BANG on the roof. My mom slammed the front door and threw the deadbolt. THUMP THUMP THUMP, it sounded like a person was on the roof, but it was moving much too fast. then it stopped.

And I still have no idea what that was.

[smokester]

About 15 years ago I was in Prague with a few friends just on a long weekend.  It was in the fairly early days of digital cameras and I actually had (and still have) a Mavica that wrote to a floppy disk.

I took quite a few photo of my pals, especially around Wenceslas Square and on reviewing them, one in particular was very odd.  It seemed to have a figure of a man in a hat standing directly behind my friend, Paul, who was kind of doing a silly pose.  The blurry image of the person behind him seemed to be imitating the pose but not exactly.

We were with 2 girls so we tried to make out that it was something supernatural when all the while I believed it to be some kind of digital glitch, even though it stuck in my mind as the ghostly image seemed to be wearing a hat and it wasn't quite mimicking Paul's pose which was odd (it couldn't have done that if it had been sort of a motion delay fault).

Sometime later, by chance I read an article about Prague and it had said that it is rumoured to be one of the most haunted cities in the world.  It even has tours called "Ghost walks". A lot of these are actually centred around Wenceslas Square.  I am a strict "non-believer" but this was definitely odd and for years I have tried to find that image without avail.

[8ullfrog]

as to the glitch possibility, it could have recycled the bits. Would love to see it though.

In Underworld, the vampire coven was in Prague.

We have opossums here in Imperial beach, looking back it could have been a VERY fat possum that landed on my roof, but we didn't have any trees nearby.

[smokester]

.... Would love to see it though.

I swear I bounced all the images to a HDD back then and I am what you'd call a digital hoarder.  But I have searched every drive I have I cannot find any of the Prague pics, which leads me to believe they were lost when some drive or other got fried.

It has happened once or twice.

I could run a recovery program on all my floppies, but I don't think I have that many years left on the planet.  I might though as I really want that shot.

[8ullfrog]

My town has wild parrots. Now I know what you're thinking, you're thinking I'm full of poo.



Nope.

[goldshirt*9]

Wow. In some of the UK we have wild parrots and such  (unwanted pets).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10027109/Wallaby-spotted-bounding-along-UK-country-lanes.html

A little north for a Wallaby but here we have one

[smokester]

Up the road from me in Tooting (where my missus hails from) there and many exotic parrots though they are obviously not indigenous.  In fact last week at the BBQ that was in New Malden, there were also many parrots flying about.  It seems they are now everywhere.

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

[tarascon]

Years ago my town was beset by flocks of green parrots that were not indigenous. They were Mexican or S. American birds that someone had smuggled up here (to breed and sell?) and who must have been turned loose or escaped. For about a year, the city was treated to the view of an amorphous green cloud veering back and forth. Chaos theory in action... It was a lovely sight while it lasted but, unfortunately, the climate here (even in SoCal) was too cold for these creatures during what passes for our winter season and they all eventually perished.

[6pairsofshoes]

That's sad and strange given those birds are really smart and adaptable.  The New Yorker had an article several years ago about escaped parrots who had managed to adapt to life in Brooklyn as they sought heat sources like electrical transformers and heat exhaust vents over the winters. 

I would expect that they could migrate south, too, given they were Mexican parrots. 

[8ullfrog]

I'm pretty much in walking distance to Mexico. If I go to smart and final I have to turn my phone off so verizon doesn't golly me. They reverse the charge on the next bill, but it's still something like $30 in the short term. I despise "auto-pay"

The local legend is bird sanctuary burned down and the FD released the birds rather than let them all cook. They are green parrots, and I think they're awesome.

Local legend being word of mouth, without citation.

My old town (Encinitas) was apparently a locus of "Black eye kids". There was a particular street called saxony that was by the old poinsettia growing grounds. Creepy old ripped up greenhouses. Plastic flapping in the breeze. No streetlights, so yeah, you avoided the place on foot.

Now it's a bunch of condos. Very well lit.

[6pairsofshoes]

That must be strange, being so close to the boundary.

[8ullfrog]

There is a lot more Spanish signage than I was used to, but it makes sense.

Have to be careful on the 805 so I don't go to the border

[megamarkd]

I'm rooted in logic.  Always have been.  Never bought into the idea of spirits, but my Grandma brought me up to be a good catholic, so when I said goodbye to her before moving to Queensland, I told her to visit me in my dreams when she died, as she believed in life after death (heaven).

So about 8 months later I was asleep, dreaming I was at a party with all these people there I didn't really know.  It was a strange party and I felt very unsettled being there.  As I stood there looking around I saw my cousin walking towards me with some people I didn't recognise, but I new he was dead.  I started bawling in grief as he and were very close when we were growing-up.  As he got closers he saw that I was terribly upset, so he said "It's okay Mark, it's not Grant it's me..." and started to pull a mask off.
That was it, I knew I was dreaming and I woke myself up and sat bolt upright crying like a baby.  My girlfriend freaked and asked me what was wrong so I told her my dream.  She comforted me and reassured me that it was a dream and that my cousin is not likely to be dead and I went back to sleep.

In the morning I was woken up by the phone ringing, it was my mum.  First thing I said said to her was "Who's dead?"  She told me Grandma had passed earlier that morning.  I asked what time, and she told me around 3am, which was the same time I had my dream.  I realised that it was Grandma behind the mask I refused to see removed completely

Now, if I had been told Grandma had died then had the dream, logic would tell me that I dreamt Grandma was visiting me because I told her to and my subconscious was putting that into my dream, but I didn't know that.

It still freaks me out to tell that story, and when I do, I get dicks telling me they can explain it using science (even though the science of dreams is still very thin).

I trust in science and know it can explain most strange phenomena, but there is still things that are 'best guess'.  Got me the latest issue of New Scientist and the cover has three questions: "Consciousness.  What is it?  Why do we have it?  What else has it?"
I need to find the time to read the magazine now as it is something that has perplexed me ever since I can remember.

_{(there you go)}

[smokester]

I expect while that experience is rather haunting, it must also be a little comforting as well.

I have had a similar thing happen when I woke one night fretting about a very dear friend of mine in St Lucia.  When it happened I knew he was dead and for a couple of years I avoided phoning anyone there, even just to catch up.  When I finally did and hesitantly asked about Jesse, the reply was paused and eventually the dreaded "I'm terribly sorry to have to tell you..." line was uttered.

The guy was ill (not at deaths door though) and I have always considered it a possible coincidence as his health was always in the back of my mind.  But that night I woke up scared was different, so much so that I noted the date and told my girlfriend what I thought had happened.

The further in the past the event gets, the more I favour the coincidence theory. Odd, nonetheless.

[smokester]

Lost new glasses (yes, I did it again), broke an irreplaceable art-deco lamp (clients), snapped and indicator off the bike putting on my panniers, and finally got home to find I had another nail in my rear tyre which then promptly deflated.

All that happened on the 13th.

This thread should really reside in GD in my opinion.  Can I move it, 8ully?