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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.155.203.20
Posted on Friday, January 27, 2012 - 04:41 pm:   

What would you do if the world really were ending, and God were real? Honestly, without a trace of irony? These sounds just fill me with complete dread.
http://www.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGZ2ZcmMxehk%26noredirect%3D1&h=zAQHN6IGCAQH N7pL4VLexaiDLcXzouyWReN1AmIkYm3MbmA
Or;
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGZ2Zc mMxehk%26noredirect%3D1&h=zAQHN6IGCAQHN7pL4VLexaiDLcXzouyWReN1AmIkYm3MbmA
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.155.203.20
Posted on Friday, January 27, 2012 - 04:54 pm:   

But it DOES sound very like the sound from RED STATE.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, January 27, 2012 - 04:54 pm:   

One of the best horror films of last year dealt with that very dread, Tony, and did so more brilliantly than I've experienced before.

But I can't say which one as it would be a monstrous spoiler.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, January 27, 2012 - 04:55 pm:   

!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.155.203.20
Posted on Friday, January 27, 2012 - 05:07 pm:   

Strange, eh?
God, Stevie - what if such stuff were true? What *if* the movies were right?
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
Posted on Friday, January 27, 2012 - 06:29 pm:   

What if the moon were actually a giant incubator housing a civilisation of intelligent hamsters?

Just as plausible.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Saturday, January 28, 2012 - 02:35 am:   

conspiracykeanu
(courtesy www.quickmeme.com)
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.29.252.215
Posted on Saturday, January 28, 2012 - 01:57 pm:   

The only other times I've experienced this strand of disturbingly straight-faced metaphysical horror were in the terrifying short story, "The Great Happening" (1958), by the Dutch writer, Belcampo, and in Bob Heinlein's brilliant religious satire, 'Job : A Comedy Of Justice' (1984), which is probably the best of his novels that I have read to date.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.132.174.115
Posted on Saturday, January 28, 2012 - 03:17 pm:   

I thought we were writers here? I thought 'what if' was our currency?
It's a writer's duty to explore these things, things that can never happen. Have you never looked up into the night sky and imagined it parting to reveal 'something'? Stuff like that? It's like saying awe is a stupid thing because nothing awe-inspiring can occur, and yet it's a dying thing that needs hanging onto, for me. If I give up this search my time will truly be up.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.29.252.215
Posted on Saturday, January 28, 2012 - 03:35 pm:   

Read 'Job', Tony. It has a rabidly right-wing born again christian protagonist plunged into an alternate reality where all he believes holds sway and he is cast in the Biblical role of Job. It is an incredibly disturbing and also frequently hilarious ripping asunder of the "Reaganite reality" that held sway in America during the 80s. Remember the old duffer admitting he would push the button if God told him to - and this when he was already in the early stages of Alzheimers!! Heinlein takes that idea and runs with it... and I love the book.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.253.77
Posted on Saturday, January 28, 2012 - 04:23 pm:   

It's a writer's duty to explore these things, things that can never happen.

Nice one, Tony.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.132.174.115
Posted on Saturday, January 28, 2012 - 04:29 pm:   

Thanks, Zed! :-)
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.9.241.182
Posted on Sunday, January 29, 2012 - 01:14 pm:   

Well, being a writer doesn't mean you have to give up being skeptical - certainly not in my case.

There's some interesting analysis here, especially the list of the YouTube posters' histories:

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/oixhc/what_the_hell_are_these_noises_ being_heard/
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.177.115.204
Posted on Sunday, January 29, 2012 - 01:20 pm:   

Interesting overview, but the writer should know it's Hz, not hz... Picky? Me?
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 89.19.89.227
Posted on Sunday, January 29, 2012 - 02:38 pm:   

And there should always be a space between a quantity and its unit (not "500Hz" but "500 Hz"). Picky? Me?

I love pretending things which are patently nonsense could be true, just to get that rush of awe. I was alone on a rocky shore one night with the moon high and convinced myself that it was a feeble star and this was mid-day on an alien planet, blue grass and all. Bang! Awe.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.132.170.13
Posted on Monday, January 30, 2012 - 10:53 am:   

Oh, I was sort of moving on from the strange noises - I was wondering about our reactions. Does our skepticism stop us from playing with our fears, trying new ones on like hats? Part of me wanted the trumpets of Angels, even the fear that came with them.
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.20.243
Posted on Monday, January 30, 2012 - 12:17 pm:   

Well, I think I do it in my tales but not elsewhere, maybe.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.42.53.119
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2012 - 04:00 pm:   

This frightens me, too.
http://www.springfieldmo.gov/spd/GeneralInfo/3missingwomen.html
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2012 - 04:17 pm:   

Mysterious disappearances, eh?...

Cherchez la Mi-go.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.42.53.119
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2012 - 04:23 pm:   

Mysterious disappearances are the worst kind of mystery to me. I've read about a lot this week. They're freaking me out.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.42.53.119
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2012 - 04:24 pm:   

(Um, what does that mean, Craig?)
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2012 - 05:13 pm:   

It means these kind of jokes are usually funnier coming from Joel....
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.42.53.119
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2012 - 05:21 pm:   

And this, the opening story; http://www.intrepidmag.com/blog/into-thin-air-fortean-dissapearances-that-have-k ept-us-guessing/
What haunts me is that this Claud is doubly forgotten now. You won't find his story anywhere else but in this single page.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2012 - 05:33 pm:   

Tony, seriously, what was that very famous disappearance case? The one over a hundred years back, where the guy was walking across a field or something, and he literally "vanished" into thin air before witnesses? Where was it, but I know I read or saw or somehow stumbled across something fairly recently, where it's all been proved beyond doubt, to have been a hoax... dammit, blanking now... anyone else here can help toggle my memory?...

And I think Roanoke's been pretty much solved, too, right? Recently too.

But that does leave the Mary Celeste....
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.42.53.119
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2012 - 05:40 pm:   

Craig - that was a man called Lang. Yeah, found out about it, was freaked, then dismayed. I'm talking not of famous cases but all these little odd ones - a vicar, vanished from the side of a busy road while mending his car, things like that. And this place;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdyysF0VC20
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.42.53.119
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2012 - 05:42 pm:   

Another i read about was a small story about a family sitting out on the moors. Suddenly the man was aware his wife was missing. They all got nervous. Then the wife reappears as if she'd never gone, just a strange look on her face, no explanation of where she'd been.
These things are hard to get to the bottom of, but they really intrigue me.
Have you read Colorado Kid by Stephen King?
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2012 - 05:50 pm:   

That documentary sounds like the back-story for a horror novel, about a clueless family that decides they've had enough of crime-ridden cities, vast suburban sprawl... so they pick up and move to a quaint little mountain town, with a strange history... and into a non-assuming old mansion, with whispered stories... only to discover....
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.42.53.119
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2012 - 05:56 pm:   

This is what these stories are doing for me. Firing up my imagination. I've really needed them.
You know Hitchcock wanted to do such a story, about a girl missing on an island? It sounded like L'Avventura. Only she turns up at the end, years later, the same age as when she went missing.
A terrible - supposedly true story - I read had a little girl disappear into this weird bubble that appeared in the corner of a room at a party in a big family house. Every few years the bubble would appear with the little girl - unchanged physically - still inside, screaming to get out. I only saw this story in one book and haven't read about it anywhere else. I can't get it out of my mind.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2012 - 06:16 pm:   

Much the same thing as you describe occasionally happens to me, Tony. I've named the screaming thing in that bubble "Dashed Dreams." I've also taken to mercifully shooting it in the head the moment it appears... usually good at ridding it, for a time....
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.22.23.18
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2012 - 09:00 pm:   

I once read a really eerie true story about a disappearance somewhere in the use in the early half of the 20th century. A woman at a party heard someone calling her name outside the house, though no-else did, went outside and disappeared. Her fiance was the main suspect and was eventually convicted on virtually no evidence after her body turned up in a river that had already been searched. He constantly denied guilt and asked for an meeting with the state governor every year from prison but was always denied.

Eventually, after many years, the governor was replaced and the new one agreed to the meeting. He went into the interview room with one guard. He granted the fiance a pardon immediately afterwards and never spoke about what was said in the room. The guard shot himself in the head a few days later and the fiance lived alone in a cabin for several years before eventually shooting himself too, at the spot where the girl's body had been found.

Sadly I can't remember any of the details beyond that basic outline. I might try some creative Google searching and see what turns up though.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.147.55.126
Posted on Saturday, June 16, 2012 - 10:18 am:   

That is creepy.
Keep us posted.
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.22.23.18
Posted on Saturday, June 16, 2012 - 12:43 pm:   

No luck I'm afraid. Without any names or even the state it took place in trying to find an obscure unsolved murder/disappearance on Google seems impossible. Maybe I'll luck onto it again soon though if I keep an eye out.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Saturday, June 16, 2012 - 03:51 pm:   

Egad. Sounds like a movie Michael Haneke would have made....
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.147.55.126
Posted on Sunday, June 17, 2012 - 10:28 am:   

'Picnic at Hanging Rock has been the center of much controversy since it was first published in the 1960's. There are still believers to this day who do not and will not believe that the story is complete fiction. But it is. The event never happened. People still walk into the famous State Library in Melbourne to this day and ask for the newspapers reporting the events from 1900's. In the end of the book it is claimed that there is a newspaper report from February 14, 1913 stating that the mystery will forever remain unsolved........This newspaper report does not exist!......... When hearing the news that the story never really happened people have broken down in tears and thrown "hysterics", they obviously can't handle the truth!........Picnic at Hanging Rock is a work of Fiction.'
Thrown hysterics. I can understand it.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.155.144.90
Posted on Monday, June 18, 2012 - 11:01 am:   

Is Zombism becoming a form of expression?
http:/www.foxnews.com%2Fus%2F2012%2F06%2F03%2Fafter-gory-incidents-online-zombie-talk- grows%2F&h=IAQFnJS-Y
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.155.144.90
Posted on Monday, June 18, 2012 - 11:02 am:   

Oh, try this one; http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fus%2F2012%2F06%2F 03%2Fafter-gory-incidents-online-zombie-talk-grows%2F&h=IAQFnJS-Y
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Monday, June 18, 2012 - 04:25 pm:   

The sublimation of zombies might just be overblown.

Without the medium of film, zombies wouldn't have caught on like they have. Now, when a bunch of amateurs grab a camera, are they going to film their own Jane Austen romance? Are they going to do a subtle critique of western civilization? Are they even going to waste time crafting a horror story with depth and nuance and character development?

Uh, no, they're going to do something that's all "red meat." Get their friends to shamble around pretending like they're dead (save on make-up, and hiring new actors); and hey, they're trying to eat you!... Thusly piles the zombie shit.

"The fool folds his hands together, and eats his own flesh" -- Ecclesiastes 4:5
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.155.144.90
Posted on Monday, June 18, 2012 - 04:37 pm:   

Oh, it is, but the state of zombieism seems to have infected the psyche - people seem to be tuning into their inner zombie and acting their anxieties in zombieish ways.
Zombies, dull or not (I happen to think they are, now) feel very significant now.
As an aside, I can barely remember the very horror they used to stir in me.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Monday, June 18, 2012 - 05:15 pm:   

I too, can barely remember it, Tony.

The best way I have to remember, is when watching old Italian zombie flicks, with their frightening The Goblins-ish synth tracks, their lack of plot or sense... which means they're closer to the senseless horror of our nightmares....

I think it's time for a resurgence of "cosmic horror," along the lines of Lovecraft: it's been gone too long, and so I believe has the power to terrify again. I was hoping Prometheus could usher it forth in a big way, like Alien promised, but apparently not.

Yes, we need a good rich translation of something by Lovecraft at his manifold best. Horror is in a kind of decline in film (and beyond?), with zombies running rampant, and the basement-bottom Paranormal Activities' one-on-one ghosties, and the exhaustion of old forms like slasher flicks and torture pics and retreads/remakes. Time for some kind of terror from beyond the stars to save us....
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.155.144.90
Posted on Monday, June 18, 2012 - 05:39 pm:   

You know when zombies frightened me? When I *heard* about them, saw the posters at the cinema - when I wasn't allowed to *see* the films. That was literally it. No zombie film has frightened me that way, not one.

I have to say, I enjoyed Paranormal Activity 2. Scariest bit? The water pump crawling out of the pool. Not to watch again, but once - they do it for me.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.155.144.90
Posted on Monday, June 18, 2012 - 05:41 pm:   

Yes, shit zombie films work better. Romero sort of stifles it.
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.16.241.44
Posted on Sunday, October 21, 2012 - 06:44 pm:   

Here's another freaky disappearance story that's going to play on my mind for a while. From http://paranormal.about.com/od/humanmysteries/a/tales_12_10_02t.htm

'This incident was related to me by a friend. He told me what happened to his younger brother during the summer of 2010 when he and his brother were living in the town of Chestnut, California. It was just themselves; their parents died in 1980.

I never met his brother, but he always spoke highly of him and I could tell he missed him. I also noticed how his mood would always change when he mentioned his brother. Yes, he would be sad, but I could tell there was something else. There was more he wanted to say.

One day we drove into town in my truck to pick up some things he needed at the hardware store. My friend is very open, talkative, and friendly with people, but as we browsed around the store he became very quiet and withdrawn. I asked him a question about something and he just stared straight ahead, not answering. His mind was somewhere else.

Then in a low voice he said, "This is where it happened." Then he turned to me and continued, "I want to tell you something." He suggested we go somewhere else, and I said ok. We went to a nearby restaurant, sat down, and ordered some beers.

Then he looked at me with piercing eyes and said, "What I'm about to tell you is kind of hard to believe, but it's true. You seem like the kind of person who might understand and make some sense out of it. Two years ago my brother and I were at the same hardware store we were at this morning. He'd just bought a new car and we met up there. I was looking for a particular fertilizer which the store didn't have. My brother knew of another store not too far away, close to where he lives, that carried it. He was so happy with his car that he insisted he would drive down there, buy the fertilizer, and bring it back to me while I waited. I told him that when he got back we would have lunch together." So, as his brother left, my friend began talking to some people that work at the store. Around 20 minutes later, his brother called him on his cell phone. His brother seemed to be lost. He purchased the fertilizer and was heading back, but he couldn't find the right streets. My friend asked him what street he was on. His brother said he wasn't sure... he didn't recognize the area.

My friend thought this was odd. How could he be unfamiliar with that part of town. Again he asked him what street he was on. His brother answered back, sounding confused, and told him everything looked different, that he was going to pull over and ask for directions. My friend told him to go east or west until he came to the main street, Wilson.

After a couple of minutes his brother called and says he couldn't find a person or business that could help him, so he was going back to the store he came from. My friend asked him if he was joking around. There was no reply. Another five minutes passed during which time my friend kept calling, trying to get a reply.

Finally, his brother called, and what he said next was really puzzling. Now he couldn't find the store where he bought the fertilizer! There was panic in his voice as he tried to describe his surroundings: there were hardly any people or traffic. The buildings were different. He said even the sky looked different!

The phone reception started to break up and my friend told him to stay where he was, that he would go get him. The people at the hardware store were also listening and offered some explanations, that maybe it could be the weird streets in that section of town, how they can throw you off if you're not familiar with them. Yeah, but my friend and his brother know this town and the streets pretty well.

Then his brother called again, and because of the bad reception my friend could barely make out what he was saying. It sounded like he said mountain... "I'm going... LOOK!"

That was the last time he would hear from his brother. My friend knew where that other store was and he quickly got in his car and raced down there. All along the way he scanned for his brother's car. At the same time he kept calling his brother with no luck. When he got to the store he asked about his brother and they said yes he was there bought some fertilizer and left. The clerk said he forgot his receipt and when she looked up out the window his car was gone.

They said he never came back. My friend looked for his brother the rest of the day and into the night with the help of friends and relatives, unfortunately with no results. He filed a missing person report at the police station. To this day there hasn't been any sign of his brother. His house showed no evidence of him returning since that day. He had a good-paying job and a pretty girlfriend. It's like he disappeared into another dimension.'
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.43.247.221
Posted on Monday, October 22, 2012 - 07:31 pm:   

David - thanks for this. That's excellent. This for me is what the board should be about, for me, not book plugs. We should only be allowed to plug a book if we also dish up an anecdote or idea, I reckon...
(says he who never has a book to plug at all)
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.43.241.140
Posted on Friday, October 26, 2012 - 01:37 pm:   

This moved me so much I had to share it. This is as good as stories - real or imagined - get.

'Abercairn Road, Streatham 1964, I was five years old and shared the back bedroom with my Grandfather. My bed was against the window wall from where I could see the dusk sky behind the closed curtains. The light was on as Grandfather settled into his bed in the middle of the room.
In the distance, against the otherwise clear darkening sky, I could see a number of small, fluffy clouds, one after the other, and getting lower in the sky as they headed towards my bedroom window, astride each cloud, riding it like a horse where small men, one on each cloud, with full dark beards, round metal conical hats that ended in a point, in one hand they carried a Trident, (not something I had ever heard of or seen before), and in the other a small round circular shield.
They drifted right down to the window where they bumped thier clouds against the pane as if they where trying to get in the room.
Of course, though I dont remember being particularily frightened, I was somewhat perturbed so asked my Grandfather if I could get in bed with him which I did, and on the side away from the window, but next to a narrow, single wardrobe that stood on against the far wall from the window.
The light was still on and I jhadnt been asleep. I cannot remember if I told Grandad what I had seen, doubtless he would have dismissed it as adults are prone to do.
The next thing, without seeing how it happened, the floor carpet was wrapped around the wardrobe with about 7 or 8 inches of the carpet being higher than the top of the wardrobe so it formed a ramparte?, over which these small men where now standing guard on top of the wardrobe and spaced all around the top and looking over this ramparte, like soldiers standing around at the top of a castle wall. I would guess these men where about 14 inches tall.
Then, the wardrobe door opened on its own, to reveal inside a classic image of a fairy girl, about 3 foot tall, with long black hair and dressed in a white dress that glowed brilliant white as if it was made of light, and she had the classic magic wand.
She looked directly at me, with a look, how to describe it?, like a doctor might look at a terminally ill child without giving away his feelings, sort of intelligent and wise, knowing something deeply sad about the Child on which the gaze rests.
She didnt say anything, just looked with that benevilant, concerned expression, then the door closed, and she was gone.
I also noticed, in the far left hand corner where the two walls meet the ceiling, what I have allways described as looking like a cobweb made of energy, just sort of floating there, that remained.
I hadnt been ill, I hadnt been asleep or dreaming, Ive allways remembered it as clearly and vividly as any important event.
My Mother used to take me up to bed in the early evening so that my stepfather didnt have to see me, consequently it was still light outside, for a furter two weeks after this event, I could still see the cobweb of energy floating in the corner and my Mother can still remember me asking her, "whats that" as I pointed up to the object that she of course couldnt see.
It wasnt too long after this that I was sent to live in a Childrens home for 3 years as my stepfather didnt want me in the house, never to see my beloved Grandfather again who died during this period.

Pete'
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.16.241.44
Posted on Friday, October 26, 2012 - 02:33 pm:   

Poor kid. The stepfather sounds like a real charmer :-(

If you look past the unsubtle "scary clown" photos and the banal tangents about aliens and demons this is one of the best and weirdest "true" stories I've ever read. Especially the revelations in part three.

A man is visited in childhood and throughout his life by a bizarre entity he dubs The Harlequin. As he grows up he discovers it may have visited his parents and may now be interested in his own children, so he tries making contact with it...and succeeds.

http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2011/11/the-mysterious-harlequin-part-one/

(it's too long to post here)
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.43.241.140
Posted on Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 11:57 am:   

From FT;

While looking back on some of the older pages here, I saw the thread People Who Don’t Feel Right and looked through it. The thread was mostly about people who may have mental problems or for some reason don’t seem totally human because of a birthmark or their behavior.

That brings me to my own story. Way back about forty years ago, I lived near a very small city in Upstate New York. For about two years, whenever I was on the main street of the city, I would see this person, dressed like a harlequin. This is very strange for a very conservative city in Upstate New York. As a kid, I recall walking past this person (or whatever it may have been) and just getting the most uncomfortable feeling from her. (I think it was a ‘her’ since she was dressed in dirty pink satin and stripes and wore filthy ballet slippers.) Her face was also painted up like a harlequin.

Her behavior was odd, too. She never blinked, only stared vacantly into the distance. The other weird thing that used to frighten me was that I’d look back to get another look at her and she would suddenly be on the other side of the street.

To my recollection, people scarcely reacted to this person. For about two years running I would see this person, always dressed the same way, always behaving the same way, no matter what the weather.

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42220&start=0
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.76.10.17
Posted on Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 12:38 pm:   

I saw a Harlequin. It was dusk and I was walking on a seafront with a friend near where we lived and there was a glass-sided building. The ground floor was an ordinary restaurant. The first floor seemed unfinished. I don't recall any lights on and the room we were looking at seemed like a storeroom or and unfinished part of the building with fluorescent tubes and boxes lying around. What looked like a harlequine or jester was sitting there in the semi-darkenss, with a huge grin on his face. He was slowly moving his head left and right and back again. His was moving his right forearm back and forth too, bending it from the elbow. It was like an automaton. The most rational explanation is that he was a life-sized automaton (I don't think he WAS, though) and someone had for some reason built this thing, plugged it in and left it running in a semi-unfinished storeroom. Why?

The less-rational explanations are even more goosebumpy. I can't think of any explanation that makes sense. I moved away shortly afterwards. It was a very weird seaside town which has a horribly bad energy to it. In my brief time there, I'd seen a middle aged man beaten up by a gang of girls, I'd seen someone threatened on the street with a stakeknife, I'd seen someone smashing someone's head against the bonnet of a car repeatedly on a bright Sunday morning. A feral population.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.118.79.8
Posted on Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 04:10 pm:   

I'd seen a middle aged man beaten up by a gang of girls

Perhaps they had been molested by him when he - and they - were a lot younger. Good idea for a story.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.76.31.93
Posted on Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 09:52 pm:   

No, they simply had an altercation getting off the train.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.43.247.185
Posted on Sunday, October 28, 2012 - 11:49 am:   

Proto - that encounter is so strange it feels like fiction. I think you told me it before, but it feels more like a memory of a dream.
I love this kind of story. I think they are just perfect. They just kind of appear in our life and then go without explanation. I don't know why but the horrible things you describe seem to fit with the harlequin sighting - the mystery lies in 'how'.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.79.61.117
Posted on Sunday, October 28, 2012 - 12:04 pm:   

Here's a painting I found in an alley way one stormy night. This was in a different, nicer, sea side town.

main
man
woman
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.43.247.185
Posted on Sunday, October 28, 2012 - 12:40 pm:   

How strange. Did you keep it?
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.43.247.185
Posted on Sunday, October 28, 2012 - 01:05 pm:   

'This happened, I'm told, to someone in my street, in the late 60s. She was a young mother of two little children and one morning her elder child, who was 3, was run over in the street, having wandered out through an open front door. Neighbours went to find little Kay's Ma but only the baby was there. Breakfast dishes were in the sink and the woman's coat and handbag were there, washing machine was on, but no Ma. She was never seen or heard of again.'
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.79.61.117
Posted on Sunday, October 28, 2012 - 02:00 pm:   

No, I didn't keep it.

Haven't you ever SEEN a horror film?
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.16.241.44
Posted on Monday, October 29, 2012 - 03:40 pm:   

Proto, you could have sold that on Ebay as a "haunted" painting and made a nice profit.

Your harlequin story was very eerie. I wonder if it was some kind of art project, like that weird wedding photo I posted on another thread. Alternatively whatever it really was may be aware you're discussing it and come to pay you a visit...
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.79.83.205
Posted on Monday, October 29, 2012 - 07:59 pm:   

Ahh! That's genuinely a bit of a scary idea.

Speaking of art, there's this...
http://www.stunned.org/ghostship.htm
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.43.247.185
Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - 06:36 pm:   

'They're building it on the other side...'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dy0TnZ_vpk
A bit naff, but a superb thing. A genuine wonder of the world.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.152.214.217
Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 - 01:38 am:   

That's mad. Imagine being chased upstairs by up those stairs that run into a ceiling.

Psychic Ricky Brown is hilarious. His sensing face is good. Are there any mediums (media?) who aren't camp?
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.152.214.217
Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 - 01:39 am:   

Imagine being chased upstairs by up those stairs that run into a ceiling.

Should read...
Imagine being chased up those stairs that run into a ceiling.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.158.57.93
Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 - 02:22 am:   

Are there any media that aren't camp?

Doris Stokes. She's too dead to be camp any more.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.43.247.185
Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 - 11:03 am:   

I've been watching Most Haunted. Never watched it before but am really enjoying. I think what we are seeing isn't faked - in last night's they did table tipping and you could hear the awe in their voices when the table floated.
But yeah, Acorah - camp as a row of tents.
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.16.241.44
Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 - 06:06 pm:   

I'm afraid Most Haunted is definitely faked. There's a good book called Will Storr vs the Supernatural where the author is behind the scenes during one episode. He manages to get his hands on a shooting script and finds a schedule for every one of Acorah's sudden supernatural occurrences.

The book itself is generally quite open-minded about the paranormal. Actually, I might give it a re-read in the spirit of Hallowe'en.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.42.53.100
Posted on Thursday, November 08, 2012 - 12:55 am:   

Wonderful memories of this show...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajpSsMwOCuU
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.23.141
Posted on Thursday, November 08, 2012 - 12:24 pm:   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3x_JUHDYZ0

I'd put Acorah on a level with Joe Power.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.176.179.114
Posted on Thursday, November 08, 2012 - 05:17 pm:   

How about this shower - "man possessed by gay demon" indeed:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSQeqk5YzbM
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.42.53.100
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2012 - 10:36 am:   

http://gawker.com/5959783/28-years-ago-the-today-show-aired-the-greatest-intervi ew-in-television-history
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Simon Bestwick (Simon_b)
Username: Simon_b

Registered: 10-2008
Posted From: 213.106.77.123
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2012 - 10:51 am:   

Tony, thank you for starting this thread! That was brilliant.

Actually, your comment near the start of this thread- that 'what if' is supposed to be our stock in trade as writers- really struck a chord in me. I used to love these 'weird and unexplained' stories when I was a boy, and the sense they gave of how much wonder and fear was in the world. From a writer's point of view, it doesn't matter if they're true or not, if it fires up the imagination and inspires a story- and thanks to this thread, I've now got the notes for a new novella taking shape...
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.42.53.100
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2012 - 11:03 am:   

Fantastic, Simon! That's really gratifying. A lot of this stuff can seem daft to some but for me, like you it seems, it can provide the bones for things. Thank you so much.
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.22.48.160
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2012 - 03:46 pm:   

The true stories section of About.com's paranormal pages is usually worth a browse. They vary in quality greatly, but each month usually throws up a couple of really bizarre ones.

http://paranormal.about.com/od/trueghoststories/a/true_tales_12t_2.htm
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.145.102.161
Posted on Saturday, June 22, 2019 - 01:49 am:   

I miss this. Most of it, anyway.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 89.19.67.91
Posted on Saturday, June 22, 2019 - 08:37 am:   

Yes, it's fun. Have you tried the Mysteries Abound podcast? It's so interesting and soothingly calm.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 89.19.67.1
Posted on Sunday, June 23, 2019 - 12:31 pm:   

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mysteries-abound

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