• NEW! LOWEST RATES EVER -- SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE VERY BEST PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! Welcome to The Paracast+, eight years young! For a low subscription fee, you can download the ad-free version of The Paracast and the exclusive, member-only, After The Paracast bonus podcast, featuring color commentary, exclusive interviews, the continuation of interviews that began on the main episode of The Paracast. We also offer lifetime memberships! Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! You can sign up right here!

    Subscribe to The Paracast Newsletter!

I Come Seeking Answers

Forums New posts

Free episodes:

G

Getsuya

Paranormal Novice
Hello,

I recently got into the podcast scene, starting with a friend's recommendation; Skeptoid. He's got some pretty great stuff, but eventually I felt like I wanted to hear the other side of the story, so I looked around for a podcast that represented those who do believe there are things out there we can't quite explain yet. I was expecting fanatic believers, but was pleasantly surprised by the skeptical and rational approach the Paracast takes. I'm currently working my way through the archives (I'm still in 2006... just heard the great TheyFly debate) and I'm loving every minute.

But, the specific reason I came to these forums was to maybe get some opinions on my own experience(s). I've always been looking for a good place to air out some of the things that have kind of haunted me from my past, but what I didn't want was a place where people would immediately say 'oh that's definitely (whatever para-sci their particular site peddles)'. Paracast, and its forums, seem to be just the right mix of open-mindedness and skepticism that will help me figure out exactly what to make of some of my most vivid memories from childhood.

Hopefully I can also hear experiences from lots of other people here as well. I love hearing about life experiences, especially ones that don't have an easy explanation.

What I'm wondering is should I make a thread somewhere about my particular experiences, or should I just air them out here in my introduction thread?

You can call me Getsuya (my pen-name... once I get around to writing anything) or Ben, either one is fine by me.
 
Welcome, we're happy and honored to be your choice when it comes to paranormal matters, as far as airing out any personal experiences, it seems many people do the latter but there is a personal experiences thread.

Some things to consider

1. Never, never mention Mr. Horn by name around here. Oops !

2. Be aware if you if you dare to tread into the capricious waters of climate change global warming on either side you WILL be called out on it.

3. Religion...see #2 above

4. Be NOT a Steven Greer devotee.

5. Take anything i post with a grain of salt.
 
Last edited:
I'm pretty new around here, but this is definitely the right place to share your experiences and get thoughtful feedback. Note that no one person represents the views of the entire forum.

Good luck!
 
Getsuya said:
Hello ... What I'm wondering is should I make a thread somewhere about my particular experiences, or should I just air them out here in my introduction thread?
Click to expand...

This thread seems to be as good a place as any to share you stories. Also note that if you want to take a more private and controlled approach, there is the option to start a private conversation with any member you think might be of assistance :) .
 
Getsuya said:
But, the specific reason I came to these forums was to maybe get some opinions on my own experience(s). I've always been looking for a good place to air out some of the things that have kind of haunted me from my past, but what I didn't want was a place where people would immediately say 'oh that's definitely (whatever para-sci their particular site peddles)'. Paracast, and its forums, seem to be just the right mix of open-mindedness and skepticism that will help me figure out exactly what to make of some of my most vivid memories from childhood.

Hopefully I can also hear experiences from lots of other people here as well. I love hearing about life experiences, especially ones that don't have an easy explanation.
Click to expand...
Greetings Getsuya,
Well you've come to the right place to deal with that which haunts you. There are many seekers here and we range across the spectrum from believers to skeptics. You've already had some good advice from some of the nicest posters on the forum. You can explore here if you like or chart out a personal experience thread.

If you look around in those threads you will see that searching through our "childhood" experiences is quite the familiar meme around here. It seems that childhood allows you to be open to all sorts of interesting alterations of reality.

Welcome, enjoy, and heed the advice of the FeralNormal master. Some good forum truths getting dropped there.
 
I`d like to thank everyone for their warm greetings! Since it seems to be okay, I`ll just go ahead and post my thoughts here. It`s hard to be objective about my own experiences, especially after reading and hearing so much about the paranormal, but I`ll try to first just put out these experiences as simply as I can with no interpreting on my part, and then maybe at the end I`ll give a few of my own thoughts.

So here`s the things that are kind of stuck in my memory from when I was a kid that I`m interested in:

The earliest thing was a series of recurring nightmares. I can`t recall exactly when I had these, probably when I was 6-9. Before them I was pretty fine being around insects, but after them I became terrified of insects almost to the irrational degree. In these nightmares there were insects holed up in some secret base where they had a clockwork machine that was connected to every house in the city (or at least every house I knew of, my friends/relatives houses etc.). If anyone caught the attention of these insects, they would turn on the machine which would turn that person into a strange clockwork toy version of themselves. The persons hands would be replaced by clockwork keys (I mean the keys you turn to make clockwork toys move) and they would only be capable of very slow, mechanical movement and repeating the phrase `Do you feel slow?`

The terror of these nightmares came from seeing people I knew reduced to powerless automatons who acted nothing like they should. In the end of each dream I would be the final victim of the machine and would awaken just as I lost control of my own body in the dream.

Next, several years later there is another dream that has always stuck with me. In the beginning of the dream I was in my toy closet where I was being remote-controlled by my toy cars and planes. They would make me move how they wanted, ramming into me and laughing at me with metallic voices. The oddest part of this dream is that it sort of dissolved into another dream in a very obvious transition I don`t normally associate with dreams. After the transition I was sitting at the top step of our stairway, looking out the window above the front door of our house. In the street, under a yellow light in front of our house I watched as two men with dark glasses and dark suits got into a dark colored car and drive away.

I then woke up and found myself actually sitting on the top step. I should point out that this is the only time I am aware of (having checked with my family members) of me sleepwalking. Upon finding myself out of bed, I let out a sigh (???) and took myself to bed. This action surprises me the most because of how much of a scaredy-cat I was back then. I was so afraid of ghosts/monsters I would never have had the guts to leave my room at night. I always slept with my face to the wall for fear of something showing up in the night and attacking me in my bed (I didn`t care what got me, just as long as I didn`t need to see it before it did). It surprises me greatly to think I, at that age, reacted no more to finding myself out in the halls of my dark house at night than to give a sigh and walk back to bed.

Now to explain why I consider the first part with me dreaming of being on top of the stairs a `dream` I will point out that, at that age and sitting, I would not have had the height necessary to see clearly out the front window into the street. Also, there are no streetlights in front of my house to cast the yellow light under which I saw the men and their car. That said, I can`t clearly recall any transition between seeing that and finding myself awake on top of the stairs.

For my final definitive happening, and one I find completely unrelated to those above, I was biking home from completing my paper-route one morning when I was about 14 when in the street near me there was a sudden spherical blaze that appeared and vanished very rapidly. It was literally like some wizard had summoned a fireball. It was probably about 2 feet in diameter, and if I recall correctly it had coloration like you would expect of a fire: yellow in the middle with reds, blues and greens toward the edges of the `ball`. I don`t recall there being any smell, but there was a kind of `whoosh` noise like when someone throws a match on gasoline-soaked wood.

I should point out that this wouldn`t be a sewer gas leak or anything. I lived in a very small town and there wasn`t a manhole in sight on this road. The ball was floating about a half a foot in the air, and there were no cars or anything at all really in the area that would lend any explanation to the apparition.

Now, like the time when I awoke on the stairs, my reaction to this was shockingly placid, now that I think back on it. The first time I really thought of it as strange was when my friends were sharing paranormal experiences and I thought `Oh, I saw that ball of fire once`. Everyone was surprised at how nonchalantly I talked about it, but I told them I always assumed it was ball lightning, though I have no idea if the conditions were right for such a thing or if what I experienced is even close to ball lightning. When I was in Brazil a UFO believer family gleefully told me it was an `orb` but I`m not sure how aliens would build a probe made of fire.


Anyway those are the facts as I remember them. Now, with what I know of the paranormal, it would be easy to say:
Recurring nightmares = suppressed abduction memories
Guys in dream = men in black
Fireball = Orb
But honestly I could just as easily assign one of a dozen supernatural meanings to these things. In fact I usually don`t associate those recurring nightmares with anything else. I only recently decided they must be linked to the dream of the men and their car because both involved dreams where I and others were being remote-controlled by small things that I would normally see as harmless but in the dreams took on a malevolent demeanor.

And, again, I don`t want to draw any conclusions, but I`ve been haunted by bad sleep most of my life. I`m a violent sleeper, often throwing off my sheets and even pajamas some nights. I woke up one time while in Brazil with my pajamas on but on BACKWARDS AND INSIDE-OUT. Now yes it`s easy to put a shirt on backwards when one is tired, but pants are a different story. The thing is, I`ve never had anyone witness me thrashing in my sleep, so I just wake up, look at the state of my sheets, and make the assumption that some serious twitching went on that night.

Worse, I`m tired quite often. I always try to get 7-8 hours of sleep, but even after a full night I still find myself yawning at work the next day. I never quite feel like I`ve gotten enough sleep or slept as deeply as I should have.


Anyway, sorry for the huge text dump, but that`s what I`ve got to say about my own memories. I don`t think there are any `answers` to any of this... mainly because I`m not sure what the questions are, but I`m sure everyone here can agree that there are certain memories from childhood that your brain holds onto and just screams `these are important!` your whole life. I`d just like to maybe get another set of eyes and brains looking at these things and maybe coming up with some comments on them, is all.

Thanks for listening
 
Really appreciate your sharing this here. I can imagine some of us have had our share of strange events, maybe that's what draws us to this field. My first reaction would be for you to consider the most common explanation for your dreams and see through time what develops for you, via memory, interests, etc. Since there's no way you can definitively say what happened in those dreams your only left with what we do know happens in dreams and to take it from there. But since your here you may as well stick around for all the great topics that come up, guaranteed to make your life more rich and bizarre!!!
 
And be buffeted by the fact that recurring nightmares, especially as a child, of robots, automatons and remote control, are a common enough occurrence, that many share in. Trust me, I had some pretty bizarre horror show repetitions when I was in grade school.

It's also important not to draw lines between disconnected dots before you start talking abduction. Always search for common basic reasons and don't necessarily put things from different time periods into the same basket of cause. I would certainly investigate the sleeping piece and consider a sleep clinic where you could get studied for simple things like sleep apnea. Not breathing right at night, alarms going off inbetween sleep cycles, or other physical defecits are all connected to feeling well rested in the morning.

Sleepwalking is a really fascinating phenomenon. My dad did that for many, many years, getting dressed in a bathrobe and going for middle of the night walks around the neighbourhood even. He snored like a banshee. The thrashing is somehing I would talk with a doctor about. It's common enough - every 90 minutes we rise back to some form of consciousness and roll around or thrash madly like you're drowning and then go back to sleep again. But you never know - could be connected to other physiological issues.

The orb story is brilliant. Thanks for putting yourself out there. Sure sounds like ball lightning, either that or god, realizing she got the wrong number, suddenly disconnected the mid air burning communique.
 
Last edited:
Awesome reply, that's just the kind of thing I was looking for. I was thinking myself that the kinds of things I dreamed about might just be common themes in childrens' dreams, but I've never really corroborated them with anyone. On the flip-side of that, it would be interesting from a psychological standpoint to look into why exactly these certain themes show up a lot. I could imagine an adult caught up in the daily grind having nightmares about being controlled by the cold, unfeeling system, but from such a young age to harbor those fears of losing control and being manipulated is a weird thought on its own.

I definitely want to check out a sleep clinic, though I'm not sure if there's any near where I live here in Japan. Maybe next time I'm back in the states. I wish there was a way to tape myself or self-diagnose, but alas the nature of the thing requires an outside observer.

I was pretty sure it was ball lightning too, despite not really knowing what 'ball lightning' entailed. I figured it was either that or Merlin decided it'd be fun to spook some paper boy on his bike with a fireball. I guess I took it for granted back in the day since I had heard the word 'ball lightning' a few times by then I just assumed it was a normal thing that lots of people saw. Only recently have I discovered that it's still not even 100% accepted that ball lightning even exists as a phenomena.

Actually come to think of it, I think I first read about ball lightning in Mysteries of the Unexplained, the big Reader's Digest collection of uncorroborated stories and hearsay. If you haven't read it I definitely recommend it for some awesome spooky stories and crazy photos/drawings. I think the best UFO story in there is the one about the guy who makes alien babies with a pretty lady in a spaceship who barks like a dog. Or the guy who watches some aliens cook some wafers out of flour and water and even gets to eat one!

Speaking of book recommendations, Poltergeist: A Classic Study in Destructive Haunting by Colin Wilson is one of my favorite paranormal research books of all time. As far as presenting all the different possible options from demons to fairies to elementals to RSPK, the book has a whole ton of cool poltergeist stories and theories. Good stuff.

Honestly if I had to choose between aliens and ghosts I'd rather encounter the latter, but I know David warns everyone a bunch about wishing for paranormal experiences so I guess I'll hold off.
 
Hi Getsuya
Welcome!
I am a newbie in the forum, All I can tell you is that most posters here are very intelligent and have done their homework as well. I am learning a great deal.

We do have few things in common: sleepwalking, elaborated dreams, and a connection with Brazil. I actually am a Brazilian and live in Florianopolis.

When I was seven, in the middle of the night, I put my sleepers on my hands and walked to my parents' room. And according to them, many nights I would say crazy stuff sitting up on my bed. We all just laughed at all these events. Nightmares were quite common.

My dreams are really elaborated. But I am lucky that I sometimes have lucid dreams. In those I stop and can trace the stuff that is happening back to past events in my awaken life. TV, news, movies, and books play important roles! When we are children our antennas to what is happening around us are even more sensitive. Therefore I don't see anything extraordinary in having dreams that explore serious matters like yours.

As many Brazilians I know a lot about Spiritism. Do I believe it? Not sure. I keep a 50% chance for every paranormal event to be in between our ears as well. This "being not sure thing" can be confusing to some. But for me works quite well since I keep my mind open to the fantastic and unexplained.

I have seen UFOs a few times, but only one time I can say for sure it was something not from this reality. So, I am a believer in UFOs but I have no idea what they are.

Back to dreams and Spiritism. I would love to believe a 100% we are definitely reincarnated beings, but until we die we cannot be sure;) It is however the sensible explanation for many things in this planet, including UFOs. If you speak Portuguese check Pedro de Campos, Angela Cristina de Paschoal, Fabio Del Santoro, and of course, General Alfredo Moacyr Uchoa, the best source ever because he was an intellectual and studied a lot all types of beliefs, science, parapsychology, and mostly theosophy.

Do abductions exist? I was a total skeptic about it. However there are so many people who tell those stories that I am inclined to believe in the idea. However I am toying with the notion that most of what people think of as an abduction is actually another form of paranormal or OBE event that is transformed in abduction by their brains because that what is available in the media for them. Do you understand what I just wrote? It is probably a defense mechanism of the brain in order to make sense of something else they went through. Don't go on that road. Be positive, and do pray to your guardian angel or mentor to help you solve your doubts. And a same time do look for help. Waking up feeling tired is one of the symptoms of stress. I know because I have been there. Hopefully it is not your case, but do look for help.

And if Burnt State says to take of what he writes with a grain of salt, I say: take mine with a whole bag:D

Good luck and do feel free to argue and challenge whatever I wrote.
 
Oh man Ufocurious thanks so much for your post, you reminded me of one of my crazier experiences in Brazil. Since I was a missionary, I would sometimes get called on to pray for people who felt their houses had an evil spirit. My religion (Mormon) isn't super into things like possession and demons, but we believe they do happen and can be cured with prayer so I would usually just go along and say some prayers and hope the person felt better afterwards, but one case totally shocked me.

So we go to this lady's house who wants us to get a ghost out and she shows us the keys in her house. EVERY single key in the entire house had been bent into a perfect ring shape, most of them still on their key rings. She lived alone and anyone who lives in Brazil knows that Brazilian houses are NOT the kind of place you can break into easily to do something like bend a person's keys.

Now when people think poltergeists they think of knocking on walls, maybe lighting fires or making voices, but this was just a totally bizarre ghost phenomena (assuming she didn't fake it herself but why fake something just to get the attention of two Mormon missionaries whom she never ended up contacting again?). Not only did the thing bend every key in her house overnight, it also broke her dog's leg. And I mean it was a small dog so we were thinking maybe it had fallen or something, but then she showed us the poor thing. Its leg wasn't just 'broken', it looked like someone had grabbed it and twisted it all the way around until it was pointing at the ceiling when the dog walked. Sorry for the graphic details but this was not a normal accident-related injury is what I'm trying to say.

The thing about this case was that it really doesn't matter if it was a ghost or a demon or whatever, ANY kind of phenomena or even a psychological condition that would cause a person or persons to pull something like this, bending keys and breaking dogs legs seems like it would be totally out of this world and I mean I'll never know the cause obviously but it is an interesting case to think about.
 
Gee, poor dog!
The keys are probably easy to explain since metal bending has been studied. But the dog?!?!?

Most of I know of your religion I learned from South Park! I am being silly. I know a bit more because the biggest Mormon temple in Floripa is near my home. I found it funny the missionaries never approached me. I say it is because they sense my non-believer scent. :D

Furthermore, back in 1989 I was in Taquile Island in Peru at the same time the Mormons were inaugurating a school there. While I liked the idea of the physical building being given to the community, I did not like the Christian religion attached to it when the natives had their own beliefs. Don't take me wrong. I LOVE Jesus' teachings. However I have a big problem with religions in general, mostly when it is going to replace fine teachings that exist to begin with. But as Mormons are late in the game, since Catholicism has done most of the missionary work anyway, I don't care much. It is up to people to decide, and choice is always good. And I really liked the Mormons we met there. Nice people.

I wonder how hard is to you to blend your religion system of beliefs with the paranormal. Is it complicated?

I hope you can nicely integrate both, because our planet is filled with weird unexplained phenomena.
 
Actually Mormon beliefs fit in very smoothly with things like UFOs and ghosts. We believe that Earth is the place where spirits wait for the judgment day, so dead folks ARE wandering around here waiting for the final judgment to come. We also believe that we are not the only planet created with living beings on it, so it's very probable there is intelligent life out there, and if one of the other places got created way before we were it's just as likely they've developed the kind of technology you see in UFOs. I'd say the biggest catching point that we trip over a lot is the whole young Earth thing, but it's been posited that Earth wasn't 'created' so much as it was 'organized' from materials that were already in the area, so when you have dinosaur bones from however many million years ago, that means those chunks for rock with the dinosaur bones were materials from a planet that used to exist all that time ago with dinosaurs on it that was gathered together as part of the 'ingredients' to make the Earth, as it were.

That all said, I'm pretty much a Mormon in name alone. I don't really want to get into it publicly, but suffice it to say if I'm not exactly the best spokesman for my religion anymore.
 
Welcome Getsuya! Looks like you have come to the right place. I too combed over the archives and still continue to find episodes that I haven't yet listened too. I was most interested in your experience with the ball of light since my wife and I had experiences with balls of light that went on for months at our former residence. There are many mysteries here on Spaceship Earth and this forum provides a place to air out our views, beliefs & even our personal experiences. Glad you're here!
 
Back
Top