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The day I got scared almost to death (1 Viewer)

Bill Catherall

Screenwriter
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Aug 1, 1997
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Big, bad science...
I hope, by that quote, you aren't assuming I'm anti-science. I'm not. I love science. The problem I have is that many people think that we know all there is to know. Therefore there's a simple explanation, using what we know, for everything. People see a show on TV that offers some alternate theory and say "Well it's final then." Nobody ever uses their head to challenge what they see, unless it goes against what science has to say. What if science is wrong, or there's more to it than we originally thought?
Here's a theory...what if there was some kind of unseen world inhabited by intelligent life. What if some places or some people are prone to being exposed to glimses of this alternate world/dimension. The problem now is how to test this theory. To my knowledge we have no instruments that can detect alternate dimensions. We don't understand what causes this "unveiling" where the two worlds seem to come together and one is exposed to the other. We lack the science and understanding. I do agree with what Jack said. Not enough evidence is there for us to be able to sink our scientific teeth into. Perhaps our limited knowledge causes that lack of evidence...maybe?
That would be pretty funny if Scott's friends were able to pull off such a believable hoax. Especially pulling it off on someone that is pretty level headed and skeptical. The way Scott described it those kids would have to be pretty good actors though. (Unless they weren't in on it...but who would want to scare their own kids like that?) It would be one for the record books. :D
 

NathanP

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 13, 2001
Messages
841
From a Christian point of view--

This is going to sound a bit funny but..

They're probably demons..

Here's what you do--

1.Never go back there..

2.Get yourself a good priest or pastor and give it a good exercism!

Nathan
 

Scott Hayes

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 2, 2001
Messages
357
From the seveties to the present there has been a rash of black triangular ufo activity throught the US. Many intelligent, normal people saw and reported them. Often to be put down about their crazy notion of "seeing a UFO". Now we know the majority were seeing the F117 stealth fighter or the Stealth bomber.

We were outside taking a break from work one night and were outside when we saw a light out on the horizon moving back and forth across the night sky in a rapid fashion. We were pretty intrigued. We watched it until the boss yelled at us to get back to work. Whe showed him what we were looking at and he got into it. We tried to take pictures of it and were rather excited aboput seeing a UFO! We finally went back to work. When we got out that morning we saw it was one of those shiny happy birthday ballons kids get and it was snagged in the top of a tree about fifty yard from were we were standing. We felt a little foolish. As the wind blew it back and forth it must have been reflecting the lights from our building. It is hard for the eye to judge distance and direction of travel at night. I learned a valuble lesson. I believe ninty percent of ufo sightings that take place at night can be explained.

Back to Scott's original story, here's another suggestion: Given that he was "warned" by the house's owners about the place being "haunted," might the whole thing have been a clever hoax?
I have always wondered about that. I have always suspected the wind. It was a calm night though. I remember being in a blizzard when I was a kid. The wind was so strong that it sounded like a woman screaming.

No matter what it was it was one of the most intersting things that ever happened to me. I think it would take a way a little of the experiance if I ever did find out for sure what it was.

Remember one thing, The cyllocanph (cant spell it) was a fish that was extinct for millions of years until some fisherman caught it. The giant squid was just a tale fisherman told to scare children until it washed up on shore. Our puny little minds cant comprehend the enormity of nature and the universe. Just because something cant be explained doesnt mean it doesnt exist, neither should we put the unexplainable into the realm of fiction.
 

Julie K

Screenwriter
Joined
Dec 1, 2000
Messages
1,962
I do agree with what Jack said. Not enough evidence is there for us to be able to sink our scientific teeth into. Perhaps our limited knowledge causes that lack of evidence...maybe?

And it is at this point Occam's razor must be used. What is the most plausible explanation- Scott's mind playing tricks on him or Scott catching a glimpse of some previously unseen universe? Sure, one can come up with all sorts of interesting and exciting ideas and theories, but without a shred of evidence, the simplest explanation is the best. (And it's generally the explanation that most folks find boring or uninspiring.)

BTW, you really should read some of Lovecraft's stories...
 

Julie K

Screenwriter
Joined
Dec 1, 2000
Messages
1,962
Just because something cant be explained doesnt mean it doesnt exist, neither should we put the unexplainable into the realm of fiction.

Finding an occasional new animal species, or one thought to be extinct, is an entirely different matter than concluding a house to be haunted based on a scary night.

And besides, these things do have an explanation. It's not one that people like - the human mind is easily confused and is a pretty bad observer and is really rotten concerning memories. This is what we ought to consider when pondering the puny human mind...
 

Scott Hayes

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 2, 2001
Messages
357
That would be pretty funny if Scott's friends were able to pull off such a believable hoax. Especially pulling it off on someone that is pretty level headed and skeptical. The way Scott described it those kids would have to be pretty good actors though. (Unless they weren't in on it...but who would want to scare their own kids like that?) It would be one for the record books.
Let me tell you those kids were terrified! You know how kids get that incoherrant cry were they cant catch there breath? That is what they were doing.
The parents are long time friends and I dont think they would have let me ever forget that they tricked me. Tanya the wife was pretty upset about it. She always claimed the house was haunted but Earl and I never believed her. Earl is a huge man, about 6ft 6in tall, probably 300lbs. I dont think I would have missed him snaeaking around the house. He actually got really pissed at me because I thought they pulled a prank on me and I kept demanding he admit it. I do not think they were involved. Not to say someone didnt pull a prank, just that I am fairly certain it wasnt them.
I looked for radios and speakers anything that could make noise but found nothing.
To me the freakiest part of it was the voice in the laundry room. There was nowere for someone to hide, there was nothing in there but some laundry and the washer and drier (wich were off all night).The voice was so clear. The wispering we heard upstairs was really loud but not as clear as the voice in the laundry room. Earl and I even experimented with talking into the drier vent but when we did that it sounded like someone talking thru a tube. The voice I heard was like someone was standing directly in front of me. I cant think of any way to explain it. Not that there isnt an explanation. We even turned up the tv really loud to see if there was an echo effect but that was negative also. (in case you may suspect it, I didnt due any drugs:) ) It was strange.
 

Kenneth

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jul 31, 1997
Messages
757
I am the unsensitive member of my family where supernatural things are concerned but here are some happenings from my other family members:

My Mom and Aunt were once pushed out of a parked car by an unseen force that whispered "get out".

My Mom once conversed with a ghost in her closet. It was a woman who had just died and was terribly afraid. My Mother tried to help her adjust to her condition.

My Aunt had a house she had bought after its previous owner died. She was having problems with things moving around and strange noises. She decided to repaint the house. After stopping in the last room their was a message painted on her wall to stop. She painted over it and never had another problem.

My sons were home alone and they claimed to have seen a friend of my significant other walk through the house. She searched the house but didn't see any sign of her friend. She later found out her friend had been killed in a car accident right before our kids saw her.

I think there are forces at play sometimes that we don't fully understand. I don't think that the world is always as simple as we think it is.

Cheers,

Kenneth
 

RobertR

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 19, 1998
Messages
10,675
What's a common occurance in Star Trek?...Temperal shifts. So when someone on the Enterprise starts to hear voices or see "ghosts" they automatically scan for temperal disturbances. Nobody dismisses it as "Oh common Dr. Crusher. It's just your mind playing tricks on you."
I don't think that's a good analogy, Bill. The "temporal shifts" in Star Trek are a plot device dreamed up by a writer. That is a far, far different thing than an actual verified phenomenom. Using a FICTIONAL example only emphasizes the imagined nature of what you're talking about.
 

Julie K

Screenwriter
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Dec 1, 2000
Messages
1,962
Well right now I'm in the middle of Lord of the Rings. But when I'm finished...got any recommendations?
Since Lovecraft's stories are short (sometimes really short), you could probably sneak a few in right now. Some are even online (public domain) - The Whisperer in the Darkness and Shadow Over Innsmouth are a couple of very good ones. In print, a good place to start would be the Del Ray anthology "Best of HP Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre."
 

Scott Hayes

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 2, 2001
Messages
357
Julie,

I hope I didnt offend with the puny little mind comment. I was trying to make the point that we know so little about our world even though it is a natural inclanation to believe that we do. I may have come off to harsh, I apologize. :b

You are correct about memory. The thing is that when I got home I wrote what happened to me knowing I may forget some detail. What I wrote at the start of this thread is a short version of that.

Perhaps we use the term "haunted" too much. I dont necasarily believe the house was haunted. Still it was a strange experiance.
 

Kevin P

Screenwriter
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Jan 18, 1999
Messages
1,439
Kenneth's stories are creepy, and if you look at them with an open mind you begin to realize that there are things out there which we are only barely beginning to comprehend but are nowhere near close to understanding.

Many stories have earthly explanations or are hoaxes, but after you filter those out, the unexplainable ones are the ones that remain.

A strange looking light in the sky could be an airplane. It could be a planet. It could be a meteor. Or it could be something we don't know about yet, whether it be visitors from another planet or something from a parallel dimension dropping in to say "hi". No one really knows.

The voices in the laundry room could be a TV in the next room. It could be coming from outside. It could be in one's imagination. Or it could be... ghosts? No one has proved with certainty that they exist, but then no one can prove that they don't, either. No one really knows.

As I've mentioned before, I do believe in both ghosts and UFOs, even though I have never personally encountered either. There's numerous accounts of both these phenomenon which have far too many consistencies between them to be coincidence. Every ghost story mentioned in this thread has elements in common with hundreds (thousands) of similar accounts worldwide. Unseen voices. Visions of people who recently died. Strange noises at night. Lights or TV turning on or toilets flushing. Items disappearing, appearing, or moving. People being touched or pushed by unseen forces. There's definitely something out there. What it is, your guess is as good as mine.

KJP
 

RobertR

Senior HTF Member
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Dec 19, 1998
Messages
10,675
One of the interesting aspects of "ghost stories" is their purely anecdotal nature. It's always a personal experience that doesn't take place under anything approaching controlled (ie accounting for variables) conditions. Remember the big brouhaha around 1990 about "cold fusion"? Two men claimed to have observed it in their laboratory. They were quite adamant about it. But since their results couldn't be duplicated by others, the whole phenomenom fizzled.
 

Julie K

Screenwriter
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Dec 1, 2000
Messages
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I hope I didnt offend with the puny little mind comment. I was trying to make the point that we know so little about our world even though it is a natural inclanation to believe that we do.
Absolutely no offense taken. I even agree that the human mind is pretty puny - but puny in how bad it observes the world and stores memories. Go into a dark room and stare at a small point of light - after a while it will seem to move even though the light is in reality fixed. People remember things that never happened and forget important details. Eye witnesses are notorious for contradicting each other. We each have a large portion of our vision blocked by the optical nerve, but we never notice the lack. And so on. And so instead of saying 'the human mind is puny and therefore there are Things we cannot understand', I prefer to say 'the human mind is puny and often gets confused about wha's happening around it.' And that is why science requires repeatable experiments in controlled conditions.
Although I'll grant you that unknowable Things make for far cooler stories ;)
 

Scott Dautel

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 6, 1998
Messages
471
Put me in the 99.999 skeptic category. But I certainly do believe that human scientific discovery is still in it's infancy.
But before I start spouting diatribe from my present read ... The Holographic Universe ... let's bring this back home to our favorite subject ... Has anyone been to this site yet ... or read this book. What's your explanation.
I'm actually looking forward to January 25th.
Scott
 

Paul Richardson

Second Unit
Joined
Jun 25, 2000
Messages
412
As long as we are sharing scary stories, here's mind. Before I get started, I’d like to point out that this story is 100% true, and it happened to me personally, and not to a “friend of a friend.”

First, I should note that I wear two rings during the day. When I get home, I take them both off. Our story begins with me getting home, removing the rings, and putting them in a small “penholder” for the evening (something I do every day).

On this particular evening, I happened upon the penholder a while later and found it tipped over and the rings missing! I had a “feeling” that one of the rings might be by the front door, so I rushed downstairs…and sure enough, there it was! However, the other ring was nowhere to be found.

My wife and I searched everywhere we could think of, but couldn’t find the ring. A couple months went by, with no luck. Then, one day, while doing some “spring cleaning” I discovered the ring under my DSL modem, of all places!

Since then, I have kept the rings in a small latched box on my bedstand. The rings haven’t disappeared, but…and this is the bizarre part…sometimes at night I have been awakened by “clawing” sounds coming from the box!

I assure you that I am not lying or mistaken. My wife is a witness to all of the events described above. I just would like to explain what happened.

Thoughts?
 

Bill Catherall

Screenwriter
Joined
Aug 1, 1997
Messages
1,560
I don't think that's a good analogy, Bill. The "temporal shifts" in Star Trek are a plot device dreamed up by a writer. That is a far, far different thing than an actual verified phenomenom. Using a FICTIONAL example only emphasizes the imagined nature of what you're talking about.
Yeah, I was worried that that was going to be a bad example. That's why I tried to include a disclamer, but even that didn't work it seems. It was simply an attempt (obviously not a good one) of offering the possibility of other plausible explanations given the proper understanding or technology.
Second try: Neon lights. Lets say you don't understand what happens when you charge a gas filled tube with electricity. What are some of the other plausible explanations for this phenomenon?...It's a burning stick, fireflies stuck in a tube, witchcraft, alien technology...So which would Occam's razor say is the right answer? None of the choices are correct because the right one is outside of your understanding. Which brings up another question...before we knew what Aurora Borealis was, what did people think caused the Northern Lights? With our current understanding of atmospheric particles, solar radiation, and magnatism/electricity the Northern Lights, although very beautiful and spectacular, are a lot less "magical."
David Lawson - Haha :D Good one!
 

Kevin P

Screenwriter
Joined
Jan 18, 1999
Messages
1,439
Since then, I have kept the rings in a small latched box on my bedstand. The rings haven’t disappeared, but…and this is the bizarre part…sometimes at night I have been awakened by “clawing” sounds coming from the box!
You don't have a cat, do you? :)
Maybe you should install a miniature webcam and light inside the box and get a peek at what's going on in there when you hear the sounds.
EDIT: Is there any history behind the rings, or the box you keep them in? Family heirloom, antique, anything like that, where it could have gotten an "entity" connected with it somehow? Just wondering. Sometimes "hauntings" are associated with specific objects as opposed to the dwelling.
KJP
 

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