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Black, Swirling Mass

M

Mr Spagooter

Junior Acolyte
Joined
Feb 3, 2020
Messages
44
Hello to all!,

This is my first post, so go easy!

This is likely my first ever (what I'd term) 'crazy' experience that even to this day, even talking about, fills me with disbelief. Purely because it happened and I could not and cannot explain it away in any other manner.

So it was back in 2002 at my ex-girlfriend's flat in Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire. The flat was nothing out of the ordinary, typical post-war jobbie. Time of the year I would estimate at around January (I remember it being post Christmas) and I'd put the time at around 6-9pm. There were other people in the flat at the time, but in the living room.

So, I'm sat on my girlfriend's bed at the time, facing each other cross legged, chatting about something fairly mundane when suddenly out of nowhere and with no prior warning of any kind, what I can only describe as a black swirling mass (imagine a scribble being animated very quickly and messily) about the size of a grapefruit appears over her right shoulder (my left as I face her). It hovered there for about 1-2 seconds at most, travelled up behind her head, flicked her pony tail, dashed about 10-15 inches above her head and vanished. The whole sequence must of taken, at most, 5-8 seconds.

I was just stunned beyond belief and remember her asking me what had just touched her head. I remember just saying in response "you would not believe me if I told you" - that part is etched on my mind.

She definitely felt something touch her and flick her ponytail, so she could corroborate this.

Even to this day it still stuns me and perplexes me. I'm always the first to eliminate any environmental possibility but there is nothing this could have been that makes any sense.

I didn't find the experience of it too frightening and it gave off no bad vibes (if you can quantify a vibe :D).

Absolutely baffles me.

Thanks for taking the time to read my first contribution! (There are others, better, but we'll start here)
 
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Hi Mr Spagooter. Great first post. I'm sure you've already elliminated an insect flying too fast for you eye to process it's movements making it a blur which then briefly landed on your gf's pony tail. The other thing I wondered was if her head had made a small involuntary twitch which swung her pony tail end for you to see as the blur; again as it happened so fast perhaps your brain had processed it in the wrong order? Just a thought.

Oh a bit of a coinicidence, just as I'd finished typing, the programme I was only half watching suddenly started featuring womens hair ... got my attention lol

Sollywos x
 
Interesting scenario ..

When you mention your girlfriend having a ponytail, do you mean the classic hair pulled back into a single large "tail" fixed at the back of her head?

If so, and considering the two of you were facing one another ... How much of a "flick" was visible to you? Did some hairs "flick", or did the whole ponytail move?

What was in your field of vision behind your girlfriend (e.g., a bookcase, a closet door, the bedroom wall, items on the wall, etc.)?

What - in the course of conversation / interaction - were you and she doing during the 5 to 8 seconds' timespan of the mass's appearance? Was either of you speaking or reacting in the moment?
 
Mr Spagooter said:
Hello to all!,

This is my first post, so go easy!

This is likely my first ever (what I'd term) 'crazy' experience that even to this day, even talking about, fills me with disbelief. Purely because it happened and I could not and cannot explain it away in any other manner.

So it was back in 2002 at my ex-girlfriends flat in Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire. The flat was nothing out of the ordinary, typical post war jobbie. Time of the year I would estimate at around January (I remember it being post Christmas) and I'd put the time at around 6-9pm. There were other people in the flat at the time, but in the living room.

So, I'm sat on my girlfriends bed at the time, facing each other cross legged, chatting about something or other unimportant when suddenly out of nowhere and with no prior warning of any kind, what I can only describe as a black swirling mass ( imagine a scribble being animated very quickly and messily) about the size of a grapefruit appears over her right shoulder (my left as I face her). It hovered there for about 1-2 seconds at most, travelled up behind her head, flicked her pony tail, dashed about 10-15 inches above her head and vanished. The whole sequence must of taken, at most, 5-8 seconds.

I was just stunned beyond belief and I remember her asking me what had just touched her head. I remember just saying in response "you would not believe me if I told you" - that part is etched on my mind.

She definitely felt something touch her and flick her ponytail, so she could corroborate this.

Even to this day it still stuns me and perplexes me. I'm always the first to eliminate any environmental possibility but there is nothing this could have been that makes any sense.

I didn't find the experience of it too scary, there were no bad vibes (if you can quantify a vibe :D).

Absolutely baffles me.

Thanks for taking the time to read my first contribution! (There are others, better, but we'll start here)
Click to expand...


:welc: Excellent first post.


Was there any noise at the time of the swirling thing? Or was it silent?
 
Sollywos said:
Hi Mr Spagooter. Great first post. I'm sure you've already elliminated an insect flying too fast for you eye to process it's movements making it a blur which then briefly landed on your gf's pony tail. The other thing I wondered was if her head had made a small involuntary twitch which swung her pony tail end for you to see as the blur; again as it happened so fast perhaps your brain had processed it in the wrong order? Just a thought.

Oh a bit of a coinicidence, just as I'd finished typing, the programme I was only half watching suddenly started featuring womens hair ... got my attention lol

Sollywos x
Click to expand...

Hi Sollywos,

This was in no way an insect. It was too large (Grapefruit sized). Given the time of year as well (Winter) I'd say it'd be even less likely.
 
Welcome to the Board, Mr. Spagooter.

My guess would be that the UFO was a bat. l experienced one being trapped in my bedroom back in the early Nineties, and can testify to its speed and sudden, erratic changes of direction. lt could seem to vanish, based on how swiftly it altered course.

maximus otter

Edit to add a video giving some slight idea of the experience:


m.o.
 
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EnolaGaia said:
Interesting scenario ..

When you mention your girlfriend having a ponytail, do you mean the classic hair pulled back into a single large "tail" fixed at the back of her head?

If so, and considering the two of you were facing one another ... How much of a "flick" was visible to you? Did some hairs "flick", or did the whole ponytail move?

What was in your field of vision behind your girlfriend (e.g., a bookcase, a closet door, the bedroom wall, items on the wall, etc.)?

What - in the course of conversation / interaction - were you and she doing during the 5 to 8 seconds' timespan of the mass's appearance? Was either of you speaking or reacting in the moment?
Click to expand...

I was facing (and she was sat in front of) a blank wall. Painted a light shade of blue if my memory serves me correct.

She always used to have a tightly bunched, single tail that was fairly long in length. I saw the whole thing go from being at a standstill to almost horizontal.

During the whole sequence, I was just frozen, as if my brain could not compute what was occuring in front of my eyes. She was talking herself at the point this occured.

All the best :)
 
Mr Spagooter said:
I I saw the whole thing go from being at a standstill to almost horizontal.

All the best :)
Click to expand...

Ah right that was a bigger flick than I had been picturing! I suppose it could have been a bat in that case but surely unless it had flown right out of an open window immediately afterwards there would have been other sightings in the house? Having spoken to people who have had bats get indoors they really aren't that easy to evict surely you'd have seen it again?

PS I have had a bat fly into me. Well put it like this I've rationalised it in retrospect as a bat! I was cycling hell for leather home from a friends house along a quiet wooded country road at dusk. I was under strict instructions to be home before dark (I was a young teenager at the time) coming up to a bit in the road where our neighbour had said she'd seen and heard a ghost so instead of freewheeling down the hill I was getting up a speed so I wouldn't have to stop and push the bike on the upslope just at the bit where said ghost had been spotted! So between fear of the supernatural and fear of my mother I have to say it was a hell of a shock to have a dark shape swooping towards me, colliding and then disappearing into the woods near a spot where a ghost had been reported! So maybe it wasn't a bat ... mmmmm. Seems the most likely though.

However this was an entirely different scenario from yours and somehow the bat theory doesn't fit for you quite as neatly.

Sollywos x
 
While the explanation of it potentially being a bat is plausible, I think a couple of things would go against that.

It hovered in one spot and I got a good look at it and I also managed to follow/track it and watch it disappear into thin air.

The room in question was fairly small, no nooks or crannies for any potential bat to hide in. If it had been a flying animal of sorts, I would have expected to have seen it again throughout the evening or been told that one was discovered later on (not an everyday occurance!).

I would also expect to hear the noise of a bat flapping about in such close proximity to my face, but this object was totally silent.

Weird!
 
Good post @Mr Spagooter ! also, welcome!

Was it a thing, or could it have been a shadow of a thing?
 
Thought I'd read something similar to this here before.

This is from the "Ghostly garbage" thread in 2004:

"All of a sudden, a floating black "squiggle" came out from behind the garbage can about 2ft off the ground and about 4 ft away from me. Not out of the corner of my eye, not a fleeting glimpse of a shadow, a full on solid-ish black "squiggle" thing about 12" X 12" in size. It floated out in front of the garbage can as I was looking at it, paused for a moment and then zipped off and disappeared. "

There have also been accounts of black knotted tentacle things, which sound quite similar.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
Thought I'd read something similar to this here before.

This is from the "Ghostly garbage" thread in 2004:

"All of a sudden, a floating black "squiggle" came out from behind the garbage can about 2ft off the ground and about 4 ft away from me. Not out of the corner of my eye, not a fleeting glimpse of a shadow, a full on solid-ish black "squiggle" thing about 12" X 12" in size. It floated out in front of the garbage can as I was looking at it, paused for a moment and then zipped off and disappeared. "

There have also been accounts of black knotted tentacle things, which sound quite similar.
Click to expand...
Yes, there have been other accounts like this. It's a very odd thing with no explanation.
 
Mr Spagooter said:
Hello to all!,

This is my first post, so go easy!

This is likely my first ever (what I'd term) 'crazy' experience that even to this day, even talking about, fills me with disbelief. Purely because it happened and I could not and cannot explain it away in any other manner.

So it was back in 2002 at my ex-girlfriend's flat in Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire. The flat was nothing out of the ordinary, typical post-war jobbie. Time of the year I would estimate at around January (I remember it being post Christmas) and I'd put the time at around 6-9pm. There were other people in the flat at the time, but in the living room.

So, I'm sat on my girlfriend's bed at the time, facing each other cross legged, chatting about something fairly mundane when suddenly out of nowhere and with no prior warning of any kind, what I can only describe as a black swirling mass (imagine a scribble being animated very quickly and messily) about the size of a grapefruit appears over her right shoulder (my left as I face her). It hovered there for about 1-2 seconds at most, travelled up behind her head, flicked her pony tail, dashed about 10-15 inches above her head and vanished. The whole sequence must of taken, at most, 5-8 seconds.

I was just stunned beyond belief and remember her asking me what had just touched her head. I remember just saying in response "you would not believe me if I told you" - that part is etched on my mind.

She definitely felt something touch her and flick her ponytail, so she could corroborate this.

Even to this day it still stuns me and perplexes me. I'm always the first to eliminate any environmental possibility but there is nothing this could have been that makes any sense.

I didn't find the experience of it too frightening and it gave off no bad vibes (if you can quantify a vibe :D).

Absolutely baffles me.

Thanks for taking the time to read my first contribution! (There are others, better, but we'll start here)
Click to expand...


Interesting. I'm trying to picture this.

Would it be something akin to this?

black-scribble-balls.png


But about the size of a grapefruit, obviously.

How would you describe it's motion? Did it hover? Did it flow? Did it jump?
 
CuriousIdent said:
Interesting. I'm trying to picture this.

Would it be something akin to this?

View attachment 22965

But about the size of a grapefruit, obviously.

How would you describe it's motion? Did it hover? Did it flow? Did it jump?
Click to expand...

It was very similar to the image top right. I would describe it as almost having a slight gaseous quality along with this - almost mini-planet like. When it materialised out of thin air, it was initially hovering, it jumped at high speed to the point at her ponytail and then above her head.
 
Mr Spagooter said:
It was very similar to the image top right. I would describe it as almost having a slight gaseous quality along with this - almost mini-planet like. When it materialised out of thin air, it was initially hovering, it jumped at high speed to the point at her ponytail and then above her head.
Click to expand...


I'm picturing this kind of like the movements of a fly or flea. Capable of jumping distances quickly, with a jerky but quick movement, whilst also capable of hovering or treading water for a few moments if desired.
 
The question is, Mr Spagooter....What do you think it was? Often the most reasonable explanation is usually the correct one.

I'm wondering if it could have been some kind of manifestation of ball lightning, albeit in a very small way, possibly collecting some dust/debris in the room and swirling it around before dissipating?
 
I too immediately thought of a ball lightning scenario. There have been a few UFO reports in the annals which have been similar to this (Brad Steiger collected some) - i.e small black spherical objects entering or appearing in houses and then abruptly disappearing. The explanation given by others for such cases has been ball lightning - which can apparently appear to be black under some circumstances.

Of course that's just another unproven explanation for similar kinds of witnessed events. We do need to remember that our knowledge of `ball lightning` is very sketchy and provisional as things stand, so I'm not sure how cut and dried it can be for an explanation for anything.

Plus, one difference is that the other `ball lightning` cases - if I remember rightly (and this is from a memory of stuff I have read well over a decade or so back) - were accompanied by more obviously electrical features such as a humming sound, an ozone smell and a sudden explosion. None of that is mentioned in this case.

To delve further into unexplained territory then, - well, we did have another poster on here about six or seven months ago who told a tale of how her house had been sort of `infested`with these vaporous spider like things which would come down from the ceiling. These too were dark and seemingly three dimensional, but seemed to have eyes and so forth.

In that particular the case I was willing to consider the possibility of`thought forms` (or tulpas) somehow being generated by the negative feelings being felt by members of that household (Something also mentioned by that poster).

So I have a question to the the O.P: what were the wider circumstances previous to this sighting? Were you, or others going through a periiod of prolonged negative emotions?
 
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When the pony tail moved, I assume you detected no movement in your girlfriend's head? If her pony tail was on the back of her head and she was facing you, could you really see the moment of "contact" - can you really be sure her hair moved due to some action by the object? Is it possible that this was a small swarm of gnats or other insect and that the hair movement was caused by your girlfriend reacting to the insects coming in contact with her skin?
 
Trevp666 said:
The question is, Mr Spagooter....What do you think it was? Often the most reasonable explanation is usually the correct one.

I'm wondering if it could have been some kind of manifestation of ball lightning, albeit in a very small way, possibly collecting some dust/debris in the room and swirling it around before dissipating?
Click to expand...

I honestly have no idea what it could of been. I had read about ball lightning before and it does share some similarities with these reports. This is probably as close a comparison/explanation I could go with.

Zeke Newbold said:
I too immediately thought of a ball lightning scenario. There have been a few UFO reports in the annals which have been similar to this (Brad Steiger collected some) - i.e small black spherical objects entering or appearing in houses and then abruptly disappearing. The explanation given by others for such cases has been ball lightning - which can apparently appear to be black under some circumstances.

So I have a question to the the O.P: what were the wider circumstances previous to this sighting? Were you, or others going through a periiod of prolonged negative emotions?
Click to expand...

From what I remember at the time neither of us were experiencing any sort of bad patch or a bad period of time. Certainly nothing that sticks in my mind. If anything it was probably one of the most carefree times of my life!

SkepticalX said:
When the pony tail moved, I assume you detected no movement in your girlfriend's head? If her pony tail was on the back of her head and she was facing you, could you really see the moment of "contact" - can you really be sure her hair moved due to some action by the object? Is it possible that this was a small swarm of gnats or other insect and that the hair movement was caused by your girlfriend reacting to the insects coming in contact with her skin?
Click to expand...

Correct, her head was still at the point this object flicked the pony tail. I didn't see the actual point of contact as her pony tail was obscured by her facing me head on, but the hair flicked quite forcefully as the object went behind her head, it then shot above her head, hovered for a second or two and completely vanished into thin air.

Again, much like the animal/Bat theory, It being a cold January evening, it wouldn't be weather conducive to gnat swarms and we would have certainly noticed one hovering about in the time after the event occured. In my opinion the object was far too dense to be a swarm of some kind
 
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I'm still having problems visualizing exactly what you saw and the momentary scenario during which this occurred.

Could you post a sketch of the swirly mass as it appeared to you, or perhaps post an image that gives a reasonable approximation of its appearance?
 
EnolaGaia said:
I'm still having problems visualizing exactly what you saw and the momentary scenario during which this occurred.

Could you post a sketch of the swirly mass as it appeared to you, or perhaps post an image that gives a reasonable approximation of its appearance?
Click to expand...

I've been trying to attach a sketch but I keep getting error messages stating it's 'too large for the server to process' (I even tried compress it down to 2.5MB)

It was essentially very similar to the top right image. There were almost 'tendril' like squiggles moving around the surface of it and they were moving extremely quickly.

In essence a ball of violent, squiggly energy.

Sorry If I'm struggling to articulate it, I just have no frame of reference!
 

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I've done an image search on google for ball lightning and I found something that looks almost exactly like what I saw. What I saw was more 'tendril-y' but this is as close as i've found.

However what I saw was jet black, silent and had no odour. If this was indeed some form of localised lightning, surely it should have set my ex's head on fire as it touched her?! (I can dream :) )
 

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Mr Spagooter said:
I've been trying to attach a sketch ...
It was essentially very similar to the top right image. There were almost 'tendril' like squiggles moving around the surface of it and they were moving extremely quickly.
In essence a ball of violent, squiggly energy. ...
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting the images - they go a long way toward clarifying my understanding of what you observed. I'd suspected it was something akin to what you specified (in the first image), but I wasn't sure from the text description alone.

FWIW ... I don't think this was ball lightning. One reason is its appearance, as you noted. Another reason is that contact with ball lightning induces a shock, according to the classic accounts. Finally, classic accounts of ball lightning don't describe it terminating (disappearing; evaporating; whatever ... ) in as quiet a manner as you describe.
 
Of all the recent threads, this one is great.
Because whatever you saw, it just does not fit any recognised known entity.

My guess is that there is an animal unknown to science, which you saw. A sort of "Airborne Jellyfish", but which is not a fish.
 
Mr. Spagooter: Next line of questioning ...

This occurred in January, between 1800 and 2100 local time. This means it was almost or totally dark outside.

What light source / sources were in the bedroom, and where were they positioned relative to you and / or your girlfriend?

Were there any windows in the bedroom? If so - where were they located relative to you and / or your girlfriend?
 
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