Gene's Elemental / David and Bill's Apparition

[outerjoin]

David, thanks for sharing. To your point about the woman's gait being "out of sync" with her rate of speed, might it have been like the motions of rollerskating/blading?

 

[Ankhes]

Threads just go to sleep around here, rarely die.

David will answer your question if he comes across your post I bet.

Sadness is a common feeling sensed in ghost sightings.

Hmmm...you know, you're right. Now that you mention it, I do recall reading of people witnessing some sort of apparation and getting a feeling from it. Usually it is sadness or hopelessness. Sometimes it is fear. And sometimes a feeling of protectiveness comes with one, but not David's and Bill's girl.
I have to admit that by the end of the story I was expecting her to be a ghost of someone who lived in those condos, but then David (or Bill) said that the buildings weren't there in the 60's/70's. THAT was something I didn't expect.
I really hope Gene and David hear from people who have seen her or something similar in that area. That would be really intriguing and possibly open up an investigation there and the chance to catch her on film.
Well, I can hope!

 

[musictomyears]

the concept of "ghosts" as spiritual entitities wandering about eternally doesn't seem to serve any purpose I can possibly conceive.
Maybe I'm just stupid.

You are right, if they were to wonder around eternally, it wouldn't serve any purpose. Spirits have free will (as opposed to ghosts, which are not possessed by an individual consciousness, but are mere thought projections of either incarnate or discarnate beings). Spirits learn from their ongoing experience, in the same way that we learn from living inside a human body. All learning is automatic and inevitable, there is no escaping from spiritual growth and expansion. Eventually, every single "stuck" spirit gives up his repetitive behaviour, and moves on to more satisfying activities and surroundings. However, the change may take some time to manifest - even centuries.

 

[David Biedny]

Yeah, I know, I'm posting on a "dead" thread! But I am pretty new to the Paracast and after listening to the most recent show, I move backwards. I just heard this one last night. I have to say...wow! GREAT story! I am referring to David and Bill's soundless girl.
The detail you guys gave was fantastic; from the indistinct hands to the "not entirely there" face.

At first I thought she must be a ghost because of the mundane activity she was engaged in. But then you mentioned the fear and sadness aspect. I have no ideas about that. An emotion personified, one of you wondered. Maybe. Why not? It is as good a guess as any.

I have to wonder how you both managed to sit and stare at her for a full 10 minutes. That is quite a long time. It must have been difficult to maintain your nerve. You also mentioned her digging in a bag or purse of some kind. Did she ever "find" what she was looking for?

I don't really expect any replies to this post. I just wanted to mention my thoughts because I've just heard this episode. Usually I am exercising or doing housework when I listen to the Paracast. Not this time. I was listening before trying to drop off to sleep. Heh! I didn't sleep for quite some time after listening to THAT story!

Ankhes,

It's hard to explain how we were able to keep it together while we sat near it, I suppose that the balance between fear and curiousity was such that we couldn't do anything else but sit there and wonder what was going to happen. If it happened today, I'd guess that I would be more confrontational, but in the moments that this kind of thing is actually happening, it's really difficult to be cool and collected. I was afraid that she would look at us, or get up and come over to us. There was a sense of dread, knowing that what we were seeing was not a live, flesh-and-blood person. When she looked over at towards the end of the encounter, Bill grabbed my arm, and my blood froze. We were scared.

As far as I remember, she looked in the bag a couple of times, but didn't seem to find what she was looking for, nothing came out of the bag.

I don't think I slept all the way through the night for a couple of weeks after this happened. I was completely creeped out.

If I never had another experience like this one again in my life, I would be just fine. Perhaps that's not the attitude I should have about such stuff, but there you have it.

dB

 

[David Biedny]

David, thanks for sharing. To your point about the woman's gait being "out of sync" with her rate of speed, might it have been like the motions of rollerskating/blading?

No, it was really nothing like that, the leg motion was totally appropriate for a casual walk, the gliding effect Bill describes was not like anything I've ever seen. I remember looking down at her feet, and they were right on the ground. She wasn't wearing anything resembling rollerskates.

That said, good question!

dB

 

[musictomyears]

If it happened today, I'd guess that I would be more confrontational, but in the moments that this kind of thing is actually happening, it's really difficult to be cool and collected. I was afraid that she would look at us, or get up and come over to us. There was a sense of dread, knowing that what we were seeing was not a live, flesh-and-blood person. When she looked over at towards the end of the encounter, Bill grabbed my arm, and my blood froze. We were scared.

David, all the emotions you describe - fear, sense of dread - are convincing indicators that your experience was very real, but not imagined. Everybody - and I mean everybody - understands intuitively when they are confronted with a ghost or spirit, regardless of whether or not they officially believe in such things. There is a sense of "un-realness" about the experience, and sense of loss of control over the situation. Importantly, the instinctive fear is a protective mechanism, preventing the unprepared from getting too close to a spirit that is unknown to them. Very, very bad things can happen, when incarnate and discarnate beings interact without certain safeguards being in place. Most people wouldn't know as to what exactly those bad things are - but they don't really need to know. Their mind, body and spirit tells them to stay well away from the apparition.

I guarantee you, faced with a similar situation again, you would react just the same. Nothing to be ashamed of, for sure. Being able to purposefully deal with spirit entities requires lifelong training and commitment. It is a specialised task, and not to be taken lightly.

 

[Ankhes]

Thank you for sharing this really intense and creepy experience with us, David. Your recollection is remarkable. I had a brief sighting of what may have been a spirit at my grandmother's house many years ago and I recall almost every detail as if it were yesterday. It is amazing how when something truly extraordinary happens to you, you can recall with amazing clarity all the details of the event for many years afterwards.
Your experience is probably the longest one I have ever heard of. About 10 minutes is truly wondrous, albeit frightening. I'm glad you and your friend kept up your nerve! I'm sure you would have never forgiven yourselves if you had not.
Thanks for the answers to our questions. It helps to fill in the mosaic, so to speak.
Anyway, if you ever hear of someone else in that complex having a similar experience I hope you'll let us know about it either here on on the show.

 

[outerjoin]

I remember looking down at her feet, and they were right on the ground.

That is pretty weird. Tried to guess at how unnerving that would be this week at the airport, watching some people walk on the moving walkway while others just stood on it.

The preferred mental game is to try to explain such events via glitch-in-the-matrix troubleshooting.

For example, say your mystery woman was wearing sunglasses. The graphics sub-routine for them and their corresponding facial shadows has somehow crashed, resulting in a bunch of nothingness displaying where these items should display...

The woman is aware of the missing sunglasses but she also knows that she has sunglasses and remembers wearing them. Indeed, that is what she is digging in her purse for. They are not there. So she continues walking until she feels compelled to check her purse again. She cannot do this while walking, so she must walk until she encounters a chair or a bench. Whenever she finds one, she sits and checks her purse. The sunglasses are not there...

Perhaps the "gliding effect" error is the root cause. The pacing parameter for the movement of her limbs has been erroneously set with a different value than the corresponding variable for her total body movement. The sunglasses are able to move with the subtle bobbing of her head just fine, but they are mirror sunglasses, so must also compute a reflection of the passing scenery that is in sync with the head movements. The two classes of motion cannot be reconciled so the sunglasses crash in mid-cycle and do not restart in the purse. The resulting endless loop of her behavior displaces the woman from whatever time/realm she is supposed to display in. She occupies her own Sisyphean hell.

So you are advised to offer her a pair of non-mirror sunglasses next time you see her. If that doesn't work, try re-BOO-ting.

 

[Bobb999]

A recent (Feb. 2010) show referenced this gem from a few years back, a show I'd unfortunately missed the first time around, so thought I'd belatedly check it out.
A fascinating, entertaining, very eerie tale, made all the more so because I see no reason to doubt David's & Bill's account as recalled is 100% true. With so many spooky elements to the experience, it's admiral of the two witnesses they allowed curiosity to win out over justifiable fear! It's a bonus we get to see a Google Earth photo of the actual courtyard site.

The last time I was as impressed by a true ghost story was on hearing a first hand account by someone of living in a haunted house some years ago in a suburb of my city, an old farmhouse. The "ghost" (or what ever it was) apparently manifested to the fellow renting the house in a variety of ways. It was not a silent apparition like David's, however. Instead, one of its most prominent effects was the sound of a woman humming! The renter was a skeptic at the time, and despite witnessing a host of odd phenomena (I wasn't told details of all the different effects), remained in denial, and kept trying to come up with rational, non-spooky explanations. For instance, he thought the frequent humming must be an ongoing prank by some eccentric neighbor. He'd run to the window or dash outside to try to catch the mystery "hummer", but there was never a soul around. One day he had a girlfriend over. She was in another room and said to him "will you stop that humming!" Of course, he wasn't humming. One day a car drove up his driveway, and a man he'd not met before got out with a couple of kids . He introduced himself, saying he'd lived there some years before, then asked "have you seen the ghost yet?" He'd wanted to show his kids the haunted house he once lived in!
Well that was the clincher for the poor suffering renter. Up until then he'd been in denial his house was haunted despite frequent, mysterious manifestations. But when the previous renter showed up to recount his own strange, ghostly experiences at the house, all skepticism and denial fell away suddenly and completely. Three days later he'd moved out for good!

After some years, the fellow returned, out of curiosity, for the first time since moving out, to check on the house. It turned out the local school board now owned the land, had demolished the house, and was planning to build a new school there... I don't think I'd want to be a teacher, student or caretaker at that particular school!